It was the first day of the Windblume Festival, and several competitions had already kicked off with their preliminary rounds.
That morning, everyone went to sign up for events they were interested in.
Xia Zhi joined a musical competition and ran into Venti at the venue.
"My dearest friend! Good morning!"
"Morning."
Venti came up to him. "I've been waiting here for you a while."
Xia Zhi chuckled. "What, after more wine again?"
"Wine? Of course not! I've come with serious business today."
"Serious business?"
"I felt it yesterday—you're looking for a lamp, aren't you?"
"Oh, that. Xia Lin found a book at the library with a note tucked inside, something about a [Lamp of Bliss]. Sounded like a prophecy, so I did a little divination for them."
"Well, that lamp is with me."
"Knew it. I figured as much—if my divination doesn't yield a precise result, there's only one person in Mondstadt who could be responsible…"
Xia Zhi suddenly thought of someone else who, like Venti, had a diamond-tier progress bar. He hadn't interacted with that person yet, but based on the skills he'd acquired, he had a good guess as to who they were.
"By the way, Venti, do you know the head alchemist of the Knights of Favonius?"
"You mean Albedo?"
"Yeah. His true identity seems… a little suspect."
"True identity? What do you mean? Isn't he just a genius alchemist?"
"…Don't play dumb."
"What are you talking about, my friend?"
Xia Zhi sighed at Venti's innocent expression.
Albedo had ties to the Heavenly Principles. There's no way Venti didn't know.
Clearly, he wasn't willing to talk about it.
Or maybe he couldn't.
Xia Zhi let it go. "Fine, never mind. What about the lamp?"
Venti pulled out a beautiful lamp and handed it to him. "Here it is. The ladies gave it to me for safekeeping."
Xia Zhi raised a brow. "The ladies?"
Venti sighed. "You know, those troublesome witches."
Xia Zhi perked up. "Witches, huh…"
But Venti stopped short and said seriously, "My friend, this is all part of the prophecy's puzzle. If you learn too much from me now, you'll miss out on the fun. It's best if you discover the rest for yourself…"
Xia Zhi nodded. "Fair point. Drinking wine is less fun than brewing it. So instead of begging me for wine, how about you go make your own next time?"
Venti's face fell. "Noooo!!"
Xia Zhi smirked. "Talk."
Venti relented. "Fine, fine. It was Alice, Barbeloth, and Rhinedottir. They used to get together for tea parties. Even made a floating island just for it. This lamp is like a keepsake from Alice. With a certain incantation, you can activate it. She's got the other lamp, so they can use this to communicate."
Xia Zhi mulled it over. "Alice? The author of The Teyvat Travel Guide? Klee's mom?"
Venti nodded. "That's the one."
"And [Gold] Rhinedottir?"
"Yeah."
"So the note's references were just code names for the four witches?"
Venti nodded again. "Exactly."
Xia Zhi chuckled. "This Witches' Assembly sounds pretty interesting… So what's the incantation to activate the lamp?"
Venti gave him a look. "Wine first."
Xia Zhi handed him two pre-mixed bottles. "Here."
Venti, satisfied, replied, "The incantation is: [May I intrude upon your peace]. Touch the lamp twice after saying it. Here's a map too—if you want to visit the floating island, you can. Xia Ci's hovercar can get you up there easily."
Xia Zhi nodded. "Got it."
Venti waved. "I'm off then, my friend."
"Don't get drunk. And don't forget to come back this afternoon for the competition."
"Don't worry, I won't."
"If you win the championship, I'll give you a hundred bottles of wine."
"!"
——
Venti left looking very motivated.
Xia Zhi noticed him veer slightly off-course as he walked away.
Toward the Favonius Cathedral, by the looks of it...
That brought to mind what had happened a few mornings ago at the plaza—Venti had been playing the lyre atop the statue, and Xia Zhi had played the same tune right after.
Though they were both good, Xia Zhi had the [Focus Guitar] buff, which made his performance slightly better than Venti's.
Venti had grumbled at the time, saying that if he'd used his [Holy Lyre der Himmel] instead of a plain wooden lyre, he'd have definitely outperformed Xia Zhi.
Xia Zhi had laughed and told him there wouldn't be a "next time."
Yet here they both were, signed up for a musical competition—another "next time," after all.
The [Holy Lyre der Himmel] was one of Mondstadt's national treasures. It should logically be stored somewhere incredibly secure.
Given the security around the Favonius Cathedral, Xia Zhi suspected that's exactly where it was kept.
And now Venti seemed to be headed there. Was he planning to sneak in and swipe the [Holy Lyre der Himmel] just to win this afternoon?
Yeah… that sounded about right.
This drunkard…
Xia Zhi shook his head and left the competition venue to regroup with the others.
Everyone had finished signing up. Even Xia Lin had entered a food-eating contest.
Xia Zhi smiled and ruffled her hair. "Good luck."
Then he pulled out the lamp.
Everyone looked at it curiously. "Is that the…?"
Xia Zhi nodded. "Yep. This is the [Lamp of Bliss] from the divination I did yesterday. Just traded for it from a friend while signing up."
Mona blinked. "Huh? That easy?"
Xia Zhi chuckled. "Yeah. Sometimes fate just hands things to you when the timing is right."
Mona asked, "Can I see it?"
"Of course." He passed it to her.
Klee looked up at the lamp in Mona's hands. It felt kind of familiar somehow.
But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't remember where she'd seen it before.
After a few moments of fruitless thinking, she gave up.
Yaoyao asked, "Now that we've found the lamp, do we need to find the other four things too?"
Xia Zhi nodded. "Right. I already figured out that all the hints refer to four books. We'll head to the library later to search."
And when the time came, he'd just slip the map Venti gave him into one of those books.
A little treasure hunt for the girls.
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