Even in the MC world, Madam Ping unleashed a spectacle of light and transformation.
Ryen watched the shifting silhouette inside the luminous sphere, surprise flickering in his eyes.
What had moments ago resembled the stooped outline of an old woman gradually straightened.
The figure grew poised, the contours youthful, almost elegant in their graceful lines.
A quiet excitement rippled through the assembled adepti.
It felt as though the lively and spirited "Pingzi" of old might finally be returning.
Ganyu squeezed Ryen's hand, her gaze shining.
"Watch carefully," she whispered, pride softening her tone.
"Madam Ping was once the most dazzling woman among all the adepti."
Ryen blinked,
and in the next heartbeat, the radiance dissolved.
The frail elder vanished completely.
Standing in her place was a young woman brimming with energy and youthfulness,
her face full of soft, glowing vitality.
Her long teal-blue hair was gathered with an antique hairpin,
and her flowing cyan robes framed a figure both graceful and striking.
A gold-red adeptal marking brushed her shoulder,
a delicate cinnabar dot marked her brow,
and a small golden bell hung lightly at her waist.
When she opened her eyes,
eyes of the same cool blue as Guizhong's,
they reflected the sky as though they were made of it.
Madam Ping was gone.
Pingzi had returned.
She stepped forward without a word and embraced Guizhong.
"Guizhong," she murmured, "welcome home."
Side by side, neither looked older than a girl in the bloom of youth;
no one would believe that moments ago Pingzi had appeared ancient,
nor that millennia lay behind either of them.
If anything, Cloud Retainer, glasses perched on her nose, now looked older than both.
Cloud Retainer smiled wryly.
"So you're finally willing to return to your true appearance?"
Pingzi blinked playfully.
"Now that Guizhong is back, the Adeptal Maiden Trio should reunite, shouldn't we?"
Her former aging had always stemmed from grief,
from witnessing Guizhong's death, and from watching the world shift beyond her ability to accept.
It had been her heart, not her body, that grew old.
With Guizhong revived, there was no longer anything holding her to that form.
In truth, Pingzi's bond with Guizhong ran deeper than most.
Born of music, that sisterhood rivaled even the connection between Ei and Makoto.
If one had to choose a partner for Guizhong, Pingzi might have been more fitting than Zhongli.
For the adepti, her transformation was simple enough to accept,
their forms were mutable.
But Lumine and Paimon were bewildered.
Lumine circled Pingzi visually, completely lost.
"Granny Ping… what is happening?! Since when can adepti change age?"
Pingzi tapped Lumine's forehead with a smile.
"Call me 'Granny' again and I might get angry."
Lumine laughed awkwardly.
"Then… Pingzi?"
"Good girl."
Pingzi affectionately patted her head.
Hu Tao scratched her cheek, muttering,
"If Xiangling sees her master suddenly looking her age, who knows how she'll react…"
Cloud Retainer chuckled softly and answered:
"Adepti do not truly age. Pingzi's former appearance came from grief when Guizhong passed.
This, " she gestured proudly,
", is her true form. Otherwise, how could we have been called the 'Adeptal Maiden Trio'?"
Her delight was plain to see; she even spoke a nickname that once embarrassed her to no end.
Cloud Retainer sighed sentimentally.
"It has been centuries since I saw the real Pingzi…
It seems Guizhong's return matters more to her than all of us together."
Guizhong lifted her chin triumphantly.
"Of course! I am Ping'er's closest sister. How could any of you compare?"
Ningguang and the others looked Pingzi over with amazement.
She radiated youthful charm so completely that anyone might assume she was the same age as Ganyu or Lumine.
Only an adeptus could shrug off centuries in an instant.
Ningguang suggested gently:
"We still have time, perhaps we continue our discussion outside?
I imagine Lady Guizhong must have many questions."
Guizhong grinned.
"Just call me Guizhong. You must be the current Tianquan? I have so many things to ask you."
Ningguang returned the smile.
"Of course."
Ryen wasted no time; with a thought, he conjured a teleportation portal.
One by one, everyone stepped through and returned to Liyue.
Kujou Sara, who originally intended to organize the Inazuman reinforcements, was stopped by Yae Miko.
It was pointless to rush, everyone's attention was fixed on Guizhong's revival.
Ningguang went ahead to arrange a banquet,
while Guizhong wandered the small courtyard with curiosity, sensing the world through her dust authority.
After a few minutes she murmured in awe:
"Human wisdom truly is remarkable…
They reached such heights even without divine guidance?"
Ryen laughed.
"That's not entirely accurate. Zhongli only abdicated recently.
He led Liyue for three thousand seven hundred years before stepping down."
"Still," Guizhong concluded softly, "human wisdom really does have no upper limit."
She turned away from her survey of Liyue, letting the stream of information settle.
Her death had come far too early, before the Archon War even ended, so everything that Liyue had become lay beyond her experience.
