On a pitch-dark mountain path, several members of the Treasure Hoarders picked their way carefully through the darkness, carrying torches.
"Boss, we've been chasing them for ages and haven't seen a thing. How about we head back?" The young man with a streak of dyed blond hair sidled up to the wiry man and spoke in a low voice.
"Let's look a little longer." The wiry man frowned.
"Boss, what's left to look for?" another, younger Treasure Hoarder complained. "If Brother Niu finds out we abandoned our posts, this month's wages and bonuses will go down the drain!"
"Yeah, yeah, boss, let's hurry back."
"Let's go back. It's pitch-dark out here, and it's creepy."
"Even slacking off on guard duty beats feeding mosquitoes out here."
The others chimed in. They had followed those mysterious points of light for several miles, only for them to vanish into thin air without leaving a single clue. There was no point suffering out here any longer.
"..."
The wiry man began to hesitate too.
Was he being too suspicious? Maybe they were just ordinary fireflies.
But then he thought again. He earned the handsome sum of two million Mora a month, and he had to earn every bit of it. He couldn't afford to be careless about any unusual occurrence.
He looked back. The ruins behind them had long since shrunk to a dark silhouette in the distance, no bigger than a hill. After a moment's thought, he finally sighed helplessly.
"Let's go back. We're not chasing them anymore."
The others brightened at his words.
"That's right, no more searching. Let's go back and slack off!"
"It's pitch-dark here. It's safer to get back sooner."
"Come on, let's go."
The group turned to leave, but a cheerful woman's voice suddenly rang out from the darkness-
"Hello~ boys, are you camping out here this late? Oh, and have you seen a tiny, cute, one-eyed creature?"
"!!!"
"Who's there?! Who's talking?!"
"Come out! Stop skulking around!"
The Treasure Hoarders reacted as if facing a formidable enemy, hastily raising their torches and shining them in every direction.
"Over here~"
Two figures slowly emerged from the darkness. When they drew near, the flickering torchlight finally illuminated their faces.
A man and a woman. The woman in front wore a wide-brimmed hat, its feather trembling lightly, and a casual smile played on her lips. The man behind her wore a dark robe with subdued gold trim. His face was as serene as a deep pool, and his amber eyes held a clarity that seemed to see through everything.
They were Alice and Zhongli, who had tracked their quarry this far.
"Who are you?!" the wiry man shouted, his hand already reaching for the weapon at his waist.
"Oh, don't be nervous." Alice waved a hand and said with a smile, "We're just passing through and looking for a disobedient little pet."
Zhongli calmly swept his gaze over the group. "May I ask what brings you here so late at night?"
"None of your damn business!" the blond young man replied, mustering his courage. "Get lost, or don't blame us for getting rough!"
Before he had finished speaking, the wiry man suddenly sensed an indescribable pressure radiating from the man. His heart jolted, and before he could react, Zhongli merely raised a hand-
Whoosh!
Geo energy surged silently. In an instant, the torches flew from the Treasure Hoarders' hands and lodged firmly in the ground, while an invisible force pinned the men in place.
"Sir... sir, please show mercy!" Sweat beaded on the wiry man's forehead as he finally realized they had picked a fight with the wrong person.
Alice crouched down and looked at them with a smile.
"All right, all right, Consultant Zhongli, don't frighten them."
"Now, have you seen a tiny, talking, green little thing?"
She used two fingers to show its size.
The wiry man had never seen such a creature and hurriedly shook his head.
"Oh, is that so? I thought I might get some new information, but still nothing?" Alice said, somewhat disappointed.
"Did you come from that place, then?"
The wiry man followed her gaze to the ruins at Cuijue Slope.
"Yes, yes, that's our base. We came out on patrol."
"How about we make a deal? Take us inside, and I'll let you go. What do you say?"
The wiry man swallowed. After weighing his options, he gritted his teeth. "...We can lead you there, but you have to promise to let us go!"
"Deal!" Alice snapped her fingers.
Led by the wiry man and his companions, Alice and Zhongli arrived near the ruins, where they ran into some unexpected acquaintances.
"Paimon?" Alice greeted her, a little surprised.
