A whole day had gone by since I returned to Liyue Harbor. I'd gone straight to bed once I reached my dojo, both because I was genuinely exhausted and also because I really didn't want to deal with the sudden worship I was getting. I'd leave the explanation about that to future-me.
Unfortunately, I am future-me, and I had the task of asking Morax and Guizhong what happened during my leave. And they did.
I had my face in my hands as I resisted the urge to scream.
Guizhong was grinning as she patted my back. "Oh, come on, they're just being nice~" She giggled. "I think it's cute!"
"And quite appropriate." Morax chimed in. "Your actions cannot be compared to the average adepti. It is no surprise the mortals now consider you amongst us, even if you're not truly one."
I pulled my hands away and glared at the two. "That doesn't make it any easier." I sighed. "I mean, what if others get the wrong idea?"
Morax and Guizhong shared a glance. "Everyone already has the wrong idea." Guizhong wanted to say, but she refrained. Morax held the same thought, and he hid a small smile behind his cup of tea. He had no doubt that those that lived within Venti's Personal World had begun worshipping his friend as a deity.
"Anyway, about that thing you asked me about." Guizhong said instead, bringing out my [Serenitea Pot]. She grinned as she held it up. "Tada! I've gone and made some changes to it!"
I blinked as I took it into my hands. It didn't look any different, but looks could be deceiving. So I took a glance at its description, and my eyes went wide.
[Serenitea Pot* 5★
A divine realm created by adept arts and contained within a relic crafted from Geo itself. Within it lives a world of its own, thriving with potential.
When used, brings the User into their own Personal World
*Added function: When anchored, can expand to allow constant travel between the User's Personal World and the outside world]
"This is-" The rest of my words failed. I mean-, what else could I say? This was incredible! Now, even if I wasn't there, the people inside my Personal World could get back to Teyvat whenever they wanted. And Guizhong somehow did this all in a single day!?
Guizhong giggled at my obvious awe, before she cleared her throat. "I-It's not like I did it on my own. I had Morax help me out on a few things."
Morax shook his head. "She is being humble. I did little in comparison."
"Hey!"
I chuckled. Oh, these two. "Alright, alright. Enough of that." I held up the teapot. "So, where do you think we should put this? Are there any good places that haven't been used yet?"
He hummed. "The fountain near the harbor would serve as a good, central-"
Guizhong slapped him on the back before he could finish. "People like the fountain, you blockhead." She said, before she turned to me. "But he has a point—it is a pretty good place. How about the space behind the fountain? I don't think anyone's built anything there yet."
"Huh. That's a pretty good idea." And it'd be placed right in the heart of Liyue Harbor's commercial district—a perfect place for some trade to occur. "So, should we go and do it now?"
Morax hummed. "No better time than the present."
And so off we went. We definitely caught eyes as we walked—Liyue Harbor's three gods, all walking together. People were parting around us as we went past, and some even began discreetly following us.
Ugh, it still felt weird to realize that. Without me even trying, I'd been placed as one of the highest authorities in the city, and I didn't even do anything!
It was sort of funny how quickly my status changed, I suppose. I was just a refugee several months back, and now here I was.
Once we made it to the open space behind the fountain, I brought out the [Serenitea Pot] from my Inventory and placed it on the ground. "So," I stepped back. "How do we 'anchor' this? I don't think you ever told me."
Guizhong blinked, and then smiled shyly. "No, I never did, did I?" She cleared her throat as she walked up to the teapot. "I'll do it then." She bent down to her knees and placed her hand on the teapot. Guizhong then whispered something, though I was a little too far to hear anything.
Then, the world glowed bright white as a massive sealing array expanded from beneath the teapot, stretching out across a large radius. The teapot began glowing, and the people gasped as it began growing. Expanding in size with every passing second, until the teapot became as big as a house.
The bright white glow vanished, but the sealing array remained, etched deep into the stone below. A gateway magically appeared at the front of the now-enlarged teapot, and when it finally opened, I could see a large group of villagers on the other side, staring curiously.
At least until they saw me standing next to Morax. When they did, many of them stepped out onto Liyue Harbor and bowed deeply. "Lady Venti!"
I suppressed the urge to sigh. "Welcome to Liyue Harbor." I said instead. The villagers who'd stepped out blinked in confusion, before they finally saw the place they'd stepped into. Their jaws dropped in shock, and I chuckled. Always so dramatic, these people were.
…
Things progressed quite quickly after that. Perhaps seeing the opportunity that'd appeared, people moved quickly, and communications between Liyue Harbor and the budding civilisation in my Personal World was formed after just a day. Experts from Liyue would enter my Personal World and aid in the building of the villagers' town.
In the following weeks, talks about trade and commerce would become commonplace amongst the people of Liyue. Liyue Harbor had many skilled people, whilst the villagers had access to materials created by my Generators; mystical materials that far outclassed the ordinary.
