Chapter 159: Chi Bone Soup (Patreon)

Seeing Piers open his eyes, Hu Tao rushed over, her eyes bright and eager, her whole body already poised as if ready to bolt out the door at any moment.

"Mister Zhongli is fine. He just went to visit a friend."

Piers let out a soft breath, his tone calm.

"Visit a friend?"

Hu Tao tilted her head, clearly not expecting that answer.

"Yeah. At this hour, he's probably staying the night at his friend's place."

"Really? Honestly, that consultant of ours — even if he happened to run into a friend, he could've at least come back to tell us first. Made me worry for nothing."

Now that she knew Zhongli was fine, Hu Tao relaxed. There was still a trace of grumbling in her voice, but the frantic urgency from before was gone.

"It's all his fault I barely slept today. Ugh, guess I won't be going to Wuwang Hill tonight."

Hu Tao yawned, a faint sheen of moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes. She'd just turned to head back to her room to sleep when she suddenly remembered Guizhong was still sitting there. She paused mid-step and turned back.

"Oh, right — miss, um, it's pretty late to tidy up a room now. The only one that's been kept clean is my old childhood room. Why don't you stay there."

Hu Tao pointed toward one of the inner rooms and smiled at Guizhong.

Once Guizhong was settled, Hu Tao walked over to Piers, rose on her toes, and rested a hand on his shoulder, her smile taking on a mischievous edge.

"Heh heh, Adeptus Piers, I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through a night sleeping with me."

"Huh? What?"

Piers didn't catch on right away, his expression frozen.

Something about Hu Tao's strange arrangement struck Piers as off the moment he heard it. Shouldn't the two girls, Guizhong and Hu Tao, be sharing a room? Why was he the one sleeping with her?

"That's not right."

Sharp as ever, Guizhong caught the problem instantly and objected at once, her eyes flicking warily between Hu Tao and Piers.

"There's no need to go to such trouble, Young Director. I'll just sleep with Piers."

"Huh? What?"

Now it was Hu Tao's turn to look baffled. She glanced between Guizhong and Piers, blinking several times.

"You two... sleeping together doesn't seem like a good idea..."

For once, Hu Tao's voice held a note of hesitation, her gaze sweeping back and forth between their faces.

"What's wrong with it? We sleep together all the time anyway."

Guizhong said it lightly, as if it were nothing at all.

But Hu Tao just stood there stunned, mouth slightly open, unable to think of a reply. Piers, at a loss for words himself, stepped forward and patted Hu Tao's shoulder to snap her out of it.

"Don't let her looks fool you — she's actually an adept, and my elder. She's several thousand years old."

He leaned in close to murmur that last part about her age directly into Hu Tao's ear.

"Oh! No wonder, no wonder. I was wondering why she kept calling me 'Young Director, Young Director.' So that's why. Got it, got it."

Hu Tao nodded as if everything suddenly made sense — then frowned as something still felt off.

"No, wait, that's still not right! Even if she's an elder, you still can't sleep together! Piers isn't some little kid who needs looking after."

Hu Tao suddenly caught on, her voice rising, hands planted on her hips, her expression turning stern.

"What do you mean, he's not? At Little Piers's age, what's the difference from a newborn? Of course he needs looking after."

Guizhong shot back without so much as a blush, perfectly composed. In truth, it was usually Piers who looked after her — compared to Piers, who wasn't even nineteen, Guizhong was much more the child. But that didn't stop her from claiming credit for taking care of him.

The tension between them crackled — sparks practically flew where their gazes met. Hu Tao glared at Guizhong with her hands on her hips, and Guizhong glared right back, refusing to back down.

Sensing the mood was about to turn, Piers hurried to step between them, blocking their line of sight.

"Sister Guizhong, why don't you just take a room to yourself. I've got some things I need to take care of."

He'd originally meant to go to sleep, but now he suddenly wasn't in the mood for it — he was far more curious what Rex Lapis was actually up to.

Sensing for his presence, he confirmed Zhongli was still over at Mt. Hulao. If it were really just catching up with an old friend, why would he still not be back after all this time?

Guizhong opened her mouth to say something, but Piers didn't give her the chance. Afraid she'd try to tag along again, he left behind a thread of adept power on her before vanishing from the spot in an instant.

