Chapter Text
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ １： Ｔｈｅ ｌｉｔｔｌｅ ｅｍｅｒｇｅｎｃｙ ｆｏｏｄ ｆａｉｒｙ】
Upon opening my eyes, I realised that I had no idea where I was. I barely had time to look at my surroundings when a horrendous pain suddenly entered my head, and I felt like it would split in half. Vague parts of memories flashed through my mind, as if to remind me something horrible had happened, but I couldn’t draw a full picture from them.
I remember having been travelling together with my sister, when we met a god and all of a sudden, I was left without a sister. And if that thought alone wasn’t bad enough, the situation worsened when I discovered that I was all alone in this unknown world and did not know what to do from here on.
Where should I go now?
My thoughts about my future were interrupted by a loud growl from my stomach. I wondered how long it had been since I'd last eaten a proper meal.
I could not remember.
I realised that I was on the beach, so I decided this was the perfect moment to catch some fish. Not even a minute later, and I felt something big already getting caught up in my line. I felt a rush of excitement inside me.
I couldn’t stop the drool dripping from my mouth just from the thought of being able to enjoy smoked salmon.
But what had been caught in my line, was not a fish but a small white-haired fairy like being.
“Oh gosh! Paimon thought for a second there that Paimon was about to drown!!” The little being yelled out, soaked in water and coughing.
“Are you alright?” I asked worriedly, concerned about the little fella.
The white-haired fairy glanced at me, as if she only now realised that I was there. “You saved Paimon’s life. Paimon is forever grateful.”
“I’m just glad to know you’re alright.” I smiled. Then my stomach growled.
Great, I had just saved someone's life, but unfortunately I was still very hungry and I still hadn’t eaten anything. Glancing at the little fairy, I had to admit that because of my hunger, she even looked delicious enough to devour, even though I wasn’t into eating humanoid beings.
That’s just how hungry I was at that moment.
Maybe I should keep her as emergency food.
I put the thought aside for now while shaking my head, and continued fishing. In the meantime I ended up explaining my story to the little package of emergency food that was refusing to leave my side as she felt indebted.
“Paimon owes you for saving her, so Paimon will do her best to be a great guide!”
And that is the story of how I met my emergency food fairy.
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ２： Ｔｈｅ Ｓｈｏｏｔｅｒ Ｌａｄｙ】
I could still remember the first person I met in Teyvat, like it was yesterday. (Cuz, like. Let’s be real. Paimon can’t exactly be called a human, right? And while it’s true that I met Stormterror and Wei Chen next, an Archon isn’t a mortal being that receives that kind of treatment either, right? Right?). So technically, she’s the first one I considered to be a true human of Teyvat, and Mondstadt, that I met.
An orange and reddish outfit, hair half-up half-down, she fell from the skies like a shooting star. (Well, in reality she just jumped from a rock and did a couple of somersaults, but the dramatic image matters!).
With a smile on her face, the young lady introduced herself. “May the Anemo God protect you. I’m Su Mucheng, Outrider for the Knights of Favonius.”
Being a part of the Knights who protect Mondstadt, Su Mucheng of course wanted to know who I was, (the name is Yu Feng by the way) and upon hearing my name, stated that it didn’t sound local. (Of course it’s not local, I’m literally from another world.)
Su Mucheng then proceeded to mention something about sightings of a dragon, probably the very same dragon that Paimon and I had seen just moments earlier. She encouraged us to head to the city as quickly as possible.
This was when something unexpected happened. I took a hold of the archer lady’s hand to shake it, but the moment our hands connected, she suddenly disappeared from my sight. For some reason, I felt my whole body and being changing all of a sudden.
The sword that I had been carrying this whole time had switched out and now I was holding onto a bow.
“Wha- What is this?” I asked in disbelief.
“Convenient isn’t it. This is a special power that the people of Teyvat have.” I suddenly heard Su Mucheng’s voice speak inside my head.
“Where- What happened?”
“You shouldn’t mind the details so much, I don’t think you’d understand how this power works even if I explained. How about you try shooting that anemo slime instead?”
I did as I was told and somehow I was able to hit a bullseye on my very first shot. I was astonished. How was this possible, when I hadn’t even held a bow in my hands before, let alone shot one.
This was some weird magic.
While I was still in awe of the sudden powers I had just gained, Su Mucheng alerted me about a sudden ambush.
