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Chapter 103: Borrowing a Blade
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 06:00:08 +0000 UTC"You... you..."
After hearing Ye's words, Wagner appeared visibly parched, his throat dry.
"Did Kurisu and his gang send you too? Do you think a few words from you will make me lower the price for them? Let me tell you, no way!"
Wagner seemed to convince himself, growing more confident as he spoke.
"No matter what you say, the price of Crystal Marrow won’t drop!"
However, in response to Wagner’s words, Ye only needed one sentence to completely shatter him.
"—Do you plan to die in a foreign land, leaving your soul unable to return to your homeland even with the wind’s guidance?"
"I... I... I...!"
Wagner’s face turned pale, and he collapsed to his knees, his eyes hollow.
"Don’t be like this. I told you, I’m here to guide you, following the wind’s lead." Ye helped him up with one hand, his voice calm and soothing, yet reassuring. "Freedom shouldn’t mean becoming a pawn for survival, ungrateful and blind. Apologize and make amends to Kurisu and the others. Lord Barbatos deeply loves his people, and he will smile and forgive you."
"He’s too good at this!"
Elysia couldn’t help but comment disdainfully:
"With just a few words, he’s pushed someone to this point and still made them grateful to him. This kind of man... only I can handle him!"
"I’ve figured it out—Elysia really craves the Supreme Bishop’s body."
"Though I crave him too, the way she’s so blatant about it is truly astonishing."
"Hey, Kiana, are you seeing this? Hurry up and add Elysia to the game, pair her up with the Supreme Bishop! Otherwise, you might get ambushed someday!"
"The Supreme Bishop is mine! Mine!"
No matter how much the live chat audience shouted, at this moment, the Supreme Bishop undoubtedly belonged to no one.
Because he wasn’t in the gacha pool yet.
Now was the time to boost his presence.
Although Ye’s presence had never been low—he’d been making appearances since the game’s launch—his actual screen time was still too limited.
In short, his interactions with the players were far too few—or rather, practically nonexistent.
Thus, at the start of the 2.0 storyline, Ye seized an opportunity to make an appearance, all to give players more chances to interact with him.
Genshin Impact is, after all, a gacha game centered around the Traveler’s journey. Any character destined for the gacha pool must have a relatively friendly relationship with the protagonist, the Traveler.
Whether it’s Tartaglia, the Wanderer, or Arlecchino, these Fatui Harbingers (or former Harbingers) must also undergo some form of redemption and establish a friendly relationship with the Traveler to be eligible for the gacha pool.
As for someone like La Signora, no matter how large her chest or how high her popularity, she can’t enter the gacha pool.
—And it has nothing to do with whether she’s dead or not. After all, who says dead characters can’t be in the gacha pool?
That said, it must be admitted that Ye is... a little tainted right now.
After all, in the previous storyline, he was practically pitch-black. While this didn’t hurt his popularity—in fact, his overwhelming strength and charisma displayed during that "one finger" moment caused his popularity to skyrocket—popularity aside, such a dark character isn’t suitable for the gacha pool.
Therefore, in version 2.0, Ye needs to redeem himself.
How to redeem himself?
Simple. Stand on the same side as the Traveler, interact more with them, help them out, and then join forces to raise their blades against the Raiden Shogun, fighting side by side. Naturally, this would redeem him.
Of course, during this redemption process, Ye also needs to showcase his charm.
He has always been portrayed as a wise figure in the players’ eyes. Now, by further reinforcing this image and also displaying his gentle, kind, compassionate, and benevolent virtues, his character will naturally become more well-rounded, right?
Thus, Ye was extremely gentle with Wagner.
Guiding him back to the right path in the name of the Anemo Archon, rather than delivering a righteous judgment in the name of the Hydro Archon—who wouldn’t say the Supreme Bishop is truly magnanimous?
Soon, under Ye’s gentle persuasion, Wagner confessed that he had been tempted by a small profit and betrayed the International Trade Association.
It was all the doing of the tax collector, the Ashigaru.
The Ashigaru had informed the merchants that the tax rate was already inflated, and the excess Crystal Marrow was stockpiled. Once the merchants were desperate, Wagner would sell it to them at a high price—well, Ye couldn’t even bother to say he already knew the plot.
Even if he hadn’t known the plot beforehand, after hearing Kurisu’s words, he could have guessed this was exactly what was happening.
It was such an old trick, with no originality at all.
"We still need evidence," Lumine said seriously. "Without evidence, they probably won’t admit to anything."
However, Ye calmly dismissed this. "We don’t need it. The Kanjou Commission is corrupt from top to bottom. Even with evidence, we’d only punish a few individuals, and the Kanjou Commission would find other ways to line their pockets. This won’t solve the root problem."
"......We can’t solve the root problem anyway, can we?"
Lumine didn’t know what to say. After all, the root of Inazuma’s problems lies with the Raiden Shogun. To fundamentally solve the issue, the Raiden Shogun must realize her mistakes.
"Or are you saying you want to fight the Raiden Shogun right now?"
"Of course not. What we want to solve is just the Kanjou Commission’s problem. We don’t need to involve the Raiden Shogun to fix this."
"How do we solve it?"
Ye glanced at Lumine and said calmly, "Replace the Kanjou Commission’s leader, and then use this new leader to completely overhaul the commission."
Lumine: "......Let’s just talk about finding evidence."
"Don’t worry. I’ll handle the planning. You just need to execute it."
"You’re trying to boss me around again?"
"Beautiful, kind-hearted Miss Lumine, only you can do this."
"Hmph, fine. Tell me, what do you want to do?"
"First, since you can move freely in Ritou, you must have some connection with the local boss, right?"
"I do know someone."
"Then, please go find this boss and ask him to deliver a letter."
"A letter?"
"Yes, to the head of the Asada family—Sen’emon."
Looking at Lumine, Ye said softly:
"I need to borrow her blade for a moment."
