"That makes it sound like we're cheating," Focalors said with a smile.
Lora uncovered Shuyu's eyes and looked at her. "What are you talking about? How can you call that cheating? We're just making reasonable use of the rules."
She was the acting Sustainer, wasn't she?
She was qualified to govern Teyvat, wasn't she?
Then what was wrong with her handing out a Vision?
"What cheating? What rules?" Shuyu still did not understand any of this and looked blankly between the two.
Lora crouched down and asked, "Shuyu, have you heard of Visions?"
Shuyu nodded. "I have! Mom and Dad told me that anyone with a Vision is really, really amazing! Even they don't have one!"
"Then do you want one?" Lora asked.
"Can I have one?" Shuyu looked at her in surprise. "Mom and Dad said the requirements for getting a Vision are really strict..."
"It's true that you need to meet certain conditions to obtain one, but I believe you'll get there." Lora ruffled her hair and said, "When the time comes, I'll personally give you one!"
"You can give out Visions?" Shuyu stared at her in shock.
Lora nodded. "Mm! I'm very impressive, you know!"
Xianyun stood off to the side, watching their exchange. Then she glanced at Focalors and Furina nearby, walked over, and asked quietly, "Has she always been this good at fooling people?"
"Five hundred years ago... she wasn't like this." After a moment of silence, Focalors shook her head somewhat awkwardly.
"How old is she, still trying to play the big sister?" Xianyun scoffed and shook her head.
Shuyu noticed her expression and tilted her head in curiosity. "Miss Xianyun, are you unhappy?"
Xianyun: "..."
The group took Yuandai and Shuyu around the area. Furina asked with concern, "Madame Yuandai, looking at these houses, do you remember anything?"
Yuandai's expression was still a little dazed. She looked around, and her gaze finally stopped on a wooden house that had long since fallen into ruin.
After a long silence, realization suddenly seemed to strike her.
"Ah! I remember!"
"Grandma, what did you remember?" Shuyu hurriedly asked.
"Shuyu... I remember your father was born here," Yuandai said. "It was a moonless night. Your grandfather was supporting me because I was injured... Behind us, in that thick fog, something seemed to be hunting us."
"Later, I couldn't run anymore, so we had no choice but to rest here. Your grandfather set up a barrier outside, but neither of us knew whether it could stop those terrifying things..."
A reminiscent look came over her face as she murmured, "That night, I kept praying, 'The fault is mine alone. If punishment must fall for breaking the oath, let it fall on me, and spare this child!'"
"Fault? Breaking an oath?" Furina blinked, tugged at Focalors's sleeve, and whispered, "What's going on now?"
Focalors said helplessly, "I wasn't there either. How would I know?"
Then both of them looked toward Xianyun and Lora.
Seeing the way they were looking at her, Xianyun sighed and said, "Haah... Let's go to the last place, then. Qingyun Peak, right?"
Yuandai nodded and said to everyone a little apologetically, "Yes, Qingyun Peak... But my legs aren't very good, so I can't walk fast. I'm sorry to slow everyone down."
"That's not a problem!" Lora shook her head. She waved toward the sea not far away. From here, they could still see the Treasure Hoarders struggling through the water as they swam toward shore.
In a way, those Treasure Hoarders had fought a god.
If they knew that, they would probably brag about it for the rest of their lives.
"I fought a god and survived!"
Lora drew seawater over and condensed it into a mount in front of Yuandai. Then she smiled and said, "Get on. This isn't just any mount! It's made of seawater!"
"Uh..." Furina poked Focalors. "Hey, isn't that obvious to anyone who looks? Why does Mom have to emphasize it? Is that one of her quirks?"
Focalors: "..."
She did not answer. Instead, she quietly shifted a little farther away.
Furina still had not figured out why Focalors had put distance between them when she saw Lora look back.
"Oh? What were you saying about me?" Lora looked at the two of them with a smile.
"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Furina quickly shook her head.
Then she turned back to Focalors.
So she had known all along that Mom could hear their whispers! Was that why she moved away?
Traitor!
The group set out from the northern part of Jueyun Karst and headed for Qingyun Peak. With the mounts Lora had conjured to help them, their pace was much faster.
After arriving, Furina looked at the wide, open scenery and asked, "Madame Yuandai, do you have any memories of this place?"
"Let me see..." Yuandai got down from the mount, and the watery creature immediately ran over to Lora and nudged her.
Lora: "..."
Yuandai gazed at the scenery of Qingyun Peak with a somewhat confused expression.
"This place... How strange. Did I live here before? When I was at Wangshu Inn and Jueyun Karst, I could remember things from the past, but here, I can't think of anything..."
"Looks like this isn't the place," Furina said with a sigh, though she did not seem disappointed. "It's a story, after all! It's normal for there to be some differences. We'll just keep looking!"
Yuandai sighed. She looked around, and her gaze fell on a distant mountain off to one side of Qingyun Peak. Frowning, she asked, "That mountain... what is it?"
Furina looked over as well. "What mountain?"
Lora blinked, turned to Xianyun, and asked, "Do you know it? What mountain is that?"
"To think you came here as a guest before, yet you don't even remember." Xianyun looked at Lora's bewildered expression with some exasperation, then said to everyone, "That is Mt. Aocang."
"Mt. Aocang? Mt. Aocang... So that's Mt. Aocang? I..."
After hearing the name, Yuandai stared at the mountain before her, raised a hand to her head, and her expression tightened in pain, as if she were desperately trying to remember something.