"Immortal Art! Shenhe, possess me!"
As Ryan once again used the Immortal Art, a phantom of a little girl appeared behind him.
The phantom vaguely showed the girl's general appearance: long black hair tied behind her head, almost dragging on the ground; bun-like decorations on both sides of her head; traditional Liyue children's clothing; a peace bell hanging on her chest; and plump little short legs wearing white socks.
This was the image of Shenhe in her youth, because the people Ryan summoned were actually shadows recorded in the ley lines.
"Help me, little Shenhe!"
Seeing Shenhe summoned, Ryan immediately pleaded with her.
His junior sister possessed innate divine strength. When it came to a test of strength, Ryan had been easily defeated by her on the very day Cloud Retainer brought her back to Aozang Mountain.
Fortunately, Ryan had used love to influence this somewhat violent junior sister, and their sibling relationship was quite harmonious.
Little Shenhe glanced at Ryan, then raised her foot and kicked.
"Ow!"
Ryan, wincing in pain, quickly clutched his calf and hopped to the side on one leg, getting out of little Shenhe's way.
Little Shenhe, meanwhile, stepped forward, picked up the golden jiao scissors from the ground, and forcefully snipped at the dragon whisker.
"Wait, little Shenhe... that's too much..."
Ryan hastily warned.
But little Shenhe ignored him, immediately increasing her strength when she found she couldn't cut it.
"Never mind... little Shenhe, I'll help you!"
Seeing that little Shenhe also seemed unable to cut it, Ryan quickly moved behind her, stretched out his hands, and together with her, gripped the golden jiao scissors, forcefully cutting down the middle.
As the two combined their efforts, the surface of the slender dragon whisker suddenly bloomed with the light of the Geo element, causing Ryan to squint his eyes.
After a stalemate for a while... *snip* —
With the sound of the scissors closing, the dragon whisker snapped.
If one looked closely, they would also notice that the severed ends of these two dragon whiskers had a structure similar to Geo constructs, noticeably thicker than the whisker itself.
"It's cut! Good job, little Shenhe!"
Seeing the dragon whisker successfully cut, Ryan excitedly hugged the little Shenhe in his arms.
But before he could finish speaking, little Shenhe released the scissors and delivered a solid elbow backward to Ryan's stomach, forcing him to release his grip on her.
Then she turned around, her eyes glowing red, and stared at Ryan.
The people Ryan summoned were all shadows recorded in the ley lines, and the image of little Shenhe most prominently recorded by the ley lines was her appearance when the fierce aura erupted in the cave that year.
"Don't hit me, little Shenhe, I'm your senior brother!"
Seeing that little Shenhe seemed a bit fierce, Ryan quickly raised his hands to explain.
Perhaps Ryan's words had an effect, as the fierce light in little Shenhe's eyes slowly faded. She then bent down, picked up the golden jiao scissors again, and aimed at the dragon whisker on the other side.
This time, she was even more ruthless, almost cutting off four-fifths of the dragon whisker.
Ryan hastily tried to stop her, but only heard a *snip*.
The dragon whisker, which they had barely managed to cut together just now, suddenly snapped.
"..."
Ryan looked at the severed right dragon whisker and gaped.
He then looked at the left dragon whisker, which had been cut first, and stood in a daze for a moment.
If one carefully observed the two dragon whiskers, they would find that the dragon whisker cut first had a Geo construct-like structure at its severed end.
However, the dragon whisker cut by little Shenhe herself was completely normal, without any Geo construct structure.
"So, the God is left-handed...! That's why the left side was harder to cut!"
After comparing them for a while, Ryan suddenly had an epiphany.
Little Shenhe tilted her head and glanced at Ryan, then put the severed dragon whisker into his hand, and disappeared from the spot.
Ryan looked at the two dragon whiskers in his hand, then at the Exuvia on the ground, and then glanced around.
No one... Continue... After putting the dragon whiskers into his qiankun bag, Ryan began to check what other materials he could obtain from the Exuvia.
First were the downy hairs on the back of the immortal body and the hair on the dragon's tail.
Ryan used the shrunken golden jiao scissors to snip a couple of times and found that these downy hairs were much easier to cut than the dragon whiskers, almost no different from ordinary hair.
