One flower, One sword

Flower obtained

For Adepti - well, to all deities in general - time passed faster than for mortals. Even so, these last few days felt like an eternity.

But as they say, nothing lasts forever.

With much anticipation the day that Master Zhang fixed up the relic finally arrived. Zhongli went to pick it up but Xiao and Lumine were preparing the site for the ritual to open the domain.

The flower began materializing.

"Master Zhang, I believe you are done with the dagger?"

"Oh, Mr. Zhongli, just in time! I cleaned up my workspace a moment ago after finishing your request."

"Was it a hard one?"

"Hmm, forging a new weapon would have been easier. Nothing that I can't deal with though!"

"That's good to hear Mr. Zhang. How much do I have to pay now?"

"Whenever I get laborers and miners coming in here for repairs, I never charge them for it. In return, I only ask that they keep me informed when they find any rare ore. So I don't think charging you Mr. Zhongli would be fair."

"Is that so? Very well then, I'll make sure to keep my eye out for any extraordinary ores. Thank you for your service, Master Zhang"

And so Zhongli left, there was not much time until the flower materialized. Once Zhongli arrived at the ritual site, he saw Lumine and Xiao chatting nicely. Zhongli was surprised at how responsive Xiao was.

Zhongli suspected Xiao would be wary of their new friend, but his suspicions seemed to be false.

Lumine told Xiao stories about her and Aether's travels before they came to Teyvat. Well, specifically how Aether used to be clumsy when he was younger, and how he caused a lot of trouble as a child.

As soon as both of them noticed Zhongli, they stopped.

"Is the relic fixed?" Lumine asked.

"Yes, it is, Mr. Zhang did a good job."

Lumine handed over the other relics to Zhongli.

"Very well then, we are ready to start the ceremony then. Zhongli, please summon the doors."

In front of the trio, in the natural scenery of Liyue, the ground began shaking. Eventually, the shaking became worse and you could assume it had reached Liyue Harbor already. Birds from the trees scattered and the crimson foxes ran away. Even the mountains seemed to shake.

Slowly in front of them, the ground began tearing apart and some force was pushing a domain out of the ground. The domain looked ordinary, well, the doors themselves looked ordinary. In front of them, there was a circle-shaped stone, in the stone, there were a few spots around it that seemed to have held certain shaped relics at one point.

Millennia passed since Zhongli had called upon this domain. When he wished to visit privately, he didn't have to physically summon it. He just went into a dream-like state. His physical body was in the mortal realm and his consciousness was in another space.

But if others wanted to enter the domain, it had to be physically present.

Zhongli went up to the stone plate and placed the corresponding relics in their designated spots. Celestia was asleep, Zhongli doubted they would wake up over this seal being broken. Truthfully, back then Celestia sealed this domain because they were afraid of human greed and what it would cause. Humans could sometimes be even crueler than gods or other deities.

Now those higher-ups would be too lazy to get their asses up over this thing. So they didn't have to worry about them.

After carefully placing each relic in their spots the doors opened up.