When Victor Wang returned from Heyu Tea House, it was already late, and his daily training had nearly drained all his mental energy. Yet lying in bed, he either stared blankly at the dull ceiling or tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
The reason was simple… the Rite of Parting was about to begin!
Just as Hu Tao had said that day when they returned from Qingxu Pool—on the eighth day after Liyue's annual Rite of Descension, and the ninth day since the passing of the Geo Archon—meaning tomorrow—the Rite of Parting would be held!
The last time, before receiving the Anemo Archon's blessing, everything had still been uncertain.
Now, whenever he closed his eyes, voices echoed in the depths of his heart and mind: 'Hurry and let me take off this bothersome mask! Hurry and let me wield the power of Geo!'
One voice was emotional, the other rational, both mixing together to keep him awake—though, truth be told, he was indeed excited.
He let his thoughts wander to random things, like the order of Lumine's journey.
Anemo was the most intangible of the seven elements, Geo the most tangible; Anemo was lively, able to react with all elements except Geo and Dendro through Swirl, sacrificing itself to support other elements; Geo was aloof, reacting with all elements except Anemo and Dendro through Crystallize, yet unwavering in itself.
Just like these two unique elements, the Anemo and Geo Archons were the most senior of the Seven.
It was as if Lumine's journey had been orchestrated—the first two nations she visited were precisely the domains of the Anemo and Geo Archons… No, not by coincidence—Paimon had taken her to Mondstadt first under the pretext of "language and poetry riding the wind."
Well… that's not important. I'll soon have control over Geo!
While Geo couldn't Swirl with Anemo like other elements, it was solid! As solid as a fortress! Steadfast as a rock!
This time, even if he had to shamelessly cling to Zhongli's leg, he was determined to learn how to generate a shield. When that happened—Geo for defense, Anemo as the all-purpose attacker—it would be perfect!
He fantasized and fantasized; usually, he would fall asleep midway. But today, the more he thought, the more excited he became. Checking his pocket watch, he found it was already midnight.
"Can't sleep!"
Victor Wang shot upright. He hadn't been this excited even when sitting across from Zhongli earlier at Heyu Tea House. Why couldn't he control himself now?
"Little Wen, since you don't normally sleep, what do you do at night?"
["Me?! I… I usually count… count things to pass the time."]
"Counting? Doesn't counting all night get boring?"
["…It's fine. Once you get used to it, it's actually kind of fun."]
"Why didn't you use an exclamation mark that time?"
["No! Really, nothing!"] Just counting how many breaths you take when you sleep, how many times you talk in your sleep, how many times you roll around… If I said that aloud, I'd probably be silenced with a sword…
Luckily, Victor Wang didn't press further. After sitting at the bedside for a while, he shook his head. "No, no. If I bother my friends at this hour, they'll probably 'rise from bed with knives to chase me through the courtyard.'"
["Master! You're talking to yourself again."]
"Little Wen, let's go flying!"
["Ha! Flying?"]
"No, that won't work. My mental energy's already spent… Maybe I should just knock myself out."
Just as Victor Wang was about to muster the last of his energy to create a Gale Blade to knock himself into a deep sleep, someone knocked on the door.
"Victor, you're still up?"
"Lumine? What's wrong?" He sat up again, checked that his clothes and hair weren't messy, and opened the door for her.
Outside was indeed Lumine… and Paimon. Ever since he decided not to be afraid of Paimon, he hadn't been afraid of her. And the fact that he hadn't met Lumine at all these past few days was absolutely, absolutely not because he was avoiding Paimon.
"Sorry for bothering you so late."
Lumine's delicate face was etched with exhaustion, her voice heavy with fatigue.
"It's fine. You can come to me anytime if something's wrong. I'll be happy if I can help… You don't look well."
She nodded weakly, sighed without making a sound—though it seemed her soul nearly escaped.
Paimon floated forward a little, wearing the same tired but serious look, and spoke for Lumine: "We've run into a big crisis!"
"A big crisis?"
"Hmph! I bet some unidentified flying object emptied Lumine's Mora!"
"You're talking nonsense! I didn't!" Paimon put her hands on her hips to retort, but halfway through, her tone weakened. "Ugh… forget it. Listen to me—this is serious."
"Hmph! Go on."
"We found something terrifying. The Geo Statues of The Seven in Liyue have been losing power over the years, meaning we need to find Geoculi to restore them."
"Oh! Then just go find them."
"There are too many! We've already been exhausted the past few days finding dozens of Geoculi, but the restoration progress doesn't look good…"
Paimon suddenly sounded on the verge of a breakdown, her voice agitated: "We compared the progress of restoring the Geo statues to the Anemo ones with the same offering count, and found that to fully restore a Geo statue, we need nearly double the number of Geoculi compared to Anemoculi!"
"So that's why I haven't seen you since last time? You haven't even been back to the inn, staying out in the wild all this time?"