“There’s a hilichurl right there, we have to defeat it.” Su Mucheng’s voice rang inside my head. I turned to face the hilichurl. I drew the bow and shot, defeating the monster in a matter of a few shots.
“These monsters have been appearing near Mondstadt recently. We have to destroy the camp they’ve built.” Su Mucheng instructed and led me towards the camp of hilichurls.
Just as we were about to reach the camp, Su Mucheng spoke in a serious tone. “Normally we would concentrate on the essence of our vision to swap, but since you’re from a different world and I didn’t see one on you, you’ll have to find another way.”
I followed her words and felt a mysterious power dwelling inside me that crept up and the weapon in my hands switched from a bow back to a sword.
I was back to being me!
A sigh of relief escaped from my lips. For a moment there, I had actually thought that I would never be able to return to my normal self.
“By concentrating on the different vision essences, you can keep switching between the puppets, allies like me, in your possession. But you can only carry four puppets with you at a time. Those four are your party. Your team.” Su Mucheng explained.
I decided to try this out. So I concentrated on her fiery vision and switched back to the body of Su Mucheng. I kept switching in and out a couple times until I felt like I got the hang of it.
“Okay, I think I got this.” I said confidently.
“Are you ready to clear out the camp of these monsters that have been a little too close to the city lately?” Su Mucheng’s voice sounded playful.
I nodded. “Let’s go.”
Much like defeating one hilichurl had taken us just a moment, the camp was cleared out in no time at all.
I combined my powers with Su Mucheng’s, and took out the close quarters opponents with my sword while using the bow for long ranged attacks. I used Su Mucheng’s pyro to light up places and occasionally added my anemo powers to spread that pyro for some extra damage.
“Mission accomplished. I have to admit, you’ve got some nice moves.” I heard Su Mucheng’s voice speak, but this time not inside me. Her voice came from in front of me.
Somehow Su Mucheng had once again appeared before me. How exactly did this power of the Teyvat people work?
Ignoring my visible confusion, Su Mucheng looked around, her expression concerned. “These monsters have appeared much closer to the city because of the dragon - Stormterror - and we of the Knights of the Favonius have been doing our best to defend the city. Come with me, I will have to see for myself that you get safely to the city.”
With those words, Su Mucheng and I travelled together to Mondstadt, the city of wind, dandelions, and freedom.
As soon as we reached the city, Su Mucheng insisted on rewarding me for helping to clear out the camp. She told me to meet her at the city’s “high ground” (those were her own words, don’t blame me!). So I headed towards the Anemo Archon Statue Plaza that was located in front of the Favonius Cathedral.
Standing in front of the giant statue of Barbatos, Su Mucheng finally revealed what the gift was. “So, the present I want to give you is… A Wind Glider.”
She told me to give it a try, and pretty much encouraged me into illegal wind gliding that could get me in serious trouble, because as I later learned, you need to own a gliding licence to officially be allowed to glide.
Why didn’t she tell me this in the first place?
Ignoring my illegal activities, it was truly a beautiful day. A true harmony of anemo, pyro, electro, cryo, geo, hydro and dendo.
Until Stormterror attacked.
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ３： Ｔｈｅ Ｇｕｙ ｗｉｔｈ ａｎ Ｅｙｅｐａｔｃｈ】
Defeating Stormterror was by no means an easy task, in fact it was impossible in my current state. I was too weak and the fact that I had just learned to glide like seconds ago, didn’t help my case. But in the end, I was able to chase Stormterror away and the city seemed to be safe for now. It was no doubt though, that our fight had been seen by many people.
As I glided towards the Anemo Archon Statue Plaza and landed there, Su Mucheng came rushing towards me. “A- Are you hurt?”
I wasn’t, so I shook my head as a reply. The Outrider looked relieved.
This is when we suddenly heard someone clapping, and when I turned towards the source of the sound, I saw a man approaching us. He was clothed in mostly pinks and reds.
His long hair, that was the similar colour to his outfit, was tied up in a ponytail and the bangs were partly covering his eyepatch. There was a tiny smile projected on his face.
“I’m amazed. You’ve actually got the power to go against the dragon. Are you perhaps a new ally or a new storm?”
Was he implying that I would be similar to the likes of Stormterror? Or that I was Stormterror?
