Yaksha Side Story: "Archon War in Different Times and Spaces"!

"What does it mean to get off work? Getting off work means... it means..."

Faced with Ronova's question, Hu Tao put her clever little brain into overdrive, but after quite a while, she still couldn't figure out how to answer.

After all, to normal people, getting off work was just getting off work.

Like one plus one equaling two, it was something you could understand without giving it any thought.

If you tried to explain something so basic, the endless logic involved would only leave you dizzy.

At a loss, Hu Tao finally looked to Zhongli for help and said:

"Um, Consultant Zhongli, how about you answer that?"

"Ahem..."

Zhongli found it rather hard to keep a straight face when Hu Tao passed the buck to him.

But he understood the situation a little better than she did.

After all, Zhongli knew that Ronova was the Ruler of Death under the Heavenly Principles.

As a tool the Heavenly Principles used to govern the world, Ronova had never left her post since taking it up. She had never even gotten off work.

For tens of thousands of years, she had maintained the world's order and ferried the souls of the dead without stopping, never resting for even a moment.

Naturally, this led Ronova to believe that working meant working nonstop until you died.

Until your boss kicked you out and you lost your position...

It had never occurred to her that humans didn't have to work nonstop twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

Zhongli understood this, so he quietly said, "Well, Ronova, I don't think you need to worry too much about what getting off work means. Work here for a day first, and you'll understand."

"Is that so? Then what work should I do?" Ronova asked curiously. "Help deal with the spirits wandering all over Liyue and ferry the souls of the dead to the Ley Lines?"

"Huh? Consultant, has Miss Ronova been role-playing so much that she can't get out of character?"

Hu Tao rubbed her brow.

She had thought she'd recruited an excellent, highly reliable employee, but it seemed this employee wasn't quite right in the head.

"That's right." Zhongli promptly sold Ronova out. "Whenever we role-played before, Ronova always played the God of Death, so she might mention details from that character without thinking."

"The God of Death, huh... Judging by Miss Ronova's bearing, she really does seem rather like one." Hu Tao smiled. "That's fine too. I think we should go with it. It might give our Wangsheng Funeral Parlor a little more character."

"???"

Ronova couldn't understand what Zhongli and Hu Tao were talking about.

But she could more or less tell that her performance seemed to have pleased her new boss.

While Ronova was feeling a little happy, Hu Tao wasted no time and immediately explained an undertaker's duties to her.

Ronova learned very quickly, grasping all the knowledge and skills almost instantly.

Hu Tao looked even more pleased and could hardly wait to put her to work immediately.

But she wasn't some unscrupulous capitalist, after all. She still had to provide a basic probationary period and benefits for new hires.

"Miss Ronova, follow me around and help out these next few days. Once you've fully settled in, you can officially start work."

"Help out? Don't I need to be working every moment?"

"Of course not. Liyue may be a big place, but people can't be dying every second of every day." Hu Tao waved a hand. "Besides, our Wangsheng Funeral Parlor generally takes on big jobs. Ordinary people don't come to us specifically to arrange funerals."

"This..."

Hu Tao's words took Ronova by surprise.

She had never imagined that this so-called job would be ten thousand times easier than she had expected.

By comparison, what kind of lousy job had being the Ruler of Death been?

Working 007 every day was bad enough, but all sorts of strange things had frequently cropped up, forcing her to descend to the mortal realm and deal with them herself...

Getting nothing much out of more than ten thousand years of work was bad enough, but after breaking the rules just once, her authority had been taken away on the spot...

The more Ronova thought about it, the more miserable she felt her old life had been, and she began looking forward to her future working at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.

"All right, all right, I don't think any work will come in today. Let's hurry to Wanmin Restaurant and order. If we're late, we'll have to wait in line."

Smiling, Hu Tao led the way outside.

Ronova had intended to follow her, but suddenly noticed a notification from the smartphone at her waist.

She instinctively opened it and found that the author of "A Hundred Lifetimes of Reincarnation" had released new content again.

"Another update already?"

Ronova was surprised at how quickly the videos were being updated.

Seeing her reaction, Hu Tao and Zhongli realized what had happened and immediately took out their own smartphones.

"Consultant Zhongli, when did you get a smartphone?"

Hu Tao was very surprised to see the Akasha Terminal smartphone in Zhongli's hand.

"I just bought it a couple of days ago."

Zhongli smiled.

Like most adepti, he had initially found it hard to adjust to this new kind of device.

But the "A Hundred Lifetimes of Reincarnation" videos had become so popular that he had joined the trend too.

Come to think of it, when Cloud Retainer had learned about smartphones a while ago, she had been quite dismissive and had declared that she would build a mechanical device even more advanced than the Akasha Terminal smartphone.

He wondered how she was getting on with it now...

Mt. Aocang, Liyue.

"Oh, this Akasha Terminal smartphone is wonderful. Shenhe, come and look at the baby crane video I just saved."

Hearing her master, Cloud Retainer, Shenhe couldn't help making a subtle expression.

With mixed feelings, she said, "Master, didn't you say just a couple of days ago that this Akasha Terminal smartphone was nothing but a wicked contrivance, and that you would never accept such a shoddy mechanical creation from Sumeru?"

"Nonsense! When did this adeptus ever say such a thing?!"

Cloud Retainer immediately rebuked her disciple.

As Shenhe looked on innocently, Mountain Shaper, who was visiting, couldn't help speaking up. "Cloud Retainer, have some shame. You were so righteous when you tried to talk us out of using these smartphones a couple of days ago. You even said things like 'Liyue's mechanical arts are the best under heaven' and 'Sumeru's technology is nothing but a jumping clown.' We all heard you..."

"I-I was merely overexcited at the time and had yet to grasp the mysteries of the Akasha Terminal's technology," Cloud Retainer said awkwardly. "Having studied it carefully now, this adeptus must admit that its intricacies are indeed extraordinary... But in the end, it only draws upon the power of Irminsul. It is not entirely original."

"Still refusing to admit it! Still refusing to admit it!"

Moon Carver couldn't help laughing too, exasperated to the point of laughter by Cloud Retainer's behavior.

"Even if it does draw upon the power of Irminsul, it's still a very impressive thing."

As the adepti talked, a woman in flowing white robes, as ethereal as a fairy, spoke with a smile beside the abode.

Seeing her arrive, even Cloud Retainer stopped trying to argue and said, "Since even you say so, Guizhong, I suppose I must admit, more or less, that this Akasha Terminal smartphone is indeed an impressive invention."

Just as Cloud Retainer finished speaking, she suddenly noticed a video shooting up the trending list at astonishing speed.

She clicked on it curiously and found that its title read:

["Yaksha Past" side story-"Archon War in Different Times and Spaces"]

[This side story will describe two entirely different tales, recounting two Archon Wars that developed in completely different ways, before and after a certain man turned the tide, and revealing the truth buried behind time.]