“We’ll head out first.”
Amber, Kaeya, and Lisa left the Knights of Favonius headquarters without further ado.
Naturally, the one remaining in Mondstadt was the Acting Grand Master, Jean.
Suppressing the Fatui envoy required not only strength but also a status of sufficient weight.
Jean asked, “Jiang Chen, you’re familiar with the Temples of the Four Winds, aren’t you?”
“Mm, I know where they are.”
Jiang Chen nodded.
Though he hadn’t specifically noted their locations before, he had seen three glowing spots while fighting Stormterror in the sky earlier, and he’d committed them to memory.
“I’m entrusting Amber and the others’ safety to you.”
“Don’t worry.”
Jiang Chen waved his hand.
Lumine glanced back at the Acting Grand Master, who sat leaning against her desk in thought, then followed him out, walking side by side.
“Jiang Chen, what are the Temples of the Four Winds?”
Lumine tilted her head slightly to ask.
Her voice was soft and sweet, quite pleasant to the ear.
“Yeah, yeah, what’s all that jargon about?”
Paimon scrambled onto his head.
“Literal meaning.” He grabbed her down and explained, “They’re the temples of the Four Winds: the Wolf of the North, the Falcon of the West, the Lion of the South, and the Dragon of the East—the four great powers that once protected Mondstadt.”
“The four great powers that protected Mondstadt?”
Paimon flew out of his hand to one side, asking in confusion, “If that’s the case, then why can Stormterror use their power to destroy Mondstadt?”
“Remember what Jean and Lisa said before the Four Winds temples?
What was the prefix?”
Jiang Chen countered.
“Prefix?
Hmm…”
Paimon fell into troubled thought, clearly not one for using her brain.
“Abandoned?”
Lumine asked.
“Right.”
Jiang Chen nodded and explained, “Since they’re abandoned, that means no one’s watching over them.
So isn’t it normal for others to take advantage of them?”
“I see.”
Lumine indicated her understanding, then asked, “Are we heading there now?”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you want to change your clothes?”
Jiang Chen looked at her skirt, which had been torn in a few places—from when she’d bandaged him.
The tips of Lumine’s ears, visible beyond her hair, flushed red.
She pulled the remaining fabric over the exposed spots.
“We’re about to go on an adventure.
I’ll change after it’s over,” she said.
Scrapes and bumps in the wild were all too common.
When it was just her and Paimon, such things were trivial.
But with Jiang Chen here now, she felt a bit shy.
“Then let’s go.”
Jiang Chen first returned to Good Hunter to grab a spare wind glider, jumped out the window, and together they headed for the city gate.
Mondstadt was still shrouded in dark clouds and storms, with leaves and trash flying everywhere.
Timmie, who usually fed the pigeons on the bridge by the gate, was nowhere to be seen.
But once they walked a short distance away, the weather turned bright again.
Looking back, they could still see Mondstadt enveloped in a frenzy of wind elements.
It was like two different worlds from the wilderness.
From afar, they spotted Amber waiting at the entrance of a ruin.
On the ruin’s gate was carved a fiery elemental mark.
Amber jumped up to wave at them.
“Boss Jiang Chen, Lumine, hurry!”
“I’ve already done a preliminary reconnaissance of the temple!” she called out.
“How is it?” Jiang Chen asked.
“This is the Temple of the West Wind Falcon.
There should only be some Hilichurls and Slimes inside,” Amber said.
“Would there be things like that inside a temple?” Lumine asked, puzzled.
“Well, it’s an abandoned temple, so it’s normal,” Paimon chimed in, showing off what she’d just learned.
“Then it should be easy to handle.”
Lumine said.
She’d fought Slimes out in the wild before, and before entering the city, she’d also cleared a Hilichurl camp with Amber. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Can you feel it?
The wind here feels off.
The dragon’s power is still affecting this place.” Amber urged, “Let’s go in quickly!”
“Mm.”
Jiang Chen nodded and reached out to press his hand against the gate.
Wind elements surged.
The gate, which had been glowing with a fiery mark, was instantly filled with wind elements.
It swung open inward on its own, revealing a mechanism passage inside, with another door blocking the way.
In the corner of the mechanism door, a control panel sat at an angle facing them.
Jiang Chen skillfully infused elemental energy into it, and the mechanism door opened with a heavy rumble.
They filed in one by one.
“There—the deepest part of the temple!”
On the platform, Amber pointed toward a high spot a hundred meters away.
“Wow, it’s that high?
How do we get there?” Paimon looked troubled.
“Let’s get closer first.
Since it’s an old temple, there must be a way up.”
Amber drew her bow, fire element condensing on the arrow, and shot at the dry thorn bushes blocking their path.
The fire ignited the dry thorns, reducing them to ash in an instant.
“Let’s go.”
Amber took the lead.
The path was lined with such dry thorn bushes.
After burning them, an even denser fire element lingered in the air, which Amber used to her advantage.
“Get down.”
Rounding a corner, she whispered and made a crouching gesture.
Below the platform, three Hilichurls were wandering around, one wielding a wooden club and a shield.
They didn’t seem to have noticed the group yet.
Jiang Chen swept his gaze over them, and their information automatically registered in his mind.
Lv9, Lv9, Lv10.
As for his own side: Lumine was Lv2, Amber Lv3, and he was Lv9.
It wasn’t that a level gap made fighting impossible, but it required skill.
For instance, Amber had already silently pulled out her Baron Bunny.
Happy reading!