Genshin Impact's Incense Burner Of Liyue [605]

"Apologies."

Shenhe summoned her spear, her left hand tightening around a talisman forged from condensed elemental energy.

"Then—"

Whoosh!

The sharp sound of something slicing through the air tore toward her.

Shenhe instinctively took two steps back, narrowly avoiding the blade that had appeared almost right before her eyes.

"Hm. Even under a sudden attack, you didn’t lower your guard. Looks like Cloud Retainer really taught you well."

Even ambushed, Shenhe hadn’t instinctively released her malevolent energy. Interesting.
Compared to her raw strength, her emotional self-control seemed even more impressive.

Normally, those afflicted by malevolent energy were much like hot-tempered warriors—restless, aggressive, always teetering on the edge of fury.

In short, "rage and killing intent as passive abilities."

At this level, Gu Sanqiu couldn't detect any significant instability in Shenhe.

"Alright, time to get serious."

Gu Sanqiu exhaled a breath of searing flames—an evil eye’s fire—instantly engulfing the area around Shenhe.

Its properties continuously drained life force, sapping her strength little by little.

"[Soul Release]!"

Coated in cryo energy, Shenhe dashed forward, tearing through the wall of fire. Her spear thrust straight for Gu Sanqiu’s chest, all the condensed ice power focused at the spearhead!

"[Rise, a wall of stone]!"

Jagged spires of stone burst from the ground like spears themselves—

The first spike knocked aside her spear, the second struck her wrist, and the third forced her back!

"Keep going. Show me what you've learned in those mountains."

Gu Sanqiu swung his right hand downward, and the ground surged like ocean waves, rushing toward Shenhe!

"[Temper spirit, refine soul]!"

A talisman floated before her chest.

Her figure, clad in icy blue light, flashed like lightning. A massive explosion of cryo energy erupted before her, freezing the ground into solid crystal and forcibly breaking her free from the ground’s resonance.

"Interrupting reactions... not bad," Chongyun, watching from the side, couldn't help but murmur in admiration.

This technique—using opposing elements to break existing elemental reactions, or layering a new reaction to overwrite the previous one—required keen eyes and quick decision-making.
It was a high-level move.

In a fight between weaklings, overwriting reactions wasn't much to brag about.
But between two experts—especially with Gu Sanqiu intentionally holding back—this precision showed just how finely Shenhe could control a battlefield.

"[Earthquake, heaven’s roar]!"

Without hesitation, Gu Sanqiu unleashed an even stronger geomancy spell.

Above them, wind, rain, thunder, and lightning roared together as shockwaves from the trembling earth crashed down on Shenhe!

So strong.

Shenhe’s expression grew grave.
She had never faced such overwhelming attacks before!

"[Soul Release—heed my command]!"

The talisman rune floated behind her, and a fierce, biting wind erupted from around her body.
The immense power of the cold winds clashed against Gu Sanqiu’s celestial assault!

"[Will made ice, decree of heaven]!"

The talisman’s features grew clearer—

The once chaotic winds organized into a massive, coherent blizzard domain, sealing both her and Gu Sanqiu inside!

"Here it comes."

Gu Sanqiu’s gaze sharpened.

He could feel it now: within the heart of Shenhe’s summoned spirit, a wild, raging force was beginning to stir.

"This is it."

Raising his right hand high, elemental energy gathered in the sky above—
coalescing into a dazzling half-formed spear of radiant light, plunging downward toward Shenhe to pin her in place.

Shenhe bit her lip lightly.

Suddenly, her eyes flashed crimson, and the once-pure icy domain around her quickly darkened—streaks of red and black flooding the frozen world.

The calm cryo field turned violent.

The swirling winds morphed into weapons of all kinds—blades, spears, axes—all locked onto Gu Sanqiu, launching a frenzied assault!

Amid it all, Shenhe herself, clearly affected, charged with her spear, sweeping out wave after wave of devastating strikes!

"Hmm... her mental state deteriorates, but her strength increases... feels familiar somehow."

Gu Sanqiu’s expression turned thoughtful.

Then, allowing just a sliver of dark will from within his mind to surface, he subtly merged it into his spiritual force and directed it into Shenhe’s body.

Boom!

The icy domain shattered.

With a metallic clang, her spear clattered to the ground as Shenhe dropped to her knees, clutching her head in pain—the crimson light in her eyes fading.

Had Chongyun not witnessed the entire battle, he might genuinely have thought Gu Sanqiu was bullying a poor, defenseless maiden.

"Suppressed? No, something’s off."

Gu Sanqiu frowned.

"Whether innate or not, when injured, there should be—"

Suddenly, a tremendous shockwave burst from Shenhe’s body.

The red cord around her wrist shuddered wildly, as stream after stream of red mist erupted from within her!

"That’s not malevolent energy!"

Chongyun’s face paled.
"Sanqiu, that’s not malevolent energy—it’s the power of a demonic infestation!"

"I see it."

Gu Sanqiu’s face was grim.

Raising a hand, he unleashed a burst of hybrid elemental force, forcibly severing the red mist from Shenhe’s body.

"Just a leftover remnant of failure. Trying to stir up trouble even now? Not a chance."

A surge of [Millennia's Wish] erupted from within Gu Sanqiu.

A multicolored beam of light shot from his core into Shenhe’s body.

Hiss—!

A shrill, horrible screech echoed out.

From Shenhe’s back, a black-and-red shadow burst free, fleeing toward the horizon!

"[By my command]!"

Chongyun shouted, stomping hard onto the ground.

A massive exorcist sigil blazed to life, blending with elemental force—and from it, giant ice swords shot skyward, pinning the fleeing shadow!

"Good coordination."

Gu Sanqiu locked onto the enemy.

From above, three massive vajra staves materialized and slammed down, sealing the shadow within their formation.

"Heh. Guess we got lucky today."

Gu Sanqiu smirked.

"If not for the [Millennia's Wish] anchored inside me, I might not have been able to fish you out at all."

One of the staves slowly shrank, transforming into a small, brilliant golden crystal capsule, neatly imprisoning the black-and-red entity inside.

Gu Sanqiu grinned.

"Alright. We found the cause of the illness. Though… it’s a little complicated."

Chongyun rushed over to help Shenhe, cautiously channeling streams of pure-yang energy into her body to ease her condition.

"Sanqiu, what exactly happened?"

"Well," Gu Sanqiu began,

"As far as I know, your aunt suffered a traumatic event when she was young. That so-called 'lone star fate'—the malevolent energy surrounding her—it wasn’t there at birth. It was acquired later."

"In that disaster, she fought against demonic forces for so long that their corruption seeped into her. That thing we just pulled out—it’s a remnant that’s been hiding, disguised as a part of her."

"Facing such hardship as a child, constantly battling to survive, it’s no wonder Shenhe’s spiritual power matured unusually early."

"To put it simply: besides carrying more corrupted energies than you’d need for a full mahjong table, her soul strength doesn’t match her body’s durability. That’s one of the main problems."

Gu Sanqiu spread his hands.

"And when those two core issues blend together? The rest of her symptoms just cascade from there. That’s the gist."

Chongyun understood now.
This wasn’t a simple lone star fate at all.
It was a messy, tangled situation where malevolent energy was just the most visible symptom.

Cloud Retainer and the other adepti had probably seen hints of it too—but because this involved Shenhe’s very life, they had hesitated to intervene too forcefully.

Plus, they didn’t carry a [Millennia's Wish] within them like Gu Sanqiu did.
Without it, it would’ve been nearly impossible to isolate and extract the remnants of that demonic force.

A complete accident of fate.

But... a fortunate one.

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This is a fan translation of 原神之璃月奉香人 by 淡白蛋清. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!