Once we arrived back at the Inn, Verr Goldet had one of the Inns workers tell us that our first course for gastronomic adventure in Liyue cuisine was ready.
"Let's just eat it in our room." I said wanting to just relax in the relative privacy of our room.
Paimon nodded at my words with Lumine affirming our choice.
Once we got our food, we all heartily delved into the Chinese themed dishes we got, until we finished off our third course of food and we finally laid back against our chairs rubbing our bellies in comfort at our filled feeling.
"Lumine wanna head to bed early so we can get back to Mondstadt before it passes noon?" I asked as Paimon acted like a food vacuum and finished our leftovers.
Lumine nodded then my blond companion joined me as we relaxed into bed with Paimon surprisingly not stealing one of our pillows and instead simply snuggling up between our spooning forms like a small dog or something seeking our warmth.
-
A series of violent explosions thoroughly shook us awake, and I reflexively threw myself out of bed to begin pushing my shoes on as Lumine cursed and begun to just get dressed in general. "What in the world is happening!?" Paimon cried as she flew towards the Inn window that overlooked the vast flat marshlands in the surroundings.
"Guys! The Fatui are here setting off bombs in the market!" Paimon yelled out and I cursed panicking at how sudden this was.
This wasn't in the Fatui's standard goals to randomly bomb a popular landmark in the middle of one of the most powerful nations in the damned world!
"Lumine we are dropping down with wing suits I am going ahead, meet me here when it's all over!" I yelled as I jumped out of the rooms window still bare chested but at least wearing my pants and boots with the rest of my clothes having been put into my space bag.
People's lives were worth more than my desire to go through the time it took for me to put on my ornate Schnee outfit.
"Die!" I screamed as I brought out Rain Slasher the claymore, I got last night and used gravity as my weapon to bring the massive sword straight onto an Electro Delusion wielder and the flat edge of the Rain Slasher hit the shoulder of the man so hard it was like a sledgehammer smashing into a watermelon as his flesh simply couldn't take the impact and he was split almost in half as I dragged out my sword.
Seeing an Fatui assassin slit the throat of the fleeing serving lady that brought our food I couldn't help but realize that the few Millelith stationed here were woefully underprepared, outnumbered and worse outmatched as a single Delusion wielder could easily kill them. smashing aside their spears and bringing down an Electro enhanced hammer onto them for example.
I stomped my feet on the ground and a massive Schnee glyph stretched out and with a cry I augmented my Geo powers with the Glyph sending Geo crystals to surround all the civilians I could see before I used almost rest of my aura to summon a half dozen Ruin Guards that sprinted towards the extremely confused Fatui troops.
"Kill the vision wielder! We need the true Sigil of Permission!" I was then beset by a number of Fatui agents, and I franticly threw powerful blades of winds at the teleporting Cicin Mages that attempted to blind side me along with the assassins while swinging the Rain Slasher to smash aside the bigger more melee focused Fatui.
Thankfully Lumine finished getting dressed and as she floated down from our room, she mercilessly shot sharpened Geo crystals at the Fatui beneath her after she took out the couple snipers in the contingent.
With a cry I began using my Geo powers less entirely offensively as I made ground into an extremely deep pit and with the sand I left behind and with the surrounding marshes. The results were as to be expected.
The Fatui who couldn't teleport away all began to sink into my impromptu quicksand, and I used the rest of my Geo energy to push the Geo crystals I used to encase and protect the civilians up out of the quicksand as the Fatui who survived my trap fled.
"Fuck..." I couldn't help but curse seeing the massive mess the place had become. Not to mention the bazaar had completely burnt down in the resulting battle but there were literally a couple hundred bodies lying on the ground with several visibly dying the ground in their life blood.
"Jake we should probably get out of here." Lumine said grimacing at the sight, but I shook my head.
"No as the only vision wielders here we need to make sure that the wounded are taken care of and more importantly that the Fatui don't come back." I argued as I quickly removed the Geo crystals, I used to encase some of the civilians letting them free to dumbfoundedly stare at the carnage around them.
Lumine sighed heavily and nodded but still muttered. "We solved the main problem but now we are certainly going to be pulled into Liyue's nonsense."
My face couldn't help but twitch as I thought. 'No, we just got involved early.'
-
I used all the first aid knowledge I could recall from school as I liberally ripped peoples clothes off to bind any of their wounds, even for lost limbs as I had no idea how to cauterize a wound and trying something like that with no training and knowledge would likely prove tortuous or even fatal for the person.