After hearing what the newcomer had said, Su Mucheng’s expression suddenly got serious. “Stormterror is attacking the city… Zhang Jiale, Yu Feng, you’ve come at the right time. We must…”
This person named Zhang Jiale interrupted Su Mucheng. “Don’t you think you’re forgetting something, Su Mucheng? You should probably introduce us first.”
Su Mucheng looked speechless for a second. “Right. Right.” She repeated and then turned towards me with the same expression I had seen on her at Whispering Woods. “This is Zhang Jiale, he’s our Cavalry Captain.”
I nodded a greeting and proceeded to introduce myself. “I’m a traveller from afar. My name is Yu Feng. And this is my emergency food, Paimon.” I smiled.
“Heyy! Paimon is no emergency food. Paimon is Paimon!” The little fairy mascot looked angry.
Zhang Jiale was staring at me with a serious expression on his face, but he remained silent.
Su Mucheng and I then explained to him how we met.
Zhang Jiale still looked thoughtful, maybe slightly doubtful, but looked at me with a faint smile on his face. “I welcome you to Mondstadt, but as you can see, this probably isn’t the best time to be arriving, I’m afraid.”
“On behalf of the Knights of Favonius, I would like to extend thanks to you for your help just now.”
I nodded my head, a smile on my face. “We couldn’t just leave the situation to fester.”
Finally, Zhang Jiale was also properly smiling. “The Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius is very interested in meeting, and formally invites you both to our headquarters.”
And that is how I met the Cavalry Captain in pink known as Zhang Jiale.
From his aesthetics and outfits of choice you would never believe that he’s a cryo user, but please don’t tell him that.
I want to stay alive for one more day, thanks.
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ４： Ｔｈｅ Ｆａｍｉｌｙ ｏｆ Ｔｈｒｅｅ】
The Knights of the Favonius headquarters was a place like I had never seen before. This was also the place where I met more people charged with the protection of the city.
Upon our arrival at the headquarters, Su Mucheng, Zhang Jiale and I explained everything that had happened, including me trying to find my sister.
To say the least, Huang Shaotian was a character you would not forget.
“Mondstadt welcomes you, windborne travellers. I’m Huang Shaotian, the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of the Favonius. In fact, I saw the commotion that was going on and wanted to come help you, but this idiot here stopped me.”
Huang Shaotian glared angrily at the man in robes. The guy closed the book he was holding and smiled. “I’m Yu Wenzhou, the resident Librarian. I heard you really helped us out there. Thank you for that.” Yu Wenzhou nodded his head and looked far more collected than the Acting Grand Master did.
Yu Wenzhou went on to explain about Stormterror and its effect on Mondstadt’s elemental sphere and ley lines.
“Due to these changes we sadly cannot help you more than putting out missing person posters.” Yu Wenzhou finished his explanation.
“You should go and relax while we help out looking for your sister. I will put as many people on that mission as we possibly can.” Huang Shaotian exclaimed.
Yu Wenzhou sighed. “You know we can’t do that. We don’t have the manpower, our hands are full just dealing with Stormterror.”
“Then I will go myself. I’ll look for your sister.”
“You’re the Acting Grand Master, you can’t do that!”
“Why, someone’s sister is missing. We have to help!” Huang Shaotian argued.
“Think of your position for a second there. You can’t just go wandering around, the people need you.”
Huang Shaotian looked defeated. Like a sad puppy, he turned to me with an apologetic expression on his face.
“I’m sorry that this is the most we can do for you at the moment.”
This made me think that while Huang Shaotian was the Acting Grand Master, it was like Yu Wenzhou was actually the person in charge, or at least pulling some strings. They had such a weird dynamic in my eyes, these two.
I sweatdropped. “No it’s alright, rather, I would like to help you guys as well.”
“Paimon will help out too.”
“Well, then. We need to deal with the abandoned Four Winds’ Temples, but we only need to deal with three of the four temples.” Yu Wenzhou explained.
Huang Shaotian nodded at that. “For that, I think you might need some help. I assume Su Mucheng already explained how puppets work?”
I glanced at Su Mucheng who smiled, and nodded. I knew at least the very basics of how things worked.
After hearing my reply, Yu Wenzhou glanced at the door and then at Huang Shaotian.
“Shouldn’t he be here by now? He’s running late.”
I wondered who the two were talking about.
Huang Shaotian sighed. “I hope he’s not building more explosives while grounded. Little Hanwen can be a handful at times.”
This is when we all heard someone behind the door, as if he had been waiting for the perfect moment to yell. “Lu Hanwen is not a handful!”
