Half an hour or so of walking later, the pair sighted a big and inclined hill a kilometer away, stretching into the sky.
"See that? That's one of the big spears Morax used against his enemies in the Archon War. Some say each one of these hills is a spear, and that each one buried to death at least one real god. Our goal is probably just another kilometer or so beyond that." Beidou commented.
"Oof, we're almost there then."
Since Beidou treated their journey like a stroll, Sai welcomed it with open arms. Their conversations flowed quite well, too.
Apparently, she and her fleet had received a mission from the Qixing and were in the search of something there at Guyun Stone Forest. That is also why The Alchor was anchored nearby. She didn't want to tell him about the mission, and he also didn't want to pry too much, so they just glossed over the matter.
Sai took the chance to tell Beidou of his business ambitions and even mention a future partnership between the two.
"Hey, I didn't ask you before, but how old are you? Do you drink?"
"Of course I do!" Sai immediately agreed. "I haven't had much experience with alcohol, but I am eager to try more."
"Oh, yeah? What have you tried so far?"
"It's funny that you asked, because a few days ago I tried Osmanthus Wine for the first time and-"
Suddenly, Beidou pulled Sai's arm towards herself and jumped back two meters in an instant. The ground just ahead of them exploded and burst into flames. Luckily, Beidou avoided it on time.
"Wha- what was that?!"
Beidou frowned and answered:
"The Fatui…"
"The Fatui? But where are they? I don't see anybody." Sai frantically looked around.
"That was a Pyroslinger. They can shoot from a very long distance, so even I don't know exactly where it is. I only know it came from somewhere on that hill." She looked at the burnt ground and added: "That shot was just a warning for us to not come any closer."
"A warning? How intriguing. What do we do then? Should we try running past them? There's gonna be a group waiting for us, though. What if we try to go around it?"
"We can't. To that direction is the domain of the Hypostasis, we can't risk it."
"The domain of the Hypostasis?"
"Haven't you heard of it? The Geo Hypostasis of Guyun Stone Forest isn't particularly aggressive, but extremely territorial like the others. If someone enters its territory while carrying a Vision of another element, it immediately tries to attack and destroy them."
"Really? The hell… Can't we just beat it, then?"
"Beat the Hypostasis? You're insane. That's an enemy that even Haishan had to respect."
"Even Haishan, you say? The sea dragon?"
"I barely managed to take it down with my whole crew. If we face that Hypostasis now, even if we both don't die, you certainly will."
Sai shivered for a second.
"Then… our only option is to get through the Fatui?"
"Unless you have another idea, yes."
*Blast!*
Another explosion hit the ground in front of them: the shooter was starting to lose his patience.
"Dammit."
"I'll give you a piggyback. Just make sure to hold tight-" Beidou crouched.
"No, wait. There might be another option."
"What option?"
"Instead of straight up running towards the hill under the barrage of a sniper, we can bluff our way through instead."
"And how would we do that?"
"Use your elemental power to let them know that you are a Vision holder, and a powerful one at that."
"How? It's hard to sense elemental power from this distance."
"Just throw the strongest lightning bolt you can manage at the foot of the hill."
"Mmmm. That might be doable, but how do we deal with them later?"
"We keep walking until we reach the hill. After that-"
"Hang on, he's charging another one, and it's bigger than before!"
"Quick, shoot them first!"
"Kuuk! Okay. Stand back!"
Beidou quickly gathered elemental power in her greatsword, which had appeared out of thin air again, and raised it up high.
Sai felt all the hairs on his body standing up, his skin numbing by the second. Purple energy in the form of electricity surrounded the whole blade, and it constantly broke air resistance like it was tofu. Luckily for Sai, Beidou was controlling it to not hurt him by accident.
After just a few seconds had passed, she slashed down with great might and a purple thick ray of lightning flashed forward. Sai glanced ahead, just in time to see a big fireball in the middle of the ray, and a loud explosion at the foot of the hill. Debris and rocks were flung into the air, and smoke followed.
Beidou had timed her attack with the shot from the Pyroslinger, and met it midair. The power from her lightning easily broke through the shot and accurately landed on her target.
"Great, you did it!"
"*Huff!* Now what? We just walk up to them?"
"Exactly. Let's go, calmly and slowly. Disappear with that big sword."
She looked at him in some annoyance. She sighed and then gave a short laugh.
"Haha. What a terrible plan this is…"
"It's better than nothing. Now, raise your hands like you mean no harm. If we're lucky, they will try to reason with us first. We will tell them we are just passing through and that we don't mean to attack."
Sai told her as they walked the last 900 meters or so.
"See? It worked. They aren't attacking anymore."
"I guess you're right. But they are probably calling their leader right now, though. I am not confident in protecting you while I fight with them all."
"You're not?"
Sai was somewhat surprised.
"They aren't as stupid as hilichurls or as arrogant as the abyssal creatures. I hope we don't have to fight them."
She looked at Sai and saw that he had already lowered his hands and that he was sweating a little.
"Haha! Relax. Even though I say I'm not confident, that's because it's not a certainty. But the probability of success should be more than 70%!"
Sai grimaced and gave her a forced smile.
"I trust you, captain."