Over the next few days, Victor Wang took on combat commissions in the mornings. In the afternoons, if Bennett was free, they'd spar together; if not, he'd train alone.
Among the three main paths to improve his combat strength, his mental power and number of mental splits continued to grow steadily each day. He had some ideas for creating his own combat skill, but implementation remained difficult. That left martial arts.
It had been exactly a month since he began learning swordsmanship at the Knights of Favonius' training grounds. Thanks to a potentially prodigious memory—though he wasn't sure if that counted as talent—and diligent practice, Victor Wang had already mastered the Favonius Bladework, Lumine's Foreign Ironwind, and Bennett's Strike of Fortune.
In his sparring sessions with Bennett, he could now hold his own when Bennett used only the Strike of Fortune.
Victor Wang was especially intrigued by the extra move from Kaeya's swordsmanship: Blink.
On a breezy, sunlit morning, he didn't take on any commission but instead waited at the Knights' headquarters for Kaeya to clock in—he had something to ask.
Then he saw Kaeya and Lumine slip out of the Knights of Favonius' Headquarters, sneaking around to the side in a rather suspicious manner.
Someone's about to be duped.
"But Lumine's always used the Dull Blade. For this mission, Kaeya's giving her a Harbinger of Dawn. One-star to three-star—that's not bad at all." Victor Wang scratched the hilt of his Wentian Sword with slight embarrassment.
Before long, Lumine and Paimon flew off gleefully toward the Adventurers' Guild's branch building, while Kaeya hummed a cheerful tune on his way back to headquarters.
"You look very pleased with yourself. What mischief did you just pull?"
Kaeya stopped, finished the last note of his tune with flair, and replied, "Oh? You were looking for me?"
"Yeah, I've been practicing swordsmanship lately. Wanted to broaden my horizons."
In the game, not only Kaeya's normal attacks included Blink—Keqing, Kazuha, and the Raiden Shogun had it too. Victor Wang wasn't sure if it was just a visual effect… or something that, like sword energy, actually existed.
Either way, there was nothing to lose.
"Well, since the honorable honorary knight himself has made the request, I suppose I have to sacrifice some work time to entertain you. Come with me."
Kaeya didn't go far. He merely circled around to the other side of the Knights of Favonius' Headquarters—the spot where Ellin usually practiced swordsmanship.
It was the northwest corner of the Knights of Favonius' Headquarters, a rather secluded training ground, much larger than it appeared in the game.
A round stone arena, about thirty centimeters high, stood at the center. Around it were numerous weapon racks, and at either end of the platform stood two flags of the Knights of Favonius: red background, gold trim, white cross, and a falcon at the bottom—symbolizing the "Falcon of the West Wind," one of the Four Winds.
Seeing Victor Wang looking around curiously, Kaeya explained, "This is where the members spar casually in their downtime. But the folks stuck in the offices aren't too interested, so Ellin basically had it all to herself. Now that she's not around, it's gotten quite lonely."
Kaeya casually pulled a wooden sword from a rack, twirled it into a stylish flourish, and asked, "So? What style are you interested in?"
"You know a lot of them?"
"Hahaha! Maybe not hundreds, but I've got dozens under my belt." Kaeya launched into a sequence of Favonius Bladework.
Victor Wang grinned. "How about teaching me all of them then?"
"Don't make it hard on me now~"
"Alright, no more jokes. Actually, I learned a set of Strike of Fortune from Bennett. He said you taught it to him, but he also said he didn't finish learning it. I wanted to see what's missing."
"You want to learn Blink?" Kaeya caught on instantly.
So, it's real! Victor Wang answered without hesitation, "Of course I do."
"Alright then, since it's you, I'll secretly share this forbidden secret with you."
Kaeya slung the wooden sword behind his back, stepped in close, and lowered his voice. "It's a form of physical technique. The principle is to generate explosive reactive force by stomping the ground dozens of times in a single instant, creating high-speed movement. To the enemy, it looks like you've vanished."
Victor Wang stared, deadpan.
"What? You don't believe me? Actually, my grandfather was a pirate. This Blink technique was a must-learn move for his arch-rivals—the navy."
"..."
"Look! This eyepatch? Totally inherited from pirate grandpa. It's proof of bloodline!" Kaeya pointed seriously at his eyepatch.
