Lu Bu, the Thunder General, is my adoptive father in Genshin Impact.

Thor, watching this scene, remarked, "We're all the same now."

They stopped making a scene. Xiao Yi and Ying got up from the ground, and Paimon flew up as well. Although they didn't look very presentable, they still had business to discuss.

"So, what do you want with travelers?" Paimon asked.

Xiao Yi told them about the stragglers.

“Perfect, I also have a score to settle with him,” Ying said.

"Is there no one in your pot?" Xiao Yi asked.

Ying immediately understood what this guy was trying to do, and then replied with a mix of sarcasm and retort: ​​"Of course not, this is our temporary accommodation with Paimon, and besides, we're not weird people, why would we keep our friends locked up inside all this time?"

"Is it sturdy?" Xiao Yi asked, simplifying the question.

"It should be quite sturdy. I once sparred with Xiao in there to practice my combat skills." Ying gave a vivid example. "Another time, Klee made a mistake, and the solitary confinement cell was under renovation. Jean asked me to lock Klee in the pot for a whole day, and I played with bombs with her all day."

That's definitely quite sturdy.

Xiao Yi opened the treasure chest that had previously stuck him again: "Let's go see Gan Yu and then discuss the plan to capture the stragglers."

"How do you plan to get there?" the traveler asked, puzzled. "Put us in boxes and take us with you?"

"Actually, this box also functions as a teleportation portal," Xiao Yi explained. "Although it's not perfect, and it will cause damage to the target being teleported to the point of being pulverized, with me and Ying protecting you, there won't be any problems."

"Eh, pulverized to pieces?!" Paimon exclaimed in surprise.

"Don't worry, trust that we're here to protect you, no one will get hurt." Xiao Yi spread his hands. "So, who wants to hitch a ride with me?"

The traveler rolled his eyes at him, then burrowed into Shadow's arms without hesitation: "I'll go with her."

Immediately afterwards, Paimon flew to Xiao Yi's outstretched hand and said with a smile, "Hehe, please take care of me, Mr. Inazuma, the adopted son of the goddess!"

Because there were too many people, even though everyone was sticking together, it was difficult to squeeze into the box at the same time. Following the principle of ladies first, Xiao Yi let Ying and Ying go in first.

Thor, carrying the Traveler, leaped into the open treasure chest, and a bolt of lightning swept past them, making them disappear.

When it was Xiao Yi's turn, Paimon's cowardice kicked in again. She thought about the possibility of being smashed to pieces, and her body began to tremble.

"Speaking of which, where will we come from?" Paimon asked, for the more you know, the less fear you have compared to the complete unknown.

Xiao Yi thought for a moment and replied, "Of course, it will come out of the treasure chest on Gan Yu's side. Moreover, with my dutiful wife watching over us, the exit of the chest will not be blocked by anything, and our path will be unobstructed... Enough said, let's go."

He jumped in with Paimon in his arms.

……

Stepping onto the sand, on the quiet and peaceful beach.

Just like when Gan Yu and Xiao Yi left, she sat steadily on the treasure chest, swinging her legs contentedly, waiting for her husband to find the traveler and return.

Chapter 225 Let's take a bath in the pot

As Gan Yu sat on the chest, leisurely waiting for Xiao Yi to return, she noticed a small water slime hopping and slowly approaching her from behind, in the direction the back of the treasure chest was facing.

She warily turned her legs to look at the slime that had been approaching her from behind, only to find that the monster had no intention of attacking.

After all, it was only a medium-sized slime.

Gan Yu had seen this kind of thing quite often, so he wasn't surprised. If a slime is smaller than a certain size, it won't be too threatening or aggressive, especially when it's alone. It's basically harmless to medium to large-sized creatures.

They only prey on small animals like insects. Once they grow a little bigger, frogs will also fall prey, followed by rabbits, small deer, and eventually, they will threaten passing adventurers and merchants. Of course, this process is very long.

During this time, there is a greater chance of encountering accidents, being preemptively attacked by humans or Hilichurls, ending their life as slimes and becoming slime material in laboratories or pots.

The slime in front of him, although not too small, clearly had no interest in Gan Yu. It just passed by and stood there, staring blankly at Gan Yu with what looked like eyes, but which were actually just two small dots of color.

Gan Yu had nothing to do and didn't want to pointlessly eliminate monsters. After staring at it for a while, Gan Yu lost interest. She turned her body back to the slime and stopped looking at the blue, round thing.

