"Oh! It's Senior Apprentice Yun Xu! Yaoyao hasn't seen you in ages~"
Hearing Ryan's words, Yaoyao finally noticed someone approaching. After recognizing him, she immediately greeted him with delight.
"Mhm, long time no see, Yaoyao."
Ryan raised his hand and patted Yaoyao's head as a greeting.
"Ah... Senior Apprentice, Yaoyao isn't a child anymore. You can't just pat my head as soon as we meet."
Yaoyao grabbed Ryan's hand with a hint of displeasure.
"Alright."
Ryan ruffled Yaoyao's head once more before reluctantly withdrawing his hand, then carefully examined his palm.
Not a single strand of hair. Is it because children's hair is better?!
Ryan thought with some regret.
"Oh, right, Senior Apprentice, Auntie Liu Yun seemed to be sick a while ago."
After Ryan withdrew his hand, Yaoyao tidied her messy bangs and immediately informed Ryan.
"Huh? My master is sick?"
Ryan was stunned. Can Adepti get sick?
He, a fox who had been hungry for three thousand years, had never been sick...
"Mhm, after Auntie Liu Yun got sick, her feathers all turned colorful. But she told Yaoyao not to tell anyone, but since it's Senior Apprentice Yun Xu, I definitely have to tell you."
Yaoyao nodded earnestly.
"..."
"Ahaha... Is that so? Yaoyao, don't worry. My alchemy skills are astonishing. When I go back, I'll concoct a medicinal pill for Master, and she'll recover quickly."
Ryan was silent for a moment, then let out a couple of awkward laughs.
"Is that so? Then Yaoyao is relieved."
"Oh, right, Senior Apprentice, are you here to see my master?"
Yaoyao finally relaxed, then speculated about Ryan's reason for being there.
"Mhm, I need to ask Auntie Ping to help me modify my qiankun bag."
Ryan nodded and picked up his qiankun bag, which looked like a money pouch.
He needed a quiet environment for alchemy, but to feed on emotions, he needed to mingle among humans, as Morax had said.
Traveling back and forth between Jueyun Karst and Liyue Harbor was quite inconvenient.
So, he thought of his qiankun bag.
Inside the qiankun bag was an external realm grotto-heaven, but Ryan had always used it as his personal storage.
Now, if he could just find a way to open a passage connecting to the outside world, Ryan could practice alchemy inside.
The reason for connecting to the outside was that alchemy absorbs elemental energy from heaven and earth, and if the external realm grotto-heaven was drained, it could cause trouble.
"Is that so? Master will be back in a bit, Senior Apprentice, please have a seat. Yaoyao will brew you some tea."
Yaoyao nodded, then invited Ryan to sit down and began brewing tea for him.
Ryan picked up the teacup and drained it. Seeing this, Yaoyao quickly continued brewing more.
After drinking tea and waiting for a while, Granny Ping finally returned.
"Oh, little Ryan, you're here. Sorry to keep you waiting, come sit down and have some tea."
Ryan quickly stood up to greet her, while Granny Ping chuckled and invited Ryan to sit and drink tea.
"..."
The tea tasted good, but Ryan's stomach was already quite full.
"Auntie Ping, you now have more than one teapot; you also have an extra tea-fox..."
Ryan held the teacup, and after speaking, he gulped down more tea.
Although he had a big appetite now, filling his stomach with tea was still a bit uncomfortable.
"Haha, you child, drinking tea so quickly. Yaoyao thought you liked it."
Hearing Ryan's humorous words, Granny Ping immediately understood what had happened and said with amusement.
Ryan didn't appreciate tea, so he always drank it in one go, like a beverage.
Yaoyao thought he liked it, so she kept brewing cup after cup.
"Eh..."
Hearing this, Yaoyao awkwardly twisted her body, clutching the corner of her clothes.
After drinking the last cup of tea, Ryan explained his request to Granny Ping.
"I see, that's simple enough. Just let Auntie find you a noctilucous jade..."
"Mhm, it will take a few more days. Little Ryan, come back to Auntie's place the day after tomorrow. Auntie will ask a junior to help look for it later."
Granny Ping nodded after learning of Ryan's needs and suggested this.
"No, no, Auntie, I'll come tomorrow to help look for it together."
Ryan quickly shook his head.
"Is that so? That's fine too. Then you two can get to know each other tomorrow. You should be meeting her for the first time."
Granny Ping nodded in agreement.
Setting the time for tomorrow morning, Ryan stayed a while longer with Yaoyao before bidding farewell to Granny Ping and Yaoyao, and leaving Yujing Terrace.
Ever since obtaining three million Mora at Bubu Pharmacy, Ryan had upgraded to better housing at Wangshu Inn.
"This is great! The reward for this quest is so generous, we can finally stay in a more comfortable room~"
Ryan returned to Wangshu Inn and was about to go back to his room when he heard a familiar voice on the way.
"Huh? Ryan? You're staying here too?"
Ryan turned the corner and happened to run into Paimon, who was looking for her room number, with Lumine following behind him.
"Yeah, after all, I usually live in the mountains and don't have a house in Liyue Harbor. I just didn't expect it to be such a coincidence that you, Xiao Pai, are also staying at this inn~"
Ryan explained after a moment of surprise.
"Yeah, what a coincidence~"
Paimon also nodded along.
Lumine, behind Paimon, was stroking his chin with a suspicious look.
He's not stalking Paimon, is he?
Such a thought suddenly popped into Lumine's mind.
It wasn't that he was overly suspicious; it was just that anyone with eyes could see Ryan's attitude towards Paimon was off.
Only Paimon himself was enjoying it and hadn't noticed anything unusual.
After all, if Ryan was gentle with girls, Lumine hadn't seen him being gentle with anyone else. He had been ignored all this time. Was he not a girl?
Afterward, Ryan helped Lumine and Paimon find their new room number.
Coincidentally, their room was right next to Ryan's.
"Speaking of which, Ryan, last time you managed to put Osial's enormous head into a small sack. If you tidied up inside the sack, couldn't it be used as a living space?"
After finding the room, Lumine went in to tidy up briefly, taking things out of his backpack. The lazy Paimon, meanwhile, chatted with Ryan outside the door.
"It certainly could, but it's quite messy inside right now and not fit for habitation. I'll go in and tidy it up after Auntie Ping helps me modify it."
Ryan nodded.
Because he rarely left Jueyun Karst, there was no situation where he had no place to stay and needed to crawl into his qiankun bag, so the qiankun bag had completely become a portable warehouse.
Ryan hadn't organized or planned the interior well, so there was no place to rest.
If he went in now, he would just be neighbors with Osial's head, lying together.
"That's still pretty good. The Traveler and I can only set up simple tents in the wilderness or hide in caves overnight. Sometimes we can only sleep under a tree for a night and might even get woken up by the rain if we're not careful."
Paimon said with some envy.
When he and Lumine traveled, sleeping outdoors in the wilderness was the hardest part. The two of them could only huddle together for warmth.
"Huh? But is the Auntie Ping Ryan mentioned Granny Ping? And what's this about modification?"
At this point, Paimon curiously inquired further... PS: Honkai: Star Rail collaboration on July 11th, collaboration characters Saber and Red A, giving away limited 5-star Red A.