"Gollum."

Eight thousand years ago.

In that era when the rulers were still seven dragon kings.

"I" had already uttered the first murmur.

Somewhere underground in present-day Liyue.

Streams of dark purple slime poured out of the rock formations.

If there were exploration experts here at the moment, they would definitely mark this place as untreadable.

Because the sludge that springs up here is the deadly filth.

And that's how I was born.

The mud gushing out of this hollow made me up, and at first I was just an egg, I couldn't move, I could only vaguely perceive the movement of the outside world.

Until a voice erased all my meager rights.

"Is this the source of filth here?"

Then a bright light flashed, and I was back in the darkness.

。

After a long wait, I condensed again, and then the same sound rang in my ears, and the white light came up in front of me again.

I'm dead again.

The third time, the fourth time, until I forgot that I was still alive.

How many times is this?

I woke up again, asking about the darkness, and no one answered me, just me.

How many times is this?

40 times or 400 times, I don't know, I'm still an embryo, I can't understand why I should keep depriving me of the right to live when I haven't been born yet.

Why!!

I roared, but it didn't work, I was just an embryo, I couldn't resist, but I would all remember that the light killed me.

I don't know how long it has been, but I am back in the embryo again, how long will I live this time, and how long will the light fall?

1 day. 2 days. 3 days.

The light was gone.

Am I?

Did you survive?

。

Teyvat, the land inhabited by countless living beings, has given birth to countless magnificent histories.

Countless beautiful poems have been written, but the prosaic stories never leave a name, and only the ups and downs of adventure can move people's hearts.

And those stories have always played the role of the dark side of the story.

Filth.

History has always told its story, and it has been portrayed as the culprit of polluting the world, polluting people's minds with filth, making people suspicious, fighting, and the source of world strife.

However, whether this is a bit of a reversal of the cart, it is possible that it is not the filth that pollutes people's hearts, but the malice left by people has been transformed into filth.

Or both, one is attached to the other, and the mutual fulfillment creates a constant stream of defilement that people fear, hate, and relentlessly.

I guess it's the second one, nothing can come into being out of thin air, there is a cause and effect, and I believe that it is the human heart that creates filth.

Oh, you ask me who I am, so say a word of praise first, and then ask me a question, remember, to be beautiful and euphemistic.

What, you say you haven't heard of me at all, how can you praise my prestige?

Hey, it's really troublesome, then let's trade, I'll tell you my name, you have to praise me for a day, and you can't repeat words.

If you can't finish.

Hehe, then you can dig out your heart and give it to me, and fulfill the last wish of my weak old dragon, how about it?.

What, the price is too high to accept?

Hey, forget it, get out, get out, I don't want to see you again, coward.

The disgusting words in the darkness fell, and the owner of the questioning voice gradually faded away.

And from the dark cavern, where no light seemed to stay, a dark purple dragon dragged its sticky and broken wings, slowly crawling out, and the glare of the outside world made the slime on his body drip a little.

Wisps of purple smoke burned on the ground.

And he could only stare with eyes like a candle with disgust at the "coward" who was riding away in the distance. ”

"That damn earth dragon, if he hadn't made a ghost contract that would have to be agreed by the other party to eat people, I would have to rely on the pit to abduct and deceive me wherever I eat."

In the darkness, the dragon raised its broken wings, and saw a stone wedge firmly embedded in the base of the wing, on which eight golden spells flowed.

And such wedges are rigidly inlaid at the end of his tail and on the sides of his feet.

Five wedges, forty incantations, just for this contract that bound him.

He will never forget that the earth dragon chased and killed him for three months, across the ocean, until it was a continent of islands, and a woman who played with thunder and lightning was able to suppress him.

And until now, he didn't understand what he had done wrong, he just dragged a blue loach out of the sea, ready to feast on it, and was smashed by a golden dragon with a cube for three months.

Is there still a heavenly principle?

Is there still a law!? What, the law is set by that dragon!?

I can't accept it!

The Filthy Dragon crawled out of the cavern slowly, looking up at the empty sky, knowing that the Earth Dragon was there to spy on him.

