Genshin Impacti: This Priest is Cringe, But She's Also Unbeatable — Chapter 43

Chapter 43: A Silent Camp and a Pink “Surprise”

The sisters didn’t linger. After methodically erasing their tracks, they slipped away into the wilderness, moving in the opposite direction of the recent battlefield.

Half an hour later, they pushed through a final screen of dense jungle, and the view before them suddenly opened up.

A sizable goblin camp sprawled across the clearing, a crude settlement of sharpened wooden stakes and stretched animal hides. The embers of a central campfire still glowed with residual warmth, but a strange, scorched stench hung heavy in the air, overpowering the usual smells of the forest.

Eerily, the entire camp was dead silent.

Selene crouched low, a slight furrow creasing the space between her delicate brows. “Something’s wrong. A camp this large… where are all the goblins?”

Celeste’s gaze was fixed on the ground near the camp’s entrance. Stamped into the soft soil were several impossibly huge footprints. Each impression was larger than Selene’s shield, sunk deep into the earth. Dried, dark bloodstains flaked at the edges of the tracks.

“A Giant Goblin,” Celeste stated, her assessment swift and certain. “This must have been its lair.”

Realization dawned on Selene. “So that group of goblins you… ‘tidied up’ earlier… they all came from here?”

“Most likely,” Celeste nodded. No wonder their path had been so quiet; the Giant Goblin had conscripted every active monster in the vicinity, only to lead them straight into her meat grinder.

They didn’t lower their guard. Moving in a practiced combat formation, one in front and one behind, they cautiously entered the camp.

Sure enough, a few stragglers remained deep within the settlement. A handful of goblins clutching bone clubs had just crawled out of their hide tents. The moment they spotted the intruders, they let out guttural, screeching shrieks.

In the next second, Celeste was on them like a phantom.

Her pink staff traced a gorgeous, deadly arc through the air.

Thwack!

The head of the goblin sub-leader snapped to the side at an unnatural angle. Its body went limp, crumpling to the ground in a heap.

The remaining goblins froze, stunned into silence.

Selene surged forward, shield held horizontally to herd them together. But before she could even make a move, a flurry of staff-shaped shadows flashed past her.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

With a few muffled impacts, the world fell quiet once more.

The sisters quickly scavenged the camp, finding little more than some crude ore and a few semi-finished animal hides. Their points ticked up by another thousand, bringing their total to 25,340, though their ranking remained stubbornly fixed at fifth place.

As the sky began to bleed into shades of twilight, the roars of nocturnal monsters echoed from deep within the forest.

“Sister, it’s getting dark,” Selene said, her gaze on the fading daylight. “Should we camp here, or find another place?”

“We’ll stay here,” Celeste decided without hesitation. “The most dangerous place is often the safest. The Giant Goblin’s scent still lingers, so ordinary monsters won’t dare approach. Besides, the camp is relatively open. It’ll be easy to spot anything that moves.”

She paused, adding, “I’ll take the second half of the night. You take the first. Stay sharp.”

“Got it!”

With a burst of energy, Selene cleared an open space and efficiently set up their tent. After a simple meal of dry rations, Celeste crawled inside, falling into a deep sleep the moment her head hit the sleeping bag.

Selene sat by the crackling campfire, hugging the Immovable Mountain shield. Her spirits were high, and her ears were perked like a radar, vigilantly scanning the surrounding darkness for any hint of movement.

…

Outside the Domain, at the official observation center.

Hundreds of massive light screens floated in the air, broadcasting real-time footage from every corner of the trial grounds.

The image on the central main screen was paused. It was frozen on the exact moment Celeste and Selene had executed their flawless cross-position swap.

A middle-aged man in a crisp military uniform, the rank of Major displayed on his shoulders, stood before the screen with his hands clasped behind his back. This was Zhou Zhenyun, and his expression was intensely solemn as he stared at the girl in the picture who was supposed to be a “support” priest.

“Play it again,” he commanded, his voice deep and resonant. “Zero-point-two-five speed.”

A staffer immediately complied. The footage began to crawl forward at an agonizingly slow pace. They watched the archer join the fray, the sisters being “forced” into a retreat, the two of them falling back-to-back into a supposed “dead end,” and then… that devastating, instantaneous reversal.

“Did you see it?” Zhou Zhenyun spoke suddenly. He didn’t turn his head, but a tremor of excitement he couldn’t quite suppress roughened the edges of his voice. He pointed to a trajectory on the screen that was almost too subtle to notice.

“From the moment they sensed the fourth person, their retreat wasn’t an escape. It was a lure. They were baiting a kill.”

He moved his finger, tracing Selene’s seemingly chaotic footwork. “It looks like panic, but every single step guided the pursuers into the most ideal clearing for a counterattack, while simultaneously avoiding every potential long-range sniper angle. That is top-tier battlefield instinct.”

His finger tapped sharply against the screen, landing precisely on the frame where Celeste launched her attack.

“But the most terrifying one… is her.”

For the first time in public, Zhou Zhenyun’s gaze burned with an almost uncomposed amazement.

