"Zhi Qiong, you must take care of yourself. When I return to Nodkrai from Liyue, I will come back to see you!"
Outside The Chasm, Jahoda was saying goodbye to Zhi Qiong with tears in her eyes.
Regarding Jahoda's words, Zhi Qiong smiled awkwardly: "I would be very happy if little Jahoda came to find me to play, but if you are going back to Nodkrai, it is best to take the proper path. You can't just stow away again, right?"
The two hugged for a while, and then Zhi Qiong handed a map to Jahoda: "This is for you. This is the official Liyue map released by the Seven Stars of Liyue and the Eight Gates. It is much better looking than the kind I draw myself!"
"I have marked where you can go and where you cannot on it. You just need to follow this, and you will definitely be able to reach Liyue Harbor!"
"Thank you!" Jahoda took the map and looked at it, then pointed to a road with some confusion and asked: "Sister Zhi Qiong, can't this main road be taken?"
Zhi Qiong nodded: "Recently, monsters have been running rampant in Liyue, especially near the main roads where demons appear in clusters! I suspect it might be because there is a lot of foot traffic here, which attracts many monsters."
"However, it is not as if the main road cannot be taken at all. I heard that the Millelith have taken some measures and set up some kind of barrier near the road, but since I haven't been there, I dare not speak too definitively."
"But this path here has been verified by recent travelers; it is a path that truly has not a single monster! Although it is sparsely populated along the way, it should be true that there are no monsters."
"You can decide which of these two paths you want to take."
"I see." Jahoda thought about the two roads for a long time. But in fact, due to the orientation of The Chasm, wanting to take the smooth main road would require a huge detour. Conversely, taking the wild mountain paths would be closer, at least the straight-line distance would be significantly shorter.
In the end, Jahoda considered that if she had been able to come by boat, she would probably already be playing in Liyue Harbor by now. If she arrived a day late, that would be a day of playtime wasted. No, she had to race against time!
Finally, the clever, witty, brave, and decisive Miss Ya decided to go to Liyue Harbor via the Fulong Tree. So she packed her things and officially waved goodbye to Zhi Qiong.
"Goodbye, Sister Zhi Qiong!"
"Goodbye, Jahoda. Be sure to be careful on the road!"
Watching Zhi Qiong's retreating figure, Jahoda also turned and walked towards the Fulong Tree.
The wind in Liyue was very gentle, but the wind blowing from the valley still made her eyes sore.
Jahoda closed her eyes, hot tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, and she sighed heavily.
"There are still many good people in the world!"
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"You are really mean, chasing after the Fatui to hack at them."
"Haha, since we already know the Fatui are doing bad things, then of course we should disrupt as much as we can!"
Lumine and Paimon were on their way back to find Zhongli, the two of them walking while taking stock of the good deeds they had just done.
Actually, according to the original plot, Lumine did indeed discover under Ningguang's guidance that the Fatui were creating Talismans of Forbidden Covenants, but at that time from Lumine's perspective, the situation was still shrouded in fog, so many things were not done to the extreme.
But now it is different. Knowing that Liyue Harbor was of one mind and clear that the Fatui were purely here to do bad things, Lumine could be said to be going for the kill.
With his Elemental Sight activated, it was as if Lumine saw a frame over everyone's head. Wielding a skyward blade in one hand and a sacrificial sword in the other, with his own signature weapon held in his mouth, he could be said to have charged in and out of the Fatui stronghold seven times.
He scrambled the eggs, split the earthworms vertically, and even sliced open the army's black bread and large loaves, stuffing them with mustard, bitter melon, and lettuce leaves before putting them back.
Not to mention the most important Talismans of Forbidden Covenants; he chopped them up, burned them into ash with fire, mixed the ash into dough, cut it into cubes, and threw it into the water to feed the fish.
Lumine raised his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes, his mouth curling into a dangerous arc: "I've already blown up your workshop; I want to see how you can still make trouble?"
As they spoke, the two arrived in a garden in front of Bubu Pharmacy and met up with Zhongli in the pavilion.
After Lumine showed off his great achievements, Zhongli led Lumine into Bubu Pharmacy; they needed to buy the [Everlasting Incense] here.
The three of them arrived at Bubu Pharmacy and looked around, only to find no one on duty. Lumine was a bit confused: "It should be business hours, right? How come there is no one here?"
Paimon cleared his throat: "Excuse me, is anyone here?"