Following the yell, a small boy stormed into the room like explosive chaos itself. “Lu Hanwen came and finished the mission that Huang Shaotian had bestowed upon him. Lu Hanwen has brought the wishing well.”
The little fellow, probably no older than 15 years old based on appearance, was carrying something big in his arms.
“Took you long enough, we don’t have all the time on earth.”
“FYI, you had me grounded for a week!”
“You blew up a pond!”
“There was a small miscalculation.”
Huang Shaotian sighed in desperation, feeling all power drained from him having argued with a kid. Yu Wenzhou patted his shoulder.
“We don’t have much time to spare, so I think we should go and do the wishes.”
Huang Shaotian nodded. “The faster you get to the temples, the faster we can destroy them and put the citizens at ease.”
“Lu Hanwen, place the well on the table.”
As I watched the three going about setting the well, Su Mucheng approached me. “Despite maybe looking a little lost at times, Huang Shaotian is an extremely charismatic leader and the citizens and rest of the Knights have complete trust in him. While he has his complete trust in Yu Wenzhou.”
“So are you saying that the people need Huang Shaotian, while Huang Shaotian needs Yu Wenzhou?”
Su Mucheng nodded. “I guess you can think of it that way.”
“What about the kid?” I asked, pointing at Lu Hanwen.
The Outrider seemed to fall into deep thought. She turned to Zhang Jiale. “Say, how would you describe the relationship between those three?”
“Me? Why are you asking me?”
“Just answer me.”
“I don’t know… Maybe family?”
“Family?” Su Mucheng looked surprised.
Zhang Jiale seemed embarrassed for some reason. “Don’t ask me again if you don’t like my answer.”
“No, it’s perfect. Family.” Su Mucheng smiled. “I just wasn’t expecting such an answer to come from you.”
“Whatever…” Zhang Jiale proceeded to mumble something inaudible as he looked away.
I looked at them, and then at the trio, with curious eyes. “A family?”
Crap, I was starting to miss my sister. “I will find you soon, I promise.”
“Okay, here's the wishing well.”
Calling it a well was misleading. It was rather a octagon shaped lottery machine that required you to turn it around to get a wish. 3-stars items would glow in white colour, 4-star in purple and 5-star items in gold light.
“The first time you get a discount. From here on you can approach our receptionist Shu Keyi for future wishes. She will gladly help you out.”
I proceeded to roll for my first ten rolls and found out that I had gotten a four star puppet of a yellow colour. There was also another four star puppet, this time red in colour.”
“Oh, you managed to get two puppets at once, that’s great luck!” Huang Shaotian seemed to congratulate me.
“The defence oriented geo user Xu Bin. And the lone adventurer of pyro, Xu Boyuan, not bad.” Yu Wenzhou looked approvingly.
Wow, two Xu’s?
I guess this is a luck of its own too.
“We should head to the abandoned temples now!” Su Mucheng said and the rest nodded.
“We don’t have much time.” Zhang Jiale said.
I have to admit that while the meeting at the headquarters wasn’t exactly like I imagined it to be, and Huang Shaotian wasn’t the kind of Acting Grand Master I had expected, the meeting was still pleasing.
I managed to meet a wonderful, although explosive, family of three and this made me even more determined to find my sister and reunite with her.
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ５： Ｒｅｃｅｐｔｉｏｎ Ｌａｄｙ】
After completing the destruction of three different temples, I had obtained the puppets of Zhang Jiale and Yu Wenzhou alike. I also learned that Yu Wenzhou had an electro vision.
This made me realise I didn’t know yet what visions Huang Shaotian and Lu Hanwen had.
After finishing the temples, I was told to visit the Adventurers’ Guild’s receptionist to learn information about adventuring and travelling in Mondstadt. It was apparently the same lady who would help me with wishes in the future.
So after arriving in Mondstadt, I headed to meet Shu Keyi.
“Welcome to the Adventurers’ Guild.” The young lady greeted me with a professional look on her face. “As you might know, to the adventurer, experience is far more precious than potential.”
And then she proceeded to explain a lot about how the Adventurers’ Guild works. She told me to return to her to claim rewards in the future.
“Here’s your Adventurer Handbook as a gift to welcome you into the Guild.” She said and continued to explain more stuff that I was getting kind of confused about, like accession.
“Ad astra abyssosque, Adventurer!”
And with those words, I bid farewell to the lady who I would be meeting a lot from now on.
