Barbie Ross was now deeply depressed and frightened.
She could feel the changes in the world's 'destiny', and those changes were too exaggerated. As a witch of 'divination of destiny', she had once tried to challenge the 'God of Breeze and Hope' together with her sisters. She could boast that there was nothing in the world that she could not conquer. Even if there was, it wasn't because her power was lacking, but because the individual she was divining was stronger than her, thus blocking her divination.
However, since the changes in the world two months ago, her "divination of destiny" had been consistently incorrect. This was definitely not due to a flaw in her power, but rather an issue with the 'world' itself. She could feel the world growing stronger at an unimaginable speed, and even the lifespan of the world she divined had become 'unknown'.
The crisis that existed in the world of Teyvat was great, and it was on the verge of destruction, but the result of her divination was 'near miss'. Now it seemed that what was meant by a near miss was simply turned upside down.
For this reason, she sighed helplessly and prepared to divine her silly apprentice to see what interesting stories he would bring her.
At this moment, she saw a young man approaching with a joking smile.
"Boss lady, can I buy all the toys here?"
Barbie Ross's heart skipped a beat. This young man was not in her divination. Today, her shop was visited by a foreign customer, just like before. She used her power to divine things secretly.
It was fine if it wasn't a divination, but once it was, the results shocked her to her core.
"Heaven... every day..." She stuttered in horror.
The young man, Takumi, smiled and looked at Barbie Ross, who was trembling. He hadn't blocked her divination, just to see how she would react. Barbie Ross's 'Corner of Destiny' was not subject to the rules of the 'Original Circle'; it was a power from beyond the world. The power of other witches was similar, which is why witches were not under the control of heaven.
"Boss lady, you sell toys here. Do you think it's right for me to buy your toy?"
Takumi stretched out his hand and lifted Barbie Ross's chin, smiling directly at her. Barbie Ross, utterly terrified, realized that she was just a witch who held power from outside Teyvat. She wasn't a god, merely an ordinary person with access to extraordinary powers. They had broken through the shackles of life due to their power and accumulated a wealth of knowledge after living for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Barbie Ross was completely frightened. Heavenly law? Isn't the heavenly law Phanes? And why would this "little Karami" bother with her? She was just an ordinary witch.
She came back to her senses and looked at Lord Tenri, who was holding her chin and smiling at her with an "irrefutable" will. She forced a smile, uglier than a cry, and swallowed hard.
"Right..."
She instinctively used her power and divined that if she didn't answer like this, she would immediately disappear from the world. Wow! So terrifying.
But as for a toy, what kind of toy are you treating me as? she thought, panicked.
Takumi nodded with satisfaction and grabbed her chest with his hand. He intended to take back the "power" from beyond the world that Barbie Ross possessed. The "destiny" that was beyond the control of heavenly principles was heresy.
Barbie Ross instinctively thought, "Uh-huh," and understood that Tianli didn't want to play with her like a toy; he wanted to take her power away. Her face turned pale. She had lived for hundreds of years by relying on her power to avoid death. Without her power, she would die immediately.
Before she could scream, the power returned to her body.
Takumi withdrew his hand, patted her frightened face, and said playfully, "Very good, very good. You've been well-behaved for the past few hundred years and haven't disturbed the 'established destiny' too much. I like obedient witches."
When Barbie Ross regained her composure, she was limp, her entire body trembling like a leaf. She lowered her head and said, "Thank you for your compliment, Lord Tianli." She felt relieved, realizing that he had returned her power, which meant that heaven would not kill her.
She knew how terrifying the laws of heaven were. To interfere with 'destiny' was to violate the laws of nature, and she did not want to die.
"I think you're quite pleasing to the eye, so you should work hard as a toy. When I'm in a good mood, I might reward you with a statue of the 'God of Destiny'. After all, you already have the 'power of destiny'."
Barbie Ross lowered her head, shocked. Rewarded with a god position?
Before she could react and raise her head, Master Tianli had already disappeared.
In an instant, she collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat.
"It's so scary, so scary! When people sit at home, God comes to visit them. I'm just a weak witch, why is this happening?"
Wait, toys?
Barbie Ross wanted to cry but had no tears. Did this mean she had become a toy of heaven? She wasn't sure whether being targeted by Tianli was a good or bad thing, but she knew that she had now become Tianli's property.
"No, no, how can I have such a good thing to myself?"
She couldn't help but think of her good apprentice, the one who peeked at her diary in Mondstadt.
"Disciple, your master encountered a catastrophe today. I've trained you so well and didn't charge tuition fees. You should share this disaster on my behalf... Right?"
A few steps away, Takumi's mouth twitched. These two were truly master and disciple—equally ruthless in shifting responsibility.
However, he liked it.
The most important gain from this visit wasn't acquiring Barbie Ross or the "Dip of Destiny". Instead, Takumi raised his hand, and a few threads of fate appeared in his palm.
"The witch of dreams, the guide who never gets lost, the one who can sense changes in the world, the prophet among witches—the most mysterious witch, Nico Lane."
"The one who doesn't lie, the visitor from another world, Alice, the Explosion Witch."
"And the alchemist who reached the realm of gods, created non-existent species, and rivaled gods, Reindot."
Takumi touched his chin. "So that's why. I couldn't find them. They are in a place like that, where even the laws of heaven subconsciously ignore it."
Teyvat had two levels of sky.
The underground world of Teyvat was empty, with a red sky. There was once a prosperous civilization there, belonging to the domain of the goddess Yuanyue. The Teyvat continent had many passages to the underground sky, and there was a huge isolation space between the red sky and the Teyvat continent.
Here lay a dark, empty space with nothing. Without the proper method, once you ended up here, you could neither descend to the underground sky nor return to the Teyvat continent.
During the original war, the Teyvat continent was shattered, and many earth fragments fell into this area. Among them, the largest fragment of land was the "White Night Kingdom" of Fuchikagu Palace, beneath what is now Inazuma's Watatsumi Island.
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!