The next morning.
Xia Zhi woke from his sleep, slowly opening his lifeless gray eyes.
That beautiful crane still stood in its original place, maintaining an elegant posture, raising its long neck to look at the rising sun in the east.
Noticing he was awake, the crane lowered its head, looking at him with gentle eyes.
Xia Zhi didn't look at her, just carefully arranged his clothes, gently smoothing out the wrinkles.
When his fingers touched the shoulder area of his clothes, he could still feel slight warmth there.
It was the warmth left by the crane's down feathers.
She thought Xia Zhi didn't know that she had sheltered him with her wings last night, but actually, Xia Zhi hadn't been asleep at first last night.
The crane's careful movements to warm him with her down feathers were all seen by his "eyes."
This was within his expectations.
Spiritual beasts are like gentlemen, they can be won over with proper conduct.
From the results of his [Detect Evil] spell last night, clearly this crane had performed countless good deeds in the past.
Such beings are pure-hearted and most likely to repay kindness with kindness.
Since Xia Zhi had forcefully exhausted himself to help heal its injuries to the point of extreme fatigue, it naturally wouldn't bear to see him sleeping in the cold night.
This couldn't be called calculation, only mutual benefit.
Xia Zhi raised his head to look at the crane before him.
In his eyes, the golden progress bar that had been on the crane had disappeared, and in his inventory, there was now a golden chest.
The chest was in an unopened state.
It wasn't that Xia Zhi wanted to keep the chest unopened, but he had been too tired last night.
He had already walked all day, then continuously cast several healing spells for the crane, leaving both his spirit and body exhausted.
Moreover, for some reason, this crane carried a very pleasant fragrance, like orchids and musk, making him feel very at ease.
Breathing in this fragrance, he had unknowingly fallen into real sleep later, not waking until daybreak now.
However, it was precisely because there was a spiritual beast like the crane nearby that Xia Zhi slept more deeply.
If he truly sensed danger approaching, he believed it would wake him immediately.
Xia Zhi looked at the golden chest in his inventory and chose to open it.
An ancient-style round furnace appeared before his eyes.
[Scorching Incense Burner]
Quality: Golden
Type: Alchemy Tool Special
Property: Fusion
Effect: Combines materials into incense, can calm people's hearts, can communicate with spirits and gods.
Hidden Effect: Increases incense creation success rate by 50%, increases perfect incense creation chance by 20%.
This was something that seemed to have powerful effects, but for the current Xia Zhi, it wasn't very useful.
Xia Zhi looked at the recycling price of the incense burner again.
100 points.
Its recycling price was the same as the [Virtue Template].
Since they were both golden quality items, this might mean that all golden quality items have the same recycling price.
And the [Wings of Radiance], being diamond quality, had a recycling price of 10,000 points.
With platinum quality in between, logically, platinum quality items should have a recycling price of 1,000 points.
Xia Zhi now had 20 points left, and he didn't have anything he wanted to buy at the moment, so there was no rush to recycle this incense burner.
While Xia Zhi arranged his clothes and opened the chest, in the crane's eyes, only a moment had passed.
Then she saw Xia Zhi stand up from the ground, smile at her, and say in a language she couldn't understand, "I'm rested now, let's continue with your treatment."
This was truly strange - she was the thousand-year-old Cloud Retainer, having long since mastered all languages of Teyvat, yet she couldn't understand his words. Moreover, she had never seen clothing style like his before, and she couldn't deconstruct the healing art he used on her - it seemed to be an entirely new cultivation system.
Could this kind young man not be from this continent?
The crane's thoughts quietly shifted, and in the morning sunlight, she carefully examined Xia Zhi's face.
It was a common human appearance, not particularly handsome, but his features made her feel very comfortable and approachable.
It was a pity those eyes had lost their light - otherwise, his charm would probably be much greater.
Xia Zhi approached the crane, his hands glowing with healing magic as he gently stroked its body.
Its feathers were still so smooth, feeling like touching a piece of premium fabric.
Resisting the urge to stroke its feathers, he quietly helped heal it.
When the healing time was about the same as his first treatment last night, Xia Zhi appropriately withdrew.
"Wait here, I'll go find some food."
Xia Zhi made an eating gesture, then turned to walk towards the outside of the pit.
After a few steps, he heard the faint sound of footsteps following him.
It was the sound of crane talons disturbing the soil.
Xia Zhi turned his head, looking at the crane following him, his expression somewhat helpless:
"You're injured, you shouldn't follow me."
The crane just looked at him.
When Xia Zhi walked outward, it continued following.
"Are you afraid I'll run away?"
"Fine, follow if you want."
"You really leave me no choice."
The huge pit wasn't very deep, and Xia Zhi quickly climbed up from below, dusting off the soil from his hands and clothes, then walked towards the large tree where he had rested last night.
It was a fruit tree, with many ripe fruits still hanging on the branches.
Xia Zhi noticed bird pecking marks on some fruits, suggesting they probably weren't poisonous.
The crane slowly followed behind him.
She watched Xia Zhi walking ahead, confusion appearing in her gaze.
Wasn't he blind? How could he walk so fast? Perhaps he had some special technique to sense his surroundings?
At the large tree, under the crane's strange gaze, Xia Zhi climbed up and picked a bunch of red fruits.
He wiped the fruits on his clothes, handed one to the crane, smiled, and said,
"Eat."
As an adeptus who fed on wind and dew, she didn't need ordinary food.
But seeing Xia Zhi's kind smile, thinking how a blind person had climbed a dangerous tree to pick fruit and offered her the first one, such thoughtfulness made it impossible for her to refuse.
She just lowered her head and pecked at it with her beak.
The fruit was sour with a slight sweetness, the flesh crisp, barely palatable.
Seeing the crane eat all the flesh of the entire fruit in his hand, Xia Zhi felt relieved - no problem, if a spiritual beast would eat it, these fruits definitely weren't poisonous, he could eat boldly now.
Xia Zhi threw away the fruit core and smiled at the crane again.
"You're so tall, eat a few more."