"Even though the monster horde attacking the city has been scattered, they've spread out around Mondstadt's outskirts. That's still quite a headache…" Shen Qin sighed helplessly as Rosaria efficiently took down a Hilichurl Berserker.
Their first destination was the Statue of The Seven on the central island of Starfell Lake. If they traveled at full speed using their gliders, they would've arrived quickly—but along the way, they encountered several groups of monsters. For the safety of Mondstadt's surrounding areas, they took the time to clean up the threats.
"Don't worry," Albedo reassured him. "Acting Grand Master Jean will have considered this. It's just that the Knights are understaffed right now and can't spare anyone else."
"Ehehe! Bad guys, take Klee's bombs!"
Klee was already having the time of her life. Normally, she wasn't allowed to throw her bombs around outdoors, but this was a special situation—eliminating monsters was part of a Spark Knight's duty.
Sucrose kept a close eye on her, worried one of those bombs would ignite the trees and start a wildfire. If Klee caused any more trouble right now, there'd be no escaping a full week of detention.
"By the way, besides energy supply, are there any other technical hurdles for the city's shield?" Albedo asked Shen Qin.
"My idea is to stick with the energy shield approach—using a combination of ley line energy and energy converters. But with current synthetic magic crystal materials, we've hit a limit on how much energy they can handle. Enlarging the shield would only increase the load. So I plan to distribute multiple smaller shield generators around Mondstadt to form a full coverage barrier."
"Also, instead of a single-layer shield, each small generator will project a ten-layer barrier, with each layer only one-fifth as strong. The layers will work together to absorb impact progressively. What do you think?"
Albedo pondered for a moment and then said carefully, "You're suggesting a pseudo-city shield made of overlapping smaller barriers, but wouldn't the overlapping sections be completely ineffective? What if we design the generators so that the shield only forms within a specific angle, and then piece them together geometrically to form a complete structure?"
Shen Qin's eyes lit up. "Definitely worth a try!"
The two continued brainstorming structural designs until they finally realized they'd reached the Statue of The Seven by Starfell Lake.
"Yay! Starfell Lake! Klee's gonna catch some fish for us!" Klee shouted excitedly as she ran off to "fish" with her bombs.
"Bomb-fishing! Bomb-fishing!" Dodoco shouted even more directly, clearly stating Klee's true intent.
Klee quickly shushed it, "Shhh! Little Duke, not so loud! If Sucrose hears, she'll definitely scold us!"
Duke glanced nervously at Sucrose. Seeing her engrossed in studying the statue and not paying attention, it let out a relieved sigh.
Shen Qin and Albedo usually didn't interfere with Klee's antics—they both doted on her too much. Sucrose, however, took her role seriously. Jean had asked her to keep an eye on Klee, and she would carry out her duties to the letter.
Rosaria cast a glance at Klee sneaking around, then looked at the three alchemists diving into their research. With a shrug, she sat under a tree and leaned back for a nap.
Supervising this research? What a joke. The higher-ups at the Church had her tag along exactly because they wanted someone who would appear to represent the Church but not actually interfere.
This job was perfect for her—no boring Church activities, and she got to slack off on the clock. It would be even better if she had a bottle of wine.
During their research of the statue, Shen Qin and Sucrose mainly served as assistants to Albedo. Shen Qin specialized in the system-provided, modified version of alchemy, not the traditional kind used in Teyvat.
Albedo scanned the statue with his smart wristband and discovered that its outer structure was composed of ordinary stone, and the metallic parts were made of a widely-used alloy. The only components the scanner couldn't analyze were the internal ley line conduction materials and the giant glowing crystal in the center.
He then used his Vision to channel Geo energy into his hand and pressed his palm against the statue to sense the flow of energy inside.
He felt various complex energies and signals being transmitted into the ley lines through the statue. At the same time, the ley lines were feeding purified elemental energy back into Teyvat—seven types of elements in total, with Anemo energy making up half.
"The Statue of The Seven is like a massive energy purification device," he explained to the others. "It converts and redistributes massive amounts of energy every second. If we could harness even a portion of that, it would easily support a city-wide barrier."
Then he added with some concern, "But we can't just move it into Mondstadt, and we don't even know if the teleport waypoints can draw ley line energy once they're activated."
Sucrose hesitantly raised her hand. "Um… I have a question. If we reroute this purified elemental energy, won't that disrupt the area's energy balance?"
"Great question," Shen Qin said with a smile. He was reminded of a well-known law from his previous world. "The total amount of energy remains constant. It can't be created or destroyed—only transformed from one form to another. When we use elemental energy for shields, that energy is released in different forms as the shield absorbs damage. Eventually, it returns to nature and gets reabsorbed by the ley lines through the statue."
"I call this the Law of Conservation of Energy." (T/N: Nah, you can't just get away with that)
Albedo's eyes gleamed. "The Law of Conservation of Energy—that's a brilliant concept! If it holds true, it could solve a lot of my alchemical dilemmas!"
"It also explains why the energy absorbed and emitted by the statue are equal!" Sucrose added excitedly, recalling Albedo's earlier findings.
Just as Shen Qin was about to respond, a loud explosion echoed in the distance, followed by the panicked scream of a young girl.
The three of them—along with Rosaria, now wide awake—immediately jumped onto their gliders and raced toward the source of the commotion. When they reached the lakeshore, they found a flustered Klee and a blonde girl floundering in the water.
Rosaria skimmed across the surface and pulled the girl ashore.
"Cough, cough!" The girl collapsed onto the grass, coughing up water from her lungs.
Seeing her face and clothing, Shen Qin raised an eyebrow, looked around, and spotted Paimon floating face-up in the lake. He quickly brought her back to shore as well.
Looks like it's the sister traveling this time.
"I-I…" Klee stammered, fingers nervously fidgeting as tears welled up in her eyes.
Little Duke floated beside her, ears drooping sadly.