Chapter 3

The System quest required rescuing Xiangling within three days, which meant she was in no immediate danger for now. There was nothing more to be done tonight — time to sleep.

Lu Lin found a secluded, deserted spot and retreated into the Serenitea Pot, making do there for the night.

Early the next morning, well-rested and up with the sun, Lu Lin tidied himself up quickly and headed straight for Yuehai Pavilion.

"What? Ganyu isn't here?" At the entrance to Yuehai Pavilion, the one who received Lu Lin was Ningguang's secretary, Bai Wen.

"Miss Ganyu received word of Xiangling's disappearance last night and left for the Guili Plains immediately."

Of course — Xiangling was Granny Ping's disciple, which made her Ganyu's Junior Sister by seniority. The two of them were quite close.

Her Junior Sister was in trouble, and without a System to tell her that Xiangling was in no mortal danger for the time being, Ganyu had naturally rushed off the moment she heard the news.

"Thank you for letting me know!"

Bidding farewell to Bai Wen, Lu Lin purchased two new beds and sets of bedding and stored them in the Serenitea Pot, then gathered some daily supplies before heading directly for the Guili Plains.

The Guili Plains.

This land had once been the domain of Guizhong, the Dust Archon. During the Archon War, a great battle had erupted here. Zhongli and the other adepti had been unable to arrive in time, and Guizhong had ultimately fallen in combat.

The Guili Plains were reduced to ruins by the battle. The surviving people relocated to Liyue Harbor, and it was only after the Archon War ended and Liyue was established that the area slowly began to see life again.

Lu Lin traveled north through Mt. Tianheng and arrived at the outer edges of the Guili Plains.

There was an important trade route here leading to Wangshu Inn, but due to rampaging monsters, the Millelith had temporarily sealed it off.

"Sir, passage ahead is currently prohibited!" A heavily armored Millelith soldier stepped forward to block Lu Lin's path.

"I'm looking for Ganyu. Has she gone in?"

"Miss Ganyu entered several hours ago. There's been no word from her since."

Lu Lin didn't charge in recklessly. Without Ganyu by his side, going in alone would be nothing short of suicide.

Just as he was racking his brain over what to do, two figures appeared in the distance, walking side by side.

The one in front was Xingqiu, whom Lu Lin had met the day before. Behind him walked a young girl.

The girl had brown hair and wore black clothes, her hair tied in twin tails. Atop her head sat a Qian-Kun Tai-Gua hat adorned with crimson plum blossom ornaments, and her eyes were shaped like plum blossoms too.

Her slender legs were wrapped in white stockings, and she wore shorts that showed off her fair, smooth thighs — brimming with youthful energy!

Beside her floated a small white ghost, darting back and forth with its little fangs bared, utterly adorable.

"Mr. Lu, what are you doing here?" Xingqiu spotted Lu Lin and called out in greeting.

"Xingqiu, good to see you. I came looking for Ganyu — I heard she went into the Guili Plains. And you two are...?"

"Ah, I see. Let me introduce you — this is Hall Master Hu Tao of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor." Xingqiu gestured to the girl behind him, then pointed at Lu Lin. "And this is Mr. Lu Lin — a good friend of Miss Ganyu's."

"Hi there, Lu Lin! I'm Hu Tao, Hall Master of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor!" The lively, uninhibited girl held out a card. "Are you an adventurer? Here's my contact information — feel free to reach out if you ever need anything. We have coupons available, and if you're traveling with companions, we're running a buy-one-get-one-half-off deal on the second memorial tablet..."

"Hall Master, this really isn't the time for a sales pitch..." Seeing her go further and further off track, Xingqiu quickly cut her off.

Lu Lin had recognized her the moment he saw her. He accepted the card and tucked it away with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Hall Master Hu. I'll be sure to reach out when the need arises."

"Oh~ Mr. Lu is quite open-minded! Such poise — clearly a cut above the rest!" Lu Lin's complete lack of hesitation in accepting the card immediately won Hu Tao's approval, and she showered him with praise.

"So, what brings you two here?"

"Ah... I heard about Xiangling going missing in the Guili Plains. I was worried and wanted to help search for her. I ran into Hall Master Hu on the way." Xingqiu sighed.

He and Xiangling were good friends, and the moment he heard the news, he couldn't sit still.

"This Director is here for the same reason." Hu Tao nodded, though she lacked Xingqiu's anxious air — not because she didn't care about Xiangling, but because she viewed matters of life and death with a certain equanimity. Her mindset was simply different.

"Ganyu has already gone ahead to search for Xiangling. The Guili Plains are full of danger right now — why don't the three of us travel together? We can watch each other's backs!" Lu Lin extended the invitation to form a party.

