"Lord Harbinger, is it critical intelligence?"
Manager Andrei of the Northland Bank asked nervously. "There hasn't been any major news in Liyue lately."
"All of it."
Childe's voice was low and dangerous. "Activate every sleeper agent. I want everything they've heard, everything they've seen. If there's even a whisper of movement, I want it on my desk."
"I'll arrange it immediately. But the volume of information will be massive. It will take time to collate. Please wait a moment, Lord Harbinger."
"Make it fast."
"Understood!"
Andrei hurried off to execute the order.
Watching him leave, Childe didn't sit down. Instead, he walked out of the bank and stared at the Liyue Bank in the distance.
The queue was still endless.
People were walking out with bags of rice, jugs of oil, and baskets of eggs, their laughter ringing in the air.
Childe frowned deeply. What is happening?
If this continued, the Northland Bank would suffer a catastrophic blow in Liyue. They might never recover.
Establishing a foothold in Liyue had cost the Fatui immense time, energy, and blood.
They had finally stabilized their position. Even the Qixing could only tolerate them, unable to remove them directly.
But now?
If the Northland Bank was forced out, years of work would vanish like smoke.
It would be a devastating loss for Snezhnaya.
Once expelled, re-entering Liyue—especially with the Qixing on high alert—would be impossible.
The profits generated here were vital to the Fatui's operations. They were an inseparable part of the Snezhnayan economy.
He couldn't let the bank fall.
Time ticked by slowly. Childe paced back and forth, his anxiety growing.
He knew rushing wouldn't help, but seeing his bank besieged by this economic warfare made it impossible to stay calm.
If it were just one day, fine. But this was only the beginning. Tomorrow, the day after...
Many traveling merchants hadn't returned yet. When they did and heard the news, they wouldn't deposit a single Mora in the Northland Bank.
Without fresh deposits, their reserves would dry up. If a liquidity crisis hit, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Lord Harbinger!"
A Fatui elite agent rushed in, clutching a stack of papers.
"These are the reports from the last two days. There is indeed one major event—someone pulled a Vision from a jar shop. It caused quite a stir."
The agent handed the documents to Childe while explaining hurriedly. "It happened yesterday. The Millelith suppressed some of the details, so we didn't pay much attention initially."
"There were rumors, but most people dismissed them. After all, trading Visions? It sounds like a scam."
"But upon review... Lady Ningguang visited that shop yesterday. It's all in the report."
Childe's expression darkened.
As expected. No smoke without fire.
Ningguang's sudden moves were linked to this shop.
He snatched the papers and scanned them rapidly.
Most of the intel was trivial.
But his eyes locked onto the final page.
It detailed Ningguang's visit.
Childe's pupils constricted.
It wasn't just a Vision. There were other items.
According to the report, Ningguang walked out of the shop and publicly announced one of her prizes: an Eternal Youth Pill. A pill that froze one's appearance in time forever.
Impossible.
Only gods could remain eternally young.
Even Vision holders aged and died.
Was the Vision a shell planted by the merchant for publicity? Did the buyer just happen to resonate with it?
Visions couldn't be traded. That was a fundamental law of Teyvat.
Thoughts raced through Childe's mind.
But when he reached the final line of the report, his gaze turned deadly serious.