"Even if he loves fighting, he wouldn't be foolish enough to stay here facing two Archons." Lumine paused, turning her gaze to Zhongli, her voice tinged with worry. "Zhongli, Yunqin, she..."
Before Lumine could finish, Zhongli slowly shook his head, the gravity in his eyes deepening. "She is not an impostor, but the true Yunqin."
"My wind field covered all of Liyue, leaving not even the underground caves untouched, yet I still found no trace of them."
"The Abyss's spatial techniques have likely already achieved 'traceless teleportation'. This is a very bad omen."
Zhongli and Venti exchanged a look, and then recounted to Lumine and Paimon the events of Yunqin's Abyssal corruption and subsequent abduction.
Lumine's knuckles gripped the Dull Blade's hilt so tightly they turned white, the rough grip leaving red marks in her palm.
The words Zhongli had relayed from Yunqin played uncontrollably in her mind: "The Vortex will eventually bury this land," a phrase that pierced her heart like a poisoned needle.
She tried to banish the emerging images, but the memories only grew clearer:
In the jewelry shop, Yunqin's eyes had abruptly darted away while she stared at the Rex Lapis stone carving; before facing Ningguang, she had offered a twisted, hostile assessment of Ningguang...
Countless "anomalies" connected into a line before her eyes, yet she had repeatedly assumed it was a "fake Yunqin" and never asked her why.
Thinking back now, the Abyss's corruption must have already begun.
"It's all my fault..." Lumine's voice squeezed out from between her teeth, carrying a barely perceptible tremor, the end of her sentence nearly swallowed by a sob.
The numbness left from her earlier fight with Tartaglia still faintly troubled her arm, but this slight pain was practically negligible compared to the guilt in her heart.
She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes casting fine shadows beneath them, concealing the surging self-reproach in her gaze.
"If I had asked one more question at the jewelry shop, if I had pressed her about her anomalies when she wanted to leave the Jade Chamber, perhaps she wouldn't have been..."
"Traveler, this isn't your fault." Paimon hurriedly rushed over, her small face full of anxiety. "The Abyss's methods are so cunning, who could have imagined they would turn Yunqin into that?"
"And you've already given it your all! Fighting Tartaglia so fiercely just now, wasn't that because you wanted to find Yunqin sooner? You've never done anything wrong!"
Paimon's voice was like a faint beam of light, piercing through the gloom in Lumine's heart.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to look up, the tension in her fingertips gradually relaxing while the red marks on her palms remained conspicuous.
She slowly raised her eyes, her gaze passing over Venti's tightly furrowed brows, finally landing on Zhongli.
Zhongli saw the surging self-reproach in Lumine's eyes, and the shimmer of tears hidden beneath her eyelashes flickered like broken stars.
He let out a slow sigh, and the Geo element aura around him, heavy as a mountain range, softened slightly as if deliberately trying to soothe the young girl before him. "Traveler, this is not your fault."
Zhongli paused, his gaze drifting to the Exuvia. Though the luster on its dragon scales had dimmed, it still radiated an undissipated majesty.
"Even before you departed from the Jewelry Shop, I had already noticed Yunqin's anomalies. That day, Ganyu mentioned that Yunqin had acquired a coldness unbefitting of a young girl, and even the reverence she showed when mentioning 'Rex Lapis' had faded for the most part, so she informed me of this matter."
"I had Ganyu secretly monitor her movements in Liyue Harbor, recording the people she contacted and the places she visited each day; I also had the Conqueror of Demons patrol the perimeter to prevent Abyss monsters from secretly providing assistance; I even asked the Adeptii to re-examine Yunqin's cultivation records to see if she had ever studied any anomalous arts."
Zhongli's fingertips gently stroked the patterns on the Stone Spear, which still bore the traces of an Abyss Knight's black blood, his eyes full of scrutiny.
"It is just that this child's aura is too complex. It possesses both the pure immortal energy of an adeptus disciple and the aura fluctuations of a god's descendant, and is even entwined with a faint, imperceptible Abyssal aura."
"The three powers are like three strands of silk twisted together, making it impossible to distinguish which strand is her original self and which is the mark forcibly branded by the Abyss."
"If I were to act rashly, I fear I would alert the enemy, so I have been waiting patiently, hoping she would reveal more flaws on her own."
Lumine and Paimon listened, dumbfounded.
"Zhongli, you... you actually noticed something was wrong with Yunqin even earlier than we did?" Lumine's mouth hung open wide enough to fit a Mora coin, and it took her a good while to react. "Then why didn't you tell us before? I was foolishly thinking I was the first to notice, and I kept agonizing over whether to expose her..."
"The time had not yet come." Zhongli shook his head gently, his tone turning sharper as he changed the subject. "Moreover, your judgment just now was the same as my previous judgment, but both of our assumptions were inaccurate."
"Though Yunqin is shrouded in anomalies, she might not be 'fake' after all." He drew a dim Geo Vision from his sleeve.
It was the very one Yunqin had discarded on her own!
"Reasonably, if the Abyss wanted to use Yunqin's identity to sow chaos, they would surely know she had already discarded her Vision. Yet, the Yunqin who appeared this time carries another one."
"That Vision is not only lusterless, but it also emits the purple glow of the Abyss. This flaw is too obvious, like bait deliberately placed before our eyes."
"Unless..." Zhongli's voice abruptly trailed off, his eyes, as deep as a rocky pool, flickering with thought.
"Unless the Abyss wants us to discover this flaw!" Venti suddenly took over the line of thought.
"They deliberately had Yunqin appear with a fake Vision, wanting us to jump to conclusions, assume she is an 'impostor,' and believe all her anomalies are caused by her 'false identity'!"
"Then, when we actually strike against her, they'll reveal the truth that she is the 'real Yunqin.' By then..."
"By then we would feel guilty, we would hesitate!" Paimon realized instantly, her face flushed with anger as her small hands clenched into fists. "Wow! The Abyss is just too wicked! They'd actually use a scheme like this to sow discord between us!"
"They just want us to cause chaos among ourselves, and then they'll seize the chance to stir up trouble!" Lumine also nodded forcefully, the guilt in her eyes gradually replaced by anger. "We absolutely cannot let their scheme succeed! We won't be led by the nose by the Abyss!"
"That's right." Venti chuckled, a hint of slyness flashing in his eyes like a child who'd just pulled off a prank. "Otherwise, why do you think I suddenly appeared at the Golden House?"
"The Abyss dares to stir up trouble right under the noses of two Archons. Obviously, they've forgotten that the two of us together account for more than half of Teyvat's history."
He raised his hand and patted Zhongli on the shoulder, his tone filled with undisguised trust.
"Moreover, we can already confirm one thing: Yunqin is the key to the 'reincarnation' they mentioned, the second target after Lydia."
"What the Abyss wants is probably more than just 'Yunqin's' life. I suspect that just like with Lydia, they want even her soul..."