Dream realm—time for another night at the internet café.
This time, Madame Ping didn't appear in her old granny form but as her true self.
Her sudden appearance surprised Zhongli, Azhdaha, Mountain Shaper, and Moon Carver.
Mountain Shaper leaned in close to Moon Carver, whispering, "Looks like your fortune-telling was spot on."
"Told you."
"All those years of nagging her did nothing, and now after just a few days out, Ping's back to her old self."
"It's called 'a woman adorns herself for her beloved.' I mean, who'd want to stay an old granny forever?"
"Mmhm…"
Meanwhile, Cloud Retainer messaged Venti to tell him she'd launched fireworks from the plaza statue earlier that night.
Venti replied with a laughing emoji and said he saw them and loved it.
Relieved, Cloud Retainer figured it didn't matter anymore whether she fed him kills during their game later.
Xia Zhi, on the other hand, had his hands full.
Xia Ci had texted Furina about his performance at the instrument competition earlier that day, including the part where he'd moved a dragon to tears.
Furina and Focalors were both fascinated and dragged him into a room to play something live.
Left with no choice, Xia Zhi took out his [Dragon's Call Guqin] and performed another serious piece for his two girls before finally being released.
After he left the room, Furina sat there deep in thought.
Focalors tilted her head. "What're you thinking about?"
Furina looked up and asked, "What did you think of the piece Cousin just played?"
"It was nice."
"It was nice, yeah. When I listened, I could feel what Dvalin must've felt—sad, but not quite to the point of tears. And I'm someone who cries easily…"
"You only cry when you're doing that kind of thing—"
"Don't derail me."
"Then what are you getting at?"
"Xia Ci told me she asked Xia Lin about it. Apparently, Cousin's music has a special effect on dragons. That's why Dvalin and Xia Lin find it especially moving."
"…And?"
"What do you think would happen if we played that piece for Neuvillette?"
"…"
"That guy always has the same stern face. Work, work, work. I think he really needs a break."
"…"
"As his boss, I'm preparing a special gift for him. Letting him hear such beautiful music to soothe his soul. He'll be touched, right?"
"Stop! You'll flood Fontaine with that nonsense!"
"Relax! Xia Ci already tested it. Recorded versions lose most of the effect, and after a few listens, it wears off entirely."
"Don't bring the prophecy any closer than it already is."
"Isn't that better? We get freed early! Besides, Cousin already said it's a destiny. We're fine."
"..."
The next morning, Xia Zhi woke to a pressure on his chest.
Peeking from his god's eye, he saw Xia Lin had somehow climbed on top of him and was now sleeping peacefully in his arms.
This girl really couldn't sleep still.
He didn't wake her. Just let her keep snoozing in that pose.
Then he thought back to what had happened yesterday afternoon—
He'd played music for Dvalin while grilling meat, then rode him back to Mondstadt.
Tch. Daytime: he rode the dragon. Nighttime: the dragon rode him.
From a certain angle, Xia Lin had already surpassed Dvalin, hadn't she?
He opened the [Shop] and browsed for a while before Xia Lin finally woke up.
Rubbing her eyes, she looked around sleepily. "Pa…pa…"
Xia Zhi chuckled softly. "Awake? How was your sleep?"
The girl gave a bright smile. "Really good!"
Xia Zhi patted her head. "Alright then, time to get up."
Only now did she realize she'd been lying on top of him. She quickly rolled off. "Sorry, Papa…"
"It's fine. You're still light. But once you grow up, you won't be able to sleep like this anymore."
"Oh…"
She sniffed and caught a strong whiff of her own scent lingering on him, and a sweet smile bloomed on her face.
So nice.
"Papa, I'm going to play with Yaoyao!"
"Mm, go on."
Watching Xia Lin bounce out the door, full of energy, Xia Zhi smiled.
It looked like last night's nightmare hadn't left any lingering effects.
He stood up and tidied the slightly messy bed, then sat back down at the edge.
