As everyone knew, Qingxu Pool lay west of Liyue, right beside The Chasm. It was a city ruin left behind from the ancient Archon War.
Most of its buildings had been built along the mountains and around the islands. Cliffs, rivers, and lakes surrounded Qingxu Pool. It might not have been a place where one man could hold off a thousand, but it was certainly a defensible spot that was difficult to attack.
Even so, no matter how defensible a place was, it couldn't withstand the terrible destruction of the Archon War. So, to this day, just like Guili Plains, Qingxu Pool had little left but the broken eaves and walls of large buildings scattered across the islands in the middle of the lake.
Of course, unlike Guili Plains, Qingxu Pool lay far from the areas where people were active and was hidden among remote mountains and treacherous waters. Combined with the terrain and other factors, it had survived somewhat better than the city ruins at Guili Plains.
But that was only relatively speaking.
In the end, a ruin was still a ruin. After centuries of wear and tear and the devastation of the Archon War, Qingxu Pool—once perhaps a bustling, prosperous place—had fallen into a sorry state. Broken eaves and walls filled the landscape, while monsters ran rampant, venomous insects lurked, and miasma hung in the air.
Today, just as the sun had climbed high overhead, Annie and little Klee arrived together at a mountain cliff on the outskirts of Qingxu Pool. They had left Liyue Harbor and ignored the threats of a meddlesome, strange old man, and now, with nothing to do and a hankering for something to do, they had come here.
Under normal circumstances, walking from Liyue Harbor to Qingxu Pool would take several days at