Suddenly, she felt the box below her shaking.

Before Gan Yu could escape the treasure chest, it suddenly opened, causing her to flip backward and crash into the slime. The Qilin horn accurately pierced the little monster, ending its short life.

The bursting, splattered slime covered Gan Yu's entire body. She was completely unaware of what had happened and lay on the ground in a daze.

Ying and Ying, Xiao Yi and Paimon, jumped out of the box one after another.

"Where is Gan Yu?" Xiao Yi asked, puzzled.

Finally realizing the situation, Gan Yu, remembering her current disheveled appearance, covered her eyes as if burying her head in the sand, and pleaded with everyone, "Please don't look at me, everyone. I look very...unattractive right now!"

All eyes turned to her.

"What are you talking about? We're all the same," Xiao Yi reassured. "Come on, open your eyes and see what a mess we look like now."

Gan Yu opened her eyes a crack and was surprised to find that everyone else was in no better shape than she was, as if they had all jumped into a slime pool for a bath.

"Pfft!" Gan Yu forced back her laughter. "Sorry, that was rude of me."

Xiao Yi closed the treasure chest lid, knelt on it, and reached out to pull Gan Yu up, but she grabbed his hand and prepared to get up.

*Snap!* The slime caused the slippery surface to slip, creating long strands between the two people's hands, and Gan Yu fell back to the ground.

"Pfft, hahahahaha!" Paimon burst out laughing, unable to hold it in any longer.

Ying couldn't help but rub her forehead and suggested, "How about we take a bath in the Dust Song Pot first, and then slowly discuss the next plan? Anyway, the final plan must be related to the pot. Besides, it wouldn't look good if passersby saw us like this."

As penniless travelers with no fixed abode, it wasn't a problem for her and Paimon to expose their wretched appearance to others, but it was troublesome for Thor and Xiao Yi.

The sticky, distraught god, his adopted son, and his adopted son's wife stood by the roadside in such a wretched state. If anyone saw them, it would be an extremely serious public relations incident that could not be covered up even with a loud commotion, and might even threaten the prestige that Thor had accumulated over thousands of years.

However, those who know Ying understand that, on ordinary days, this homebody and country girl has basically no authority.

The traveler took out her magical artifact, a brown, pot-shaped object, and placed it in mid-air. Wisps of green smoke billowed from the spout, enveloping the soaking wet group of people.

When the smoke cleared, all the people had disappeared, leaving only a treasure chest and a pot by the roadside.

……

A cool sea breeze caressed their faces. They were on a deserted island, and in the distance, they could see other islands, some of which had houses built on them.

Xiao Yi knew very well that this place did not belong to any of Daoqi's areas, but was a scene conjured by immortal magic—or rather, materialized—within Ying's Dust Song Pot.

"If I want, I can change the environment. Whether it's plains or towering mountains, I can customize it to my liking." Ying said proudly, hands on her hips. "So, this is the residence I painstakingly developed. Isn't it great? Do you want to stay here for a long time?"

“If my husband lives here, I can come too,” Gan Yu replied.

“When I retire, I’ll let Xiao Yi take over, and then I can come here for a vacation,” Ying said.

"Although the environment is indeed quite nice, I have absolutely no intention of living here. In the end, the castle tower is still the best." Xiao Yi stated his true thoughts without any mercy. "As for the general's retirement, we shouldn't even think about it for the next few hundred years."

The implication is simple: Traveler, I will not send my wife and my shadow into your pot!

"Hey, don't be so disrespectful!" Paimon complained.

“Exactly!” the blonde girl chimed in.

Xiao Yi was silent for a moment, then observed the surroundings again. With an exaggerated, monotone expression, he said, "Ah, what a beautiful pot! I want to move in right now, and call in Shadow, Divine Child, Ayaka, the two Yura... all the girls, to keep this lonely old Ying company—how about that? Isn't that giving me face?"

"Please calm down," Ying retorted.

Xiao Yi stopped complaining and carefully observed his surroundings, asking in confusion, "Speaking of which, what's with those stone lions over there? Are you holding a military parade in your cupboard?"

On a deserted island, hundreds of stone lions are neatly arranged, which is undeniably impressive. They could ward off evil spirits and even demons without any problem. However, a normal person would not display so many lions as if holding a ceremony.

"This, this is..." Ying stammered, "It was a last resort, an important step to maintain the immortal power in the pot."

