—Real World
After the conversation with Zhongli and the others, Liyue Harbor's Lantern Rite event, Bright Firmament Rises Over the Sea, also opened.
Unlike the Lantern Rite Grand Celebration with only half of its six minigames unlocked, all four parts of Bright Firmament Rises Over the Sea unlocked automatically after completing the prerequisite story.
Then came the event story, divided into three chapters: Where Do the Lanterns Come From, Hidden Currents Beneath the Lanterns, and Bright Firmament Within the Seas.
It differed somewhat from the plot before Jun Bai's transmigration—due to changes in this timeline, plus this world's Bright Firmament Rises Over the Sea plot being compressed into a single day.
So although the chapter titles were the same, they told a different story.
And this time, Lumine didn't have to make Xiao Lanterns for the entire Liyue Harbor.
In this version's Lantern Rite story, both Lumine and the players had plenty of time to learn about Lantern Rite. Meanwhile, in the plot, everyone also met a new character.
A Pyro Vision holder who regards the Qingce Sword Immortal as his aspiration and aims to become the next Sky Phoenix Wheel Feather—Yuan Xi.
A young boy about to join the Millelith.
(This part of the story—I'll release as a side story on Lunar New Year's Eve. Right now, there are still two legend quest side stories and one crossover side story to write—not much time.)
(Plus, if I wrote this into the main story, the 200-chapter Inazuma main line would truly become an impossible flag.)
"Yuan Xi is so cute! All Pyro characters have off-the-charts cuteness!" March 7th let out a silly giggle while looking at the little shota on screen.
[Diluc: Really?]
[As we all know, Pyro characters are all cheerful and optimistic—what do you think, Diluc?]
[Yuan Xi, Yuan Xi—same pronunciation, different characters. miHoYo really saves effort on naming.]
At this point, the event story was nearing its end.
Everyone was bidding farewell to Yuan Xi.
Yuan Xi: "The Xiao Lantern Festival is about to start—I need to go back and get my Xiao Lantern. Goodbye, big brothers and sisters."
Paimon: "Goodbye, little Yuan Xi."
Lumine: "When we meet again, become an outstanding Millelith member, okay?"
Jun Mo Li: "Next time we meet, I can teach you swordsmanship—you can look forward to it."
[Sword Immortal's promise.]
[Other swordsmen after learning the truth: No way, does this count as inheriting the Sword Immortal's legacy?!]
[Later when selecting the next Sky Phoenix Wheel Feather, other contestants: This sword guy can't just be auto-qualified for finals, right?]
This conversation ended, and Yuan Xi ran off toward Liyue Harbor.
"Ah, he's gone." March 7th felt a bit regretful watching Yuan Xi's retreating figure.
But no matter how much regret, Yuan Xi wasn't in any banner yet. He only had a model—for actual release, he was as far off as the remaining four of the five Yakshas.
March 7th sighed, suppressed her craving for the cute little shota, then adjusted the time to night—arriving at the start time of the Xiao Lantern Festival.
The cutscene began playing at this moment.
When the Xiao Lanterns rose into the sky and converged into a brilliant path of light, the spectacular sight shocked every player.
And when all the already-appeared Liyue characters showed up in the animation, an emotion called "moved" flowed through every player's heart.
When the scene appeared of Jun Bai holding Yiya in Ziwei Star Palace admiring the Xiao Lanterns, all the Marshal fans and Yiya fans went wild.
[Already recording! Gonna frame-by-frame appreciate later, then pick the best one as wallpaper!]
[Beautiful and cute father-daughter duo (๑ᵒ̴̶̷͈᷄ᗨᵒ̴̶̷͈᷅)]
[Yiya's sleeping face—so cute! Can miHoYo make a matching merch! Preferably a dakimakura!]
"Ah!!! Yiya! Is there any little kid as cute as Yiya for me to cuddle?!" March 7th felt physically and mentally happy, completely healed by Yiya.
Although she wasn't a Yiya stan, March had always had zero resistance to cute things.
