*This Barbatos sure is protective of his own statue.*
Jiang Chen soared high into the sky, the thought drifting through his mind.
The mysterious force that had deflected the storm created by Stormterror, sparing the Wind God’s statue from destruction, was undoubtedly the hidden hand of Barbatos, the Anemo Archon.
Jiang Chen plunged straight into the tornado that had swallowed Lumine.
For an ordinary person, entering such a vortex meant instant annihilation.
But both of them were Anemo users, barely able to shield themselves under these conditions.
The black tornado hurled them both above the clouds.
The stark contrast between the earlier darkness and the current blue sky and white clouds left their eyes momentarily unaccustomed.
Spreading their wind gliders, they descended slowly through the clouds.
“Jiang Chen, why did you charge in?”
Lumine looked at him, her bright eyes shimmering with curiosity.
She had clearly seen him spread his wind glider and deliberately dive into the tornado.
“I was worried something might happen to you.”
Jiang Chen answered honestly, then added, “Didn’t I warn you to be careful?”
Lumine’s cheeks flushed slightly.
“I was a bit mesmerized by the sight.
Didn’t have time to run.”
Jiang Chen was about to speak when his expression suddenly shifted.
“Here it comes!”
He reached out, wrapped an arm around Lumine’s slender waist, and flipped them both through the air.
Stormterror’s gaping maw brushed past them as its massive body swept by, the gale force from its passage sending them tumbling several times before they stabilized.
“Are you alright?”
Jiang Chen let out a relieved breath.
“Mm.
I actually sensed it too.”
Lumine’s voice grew increasingly shy as she spoke.
She had originally meant to pull Jiang Chen along with her.
But her reflexes hadn’t been fast enough, and now the roles were reversed—she was being carried in his arms like a princess.
“Lumine, your skirt’s flying up!”
Paimon appeared out of nowhere, pointing out.
“Ah!”
Only then did Lumine notice the wind lifting her skirt, revealing a stretch of snow-white thigh above her knee-high white stockings.
Fortunately, she was wearing shorts underneath.
She quickly pulled her skirt down and held it in place, her face burning red.
Paimon noticed something strange at that moment.
“Hey, why aren’t we falling?
Jiang Chen, can your wind glider really hover this high up?”
Paimon truly was the traveler’s best companion—whether intentionally or not, she had just helped change the subject.
*It is I who have asked the thousand winds to aid you, keeping you from falling…
Now, imagine you can gather this breeze and use it to pierce through the clouds.*
A gentle voice echoed in their ears.
It was a voice carried by the wind.
At the same time.
A mark of Anemo energy coalesced before them.
Jiang Chen felt he could control this mark, gathering the thousand winds into an arrow of wind and firing it.
“Whose voice is that?”
Paimon looked around, searching for its source.
“Barbatos,”
Jiang Chen answered.
“The Anemo Archon?”
Lumine was also surprised.
She hadn’t expected to receive help from Mondstadt’s patron deity, the God of Freedom.
“Lumine, you take control.”
Jiang Chen gestured for her to spread her wind glider and hold her position in the sky.
“What about you?”
“I’m going to try something with Stormterror.”
Jiang Chen clenched his hand, as if grasping something invisible.
Lumine asked no further questions.
She focused on controlling the condensed Anemo arrow, firing it at Stormterror.
With Barbatos’s help, they were always able to chase the dragon from behind, attacking relentlessly.
No matter how Stormterror twisted and turned through the sky, it couldn’t find an angle to strike back.
*ROAR!*
Stormterror’s roar was filled with unwillingness.
Its gaze, burning with hatred, swept over the two of them—and even toward Barbatos himself.
Spreading its wings, it soared higher into the sky.
“It’s trying to escape!”
Lumine said.
Jiang Chen had already assessed the situation.
He murmured, “Invisible Wind Barrier!”
The moment the words left his lips, a surge of powerful Anemo energy erupted from his body.
His wind glider beat against the air as he shot forward.
The same Invisible Wind Barrier that could modify even the most intricate of motorcycles had no trouble enhancing a wind glider!
“Oh?”
Barbatos’s voice carried a hint of surprise.
*Concentrating Anemo energy into a single point and releasing it, creating intense wind pressure and a vacuum to propel oneself forward.*
*At the same time, it reduces forward resistance.
At this speed, it’s essentially like using an unlimited number of acceleration wind rings in a short period.
He can definitely catch up to Dvalin.*
*So this is the ability Master Jiang Chen possesses?
What does he intend to do?*
Barbatos grew intrigued.
“Master Jiang Chen?”
Lumine caught the odd phrasing immediately.
*People in Mondstadt call him that because he’s the owner of Good Hunter, but even the Anemo Archon uses the same title?*
She muttered to herself.
“Whoa, Jiang Chen is about to crash into Stormterror!”
Paimon gasped nervously from the side.
Far away in the sky.
Jiang Chen gripped an invisible greatsword and slammed it viciously into the crimson crystal embedded in Stormterror’s back.
*BOOM!*
The dragon, which had been flying straight upward, was suddenly driven downward by the heavy blow.
It let out a pained cry, glancing back at Jiang Chen.
Then it flapped its wings and ascended once more.
Dvalin assumed this was another blessing granted by Barbatos to this human.
It had no desire to linger.
“Tch.”
Jiang Chen hovered in the air, casting a slightly displeased look toward several places on the Mondstadt mainland that were now shimmering with strange light.
*The power of the Four Wind Temples is this strong?*
*I thought with the world level still low and the enemy fighting on foreign ground, I might be able to settle this directly.*
Happy reading!