[Genshin Impact] Chapter 416: Geo Hypostasis (2-in-1 Chapter)

[Defeated 2 Powerful Enemies, Obtained 506 Adventure EXP.]

Nolan glanced at the notification on his character panel. Only 500 Adventure EXP for defeating two enemies? That’s way too little.

Didn’t seem to deserve the "Powerful Enemy" label at all.

He chuckled to himself at the thought.

"Oh? How’d you knock them both out? Weren’t we supposed to interrogate them?" Hu Tao asked, landing lightly on the floating platform, her expression puzzled.

"My ability only works after ‘defeating’ the opponent. They have to be unconscious and unable to resist before I can use it," Nolan explained simply.

"I see. So, you can’t use this on people stronger than you, huh? What a pity," Hu Tao said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Pretty much." Nolan nodded slightly.

If the opponent was powerful but severely injured and he managed to defeat them, it could still work.

It didn’t take long before he used the same kind of "Command Spell" as before to bind these two Treasure Hoarders.

Casually manipulating a ball of seawater, he lifted it from the ocean's surface and splashed it onto the faces of the two unconscious men.

"Who the hell dares to attack Master Agu?!"

The shock of the cold seawater jolted the two Treasure Hoarders awake. One of them, a bandana-wearing man, shouted angrily.

"Hmph, Master Agu, huh? Shut up. We’ve got questions for you!"

Beidou, arms crossed, scowled at the arrogant Treasure Hoarder and issued a command.

When Nolan had set the "Command Spell," Beidou had been included among those whose orders must be obeyed.

Since she sailed the seas frequently, it would be convenient for these Treasure Hoarders to pass on any useful intel to her, which she could then take back to Liyue Harbor.

The man called Agu opened his mouth to retort, but his body froze, and to his horror, he found himself obediently falling silent. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t speak a word.

What the hell is going on?! Fear welled up inside Agu as he instinctively scanned his surroundings.

They were still on their Treasure Hoarder floating sentry platform, but now there were a few unfamiliar figures.

One man and three women.

And the one who had just commanded him—was none other than Beidou, the "Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean!"

She has the power to force people to obey her commands?! The realization deepened Agu’s fear of Beidou.

"Beidou, ma’am, we’ve never touched any cargo from the Crux Fleet! Please, forgive us! Just treat us like we’re nothing!"

The other Treasure Hoarder, who hadn’t been commanded to shut up, immediately recognized Beidou and, without a moment’s hesitation, dropped to his knees, begging for mercy.

"You shut up too!" Beidou massaged her temples, feeling this guy was even more annoying.

She turned to Nolan and the others. "Who wants to handle the questioning?"

"I’ll do—" Nolan began, but Hu Tao cut him off excitedly.

"Leave it to me! This is right up my alley!"

A mischievous grin spread across Hu Tao's pale, snow-white face. Clearly, she was intrigued by the situation. Seeing that, Nolan nodded and let her take over the interrogation.

"Alright, talk! Why are you robbing passing merchant ships in Guyun Stone Forest?!"

Hu Tao stood with her hands on her hips, one finger pressing into her soft belly, as she questioned them.

The Treasure Hoarder had no choice but to answer. Without hesitation, he replied:

"We’re here searching for treasure from the Jade Chamber. But we haven’t had much luck, and we’re not giving up.

"After all, it’s the collection of Ningguang, the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing! If we manage to find even one item, we’d be rich beyond our dreams!

"But we’ve been searching for so long that we’ve used up almost all the supplies we brought with us.

"So, to stay ahead of the competition and find the Tianquan’s treasure first, we had no choice but to rob passing merchant ships to resupply!"

Hearing this, Nolan raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Wait, are you saying your group isn’t the only one treasure hunting here?"

"That’s right. There are three Treasure Hoarder groups here in Guyun Stone Forest. One of them even teamed up with a band of pirates with a big ship."

The Treasure Hoarder went on to explain the situation to them.

In short, there were currently two groups of Treasure Hoarders and one group of pirates in Guyun Stone Forest.

In total, over a hundred people had gathered, all driven by the hope of finding Ningguang’s hidden treasures.

"Haha! That woman Ningguang really knows how to attract attention with her collection! So many people came here just for her stuff!"

Beidou laughed heartily.

