“Looks like we came too late.” Piers felt a touch of regret, but Guizhong didn’t think it was any big deal—she had absolutely no memory of being acquainted with any Madame Ping.
A mortal?
Definitely not, mortals couldn’t live this long.
An adeptus?
That didn’t seem right either—how could an adeptus be described as a “madame”?
Could it be that she’d lost her memories?
But then, how did Piers know she knew her?
The other major events could at least be read about in books, but would any book record which old madame the Dust Archon was acquainted with?
“Young one, by the look of you, you’ve come searching for someone—have you lost your way?” A somewhat aged voice came from behind Piers.
He instinctively turned around—Madame Ping had, at some unknown moment, come to stand right behind him.
“Madame Ping, you’re exactly the one I came to find.” “Oh?
Looking for me?
Is there something you need?” Impressive.
After learning the adeptal arts, I can already sense my surroundings instinctively with them, yet I didn’t detect her in the slightest.
At the very instant Piers saw Madame Ping, Guizhong happened to look over as well.
With just one glance, she visibly froze for a moment, but then shook her head.
“Little brother Piers, the adept power on her truly is familiar, and extraordinarily pure—but I really don’t recall any of the adepti of Liyue being someone like her.” Madame Ping circled around Piers, and she clearly sensed the adept power welling up from him.
Now it was her turn to be puzzled.
This adept power was clearly inferior to that of the several adepti of Jueyun Karst, yet it was not something an ordinary cultivator could achieve.
Which young adept had come to Liyue Harbor?
But if that were the case, then it made sense for him to come looking for her—most likely Liuyun had given her away.
“I’ve come for the sake of a friend.
Is the Dust-Cleansing Bell still here with you?” The instant she heard those three words, “Dust-Cleansing Bell,” Guizhong seemed to recall something.
She studied Madame Ping carefully once more, but in the end still shook her head.
“It is.
A while back a young one came to borrow it—do you wish to borrow it too?” “No, I only want to take a look at it.” Since she now knew that he too was an adeptus, Madame Ping no longer intended to keep up the act.
She raised her hand and gave it a flip, and a bell—one size larger than the hand-bells Taoist priests use in their rituals—appeared in her hand.
This bell, however, was crafted exquisitely.
“I wonder—” Just as Madame Ping was about to ask something, the bell in her hand suddenly began to ring.
As it swayed, a dust-white adeptal aura spilled out from it.
“This is—” Madame Ping froze for a moment.
This Dust-Cleansing Bell had actually rung of its own accord.
An adept’s ritual artifact, unless it encountered its master, was no different from a lifeless object; even an ordinary adeptus channeling it could only draw out thirty or forty percent of its power.
But the master of this Dust-Cleansing Bell had died long ago—unless—Madame Ping suddenly lifted her eyes toward Piers.
In truth, Piers had no idea why the Dust-Cleansing Bell had suddenly rung on its own; he was simply curious to see what this adept artifact looked like up close.
Ever since he’d come to Teyvat, he’d come to realize that a game was, in the end, just a game.
When he actually saw things for himself, the people and things of Teyvat were a completely different matter from how they were in the game.
The real map was who-knows-how-many times larger than the game’s.
For instance, in the game Madame Ping’s little low table was practically right next to the Yuehai Pavilion, but standing here now, Piers couldn’t see any Yuehai Pavilion at all.
Still, the Dust-Cleansing Bell had been used for a funeral before, and having it suddenly ring on its own in the dead of night actually gave Piers a fright.
Could this be a ghost encounter?
No, wait—there did seem to be a ghost right beside him.
Piers seemed to notice that the look in Madame Ping’s eyes had grown a bit strange, and at that very moment, he suddenly spoke.
“True Lord Gechen Langshi, I made this trip, in truth, on behalf of a friend, to see how you’re getting along these days.” “Gechen…” When Piers uttered that adeptal title, Guizhong was momentarily dazed, but as though she had long anticipated it, she showed no excitement at all, merely standing quietly before Madame Ping, watching her.
She had actually harbored suspicions from the very first glance at Madame Ping, but even when the other produced the Dust-Cleansing Bell, Guizhong still couldn’t quite believe it—because ever since she’d known Gechen, she had been one who loved to look pretty, so how could she have turned into the figure of an old woman?
“Good, of course it’s good.
Liyue is at peace these days, and an old woman like me lives without a care here in Liyue Harbor—of course it’s good.
Little fellow, I still don’t even know your name.” “My name is Piers.” “Piers, Piers—what a lovely name.
Well then, I’ll give you this little bell, as a token of thanks for delivering the message.
But I do have one question I’d like to ask you: that familiar aura on you—where does it come from?” Madame Ping lifted her eyes toward Piers, and a flicker of killing intent suddenly shone through her cloudy gaze.
Holy crap—oh no, this Madame Ping couldn’t have gotten the wrong idea, could she?!
Madame Ping knew that Guizhong was already dead—she had witnessed it with her own eyes—yet now the Dust-Cleansing Bell that Guizhong had crafted was ringing.
“Actually, I found an antique in a ruin in the Guili Plains.
It recorded some adeptal arts, and out of curiosity I followed along and learned them.
But I never expected that mixed in with the arts was a letter, and once I’d finished learning the arts, that letter was simply there in my mind.” “Huh?
Can you tell a bald-faced lie without even blushing?
And besides, I’ve been dead for thousands of years—do you take Gechen for a fool?
Who would ever believe you?” Guizhong pouted, snarking with a face full of disdain.
It couldn’t be helped—I feel like if I’d waited even one second longer to speak, I might well have taken a Madame Ping Shockwave to the face.
“Madame Ping Shockwave?
What’s that?” That’s not important.
“What was in the letter…” “Ha?
Gechen, how can you actually believe him?
It’s obviously fake at a glance!
After thousands of years, how have you only gotten dumber?” Guizhong circled around Madame Ping, jabbing at her with her finger somewhat angrily—though sadly, apart from Piers, Guizhong couldn’t actually touch anyone else now.
“I don’t know.” Piers spread his hands somewhat helplessly, and Madame Ping’s expression grew a few shades grimmer.
Of course he didn’t know—he’d never read that letter; he’d just made it all up off the top of his head.
“That letter vanished after a single glance, and my memory of its contents disappeared along with it.
Only my intuition told me to come find the True Lord Gechen Langshi.” “Is that so…” A trace of disappointment showed on Madame Ping’s face, and the look in her eyes as she gazed at Piers gradually dimmed.
“I never imagined she would leave behind a legacy of adeptal arts in the Guili Plains.
In that case, you count as her disciple.
Little fellow, come here, let me take a good look at you.” She beckoned to Piers, and the look in her eyes as she gazed at him was truly like that of an elder past fifty regarding a child of the younger generation in her own family—though the gulf in age between Piers and Madame Ping was far wider than that.
Piers walked over.
Madame Ping bent her back, gripped Piers’s arm with both hands, and then nodded in satisfaction.
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