"If possible, I think we should send Klee down the mountain first. It's too dangerous for her to stay here."
Lumine pulled Paimon out of a snowbank. Near the Frostbearing Tree, after the group had removed the first piece of the Nail, a small avalanche had been triggered for some unknown reason. If Shenhe hadn't used her Cryo and adeptal arts to create a safe zone, they would all have been buried.
"But Klee doesn't want to go down. Klee wants to go on an adventure with Sister Shenhe."
Klee, shielded behind Shenhe, remembered the stories the talking crane had told her about a little fox's adventures in the snowy mountains. She felt she should follow in the fox's footsteps and uncover the secrets of the mountain.
Mona frowned and rotated the water disc before her. According to her earlier divination, there shouldn't have been any major dangers on this trip. So why had an avalanche suddenly been triggered?
"This wasn't a natural avalanche."
"Shenhe, you mean someone deliberately caused it?"
Lumine followed Shenhe's gaze up the mountain but saw nothing unusual. Before she could ask further, Paimon interrupted.
"Lumine, bad news! The path down the mountain is blocked by snow. We can't go back."
"What?! We don't have that many supplies. If it weren't for Klee's flaming Jumpy Dumpties, we'd freeze to death up here."
Lumine stared at the snow-blocked path with a headache. She had planned to head down, restock, and grab warmer clothes before coming back up. Now, it seemed there was no choice but to press forward.
She looked at her companions. Klee? Probably not—using bombs on a snowy mountain risked more avalanches. Mona and Shenhe could work together to trigger Frozen reactions, but that didn't make up for the lack of Pyro.
If she had known this would happen, she would have brought Hu Tao along. Hu Tao could have turned a Mitachurl to ash in seconds. She suddenly seemed incredibly reliable.
"We keep moving forward. I wonder how Hu Tao's group is doing. Mona, can you divine their situation?"
"Well... it's hard to explain. According to my reading, Director Hu's situation seems fine, but Qiqi's isn't good—yet they're still together."
Mona tugged at her hair in frustration. What was going on? Had her hydromancy malfunctioned? That shouldn't happen. The old hag's hydromancy had never failed, so hers shouldn't either.
She spun the water mirror again, but nothing seemed wrong. Yet the reading was clearly abnormal. Annoyed, she felt like she was losing more hair.
"Alright, alright, Mona. Stop staring at your mirror. Let's keep going. Forward is our only option."
Lumine tried to calm her down. If she remembered right, there was a cave ahead. The temperature inside was even colder than outside. If they could get in, they might find another fragment.
"Damn this avalanche. If I find out who's behind this, I'll make them taste the Song of Broken Pines."
Eula gritted her teeth in anger. Using such despicable tactics against them was shameless. It seemed there were more than just monsters on this mountain—there were people with ulterior motives. No wonder the Adventurers' Guild's rewards weren't so easily earned.
"Yin and yang have their order, and fate is unpredictable. Since your bodies have lost their vitality, there's no need for your souls to linger here. You know, this kind of thing disrupts the balance of yin and yang."
"What? You're not satisfied? Even if you're not, there's nothing I can do. This isn't my territory. I can only send you off to the next world."
"You're asking what the next world looks like? Hmm... how should I describe it? It's beautiful and warm. If you're lucky, you might even find someone waiting for you."
Hu Tao chatted with the spirits while holding her Staff of Homa, preparing the funeral rites. The searing flame on the staff warped the air around it. Qiqi quietly stepped back, hiding behind Eula.
"Qiqi hates heat, fake smiles, and death."
"Hey, Hu Tao, you heard that. You scared Qiqi. I'll remember this grudge!"
Eula carried Qiqi a few steps away from Hu Tao. To be honest, she was a bit unsettled herself. In her twenty-odd years of life, she had never seen anyone who could communicate with spirits. And judging by the conversation, it didn't seem to be going smoothly.
Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. What kind of place was it? She felt like she had heard the name somewhere before. Eula patted Qiqi's little head.
"Qiqi, tell me, what is Wangsheng Funeral Parlor? How can someone as young as Hu Tao talk to spirits?"
"Wangsheng? Qiqi doesn't know. Qiqi only knows that Sister Hu Tao recently held funerals for many Millelith heroes. A lot of people fainted from crying."
At Qiqi's words, Eula suddenly remembered. Wangsheng—Liyue's premier funeral service. When her uncle had sent someone to investigate Su Bai, she had read that report.
The report mentioned Wangsheng as a centuries-old family business in Liyue. Even the Qixing didn't go out of their way to antagonize them.
No wonder Hu Tao could talk to spirits. No wonder she showed no fear when faced with so many bodies and even analyzed their causes of death with interest. So Hu Tao was the director of a funeral parlor. It all made sense now.
Eula felt a wave of realization. Wait. If she remembered correctly, Hu Tao had tried to sell her a Wangsheng package earlier. And her good friend Amber had promised to promote it in Mondstadt.
Imagining Mondstadt citizens cursing Amber out once they found out what Wangsheng actually did, Eula's face darkened. She needed to have a serious talk with Amber.
"Hu Tao, I've taken the photos. I'll leave the rest to you."
With trembling hands, Amber finished photographing the deceased adventurers for their families to claim. She immediately threw herself into Eula's arms. If not for her duty as an Outrider, she would have fled long ago.
"It's okay, it's okay. I told you to let me handle it, but you insisted on doing it yourself."
Eula patted Amber's shoulder. These corpses were indeed in a gruesome state. She felt uneasy just looking at them, let alone Amber. Not every girl was named Hu Tao.
"It's fine, Amber. Once you see more, you'll get used to it. Look, your director isn't afraid at all."