Chapter 97

I think I was the Lois Lane, in the Superman/World of tissue conundrum. Shenhe was a physical monster after the majority of her life being hopped up on magical herbs and almost solely eating those while practicing magical martial arts and body refinement methods. 

So as I kinda hunched over due to my waist screaming in pain from the excessive strain the previous... Night and into the dawn's exertions, like I did too many weighted sit-ups. Shenhe was just fucking glowing as she happily hummed as she collected our camping stuff in our spatial bags.

Thankfully... I wasn't going to be doing much if any walking for the next few hours. "You sure you don't want to tell Cloud Retainer, you are leaving to Inazuma with me?" I asked with some concern.

Shenhe shook her head with a small smile as her hand trailed to the ornament in her hair as she responded softly. "No, it's fine. Master can find me without much effort so long as I don't enter a pocket dimension or somewhere like the Chasm back in Liyue." She explained easily and my lips twitched at that.

'Well, there went my easy way of losing the possible yandere.' I thought wryly before coughing and with a flex of my will, I summoned my Anemo Hypostasis that was going to fly us at high speeds to Inazuma.

"I suppose, then we should be off then," I spoke up as I took out some leftover hot soup from last night's serpent soup Shenhe made me from the cuttings we took of Beisht. And as we took off from our camping site I ate the soup made from the divine flesh of the serpent goddess and I could feel a deep heat in my body as the energy-rich flesh enhanced my body.

The moment I finished my meal, Shenhe moved from sitting beside me, holding my arm. To lay atop the solid air platform in my lip with her head resting against my chest as she possessively my arms around her lower chest just beneath her breasts with her hands intertwined with my own.

And for a while we were just silent as we flew into the ocean towards the island chain nation of Inazuma, until Shenhe broke the silence as she spoke softly. "What is the Electro Archon like?" 

My face twitched unknown to Shenhe with how she couldn't see my face without twisting her neck up something, or unless I tilted her head up by her chin. Either way... "The Raiden Shogun, Ei, Baal, or the Electro Archon." I paused as I listed some of the many titles and names she had before wryly continuing. "She is certainly a character, she has seemingly abandoned her divine body to reside within a pocket dimension she made within her sword to avoid the world's erosion. While a Doll that matches her appearance takes over most of her few and little public acts."

I shook my head and then finished my tangent. "Anyway, she is rather relaxed in an informal setting but she certainly has her own pride... No idea what kind of teacher she is though. As not long after we settled my apprenticeship to her, we returned back for Liyue for the Rite of Descension." 

Shenhe silently nodded but muttered. "Spears are better than swords." 

I couldn't help but snort at her words. And the small petulance in her words as I knew she wished I would have just stayed in Liyue rather than her having to follow me across the ocean. "Hey... I only got into this combat stuff like a couple of months ago." I said with a weak smile as I thought back to that day of Lumine giving me mouth to mouth as I washed up on the Mondstadt beach. "It took me a grand total of five minutes to learn that smashing the sharp side of a sword onto an enemy is a lot easier than dancing around with a spear which just ends up with me still stabbing the point end of the stick into something."

Shenhe went completely still at my bullshit and I could feel the way her hands went tense around my own that she wanted so hard to refute my heresy with very physical means, but I just soothed the spear wielder by freeing one of my hands so I could tilt her head up by the chin so I could give her a quick smooch that made her relax.

The rest of the ride to Inazuma was fairly relaxed honestly, with a full tank of Aura, I was able to push through Ei's storm she surrounded the island chain with, without too much issue though I did wish I had Lumine here as another Anemo user to reinforce the summon.

Once we broke through the storm, getting to Narukami island was beyond simple in how the Sakura tree was a towering glowing pink bush in the distance so there wasn't any difficulty in that. After another bit of flying, we reached Inazuma City and I flew us directly to the front entrance of Ei's palace.

-

Once I landed, I took a deep breath and stiffened up my back with Shenhe standing beside me more naturally without the heavy obvious affection she heaped on me previously. "Hello. I am here to report for training." I said firmly to the guard whose eyes widened as he seemingly recognized me as the dude from a couple of weeks ago who became the disciple of his god.

"Yes sir, let me send you in, Akito tell Lady Kujou Sara, the Disciple is here!" He ordered another one of the guards and he then led Shenhe and myself into the palace after I confirmed that Shenhe was my companion and that I would be responsible for her.

A couple of minutes later, while Shenhe and I were relaxing in a waiting room, the door slid open and Kujou Sara on the other side bowed as soon as the door was fully opened. "Disciple its good that you have returned... Lady Baal, the Great Narukami Ogosho has been more active as of late. And has been..." Kujou Sara visibly shuddered as she said weakly. "The great Archon has been testing her teaching methods on the guards and myself in preparing for her official disciple." 

"I am very glad you are here now Lord Disciple!" She said in pure relief and I nervously chuckled.

'Oh dear... She is going to kill me with her training or cooking isn't she?' I thought wryly as Kujou Sara all but yanked me to my feet and was clearly trying to throw me to the wolf that was the antsy Ei who had no little idea on how to train me.