Victor Wang sighed. There were 55 Anemoculi, 131 Geoculi—not quite double, but close enough. Then there would be 181 Electroculi, and 271 Dendroculi… Mondstadt was just the beginner's training ground. The later ones would have them scouring the world.
"I was going to invite you to watch a Liyue opera, but I waited all day outside your room with no sign of you… and it turns out you were stuck doing this."
Scared by the force of his voice, Lumine said softly, "Sorry…"
Paimon fidgeted, poking her index fingers together.
"Ugh! If you can't find them, then just don't. The gods themselves don't care—why work yourself to death for nothing?"
"…I've found that restoring the Statues of The Seven strengthens my bond with my Constellations—in simple terms, it makes me stronger. So, it's not just for looks."
This was Lumine's little secret.
As far as she knew, like resonance with statues, teleportation points, and the inventory space, this was something no one else could do. To avoid unnecessary trouble, she never mentioned it to those she didn't trust.
"Hiss! Then it's worth working hard for."
Paimon stared intently at Little Wen. "No, no, no. We don't want to work hard anymore!"
"Wha—what do you mean? Why are you looking at me?"
"Help us!"
Faced with Paimon's request, Little Wen's reaction was to… hide behind Victor Wang, who promptly grabbed it and stuffed it back into the scabbard.
"Lumine, next time you run into something like this, you should come to me sooner. We're friends."
"Mm." Lumine nodded.
"Give me your map. I'll have Little Wen mark all the Geoculus locations."
"Mm."
After sending Lumine and Paimon off, Little Wen finally realized: ["Oh! So that's what they wanted. Master, you even know all the Geoculus locations?"]
"To the outside world, say you learned them from your travels. If it came from me, it'd be hard to explain."
["Got it!"]
Victor Wang picked up a pen, comparing Lumine's map with the one in the Observation Hub, marking each Geoculus location carefully. It took less than ten minutes, but would save Lumine well over ten days of work.
He thought of marking the Electroculi too, but since Lumine hadn't mentioned Inazuma as her next destination, he'd save it for later… hopefully she wouldn't foolishly explore everything herself again.
After knocking on the door across the hall to return the map, he reminded her, "Tomorrow's the Rite of Parting. Take a break and relax. With Little Wen's locations, you won't have to work so hard anymore."
"Mm."
"Rest early."
"You too."
With his thoughts diverted by Lumine, that restless excitement finally faded, and Victor Wang drifted into a deep sleep.
…
Ivanovich woke from a nightmare, glancing at the time—it was only 4 AM.
Pulling the blanket closer, he tucked his feet under it, then stretched them out again. The blanket was thin and light; in the past, it had felt comfortably weightless, but now he missed the heavy, thick one from his home in Snezhnaya. Heavy, yes—but safe. Only under that blanket could he keep the nightmares away and sleep in peace…
Sighing heavily, and though he was still tired, he decided to get up and head out.
A traveling merchant from Snezhnaya, he had secured a stall at the North Bridge market in Liyue after navigating a pile of paperwork at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Rising quickly, he went straight to his stall…
Honestly, there was nowhere else to go. At this hour, there were naturally no customers, but he didn't mind, sitting behind his stall and listening to the sounds of early morning haggling from the main market further north.
From 4 AM until 9 AM, still no customers—but he didn't mind… it had been like this for days.
His stall mainly sold daily goods imported from Snezhnaya. Business had been good before, even making him consider opening a proper shop. Now, he was glad he hadn't acted on that thought.
The Liyue Qixing were kind to small merchants like him, not cutting them off like many big businesses in Snezhnaya. They still allowed him to operate as usual.
The people of Liyue, too, were kind. Even after "Childe" and the Fatui had done what they had done, no one insulted him or his stall—they simply stopped buying from him.
Frankly, he would've been fine if they'd thrown some rotten cabbage leaves at his stall.
After all, he'd nearly lost everything too. His ship had sunk in the Guyun Stone Forest… In addition to his own goods, he also acted as a sales agent for Liyue amber merchants, shipping to factories in Snezhnaya. One full shipment of amber now lay quietly on the seabed.
Others' goods were being salvaged, but amber? Too much effort for too little reward. Few crews would take it on, and those who would charged nearly the cost of the goods themselves.
Sunk was sunk… The penalty fee for that order had ultimately been paid by "Childe."
Even so, if he met "Childe" now, he would still want to punch him twice. Money could be repaid—but broken trust? Who would fix that?!!
Now, Liyue's people speculated that it was also "Childe" who had assassinated the Geo Archon. Thinking about it the other way—if the Tsaritsa were assassinated, he too would cut ties with that person, that organization, even that country…
All that was left was to wait for the official announcement at the Rite of Parting later, and if the facts were confirmed, there would be no place for Snezhnayans in Liyue. He would have to return home.
Closing his stall with a trace of reluctance, Ivanovich merged into the crowd of Liyue citizens heading toward Yujing Terrace to hear his final notice…