101. Mr. Zhongli, How Strong Are You?

Ayaka halted her step the moment Ryūhei gave off such an eerie atmosphere.

But, it was only for a moment. Ryūhei seemed to notice her after the eerie atmosphere disappeared.

"Oh, Ayaka. Don't you want to befriend those people earlier?"

"I want to. But, I want to ask something."

"What is it?"

Ayaka was curious regarding the previous matter. Thus, she asked him.

"What happened to Lady Hu Tao earlier? Did you do something?"

Without changing his expression, his brain thought of a solution.

And after a split second, he replied, "Well, did you see my clones over there?" He pointed at his clones as Ayaka nodded. Ryūhei didn't seem to mind if Ayaka knew about his clones after thinking it through.

Then, he continued, "You know. Hu Tao is a person who manages funeral affairs in Liyue, flawlessly carries out a person's last rites and preserves the world's balance of yin and yang. Because of that, she despised—yada yada."

Ryūhei explained and bluntly accused his clone as he said that his clone did something unpleasant to Hu Tao for saving the poor zombie girl.

His clones turned to him with cynical expressions visible on their faces.

'Just because you're the main body, you can't blame your clones as you please. And more importantly, blaming your clones is equivalent to blaming yourself!'

That was what the clones thought toward their main body's accusation.

Putting the clone's joke aside, Ryūhei turned to Rimuru. "Rimuru, come here."

In that instant, Rimuru jumped out of Ayaka's arm and landed on his shoulder.

His gaze switched to Nibi afterward.

"I want to see what the City of Mondstadt is like by myself, so I'll be going after I meet someone."

Nibi just nodded, understanding his intention.

Ryūhei strode away with Rimuru on his shoulder. As he opened the door, Ryūhei turned around.

"Make yourself at home, Ayaka. I'm out for a bit."

"Ah, wai– he's gone."

Ryūhei's figure disappeared alongside Jiu. Ayaka wondered what was causing him to be in such a rush. This made her gaze locked on Nibi as she felt that Nibi seemed to understand him more even though she was just a puppet.

"This is a secret, Milady. You can't follow him since the person he wanted to meet is rather special."

"Is that so?" Ayaka replied dejectedly. The longer she lived with Ryūhei, the more she felt that many secrets were starting to emerge one by one that Ryūhei had been hiding. And although Ryūhei was still willing to share his secrets with her, there was still something absolutely he couldn't tell.

'Well, I can only trust him.' Ayaka said inwardly.

—————

Ryūhei walked toward the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor while receiving gazes from people since he carried Rimuru on his shoulder. Some people, especially those who read the manga, immediately pointed to the slime as the main character in Tensura. However, Ryūhei just ignored them because he had something more important.

Arriving at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, Ryūhei met Hu Tao first. Her expression flushed instantly while trying to get away from him.

But, how can he escape from the current Ryūhei?

To avoid the last time accident, Ryūhei clutched Hu Tao's head as if he was grabbing his prey.

"Where are you running?"

"Auch, auch, auch…"

Hu Tao couldn't help but whine.

"Director, did you do that purposely?" Ryūhei asked as his eyes turned sharp.

"Uuu, what are you talking about?"

"Ey, don't take me for a fool. I know how smartass you are. There's no way you'd say that without thinking it through." Ryūhei could see her averted eyes although for a moment. So, he forced her to tell the truth while glaring at her.

After a while, Ryūhei said while sighing. "Fine, fine. I know you're angry about what I did at that time. I apologize, okay! It was an accident, I didn't mean it, you know."

"It's too easy to just say sorry." Hu Tao murmured in a low voice. She didn't intend to say that actually. However, Ryūhei could still hear it since he was close to her.

"Haish… why are you so troublesome? If you really want compensation, then you can touch mine, my chest, my abs, or whatever, and we're even after that."

Hu Tao instantly fumed in anger after Ryūhei said that while resisting her urge to slap him with her Staff of Homa imbued with an unwavering flame that can cleanse the impurities of this world, Guide of Afterlife.

"You bastard… Do you think I'm such an easy lady!??"

Ryūhei looked at her up and down before replying nonchalantly, "Are you really a lady?"

"AHHHHH, I WANT TO BURN!!!" Hu Tao was so angry this time. She picked up her Staff of Homa swiftly.