Both Hu Tao and Xingqiu were Vision holders capable of wielding Elemental Power — having them along would make things considerably safer and would help in rescuing Xiangling.

And since Ganyu had told him the day before that Lu Lin had saved her, Xingqiu already trusted Lu Lin's abilities. The three of them agreed without hesitation and set off together.

The Millelith soldiers on guard this time made no move to stop them. When it came to capable individuals bearing Visions, the Millelith extended a fair degree of trust.

The Guili Plains were strewn with crumbling walls and broken ruins — remnants of the Archon War — and from time to time, Archon Residue and similar entities would emerge to cause trouble.

But under the relentless purging of the Yaksha Guardian, the Archon Residue had been greatly reduced, and it had been a long time since monsters had run rampant on such a scale.

The entire Guili Plains were now shrouded in a faint black miasma. The three had barely ventured into the ruins when a group of Hilichurls blocked their path.

"I'll handle them!" Xingqiu drew his sword and charged into the midst of the Hilichurls.

He had the heart of a chivalrous hero and the talent of a martial prodigy. His swordsmanship was exquisite, and dealing with Hilichurls was child's play for him.

After a swift flurry of strikes, every last Hilichurl fell beneath his blade.

"Done! Let's keep moving — huh?!" Xingqiu sheathed his sword and turned around, only to freeze.

Behind him was nothing but empty space. Not a single soul in sight!

Where were Lu Lin and Hu Tao?!

While Xingqiu had been fighting the Hilichurls alone, Hu Tao and Lu Lin had been about to step in and help finish things quickly — but the moment they moved, everything went dark before their eyes, and a dizzying, spinning sensation washed over them.

When their vision returned, the scenery had completely changed. Xingqiu and the Hilichurls had vanished entirely. They found themselves in a place utterly unfamiliar to them.

"Where are we?" Lu Lin was startled but kept his composure, drawing his sword and going on full alert. It was the sword he had hastily bought from the Cold Edge Smithy.

"Hmm~ Looks like we triggered a trap and got pulled into some kind of Domain." Hu Tao held her weapon — the Staff of Homa — at the ready, remaining vigilant.

Lu Lin looked around. They were in a corridor, its walls lined with large, luminous Night Pearls that lit the entire passage.

But the black miasma here was far denser than outside. Even with the Night Pearls' glow, they could barely make out what lay within three meters of them — beyond that was pure darkness.

Lu Lin pried two Night Pearls from the wall. It wasn't greed — he wanted them for light.

He handed one to Hu Tao. To his surprise, she not only took the Night Pearl but reached back and grabbed his hand.

Huh?!

The soft, smooth sensation registered immediately. Lu Lin looked up in surprise, unable to figure out why Hu Tao had suddenly become so forward.

"Hmm~ This ruin gives this Director a very bad feeling. To avoid any accidents or getting separated, we should hold on tight."

Literally hold on tight, apparently.

Perhaps because it was her first time holding a boy's hand, the usually bold and outgoing Hu Tao was just the tiniest bit flustered. Her explanation came out stiff and dry, delivered with the air of someone acting purely in the interest of everyone's safety.

The little white ghost that had been hovering at her fingertips found its spot usurped by Lu Lin's hand and drifted, somewhat put out, up to her shoulder, where it nestled among her brown locks.

"Right, you make a good point. The way we got pulled into this ruin was so sudden — we really do need to stay on high alert. We absolutely cannot get separated again!"

Lu Lin nodded in solemn agreement, the very picture of righteousness.

Indeed! It was all for the sake of their mutual safety!

Hu Tao's hand was just as soft and smooth as Ganyu's, yet somehow different.

Ganyu's little hand was cool and cold, while Hu Tao's was unexpectedly warm — just like her personality: fiery, lively, and full of enthusiasm.

Hand in hand, the two walked deeper into the ruins.

The straight corridor offered no sense of direction, but the deeper they went, the thicker the black miasma grew — which meant they were heading the right way.

The corridor wasn't particularly long. After a few minutes of walking, they arrived before a tightly shut stone door.

Lu Lin tried pushing it. It didn't budge.

"There must be some kind of mechanism here. Let's look around." Hu Tao seemed experienced in such matters. Still holding Lu Lin's hand, she looked around carefully, searching for whatever opened the door.

The two soon found a strange cube embedded in the wall beside the door. It was made up of smaller blocks, each painted a different color. Hu Tao gave it a try and found the blocks could be rotated.

Lu Lin held a Night Pearl close to get a better look, and the corner of his mouth twitched. This was just a Rubik's Cube.

"This must be the mechanism to open the door — but how do we solve it?" Hu Tao twisted the cube around randomly a few times, completely at a loss.

"Let me try!" This Rubik's Cube wasn't quite the same as the ones he'd played with before — since it was embedded in a pillar, some of the smaller blocks were fixed and couldn't be rotated.