After collecting some downy hairs, Ryan continued to observe the Exuvia, his gaze quickly falling on the scales.
However, taking dragon scales would somewhat damage the image of the Exuvia, and since the dragon whiskers were already so difficult to cut, Ryan didn't think he could pry off the dragon scales.
But what if he didn't remove the entire dragon scale?
Thinking of this, Ryan put away the golden jiao scissors and instead took out another tool, a golden file.
This was a file once used by a God to process mechanical parts. Like the golden jiao scissors, Ryan, based on his feelings, gave it a name he considered very cool: dragon-wounding file.
Ryan then hid behind the Exuvia, choosing a scale that was not easily visible, and tried to file off some scale powder from it, holding a bottle underneath with his other hand to collect it.
With the file's effort, Ryan spent a while before successfully collecting a little scale powder. The filed scale looked as if it had some white marks, vaguely resembling scratches.
After putting away the scale powder, Ryan finally turned his attention to the golden dragon horns on top of the Exuvia's head.
Holding the dragon-wounding file, Ryan tried to file off a little powder from the dragon horn.
However, the dragon horn was clearly harder than the scales. Ryan filed back and forth for a while, but couldn't even get a speck of dust off.
But Ryan, not believing in evil, continued to file back and forth for a while longer, and finally managed to file off a tiny bit of dragon horn powder.
These scattered specks of powder faintly glowed golden, as if they were fine gold.
"Phew... this is enough. Any more would damage the God's dignity... The dragon whiskers, the dragon whiskers were cut by little Shenhe..."
After obtaining a tiny bit of dragon horn powder, Ryan finally stood up contentedly, though he sounded a bit guilty by the end.
Next, as long as he returned the Exuvia to its place, Ryan could slip away.
"Hmm, I should be able to move it. If not, I'll just call Shenhe for help again..."
Ryan mumbled, then stepped forward to try and lift the Exuvia.
But the moment his hands touched the Exuvia, Ryan suddenly felt his whole body stiffen, and the fur on his tail bristled and stood erect on its own.
The next moment, an endless stream of black energy overflowed from the Exuvia, being absorbed and converging onto Ryan's tail.
The utterly lifeless Exuvia instinctively opened its golden eyes, while Ryan felt his head spinning and was forced to close his golden eyes.
"Reporting to the God... Yakshas, we have not failed our mission..."
"Morax... seal me back underground..."
"Ruoduo, it seems you have finally reached this day..."
"I must go, Morax. These dishes and cooking methods, I entrust them to you. Please do not let the people go hungry..."
"In this world, all Gods and demons rise together. Though I have no intention of contending for power, I know the suffering of the common people..."
"It seems I still cannot walk with you to the end. As for the matter of that lock, forget about it..."
"This is a token of our covenant, and also my challenge to you..."
Countless Noise echoed in Ryan's mind, and unrememberable images flashed rapidly before his eyes.
After finally getting rid of those Noise, Ryan suddenly sat up from the ground, realizing that he had fainted earlier.
"Was I... asleep? What were those voices just now...?"
Ryan first rubbed his forehead in confusion, then subconsciously opened his qiankun bag.
"Thankfully, it wasn't a dream..."
Finding that the dragon whiskers and dragon scale powder were already in hand, Ryan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking back, Ryan found that the Exuvia was still on the ground, and... the dragon whiskers had grown back?!
Ryan was stunned when he saw the dragon whiskers on the Exuvia, then hastily opened his qiankun bag again to check, finding that the dragon whiskers were still there.
After being bewildered for a while, Ryan, regaining his senses, quickly went forward, intending to move the Exuvia back to its original position.
He didn't know how long he had been unconscious; if he stayed here any longer, someone might come to check.
Although he didn't know why the dragon whiskers had recovered, perhaps it was the residual divine power of the immortal body?
'So light...'
'Why is the God as light as a delicate girl...'
'He couldn't have starved to death, could he?'
Ryan lifted the Exuvia, but found it surprisingly light.
*Clap, clap, clap* —
Just then, a round of applause suddenly came.
"Interesting, interesting. To have gotten it before me, no wonder I felt hostility when I saw you earlier."
...