"Little Balladeer, come here and give me a shoulder rub." On a hillside in Mondstadt, Yu Jin was lying idly on the grass with the others.
Thanks to their efforts, the meteorites near Wangshu Inn were quickly cleared. With ample time, they even came to Mondstadt to help out.
All that remained was to wait for the main star of the Fateful Star to fall, completely resolving the incident.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
A crudely made puppet, whose facial features were somewhat blurred, walked over and hammered Yu Jin's breastplate, making a clanging sound.
"Isn't it called Catherine II? Why did the name change?" Paimon asked in confusion, hearing Yu Jin address the puppet.
"You misheard, I just called it 'Catherine II'." Yu Jin bluffed a few words without changing his expression.
After speaking, he pressed Balladeer down to sit on the ground. If his armor hadn't been sturdy enough, it would probably have several dents now.
Yu Jin strongly suspected that Balladeer was retaliating willfully.
Actually, this was a misunderstanding of Balladeer. The puppet Balladeer currently inhabited was not only made of poor materials and hastily constructed, but the consciousness within it was also a projected sub-consciousness of his.
It was already a blessing that this thing could move; if it also had to control its strength, it would probably be too much to ask of Balladeer.
Looking at the ugly and dull puppet in front of her, Lumine didn't know where to begin complaining.
"Senior, aren't you afraid Katheryne will cry?" The more Lumine looked, the uglier she found the puppet. If Katheryne knew, she would definitely be heartbroken!
"Is that so?" Yu Jin looked at Balladeer for a moment, then turned to Lumine and said, "It is a bit ugly."
"It's just a prototype, it's fine, we can change it later." Yu Jin patted Balladeer's back, then leaned in close and said, "How about it? Finding you an older sister, not bad, right?"
"Not bad, my foot!" Balladeer sat on the ground, gritting his teeth.
However, from the outside, nothing happened—the puppet didn't even have a mouth, so how could it grit its teeth?
"Shh! Be quiet, the stars are out, I'm going to do a divination."
It was night, and the Milky Way pierced through the thin clouds in the Sky, spilling across the ground.
Mona stood up from the ground, her expression serious, and summoned her Hydro Astrolabe to begin her divination.
She also moved away from Yu Jin, just in case.
"..."
Yu Jin looked at Mona's serious expression and decided to put off teasing her for now, as divination was very mentally taxing.
Mona had prepared for so long, even dragging them up to the hillside, all for this divination. If she were disturbed, she would probably complain about it for a lifetime.
"Click... click..."
Although the Hydro Astrolabe was clear and transparent, as Mona manipulated it, it emitted a series of gear-meshing sounds.
"Buzz—"
The Hydro Astrolabe emitted a flash of light, then quickly dimmed. At the same time, Mona put away the now dull Hydro Astrolabe.
"Great Astrologist Mona, tell this Prinzessin the answer the stars have granted you!" Fischl intoned in her unique style—she had now fully recovered and become chuunibyou again.
"Hmm..." Mona touched her witch's hat, organized the information in her mind, and then slowly said, "The owner of the Fateful Star is named [Leonard], an Adventurer from a thousand years ago."
"An ancient's Fateful Star?" Paimon seemed very surprised.
"Yes, not only that, I also calculated the time the Fateful Star will fall..."
"The time is..." Paimon naturally played along.
"It's now!" Mona pointed to the high Sky, and following her direction, everyone saw an incredibly thick blue streak of light.
This light was brighter than any other before. Besides the bright blue, there were also wisps of dreamy pale purple, making this meteor appear even more mysterious.
"Oh no! Catherine II is gone!" Fischl was the first to recover from the dreamlike meteor. With just a quick glance, she noticed that "Catherine II" had disappeared from among them.
"Don't worry about it, if that ugly thing ran off, it ran off. I was too lazy to tell you, this guy scared me several times tonight!"
Mona was completely unfazed by Balladeer's escape. Such an ugly thing, if it ran off, it ran off.
"Hmph! Only noticing now, too late!" Balladeer, from a distance, heard Fischl's voice and couldn't help but snort a few times.
He knew more than the others, clearly understanding that the spiritual will contained within the Fateful Star was more resilient, and the mental impact it brought would be stronger.
So he had prepared in advance—when everyone was dazed by the Fateful Star, he took off running!
This was an opportunity Balladeer had earned by enduring humiliation and being ordered around by Yu Jin and his group for a day and a half. Fortunately, he seized it!
Balladeer recalled what Jester had said before they set off... [The Fateful Star will fall on Musk Reef. You only need to enter the Fateful Star, and you will understand what I mean.]
"Musk Reef..." Balladeer identified the direction of the sea and ran off without looking back... "What should we do now?" Lumine asked the group, seeing the huge meteorite falling from the Sky.
Mona did several more divinations, but this time there were no results.
"Let's go! Let's go to Mondstadt to find records about Leonard. The more information we have, the more I can divine."
"Even if we want to know the meteorite's landing point, that's not difficult."
After several fruitless attempts, Mona understood that the existing information could only reveal Leonard's name and era.
More would require further information.
"Oh no, Yu Jin is gone too!" Just as Mona was about to pull everyone to the Mondstadt library, she heard Paimon's shout.
Everyone looked closely and found that besides "Catherine II," Yu Jin was also nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe he..." Mona was about to say "ran off with Catherine II," when she suddenly saw the light in front of her brighten instantly.
She abruptly looked up and saw a blurred figure in front of the massive meteorite.
And the originally unstoppable Fateful Star had stopped in the Sky because of this figure.
Yu Jin propped himself against the huge meteorite, and the will rippling out from it like water seemed to not exist for him.
"Crack!"
Yu Jin exerted force with both hands, his fingers deeply embedded in the meteorite.
"Where you came from, I'll send you back there!"
The giant meteorite suddenly began to spin in the Sky. Feeling that enough power had accumulated, Yu Jin released his hands, and the meteorite enjoyed a flight method similar to the Wolf Lord's.
"Whoosh—"
The blue and purple streaked meteor tore through the air, emitting a deafening roar. This Fateful Star came quickly and left just as quickly. Before long, the meteorite flying into the Sky completely disappeared.
This made everyone on the ground who witnessed the scene widen their eyes in astonishment. Could meteors actually fly backward?
The meteor's sonic boom was so loud that even Balladeer, running on the ground, could hear it.
He looked up and saw the meteor flying backward in the Sky.
"..."
Balladeer stopped in his tracks, looking up at the Sky in prolonged silence. Things were developing too quickly; his brain had somewhat crashed.
He should have been chasing that meteorite all the way to Musk Reef, but why was the meteorite flying backward into the Sky?
Could this be what Jester and Doctor always harped on: [Teyvat has its own laws]?
This was too absurd, wasn't it? What law could make a falling meteorite fly back into the Sky?
The meteor's light disappeared, and Balladeer finally saw the blurred figure suspended in the Sky.
Yu Jin also noticed Balladeer's gaze. He looked down and waved his fist at Balladeer. Dared to run away? It seemed he hadn't been used enough; he still had excess energy.
"Bang!"
A bright flash of fire erupted from the earth. After Balladeer and Yu Jin exchanged glances, Balladeer turned into brilliant sparks.
"????"
Yu Jin scratched his head. Had he already become so strong that he could make others explode with just a look?
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