The successful test flight of the hoverboard marked the dawn of a new age of possibilities on Mt. Aocang. The larger, more ambitious hovercar project, however, was a challenge for another day. It would require more complex materials, a far more powerful and stable energy source, and a steering mechanism that was still just a series of complex equations in Ren's mind.
For now, the hoverboard was the pinnacle of their achievement, and Ren was restless. The quiet, isolated peace of the mountain, once a welcome sanctuary, now felt confining. He had tasted flight, and he yearned to see the world from this new, breathtaking perspective. He missed his home in the Harbor. He missed his sister.
"Master," he said to Xianyun one afternoon, after flawlessly executing a series of complex aerial maneuvers. "The hoverboard is perfect. I think… I think it's time for me to go home."
Xianyun looked at the small, confident pilot hovering before her, and she understood. The nest, however safe, could not hold a fledgling who had just learned to fly. "A logical conclusion," she agreed. "Your presence in the Harbor is expected, and Ganyu is no doubt growing anxious."
A plan was quickly formed, one that was far more stylish and direct than a simple walk down the mountain. Xianyun used the communication sigil, her voice a calm, clear summons. "Ganyu. Your presence is required on Mt. Aocang. There is something… this one wishes for you to see."
A few hours later, a familiar, graceful form descended from the skies. Ganyu arrived, a look of worried curiosity on her face, which immediately transformed into one of pure, slack-jawed astonishment.
She saw Ren, not on the ground, but hovering ten feet in the air, gliding around the peak with the ease and grace of a crystalfly.
"Ren! You're… you're flying!" she gasped, her amethyst eyes wide with a disbelief that quickly melted into sheer, unadulterated joy and pride.
"It's a hoverboard!" he called down, banking in a smooth arc to hover before her. "Master and I built it!"
Before Ganyu could even fully process this impossible new reality, Xianyun gestured towards her workshop. There, resting on a stand, was a second hoverboard. It was identical in function to Ren's, but its design was a work of pure, personalized art. The sleek, dark grey surface was adorned with intricate, swirling patterns of pale blue and gold, designs that evoked the form of a mythical qilin. The edges were gracefully curved, and the foot latches were shaped like small, elegant horns. It was a gift, a tribute from one adeptus to another.
"This one is for you," Xianyun stated simply.
Ganyu stared at the beautiful object, a gift so thoughtful and so profoundly, wonderfully strange that it left her momentarily speechless. "For… for me? But… I don't know how…"
"Ren will teach you," Xianyun said, a faint, proud smile on her face.
And so, the great half-adeptus Ganyu, who could command the frost of the heavens and had fought in the Archon War, found herself taking a wobbly, hesitant lesson in flight from her ten-year-old little brother. Ren was a patient and encouraging teacher.
"It's all in your feet, big sister," he explained, hovering effortlessly beside her as she nervously stepped onto the qilin-themed board. "Just lean a little. Don't think about it too much. Just feel it."
Ganyu was clumsy at first, the board lurching and dipping with her hesitant movements. But she was an adeptus, her sense of balance and control were already superhuman. Within half an hour, she was no longer wobbling. She was gliding, a little slowly, a little cautiously, but she was flying. A look of pure, childlike wonder, a look that Ren had never seen on her face before, dawned as she made her first successful lap around the mountaintop.
The time for departure came. There would be no long, arduous walk down treacherous mountain paths. They would fly.
They stood at the edge of the peak, two small figures on their sleek, hovering platforms, the whole of Liyue spread out beneath them like a magnificent, living map.
"Be safe," Xianyun said, her usual parting instruction imbued with a new, profound meaning. Shenhe simply stood behind her, a silent, silver-haired statue, giving a single, almost imperceptible nod of farewell.
"We will, Master," Ren promised.
With a shared, excited grin, he and Ganyu leaned forward. Their boards hummed to life, and they shot off the edge of the mountain, not falling, but soaring.
The feeling was beyond exhilarating. They were a pair of shooting stars, a boy on a sleek, grey board and a half-qilin on a beautifully decorated one, carving a path through the endless blue sky. They flew past the jagged, amber peaks of Jueyun Karst, their laughter carried away by the wind. They soared over the winding, silver ribbon of the Bishui River and the green, terraced fields of the countryside.
Ganyu, her initial caution forgotten, was soon flying with a natural, divine grace, her long, dark blue hair streaming behind her like a banner. The look of pure, unadulterated joy on her face was a sight Ren would treasure forever.
As the golden roofs of Liyue Harbor rose to meet them, they began their descent. They didn't aim for the city gates, but for the one place that was truly home. With a practiced, gentle grace, they glided over the high walls of Feiyun Slope and landed, with barely a whisper of sound, in the tranquil, secluded garden of their own house.
They had left the mountain as master and disciple. They had returned as a pair of celestial aviators, the first of their kind, bearers of a new and wonderful magic that was born not of a Vision, but of a brilliant, inventive mind.