Later on in my journey I found out that her sister, Shu Kexin, was located in Liyue as their receptionist. And they looked exactly the same too.
(This is giving me some serious Nurse Joy vibes, yikes!)
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ６： Ｂｌｕｅ Ｆｅｌｌｏｗ】
Following my visit to Shu Keyi, I was busy. Su Mucheng finally had me tested for gliding and handed me a gliding licence so that I was officially allowed to glide without getting in trouble.
Zhang Jiale also had me do a mission that he needed my help with. Following that I also met the Branch Master of Adventurers’ Guild, Tao Xuan, who rewarded me with seven Adventurers’ Experience. I used them to level up my Xu Boyuan puppet.
I met Huang Shaotian soon after that and he thanked me for helping with destroying the temples. Thanks to that the elemental flow was now stable so the city should be safe from Stormterror’s attack.
After telling Huang Shaotian about the red crystal, I followed him to the headquarters. Yu Wenzhou was also there. The crystal apparently had some impurities in it, but Yu Wenzhou said he needed more time to figure things out properly. Beside the fact that it seemed to react negatively to visions. But for some reason I was left unharmed.
Why was I so special?
Oh, also! Huang Shaotian awarded me with the title of Honorary Knight! Can you believe that?
Aaah, I’m straying away from the main topic of this log entry, I’m so sorry. I will do better, I promise.
Now, after being named an Honorary Knight, I left the headquarters and was talking to Paimon when we saw him! The blue fellow I had seen with the dragon in Whispering Woods.
He was running down the Market District heading towards the upper city. I tried to follow him, but lost him quickly, so we decided to use Elemental Sight to track him down. He must’ve left at least some tracks, right?
The anemo footsteps lead me all the way to Anemo Archon Statue Plaza.
The weird old man was playing his lyre and telling a story of the archon and the dragon to the listeners.
After finishing his story, the guy looked at me. “Oh, you. You’re the fucker who scared Dvalin away.”
(What’s with his language?)
Paimon and I stared at him in confusion (probably for different reasons though). “Dvalin? Who’s that?” Paimon asked.
“Isn’t that Stormterrors real name?” I questioned.
“Is it? Right… I forgot since most people just call him “Stormterror”. Are you close enough with him to call him Dvalin?”
“Oh, we’re so fucking close.” The old guy smirked.
Paimon looked worried. “I think this guy has some screws loose.”
“Excuse me… Who are you?” I asked.
The man posed proudly, chewing on wheat. “I’m Wei Chen, the bard. Three-time winner of the “Most Popular Bard of Mondstadt”, to be precise.” He then proceeded to ask what we needed from him.
“Paimon doesn’t believe we need to explain any further. Of course, it’s about Stormterror.”
“Storm…?”
“Hey! Cut with the amnesia act!”
“Let me show you something.” I said as I took out the crystal. However, instead of red, it was now glowing in blue light.
“The crystal has been purified? When?” Paimon looked shocked. I had no idea either.
Wei Chen looked like he recognised the crystal I was showing him.
“Dvalin. To think that the anguish he feels has brought him to tears.” Wei Chen said and took something out of his pocket. “I also came across a Teardrop Crystal. Do you think you can purify it?”
“I can try…” I didn’t sound so confident.
Wei Chen handed the crystal to me and it started glowing stronger, changing from red to blue as it was purified.
“He used to be such a good child, now his rage has taken over him. Even if Dvalin isn’t taken down, his life will still wither away in the breeze. He’ll burn himself out…” Wei Chen looked sad for a moment.
I felt so bad for him that I couldn’t help but to ask. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
Wei Chen looked thoughtful. “I do thank you for purifying the crystal, but I already have a plan of my own.”
“Oh, and what is that?” Paimon asked.
Wei Chen just smiled mysteriously. “Seeing this tear has brought to mind a friend so dear.” And with those words Wei Chen disappeared, supposedly going into a place that holds the “Symbol of Mondstadt’s Heroes.”
I decided to follow him, but it took me some time to figure out what this “Symbol of Mondstadt’s Heroes” even was. Once I did though, I was on my way to Windrise, and the tree near the Statue of the Seven.
After finding Wei Chen, who asked why we were so curious about Barbatos, the God of Anemo, who hadn’t been seen in Mondstadt for many moons, we had unexpected company.
