[Not the slightest bit of difficulty.]
[Not even a single Geovishap—feels like we're being looked down on. I didn't even need to use my newly pulled Jun Bai.]
[My six-year-old niece could clear this.]
The battle ended. Zhongli and Paimon came over to join the group.
As soon as Zhongli arrived, Hu Tao pulled him aside for a scolding.
Because Zhongli also had a Vision, yet he hadn't joined her—the Director—in dealing with the monsters.
Zhongli explained that he simply believed Hu Tao and the others had sufficient strength to handle those monsters, so he didn't intervene.
"I am Chongyun, an exorcist. Thank you all for your assistance." Chongyun clasped his hands in a respectful salute toward the group.
Xingqiu sheathed his Flying Sword and said: "Didn't I tell you to stay put here? Where did these hilichurls come from?"
"I don't know. I was just waiting here for you, then after a burst of smoke, these monsters suddenly appeared right in front of me. I hastily engaged them, and then you and Director Hu arrived." Chongyun explained.
"Smoke—like that?" Paimon pointed at the hilichurls the group had just defeated.
Wisps of pale white smoke rose from the hilichurls' corpses. Once the smoke dissipated, the hilichurls' bodies had completely vanished.
"Eh? They're gone? Just like how the monsters appeared." Chongyun widened his eyes.
But Hu Tao nodded at this moment: "Mm, this Hall Master already knows the reason these monsters appeared."
Everyone's gazes fell on Hu Tao.
"These monsters come from the Ley Lines." Hu Tao explained concisely and shockingly. "This is the Ley Lines' recreation of these monsters, so after we defeat them, their corpses naturally return to the Ley Lines."
"But Ley Line surges are generally fixed in location and periodic." Xingqiu said. "This spot—Chongyun and I have checked it before. It's safe."
Zhongli reminded: "Osial."
[Osial already got sealed twice—how could this still be connected to him? Is the Geo Archon just messing with everyone?]
[If it turns out in the end this has nothing to do with Osial, then it can only mean Osial really offended the Geo Archon badly back then.]
"Osial? This is still related to Osial?" Paimon questioned.
"Osial's unsealing caused turmoil throughout Liyue, even triggering natural disasters." Zhongli explained. "Every place in Liyue was actually affected to some degree by Osial's unsealing."
"The difference is only in how obvious or subtle the effects are."
Hu Tao picked up: "Obvious ones—like Guili Assembly and Liyue Harbor—were directly flooded and are still under reconstruction to this day."
"Subtle ones—like the Ley Line recreation we just saw."
"Osial's unsealing caused varying degrees of disturbance in the Ley Lines across Liyue. Such disturbances lead to all sorts of sudden incidents."
"Milder ones result in large numbers of monsters gathering together. More severe ones cause breaches in the Ley Lines, with massive amounts of information leaking out, eventually manifesting as monsters that once existed—like what we just fought."
Everyone nodded in realization.
"Director, the impact on Qingce Village may be more severe than you think." Zhongli said, sensing the state of the Ley Lines. "Not only monsters that once existed—people and objects from the past could also be recreated from the Ley Lines."
Hu Tao's eyes lit up.
"…Director, those are Ley Line recreations—not ghosts that can be sent off." Zhongli added, to help Hu Tao face reality.
[Hu Tao: Damn, I thought business was coming.]
[People or objects from the past can appear too? Could we see a living Qingce Sword Immortal in this plot segment?]
"People or objects from the past…" Xingqiu smiled. "Feels like we're going to encounter some very interesting things."
"I only hope we don't end up missing the interesting things and instead delay our search for clues about Senior Qingce Sword Immortal."
"Is Chongyun also here to look for the Qingce Sword Immortal?" Paimon asked.
Chongyun scratched his head: "Any sword practitioner seems to want to pay respects to Senior Sword Immortal's heroic bearing."
Xingqiu called him out: "But you're clearly using a claymore."
"Is there a problem with claymores? Books record that Senior Sword Immortal could split mountains and sever peaks with just a heavy sword, dominating the world." Chongyun's tone was very proud.
"But books also record that before Senior Sword Immortal dominated the world with a heavy sword, his swift sword was already unmatched under heaven." Xingqiu refused to back down. "And when Senior Sword Immortal slew the god, he used a light sword."
Seeing the two about to start a heated argument, Zhongli—following Hu Tao's cue—stepped between them.
"You two, this isn't today's focus."
"Today our group didn't come here for sightseeing—we're here to uncover the past stories of the Qingce Sword Immortal."
"If we start arguing here, some people will have to rush back to work, and then we'll have to wait another stretch of time."
When Hu Tao said this, Lumine and Paimon nodded vigorously in agreement—looking more like Hu Tao's lackeys than Zhongli did.
[If Hu Tao hadn't said it, we'd have forgotten we rushed here during off-hours and still have to hurry back to work later.]
[After getting off work, you who are heading to a blind date learn you'll have overtime tonight be like:]
Thanks to Hu Tao's mediation, Xingqiu and Chongyun stopped confronting each other. The group headed toward Qingce Village.
On the way, after discussion, the group decided to split up.
Lumine and Paimon in one group, Zhongli and Hu Tao in another, Xingqiu and Chongyun in the third—three separate paths to collect any clues related to the Qingce Sword Immortal in Qingce Village.
——Reality
"I thought there would still be multi-perspective narration—didn't expect it to still be single-perspective. Are they trying to compress the quest flow?"
Silver Wolf looked at the map and saw no familiar multi-perspective icons, feeling a bit disappointed.
She had really wanted to see how Hu Tao and Xingqiu would collect clues and whether it matched her expectations.
Of course, while disappointed, the quest still had to continue.
So Silver Wolf began following the quest markers and running around everywhere.
——Side note
Tomorrow the event story ends, and Jun Bai's Story Quest begins.