"Alice?! Zhongli?!" Paimon flew up in shock. "Whoa, what are you doing here too?!"
Seeing that they were friends rather than enemies, Lan Yan put away her catalyst. "Hello, Consultant Zhongli. And who is this lady?"
"Oh, right, Lan Yan, let me introduce you. This is Alice, a witch from the Hexenzirkel."
"The Hexenzirkel?" Lan Yan said in surprise.
She had heard of the famed Hexenzirkel, but she hadn't expected Alice to be one of its witches.
"Alice, this is Lan Yan. She's from Chenyu Vale and is a good friend of ours."
"Hello, Lan Yan/Ms. Alice."
After a brief exchange of greetings, the two sides got down to business.
"Paimon, what are you doing here?"
"Well, here's what happened..."
Paimon briefly told them about their pursuit of a mastermind. Yelan and Lumine had already gone into the ruins to investigate, while Paimon and Lan Yan were keeping watch and waiting to provide support.
"I see." Zhongli nodded slightly.
Alice explained why she was there as well. "It's a little embarrassing, but one of my research specimens escaped. Consultant Zhongli and I have been looking for it, and its current location is somewhere nearby."
"An escaped research specimen? What is it?" Paimon asked curiously.
"It's a very special, highly intelligent creature that doesn't belong to Teyvat." Alice blinked. "It's extremely mischievous. Not only did it trick my other pet, Little Black, but it also used Little Black's ability to escape. With that little thing's intelligence, if it starts acting recklessly, it might cause a lot of chaos."
At the mention of "chaos," Lan Yan and Paimon exchanged a glance.
"Could it have something to do with the mastermind?"
"Maybe it's no coincidence that we ran into each other."
"Something to do with it? Have you seen it?" Alice raised an eyebrow.
She gestured to show them what One-Eye looked like.
Paimon and Lan Yan shook their heads.
They hadn't seen that kind of creature either.
"But the mastermind is in there. It might know about the thing you're looking for."
"What bad things has this mastermind done?" Alice asked.
At that, Paimon planted her hands on her hips and indignantly recounted the entire Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles incident. "That mastermind deliberately had people make these noodles that make people suffer qi deviation when they eat them, so it could control more people and fulfill its ambitions! We have to drag it out and bring it to justice!"
"Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles? Eating them makes people suffer qi deviation?" Zhongli pondered briefly upon hearing the name.
When Alice heard the name "Sea Overlord," she froze for a moment, then her expression turned to one of realization, tinged with both amusement and exasperation. "Oh, so that little fellow came to Liyue and opened a restaurant. It really is going to make good on what it said."
"Huh? Alice, what did you say?" Paimon hadn't caught on.
Lan Yan said in surprise, "Could it be, Ms. Alice-"
"You're right, little Lan Yan. The mastermind you're looking for might also be the research specimen I'm searching for."
"Whaaat?!" Paimon's eyes widened in disbelief.
Alice then told them about One-Eye. After pooling what both sides knew, they finally confirmed the mastermind's identity: the extraterrestrial creature that had escaped from Alice, the Miniature One-Eyed Tyrant!
"Since we have the same goal, why don't we go in together now?" Lan Yan suggested.
With Zhongli and Alice joining them, they could charge in without worry.
"Just what I had in mind." Alice nodded.
"Let's go meet up with the Traveler. There's strength in numbers, so we'll definitely catch that... One-Eyed Tyrant?!" Paimon waved her little fist.
Zhongli had no objections and nodded slightly.
They quickly came to an agreement.
With the wiry man and his companions' "assistance," the group easily dealt with the guards outside the ruins and stepped inside.
In a corner somewhere, an inconspicuous pinhole surveillance camera quietly recorded it all.
On the other side of the screen, One-Eye saw Alice's face in the footage and felt as though he had been plunged into an ice pit.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!! It's that devil! How did she find this place?!"
Hadn't he set up more than a dozenbewilderment formations? How had she found him so quickly?
"No, I can't just sit here and wait. I can't stay here any longer."
One-Eye scrambled to pack up his valuables.
Time to run. This time he really had to run.