stonecrandall Chapter 661: The Use of Foreign Aid
Chapter 661: The Use of Foreign Aid
A burst of golden light flashed, and the Hundred Taboos Talisman in Zuo Xi's hand seemed to burn instantly, emitting a dazzling light.
Then golden light shot up into the sky, and a golden pillar of light took shape... Just as everyone was waiting for the appearance of the legendary god of war, Morax, the golden pillar of light suddenly exploded.
The blinding light filled everyone's vision, forcing them to turn their backs and cover their eyes.
When the strong light dissipated, a majestic figure in a white robe appeared at the place where the light column dissipated, which was next to Zuo Xi.
The man was wearing a sleeveless white robe with a hood. The end of the hood was hollowed out, and his long brown hair with bursts of yellow light fluttered in the wind.
The tail of the robe was divided into four pieces, fluttering in the wind like the tail of a cloak.
The exposed arms did not look like skin, but rather like cracked black jade, with the cracks forming mysterious and complex runes. The hands were not strong and powerful, but were like finely carved jade, and were shining all over, almost pure white.
And emanating from the pure white was a burst of yellow light… just like the ancient breath emanating from the jade that had been deposited in his eyes for thousands of years, calm and yet with a feeling of tightness in the chest as if a huge rock had fallen into one’s heart.
This is the divine costume of the Martial God, the ancestor of all the immortals in Liyue, the God of Precious Gold—Moracus.
The fact that he appeared in this manner meant that he was ready to go all out and give it a try.
Zhongli stood with his back to the crowd on a pair of giant rock hands, slightly taller than the crowd by half a body length. He first glanced at the ten meteors falling from the sky, then turned around and scanned everyone one by one.
Every time he looked at someone, his gaze would pause for a moment - this pause was particularly obvious when he looked at the Ice Queen. It was obvious that he was a little surprised by the appearance of the Ice Queen - and finally his gaze fell on Zuo Xi.
"I hope you are well, Brother Zhongli."
Zuo Xi guessed that Lao Deng’s appearance would be very grand, but she didn’t expect it to be so grand... Now, all the limelight has been stolen by the other party.
However, Zhongli has not fought in many years, but when he gets serious about it, his style is still as good as before.
"Brother Zuo, I'm here to keep the appointment... I'll get the details from you later. Ruo Tuo, and this God of Ice of Winter, let's work together to temporarily slow down the speed of the heavenly punishment. By the way, Brother Zuo, let me borrow the Heart of God for a while and return it later."
It was hard to tell what the look in Zhongli's eyes meant when he looked at Zuo Xi. After thousands of years of trials and tribulations, he was no longer as sharp as he once was.
He is introverted and does not show his emotions on the surface. This is the normal state of an old antique who has lived for thousands of years.
But just as Zuo Xi could vaguely feel the Queen's emotions even though her entire figure was obscured, he could still sense something strange in Zhongli's calm eyes.
Unfortunately, Zhongli didn't give him much time to interpret - the current situation was really not suitable for casual chatting.
So he just took a quick look around, found out the most important thing at the moment, and quickly organized a response plan.
Like Ruo Tuo, Zhongli also came to the conclusion that the heavenly punishment was unstoppable. However, the ice element mainly slowed down, and the rock element mainly suppressed, which happened to be the two elements that were best at sealing.
And the three of them happened to be the creatures closest to the pinnacle of these two elements. At the same time, he and the Ice Queen still held great power - although the Heart of God was not in their hands, it was not far away.
The Ice Queen and Ruo Tuo said nothing, and nodded slightly, ready to attack. Zhongli and the Ice Queen waved their hands and took back the Heart of God stored in Hyperion.
Having lost half of its power, Hyperion suddenly sank for a while before it resumed its suspension - with only half the power, although it could no longer fire, it was still able to maintain suspension.
It’s just that the switching process is not very stable, so there will inevitably be some bumps.
The three people who were ready to fight each other dispersed in three directions in a triangle shape, and then each used their own abilities to hinder the ten trailing punishment spikes in the sky.
Ruota applied the thrust in a rather simple and rough manner, and it was obvious that the effect was not good... If it was just her, that would indeed be the case.