Finally, a Millelith soldier who helped me and Lumine treat the wounded, limped over to me and saluted. "As the captain of this detachment of Millelith I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your assistance. But I must ask you to speak to my superior Lady Keqing who has rushed here after purging another encampment of Fatui scum."
I nodded tiredly and off handed noticed that yeah, he was definitely a higher rank than the other soldiers I helped with the more ornate armor he was wearing. "Where is she." I asked simply wanting to simply get cleaned off the blood and other stuff that splattered me.
"Lady Keqing has ascended to the top of the Inn to converse with other members of the Millelith and Liyue officials as to what will be done for this attack." The captain spat as he limped away.
I looked over and saw Lumine was just walking away from another Millelith solider having probably given the same request, so I hurried over to her as Paimon floated over seeing as we were no longer doing our grim tasks.
"Worse part about being a hero is the after-action report and questions." Lumine said taking my hand into hers as we walked into the elevator that would take us to the top of the Inn.
For the ride up to the top we shared a companionable silence before I spoke softly. "Nothing will happen to Sneznahya for this. The rest of the world is terrified of them. Of their delusion wielding troops." The Fatui in canon literally attacked Barbatos in the middle of Mondstadt any consequences? Nope... They unsealed an insane god to drown the city of Liyue Harbor in order to simply draw out Morax, did they face consequences for the lives and damages lost? Nope...
I will not allow them to get off scot-free from this worthless slaughter.
When it comes down to it, I am fully prepared to kill Childe should we fight in Liyue.
As we walked into the room, we were guided into I saw the figure of the leader of the Millelith, Keqing and the spymaster of Liyue, Yelan leaning over and inspecting a map of seemingly the surrounding area and Keqing quickly folded over the map obscuring its contents as we walked in.
Yelan hummed as she took us in and then bowed lightly to the two of us before she spoke. "Travelers of Liyue I welcome you to our lands. More importantly I and the rest of Liyue thank you both for your timely assistance in defending our people and an icon of our land."
I nodded tiredly but seeing Yelan I nudged Lumine trying to bring some levity to the room. "Hey Lumine reminder that one legendary woman of Liyue who would drive a harbinger up a wall." Everyone in the room all froze hearing my weird words.
"Meet Yelan the creator of the tradition to steal the Tsaritsa and Fatui Harbingers clothes, the great tradition started here in Liyue then Inazuma accomplished it and now we people of Mondstadt have stolen and burnt all the clothes of the Harbinger Signora." I said proudly making Lumine facepalm at my ice breaker.
However, Yelan herself found my words hilarious as she gripped the pelt jacket I mentioned while bursting into laughter. "Haha that explains why that bitch was going commando when we fought last night!" I froze hearing her words before I realized something important.
With the Ruin Grader ruining their base in the Dragonspine mountains they obviously retreated into Liyue rather than trying to create a new base in Mondstadt as we had already gone ahead and purged them when they got lucky in collecting one of Dvalins tears.
"You two fought a Harbinger and walked out alright?" I asked incredulously as despite how skilled and strong Keqing and Yelan were, they weren't the match of an enraged Signora with her delusion augmenting her Pyro body transformation.
Signora was honestly bullshit to fight as she literally had the equivalent of the fire Logia ability from One Piece in how she could phase her body into flames and Teyvat didnt have the counter hack of Haki to render that weird body transformation mute. Only overwhelming power like the Raiden Shogun used could deal with her.
Yelan shook her head as she smiled wryly. "No, it was far worse than you think. We ended up fighting the combined forces of the Harbingers Signora, the newest Harbinger Childe and their forces to the north-west of the Dragonspine mountains. It was only the arrival of an Adeptus disciple and more allies who arrived feeling the disturbance our battles were causing, and the Harbingers fled with the Fatui scattering."
Hmm so the Adeptus disciple was likely to be Shenhe as Jueyun Karst wasn't that far from the battle if she was telling the truth about the location and I would bet that the reason Xiao wasn't involved in this battle to defend his resting place was the fact that he was hunting the Fatui through the night.
Keqing lightly cleared her throat to gather our attention and then began the anticipated exhaustively precise information debrief consisting of introducing ourselves and our goals here in Liyue.
"First of all, where in the world are you two from? I would think hearing about people capable of using two elemental powers without visions visibly hanging off them would be rather hot news." Yelan asked after we explained that were briefly visitors to Liyue from Mondstadt doing an important Adeventure's Guild quest which they didnt bother contest.