"You're not expecting me to ask, 'Eyepatches can be inherited?' are you?"
"Aww, you both saw through it." The other "victim," of course, being Lumine.
"What is this? A test of alien common sense?"
"Aliens?"
Victor Wang explained plainly, "People who come from other planets. Those are aliens."
Kaeya fell into contemplation. "You think… there's intelligent life on many planets?"
If they were on Earth, Victor Wang wouldn't be so sure.
There's the famous Fermi Paradox about extraterrestrial life:
The universe is massive. Even if the probability of life appearing is low, Earth isn't unique—it stands to reason that other intelligent life must exist. Advanced civilizations would seek out new resources, expand into the cosmos. So why haven't Earthlings found them, or been found by them?
Despite the low odds for life, the universe is vast. Up until the moment Victor Wang arrived in Teyvat, the latest research estimated the diameter of the universe to be 92 billion light-years.
Even if interstellar travel is slow, the universe has existed for a long time—13.82 billion years. And considering that the earliest hominids only appeared a few million years ago…
But here in Teyvat, that was a different story.
Victor Wang confidently replied, "Of course. Look how many aliens have already come to Teyvat. The first one… cough, well, there's been a bunch. That just proves there's tons of intelligent life out there."
"Did you visit other planets before coming to Teyvat?"
"Emmmm, there was this very ordinary planet. Because of all the water on its surface, it looked super blue from space. I called it the Earth. It had no elemental power, no magical beasts. Maybe gods—though I never saw any. The humans there looked just like the people in Teyvat, but there were a lot of them—over seven billion."
"That many? Then the Earth must be huge… Anything else?" It was the first time Victor Wang saw genuine, unconcealed yearning on Kaeya's face.
I've never actually been to other planets, you know… Victor Wang glanced skyward and deflected, "Wouldn't this topic be a bit sensitive? Didn't expect you to be into this stuff."
"People of Khaenri'ah never hide our desire to explore the stars. Myself included." Kaeya didn't even lift his head, like he instinctively knew what taboo words the Heavenly Principles might censor.
Why are you only quoting stuff that sounds suspiciously plagiarized today?
Victor Wang rubbed his nose helplessly. Still, Kaeya's words stirred his memories.
"I once saw a universe that was made entirely of an ocean and a tree. Each bubble in the ocean, each leaf on the tree, was a planet. I visited one that resembled the Earth. The people there called the tree the Imaginary Tree and the sea the Sea of Quanta."
Every leaf of the Imaginary Tree was actually a world, far bigger than a planet. But Victor Wang had no idea how to explain that, so he simplified it with a bit of poetic liberty.
"And that planet had a special energy called Honkai Energy. It's far more destructive than elemental power. Ordinary people exposed to it would lose their sanity… kind of like Abyssal corruption."
"How do people survive on that planet?"
"Some exceptional individuals could use Honkai Energy. In the end, people used Honkai to fight Honkai, and sealed the energy away—on their moon."
"The moon…" Kaeya couldn't help but look up at the sky.
"There's more. I once rode a special train that traveled across another universe, visiting countless planets."
"One planet was completely frozen by a unique cosmic disaster, with only a small area left for human survival."
"There was a group who piloted colossal divine ships, almost as big as small planets, following their deity Reignbow Arbiter through the endless stars, hunting down the disciples of another god who had brought them catastrophe—Plagues Author, and his believers, the Remnants of Abundance."
"I don't follow anymore."
"In that universe, the gods wielded rule-based powers. The Plagues Author could grant people eternal life. The people of the divine ships accepted that gift, only to find that once they reached a certain age, they'd transform into monsters called Mara-Struck.
"So, they began hunting down the Plagues Author's followers to weaken his divine influence.
"There were other gods too—guardianship, destruction, hunting, memory, joy… and the train I rode, the Astral Express, was a creation of the Aeon of Trailblaze. Its route was called the Stellaron Railway."
"Will it ever come to Teyvat?"
"I don't know."
"The world beyond really is incredible…"
"No need to sell yourself short. Of all the planets I've seen, Teyvat stands out as the most extraordinary."
When Kaeya finally snapped out of his wonder, Victor Wang continued, "Now that you've heard all my stories, isn't it time to pay up?"