I fought and won against the Eye of the Storm, though it wasn’t easy. The eye spends most of its time in the air, so it would’ve been impossible to defeat it without having an archer on my team.
Thankfully I had Su Mucheng with me.
Whenever the eye was on the ground I used Xu Boyuan and Xu Bin to attack. My own anemo attacks were pretty much useless against it.
While I was still recovering from the fight, Wei Chen then approached us.
“Seems that the dragon wasn’t the only thing affected by this change of the wind…”
He then proceeded to ask who told us about Stormterror, so I mentioned what I had heard from Yu Wenzhou. Wei Chen looked impressed, but said that’s not the only case. He told me about Abyss Mage’s and Abyss Order who were using Stormterror and feeding him with empty lies.
“Before arriving here, I too was like Dvalin, cursed and left to waste.” He said but then looked around himself. “But being here feels like the poison is leaving my body.”
“So how were you poisoned?”
“I tried to help Dvalin, but was interrupted by a certain someone and not only did I fucking fail to break the curse of Dvalin but was fucking infected myself.” Wei Chen stared at me, a certain hint of anger in his eyes.
“Wait, that’s…” I looked troubled.
“Yes! It was you, fucker!” He glared at me and crossed his arms. “So, to make up for it, Yu Feng, you’re coming with me to the Cathedral!”
“The Mondstadt Cathedral?”
“To do what exactly?”
“To claim a certain “Holy Lyre der Himmel”.”
At that time I had still been an innocent and naive traveller who didn’t know how shameless this “Tone deaf-bard” was. Yes, can you believe it. He's not a bard at all, but actually Barbatos the God of Anemo himself, the Anemo Archon! No wonder he wanted to know about himself so much.
Also while he said “claim” that is also a lie. We pretty much stole the lyre from the Cathedral.
“Look at me in the eyes. Do you not find me trustworthy!” He had said.
“Trust me.” He had said.
I wish I hadn’t trusted him.
I stole the Holy Lyre der Himmel from the Cathedral with an old man who’s actually Barbatos himself!
I am sorry, so sorry! An Wenyi, please forgive this sinner!
Cough.
I guess it’s at this point, where I should reveal that to be precise it was a Fatui Cicin Mage who stole the Lyre from the Cathedral, right before my eyes!
So it’s still pretty much as if I had stolen it myself, because the attempt was made.
Except now we had to find out where the Fatui Cicin Mage was and retrieve the Lyre.
For those reasons we were off to Angel’s Share.
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ７： Ｔｈｅ ｏｎｅ－ｈａｎｄｅｄ Ｄａｒｋｎｉｇｈｔ Ｈｅｒｏ】
The moment we arrived at Angel's Share, I heard men speak to each other.
"Master Sun, here's this week's accounts."
"The disaster has greatly affected business."
"Well, let's hope it all ends well."
Wei Chen walked in and asked one of them, "Master Sun", where we should sit to be at one of the less conspicuous tables. Sun Zheping advised us to sit upstairs, but also wondered why wouldn't a bard want to sit at the front and center.
Wei Chen laughed him off, telling he's saving the paid performance for next time.
Wei Chen disappeared upstairs while I was left aweing at the tavern. Sun Zheping glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.
“Not going upstairs yet? You both seemed to be in a hurry.” He seemed suspicious of us.
I quickly rushed upstairs to look less suspicious. I could swear he was still staring daggers my way while talking with the bartender.
As I got up, I heard someone rushing into Angel’s Share. Based on the armour they seemed to be the Knights of Favonius, but I did not recognise them. They seemed to be asking if Sun Zheping had seen any thieves around who had stolen the Lyre from the Cathedral. Sun Zheping wondered why anyone would steal something they couldn’t obviously sell. He seemed to give some directions to the men as they left the tavern.
“You can put down that bottle you stole from behind the counter.” I heard Sun Zheping speak and realised that Wei Chen had somehow already snuck downstairs and was holding onto a bottle of wine.
“Ah, fuck! I mean, oops.” He said, not looking apologetic at all about being caught red handed.
“Right. I want answers.”
“Aww, won’t you let me finish my drink first? I’ll pay you - well, with a performance.”
Was this guy broke?
“It’s not about money. You look like you could drink my tavern empty and make me go bankrupt.”
Wei Chen laughed loudly at this comment. “You youngsters. You know, when I started drinking you were still-” He then turned my way, finally realising my confusion.
Did they know each other?