“Shifting her weight, stepping forward, turning, appearing behind the enemy… The entire sequence was fluid, without a single wasted motion.”

“A strike to the knees to shatter their balance, a blow to the back of the neck to end their life.”

“That is textbook-level detail and execution!”

He took a deep breath, forcing a semblance of calm, but his brows only locked tighter. “But this lethality… something isn’t right. A special skill? No, that’s not it.” His brow furrowed in concentration. “This force is condensed but not released. It penetrates leather armor to detonate inside the joints. That’s a manifestation of absolute, perfect control over one’s own power! A high school senior… how could she possibly have reached this level? Is it some family martial art?”

The video finished playing, and the members of the Shadow Wind Team dissolved into particles of white light.

Zhou Zhenyun let out a long, slow exhale and leaned back in his chair, the admiration in his eyes practically overflowing. “Perception, decision-making, timing, use of terrain… everything is first-class.”

He turned to his colleague. “Especially that Celeste. Her combat intelligence is frighteningly high. She clearly possessed overwhelming strength, yet she chose the most effortless and deceptive tactic available. And that ruthlessness… it’s far beyond her years. She’s thorough, leaving no loose ends. She’s prime material.”

A slight curve touched the corner of his mouth, tinged with determination. “Let those university admissions offices fight over them. Let them fight until their heads break, for all I care. It doesn’t matter where they go. Once they graduate, they’ll be ours. They belong in the military.”

The civilian official beside him pushed up his glasses and whispered, “Report, sir. We have internal news. Several top universities have already contacted their parents in Yi City through back channels. They’re trying the family route.”

Zhou Zhenyun scoffed. “Standard procedure. But do you really think parents who can raise daughters like that will be so easily swayed? Just sit back and enjoy the show.”

…

In the dead of night, Celeste woke on schedule, taking over for her sister, who had begun to yawn.

The campfire crackled, its flickering light dancing across her calm face. The night air in the Domain was crisp, carrying a chill and the clean scent of grass and trees that helped wash away the lingering smell of blood and the heat of the day.

She poked at the fire with a stick, coaxing the flames to burn a little brighter, her thoughts drifting.

Subconsciously, her awareness sank into the depths of her soul.

There, the Blessing of the Pink Fairy Lady floated quietly, emitting a soft, gentle halo. Ever since she’d pulled it from the gacha, the thing had been nothing more than a mascot—pretty to look at, but completely useless.

The moment her consciousness brushed against the pink mark, however, something changed.

A line of delicate text, composed of shimmering crystals and flower petals, quietly materialized.

[Effect 1: The cute Priestess who obtains this blessing ♪, her hair color will gradually transform into a pink as gorgeous as flying petals ~ ♦]

Celeste: “!!!”

Her eyes snapped open. Her consciousness slammed back into her body as her hand flew to her hair.

The texture felt the same.

She immediately fished a small mirror out of her space bracelet and held it up to the firelight.

In the mirror, the tips of her originally smooth, raven-black hair… were now tinged with an extremely eye-catching shade of pink. It looked as if someone had carelessly swiped them with a stick of hot pink hair dye.

And that pink was spreading upward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The hand holding the mirror began to tremble.

Her mind exploded. It felt like a thousand pink fairies were holding a death metal concert inside her skull.

‘Effect unknown?”Waiting for the moment to bloom?”This is what the System called an “unexpected turning point”?!”I’m on a goddamn battlefield, not a cosplay floor at a comic convention!’

With this hair, which was rapidly turning a shade of bubblegum that screamed for attention, was she supposed to kill enemies or enter a beauty pageant? Was she meant to intimidate monsters or invite them for afternoon tea?!

“Miss Pink Elf…” Celeste stared at the increasingly vibrant pink in the mirror, her expression utterly deadpan as she squeezed the words through clenched teeth. “I really… want to thank you… so, so much.”

So much for keeping a low profile.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, fighting the overwhelming urge to either shave her head or find a helmet to live in for the rest of the trial. It had come to this. All she could do now was pray that this “blessing,” besides ruining her aesthetic, actually had some other, more useful function.

As the minutes ticked by, she watched in helpless horror as that touch of pink, as if it had a life of its own, stubbornly crept from the tips of her hair upward, consuming the original black.

By the time the sky began to lighten, Selene was rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she crawled out of the tent. The first thing she saw was her sister, back turned, crowned with a full head of hair the color of spring cherry blossoms.

Selene: “!!!”

She was instantly wide awake. Her mouth formed a perfect “O” as she circled Celeste three times before finally stammering, “S-Sister?! Your hair… how… how did it get… like this?”

Celeste turned her head, her face an expressionless mask, her eyes holding the detached calm of one who has seen through the vanity of the mortal world. “Hmm. New look. You like it?”

Selene stared, the contrast between her sister’s cold, stunning face and the dreamy pink hair creating a whiplash effect. She struggled for words for a long moment before offering a genuine compliment. “It’s… it’s so beautiful! It makes your skin look so fair! It’s just… isn’t it a little too conspicuous for the Domain?”

Celeste said nothing. ‘Thank you, Selene. You really didn’t need to twist the knife.’