That thread of adept power, thin as gossamer, silently attached itself to the hem of Guizhong's robe — a precaution, just in case.

Maybe the dark clouds Cloud Retainer had summoned during the day hadn't fully dispersed, or maybe it was simply Liyue Harbor's scheduled rain for the day.

Piers walked through the air, raindrops falling on him without soaking his clothes at all — the droplets slid right off the moment they touched him, like water on a lotus leaf.

The lights of Liyue Harbor grew sparser in the night. Piers didn't linger — a light tap of his foot, and his form melted into the night rain.

In just a few steps, Piers reached the summit of Mt. Hulao. He hadn't bothered concealing his presence, so Mountain Shaper sensed him as he approached.

"Piers? I was wondering who'd come. Come on over."

Mountain Shaper's voice carried through the falling rain. Piers bowed toward the open air, then slowly descended.

Once he landed on the peak, Piers noticed the summit seemed shielded by adept power — the rain wasn't falling through.

Mountain Shaper stood beside a distant flame.

Like everywhere else, Mt. Hulao was countless times larger than its in-game model — its terrain rolling and rugged, jagged rocks jutting everywhere. If not for the flame beside Mountain Shaper, Piers might have needed to carefully sense his way to pinpoint the exact spot.

After all, this was Mt. Hulao, Mountain Shaper's own abode, and the lingering traces of his adept power all around made for a fair bit of interference.

"Adeptus, forgive the intrusion."

Piers called out a greeting from a distance and walked over. As he drew closer, Zhongli's figure came into view. A little nearer still, and he suddenly caught a strange, savory aroma.

It smelled like some kind of food, but nothing Piers could recall ever having smelled before.

As he got closer still, the aroma grew stronger, and Piers finally made out what the flame actually was — a divine cooking device invented by Cloud Retainer.

Seeing the device brought back a memory of Zhongli using it to cook a pot of cured meat and bamboo shoot soup — though that had been during a Lantern Rite storyline.

Even if things had unfolded differently this time around, surely Zhongli hadn't come all the way to Mt. Hulao in the middle of the night just to cook that same soup again, Piers thought, privately skeptical.

"Rex Lapis."

Piers walked up and gave a slight nod.

"Piers. It's been a while."

Zhongli looked up, his expression composed, the firelight playing across his sharply defined features.

"Such refined tastes you have, Rex Lapis. Director Hu was worried half to death, and here you are cooking. What is it? Smells wonderful."

Piers moved a little closer, but the cooking device was sealed as tight as a pressure cooker — impossible to see what was inside. All he could make out was steam hissing intermittently from a small hole on top.

"Chi bones, plus... some Cor Lapis from this mountain, and a Glaze Lily."

"What?! You're stewing the bones of a Chi that rivaled an Archon a thousand years ago?"

Piers instinctively took a step back.

Even in his current state, he could easily beat a Chi at the height of its power if it stood before him now. But... being told that this pressure cooker in front of him was simmering an actual Chi's bones was still a lot to process.

He stared at the cooking device, the corner of his eye twitching involuntarily.

"That's right. Though the Chi had its spine drawn out and was sealed away for a thousand years, its vitality is extraordinarily strong, so it never fully died. Its body still holds a great deal of divine power. Paired with powdered Amber from Liyue, it can just barely align with the God of Dust's divine power."

Zhongli nodded, saying it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"So... this is a tonic?"

Piers's gaze shifted from the cooking device to Zhongli's face, his expression complicated.

"You could put it that way. The Chi has been gradually building up its divine power, and the seal I placed on it has shown signs of loosening. So I'm using this method of stewing to wear down its power, and afterward I'll bury it back at the sealing site."

What kind of nonsense was this guy spouting?! Because he could no longer keep the Chi suppressed, he'd just casually dug up its bones to boil into soup, and then he'd bury it back afterward?

Piers didn't even know where to start with the complaints.

Couldn't keep it suppressed, but could just casually pull its bones out for soup? That Chi sure was cooperative.

"Oh, and I'll need your help afterward. This whole potful needs your alchemy to refine it into an Elixir."

Zhongli added, seemingly oblivious to Piers's expression.

"Sure."

Piers was too stunned to even wonder how Zhongli had known he'd come to Mt. Hulao, let alone that he'd already arranged the alchemy work for him.