“Right, so.” He cleared his throat. “He’s Master Sun, the boss… ah fuck. Let’s just call him the boss of this tavern, that's who he is anyway.”
The Archon then went on about how he really likes Sun Zheping’s Dandelion Wine, but rarely could afford more than a bottle or two.
Sun Zheping ignored the comments and spoke. “I like your guts for trying to steal the Holy Lyre der Himmel. Even if you are fools…”
Paimon was immediately on the defence. “It wasn’t us that stole it! The real thief is still out there!”
She’s totally ignoring the minor detail that we were actually trying to steal it!
Wei Chen then finally remembered to introduce me. Sun Zheping seemed to recognise me and said it was a shame that I joined the Knights.
Sigh. One uses my trusted position to deceive the people I joined and another told me I was a fool to join them in the first place. These two are giving me a headache!
Sun Zheping then started questioning why we had tried to steal the Holy Lyre. Wei Chen tried to keep dodging giving any answers, but eventually agreed to tell the story in the form of a performance.
“Will I get paid, by the way?”
“Your reward will range from anywhere between five Mora and the Holy Lyre. It’ll all depend on your story.” Sun Zheping sounded stern.
Wei Chen crossed his arms and smirked. “Very well. Let me put on a fucking show…”
And a show he did put on.
We seemed to have gained Sun Zheping’s trust after the performance and he told us that he’d gather some contacts. Because Wei Chen looked quite recognizable, he was supposed to remain in the tavern while I was allowed to leave.
“Okay. Let’s meet here tonight after the tavern closes.” Sun Zheping told us as we parted ways.
That was the story of how I met the wealthiest gentleman in Mondstadt. I would later learn that not only did he own Angel’s Share and Dawn Winery, he was also the infamous “Darknight Hero” .
They also call him the One-Handed Hero, because apparently he hurt his left hand while young.
How can he still wield a greatsword?
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ８： Ｔｈｅ Ｌａｄｙ Ｃｈｅｆ ｆｒｏｍ Ｌｉｙｕｅ】
While I was travelling around Mondstadt, exploring the place to kill some time before the tavern closed, I had an unexpected meeting. I met a very strange lady in a forest near Springvale.
In a way, the meeting was very similar to Su Mucheng’s (are all pyro ladies like this?). I was casually strolling down the road when a hand suddenly grabbed mine and pulled me into the bush. I met with a pair of serious violet eyes that were signalling me to stay quiet. The lady then pointed behind the bush and we found Forest Boars there. She looked like she was ready to devour one raw.
“I’ve always heard about the wide range of ingredients you can find in Mondstadt, and it looks like it’s true.” The lady looked thoughtful but excited at the same time.
“Are you a hunter?” I wondered.
She turned to look at me and shook her head. “No, I’m a chef. A chef on a mission to find rare and exotic ingredients from all corners of the world.” She told us and then continued. “My name is Tang Rou. I’m from Liyue Harbor.”
“My name is Paimon.” The little fairy next to me responded excitedly.
Tang Rou looked at Paimon with a serious expression. “What an exotic creature, it is edible?”
I laughed out loud. “Dig in.”
“No! For the last time, Paimon is NOT EMERGENCY FOOD!”
I still dare to say otherwise.
Tang Rou then asked us to hunt some raw meat for her, with the promise that she’ll prepare something delicious for us later. I hesitated at first, but in the end agreed to do some hunting for her.
“Oh, this is great!” Tang Rou said as she looked at the meat we had just brought her. She was going on about shallow frying, deep frying and adding slime condensate into the mix.
As promised, we received our tasty snack. When we asked her to teach us how to make it, she said she hadn’t written down the recipe but could make it now before our eyes.
When thinking about how to make a stove, a man came running to us, telling us we're not allowed to hunt down the boars as they will all run away otherwise. We were told to head to the town and apologise to the leader of the men, Liu Hao for causing a ruckus.
Liu Hao was staring at us with a menacing expression. “So you’re Tang Rou from Liyue Harbor.”
I have to say that you’d think travelling through worlds would make you used to various things, but I was still shocked upon seeing the two feline ears move on top of his head as he was speaking. Was he demihuman of some sort?
Tang Rou stared him dead in the eyes, as if she was picking a fight with him instead of apologising, like she was supposed to.
“We’re sorry, it’s our fault!” I stepped forward to interrupt as it seemed like this game of stares would never end.
