I'm in the Teyvat running group

"Why didn't you give me a bath or let me get some fur..." Yunxiu complained as she helped Sugar load her various miscellaneous belongings onto the pack animal's back. These pack animals were designed to serve an entire team, and could easily carry the supplies of three or four people.

Although Yunxiu had brought a lot of things, including the Wind Demon Dragon scales, her actual weight was less than 200 kilograms. Sugar carried about 40 to 50 kilograms of things and had a petite body, so her total weight was less than 300 kilograms. She could still travel long distances at a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour with ease...

For the next two weeks, Yunxiu and Sugar traveled all the way to Mondstadt. Apart from a two-day break at Wangshu Inn and Stone Gate to sample local specialties and replenish their supplies, the two maintained a rhythm of traveling for four hours in the morning and evening, clearing out monster camps at noon, and feeding their pack animals while they rested.

As expected, the team's performance was even better than Yunxiu had anticipated! Sugar's control skills combined with Yunxiu's own magic made them like a bulldozer. Often, after Sugar cast a Wind Spirit spell, Yunxiu would unleash a barrage of spells, easily wiping out an entire camp of monsters! For Sugar, this was also a perfect experience. Although Yunxiu's magic was powerful, it only destroyed some materials at most, leaving a considerable amount intact. Sugar even managed to gather many of the materials she had been dreaming of. With Yunxiu's help, she even began to perform new spell recognition operations, fusing the laws brought by Yunxiu with the knowledge of Teyvat, gradually developing new spells unique to Sugar herself.

Every night after finishing their journey and having dinner, the two would discuss magic for a while. Sugar's thirst for magic and knowledge was indeed beyond the comprehension of most people. Perhaps to outsiders, Sugar was even a stuttering "green-haired bookworm," but Yunxiu quite appreciated this approach. For any spellcaster, without a fervent passion for knowledge and magic, it would be impossible to advance to a higher level. And what outsiders saw as obsession might just be the ladder to success.

To ensure that Sugar could remain clean after the experiment, Yunxiu specially learned the art of water creation, producing hundreds of liters of water every night so that Sugar could take a hot bath after the experiment.

At first, Sugar was a little unaccustomed to it, but seeing that Yunxiu also took baths and often used these strange spells to do some peculiar things, such as using grass element arrows to feed the pack animals and even figuring out how to make bald beans into weird-flavored broad beans to drink with apple wine, she felt much more at ease...

“Mr. Yunxiu is truly a very knowledgeable person…” Sugar thought about random things while taking a bath in the tent: “But what is this ‘absolute territory’ he mentioned to me today? Is it some kind of alchemical artifact…? He even said that my absolute territory is the best… but I don’t think I’ve practiced this thing since I came out here…”

As they continued their journey, they drew ever closer to Mondstadt. Interestingly, as they approached Mondstadt, it seemed that more and more treasure-hunting groups appeared, as if they were planning something.

"It's probably time for that 'great treasure thief' from Fontaine to go looking for the world's first tiller eyeball..." Yunxiu didn't think too much about it. They would actually find it after the Wind Demon Dragon Disaster ended, and she would still have enough time.

..............................

“你的小队获得50×20+200×4+700×1=3700点经验，因组队你获得50%经验共1850点！”

You have leveled up!

"We've finally arrived..." Yunxiu, who had been frantically clearing monsters with Sugar all the way, had already leveled up to level 5, while Sugar was close to level 6. The team's performance was exactly as Yunxiu had expected, and it was quite good.

Finally, after a long journey of sixteen days, Yunxiu and Sugar arrived at the crossroads behind Cangfeng Highlands. After clearing out the monsters, the two set up camp separately.

"I hope to see Diluc tomorrow..."

Chapter 23 The Noble Manor

Yunxiu looked at his panel. The 2 attribute points he gained from level 4 were added to his Intelligence, bringing the total to 7 points. This directly boosted his Elemental Energy to 1228 points.

At level 5, she already has 40 base health points. With a world modifier of 164.3 at level 3, her health points have reached 6572, and her spell shield has reached 2793. In total, she has surpassed Xiangling. In normal combat, Yunxiu can use Shield Spell and other skills to cast Arcane Protection several times, further enhancing her defensive capabilities. Otherwise, how can she be considered a qualified defensive mage?

