The next day, Orion stretched and emerged from the bedroom. After washing up, he carried the lazy Fischl out, and then chased the Sanzomon back to Immernachtreich.
Not long after, Xiangling also crawled out of the closet and secretly returned home.
Arriving at the Qiyu Plaza, everyone was present today.
Mona and Fischl had returned to Mondstadt, but Lumine and Noelle seemed to be giving themselves a long vacation since the Rite of Descension was mostly finished.
That's good. Noelle finally knows how to rest.
Yunli seemed annoyed by the people from the Guhua Clan. Whenever she went over, a crowd would beg her to teach them swordsmanship, which amused her. She wondered, 'My style relies on Brute Force. How can you learn that with ordinary iron swords?' Compared to these Guhua Clan disciples, she preferred Noelle, who also used the Brute Force style, so lately, Yunli had been spending every day holed up in the blacksmith shop at home, playing with ironworking.
Clara usually hangs out in the workshop with Anaconda. The last time Orion checked, it seemed they had already constructed the head of the First Generation Gundam, but for some unknown reason, Anaconda installed a mouth that could open and close, along with a transformation function.
Stop! This isn't a Transformer!!!
Don't turn my First Generation into a GQuuuuuuX!
Today, the two of them were eating breakfast outside with Big and Small Griseo. Were they cute? Yes, very cute, like two pairs of sisters.
Just thinking about the days ahead felt exciting.
Adding in Skirk, who was, for some reason, stuffing Novels and Storybooks into Shenhe's small backpack, it could truly be said that All the Sages Gathered.
Orion clapped his hands: "I'm going to the Jade Chamber to see Ningguang today. Does anyone want to come along for a tour?"
"Swoosh". Everyone's gaze simultaneously turned towards him, but after a moment of silence, their eyes shifted away again.
Only Paimon looked excited: "I'll go with you, I'll go with you! Will I get anything good if I go?"
"If you want good things, I can give them to you right now. Lumine, Paimon is going, are you?"
Lumine waved her hand lazily: "No, I'm not going. I need to get some good rest today. You guys go ahead. I'm going back to bed after I eat."
Orion leaned in and whispered curiously in Paimon's ear: "What's wrong with her? Why is she so tired? She didn't even let me near her last night."
You have to remember that Lumine in the game usually jumps into action whenever something happens, and it's rare for Paimon to go out without her following.
Paimon also whispered back into Orion's ear: "She spent almost the entire day yesterday doing Escort Missions. For some reason, a lot of monsters resembling remnants of a god emerged from the Ley Lines yesterday, and they were extremely difficult to kill!"
"I see, then it's not surprising." Since they were remnants of a god, Orion felt relieved.
However, what Orion didn't know was that Paimon couldn't really distinguish between remnants of a god and the Abyssal Corruption caused by Forbidden Knowledge. She just saw black smoke billowing from the monsters and assumed that was what Orion meant by remnants of a god.
Orion looked at Shenhe again: "Shenhe, will you come with me?"
Shenhe slung her small bag over her shoulder and shook her head at Orion: "I won't go. I'm going to see Master today."
"You're going to the True Lord's place?" Orion thought for a moment and felt he could also send the True Lord some small gifts. First, to raise the friendship level with his non-biological mother-in-law, making it easier to deploy Gala Ge Mu, and second, he clearly remembered that Cloud Retainer was still quite unwelcoming toward humans at this time, but she was interested in various mechanisms, gadgets, and the Cooking Automaton.
Why not cater to her interests and bring her some trinkets produced by humans as gifts? As a gift from her beloved disciple, Cloud Retainer, that tsundere, would pretend to look down on it but would definitely accept it and secretly fiddle with it. Perhaps it could even break her prejudice against humans.
So Orion took down Shenhe's backpack, retrieved a D-rank Magic Pouch from the Gate of Babylon, and started stuffing things into it.
"The True Lord likes studying cooking, right? Then I'll put some small snacks produced by humans in this pouch. These are ninety-nine percent rare items—you won't find them in Teyvat, only I have them!
And in this pouch here, she should also really like mechanisms and things, right? I'll give you a few Science and Technology Books. Just let her read them—she won't make a sound once she starts. This is knowledge Teyvat doesn't have, you know~"
Orion felt his plan was perfect; delicious food unavailable in Teyvat and knowledge that had never appeared—it was a targeted special attack against the True Lord!
