After pondering for a while without reaching a conclusion, Xia Zhi recalled that previously, both the slime condensate and teleport waypoint only provided system feedback after he touched them with his hand.
He speculated that the same might apply to written languages.
It was getting late. Xia Zhi closed the [Shop] panel, noticed the fire was getting small, and added some firewood.
He looked up and met eyes with the crane who was still watching him.
Under the clear moonlight, the female crane's eyes were as transparent and beautiful as glazed glass, completely opposite to his dull gray eyes.
After a moment, Xia Zhi stood up, walked to the crane, and sat down beside her.
She wouldn't understand anyway, and he had nothing to say.
Xia Zhi closed his eyes and leaned against her, feeling the smoothness and warmth of her feathers against his cheek.
The crane's body stiffened slightly before returning to normal.
With the familiar fragrance lingering in his breath and the distant sound of bells chiming, Xia Zhi gradually fell asleep.
With her by his side, he could sleep peacefully.
The next morning, Xia Zhi woke from his dreams to find himself alone once again.
The little crane must have gone to gather lotus seeds again?
Xia Zhi rubbed his eyes, took out his toothbrush and cup, and began his morning routine.
After washing up, he sat by the extinguished fire, quietly waiting.
After an hour, the little crane still hadn't returned.
Xia Zhi took out a fruit and ate it alone, then continued sitting there, quietly waiting.
He waited until noon, but still saw no sign of the little crane.
Xia Zhi let out a soft sigh.
It seemed the little crane had truly left this time.
Not even saying goodbye before flying away.
He silently stood up, packed his things, and returned to the main road to continue his journey.
The noon sun shone directly upon him, casting a short lonely shadow at his feet.
Meanwhile, just outside Xia Zhi's twenty-meter detection range, Cloud Retainer stood alone atop a small hill near the main road, quietly watching him walk.
The sun gradually moved westward.
As Xia Zhi got closer to Liyue Harbor, the road became more crowded with travelers, and bamboo shops and vendors with carrying poles began appearing along both sides.
There were sellers of tea, snacks, umbrellas, raincoats, seasonal vegetables...
His ears were filled with bustling noise as the atmosphere of city life suddenly enveloped him.
Xia Zhi stood by the roadside, feeling as if he had suddenly stepped into an ancient scroll painting. Listening to those incomprehensible yet somehow familiar vendor calls, his expression became momentarily dazed before a slight smile appeared on his face.
The wilderness was indeed no place for people; towns felt much more welcoming.
Xia Zhi walked along the road, slowing his pace and using his detection's god's-eye view to curiously examine the goods being sold on both sides.
Some things he could tell what they were and what they were made of, while others were completely unfamiliar, but this didn't dampen his interest.
Coming to a new world meant countless new things to explore and discover - the process itself was a rare experience.
Various food aromas floated in the air, making his mouth water.
Xia Zhi sniffed and glanced several times at the stalls where the fragrance came from, feeling hungry.
But he had no money.
He could only pretend to reach into his clothes while actually taking a fruit from his inventory to fill his stomach.
Occasionally he could see iron-colored progress bars hanging over some passersby, but since he couldn't understand them, he couldn't strike up a conversation and had to let it be.
By dusk, Xia Zhi finally reached the end of the main road - the city gate.
He stood at the base of the gate, looking up in amazement at the massive structure built entirely of orderly giant stones.
Such a magnificent building would be difficult to construct even in his mechanically advanced original world. In this age of animal-powered transport, he found it hard to imagine how people managed to quarry such huge stones from the mountains and transport them here to stack them so neatly.
If not for divine intervention, who knows how many workers' bones would lie buried beneath this city gate.
Above the gate were two golden characters.
Though the characters looked unfamiliar to him, this must be the city's name.
Xia Zhi gazed for a moment before walking to the side of the gate.
There, the wall was covered with notices filled with unfamiliar text, mostly in black with some in red.
Many discarded papers also littered the ground.
Xia Zhi walked to the notice wall, bent down to pick up a discarded paper, and tried touching the text with his finger.
As expected, the system's voice sounded in his mind once again.
"Detected learnable written language, corresponding items found in shop."
"[Beginner Liyue Language]: 1 point"
"[Advanced Liyue Language]: 10 points"
"Would you like to purchase and learn?"
Xia Zhi looked at the paper in his hand, smiled slightly, then chose to spend 1 point to purchase [Beginner Liyue Language].
3 points remaining.
A strange orb of light appeared in his inventory - this was what an experience book looked like.
Xia Zhi chose to use it, and the orb instantly vanished from his inventory.
A moment later, Xia Zhi looked up again at the two golden characters above the city gate, this time easily understanding their meaning.
He opened his mouth and naturally pronounced with proper accent: "Li... yue."
So this is Liyue Harbor?
What a beautiful name.
Xia Zhi lowered his head to look at the discarded paper he had just picked up. It described the Rite of Descension that had caused quite a stir in Liyue recently...
"Adepti? Rex Lapis? Geo Archon? The Qixing? Fatui? The God of the Vortex?..." Xia Zhi muttered after reading and throwing the paper back. "Seems this city isn't as peaceful as I imagined."
Xia Zhi looked at the other notices still posted on the wall.
There were missing person notices, policy announcements, performance posters, commission requests, and even promotional advertisements from an organization called "Wangsheng Funeral Parlor"...
All kinds of information, somewhat chaotic.
Xia Zhi skimmed through once, then went back to carefully read the notice about the "Adventurers' Guild."
It was a recruitment announcement welcoming interested adventurers to complete commissions for rewards.
"From the description, it sounds similar to a mercenary guild. Worth checking out."
Xia Zhi memorized the address written there and walked through the city gate.
On the distant hilltop, Cloud Retainer watched Xia Zhi until his figure completely disappeared from view.
Only then did she slowly withdraw her gaze, gently spread her beautiful wings, and leap from the hilltop into the clouds, vanishing from sight.