"As I said we are from Mondstadt you can contact the Acting Grand Master to confirm our identities." I said helplessly as I couldn't just out and say we were both from different worlds.
Yelan hummed in thought before her slitted blue pupils narrowed upon me as she spoke softly. "The thing I care for least is an established identity... While you are in Liyue we will be keeping an eye on your actions as you both have proven to be strong enough to defeat a fleeing contingent of Fatui operatives."
Me and Lumine snickered making Yelan's Femme fatale persona break down as we shared a look before Lumine responded. "Well, you are going to be disappointed as we were going back to Mondstadt today as they too are facing their own problems we swore to assist with. If you want to follow us and probably get sucked into fighting Dvalin the king of the skies due to it going crazy from evil karma from the Khaenri'ah disaster, be our guest."
Lumines heartfelt offer for the spy master to get involved was quickly denied as Yelan snorted and leaned back into her chair folding her arms underneath her large breasts looking away from us.
"Right well since we are here, we have but one more question. Last night members of the Adepti and mystically inclined members of Liyue's populace pinpointed Wangshu Inn as the site of a powerful relic or being, having been unsealed. Would you two know anything about that?" Keqing asked as she jotted some notes down.
My face couldn't help but fall as I connected the dots and remembered the Rain Slasher; I picked up last night... Are they going to attempt to confiscate it?
Knowing that lying in the face of a skilled spy master was a complete waste of time and would only sow distrust for when we inevitably came here to get sucked into Liyue's nonsense I helplessly nodded and explained how I found a sword sealed away in stone without saying anything about it drawing my attention towards it.
"Would you be willing to allow one of our Adepti associates to seal it away or in other words sell it to us?" Yelan asked finally looking back to us as I pulled out the Rain Slasher and put it on the table so they could inspect my loot.
"Sure, no problem at all, I want a sword or Claymore with equivalent abilities preferably if it boosted Anemo or Geo powers, so if you guys are willing, I would gladly trade the Primordial Jade Cutter, Summit Shaper, Sword of Descension for swords." Seeing as the dumbfounded looks on the two girls in front of me about to angrily cut me off I bullheadedly continued but instead named Claymores as I couldn't think of any other swords. "Oh, but like I said I can certainly appreciate claymores so should you guys have a spare, The Unforged, or Serpent Spine I could let go of my weapon."
Keqing slammed her hands on the table as she cried out. "Those weapons are all basically at the same level! And more importantly, they are both heritage and strategic resources of Liyue!"
"Jake is being greedy..." Paimon muttered as she floated behind me and Lumine.
Well actually I asked for only five-star weapons but either way I wasn't going to sell a once divine weapon for Mora I could just get from robbing the camps of Treasure Hoarders.
"If you guys don't have an equivalent trade then I will have to refuse." I said shaking my head. Even if Yelan was frankly my favorite girl in Genshin Impact from when I was playing, I wasn't just going to hand over a sword much more powerful than the own I had been using for nothing.
Yelan folded her hands in front of her face as she leaned forward hiding much of her expression as she stared at me and Lumine for a moment before she sighed. "Very well. I can see neither of us rightfully are willing to trade or lose such a valuable resource. You both have been excused. Me and my associate need to discuss what reprisals the Fatui will face and outsiders cannot be privy to such a thing you understand." She said lightly and I fully understood the next few days were going to be blood bath and I wanted to get back to the relative safety of Mondstadt right now.
"Very well we wish you best of luck. Lumine let's get out of here so we can get back to Mondstadt before it hits the afternoon." I said as I gently pulled on Lumines hand with the hand she took previously, and we kept holding hands through our meeting.
"Hmph arriving back to Mondstadt within a day? What a joke." Yelan scoffed but her face twitched as a floating Anemo elemental floated up from the open window we approached.
I didnt bother snarking back to Yelan and simply pulled Lumine onto my lap as I sat down on my Anemo Elemental as Paimon tucked herself into my jacket.
"Wanna see if Lisa is willing to spoil us for foiling a Fatui plot?" Lumine asked nudging me as we flew quickly in the direction of Mondstadt except this time we were going out of our way North in order to bypass the Dragonspine mountains.
"Oooh does she have snacks!" Paimon asked excitedly as we had skipped breakfast with all that has happened.
"Oh yeah... She has two really nice jugs of milk she keeps nice and warm for her friends." Lumine giggled and I couldn't help but chuckle at the naivety of Paimon.