Then, Shenhe, carrying the Magic Pouch, walked out of the Miliastra Wonderland with Orion and Paimon, only separating and heading in different directions once they had left Liyue Harbor.
Time flowed slowly. Finally, just as Ningguang, dressed in casual clothes, arrived with Baiwen, Baishi, and Baixiao, carrying large and small bags of gifts, and settled into a private room at the teahouse next to the alley where Orion often appeared, Orion himself arrived beneath the Jade Chamber.
"How do I get up there?" Looking at the Jade Chamber suspended high in the sky, Orion started pondering the plot.
"It seems... it seems there was some kind of chant? Once you say the chant, a platform activates and takes you up? No, no, I think it was a secret code?
What was the content? Was it... Have you eaten the moon? No, impossible. Not everyone is me. Why would they randomly eat the moon?"
After thinking for a long time and failing to recall it, Orion simply chose the easiest method: grabbing Paimon, he took a huge leap upward, and then used the Gate of Babylon in mid-air to slow his descent, lest he accidentally crash the Jade Chamber.
It was a pity that the Noble Phantasm level of the Gate of Babylon was too low right now to use the vimana, otherwise he could have just flown straight up.
Actually, Orion thought his plan was quite good right up until he was surrounded by the Millelith guards stationed on the Jade Chamber. It seemed that just explaining his identity took a significant amount of time.
After he explained his identity, the leader of the Millelith seemed aware that Ningguang wanted to meet this young master, so he didn't make things difficult for Orion.
However, Ningguang hadn't specified where she had gone before leaving. The leader asked Orion if he needed someone to look for Lady Ningguang. Orion said no, stating he could tour the Jade Chamber first.
However, the tour lasted until noon, and he still hadn't seen anyone.
Paimon had some complaints about this, but Orion knew Ningguang wasn't the type to stand people up. He guessed she must have had some urgent national affairs. Once Paimon heard it was urgent national affairs, she didn't say much more; despite her temperamental nature, the child knew how to prioritize.
Finally, Orion figured that waiting around wouldn't accomplish anything, so he placed all the gifts he had prepared at Ningguang's residence—they were also novel items that didn't exist in Teyvat.
Finally, he also wrote a note. This note was the first time he had acted like a Literary Plagiarist, aside from writing novels. There was no real reason for it, just a bit of flattery, and it came to mind because of the name [Jade Chamber].
He used a Hiraishin kunai to weigh down the note. That kunai was the key to everything: it was the symbol of the alliance he himself had devised. If it broke, Orion would receive the message and intervene on Liyue's behalf once.
Originally, Orion hadn't planned on giving it now, but since he was already here, as long as he didn't tell Ningguang how to use it, she would probably just treat it as an antique and put it away.
"Let's go, Paimon... What are you looking at?"
"Nothing much, I just noticed there are a lot of notes on the wall here. They say Keqing of the Seven Stars of Liyue is preparing to restore the Guili Plains!"
"Restoring the Guili Plains? Oh, fixing the roads first, and then rebuilding the houses? That's good news.
Come on, where do you want to go play? I'll take you."
"Yay, yay! Let's go buy Tanghulu!"
"Alright, let's go."
.
.
.
.
"They've already left?"
Not long after Orion left with Paimon, Ningguang returned with her two personal secretaries.
Hearing the report from the stationed Millelith, Ningguang felt a tightness in her chest.
Being such a cautious person, she had naturally sent people to watch. The elevator on Yujing Terrace hadn't been activated by anyone at all. How did they get up here?
"They jumped up?!"
Receiving the Millelith's answer again, Ningguang burst out laughing this time.
She was laughing out of exasperation, but also a bit surprised. She hadn't expected that in the phrase "very powerful, but a slightly wicked lecher" that Jean had written in her letter, the "very powerful" part was the crucial element.
Now, she had left her gifts at the teahouse and had Baiwen wait there to hand them over when Orion returned, yet she hadn't expected Orion to leave gifts for her as well, and they were all things she had never seen before.
To be honest, this made her uneasy. A person who appeared out of nowhere, possessing many things unheard of and unseen—nothing was more unsettling.
Finally, she discovered a note on her desk.
"Clouds wish for her clothes, flowers for her face; the spring breeze brushes the railing, the dew is heavy. If not seen atop the Jade Chamber, we would meet beneath the moon on Yao Terrace..."
He picked up the Hiraishin kunai and toyed with its blade for a moment in his hands.
Finally, Ningguang smiled brightly.
"He is quite a remarkable person."
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