Is my trick so easy to seek?!

Yes?

。

And this is just a small episode in my long life, I was not born with intelligence, nor was I born alone, I have been surrounded by countless creatures who have followed me, but all of them have not been able to withstand the erosion of filth in my body.

Nothing dies well.

There were those who wanted to worship me as a god, and prayed that I would be their faith, and that I would give them infinite power to expand their borders and conquer and plunder.

And I, out of gluttony of their offerings, granted the request.

I helped them destroy enemy armies, burn countless cities, and build a kingdom that was more powerful than ever.

But the prosperity built on blood and fire is so fragile that they surrender to me as to all the filth of the land, and the bond with me invites the plague, gives birth to civil strife, and finally drags everyone into the nightmare of destruction, and reduces them to filthy food.

In the midst of the fire, the man who had sworn to serve me for the rest of his life spread his face, and the crown was stained with blood, like a devil, and his blood-red eyes were reflected in the broken sword, and he stood in front of me with the broken sword in his arms.

Calling me a monster in vague language, destroying his supreme empire, and wanting to kill me with that broken sword, I only felt noisy.

Just the claws raised slightly, and when they fell, the noisy sound disappeared.

Since then, there has been endless loneliness, worshippers, wars, national ruins, deaths, and so on, for hundreds of years.

Even though he has witnessed and personally caused the birth of so many tragedies.

But I've never had anything else like guilt come into my mind, when I might destroy a country and kill a king, my heart really throbbed.

But it's not guilt, it's sadness, it's novelty, it's pleasure.

Destroying everything is part of my power, I'm just completing it, and it's all wishful thinking on their part to die because they worship me.

Because I am filth, filth is the root of the world's tragedy, and my birth is a tragedy.

The world died because of me, or the world died because of me, and I lived for hundreds of years and still haven't figured it out.

。

Back to the present

The dragon, which was in a daze in the outside world, shook its body at will.

I recalled the unbearable past, the mucus on my body was also dried and peeled off because of the long scorching sun, the dark purple scale armor shone in the harsh afternoon sun, and the long thinking made me tired, and the wedges on my body also reminded me that it was time to go back to rest.

Back in the cave, he leaned down, closed his eyes, and snorted a purple breath of unresent through his nose.

That escaped coward was the 1,000th one I let go, and I always wanted to trick them into fulfilling their contract and becoming food for my mouth.

But none succeeded.

Each time, as if they had agreed, they would tell me about the interesting things that were happening in the outside world, ask me my name, and then take out a piece of talisman paper, recite the same phrase on it, and ride away on the same white horse.

Whenever I tried to ignore the contract and forcibly eat them, the wedge on my body would induce the spell to cause me a sharp pain all over my body.

I was tired, 1,000 failures, 346 times of severe pain made me deeply appreciate the power of the contract in the mouth of the earth dragon.

I'm tired, and the endless years have filled my heart with all sorts of messages from outsiders, and I need to fall asleep and digest them with a long sleep.

From now on, until the next few hundred years, I will be asleep, until my cognition is completely synchronized with the outside world, until the damage on my body is restored, and those 5 damn wedges are eroded into scum by my filth.

I want to show myself to the world again with a new me.

But the next time I wake up, what will the world change?

The beautiful tunes sung by the bards of Mondstadt that outsiders speak, the food that Liyue has passed down for millennia, and the eternity that the Thunderbolt Woman spoke of when she suppressed me.

Is it really as interesting as they say?

However, when I think of the way that earth dragon couldn't smash me to death with all my might, haha, there should be nothing more interesting in this world.

Funny earth dragon, I hope that the next time I wake up, there will be more interesting guys like you in the world.

The dark purple dragon retreated into the deepest part of the cavern, its body turning into puddles of black slime and melting into the earth, staining the ground with filth.

The dragon chose to sleep like this, to make himself exactly like the other filth on this continent, and also to ensure that he would not be disturbed by others when he was not booked.

If it weren't for the five golden wedges floating above, it would really make people think that this place was just an ordinary filth.