During the new Returning Flame Holy Night Pilgrimage, players encountered a new event once again.
[Inserting mini-games into the character's legendary quest?]
[I thought this quest interspersed with games mode was only for 5.0. I didn't expect it to come again.]
This time, the game was mainly divided into three stages, the first being the traversal stage.
The new version of the Returning Flame Holy Night Pilgrimage was actually a one-time run-to-the-finish competition, but to make players do more work, Rios divided it into three stages.
In the first stage, players could choose any Natlan gacha character except Rios, Mavuika, or Iansan to traverse the map.
In the Genshin world, participating contestants needed to achieve good rankings to advance to the next round.
But players didn't need to worry about that; they just needed to reach the finish line, even strolling there would be fine.
[Fuck!]
[Why are fireballs falling from the sky!]
[Damn it, I was running and running, and suddenly I got hit and killed by a fireball!]
After discovering there was no time limit, players weren't in a hurry to traverse.
But not long after, fireballs started falling from the sky, attacking the participating characters.
Whether it was the character the player was controlling or the other self-operated characters, they would all be targeted by the fireballs.
Soon, Iansan's avatar popped up, and her voice rang out: "This is a challenge segment that Rios specially added after reviewing the competition content."
"Speed is important, but failing to dodge incoming dangers is bad."
"So in this competition, not only do the contestants need to be fast, but they also have to dodge Rios's attacks."
Paimon's surprised voice rang out: "Why wasn't there this segment when we tested it before?"
Rios: "Because I wasn't there."
Iansan: "Actually, this is something Rios just mentioned to me. I thought it would make it more challenging, so I agreed."
As a spectator, Ajaw: "Rios, aim fiercely at Kinich and beat him to death!"
"Hey, wait, don't hit me!"
Everyone only heard Ajaw let out a miserable scream; no one knew what happened to him.
Kinich said while running: "Sorry, I didn't discipline Ajaw properly. I should have just pressed him under the box from the start."
Mualani said: "No problem. While Rios deals with Ajaw, let's sprint full speed ahead!"
During the period when the fireballs disappeared, players also quickly operated their characters to advance.
Although that fireball couldn't kill anyone, how many players were masochists willing to keep getting hit?
So everyone soon arrived at the second segment, which was simply climbing the mountain.
"I'll go on ahead." For Kinich, this was easier than easy; he effortlessly climbed to the high place.
"Is this a joke? Making it so high?" Citlali, who rarely participated in competitions, looked up at the mountain that seemed endless at a glance. "Isn't this troubling me, Granny Itztli?"
No matter how high she jumped, she couldn't just jump straight to the top of the mountain.
She could only climb honestly.
And while everyone was rock-climbing, Paimon saw one red-haired little boy falling behind in the group and said to the person beside her: "Rios, you said that kid is the first Pyro Archon Xbalanque, but he doesn't look impressive at all."
"Even Granny is climbing faster than him."
After Rios pointed out the first Pyro Archon's disguise, the participating contestants like Mualani and the others proceeded with the competition normally, while the non-competing Traveler and others observed from afar.
But seeing that Xbalanque hadn't shown outstanding performance in two consecutive segments, the Traveler and the others couldn't help but start doubting Rios's judgment.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Rios said with a smile. "My judgment is correct; that is Xbalanque."
"It's just that the body he's using belongs to someone else, so he can't exert his full power, which is why his performance is lackluster."
"So that's how it is." Paimon reacted, then said, "In that case, won't the first Pyro Archon have a hard time getting a good ranking in the Returning Flame Holy Night Pilgrimage?"
"Does he have some special means?" Paimon guessed.
"Maybe he does, but he probably won't use it here," Rios said. "With his current strength, I'm afraid he can't even make it to the top sixteen."
And the facts were indeed as such.
After the Returning Flame Holy Night Pilgrimage ended, Kinich took first place.
The other Natlan people felt strange: Since Lord Xbalanque participated in the competition, why did Kinich win the championship?
Did Lord Xbalanque go easy?
And after Mavuika identified Xbalanque, everyone discovered that Xbalanque not only didn't make it to the final four, but he didn't even enter the top sixteen.
He was eliminated in the round of thirty-two!
For some reason, when Rios saw this scene, he always felt like Hoyo wrote this plot segment playing off some table tennis player's meme, but he had no evidence.
Because this matter was too shocking, many Natlan people couldn't accept it.
Seeing this, Mavuika called Rios to appease the crowd, while she took Xbalanque, still in the form of a little boy, and the Traveler and others to another place.
"So that kid really was Lord Xbalanque?" Mualani said incredulously. "Rios wasn't joking."
Rios: ?
In this day and age, no one believes the truth anymore?
"But Lord Xbalanque is the original Pyro Archon, right? How did he get eliminated in the round of thirty-two?" Some Natlan people felt emotionally collapsed.
Although the Pyro Archon was served by humans, for Natlan's first Pyro Archon, many Natlan people held very high expectations for him.
Not to mention punching Mavuika and kicking Rios, it should be no problem to easily defeat Kinich, right?
"Xbalanque is currently possessing a child's body and can't exert his proper level," Rios had no choice but to explain one by one.
As the former Pyro Archon, Rios's words naturally carried weight.
The Natlan people who were originally emotionally collapsed immediately beamed with joy upon hearing it.
"So Lord Xbalanque couldn't use his full power."
"Then his true strength should be about the same as the current Pyro Archon, right?"
"Maybe even a bit stronger than Lady Mavuika. After all, Lord Xbalanque is the original Pyro Archon."
"The original Pyro Archon doesn't necessarily mean the strongest Pyro Archon, right?"
While everyone was debating, Mavuika drove the Flamestrider and brought the still little boy Xbalanque over.
"You all done fighting?" Rios was somewhat surprised.
In the original plot, shouldn't Mavuika and Xbalanque first have a fight in what seemed like a mental space, and then come back to celebrate?
Finished so quickly?
"We haven't fought yet," Mavuika said with a smile. "After Lord Xbalanque learned that you are the previous Pyro Archon and stronger than me, he wants to fight you first."
"I see..." Rios looked at Xbalanque, then held up two fingers.
Upon seeing this, Xbalanque immediately laughed: "Young Pyro Archon, you wouldn't be feeling so confident in your victory that you're preemptively making the victory sign, would you?"
"Ambitious! I like confident guys like you!"
"No, what I mean is," Rios shook his head, then said, "I want to fight two."
"You and Mavuika, come at me together."