He nodded numbly, his mind still trying to process the fact that there was a Chi simmering in that pot.

Whether Zhongli had timed it perfectly or it was just coincidence, the 'soup' finished cooking not long after Piers arrived.

The moment the lid came off, steam billowed out and the strange fragrance exploded outward, tinting the surrounding air with a faint golden hue. The broth inside was thick and translucent, its surface shimmering with a fine sheen.

Piers went ahead and refined it into an Elixir on the spot.

For someone who, back in his ascension days, had refined countless outrageous materials, an Elixir meant purely to store divine power was child's play. He raised his hand, adept power flowing through him, and the churning steam and broth in the pot were drawn upward by an unseen force, spinning and compressing slowly in midair until they condensed into a single smooth, round Elixir.

An amber glow flickered across the Elixir's surface and vanished. The entire potful of 'soup' had become one tiny pill, resting quietly in the palm of Piers's hand.

Still, looking at the pile of bones left in the pot, he couldn't help glancing that way again.

"Rex Lapis... are you sure you only took it out to stew because you could no longer suppress it?"

Piers ended up asking after all, his tone clearly baffled.

"Naturally. Back then, the Chi was a colossal creature that rivaled an Archon. Even I, at the height of my power, could only barely suppress it. Now, with the God of Dust needing to recover her strength, it's only natural to take extra precautions."

Zhongli said "naturally" with perfect composure, but Piers didn't believe a single word about the combat difficulty. Was "barely suppress" supposed to mean ripping out the poor thing's spine to make a sword?

"All right... does Master take this Elixir directly, or is there some special way to consume it?"

Piers sighed in resignation and stopped pressing the matter.

"No need. Guizhong's body is that of an Archon — she can handle this power just fine. Go on back for now. I still need to reseal the Chi's remains."

As Zhongli spoke, his gaze turned toward the pile of boiled bones.

Was there really still a need to seal that?

And so, still somewhat dazed, Piers headed back, his figure cutting through the curtain of rain, his footsteps occasionally landing on wisps of rain-soaked cloud.

But something kept nagging at him. Given how things stood, once Guizhong took the Elixir, wouldn't that basically mean his mission was complete?

After all, once her power was restored, Guizhong would be at full Archon strength. And who in Liyue could possibly threaten her anyway? Even if Il Dottore himself showed up, he'd get diced into mincemeat. So what was even left to do for this mission? He could just lie back and wait for the result.

But wasn't this going a little too smoothly?

The more Piers thought about it, the more his brow furrowed without him noticing. Generally speaking, nothing Zhongli gave him ever had issues — if he said the Elixir would restore Guizhong, then it would, a hundred percent.

But compared to his previous missions, could this even be called a mission?

He thought about it a while longer, then shook his head.

It's not like I have some masochistic streak — why should I be unhappy that a mission's easy? The System's actually being decent for once.

Still, even thinking that, he didn't let his guard down.

Before long, Piers made his way back to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Guizhong and Hu Tao were both already asleep, and the whole place was unusually quiet.

The rain was still falling, fine threads of it striking the eaves and gathering into trickles that dripped down. The courtyard was thick with the smell of wet earth.

Piers weighed his options and decided he'd wake Guizhong first after all.

Interrupting her sleep to restore her full power seemed like a fair trade any way he looked at it.

But the instant his toes touched down in the courtyard of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, just as he was about to go wake Guizhong, he suddenly felt a chill strike from behind.

The chill came with blinding speed, driving straight for the center of his back. The air itself seemed to freeze for an instant, and even the fine threads of rain seemed to pause.

In that instant, Piers didn't even turn to look. He flicked his wrist, summoned Dust Cleaver, and flung it behind him. The blade's light carved a blinding arc through the night, tearing through the curtain of rain with a sharp whistle as it slashed toward whatever was behind him.

He'd been braced for this all along — some part of him had known things wouldn't stay this smooth. So the moment he felt the chill, he didn't hesitate for even a heartbeat. He attacked instantly, the motion flowing and seamless, without the slightest delay.

[Author's Note: I've got a bit of a buffer built up again, so I'll post a bonus chapter for everyone tomorrow. (>_<) Also, I have a question — my parrot at home popped a keycap off my keyboard and the connector underneath broke. Where can I find someone to fix it? I only just bought it not long ago...]