"If I didn’t know that nothing could’ve survived an explosion that powerful, even I’d be tempted to search for it."

Nolan sighed with a hint of regret.

"Stop thinking about such nonsense!" Keqing snapped at Nolan, clearly displeased. Then she turned back to the two Treasure Hoarders and pressed on:

"Tell us the exact locations of all the Treasure Hoarder and pirate hideouts!"

"Yes," the two Treasure Hoarders answered reluctantly, unable to resist.

"Our base is just ahead. Another Treasure Hoarder group is farther east from us, and the pirates are to the west. Since they couldn’t find anything on land, they’re preparing to search underwater."

"Search underwater? Do you guys have someone with a powerful Vision or some kind of special equipment? You really dare to dive down there?"

Nolan couldn’t hide his surprise.

Teyvat doesn't seem to have anything like oxygen tanks, so staying underwater for long periods to search for treasure is pretty unrealistic.

Unless they rely on elemental power.

"Vision holders are respected wherever they go. Why would they need to be part of a Treasure Hoarder group?

"Most of us are just used to being out at sea, so everyone’s pretty good at swimming. Holding our breath for over ten minutes underwater isn’t a problem.

"We just take turns diving into shallow waters to look for treasure," Agu, the Treasure Hoarder, explained.

"I see!"

Nolan thought that if there was any treasure that survived, searching underwater might indeed be more promising than searching on land.

When they went after the pirates later, they could ask if they’d found anything.

With so many people hunting for treasure in Guyun Stone Forest, it was only a matter of time before they crossed paths.

Since the two Treasure Hoarders guarding the floating sentry platform were somewhat familiar with the general locations of the other groups, they had some intel to share.

After instructing the two Treasure Hoarders to row themselves back to shore, Nolan and the others spread their Wind Gliders and took off ahead.

With detailed intel in hand, the group easily located the first Treasure Hoarder base.

Flying in from the sea, they crossed the beach and reached the foot of a mountain, where the base became visible.

Maybe they didn’t expect anyone to come after them, Nolan thought. That’s probably why they didn’t bother hiding the base better.

"One, two, three... nine people. That doesn’t match what those two guys told us earlier," Hu Tao muttered.

Using an invisibility field to stay hidden, the group boldly stood in the middle of the base, counting the heads.

This Treasure Hoarder group should have around thirty members. The rest were probably out looking for treasure.

But that wasn’t a problem.

They could just control the nine here first and handle the rest as they returned.

Nolan considered the situation. These Treasure Hoarders were only around level ten or so—barely trained. His mental power would be more than enough to knock them out easily.

Just as he was about to act, he suddenly felt a surge of mental energy beside him. In an instant, all the Treasure Hoarders collapsed, unconscious.

"Huh?" Nolan turned to look at Beidou.

Seriously, Beidou, you’re stealing my kills here! Even if the EXP points are small, I still want them!

Nolan grumbled to himself, a little annoyed at being beaten to the punch.

"Haha, can’t let you do everything, now can I?" Beidou said with a grin, taking a swig from her flask.

Fine."

Since they were already defeated, Nolan didn’t care too much about losing out on the thousand or so EXP points.

However, when he tried to use his "Command Spell," he found that it didn’t work. Nolan frowned. Could it be because I wasn’t the one who defeated them?

He pondered for a moment, then tried using a light burst of mental energy to knock out the unconscious Treasure Hoarders again.

But the "Command Spell" still didn’t activate.

With no other choice, he summoned a water orb and woke up all the Treasure Hoarders, only to knock them out himself.

This time, he gained over a thousand EXP points, and the "Command Spell" finally took effect. It seemed clear now: the ability only worked on enemies he personally defeated.

"Ugh, so there’s that kind of limitation? What’s the logic behind that?" Beidou asked, surprised after hearing Nolan’s explanation.

"I think it’s because, after personally defeating someone, their subconscious accepts that they can’t win against me. They won’t resist, and that’s what allows the 'Command Spell' to work," Nolan mused thoughtfully.

The "Command Spell" was powerful, but as long as the target had even a sliver of resistance in their mind, it couldn’t succeed.

"Alright, no time to waste. Let’s move on to the other hideouts and get them under control," Keqing urged.

"Yeah," Nolan agreed, waking the unconscious Treasure Hoarders once more and instructing them to act like nothing had happened and to continue with their previous activities.

