Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

While Little Black was squatting at the entrance of the Hall of Rebirth waiting for Fanes, he was using his paws to poke at a fallen leaf that had been blown by the wind along the edge of the steps.

Xiao Hei flicked the leaf to the left, then to the right, as if practicing fine control of some movement. Each time, the angle of its claws shifted by about half a degree compared to the previous one. By the third time, the edge of the leaf had curled up slightly, but it still did not change its rhythm.

Fanes came out from inside the door, bent down, reached out and picked it up, placing it on his shoulder. He then turned back and called out to the door, "Walnut, let's go."

Walnut peeked out from the half-open door, carrying a bulging cloth bag in her arms, the drawstring at the top still untied: "I'm here! I brought a change of clothes and a few packets of peanut brittle."

When Hu Tao reached the door, she looked up at the little black dog perched on Fanes' shoulder, then looked down at the rope of her cloth bag. She tightened it again to make sure it wouldn't come undone in mid-air. Then she stepped across the threshold into the light under the eaves and patted the little black dog's head as a greeting.

Fanes mounted the dragon's back, reached out and pulled Walnut up, adjusting her posture so she could grip the edge of the scales more firmly. Then he reached out to Funina, who also used the leverage to climb onto the dragon's back and sit down. Once both hands were firmly on the ground, Little Black spread its wings and soared into the sky.

The outline of Fontaine gradually came into view. The pointed rooftops shimmered in varying shades of gray-blue in the afternoon light, and waterways meandered between the buildings. Furness sat behind Fanes, the wind causing the hem of her newly changed Liyue-style dress to flutter slightly.

Funina turned her head and looked down, then said, "Let's go to the inland sea area east of Fontaine first. The water is deeper there, and the view is more open."

Xiao Hei slightly adjusted its flight direction and glided along the waterway toward the open water surface further away.

The inland sea that Funina described was much larger than Fanes had imagined. The water's color gradually changed from light green near the shore to deep blue in the distance, with several protruding reefs along the edge, covered with dark green moss and a layer of salt crust drying in the sun.

Little Black folded its wings and landed on a flat rock. After finding a good angle to stand firmly on the rock with its claws, it squatted down slightly so that the people on its back could slide down one by one.

After sliding off the dragon's back, Walnut ran straight to the water's edge, squatted on the edge of the reef, and peered into the water. After watching for a while, she turned around and shouted in Fanes' direction, "There's something underwater! It's huge!"

Funina also walked over, squatted down next to her, and glanced in the direction Hu Tao was pointing: "That should be a deep-sea crab that lives in this area. It occasionally swims into the shallow water to forage for food."

Fanes also walked over, and as he reached the water's edge, the outline gradually rising from the water beneath his feet was larger than he had expected, its hull spanning nearly half the length of the boat.

Little Black also flew above the water, circling the huge outline that was emerging from the water. The airflow brought by its wings as it approached the water stirred up a faint ripple on the surface of its carapace, like a layer of transparent silk that had been crumpled by the wind being smoothed out again.

Then Little Black folded its wings and swooped down. As it approached the crab's back, its body began to change rapidly. The sheen on its scales unfolded and completed a full color change, from deep black to grayish-white and back to deep black. The whole process lasted for less than two breaths.

Xiao Hei's front paws slammed onto the crab's carapace, producing a dull thud, as if something extremely heavy had been placed on a stone slab.

The shockwave from the collision spread along the water's surface, affecting several nearby rocks, and then receding further into the distance. The ripples gradually narrowed, eventually settling completely at the edge of a clump of seaweed on the shore.

The crab's legs first straightened, then gradually relaxed, and its entire body slowly lay down on the pebbles in the shallow water.

Fanes had already found a spot to start a fire. He went over, squatted down, picked up a few flat stones from the edge of the dry reef, and gathered a pile of dried driftwood along the water's edge, setting them up to make a makeshift grill.

Fanes turned his head to look at the crab, which had now completely quieted down: "It's fine, this thing isn't a Hilichurl, eat it if you want."

