"When the sun comes out, I bask in the sun; when the moon comes out, I bask in the moon..."

"Lord Ningguang, some citizens reported seeing several oddly dressed outsiders. After checking, we found they were neither from Mondstadt nor scholars from Sumeru."

Tianfeng Douluo felt his legs go weak. Carefully, he steadied himself against the eaves and sat down, wiping the cold sweat from his face. He was just about to mutter something when his Titled Douluo's uniquely powerful spiritual sense picked up a voice.

In an instant,

he held his breath, closed his mouth, and listened with all his attention.

"Outsiders?"

It was a very distinctive, mature woman's voice.

"Have you investigated them thoroughly? The Fatui seem to have been up to something in Mondstadt. Were these people incited by the Fatui?"

"We haven't found any trace of the Fatui so far, but—"

"But what?"

"It seems there's been some activity over at the Northland Bank, though we don't know—"

The air seemed to freeze. After two and a half seconds of silence, Ningguang's distinctive mature voice rang out again.

"I understand!"

"Reinforce the Millelith's defenses. We must ensure that tomorrow's Rite of Descension goes off without a hitch!"

"Yes!"

From this exchange, Tianfeng Douluo immediately understood.

The Rite of Descension was tomorrow!

"That will be all!"

"Yes, Lord Ningguang!"

Tianfeng Douluo had been hoping to hear more, but just then, he felt a breeze brush past him. It was as if something could sense his spiritual power, and he hurriedly pulled it back in fright.

Never mind... If I follow the people whose voices I heard tomorrow, I should be able to find the location of the Rite of Descension!

(Do you think this picture below would make a better cover? It might take a little while to load.)

"This... Surely they don't mean we have to sleep on the street, do they?"

At that moment,

Chen Fan had finally made it from Wangshu Inn to the outskirts of Liyue Harbor.

To avoid being recognized as an outsider,

Chen Fan hadn't gone straight to Liyue Harbor after leaving Wangshu Inn. Instead, he'd searched the surrounding area for supplies and managed to get some Mora.

Only then

did he buy a set of ordinary Liyue clothes.

The only problem was...

Well, this was awkward.

He was completely broke, so even if he entered Liyue Harbor, he didn't seem to have anywhere to stay.

Was he really going to sleep on the street?

That didn't sound great.

Chen Fan knew that their arrival in the world of Teyvat was being broadcast across the Douluo Continent through a light screen. Getting publicly humiliated like that was still—

"Wait, why does it feel so chilly?"

As Chen Fan thought this over, a cold wind suddenly swept past, making him shiver. "Why does it sound like someone's talking?"

"Who's digging in the dirt?"

Thinking this, Chen Fan spread out his spiritual power and headed toward the sound.

Then—

he saw a figure with a Qiankun Tai-Gua Hat and reddish-brown twin ponytails that faded in color.

At the same time,

strapped to the figure's back was a little one with a vacant stare and a talisman stuck to her forehead—

"Wait, what's going on? Are people kidnapping children in Liyue?"

"Whose kid is this, anyway? Why does she look so vacant? Could she be dead?"

"Hey, has nobody noticed that the kidnapper looks pretty good from behind?"

"Maybe you've never seen that kind of pervert?"

As soon as anything happened in Chen Fan's scene on the light screen, plenty of people noticed. Of course, many had also been marveling at what Tianfeng Douluo had just experienced.

However,

Chen Fan had no idea how the people of the Douluo Continent were reacting.

Seeing what was happening, his expression turned strange. "I knew—"

"no wonder it felt so chilly."

"So this is the creepy stuff I've stumbled into!"

Chen Fan knew the large and small figures in front of him all too well.

The older one was Hu Tao, the seventy-seventh director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, nicknamed "Eat Well, Drink Well, and May Your Journey Go Well"!

And the little one was Hu Tao's one true love, the girl she'd gone to endless lengths to lay to rest, known as the "Fortune Preserver"!

"But... wasn't this part of the main quest?"

"Could it be the butterfly effect?"

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow and looked at Qiqi, who stood there with a vacant stare and no reaction. He narrowed his eyes, sensing that something was off.

At that moment,

Director Hu Tao was busy digging and hadn't noticed Chen Fan's arrival. She was still digging away with great enthusiasm.

"Hehe, this newcomer really knows her stuff!"

"She actually thought of this!"

"Now I can finally lay her to rest!"

In Director Hu Tao's eyes, Qiqi was a dead person. And the best thing to do for the dead was to lay them to rest in the earth, restoring balance to the order between yin and yang.

It was just a shame that, despite all her schemes and efforts to bury Qiqi, she'd failed every time.

"When the sun comes out, I bask in the sun; when the moon comes out, I bask in the moon..."

Humming a cheerful tune, Director Hu Tao tossed her shovel to the ground. Just as she was about to toss Qiqi off her back and into the pit, she suddenly yanked on her own hair. "Eh?"

A little dazed, she let go and looked behind her, then glanced from side to side. But the land stretched out around her, and there was nothing in sight besides herself.

"She ran away?"

"Eh? I remember tying her up... How—"

She scratched her head in confusion, a huge question mark over her head. She looked like someone who'd drawn her sword and found herself at a loss in every direction.

By then,

Chen Fan had carried Qiqi to Mt. Tianheng.

"Scattered thoughts, vacant eyes... Why does this feel like the result of some kind of spiritual attack?"

After setting Qiqi down, Chen Fan closed his eyes and examined her with his spiritual power. Her condition was now clear as day.

According to Liyue's traditional view of the order between yin and yang, people had three souls and seven spirits.

Qiqi was an anomaly caught between yin and yang, with an incomplete soul. That was why she could still live, though she suffered from extremely poor memory.

Of course,

based on what was understood so far, this could be attributed to an incomplete spiritual sea.

And after examining her, Chen Fan found that Qiqi's spiritual sea seemed to have suffered some sort of intense impact, leaving it on the verge of collapse.

If her spiritual sea collapsed, she would die on the spot, or, at best, become a vegetable.

And in the world of Teyvat—aside from the Goddess of Flowers' reincarnation or things like the Akasha Terminal—there didn't seem to be anything related to this sort of ability.

Which meant—

someone from some faction had attacked Qiqi from the shadows?

At that thought, Chen Fan fell into deep contemplation.

"Everyone on the Douluo Continent has a spiritual sea, but only Battle Soul Masters specializing in spiritual abilities or Titled Douluos above level ninety-five might possess some kind of spiritual attack."

"In that case... who in the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor could it be?"