The biggest advantage of the 3rd ring isn't that, but that you finally have enough powerful offensive spells to learn!

Without hesitation, she chose [Fireball], then the Protection School mage's trump card skill [Spell Counterspell], and for the last skill she could learn, Yunxiu chose [Flight]. Once she arrived in Mondstadt and obtained Windwing, Flight and Windwing could be used together, making her fully capable of handling some short-distance gliding.

In particular, spell counterspell is arguably one of the mage's trump card skills.

Spell Counter is extremely important for Yunxiu, especially in Teyvat. Many monsters, particularly the Abyss Mages and Abyss Apostles on the Abyss side, have very obvious "casting" animations! So obvious that you can even judge a monster's skill by watching its hand gestures while playing the game. This is when Spell Counter is most effective. And most importantly, Yunxiu's Intelligence bonus gives him a huge advantage in most Spell Counter situations.

The standard for spell counterspells is that the opponent's spell order + 10 is the difficulty level. For example, if an Abyss Mage uses "Shield," the Abyss Mage is considered to be a level 3 monster. Assuming that Shield is a level 2 skill, then the spell difficulty of "Shield" is 12.

Yunxiu has an intelligence bonus of 7 points, which means that when he rolls a D20 die, he only needs to roll a 6 or higher to successfully counter the Abyss Mage with a check result of 6+7=13, preventing the monster from activating its shield. Because of "Rock King's Blessing", Yunxiu's minimum roll is 4, so Yunxiu's "Spell Counter" is almost a guaranteed kill against 1st and 2nd ring spells, and even against 3rd ring spells of the same level, the probability is very high.

Sugar didn't learn any skills. The humans of Teyvat didn't have the "Secret Manual of All Laws" and needed to learn skills and spells from their own teachers. However, Yunxiu still had a great time with her level 4 Ring 75 Isomorphic Type II and her own Fireball spell.

The base damage of the 3rd Ring Fireball is as high as 8D20! Even though this time the luck was bad and only the lowest was thrown, Yunxiu's "Rock King's Blessing" has a base damage of 32 points. After multiplying by the coefficient, the ball hits more than 5,000 damage, killing more than 20 monsters in one go. Even though the experience is halved due to the party, it is still 1850 points, which directly increases the experience bar from level 5 to level 6 by 20%.

Sugar looked at the mage in front of her, her mind racing. For the past two weeks, she had followed this Mr. Yunxiu all the way, watching this powerful mage charge around with unparalleled magic and endless tricks. Because of the diversity of his magic and his intelligence, he often managed to outmaneuver his opponents. Usually, she only needed to provide some crowd control after he lured the monsters, and then a series of spells would tear the monsters to shreds!

In particular, his understanding of alchemy and the nature of the world is so profound that I gain a lot from every exchange!

Moreover, she thoughtfully prepared bathwater for me every day, making my wilderness adventures and material gathering as comfortable as a relaxing trip. I had never felt so comfortable before. In the past, I could only properly wash up on summer evenings when I happened to be by the river...

The only downside is that he often breaks the materials... If only he were a little gentler, it would be much better. If he didn't often handle a lot of monster materials himself, he probably wouldn't even have a tenth of the alchemy materials he could find...

But... but without Mr. Yunxiu, I wouldn't have been able to collect such precious elemental nectar and forbidden scrolls this time...

Professor Abedo is always very busy. Will he still be able to collect alchemical materials with Mr. Yunxiu in the future...?

Of course, if we're going together next time, I should still tell him in advance not to damage the materials.

Thinking of this, Sugar cautiously asked, "Mr. Yunxiu, can we still... can we still go and collect alchemical materials together in the future? As long as... as long as the fragile materials are handled by me, that's fine."

"Huh?" Yunxiu didn't expect Sugar to make such a strange request. She didn't think too much about it: "Miss Sugar is very smart and knows a lot about alchemy. She is a very good teammate. Of course, I am very willing to go on an adventure with you."

“Okay…okay…” Sugar replied excitedly, “As long as Mr. Yunxiu doesn’t think I’m a weirdo who only knows alchemy…that’s fine.”

"How could that be?" Yunxiu said casually, "The pursuit of knowledge is something every mage needs to do, because knowledge is the cornerstone of the world!"

"Is knowledge...the...cornerstone of the world?" Sugar pondered this question until she fell asleep beside the fire...

