"Wow, a golden legend!"
"Colors can also indicate quality?"
Chongyun heard Xingqiu's words and was a bit puzzled.
"Of course, haven't you been to a museum? All the artifacts there are golden!" Xingqiu said as if it were the most natural thing.
The quality of an artifact is judged by the luster it emits. The stronger the will contained within, the more striking the luster it displays.
The highest quality artifacts are golden. These artifacts often contain extremely clear and powerful wills, which are very helpful for people to understand history.
Of course, the purpose of artifacts is not just to understand history.
"Golden? What's in yours is the color of Mora; this is a truly golden-quality treasure." Ember ran to the platform above the two treasure chests and picked up the small blue and white flower on it.
"Ah? Mora?" Xingqiu peered into the treasure chest, which was densely packed with glistening golden Mora.
While certainly precious, for Xingqiu, the second young master of the Feiyun Commerce Guild, Mora was arguably the most common thing.
Seeing this, Xingqiu's excited expression immediately faded quite a bit.
"Don't be disheartened, you should like this." A small flower shimmering with golden light was tossed in front of Xingqiu, and a powerful will emanated from it, even causing some scenes he had never seen before to appear in Xingqiu's mind.
"Millelith stand firm, Unyielding as the mountains!"
A deafening war cry echoed in Xingqiu's ears. Then he saw a Millelith soldier holding a spear, bravely fighting against a giant beast.
Sweeping, thrusting, parrying... all sorts of moves were incredibly clear. As the blurred Millelith performed each move, the equally blurred giant beast also fell in a pool of blood.
The only thing clear were the various moves lingering in Xingqiu's mind. The artifact contained a will related to combat and guardianship.
"This thing... it's quite valuable." Xingqiu awoke from the artifact's will. He quietly placed it back beside Ember.
A set of green artifacts could be worth an ordinary person's entire fortune, and a blue artifact could be passed down as a family heirloom for generations.
As for purple and golden ones, those were precious relics only seen in museums.
Not to mention that the will within this artifact was about combat; if it were to circulate, not only Adventurers but also the Yujing Terrace and the Fatui would be interested.
Things that can quickly enhance a person's combat power are always scarce.
"What, do you think I need something like this?" Ember saw the artifact back beside him, picked it up, looked at it, and then tossed it back into Xingqiu's hand.
This guy was clearly very interested in the moves within, but he was pretending not to care. Was this the 'etiquette' Liyue often spoke of?
Ember jumped down from the platform above and waved his fist.
"Rainfall cannot be drawn!"
A familiar incantation came from Ember's mouth, and then Xingqiu saw many Raincutter swords appear beside Ember.
"???"
"Your Guhua Sword Art, I just learned it." Ember pulled a Raincutter sword from beside him and wiped his body.
Perfect, it had been a long time since he cleaned his armor; he would use this Raincutter sword to wipe it.
Watching Ember casually use the Raincutter sword as a rag, Xingqiu was somewhat speechless.
Leaving aside the fact that there were clearly several times more Raincutter swords beside Ember than he had, just the act of using a Raincutter sword as a rag was enough to illustrate the difference between the two.
Xingqiu himself couldn't make the Raincutter sword both flexible and rigid; he could only make it as hard as a real sword.
"But Senior, where is your Vision?" Seeing Ember's casual demeanor, Xingqiu circled him, and to his surprise, he didn't see the true core of the Guhua Sword Art—a Vision.
"None." Ember replied casually.
"None?!" Xingqiu's tone was full of disbelief.
"Of course, so I modified the sword art I gave you. You can show it to your fellow disciples later." Saying that, Ember also tossed a blank piece of paper to Xingqiu.
On it was the incantation modified by Ember. The entire focus of the moves had shifted from the Vision to the practitioner themselves.
While not as powerful as before, the advantage was that ordinary people could also cultivate it. If practiced to its extreme, it would not be much weaker than a Vision wielder.
Seeing this, Xingqiu numbly accepted the artifact in his hand. It seemed Ember was telling the truth; he had already reached a point where he didn't need artifacts.
Xingqiu seemed to see a brand new set of artifacts brewing.
However, artifacts generally only come into being at moments of significant consciousness fluctuation, such as experiencing the brink of life and death or outright dying.
Given this, it seemed this set of artifacts might not come into being. Ember had died who knows how many times. Undying, undying—was this title given for nothing?
He turned to look at Chongyun, who was also holding something, appearing to have gained something.
"What good stuff do you have here?" Ember ran over. Surely both treasure chests weren't just Mora, right? That would be too mundane.
"A ring."
Fortunately, Zhongli's taste was still guaranteed; he also knew how to differentiate. One treasure chest was full of Mora, and the other... was also full of Mora, but with an extra ring.
A jade-green emerald was embedded in the ring, and because it had been stored in the treasure chest, there was no dust on it.
The emerald was smooth as a mirror, reflecting Chongyun's face.
"There are also words on it... 'The world is full of difficulties, all living beings suffer.'" Chongyun murmured, recalling the inscription on the stone tablet. A sense of sorrow welled up in Chongyun's heart.
It was hard to imagine what the person who set up this grand formation was thinking when they placed this ring.
Was it an lament for the suffering of the world? Was it helplessness at their own inability to do anything? Or perhaps confusion about the future?
Chongyun felt it was all of them, otherwise the emotions contained in the words on the tablet would not have been so complex.
"Hmm..., the sentiments of an old person during a specific period. Why do you, a young lad, care so much?"
"Instead of this, why don't you take out those few books I gave you and read them carefully?" A voice pulled Chongyun out of his contemplation.
Looking up, it was Ember, rummaging through the treasure chest.
"Is this all? A bit stingy. Shouldn't there be some divine weapon or magical artifact?"
Ember searched through the treasure chest and found that besides Mora, there was nothing else.
"Perhaps the esteemed expert who set up this grand formation believed that those capable of eliminating evil beings had already reached a state where external objects could not disturb them?"
Chongyun looked at the somewhat simple "treasure" before him and speculated.
"Have your strengths reached that level?"
"No."
Chongyun shook his head decisively. Neither he nor Xingqiu had reached a point where external objects could not disturb them; their strengths still had much room for improvement.
"Then that's it. Watch me hand-craft an artifact for you." Ember's eye caught Xingqiu, who was happily clutching an artifact, and he began to rub his palms together.
A collection of will is an artifact. With this thought, Ember's palms rubbed continuously, and soon sparks flew.
"It's on fire?" Xingqiu saw the scattering sparks and snapped out of his excitement.
"Look! It's done, a new artifact!" Amidst a shower of sparks, a brand new corsage was born.
Ember held up the flower and displayed it to Xingqiu and Chongyun.
"A new artifact?" Chongyun rubbed his eyes. Why did he feel that this artifact was looking at him, like a living thing?
No, it wasn't like it; it *was* a living thing! This thing was moving!
"Sorry, I added too much material when I was rubbing it. I'll rub another one for you." Ember saw the artifact's petals stretching and knew he had created something new again.
He collected the small flower in his hand, intending to rub out another one, but Xingqiu and Chongyun both shook their heads.
"Senior, Chongyun and I can share this artifact; there's no need for you to trouble yourself further."
"Yes, moreover, I have already witnessed an evil being with my own eyes. For me, that is the greatest gain!"
Xingqiu and Chongyun wiped the fine sweat from their foreheads and quickly said. They were afraid Ember might rub and rub until he produced something big.
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