Sacred Flame Arena.
Office of Affairs.
Caelus arrived at the entrance of the Office of Affairs and briefly looked around.
From now on, this would be his workplace.
"Though I'm not really in the mood to work right now."
Caelus checked the system's Emotion Points. As expected, they had already exceeded 4,000.
After deducting 1,000 to maintain the Sacred Flame, 3,000 remained.
He needed to think carefully about how to use the remaining Emotion Points.
At that moment, the system's voice echoed in his mind.
[Natlan's storyline has been significantly altered]
[Pre-release hype will be generated for players]
Caelus's eyes lit up when he heard this.
If information was leaked to the players now, wouldn't his Emotion Points increase even more?
After all, Emotion Points could be obtained not only from the people of Teyvat, but also from players.
"I hope this blows up."
---
Real World – Player Community
Ten in the morning.
Xiao Mu launched the open-world RPG on his computer.
"Genshin, start!"
While the game was launching, Xiao Mu also started his livestream to chat with viewers.
[Streaming this early?]
[Did the Sacrificial Spear banner reset already?]
Xiao Mu was a fairly well-known content creator in the Genshin section, with several full fan groups.
Seeing the notification that he had gone live, idle fans quickly entered the stream.
"What Sacrificial Spear?"
"That's Favonius Lance. It generates a lot of Energy."
Xiao Mu smiled as he chatted with the stream.
[Then why start so early?]
[Got plans tonight?]
"To claim Primogems, obviously."
"Didn't you guys watch the Special Program? Today Liben is back."
[The God of Wealth is here?]
[My phone feels cold. Let me launch Genshin to warm it up.]
Reminded by Xiao Mu, viewers recalled that today marked the return of Liben's event.
Liben is a very popular NPC in Genshin Impact.
As long as you hand over materials you rarely use, he gives you Primogems in return.
It takes less than half a minute.
That's why players jokingly call him the "God of Wealth."
He's just too generous.
It's like Pot of Greed in Yu-Gi-Oh!—no deck would ever refuse it.
"Actually, claiming Primogems is only part of it."
"Every time Liben appears, he also hints at the next nation."
"The Traveler's next destination is Natlan, so Liben should mention Natlan soon."
Xiao Mu controlled his newly obtained C6 Hydro Archon to Mondstadt and walked over to the merchant carrying a large backpack near the flower girl.
As soon as he initiated dialogue, the on-screen character switched to the Traveler for the conversation.
"Traveler, we meet again," Liben said.
"Did your business fall through again?" the Traveler asked.
"Don't even mention it," Liben replied helplessly. "Natlan recently welcomed a newly appointed Pyro Archon. On his first day in office, he announced a ridiculous policy—canceling the Sacred Night of the Return of Flame."
"That festival is the lifeblood of the people of Natlan. Canceling it hurts them more than death."
"The whole nation is in an uproar. Nobody's in the mood to shop."
"I've taken a huge loss this time."
"…"
"So, same deal as usual?"
Liben quickly changed the topic and began the usual exchange of materials for Primogems.
However, Xiao Mu didn't exchange immediately. Instead, he frowned.
"The Pyro Archon is a 'he'? Not a 'she'?"
"I didn't misread that, right?"
[You read it right.]
[It says 'he.']
[Definitely male.]
The chat confirmed that he wasn't mistaken.
"That's strange."
Xiao Mu frowned. "Didn't Venti say that among The Seven, aside from him and Zhongli, the rest are female?"
"Logically speaking, the Pyro Archon should've been female. Why is it suddenly male?"
[It's not a retcon. You didn't pay attention.]
[Liben literally said Natlan has a newly appointed Pyro Archon.]
[How long ago did Venti tell us about The Seven? Isn't it normal that the position changed?]
[So there's a new Pyro Archon… does that mean we'll fight the new one alongside the former one?]
[That's possible.]
[We stole the Anemo Archon's Gnosis with the Anemo Archon.]
[We held a fake funeral with the Geo Archon.]
[We fought the Raiden Shogun alongside the Raiden Shogun.]
[So fighting the Pyro Archon with the former Pyro Archon isn't impossible.]
Seeing the discussion in chat, Xiao Mu relaxed.
So the Pyro Archon had changed.
He had thought Venti's information was wrong.
"In that case, the former Pyro Archon was probably female?"
"I hope she's not dead. Another waifu would be nice."
Xiao Mu clasped his hands dramatically.
In his stream, viewers were still casually discussing Natlan and the new Pyro Archon.
But elsewhere, debates had already begun.
[MiHoYo, give me back my female Pyro Archon!]
[You said she was female before—why switch to male now?!]
[I was saving for C6 Himeko!]
[What does Himeko have to do with the Pyro Archon?]
[A leaker said the original Pyro Archon had red hair and golden eyes. That's obviously Himeko!]
[Red hair and golden eyes doesn't automatically mean Himeko.]
[Just wait! The former Pyro Archon will definitely look like Himeko!]
[Ever since Honkai: Star Rail launched, Genshin hasn't released any more expys from Honkai Impact 3rd.]
Some players were upset about losing a potential waifu.
Others were excited about gaining a husbando.
[Day 1 of saving Primogems for the male Pyro Archon.]
[Does anyone know my husband's name? Urgent.]
[The Male Pyro Archon discussion board is already up—come join.]
[Why haven't leakers dropped Natlan models yet? Back in Sumeru's beta, Fontaine characters were already leaked.]
[What do you think his personality will be like? Hot-blooded?]
[Or maybe calm and composed instead?]
[Regardless, his character model has to be good. At least on par with Venti and Zhongli.]
[Leaker info: his name is Caelus.
Red hair, golden eyes.]
[Caelus? Like that fire spirit from Seer?]
[Is his combat style going to involve summoning a horse or something?]
[Actually, that version of Caelus does look pretty good…]