Helpless, Yunxiu had no choice but to use 113 energy points to cast the 3rd Ring Mage's Hand and gently put the sugar back into his tent.

This alchemist often falls asleep while researching and organizing materials. Because she is a girl, Yunxiu cannot directly touch her body, so she has to use the Rising Ring Mage's Hand to solve the problem each time. At first, Sugar was surprised and checked her own body to see if anything was missing. But after several similar incidents, especially after seeing Yunxiu use the Mage's Hand to take bird eggs, she realized why she often inexplicably returned to her bed in the tent after falling asleep...

The next day at noon, after a morning of trekking, Yunxiu and Sugar finally arrived at the entrance of Chenxi Winery.

Compared to the Adventurers' Guild building and Liyue itself, which differ from their game counterparts in size and grandeur, Dawn Winery doesn't look too different from the game. However, the vineyards are significantly larger, covering at least tens of hectares. Surrounding the vineyards like stars around the moon is the ancient building of Dawn Winery, a massive structure reminiscent of the late Renaissance style on Earth. If Yunxiu had to give it a rating, it would probably resemble the Villa Medici in Tuscany, Italy. Its simple yet sophisticated design, red roof, and beautiful windows are enough to prove that it was designed by a master architect with considerable taste.

Looking inside from the outside, you can see a large number of maids, servants, and guards. Unlike in the game, this house is indeed much larger than you would imagine!

However, it's understandable. From what we've observed so far, there are at least a hundred servants and guards in the entire manor. This shows that Lord Diluc doesn't really care much about a luxurious lifestyle. Even considering the personal servants, kitchen team, general servants, guest room servants, and other servants who aren't visible in the manor, the total number is at most around 150. This isn't much for a super-rich man. Just providing meals for 150 people requires considering tastes, hospitality, and a whole host of other factors. The kitchen alone would need about ten people.

So it's pretty clear that these people are only enough to keep the manor running. If Diluc cared about a luxurious lifestyle, he would usually have four to six personal maids, and the manor wouldn't be limited to just about a hundred people...

And with over a hundred people living in this enormous house, it's not surprising that the house is huge.

When Yunxiu arrived, she found that entering the gate was not an easy task. The entire building was tightly surrounded by a low wall that was not very tall, and the scenery outside could be clearly seen from inside the wall. However, anti-magic runes and protective spells were clearly engraved on the wall, and there seemed to be crossbowmen on the corner tower inside the wall!

Yunxiu's eyelids twitched. After assessing her own strength and the number of people in the manor, and realizing that it was almost impossible for her to enter without taking any damage and in a cool pose, Yunxiu decided to honestly go through the main gate. She jumped down, led her pack beast, and walked all the way to the main gate. Looking at the gatekeeper on duty and the guards behind him who were obviously not easy to deal with, Yunxiu casually used a few appraisals and was surprised to find that there was a level 6 three-ring weapon master and a level 5 three-ring knight. The rest were all at least level 3 or 4.

"????????????"

"These gatekeepers are all at the 3rd level, so the private soldiers must be at least the 5th level?"

"A level 5 ring member could be a regular captain in the Knights of Fame by now!"

"My dad only got a 6th ring!"

"How did Windwalker manage to run around the Dawn Winery?"

While inwardly cursing, he showed his identification and the Suspended Sword Division's credentials to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper's expression changed upon seeing them, and he then greeted the guard captain before running inside to report. A moment later, a beautiful young woman with chestnut hair, dressed in significantly more luxurious but still clearly maid's attire, approached and welcomed Sugar and Yunxiu inside. She took a few steps forward, and without even raising her hand, with just a glance, several servants trotted over to take the reins of the pack animal from Yunxiu and lead it to the stables to rest and be fed. Adeline led the way, speaking unhurriedly:

“Miss Sugar must know me before. Mr. Yunxiu, I am Adeline, the head maid of Dawn Winery.”

"Is there anything I can help you with? The young master is not here right now, so I can decide on some minor matters for the time being. If you have something important to discuss, please let me know first."

“Head Maid Adeline, please take me to a quiet room. I have something concerning a major crisis in Mondstadt that I need you to contact Mr. Diluc urgently.”

"?!"

Chapter 24 Diluc Appears

"May I know something?" Adeline asked tentatively. "Young Master entrusts me with many things, so if we need to make urgent contact, I'll need some kind of proof..."

