Just as he returned to Guili Plains, some bad news found Orion.
"The talismans are lost?"
A Millelith soldier reported that, considering many villages in Liyue were currently unprotected and deploying too many Millelith would spread their forces too thin, they had transported a large batch of talismans to places like Qingce Village, Qiaoying Village, and many other large and small villages.
The agricultural civilization of Liyue has one advantage: most people can be self-sufficient within their own villages. Therefore, as long as a few more talismans were used to set up formations, the villages would be safe as long as no one specifically went out.
The problem, however, was that many of these villages had dirt roads leading to the outside world that were extremely difficult to traverse. While the Millelith were having porters transport them, two crates fell to Sanka.
By the time they sent people to retrieve them, they found that those talismans were already gone.
Keqing frowned upon hearing this: "Could it be that there are still some Treasure Hoarders who slipped through the net? Come to think of it, that Nanchangjie faction really hasn't been caught yet. We really should divert some troops to increase the suppression efforts."
As soon as she finished speaking, Keqing suddenly felt someone patting her shoulder. She turned her head with a frown, only to suddenly see a large hand resting on her forehead. It was Orion; he used his thumb to rub Keqing's brow, smoothing away her frown along with her worries.
"You just need to be responsible for the affairs here; there's no need to worry. I can track the talismans I drew myself." Orion said with a confident smile, then he looked at Hu Tao: "Hall Master, if I come back early, you can wait for me, and I'll send you back. If I'm late, you should head back before the sun sets."
Hu Tao hummed: "Oh, if I had known, I would have just stayed in Liyue Harbor with Zhongli and the others. You go ahead, this Hall Master allows it."
Orion nodded and was about to leave, when Hu Tao suddenly added: "Stay safe. This Hall Master heard that some Fatui aren't operating inside Liyue Harbor but are setting up camp in the wild."
Orion secretly hooked her little finger with his own: "Don't worry, no one can hurt me."
Hu Tao curled her lips, hummed, and said to Keqing: "Well, Keqing, I'm going to go supervise the guys in our parlor to draw talismans."
Keqing also nodded: "Perfect, I also have some things to write."
What she had to write was a letter to Ningguang.
As for the content, it was precisely Orion's terrifying performance—his teleportation ability, and his acquaintance with the God of Wind. She had told Orion beforehand that, as one of the Liyue Qixing, she could not hide such important information. Even if Orion personally stopped her, she would still share the intelligence with Ningguang.
Orion only asked one thing: "Do you want me to help you deliver the letter?"
Keqing didn't answer him, just smiled and bumped him with her shoulder.
Back in the tent, Keqing picked up her brush. She wrote very solemnly at the beginning—no matter how busy Ningguang usually was, she had to carefully read her letter, and then re-evaluate the importance of Orion and Lumine.
Soon, the letter was delivered to the Jade Chamber.
When Baiwen took the letter into Ningguang's office, Ningguang was carefully reading a piece of paper. Baiwen sighed inwardly, as expected of Lady Ningguang, to be so serious about Liyue's affairs at all times.
As she walked closer, she heard Ningguang whispering something to herself.
"...The threshold reveals the scent of flowers, are the first two lines praising me? If the third line 'Jade Chamber' refers to the Jade Chamber, then what is the fourth line 'Yao Tai'? 'Meeting at the moonlit Yao Tai'... Yao Tai? Under the moon? Meeting with whom?"
Baiwen: It seems it wasn't that serious.
Seeing that Ningguang wasn't handling official business, she decisively interrupted: "Lady Ningguang, Lady Keqing has sent a letter."
Unexpectedly, Ningguang was startled by this voice and directly flipped the letter paper onto the table. When she realized it was Baiwen, she breathed a sigh of relief and took the letter.
After reading it, Ningguang's expression gradually became serious. She picked up her pipe and said to Baiwen: "It seems that we should indeed meet this disciple of Orion."
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Orion arrived at a small hill near Luhua Pool; this was the place where the two crates of talismans were lost.
Looking at the footprints of various sizes on the ground, Orion basically confirmed who had taken the crates.
"Hu Tao was right."
Without a doubt, this was the work of the Fatui.
The larger footprints were obviously from the Cryo/Hydro Fatui, these two here should be Electro Hammers, and the smaller ones were probably the Pyroslingers or Electro Cicin Mages. Considering that they could cover the footprints with the Geo Element, maybe that Geo Element polearm guy came too.
A full-scale Fatui mobilization, huh.
What is this for? Surely a whole group didn't just come here to wait for the Millelith to lose these two crates, right?
Orion felt he really should have brought Lumine along to let her directly use Elemental Sight to see what happened here.
However, he wasn't incapable of doing it himself. Orion closed his eyes and, for the first time in a while, cheated by using the Authority of another planet. Opening his eyes again, the elemental trails that hadn't dissipated in the air appeared in his line of sight.
"So that's it. They weren't waiting for the Millelith to make a mistake, but came here specifically to cause trouble. That's not surprising."
There was residual plasma energy in the air, as well as a clearly uneven temperature distribution.
That was undoubtedly the traces left by the Electro Cicin Mage's electro cicins and the Cryo Cicin Mage's cryo cicins flying around in the sky, which hadn't dissipated due to the residual Elemental Power.
Orion looked into the distance again, and the destination of the talismans containing his power was clear at a glance.
From Luhua Pool up to Cuijue Slope, and then heading southwest to Tianqiu Valley. Orion followed the traces of energy residue all the way down until he passed Tianqiu Valley, then he turned off his perception ability.
No need anymore.
This group of Fatui probably felt they were safe and no longer bothered to hide their tracks, walking openly.
Further ahead, at a fork in the road, the Electro Cicin Mage and a few others with lighter weight separated from the main group; they headed towards Dunyu Ruins, while the Cryo Fatui and others continued towards Lingju Pass.
As they got closer and closer to a high mountain, a large number of Ruin Guard footprints appeared near the footprints of the Cryo Fatui and others. Orion even casually took out a few Ruin Guards that tried to ambush him.
Following the footprints of the Cryo Fatui and the others, he climbed up the cliff and soon arrived at an extremely hidden place.
The exterior here was very strange. It was clearly a mountain, but for some reason, several huge pipes extended from the side, and if you listened carefully, you could even hear the roar of large machines operating.
Orion thought carefully for a long time and finally had a flash of inspiration. He had actually seen this scene before; as for where he saw it, it was a bit counter-intuitive.
It was from Childe's Story Quest.
In that Story Quest, Childe's younger brother rushed over from Snezhnaya. As an ultimate 'family man,' he certainly couldn't destroy his younger brother's dream, so he pretended to be the best toy salesman in Snezhnaya.
And here, this was the Fatui arms factory, falsely claimed to be a toy production factory for 'One-Eyed Little Treasures,' where all personnel had already evacuated in the plot. The 'One-Eyed Little Treasures' produced inside were precisely the Ruin Guards imitated by the Fatui.
And as for who was in control of this factory, Hat Bro had already given us the answer.
[D—O—T—T—O—R—E!!!!!!]
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