Hearing this inexplicable form of address, Aether froze for a moment, then lifted his head and looked toward where the voice had come from.
When Nolan's figure came into view, a surge of emotion called rage instantly welled up inside him.
"You bastard!"
Even so, as the leader of the Abyss Order, Aether's composure was still quite good. He didn't completely lose control—he merely cursed the other man with visible displeasure.
It was this guy who had deceived Lumine!
Otherwise, how could his sister have fallen so easily—especially for such an outrageously fickle man? How could his sister possibly like someone like this?!
Moreover, from the investigations conducted by his subordinates, he had learned that this man also had close ties with the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, as well as Yuheng and Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing.
People who sat in positions like those—how could they possibly care about ordinary romantic entanglements, let alone get involved with a shamelessly flirtatious person?
Thus, Aether was certain that this man must have used some kind of method akin to hypnosis, bewitchment, or manipulation to deceive his sister.
And the sudden loss of consciousness earlier had definitely been this guy's doing as well.
If it weren't for the fact that he knew he couldn't win, if it weren't for the unfinished confrontation he still had with the "Heavenly Principles," he would have made this man pay the price right here and now!
Nolan didn't know what Aether was thinking—but even if he did, it wouldn't matter.
Without all those abilities that made gaining affection easier, it really would have been difficult for him to become lovers with so many girls and still have them coexist harmoniously.
After all, it was genuinely hard for a normal person to reach max affection toward someone else—to accept all of their strengths and flaws alike, and maintain absolute trust.
But Nolan himself was strong, and he was a righteous person. An identity like that naturally made it easier to earn others' goodwill and trust.
Coupled with abilities that further boosted affection, it became very easy for girls to develop feelings for him.
As long as he didn't commit any major mistakes or do something that truly angered them, their affection toward him wouldn't drop without reason.
Once affection reached a certain level, even some of his flirtatious shortcomings became things they could accept.
So this harmonious coexistence had nothing to do with the deception, bewitchment, or hypnosis Aether imagined.
Nolan smiled as he looked at Aether.
"Don't be angry, brother-in-law. I don't know whether you've personally done any evil, but you are the leader of the Abyss Order. Allowing your subordinates to run rampant and cause destruction, endangering innocent lives—
"To prevent even more serious consequences from happening, it's perfectly normal for me to step in and stop you, isn't it?"
"You think you've got me completely cornered?" Aether said coldly.
Not killing him while he was unconscious earlier—that was this arrogant man's greatest mistake.
This time, it was only because he'd let his guard down. Something like a sudden ambush would never happen a second time!
Just as he tried to connect to the teleportation network and leave immediately, he discovered that no matter what he did, he couldn't establish a connection at all.
It wasn't that the teleportation network was malfunctioning—rather, his mind was issuing commands, but the energy used to connect to the network simply wouldn't respond.
Or rather… his body wasn't moving according to his thoughts at all!
"What did you do to me?" Aether's expression darkened with anger. Clearly, this unknown situation was already beyond his ability to deal with.
But without even thinking, he knew it had to be Nolan's doing.
"Look at them," Nolan said lightly, then turned his gaze toward the Abyss Herald and the Abyss Mage.
Still on guard, Aether glanced over—and discovered that his two subordinates were actually dancing normally. Since they clearly didn't know how to dance, the sight was rather painful to watch.
"Do a somersault," Nolan said to them.
The Abyss Herald and the Abyss Mage complied, performing a somersault right in front of their leader.
Only the humiliation in their eyes conveyed that this was absolutely not their own will.
"See? Brother-in-law, you're already under my control too—just like them," Nolan said again, smiling wickedly.
"How is that possible?!"
Aether's face was filled with shock and fury. He tried to summon his weapon and launch an attack at Nolan—but no matter what he did, he couldn't.
None of his many objectives had been achieved yet—and after coming out here, he'd been inexplicably controlled just like that?
Wait. Could it be that Lumine had been controlled by this very same method as well?!
At that thought, Aether's head seemed to heat up. When he looked at Nolan, his eyes appeared to blaze with fire, as if he wanted to burn him to ashes.
"Uh…"
Nolan scratched the back of his head. It seemed his brother-in-law was even angrier than he'd imagined—but that made sense. After all, having one's personal freedom taken away was no small matter.
Seeing how furious his brother-in-law was, Nolan lost any mood to tease him further.
After thinking for a moment, he began issuing commands to him. The main content was simple: the Abyss Order was to stop causing destruction across Teyvat.
Next, Aether was to spend some time uploading the knowledge the Abyss Order possessed to the Akasha Interconnection Network. Nolan would have Nahida first seal off that information.
Only after everyone confirmed that there were no dangers involved would the safe portions be made public across the entire network.
After that, Aether was to open access to the teleportation network for Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, and Fontaine—those nations that were not hostile to Nolan.
The movement speed of the teleportation network was far faster than any machine vehicle. If it could be put to use, trade, military support, and many other things would become far more convenient.
As for whether the teleportation network controlled by the Abyss Order would encounter difficulties when used on a large scale—that could be left to the Abyss Order itself to research slowly.
After all, if they weren't going to cause trouble anymore, they needed something to keep busy.
The final matter was for Aether to find an opportunity to gather all Abyss Order monsters above level sixty, and then place Command Seals on all of them at once.
Without the insurance of Command Seals, even if Aether himself obeyed completely, there was no guarantee that some underlings wouldn't start causing trouble on their own.
Aether didn't want to obey a single one of Nolan's commands.
But there was no choice. Even if he didn't want to listen, his body had already memorized those orders—and would carry them out one by one in the future.
After arranging all of this, Nolan asked his brother-in-law about the Dendro Dragon.
Despite his extreme reluctance, Aether still had no choice but to explain what he knew:
"It's a Dendro Dragon even more ancient than the gods. But after devouring King Deshret's body, it was contaminated by Forbidden Knowledge and is now barely clinging to life.
"The Abyss Order has a way to suppress the pollution of Forbidden Knowledge, so we wanted to control it and make it an asset in my fight against the 'Heavenly Principles.'"
Hearing this explanation, Nolan nodded in sudden understanding. A Dendro Dragon older than the gods—then it must be an existence from the era when dragons once ruled Teyvat.
Whether it was good or evil remained unknown.
Such a living relic of history held immense value for Teyvat. If it was a benevolent dragon that protected humanity, like Dvalin, then it definitely needed to be saved.
If it was an evil dragon with a cruel nature… then it would still be saved as well—just with Command Seals applied, like Aether and the others.
(End of Chapter)
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