The Samachurl that had been dancing saw what had happened and immediately panicked, screeching its head off and drawing every Hilichurl in the camp's attention.
The others got anxious too.
A few frantic Hilichurls straight-up hurled their clubs into the air, trying to knock the drifting cloth out of the air.
The clubs weren't even close. Their momentum stalled in midair, and one promptly dropped onto another Hilichurl's head.
The archers raised their bows and fired at the cloth, trying to shoot it down. Several bolts streaked up—not one hit.
The Samachurl who'd started it all lost its temper and rattled off an angry stream of Hilichurlian, chewing them out.
Then, under its direction, a larger Hilichurl with a wooden shield snatched up an Anemo Slime that had been playing nearby and, to the Slime's utterly baffled stare, tossed it into the air.
The Anemo Slime flipped once in midair, fluttering its tiny wings in confusion.
It heard the Hilichurls below jabbering at it. Still dazed, it nodded and flew toward the cloth floating overhead. When it reached a spot above it, it tucked its little wings in and plopped down—right onto it.
Normally, that should've dragged the cloth down with it.
But another gust came roaring through, and it carried the Slime and the cloth along together, sweeping them off toward the forested slopes.
That did it. Every Hilichurl in the camp erupted into frantic yelps and shrieks, then chased after the cloth in a noisy stampede.
Jiang Bai watched them go, a bit blankly.
Just like that… all of them?
They clearly had some intelligence.
Just… not much.
They didn't understand human cunning—certainly didn't know what it meant to feint east and strike west.
With the camp emptied out, Jiang Bai jumped right in and headed for the altar.
There hadn't been only one piece of cloth. He'd blown one away—two were still here.
Hilichurls had no real concept of cleanliness, but these cloths were surprisingly tidy. Old, yes, but intact—no tears, no missing corners.
The black patterns on them had inevitably faded under wind and sun, yet the Hilichurls had carefully retouched the ink. The designs hadn't been allowed to wash away.
Devout, in their own way.
Jiang Bai made a circuit of the camp. Aside from the altar, he didn't see the Eclipse motif carved anywhere else.
To the Hilichurls, the symbol was special—sacred. To put it elsewhere would be to profane it.
With nothing else turning up, he went to the crude shelters the Hilichurls had built.
There were no doors. Inside, he could make out rough wooden frames and several boxes.
Curious, Jiang Bai opened one. Just as he'd expected, it was packed with a mess of odds and ends.
Beat-up axes and knives scavenged from who-knew-where, clay bowls, strange little handicrafts—probably looted from passing merchants—and an entire crate of cloth that was definitely stolen…
Other boxes held gnawed bones, shriveled fruit, some wheat, vegetables… all tossed together with no attempt at sorting.
Salt and sugar, though—those seasonings had been placed in a rather refined-looking box of their own, as if they were treasures.
He even spotted quite a bit of Mora.
Hilichurls clearly had no concept of spending Mora. The shiny coins they'd snatched from caravans were all piled into a box, and over time the stash had grown impressively large.
Jiang Bai swept all of it into his pockets. To spare himself a twinge of conscience, he left behind plenty of salt and sugar and other seasonings in exchange.
Before the Hilichurls could return, he slipped away—loot secured, job done.
By the time he made it back to their temporary camp, night had already fallen.
Albedo sat by the fire. Seeing Jiang Bai's grin practically split his face, he couldn't help but laugh. "You look like you're in a great mood. I take it the haul was decent?"
"Just so-so…"
Only a hundred-some thousand Mora or so…
Jiang Bai waved it off like it was nothing.
If this had been earlier, he'd have been over the moon. But now he was someone with assets in the hundreds of millions—he had to be dignified.
Albedo took out Baiyuan, whose elemental energy had fully dispersed, leaving it in its bracer form. "I have a few ideas for my research on this. I'll need to borrow you for a few more days."
"No problem. If it needs charging, just tell me."
...
After a night of rest, the three of them set out again early the next morning, continuing toward Dragonspine.
They reached the camp at the foot of the mountain at around two in the afternoon.
After a short break and leaving their horses there, they began the ascent.
Albedo had a laboratory up on Dragonspine. Coming here was like going home for him.
And Klee was delighted—she could play in the snow.
With a Pyro Vision, she wasn't afraid of the cold at all. She ran ahead, scooping up clean snow and packing it into snowballs, having the time of her life.
Jiang Bai noticed something, too. Compared to the last time they'd been on Dragonspine, Albedo had—without anyone realizing it—grown more and more like a human.
In the bitter cold, he no longer regulated his body temperature. Like them, his breath fogged into pale white puffs.
Jiang Bai didn't ask. He knew it meant Albedo's alchemy had made progress again.
Before the sky fully darkened, they pushed hard and reached Albedo's camp on the mountain.
They lit a fire to drive back the cold. Jiang Bai rubbed at his cheeks, numb from the chill.
It had been a while since he'd come up here. Thinking of Dragonspine, he asked, "After we blew up the Skyfrost Nail, did anything change on the mountain?"
"No. Everything's as it was."
Albedo carried the sleeping Klee into the tent, then came back to sit with Jiang Bai by the fire and chat.
"There's something I'm very curious about when it comes to Baiyuan," he said.
Jiang Bai lifted his gaze, ready to hear it.
"Before you came to Teyvat… what kind of energy did Baiyuan use?"
On the road, Jiang Bai had already shown him Baiyuan's three forms.
Melee. Ranged. Defense.
One weapon, built to cover all three directions.
Not only was the design exquisite, the power spoke for itself—and it was remarkably easy to carry.
But the biggest question for Albedo was the energy source.
Baiyuan needed energy to attack. Whether it was in blade form or gun form, it required power to run.
Yet Albedo couldn't detect any energy fluctuations inside it. Without Jiang Bai feeding it elemental power, it was nothing more than an ordinary bracer—let alone something that could fire bullets.
"That brings us to my planet…" Jiang Bai let out a quiet sigh.
His gaze, heavy with something complicated, pierced the thick cloud cover toward the stars above.
The night sky was dense with points of light—countless stars.
And the one that had belonged to his home… had long since shattered and vanished.
"My planet that's already been destroyed."
"Destroyed by human greed—always bottomless and never satisfied."
---
T/N: oops i accidentally clicked publish, but yeah updates will come in a few hours ill just leave this here
T/N2: yeah no excuse this time :sob: WAIT NO I WAS STARTING NEW TLS SO HA! yeah sorrrey heres the 4 chapters!
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl