Chapter 435: Lumine's discovery

Mount Yougou is vast, its slopes covered in dense forests. Aside from the well-maintained path, many monsters spawn in other areas.

The lush woods are the perfect habitat for monsters. Jumping down from the Grand Narukami Shrine and rushing through the trees, one would encounter numerous slimes and hilichurls—mostly weak monsters. They rarely grow strong enough to pose a threat before being cleared out.

For Lumine, slimes and hilichurls are monsters she can easily defeat in any form. Even ordinary people with weapons can kill the hilichurls here.

"Traveler, did you see anything with your elemental sight? All we've encountered so far are slimes and hilichurls. Wow~~~ Are they really like weeds? No matter how many we kill, they just keep coming back!"

After traveling through three nations, Paimon is still amazed by the hilichurls' tenacity.

Clear out hilichurls in one place, and the next day, they're back in droves. What's the ecology of hilichurls? Why do they appear so quickly?

"Hilichurls grow from the ground. Then, the older hilichurls are thrown into a mill by other hilichurls, ground into feed, and fed to the young hilichurls to help them grow quickly."

"Wha—what?!" Paimon's eyes widened, her voice trembling. "T-Traveler, what are you saying?!"

"I'm just teasing you, Paimon," Lumine said with a laugh.

"Why would you joke about that? That's so scary!" Paimon pounded her tiny fists on Lumine.

Lumine just laughed. Paimon's flustered reaction was amusing. She let Paimon vent her frustration before responding.

"Aside from the part about hilichurls growing from the ground, the rest is from Alice's *Teyvat Travel Guide*. You read it too, remember?"

"I, I forgot… Stop laughing, Traveler!"

Amidst their bickering, Lumine noticed something unusual through her elemental sight and immediately headed toward it.

Paimon followed, chattering, "Traveler, what did you find?"

"Footprints. They must belong to the Riftwolves."

"Yay! Then we can finish quickly and go back to Inazuma City for some delicious food!"

Paimon was thrilled. They had taken on the Riftwolf commission primarily because they were running low on Mora for food.

Lumine's tracking skills were excellent. With her elemental sight, the footprints were clear. Following them, they soon left the forest and saw wolf-like creatures near a cliff and some rocks.

"Traveler, are those the Riftwolves? But what are those black shadowy figures?"

From Lumine and Paimon's vantage point, the Riftwolves were fighting shadowy humanoid figures. From a distance, the Riftwolves' attacks seemed ineffective against the shadowy figures, and soon the Riftwolves were swiftly defeated, their bodies falling to the ground. The shadowy figures then picked up the Riftwolf corpses and began to move.

"Those shadowy things are coming this way! Traveler!"

Paimon hid behind Lumine, who gripped her weapon—the Dull Blade—tightly.

However, no fight broke out. The shadowy figures seemed to ignore Lumine and Paimon, walking right past them.

Paimon patted her chest and took a deep breath. "That scared me, Traveler. I thought they were going to attack us! Where are they going now? They're turning."

"Paimon, let's follow them."

"Okay."

Tracking the shadowy figures was easy. Some of them carried Riftwolf corpses, while others fought off any monsters they encountered along the way. They followed a small path, which, though rough, was easier to traverse than the untamed wilderness.

"Traveler, what do you think those things are?"

"Maybe we'll find out when they reach their destination."

Lumine didn't know the answer. Even after traveling through three nations, she had never seen anything like this.

Time would tell.

Following the shadowy figures, they soon left Mount Yougou and entered the Tatarasuna area. Here, there were many autonomous mechanical constructs, far stronger than hilichurls or slimes. These constructs posed a significant threat to the shadowy figures, forcing those carrying corpses to set them down and join the fight.

Even so, the battle remained evenly matched. As Lumine hesitated over whether to help, a large group of shadowy figures arrived from the distance, many of them also carrying Riftwolf corpses.

With their reinforcements, the autonomous constructs were quickly overwhelmed.

The shadowy figures then gathered together and marched in a unified direction.

"Wow, Traveler. Those shadowy things don't seem to care about the corpses at all. Should we collect the materials from the autonomous constructs?"

Paimon wasn't an adventurer, but after traveling with Lumine for so long, she knew that materials from defeated monsters were a significant source of income for adventurers. For example, slimes drop nuclei when they die, and hilichurls drop arrowheads, all of which have value.

Autonomous constructs yield even more materials.

Lumine shook her head. "Let's keep following them."

Collecting materials from autonomous constructs takes time. Slimes dissolve naturally after death, leaving behind their nuclei, but autonomous constructs require manual dismantling to harvest their parts.

Not wanting to waste time, Lumine and Paimon continued to follow the shadowy figures.

From what they observed, the shadowy figures only targeted monsters. They showed no reaction to Lumine and Paimon. Were they programmed to recognize us as allies?

Their movements were precise and synchronized, with each action occurring at the same interval. They were clearly mechanical in nature.

But why did they look like three-dimensional shadows?

Lumine observed them closely. From their appearance, they seemed like human shadows that had been filled in, becoming solid entities.

Who could have created something like this?

From sneaky tracking to openly following, Lumine pondered the question. She had a rough idea.

Such a flashy ability… It's probably him…

Soon, her guess was confirmed.

After walking through the Tatarasuna area for a while, they arrived near what appeared to be ruins. The shadowy figures piled up the Riftwolf corpses, quickly forming a small mountain.

Then, one by one, the shadowy figures merged into a single person's shadow, becoming one with it.

Lumine recognized that person.

The priest of the Grand Narukami Shrine, Li Mo.