Xia Zhi opened his inventory and took out a glittering diamond-tier treasure chest.
He'd farmed this chest from Dvalin yesterday afternoon.
He'd originally intended to open it last night, but then Qiqi had brought Xia Lin into the room and the little girl insisted on sleeping with him, so the whole thing got put off.
But now was as good a time as any.
Gazing at the chest's mysterious engravings, Xia Zhi chose to open it.
A translucent, pale violet sphere appeared before his eyes.
[Universal Battery]
Quality: Diamond
Type: Auxiliary Item
Traits: Charging, Power Supply, Intangible
Effect: Absorbs any type of energy for charging; charging efficiency increases by 100% when absorbing Electro energy. When equipped, consumes stored energy to provide any form of restorative effect to the user. This item is immune to all forms of damage and wear.
Hidden Effect: Each time the battery is fully charged from 0%, its total energy capacity increases by 0.01%.
Recyclable: 10,000 Points
Another item in the "Universal" series.
Xia Zhi was already quite familiar with these. He had several of them in his possession.
[Universal Syringe], [Universal Bottle].
He'd developed a rough understanding of the "Universal" prefix—basically, these items had broad, generalized functionality and could adapt to various needs.
And this [Universal Battery] was no exception.
Xia Zhi focused on the line in the item description: "Consumes stored energy to provide any form of restorative effect to the host." He thought for a moment, then picked up the translucent pale violet orb and slowly brought it toward his chest.
As the sphere made contact with his chest, a system prompt rang out in his mind.
"Detected compatible fusion item: [Universal Battery]."
"Proceed with fusion?"
Xia Zhi confirmed mentally: "Yes."
The translucent orb passed into his body as if it had no substance, disappearing completely.
At the same time, Xia Zhi felt a strange new presence inside his body.
He opened the system page and saw a new buff in his status bar: [Universal Battery Supplying Power – Current Charge: 15%].
He switched to his character panel, and a visual representation of himself appeared—equipped with multiple special items, and a pair of enormous wings on his back.
He turned off the cosmetic items, leaving only a plain human form. Now he could clearly see a pale violet orb softly glowing within the chest of the projection.
Two minutes passed without anything unusual.
Xia Zhi casually cast a [Healing] spell.
His mana bar dipped slightly—then instantly refilled.
Thanks to his meditation technique, his mana regen was already high, so he couldn't really gauge the battery's effectiveness just from that.
He thought for a moment and pulled out a piece of wood from his inventory, engraved it with a few Divine Words, and crafted it into a gold-tier item.
This process should've consumed several points of Divine Power and a good chunk of mental stamina.
But when he checked his system panel afterward, his Divine Power and Spirit Points were both still full.
He recycled the newly made gold item and pulled out another piece of wood to repeat the process.
After crafting three gold-tier items in a row, Xia Zhi still didn't feel any mental fatigue.
He opened the system panel again: Divine Power and Spirit Points—still full.
However, the buff had changed slightly: [Universal Battery Supplying Power – Current Charge: 13%].
Compared to earlier, the charge had dropped by 2%.
That energy had apparently gone into restoring his two stats.
It could even restore Divine Power? And the energy cost wasn't even that high?
Xia Zhi was a little surprised.
At this rate, a fully charged [Universal Battery] should be able to restore his Divine Power more than three times over.
Much faster than using [Essence of Sun and Moon].
And most importantly, while [Essence of Sun and Moon] worked slowly over time, the [Universal Battery] restored everything instantly. In terms of practicality, it clearly outclassed it.
Then again, the two items weren't entirely comparable. [Essence of Sun and Moon] was prized for its gentle nature—it could be used in alchemy, cultivation, incense making, essential oils... and could be applied in portions. The [Universal Battery] was a single unit and could only be used in one place at a time.
Xia Zhi turned his attention to the battery's hidden effect: [Each time fully charged from 0%, max capacity increases by 0.01%.]