The animation reached the end. A pair of jade hands strumming the qin strings stopped. Ah Ping set down her ancient qin on Jade Capital Terrace.
"This year's Lantern Rite Xiao Lantern Festival was very successful too."
With that, the Liyue Harbor portion of the Lantern Rite story concluded.
The subsequent Guili Assembly portion would open tomorrow.
"The Yuan Xi story opens on New Year's Eve—miHoYo, you really know how to time things." March 7th grumbled.
Then she opened the Bright Firmament Rises Over the Sea event page.
The event had four parts: Bright Firmament Rises Over the Sea, Lantern Rite Anecdotes, Mechanism Wonders, and Xiao Market.
Bright Firmament Rises Over the Sea referred to the event story.
Lantern Rite Anecdotes were resident requests—completing them gave Primogem rewards.
Mechanism Wonders were co-op minigames.
Xiao Lanterns were the required items for resident requests and Mechanism Wonders—related materials could be obtained by defeating monsters.
The Xiao Market allowed exchanging limited-time currency [Peace Jade Talisman] earned from the above activities for various materials.
It could also exchange 1000 Peace Jade Talismans for one of the current Liyue 4-star characters.
However, players weren't very interested in this reward.
[These characters—everyone can get them eventually. Does this reward even mean anything?]
[The meaning of this reward is +1 constellation for everyone's Xingqiu—but not everyone needs it.]
[Xingqiu at C6 speaks with confidence.]
[Everyone picking Xingqiu? Isn't full-constellation Ningguang super strong too? And I feel like Xingqiu isn't that easy to use.]
[Not easy to use might mean your Adventure Rank is too low—or you haven't watched Silver Wolf's national team video.]
Fengdeng Lou Invitation Mode: Look me in the eye, you instant-kill spawn!
Among them, little March found Mechanism Wonders the most fun—with friends, she could play all night.
So after Stelle and Firefly came online, little March immediately pulled them into co-op.
One night passed—arriving at the next day.
—Teyvat
Lumine and Paimon walked out of the inn.
Paimon said excitedly: "Last night's Xiao Lanterns were truly spectacular. I kept dreaming about that scene."
Lumine smiled: "It really was a beautiful sight."
"But we can't forget—today is New Year's Eve. We promised Jun Bai we'd return to Guili Assembly."
Paimon crossed her arms: "Of course I didn't forget. When the Xiao Lantern Festival ended yesterday, Mo Li even reminded us."
"Speaking of which—where's Mo Li?"
Lumine gave Paimon a look: "When the Xiao Lantern Festival ended last night, he already went back. Forgot?"
"Oh, right—I remember now. He said he still had something to handle for Jun Bai before returning to Guili Assembly." With Lumine's reminder, Paimon recovered the memory lost in her sleep.
Paimon said: "Since that's the case, it's just the two of us going back. No time to waste—let's head out now!"
Lumine nodded, took Paimon's hand, and used a teleport waypoint to arrive at Fengdeng Lou.
As soon as they reached Fengdeng Lou, Lumine and Paimon saw Chen Yuan talking with Jun Bai.
Ning Yao stood to the side, smiling as she watched Chen Yuan.
"Huh? Miss Ning Yao is here too?" Paimon expressed confusion at Ning Yao's appearance.
"Don't you need to look after business in Liyue Harbor? Or did you find another acting manager to cover for you and give yourself a holiday again?"
"Manager Paimon knows me quite well." Ning Yao said with a smile. "But I didn't give myself a holiday."
"Starting from New Year's Eve, everyone in Guili Assembly gets a short Lantern Rite holiday—it's tradition."
"So I didn't give myself a holiday—this is simply my holiday. The Fengdeng Lou in Liyue Harbor is naturally also on holiday with me."
"Oh~ So that's how it is." Paimon nodded in realization.
Then she suddenly noticed a problem:
"Wait—if that's the case, does that mean Fengdeng Lou's chefs are on holiday too?"