Simply observing was not enough; she would need time to truly understand this new era and decide how she could fit into it.
For the moment, though…
Guizhong turned back with bright curiosity, her gaze landing on Ryen.
"Before anything else," she said cheerfully, "I should thank you properly. Ryen, thank you for helping revive me.
Thanks to you, I can finally look upon Liyue centuries after my fall."
Ryen couldn't help laughing.
This ancient demon god really did carry a lively, playful aura, clever and mischievous like a fox.
"I only provided the means," he replied. "The ones who truly revived you were Zhongli and Cloud Retainer."
"It's always the means that matter most!" Guizhong insisted, waving her hand dismissively.
Then she glanced toward Zhongli, her expression turning quizzical.
"Speaking of which… your name is Zhongli now?"
Zhongli sipped his tea before answering, calm as ever.
"As a consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, it is natural to use a human name."
Ryen gave him a long, meaningful look.
"Zhongli… 'to return, to depart, to return again.'
So your name really does carry the meaning of 'returning to Guizhong'? Quite poetic."
Zhongli paused, just for a breath, before replying with a steady voice:
"There is indeed such a nuance. It serves as a remembrance… of Guizhong, of Guili Assembly."
Ryen and Venti exchanged a look, eyes gleaming.
A monumental piece of gossip seemed ready to unfold.
"Eheh, " Venti inhaled to tease,
But Guizhong recoiled dramatically in disgust.
"Could you not?" she snapped. "Change that name, it's too mushy! It's giving me goosebumps!"
"???"
Ryen and Venti stared at her, utterly baffled.
Something was very wrong here.
Shouldn't she be touched?
Shy?
Moved?
At least slightly flustered?
Why did this feel like the script had skipped three pages?
Zhongli, of course, sensed Ryen's confusion.
A faint smile ghosted across his lips.
"By the general principle of habit," he said mildly, "I have used the name Zhongli for years. It carries its own bonds, and cannot be changed lightly."
He let his gaze drift toward Ryen.
"Now do you believe it? There truly is no romantic sentiment between us for you to gossip about."
Before Ryen could respond, Guizhong exploded.
"Romantic sentiment?! What on earth are you babbling about? Do not smear my reputation!"
Ryen scratched his cheek awkwardly, glancing toward Ganyu, who was giggling quietly.
"So… you and Zhongli…"
"NOTHING!" Guizhong snapped. "There was never anything! Why do such ridiculous rumors even exist?!"
Cloud Retainer, guilty as a child caught red-handed, slipped behind Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper.
Venti tilted his head.
"But you did give Morax the Stone Tablet of Dust…"
"That was a treaty gift! A symbol of alliance! And also a challenge between us!" Guizhong huffed proudly.
"And for the record, I won! Do you know how hard it is to beat that muscle-brained war god even once?!"
Venti folded his arms.
"But you told him all your wisdom, and everything you wanted to say, was sealed inside it."
Guizhong puffed out her cheeks, offended.
"Well, it was my accumulated wisdom! I believed that combining my intellect with Morax's strength would let Guili Assembly prosper!"
"As for things I 'wanted to say'…"
She suddenly grinned, fished out the Stone Tablet of Dust, and fiddled with it.
The lock that had troubled Zhongli for millennia opened instantly.
A small slip of paper fell out.
Guizhong snatched it up and held it for all to see.
Ryen stared.
Then buried his face in his hand.
There were no heartfelt confessions.
No profound philosophies.
Just one sentence, perfectly in character for Guizhong:
"Morax, you definitely forced this open, didn't you?!"
Silence fell.
Everyone looked at Zhongli.
Then at Guizhong.
Then back at Zhongli.
No one knew where to begin.
Guizhong tossed her hair smugly.
"This is what I call wisdom! I knew Morax would brute-force it, because solving puzzles is not in his skill set.
So I left a note specifically to mock him!"
"You were all imagining nonsense!"
Ryen and Venti exchanged a pained laugh and buried themselves in their teacups.
Zhongli chuckled under his breath and said lightly:
"Your 'wisdom' is not always as effective as you believe."
Guizhong deflated instantly.
"How was I supposed to know you'd hide the tablet for thousands of years without opening it?!"
"An artifact left by a friend," Zhongli replied, "should not be cracked open by force."
"Pah! I'm alive again, don't you dare call it a relic! That sounds terrible."
She shot him a glare before turning to Ningguang and offering the tablet.
"This contains my old governance methods for Guili Assembly, and several of my mechanical designs.
Back then, I thought Morax wasn't suited to administration, so my mechanisms might help the people."
"But now, with Liyue under human rule, there are… many opportunities I don't yet understand."
"Whether these things are useful or not, I'll leave to you."
Then she puffed her cheeks again.
"Still… isn't this unfair? I just revived, and I'm already retired? How depressing!"
~~----------------------
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