Check out my new translation!
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Sabzeruz Festival is actually the Dendro Archon's Birthday.
Its original name was Birthday Festival of the Goddess of Flowers, referring to the time when the Flower Goddess performed a dance to bless Greater Lord Rukkhadevata on her
birthday. The reason it later became the misleadingly named Sabzeruz Festival was entirely due to sloppy miscommunication.
After Greater Lord Rukkhadevata passed away, the festival date was moved to the birthday of Lesser Lord Kusanali. Later, under the influence of the Akademiya, the people of Sumeru gradually stopped celebrating this festival.
But there was one exception: to this day, the residents of the Grand Bazaar still hold the Sabzeruz Festival every year.
The reason the Zubayr Theater has been tolerated by the Akademiya until now is precisely because of this.
The Akademiya's plan to harvest the "blessed dreams celebrating the birth of gods" requires the Sabzeruz Festival to occur, as well as a dreamer unaware of this plan to act as the master of the dream, so that the dream can continue its cycle as consistently as possible.
The Akademiya had tried for so long to make people forget about Lesser Lord Kusanali. They could not suddenly demand that people hold the Sabzeruz Festival, so the Grand Bazaar, which still celebrated the festival independently, became the obvious choice. And the Zubayr Theater, the centerpiece of the festival performances, naturally became the perfect choice.
Dunyarzad was here for precisely that reason.
Dunyarzad suffers from Eleazar, a Sumeru-specific illness characterized by gray-black, scale-like tissues appearing on the patient's body. Early on, patients only feel numbness in the affected skin. Gradually, they experience strength loss, numbness in limbs, and eventually total loss of motor control. This disease is incurable.
When Dunyarzad was a child, she experienced a severe flare-up, leaving her semi-conscious, immobile, and unable to cry… In that state, it was Lesser Lord Kusanali who communicated with her consciousness, offering encouragement and helping her survive.
Since then, she became a devoted follower of Lesser Lord Kusanali.
Although her parents, worried about her illness, opposed her leaving home, sensing her life might not last until next year, she secretly left before this year's Sabzeruz Festival and courageously spoke to Nilou, hoping to contribute to the festival preparations.
Nilou responded sincerely.
How wonderful.
Sitting in the now-empty audience seats, Victor Wang, though already familiar with the Zubayr Theater troupe and having had multiple exchanges with Sheikh Zubayr for professional reasons, knew it would be awkward to keep staring at the two girls. He soon rose and left.
In truth, Eleazar is not completely incurable.
To understand the cure, one must first understand its cause, which leads back to the two key figures of the Sabzeruz Festival, especially the first protagonist—Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
On the way back to the inn, Victor Wang recalled memories of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was a person worthy of respect.
To combat Forbidden Knowledge that was harmful to Teyvat and to the ordinary people, she twice voluntarily sacrificed herself.
The first time, a thousand years ago, the Scarlet King had been tainted by Forbidden Knowledge. To manage the aftermath, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata overexerted herself, shrinking to the size of a child. Fortunately, the Scarlet King ultimately fed himself to the Dendro Dragon, preventing the contamination from spreading further to the ley lines and the Irminsul. This was considered a safe resolution.
The second time, five hundred years ago, Khaenri'ah brought another wave of Forbidden Knowledge contamination. This time, things were far less fortunate…
The Khaenri'ah Catastrophe was an insurmountable chapter in Teyvat's history, on a scale so massive that all seven nations were affected, the Seven Archons destabilized, even the sky changed color, and Celestia descended. All Seven Archons were summoned to Khaenri'ah—except Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
The reason she was not summoned was that she had an even more critical task—to protect the Irminsul.
Teyvatans believed that the ley lines, spreading throughout the land and maintaining the continent's stability, were akin to the Irminsul's roots. The ley lines constantly absorbed the world's memories, while the Irminsul collected everything from the world's past to the present, serving as the supply destination for the ley lines' absorbed memories.
It was this crucial Irminsul that had been polluted by Khaenri'ah's Forbidden Knowledge.
The world constantly resisted this otherworldly force of Forbidden Knowledge, but the "rejection" caused other adverse "symptoms." If the contamination were left unchecked, Teyvat might collapse under the strain of these reactions. Protecting the Irminsul was an immense responsibility.
Fortunately, having previously dealt with Forbidden Knowledge alongside the Scarlet King, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was not helpless.
Realizing she could not expel Forbidden Knowledge alone, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, as the Goddess of Wisdom, created the Akasha device to unify human wisdom. She borrowed the crystallized essence of human dreams, consolidating humanity's intelligence while contributing her own full power, nearly clearing Forbidden Knowledge from the Irminsul in a single effort.
But—
At this moment, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata realized that, since her consciousness was connected to the Irminsul, the Forbidden Knowledge's contamination had also affected her existence.
As long as she lived, the Forbidden Knowledge within the Irminsul could not be fully eradicated…
Worse, even if she sacrificed her life, her consciousness would persist within the Irminsul as memory and knowledge, allowing the Forbidden Knowledge to continue existing…
The only solution she could think of was to use the Irminsul's power to erase her own existence. But a life cannot erase itself; such an act is paradoxical and would have uncontrollable consequences.
Relying solely on herself, she could never truly solve the Forbidden Knowledge contamination. Thus, she broke off the purest branch of the Irminsul for her reincarnation—giving birth to Lesser Lord Kusanali.
Greater Lord Rukkhadevata entrusted the hopes of erasing her existence and clearing the Irminsul's contamination to Lesser Lord Kusanali. Through her death, she minimized the Irminsul's contamination. The remaining contamination gave rise to Sumeru's Withering and Eleazar, but the world was saved.
Her lingering consciousness awaited the arrival of Lesser Lord Kusanali.
As long as the Irminsul's last contamination was fully removed, Eleazar would be cured, and the Withering would cease expanding, though existing damage would not immediately vanish.
Conversely, without clearing the contamination, Eleazar would remain incurable, and the Withering would continue growing—explaining why Victor Wang had not intervened in the Withering earlier.
Now that Dunyarzad had appeared, Lumine would likely soon arrive in Sumeru, and Rana was close to falling unconscious. The long-awaited Aranyaka event was about to begin.
To prevent the Aranyaka from occurring, and to ensure that Rana, the children in Vimara Village, and others did not have to sacrifice their memories—or that Arana would not grow into a large tree at the cost of freedom—the key was to protect Vimara Village's children and Rana at this point.
The only downside might be that Rana's Vision could be lost… but her desire is strong. Missing this opportunity would not necessarily be the end.
Then I might as well practice swordsmanship around Vimara Village.