This way, when the others returned, they wouldn’t notice anything unusual.

The Treasure Hoarders were deeply resentful and furious. After all, who wouldn't be angry about suddenly having to follow someone else's orders without any explanation?

But there was nothing they could do. No matter how unwilling they were mentally, their bodies moved on their own.

Soon enough, the scene returned to how it looked before, as if nothing had happened. Nolan and his group continued toward the other two Treasure Hoarder bases.

The strength of these Treasure Hoarders and pirates was similarly weak. Nolan easily dealt with them and set up "Command Spells."

However, it seemed that most people at those bases had gone out searching for treasure and hadn't returned yet, so they couldn't control all of them at once.

"Guyun Stone Forest is huge. Going around looking for them one by one feels like a waste of time. How about we wait for them to come back at night and take them all down in one go?" Beidou suggested.

For ordinary people, moving around at night—even with moonlight or starlight—was inconvenient. Plus, there were plenty of monsters in the wild.

There was no need to worry about them not returning to their bases. When the time came, they could deal with all of them at once.

"Sounds good. In that case, let's wander around Guyun Stone Forest for a while. I heard there's a Geo Hypostasis nearby—I’d like to check it out," Nolan agreed with Beidou's plan without hesitation.

He remembered that there was a Geo Hypostasis in Guyun Stone Forest. Since they had time during the day, it was the perfect opportunity to find it. Being a boss-level monster, it would surely provide a decent amount of Adventure EXP.

Plus, on the way there, he could spar with Keqing and Beidou to exchange sword techniques.

He shared his idea, and no one objected. After all, they had nothing better to do, and sharing sword techniques was a great way to pass the time.

Nolan recalled that the Geo Hypostasis was located on a large, circular platform. If he flew high enough, he might be able to spot its location.

And he was right. When Nolan soared two to three hundred meters into the air, he easily spotted the ruins where the Geo Hypostasis resided, slightly to his upper right.

Instead of flying straight there, he memorized the direction, descended, and suggested they walk the rest of the way.

After all, they wanted to practice swordsmanship—there was no need to rush.

When you have something to do, time flies quickly.

By late afternoon, Nolan, Hu Tao, Keqing, and Beidou finally arrived near the Geo Hypostasis.

Along the way, they dealt with numerous monsters—Hilichurls, Slimes, Ruin Guards, and more.

Working together, Nolan managed to rack up over 31,000 EXP.

His total now stood at over 60,000:

[Adventure EXP: 63,501]

That was quite a lot—enough to max out a secret-level skill with points to spare.

He had just successfully grasped the basics of Beidou and Keqing's sword techniques!

First was Beidou’s secret-level sword technique, Wavebreaker. According to her, she developed it from years of observing ocean waves and battling sea monsters.

It was an incredibly powerful technique. Once mastered, a single slash could flatten a raging tsunami.

From Keqing, he learned the Cloudlancer Sword Art, a sword technique passed down in Liyue for over a thousand years.

Originally, it was just a common-level technique, but after countless refinements by generations of swordsmen, it had been perfected into a secret-level art.

Its characteristics were agility and grace, swift as a shadow—an impressive fast sword style, distinct from Beidou's Wavebreaker.

Having gained two sword techniques, Nolan also shared his own swordsmanship with Beidou and Keqing during their exchanges. After all, he couldn't just take advantage of them without giving back.

That's what real exchange is about—both sides sharing and learning from each other.

When it came time to fight the Geo Hypostasis, Nolan planned to use Beidou's Wavebreaker technique.

It was a two-handed sword style, perfect for dealing with the Geo Hypostasis—a monster known for its strong defense and rock-hard exterior.

"We’re here! There really is a Geo Hypostasis in the center of the ruins. Let’s see how you handle this guy!" Hu Tao said with a playful smile, crossing her arms as they approached within a few dozen meters of the boss.

"No problem. Leave it to me," Nolan replied with a light chuckle.

The Geo Hypostasis was one of those monsters that would attack on sight. Defeating it would also help clear a major threat from the wild.

With his golden Eye of Judgement, he assessed the seemingly dormant, boss-level monster:

[Level: 83]

Not a particularly weak level, but Nolan could handle it easily. Before starting, though, he decided to level up his sword technique!

Adventure EXP - 44,999

(End of Chapter)