Fortunately, back in school there had been a Rubik's Cube craze, and he'd spent plenty of time following the trend and studying it. A three-by-three cube was no match for him.

He worked through it, recalling the algorithms he'd memorized long ago while studying the quirks of this particular version. After about ten minutes, he finally cracked it.

Click.

With a crisp snap of the mechanism locking into place, a deep rumbling sound came from the direction of the door.

"So you had to make each face a single color — what an incredible mechanism! Lu Lin, you're amazing!" Hu Tao patted him on the shoulder, genuinely impressed.

Even the little white ghost perched in her hair drifted forward and struck an approving pose.

"It's not that hard — you just hadn't seen one before. I can teach you how to play with it sometime!" A three-by-three Rubik's Cube wasn't particularly difficult, but for someone encountering it for the first time like Hu Tao, what Lu Lin had just done was more than impressive enough.

"It's a deal then!" The quirky, whimsical Hu Tao had always had a fondness for strange and curious things.

While Lu Lin had been working on the cube, Hu Tao had leaned in close to watch his movements, their heads nearly touching.

Lu Lin had been too focused to notice at the time, but now that he relaxed, a faint, delicate fragrance of plum blossoms drifted to his nose, and his mind began to wander.

As if compelled by some unseen force, he reached out and took Hu Tao's warm, soft hand himself, feigning nonchalance. "The door's open. Shall we head in?"

"Sure~ Let's go!"

Hu Tao went rigid for just a moment when her hand was taken, but remembering that she had been the one to initiate it first — and that Lu Lin looked perfectly composed and businesslike about the whole thing — she let him lead her forward without protest.

"We should be careful. I don't know why, but the unease I've been feeling has gotten stronger since we came in here." Hu Tao's voice had lost its usual liveliness; she was, unusually, quite grave.

"Your unease has gotten stronger?" Lu Lin furrowed his brow.

Honestly, he'd felt a bit tense and uneasy at first — after all, this was his first time truly entering a Domain. But as the two of them ventured deeper, he had actually gradually relaxed.

Hu Tao was the fearless girl who spent nights alone on Wuwang Hill without a second thought. How could her unease be growing?

She was famous for her nerves of steel!

Even the little ghost in her hair had gone limp and listless.

Puzzled, the two passed through the great door and entered a vast hall.

Rumble!

The moment they stepped into the hall, before they could even take in their surroundings, the door behind them slammed shut on its own.

"Watch out!" Hu Tao let out a sharp cry and swept her spear in a wide arc, deflecting several arrows that had shot out from the darkness.

"Yaah!!!" With a chorus of battle cries, a horde of Hilichurls surged out and surrounded Lu Lin and Hu Tao.

This group of Hilichurls was unusually frenzied. The moment they spotted the two in the hall, they charged without hesitation, weapons swinging.

"Protect yourself — I'll take care of them!" Hu Tao gave her spear a sharp shake; flames erupted from the tip as she leapt into the midst of the monsters.

Hu Tao wielded the Wangsheng Secret Spear Arts — techniques of exquisite intricacy and devastating power, said to "open the road to the Yellow Springs with the spear, and guide souls to the next life on the wings of a butterfly."

In that moment she was like a butterfly dancing through the air, weaving effortlessly among the monsters. Her spear thrust and swept in turn, and the Hilichurls fell before her almost without exception.

In short order, the entire horde was swept away and sent to their rest.

The graceful butterfly alighted back on the ground, standing tall with her spear angled to the side — every inch the picture of heroic spirit.

"That was incred— Hu Tao!!!"

Lu Lin had just opened his mouth to praise her when the girl suddenly toppled straight backward.

"Are you alright? Where are you hurt?" Lu Lin rushed forward and caught the falling Hu Tao, her warm, soft weight in his arms — yet he had no mind to appreciate it, his face etched with worry.

"I'm... I'm fine. I just feel a little drained." Hu Tao's pretty face had gone deathly pale. The little ghost hanging in her hair drooped, utterly without energy.

"You're this pale and you call it fine? Don't push yourself right now!" Lu Lin didn't believe a word of it and immediately began checking her for injuries.

"Hey! What are you doing?" The girl hadn't expected him to act so directly and let out a startled cry, but her whole body had gone limp and she couldn't stop him.

"Hold still. Let me check."

The sight of her fair, smooth skin made Lu Lin's breathing grow slightly heavier. He forcibly reined in his restless thoughts and focused carefully on his examination.

His touch was gentle, afraid of accidentally pressing on a wound, but after checking her arms, shoulder blades, waist, abdomen, and everywhere else, he found no injuries.

There was only one place left to check...

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Proofreader & Editor: Fat Goose 🪶