Before things went out of control, the soft and calm voice of a man resounded, "Now, now. What happened to even make you so upset, Director?"

It was naturally Mr. Zhongli who heard the commotion.

Usually, Hu Tao was the one who pranked the others. But, it seems like this time it was the opposite and she went almost crazy where she wanted to burn down the parlor with her technique.

She looked at Zhongli and said nothing but grit her teeth. Seeing this, Zhongli turned to Ryūhei.

"It seems this matter is your fault. I've never seen the Director this angry."

Ryūhei shrugged his shoulders. "I apologized and said what I did was an accident. But she doesn't seem to want to forgive me."

Understanding what happened, Zhongli intervened and advised Hu Tao to forgive someone who apologized sincerely. He also told Ryūhei to watch out for his attitude when apologizing. If Ryūhei didn't do that, Hu Tao wouldn't be this irritated.

After a while, Hu Tao reluctantly forgave him thanks to Zhongli's intervention.

Then, Zhongli said,

"Director, I want to go out for a bit." Then, he turned to Ryūhei while pointing out. "Let's go. You have something to talk about, don't you?"

"Sharp as always, aren't you?"

Ryūhei smirked at Zhongli's perception.

As the two walked around the foot of Mt. Tianheng toward the top, Zhongli spoke up.

"So, how was your visit to Inazuma?"

Zhongli naturally felt something with the slime that Ryūhei brought.

However, Ryūhei didn't reply immediately as he grabbed his shoulder to teleport into the usual cave.

Then, Ryūhei opened his mouth.

"Well, I met the Raiden Shogun and was obliterated. Hahaha." He replied with a laugh. However, Zhongli seemed puzzled by his words.

"Obliterated?"

"Ah. It's my clone. My clone was obliterated when it checked her out."

"A clone, huh? Not many people can use that technique. I was so amazed by your ingenuity to create your own technique which was derived from several other techniques. And, how about this slime? It seems different from ordinary elemental slimes."

"That's right. It's different from the other slimes. Rimuru, you can turn into a human form now."

In that instant, Rimuru's slime body started to change shape. It became bigger, with grown limbs, and a head. As his body took shape as a beautiful boy with 120 cm in height, the long arctic hair grew from his head as well as his deep golden eyes. He also wore a shirt, pants, and a leather jacket that he always stored on his slime body.

"Osu, I'm Rimuru, your friendly neighborhood slime. Nice to meet you." Rimuru greeted Zhongli and left the latter stunned speechless.

Ryūhei was amused after seeing that sight before letting out a chuckle.

"I didn't expect the Geo Archon could make such an expression"

After he said that, silence occurred for a while. Since it was kind of awkward, Ryūhei said, "Don't you want to ask about Rimuru's origin?"

Zhongli shook his head before saying,

"I didn't feel any elemental energy, so I believe this slime wasn't born from elemental condensation. Normally, if a slime wasn't an elemental life form, then it would definitely be an Abyss creature. However, I didn't feel any Abyssal energy either. As long as it's not an Abyssal creature, I don't need to ask." 

Ryūhei smiled wryly. He didn't plan to hide his power to create creatures in the near future since he would use it when Zhongli's plan started. But, to think that Zhongli refused to know.

"Then, I want to ask something important."

"Feel free." Zhongli nodded at Ryūhei's statement.

"How powerful are you, Mr. Zhongli? I mean, with your godly body, not with this vessel body."

Zhongli stared at Ryūhei for a while before asking back.

"Why do you want to know?"

"For my own insurance. I just want to determine the destruction scale of the Archon's full power. Can you destroy a large island, like the Raiden Shogun did when she cut an island in half?"

"I see. So you want to face her, huh? But not sure how powerful she is, Is that what you want to know?"

Ryūhei nodded to respond to Zhongli's conclusion.

"Speaking of my full power, I can pretty much destroy a large island in one hit. However, the Raiden Shogun can do more with the Musou no Hitotachi."

Ryūhei widened his eyes after hearing that and wasn't expecting the so-called unmovable and most powerful Archon to admit that he was inferiort o the Raiden Shogun.

———————

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AN: Idk if I can update tomorrow since I will have a trip to a certain tourist attraction for 2 days with my co-workers (200 ppl btw). Honestly, I don't want to go, but I can only grit my teeth to accept.