“Please help promote my meat!” Liu Hao suddenly requested.
This was definitely not what we had expected to hear.
Liu Hao explained how Springvale was known for its top quality meat but it was limited to Mondstadt only. Tang Rou was a famous Maestro (his words, not mine) and if Springvale meat was put together with her recipes their reputation would spread far and wide.
I wish I could say that she accepted the case and it was closed. But no, Tang Rou somehow stumbled upon Chen Yehui, a chef of Springvale, and ended up getting angered by him and declaring a cook-off contest with him.
Thanks to this cook-off, I found myself in the lands of Liyue for the first time, while trying to look for a secret ingredient.
I have to admit I was shocked when I found out that she still hadn't decided what to cook by the time we arrived on Liyue’s soil.
So we continued our way deeper into Liyue. At one of the ponds it looked like she finally had a revelation.
“Lotus Heads- look how fresh they are. Boar Steak with lotus seeds… This could work.”
The next ingredient we found was on top of a cliff.
“Jueyun Chilies… they pack quite a punch.” She continued to mumble aloud how spicy food is a rarity in Mondstadt so this would be just perfect.
But we were still missing a little boom shaka-laka… whatever that means.
In the last location that Tang Rou took us to, we found a man shivering in the cold. He held a stunning resemblance to Liu Hao with sprouting the same feline ears and nearly identical face too (the beard was there, but the moustache was missing).
Funny coincidence (or not?) was that his name is Liu Hao too!
Tang Rou sent me off to prepare a hot soup for the poor man and he looked much better after eating it.
“Thank you. That soup really did the trick.”
He told us how he had been chasing after a Forest Boar but then slipped into a hole and ended up in some ruins. There he had run into a Cryo Regisvine.
Intrigued to use the Cryo Regisivine in her meal, Tang Rou led us into the ruins. We faced off against the Cryo Regisvine and discovered our true secret ingredient there. The boar that the ancient Liu Hao had been chasing after. A breed that went extinct 300 years ago!
What a miracle.
With all ingredients gathered the three of us took the ancient Liu Hao with us and headed back to Springvale. It took us a while to clear up the confusion between the Liu Hao’s (which was entertaining to watch to say the least. I later also discovered that the younger Liu Hao actually had a son named Liu Hao who was a bartender at Cat’s Tail and also someone I could obtain a puppet of.)
Why are there so many Liu Hao’s here all of a sudden!
With the confusion cleared up, the cook-off between Tang Rou and Chen Yehui started. It was a little bit chaotic and for some reason, I ended up assisting Tang Rou. I seriously have no idea why she chose me of all people, was it because of that hot soup I had prepared for ancient Liu Hao?
Long story in three words: Tang Rou won!
Saying goodbye to the lady who was probably heading off to her next adventure to find another exotic ingredient to eat, I headed to Angel’s Share to meet with Sun Zheping and Wei Chen.
【Ｌｏｇ Ｅｎｔｒｙ ９： Ｏｕｔｌａｎｄｅｒ ｆｒｏｍ ａｎｏｔｈｅｒ ｗｏｒｌｄ ＰＴ１】
After the conversation at the tavern with Wei Chen, Sun Zheping and Huang Shaotian, (whom Sun Zheping had brought there against all odds, I mean didn’t he dislike the Knights of Favonius?) many things happened.
We found and defeated the Fatui Cicin Mage that stole the Lyre as well as Fatui Zamenhoff, who I think is a Fatui Pyro Agent. During this mission I got to try out Sun Zheping’s puppet, but unlike the time when I got to try out Su Mucheng, Zhang Jiale or Yu Wenzhou, I didn’t receive his puppet following the mission.
No wonder his puppet is a five star. Super rare!
Speaking of Yu Wenzhou though, I helped him around the town by asking for books that hadn't been returned yet. Turns out one book was stolen and following it by using my Elemental Sight, I was brought to a cave where we met and defeated the thief - a Cryo Abyss Mage.
Following that I helped Huang Shaotian and Wei Chen to find more Dvalin tears to purify. We found a total of three tears.
BUT THEN!
Then followed the most amazing things in my life. Before I realised it, I had already reached Adventure Rank 16. And that was the rank when the Co-op System was unlocked.
The Co-op System allows travellers to be transported into each other's parallel universe and help each other out.
Thanks to this wonderful creation I met the man who helped me on this journey.
Thanks to Co-op I met Zheng Xuan.