"Uh… fine," Venti said, "but I'm still skeptical."
He readily admitted Klee's destructive power was second to none. Short of donning his crown again, even if you added up everyone in Mondstadt, they still wouldn't match Klee alone. You could see as much from her mother, Alice—Dawn Winery's mountain range hadn't always looked like that; Alice had blown it into shape, permanently altering Mondstadt's terrain.
Venti had never doubted Klee could unleash that kind of force.
Precision blasting, though? That he doubted.
Rowan just gave him a look that said: mind your own business. The little one had already promised she could do it. Why was a never-on-duty wind god nitpicking?
And if, by some remote chance, Klee couldn't handle it, Rowan could always flatten the ridge himself. Hardly a big deal.
"By the way—are you seriously cooking with slimes?" Venti asked. "This really doesn't sound reliable."
He'd come out here for who-knows-what—first questioning Klee, now bringing up slimes—until Rowan found himself eyeing the bard up and down. Venti felt a chill and looked away.
"Venti, are you dense?" Rowan said. "What do hilichurls use to cook in the wild? Haven't you paid the slightest attention?"
"They use Pyro Slimes. They also use Hydro Slimes to clean water—and they'll even throw Pyro Slimes like bombs."
"If hilichurls dare put slimes to use, why can't humans? Or are you saying our wits are worse than theirs?"
Venti choked on the rebuttal. Compared to humans, hilichurls were… not clever. And yet they put slimes to work while humans treated them as mere monsters. Which side was acting like primitives again?
"Venti, Klee's starting," Rowan said. "Amplify the sound over there—I want Zhongli to hear it. Only then will they know what we're doing here."
Stone Gate's far side was Liyue territory, so Rowan hadn't let anyone cross the line. On that side sat a teahouse serving passing merchants. In time, this could become a massive trade hub—a transfer station, a service area, maybe even a full-fledged city.
The distance to Mondstadt made a case for it. If they had cars, no problem. But Mondstadt didn't even have that yet. Even with a horse-drawn cart galloping through the night without rest, the trip from Mondstadt City to Stone Gate took a day and a night; under normal conditions, two full days. A major relay point here was a must.
For now, though, roads came first. As for rebar and such—Rowan hadn't even asked Albedo to study it yet.
The real sticking point was Rowan himself: did he want Mondstadt to become a forest of skyscrapers, a modern metropolis like the one in his memories? If it truly turned into that… would it still be Mondstadt?
So he hesitated to introduce rebar and other modern building materials. Electricity and related tech, sure—those only lifted quality of life and wouldn't overwrite Mondstadt's western-fantasy skyline. Until he sorted it out in his head, there would be no "steel-and-glass Mondstadt."
"You're serious?" Venti blinked. He'd been stuck on the "who's primitive" question, and Rowan's next line startled him. "You're really going to rattle the old man?"
"Of course."
"Alright then, I'll do as you say. But if he gets angry, you're taking all the blame. Has nothing to do with me—I'm stating that up front," Venti said, stacking his disclaimers as if they were shields, clearly worried about getting pummeled by Zhongli.
Rowan waved him off. "Just relay it. If trouble comes, I'll handle it. What's there to fear?"
Rrrrrrrr-BOOM!
Rrrrrrrr-BOOM!
Right on cue, Klee began her performance. A chain of detonations cracked the cliffs—precise, measured, and clean.
Venti faithfully carried the sound on the wind—straight to a certain someone far away in Liyue Harbor. The sudden thunder made him jump, then scowl. To carry a transmission that far, only one shameless, wine-sodden slacker could be to blame.
Zhongli's face darkened. He left the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor without a word. Gold flashed—and he vanished toward the harbor's outskirts.
Meanwhile, elders in nearby Qingce Village noticed the disturbance in the Stone Gate area. They peered from a distance, but none dared to approach. At Wangshu Inn, proprietress Verr Goldet relayed an urgent message to Ningguang in far-off Liyue Harbor.
On the Jade Chamber, Ningguang read the report and frowned.
"Baiwen, pass the order: Jade Chamber—advance to Stone Gate. Full speed."
The commotion was too great. She'd vaguely heard something earlier but hadn't confirmed it. Now with Verr Goldet's message, something was definitely happening on the Mondstadt side. To be safe, she would send the Jade Chamber to have a look. She would see what tricks those Mondstadters were up to.
"Yes, Lady Ningguang." Baiwen bowed and hurried to the control deck.
Seconds later, the Jade Chamber—moored for days above Liyue Harbor—stirred, then surged toward Stone Gate at top speed.
Such a spectacle couldn't help but draw eyes from below. Among them were ill-intent observers—the Fatui, certain foreign merchants—and the merely curious, including a certain purple-haired fox.
"The Jade Chamber's heading toward Guili Plains?" she mused. "What's that woman up to…? I should follow and see."
(End of Chapter)
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