A rare growth-type trait. That meant as long as he used the item long enough and charged it often enough, its capacity would eventually become immense.
It would essentially act as a bonus HP bar, Mana bar, Divine Power bar, Spirit bar, Stamina bar…
"A really excellent item."
Xia Zhi was quite satisfied with this find.
He still had some time, so he might as well do a full charge cycle. To fully charge it, he'd have to first drain it down to 0%.
He raised his hand and cast a time acceleration barrier in the room, then resumed crafting items.
As he repeated the process, the battery's charge gradually dropped until it finally hit [0%].
Xia Zhi stopped, placed his hand over his chest, and summoned the [Universal Battery] from within.
It was now colorless instead of pale violet—apparently the hue indicated remaining charge.
The room's window was half open, and a gentle breeze drifted in. The wind naturally flowed toward the orb in Xia Zhi's hand.
Using an Anemo skill he'd learned from Venti, Xia Zhi could sense the orb frantically absorbing the wind energy and the faint trace of elemental energy in the air.
Just as the item description said: [Absorbs any type of energy for charging].
By that logic, even if he did nothing—just left it in his room like the [Essence Bottle]—it would eventually charge itself over time.
The only problem was that this kind of passive charging was way too slow.
Xia Zhi raised his hand and cast a [Holy Light Judgment] at the [Universal Battery].
White light hit the orb and was silently absorbed.
But the color didn't change—it meant the charge hadn't increased significantly.
He followed up with a [Divine Holy Light Judgment].
Golden light hit the orb and again was silently absorbed.
The orb's color seemed to shift slightly—not entirely colorless anymore.
Xia Zhi checked his inventory: [Current Charge: 0.28%].
Still a long way from 1%.
Skill-based charging wasn't very efficient either.
Not unless he bombarded it with spells nonstop—but he didn't have the time or energy for that.
Xia Zhi couldn't help thinking of Furina in Fontaine. She had the [Tears of the Goddess] and had to cast skills every night just to stack her mana bar.
All those skills cast into empty air—what a waste. If she were here, she could be spamming skills into this [Universal Battery] to charge it.
If he wanted to boost charging efficiency, he had to focus on the energy type.
[Charging efficiency +100% when absorbing Electro energy].
That made him think of his cousin Xia Zhen.
She was the former Electro Archon—all her skills were Electro-based.
Xia Zhi had once used [Skill Steal] on her and learned all her abilities.
He raised his hand and cast Lightning Strike at the battery.
A purple bolt hit the orb and was silently absorbed.
[Current Charge: 0.38%].
Even regular Electro spells would take hundreds of casts.
He switched to [Divine Lightning Strike].
[Current Charge: 0.88%].
Better, but each cast consumed Divine Power—not exactly cost-effective.
There had to be a more efficient method.
Xia Zhi pondered.
He'd heard that the seas around Inazuma used to have terrifying thunderstorms, a natural charging field—but ever since the Sakoku Decree was lifted, the storms had faded.
Could he create a mini thunderstorm himself...?
After all, the item was [Immune to all forms of damage and wear]...
Hmm?
A thought struck him. He opened his inventory and found the [Elemental Reaction Box] he'd made with CLoud Retainer.
That thing generated absurd energy—maybe a bit of overkill for simple charging...
He kept digging through his inventory and found an old batch of Adepti Sigil and Skill Scrolls he'd made long ago.
They were all low-level spells.
Back when Xia Zhi was weak, he stockpiled these scrolls for emergencies—even went up a mountain to test mass detonation, which caused a minor earthquake in Liyue.
Now that he was god-tier, these low-tier scrolls were obsolete.
But with the [Universal Battery], they were perfect for charging.
Xia Zhi cast a time stasis barrier in the room, leaving only a small area unaffected.
He placed the [Universal Battery] inside that zone, along with seven different elemental scrolls, including Electro.
Then he activated them all at once.
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