If possible, Yunxiu did want to tell Adeline about this, but even with Sugar, whom she knew well and who had the top-tier combat power of Abedo backing her up, she didn't reveal many details. While Adeline was indeed the head maid of the Diluc family and held a high position of power, the game's storyline revealed that she wasn't a very discreet person and seemed to be involved in some clandestine activities; even several maids in the manor knew about her actions.

Therefore, Yunxiu could not fully trust the character until he received Diluc's personal guarantee.

After pondering for a while, Yunxiu decided to use his father's identity as collateral first. So he took out the letter his father had written and his own identification, placed them in front of Adeline, and said, word by word, "I guarantee, in the name of the special envoy of the Liyue Sword Division and the son of the Celestial Star, that what I am doing is an event concerning a major crisis in Mondstadt. Please contact Diluc or Mr. Kaeya as soon as possible, Miss Adeline!"

He then glanced at Sugar, giving her a reassuring look, before continuing, "Also, please arrange a place for Miss Sugar to rest."

Adeline saw the official seal and certificate on the letter, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes. She then bowed, called a short-haired, reddish-brown maid to take Sugar down to rest, and hurried to her room on the second floor.

"It seems this must be Moco or Haley. Anyone who has a model in the game is one of the maids managing this place." While pondering how to gain Diluc's trust, Yunxiu sipped the finest Qiaoying Manor black tea and ate the delicious Fontaine pastries brought by the maids in the reception room, waiting for Diluc's return. Less than two hours later, a huge spatial energy fluctuation came from the upper part of the room, followed by a blazing yet restrained fire element energy fluctuation that quickly subsided. Yunxiu understood that Diluc must have used a teleportation array to rush back from somewhere unknown.

"Wow, they're so rich..."

In the world of D&D, building a fixed two-way teleportation array often requires tens of thousands of gold coins, and activating it once costs as much as thousands. Converted to the prices in Genshin Impact, it would cost ten million Mora to build one, and two to three hundred thousand to activate it once.

Even in Genshin Impact, where prices have already inflated somewhat, this amount of money is enough to support a family's expenses for several years. If there were a Crazy Thursday event in Genshin Impact, activating it once would probably give you enough money to eat ten thousand times...

Moreover, the biggest problem with building this teleportation array is that the elemental forces in Genshin Impact are too active and violent! While this certainly makes casting extremely easy in the early stages, turning every mage into a "super mage" capable of instant magic, the cost is that in the later stages, due to the overly active elemental forces and incomplete laws, analyzing the world and stabilizing spatial channels requires extremely complex structures and designs. Judging from the fact that even the life-saving item Abedo gave to his beloved disciple Sugar could only maintain the seventh ring rank and had a limited number of uses, building this teleportation array would require at least a ninth ring or even a legendary level mage to accomplish!

"Is it Alice..." Yunxiu murmured to herself, "There should only be one mage left who can master spatial magic and has the will to do so."

This also means that Aerith is indeed one of the guardians of Mondstadt and even Teyvat. Of course, this is understandable. If she didn't have control over space, how could this legendary adventurer maintain the boundaries of Teyvat and even repair the barriers of Teyvat to some extent? Moreover, in the game, during the island event at the end of the Inazuma expansion, Aerith created something like a "teleportation circle," allowing people to reach the Golden Apple Islands, which they usually had to rely on Dvalin to "dig and dash," by simply entering a strange object. That creation was clearly a teleportation circle.

A moment later, a young man with long, fiery red hair, dressed in a fitted outfit, strode in. A massive amount of fire element seemed to flow continuously within his strong and muscular body. His arrival even seemed to set the entire room ablaze. However, with a soft hum, he instantly became as calm as still water. His powerful control made Yunxiu exclaim in amazement: "This must be Mr. Diluc Legnfinde. Thank you for returning from elsewhere so quickly."

“Adeline has already told me your identity.” Diluc looked directly into Yunxiu’s eyes, his sharp gaze still carrying immense pressure: “The crisis in Mondstadt exists every day. How do I know that the ‘crisis’ you speak of is not a clumsy trap?”

Without hesitation, Yunxiu revealed the Unfettered Talisman, the legendary item's brilliance instantly enveloping the entire room: "This item was bestowed by the Rock God 'Morax,' and I believe it can serve as proof for me."