While the group was talking, Paimon clasped his hands together and then pulled them apart, drawing out sticky threads. He would repeat this process after the threads broke, playing with the slime with great interest.

“Paimon, stop playing around, it looks weird,” Ying said. “We can’t just stand on the beach chatting like this. Let’s go inside, take a shower, and then we can talk about serious matters.”

Everyone readily agreed; no one liked feeling sticky. They followed Ying, who was leading the way, across the shallows to a relatively large island with main houses and small huts, and there should be no shortage of bathrooms.

Chapter 226 Slime Trap

Ying led the girls to the main house's large public bathhouse, while Xiao Yi went alone to the backyard of the small house next door, where there was an open-air hot spring in the style of Inazuma.

He first wrung out all the slime from his clothes into a container, giving it to the traveler as a favor, and then rinsed himself off and soaked in the hot spring.

He was genuinely impressed by the wonder of the Dust Song Pot, which could even create a hot spring inside. Although it was not as good as the highest-level hot spring in the castle tower, which had been adjusted and maintained by experts, it was still passable for relaxing the mind and body.

Of course, he only tried it out briefly and didn't soak for too long, since no one wants to soak in a hot spring twice in 24 hours.

After simply drying himself off, he felt that his skin was still smooth, but the sticky, disgusting feeling from before was gone.

He thought to himself: slime might be quite useful as a shower gel or skin care product.

After rinsing his clothes and drying them with the help of the rice crust, Xiao Yi left the backyard and found that the traveler girl had already finished washing up and was preparing food in the open cooking area.

As a half-wild woman, Ying spends most of her time without a fixed abode. Therefore, she is much faster than normal women at eating and washing up. So Xiao Yi was not surprised that she finished so quickly.

In contrast, Ying, as a deity, is of noble status and is bound by complicated rules. As far as Xiao Yi knows, there was a period in the history of Inazuma where nobles would even send their eldest daughters as the general's eunuchs to serve her when she bathed and changed clothes.

Over time, Ying naturally won't develop the habit of a fast-paced life, but will instead take her time to take care of her health.

As for Gan Yu, she is not much older than Thor and is a living fossil that silently records the development of Liyue.

As we all know, the Qilin is a creature with a strong sense of ritual. It is not hard to see from their rule of "drinking only sweet dew and eating only auspicious grains". Therefore, in terms of bathing and changing clothes, the fuss of the sweet rain is no less than that of the thunder god.

Aside from her hard-won sleep time, taking a shower is probably her best form of relaxation outside of work.

Xiao Yi didn't see Paimon, but whether the little white floating object was soaking in a bathhouse or stewing in a pot, he wouldn't be too surprised or care.

Although Ying came out faster than the other three, Xiao Yi was still a little puzzled. After all, girls taking a bath is similar to shopping, and it is somewhat contagious. Logically speaking, the traveler should take a bath with them instead of coming out first.

"Hey, Ying, why aren't you with them?" Xiao Yi teased as he leaned closer. "A rare opportunity to spend time with cute girls at the bathhouse."

“Gan Yu’s stomach is rumbling, so I came out early to make her something to eat,” Ying said. “I’ll also get Ying’s portion done. We can enjoy the food while we discuss how to deal with the Thunder Kingdom Collapse.”

"Where did the ingredients come from?" Xiao Yi asked.

"There's a field in the pot, which I cultivated myself, but the location is a bit remote. I only remembered that there were self-produced ingredients here when I was taking a bath." The traveler continued his work while complaining, "I was starving for half a day, but I didn't expect there to be emergency food in the pot. If I had known, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to open the treasure chest."

"Thank you for your hard work." Since the other person was cooking for his wife, Xiao Yi had no reason to continue teasing her, but he still asked, "But why wasn't there any for me?"

"If I knew what you liked to eat..." Ying shrugged casually, "so I made extra portions of food for Gan Yu and Ying. They can eat whichever one they like."

"Two portions?" Xiao Yi asked, puzzled.

“Of course, otherwise what would Paimon and I eat?” A smile appeared on Ying’s lips. “As travelers, we’re not picky eaters.”

During their casual conversation, Xiao Yi got down to business: "Thank you for providing the Dust Song Pot, but I have a question for you. Are you planning to get involved when capturing the stragglers?"

“Of course, as I said, I have a personal grudge against him.” The girl slowly clenched her fist, then released it and continued cooking. “I will do my best to do my job without interfering with your actions.”