"Welcome." A soft, weak, and slow voice came from behind the counter, which startled Paimon.
Paimon quickly dodged behind Lumine: "Wow! You scared me to death. Lumine, hurry and go see what's going on!"
A question mark appeared over Lumine's head: "Why don't you go yourself?"
Paimon grabbed Lumine's scarf with his little hands: "I'm scared! But don't you go out every night to practice being brave? You shouldn't be scared, right?"
"When did I go out to practice being brave?"
"Every day when I wake up, you aren't in the room. If you aren't going out to practice being brave, what are you doing?"
Lumine:...
How was he supposed to explain this? He couldn't exactly say that life couldn't be too miserable, so he went to train with Orion, right?
In the end, Lumine walked step by step to the counter, poked his head in to look, and after a moment of silence, he reached into the counter and hugged out a little cutie, placing it on the counter.
It was a little girl wearing small blue clothes and a small hat, with a yellow talisman stuck on her hat.
Paimon and Zhongli also gathered around. When the child saw people coming over, she patted her chest and introduced herself: "Hello, my name is Qiqi, I am a zombie."
"A zombie?" Paimon was startled. He knew that a zombie referred to someone who had died and come back to life.
Qiqi also nodded: "Qiqi, died once, then lived again, so I am a zombie."
Then Qiqi looked around at the few people, but the moment she saw what Zhongli was wearing, she started to tremble.
Paimon and Lumine were startled and hurriedly asked Qiqi what was wrong, and if she was about to undergo a zombie transformation.
Qiqi pointed at Zhongli's clothes and said: "Black girl, wants to bury Qiqi, scary!"
"Black girl?" Lumine and Paimon looked at Zhongli, and then the three of them quickly realized: "Are you talking about Hu Tao?"
Zhongli added: "Because of her profession, the Hall Master is quite sensitive to matters of life and death. She has always believed that those who have passed should return their souls to the ley lines; what is the point of wandering on the ground? Therefore, she often... tries to let Little Qiqi rest in peace."
Lumine, Paimon:...
When they met that day, they only thought this girl was quite quirky. They didn't expect her to do such things as bullying a child.
However, Qiqi, who was sitting on the counter swinging her legs, suddenly looked at Lumine.
"On you, there is a familiar aura, very comforting."
"Me?" Lumine pointed at himself.
Paimon suddenly thought of something: "Wait, the name Qiqi... Shenhe, Skirk, and Orion seem to have mentioned it, right? They seem to have saved this child on the road."
Qiqi's eyes lit up: "Orion, saved me, Qiqi still remembers, didn't forget."
Lumine hurriedly struck while the iron was hot: "Orion and this brother here are good friends, so this brother here will not hurt you!"
Qiqi's brain processed this for a while before nodding. It seemed she was no longer afraid of Zhongli.
With this connection through Orion, the three of them asked directly about the [Everlasting Incense].
"Do you have a prescription?" Qiqi asked back, which left the three of them completely confused.
What did that mean? Was there no finished product? Did they have to make the incense from scratch themselves?
"Have prescription, Qiqi can help get herbs, no prescription, no can do. This is a decree Qiqi gave herself," Qiqi explained.
Zhongli explained to Lumine and the others with a headache: "Zombies need decrees to act, and Qiqi's current state seems to be that she is issuing decrees to herself."
Lumine understood too. Simply put, that was how the program was written. But the Everlasting Incense definitely had to be bought; they couldn't just run in an infinite loop here, right? Under Lumine and the others' questioning, Qiqi finally gave a solution.
"Can exchange. You help Qiqi, find things, I give you Everlasting Incense, this way, fair."
"So it's unfair for a pharmacy clerk to help a customer find things?" Paimon's retort was as accurate as ever.
"What do you want us to help you find?" Zhongli asked.
Qiqi slowly raised her head: "Go, near Mount Tianheng, find the adepti beast — the Cocogoat!"
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"Orion, let's go outside to talk."
Today was the day for Orion to report the situation to Ganyu again as a double agent. However, during several previous reports, Ganyu had noticed Keqing inexplicably staring at them secretly, which almost made him think he had been exposed.
Keqing was such a comrade, kept on his lap pillow every day and pampered like a treasure. If he poached him, wouldn't he be targeted to death?
So he decided to take Orion outside to communicate today.
"Sure, where to?" Orion asked.
Ganyu thought for a while: "Let's just go to Mount Tianheng, shall we?"
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