After that, the Version 1.2 PV was released.
It introduced Dragonspine, along with character demos for Ganyu and Albedo.
Their Story Quests followed shortly afterward, along with the event quest The Chalk Prince and the Dragon.
But even through all of these quests—
Qiu Nian still did not appear.
However, during Ganyu's character demo, sharp-eyed players noticed something amusing.
In the background of one scene—
Qiu Nian and Zhongli were standing beneath a pavilion below Yujing Terrace, quietly watching the pond together.
When players spotted this moment in the video, the chat immediately exploded with memes.
Meanwhile, the Dragonspine storyline introduced Durin, a dragon powerful enough to rival gods.
The sheer scale of Durin's massive skeleton scattered across the snowy mountains stunned players.
After finishing those quests, Xuehua continued grinding exploration in Dragonspine.
One day, while climbing a snowy peak—
she unexpectedly ran into Qiu Nian again.
Naturally, she immediately triggered the dialogue.
"Qiu Nian? You're here too?"
"You're wearing so little… aren't you cold?"
Lumine asked, looking at his thin clothing.
"I came here to admire the snow."
"I didn't expect to run into you again."
Qiu Nian greeted Lumine and Paimon calmly.
"But that's a good question."
"My answer is…"
He placed a hand on his chin and pretended to think for a moment.
"I'm not afraid of the cold."
The chat instantly flooded with jokes.
["Find shelter from the snow. I'll be fine, but you might catch a cold."]
[That's Zhongli's line!]
"What kind of answer is that?"
Paimon crossed her arms, giving him an unimpressed look.
And the dialogue ended.
"Yes! Exactly like that!"
"miHoYo, can you add more scenes where we randomly run into Qiu Nian? I want to see my husband more!"
Xuehua shouted excitedly while staring at the screen.
The chat joined in.
[Gui Xu really just wanders everywhere…]
[He even wandered into Dragonspine.]
[Still, seeing Qiu Nian again is amazing!]
[I bet he's already met Venti.]
Someone pointed out something interesting.
[But Venti's voice lines don't mention Gui Xu.]
During this time, Xuehua's Zhongli had finally reached the friendship level required to unlock voice lines.
One of them was Zhongli's evaluation of Qiu Nian.
"You ask about Qiu Nian… Hmm.
After that battle ended, he spent ten years living among the adepti and myself.
Ten years of companionship was more than enough for us to understand one another."
"However, that understanding only concerns the time he spent in Teyvat."
"From what I know, he only arrived in Teyvat after traveling through many other worlds."
"Heh… perhaps my old friend has journeyed through far more worlds than even you have."
"Across thousands of years… meeting him again is a pleasant surprise."
"To me, this friendship is something rare."
Xuehua was stunned.
"What?!"
"So Qiu Nian also traveled through other worlds?"
"And it sounds like he's traveled through even more worlds than Lumine!"
The chat exploded again.
[So he left Liyue first… then later left Teyvat itself?]
[Seems like it.]
[After leaving Teyvat he traveled countless worlds, then thousands of years later came back.]
[Isn't that basically a super-powered version of the protagonist?]
Someone raised a funny question.
[Then why didn't the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles stop Qiu Nian, but stopped the Traveler?]
[LOL that's such a weird thing to focus on.]
Despite learning this much, Qiu Nian still remained mysterious.
But at least there was some new information now.
However, Zhongli had another voice line—one about Gui Xu.
And this one was even more cryptic.
"The name means the Autumn of the Eighth Month."
"From the darkness that swallowed the ancient palace… traces of the Primordial once followed."
"The flames were briefly extinguished… only to ignite once more."
"When they faded again… so too did his hope."
"Yet when he looked back… hope still remained."
"Twentieth day of Autumn, Jueyun Karst."
"Now that my old friend walks this world once more…"
"In what way will he ignite a new flame?"
The moment Xuehua finished listening—
she felt like her brain was about to explode.
"What kind of celestial scripture is this?!"
"What palace? What primordial? What burning footsteps?"
"What does any of this even mean?!"
The chat completely agreed.
[This level of riddles is insane.]
[There's definitely a ton of information hidden in there, but nobody understands it.]
["Traces of the Primordial"… what does that even mean?]
Someone suggested the obvious solution.
[Stop guessing and wait for the lore analysts.]
Another player replied.
[Speaking of lore analysts, there's an uploader who predicted the meanings of Gui Xu and Qiu Nian before.]
[You mean the guy who said Gui Xu meant "Autumn of the Eighth Month" and palace?]
[Yeah—Mahāyāna Lore Scholar.]
[He's probably celebrating right now.]
And indeed—
that was exactly what happened.
When the lore analyst Mahāyāna Lore Scholar saw Zhongli's voice lines—
he was ecstatic.
Because his previous theory—
about "Autumn of the Eighth Month" and palaces—
had just been confirmed by the official text.
His old videos suddenly began gaining popularity again.
So he immediately started preparing the next episode.
Despite the exhausting research process—
he loved the feeling of getting closer to the truth hidden in the text.
Soon enough, the new video was released:
"Qiu Nian / Gui Xu Character Analysis IV."
Even though he was excited, his tone remained calm and rigorous.
"Let's begin by analyzing Zhongli's voice lines about Qiu Nian and Gui Xu."
"First, the meaning of Gui Xu as 'Autumn of the Eighth Month' and the reference to a palace—we've already discussed this in previous videos."
"So we'll move past that."
"The palace itself… we currently don't know where it is."
"But we can at least confirm one thing."
"It likely does not exist within Teyvat."
"Now then—"
"What about the other key term mentioned in the dialogue?"
"Primordial."
At this point, he displayed a passage of text in the video.
"This text comes from the murals inside the Old Palace of the Entombed City in Dragonspine."
The passage read:
"In ancient stories from distant time…
the blood of the giant Pangu became rivers…
the body of Purusha was divided…
nourishing all life in the cosmos.
The brain of Ymir became the heavens and seas.
A lifeless world was thus transformed.
This… is the myth of the Primordial Man."
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