Standing by the water's edge, Funina looked down at the massive carapace outline lying quietly on the shallows, then turned to look at the pile of firewood burning beneath the surface: "Are you sure the fire's heat will be enough to bake through its shell?"

Fanes had already set up the first piece of driftwood: "It doesn't matter if the shell is cooked through, what matters is that the meat inside is cooked."

Hu Tao squatted by the water's edge, watching the crab that had completely quieted down for a moment. Her gaze moved around the edge of its shell, as if using it as a reference to estimate how many people the amount of this ingredient was enough for, and then she made a decision.

Walnut rolled up her sleeves, bent down, and broke off the huge crab leg, which was still half-submerged in water, from the joint.

The crab leg was about as thick as an adult's arm, its shell a deep red that gleamed with a warm, oily sheen in the afternoon sun. She carried the crab leg to the grill, brushed it with chili oil, and then placed it above the fire.

Fanes broke off the remaining crab legs one by one and used his small knife to make several cuts on the shell so that heat could seep in through the gaps.

Xiao Hei shrank in size and squatted at the edge of the fire. Its amber vertical pupils were staring unblinkingly at the row of steaming crab legs above the fire. Its tail swayed slowly behind it, as if it was trying to determine how much time was left before the food was removed from the fire.

Fanes pulled a small bag of salt and a packet of dried chili flakes from his pocket and spread them out on the edge of the grill. He sprinkled a layer of salt evenly over the crab legs that were already starting to change color, then rubbed the chili flakes into the cuts he had made, before flipping them over to ensure the other side was heated evenly.

Walnut took the roasted crab leg off the fire and placed it on a flat stone slab that had been washed with water.

Walnut poked the shell with a clean twig to make sure it was cool enough to touch, and then she broke it open.

The tender white crab meat peeks out from the cracks, carrying a slightly charred aroma unique to charcoal grilling and red veins left by chili oil seeping into the texture, spreading out along the contours of each piece of crab meat.

Walnut blew on the edge of the crab meat to warm it, then took a bite. She chewed twice, then twice more, then swallowed, and looked up at Fanes.

"This is fresher than any crab I've ever had in Liyue, and the meat is very firm and elastic, unlike frozen meat which is loose and crumbly."

Fanes also broke open a crab leg, picked out the whole piece of crab meat inside, and placed it on the clean stone slab in front of Funina: "Try it."

Funina looked down at the still-steaming crab meat, then looked up at Fanes, who was squatting by the fire, using a knife to pick at the bits of meat from the edges of another crab leg's shell. Then she picked up the crab meat with her chopsticks, dipped it in the sauce she had just prepared, and put it in her mouth.

After chewing and swallowing, Funina said, "It has a better flavor than the delicate dishes made in the kitchen of Mo Mang Palace."

Little Black was squatting at the edge of the fire, holding down a small crab leg it had broken off with its paw, tilting its head and using its row of fine teeth to gnaw along the seams of the shell.

Xiao Hei's movements were precise and steady, as if it had calculated the entry point and angle of each bite in advance. Soon, it had cleaned the shell, revealing the complete crab meat inside.

Fanes reached out and took the crab leg in front of it, picked out the crab meat, and put it back in front of it: "This way it's easier to eat."

Little Black looked down at the piece of crab meat that had been completely peeled off, then looked up at him, then looked down again to pick up the piece of crab meat and put it between its front paws to eat slowly. Its tail swept slowly behind it, like a response that was being extended.

Walnut had finished her second crab leg and was poking at the embers around the edge of the fire with a twig to keep the flames at a suitable temperature for continued roasting.

Walnut glanced towards the water's surface; the crab's shell still lay quietly on the shallows. "We'll pack up the rest and take them back; we can eat them again tomorrow."

Fanes looked down at the empty crab shell in his hand, placed it on the pile of stones next to the fire, as if using the row of empty shells as the spine of a book to mark a precise category number on his still-unsettled schedule.

The evening breeze was creating fine ripples on the water near the shore, which carried several fragments of crab shells toward the shore. The ripples circled around a few rocks in the shallows before spreading out into the deeper water.