It was honestly impressive. Maybe being merchants was just in the people's blood or something?
Though, a minor issue cropped up eventually. The newly-built town had no name. I was somewhat expecting them to come up with a name on their own, but I soon found that they were asking for me to name it.
Look-, I did try. Tried to think of some name that'd match with Liyue. But I failed to come up with anything even after days of pondering, and so I eventually just defaulted to using Sublime Spicewood. It was the world's name, and so it seemed fitting to me at least.
And people seemed fine with it, so I left it at that.
After just a few weeks, it wasn't rare to see hundreds of people travel from Liyue Harbor to Sublime Spicewood on a daily basis. My Personal World was a land of wonder of abundance, so it wasn't a surprise that many were drawn to it. Especially when they found what Chubby was offering. Finding out that they could basically spend Mora to create entire islands? That was a noble's dream right there.
Truthfully, I didn't stay in Sublime Spicewood much, aside from the weekly fishing session. Finding out people worshipped me as a god was embarrassing enough—seeing people perform entire rituals in my name? I felt my soul leave me for a second when I first found that out. I wasn't quite sure how Guizhong and Morax dealt with this kind of thing.
Though at least they're not begging me to run the town or something. For one, I have no idea how to run a town. But also because I wasn't willing to be tied down to a desk and forced to do legal work. I'd seen what that does to a person. Guizhong always returned home looking like a corpse after a long day's work.
…yeah, that was a fate worse than death.
Time went on. Now that no one lived beyond the city gates, Liyue Harbor became the prime target for attacks from demons and opposing gods. But Liyue itself was a stronghold surrounded by traps and sensors, and it was rare for even a single demon to make it anywhere close to the city walls.
Morax would actively hunt down any demonic gods that dared approach, while the Millelith soldiers would tear down any demon horde that showed itself. Tales of heroics would often trickle back to the city, of grand battles and actions that would shift the tide of battle.
It was in this time period that Tianqiu made himself even more famous than he already was, pushing his name into the annals of legends. With his already monstrous talent with the sword and his knowledge on my [Swords Dance], no ordinary demon could face him.
And then, after months and months of constant sieges, it all just stopped. No more demons approached the city gates. No demonic gods showed themselves to conquer Liyue Harbor. Suddenly, everything became quiet. Calm.
The people celebrated. And why wouldn't they? They'd survived constant sieges from evil—slayed so many demons that no more appeared. The people threw a grand festival that lasted an entire week, in celebration of their victory over the demonic.
But I knew this was merely a prelude. So did Morax and Guizhong. And so none of us truly stopped preparing for the worst. Morax kept using his control over Geo to scour the entire region of land they lived in, before eliminating any and all demonic gods he happened to sense. Guizhong busied herself with innovating, creating weapons powerful enough to even wound gods.
As for me? Well,
[Venti - Ascendant
Body: 20
Speed: 20
Mind: 20
Energy: 20
Elemental (Anemo): 21]
After nearly a year since I first awoke without my memories, I'd raised all my Attributes to 20. Unfortunately, I'd been essentially stuck like this for the past month, since the 5★ fishes I caught from my Personal World no longer did anything if I consumed them. Only Elemental had breached into 21 due to my constant practice, but even that took almost 4 months.
I was stuck. I didn't know how else to increase my base Attributes. There were items in the [Shop] that could help, but they cost quite the sum of Primogems. An amount that was daunting even with the weekly infusion of money I got from selling my 5★ catches.
I frowned slightly as I rolled the [Crown of Insight] across my palm. For a moment, I contemplated using it to boost my [Growth Soul] to 5★. That'd definitely help me push past the current slog I was stuck in.
But at the same time, was that the right choice? I had a number of different Talents I could use the crown on—like my [Guili Hunting Archery] for example. I was still curious what'd happen to it once I pushed it to 5★. How would it change, considering 4★ was the apex of this particular style?
I sighed as I placed the crown back into my Inventory. I'd save the crown for a later time, when I truly came across a desperate situation.
Right now, I was sitting on the porch facing my inner garden, gazing at the night sky. A cup of tea sat next to me, still untouched after several minutes.
It wasn't just me. Morax spent nearly all his time meditating, spreading his senses across all of the lands in search of any potential dangers. Guizhong rarely came out of her office these days, spending all her time in her lab testing new and dangerous inventions.
All three of us were growing restless, because we knew. Though none of us possessed the ability of future-sight, we could feel the world turning still. As if time itself was holding its breath for an inevitability.
I pursed my lips as I took my cup of now-cold tea. It'd been months of silence since the demonic hordes stopped appearing, and we knew it wouldn't be long before the pot boiled over.
All that was left was to face what came next.
…
Sighing, I took a sip of my tea as I continued gazing at the stars.