But what was different from before was that this time, the Punishment Nail not only slowed down by a certain factor after being swept by a burst of light blue and white light, but also golden sealing patterns appeared around the Punishment Nail.
With these two forces weakened, the thrust exerted by Ruota finally came in handy, and the speed at which the Punishment Nail fell was significantly slower than before.
Seeing that this method was marginally useful, the heavy stone that was weighing on everyone's hearts was finally put down a little.
Zhongli finally had time to ask Zuo Xi about the specific situation... Although it seemed unnecessary, Zuo Xi knew the situation better after all.
Discussing countermeasures with the other party is obviously a more efficient approach. Since the other party is capable of knocking out a penalty nail, they may be able to think of other ways.
"Brother Zuo, do you have any feasible solutions? To be honest, what I just did is the only way I can think of to delay time... If Brother Zuo has any solution, please share it with me."
Zhongli came up and said frankly that he couldn't handle the matter. It would be easier to deal with if the Nail of Punishment was directed at him. He could just take it.
But the target of the Penalty Nail was not him, so it would be useless even if he forcibly took it for the other party.
"It's okay, Brother Zhongli. You've already been a great help by doing this... Come to think of it, I haven't told you the specific contents of this contract yet, right?"
Zuo Xi was not surprised by Zhongli's helplessness. Rather, he was surprised that he could slow down the progress.
"That's true. Didn't Brother Zuo ask me to come and help with this matter? Although Zhongli is not talented, he can still do his best."
Zhongli felt a little confused about Zuo Xi's sudden mention of the content of the contract. Logically speaking, he had no right to interfere in the affairs of other countries.
The reason he was able to take action this time was because of the constraints of the "contract". In other words, with the "contract" in place, his action this time was just a man named Zhongli helping his friend, not a god named Morax intervening in the affairs of other countries.
This way, his actions would not violate the rules set by the sky...it was still questionable whether there were such rules, but he could not risk the entire Liyue.
If Zuo Xi did not take this as part of the contract, his coming here would lose its legitimacy. Once it was determined that he, a retired god, had significantly interfered in the affairs of other countries, there was a possibility that Liyue would be implicated.
Although it was the same thing, the meaning was completely different... Zhongli was worried that Zuo Xi didn't understand the key, so he tried his best to use words to remind the other party to ask him to stay here to help.
"No, no, no, Brother Zhongli, you misunderstood. I came here to ask for your help... I just need you to do me two "small favors". I believe Brother Zhongli will not refuse, right?"
Zuo Xi shook her fingers and made a "nonono" gesture. Then she greedily asked Zhongli for another favor.
Strictly speaking, this loophole can be exploited. After all, Zuo Xi has the final say on what is written in the contract, and he can achieve the same effect by playing word games.
"Brother Zuo, please feel free to speak. I will do my best to help you as long as I can."
Zhongli was impressed by Zuo Xi's expression. Generally speaking, if the other party showed this kind of expression, it meant that he already knew what was going on.
Now that there was one more request, it was probably related to the key to solving the problem, so there was certainly no reason for him to refuse.
"Very good. Just in case, I'll confirm it again... Brother Zhongli, as long as it doesn't violate your principles, you can't refuse my two "requests", right?"
Zuo Xi was very satisfied with Zhong Li's answer. He was indeed very sensible. Otherwise, if he started to play the game of the God of Contract's right to interpret the contract, it would be difficult for him to handle it.
"...Of course it is so. Brother Zuo can rest assured."
At this point, Zhongli had already vaguely sensed that something was wrong. After all, normally the other party would not confirm such an obvious thing at this time... and since the other party had confirmed it, the "request" that would be made later would most likely go against his own wishes.
But now is not the time to worry about these things. It is difficult to have the best of both worlds in the world. Sometimes it is necessary to make trade-offs... Even if he has to do something he doesn't want to do, in the face of the overall situation, personal wishes are not that important.
Zhongli learned this principle two thousand years ago.
"Very good, then my first request is - stop the ten nails in the sky, or knock them down... whatever you want, just don't let them fall straight to the ground."
Zuo Xi made the first request while quietly retreating. When he had retreated to a suitable distance, he extended his second finger.
"My second request is to stop anyone from interfering with me in any way until I say it's OK."