"Oh? Then why me?" Diluc crossed his arms. "The Knights of Favonius are the professional organization. You've bypassed them to come to me, which means either it's something big, or you think there's a mole in the Knights of Favonius. Tell me, which is it?"

"neither."

"Ok?"

"It's true that the Knights of Favonius might not be able to resolve this matter, but that's not the key point. If I could get to the Knights of Favonius first, I would certainly go there, because the nature of this matter dictates that I must contact a powerful figure who can make decisions in Mondstadt as soon as possible." Yunxiu paused for a moment before continuing, "Mr. Diluc, I need to contact, in your name, the acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, Jean; the Cavalry Captain Kaeya; the Survey Squad Leader, Abedo; the Librarian, Lisa; and even..."

"Barbatos, the god of liberty!"

"Hmm?" Diluc raised an eyebrow. "In such a significant event, what role do you play? I can't possibly help you contact so many people with just an identity and a few words."

He then shook his hand, pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him, saying seemingly casually, "Besides, Barbatos, the God of Liberty, has been missing for so long that even His Holiness Simon Page, the Archbishop of the Knights of Favonius, has had a hard time finding him. Where am I supposed to find this sir?"

Seeing that Diluc was clearly losing patience, Yunxiu couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. Indeed, for any country, the Demon God's Familiar causing a huge disaster would be a massive problem, both politically and in terms of demonstrating power...

"Please send two servants to fetch the item wrapped in black fur from my pack animal." Yunxiu thought for a moment. Since they were already here, the scales could be shown to Diluc. This guy knew so much information and held a high position in Mondstadt; he'd probably know what was going on just by seeing Dvalin's scales…

"Hmm?" Although he didn't know why Yunxiu suddenly said that, Diluc still called over a few guards to unload the things from the pack animals and carry them to the table. After the guards left the room, Yunxiu gestured for Diluc to open the fur.

"This is!" Diluc casually opened the fur and immediately recognized what it was. Without the black fur covering it, the scales shone with an almost dazzling blue-gold light, but it seemed to contain a hint of unsettling aura. For the first time, a look of surprise appeared on his usually calm face: "Scales of Dvalin, the East Wind Dragon!"

“Yes, you can use your elemental power to sense it.” Yunxiu waved her hand and continued to sit down and drink tea. “To ensure safety, I have basically not touched it since I got it and tied it up. Most people wouldn’t bother with a few pieces of fur that are readily available everywhere. It is safest to mix it with so much luggage.”

“You’re right.” Diluc placed his hands on the scales and carefully infused them with his elemental power. This god-like figure from Mondstadt actually began to show a hint of regret and tenderness on his face.

A faint dragon's roar came over, but Diluc casually fluctuated his elemental energy, dispelling the damage without a trace. He then closed his eyes and began to investigate carefully.

"Wow, that's really strong..." Yunxiu couldn't help but sigh. Even though he had shouted it over the internet, Dvalin's damage had almost killed him back then. Even though he had become much stronger, he was probably closer to Dvalin now, and Dvalin was probably even more insane. Maybe even Lu Bu was taking full damage. The fact that he could easily resolve it made Yunxiu start to think about just how powerful this Mondstadt war god really was.

Maybe in the game it's still Lu Sandao, but no one can withstand the fourth blow...

But for me now, the stronger the Mondstadt people are, the better! Only when Mondstadt is truly powerful can I gain enough benefits in this war. Moreover, Mondstadt and I are helping each other. The information I have allowed them to strike at the heart of the problem from the very beginning. At least Mondstadt will definitely not suffer from the two dragon scourges, and Dvalin's relationship with Mondstadt will not have deteriorated to the point where the Anemo Archon had to intervene to salvage the situation!

“I understand.” Diluc withdrew his consciousness from the scale and then said decisively, “I’ll make the contact for you right now. I’ll keep this scale for now, okay?”

Yunxiu nodded, and Diluc immediately wrapped the scales back in fur, summoned Eze and Adeline, and gave them two swift and decisive orders.

"Eze, take a few men, put this in the basement, and assign two teams of guards to watch over it. If any suspicious persons approach, kill them without mercy!"

"Adeline, in my name and the name of the Leganfender family, immediately send the highest-level communication to Gin, Kaia, Abedo, and Lisa, instructing them to assemble at the winery as soon as possible!"

"Yes!"