(Wangshu Inn)

We got to Wangshu Inn. It was now night. We had already checked in once again so we can rest in Wangshu Inn for the night after finding Xiao.

Kiana: We're back here in Wangshu Inn.

Paimon: Compared to JueYun Karst this place seems basic. Are we really gonna find an adeptus here?

Fu Hua: He is here. We know he's here.

Paimon: Let's go take a look. Paimon reckons he'll be on the balcony. Heh, doubt we're going to find him in the kitchen.

We went to the balcony but saw no sign of Xiao.

Paimon: Oh? He's not here?

Aether and Paimon decided to look at the horizon.

Xiao: To the blind, everything may not be as it appears...

Xiao appeared out of nowhere which gave us all a startle. We showed him our Sigils of Permission.

Xiao: Sigils of Permission? You came prepared. Though this only prevents me from hurting you myself. Doesn't stop you from getting hurt in other ways. The last time I saw you people I didn't even bother to hurt you because you were desperate to find your friends and family.

Paimon: Uhh... Paimon doesn't get it...

Xiao: Too much contact with our world is breaking the rules. Mortal souls are not as robust as those of adepti, nor can your blood carry this level of adepti energy.

Fu Hua: I've lived for over 50,000 years because of an artifact that halted my aging. I am just as robust as you adepti.

Book of Fuxi: That's right! She is stronger than you think!

Xiao: It's for your own good. Leave. Now.

Xiao turned to leave.

Paimon: Wait a sec, we came here to...

But it was too late as Xiao disappeared instantly.

Paimon: Argh! Paimon's... peeved! All he does is think about himself! Paimon wants to give him an ugly nickname... but if you tick off an adepts, the only you'll probably find in treasure chests is cabbages! Bleurgh! Ugh... Guess we should go ask the boss lady of the inn about just how she manages to talk to adepti.

Fu Hua: you're right, we should.

We went back inside then went to the boss lady, Verr Goldet. We asked her about Xiao.

Verr Goldet: Oh? You've already met Xiao?

Seele: Yes we have. HE was the one that told us where to find Fu Hua and Captain. And now we've found Sakura and Kallen earlier today.

Verr Goldet: Not bad. Not often he's in a good enough mood to agree to see people. The last time you were here, he must have been in a good mood to see people.

Paimon: What's his good mood?

Verr Goldet: Oh yes, the adepti are very hard to come by. Many people go their whole lives praying to them, never once actually getting to see one. When the Geo Archon built Liyue, he borrowed power from the adepti. But most of them only know how to protect Liyue by fighting. So for many millennia, it has been humans who have led Liyue, whilst the adepti haves lived hidden away on the outskirts.

Paimon: You really know a lot, huh boss lady.

Verr Goldert: It's not "boss lady," it's just boss... Anyway, seen as you have the favor of the adepti, things should have been a lot easier. Well... If you wanna know my opinion... If you keep Xiao in a good mood, things should be okay.

Paimon: Good mood? Can't really imagine what a "good mood" looks like for that "Vigilant Yaksha."

Verr Goldet: Haha! Will be interesting, won't it?

Verr Goldet in mind: Come to think of it, I've never seen him smile either...

Verr Goldet: How 'bout the — you go see the chef for a bowl of Almond Tofu, and a plate of whatever it is you are best at making. Almond Tofu is one of the few human foods Xiao likes. The other dish is up to you.

Paimon: Up to us, eh...? Guys, what do you think you're the best at cooking?

Mei: Curry.

Sakura: Onigiri XL.

Bronya and Seele: Borscht and Sea Food Chowder.

Theresa: Bitter Melon Juice. No thats a drink. Super Sweet Stuffed Wings

Fu Hua: Fried Dumplings.

Aether: Satisfying Salad I guess?

Paimon: really hard to screw that one up, right?

Patrick: Yeah. But right now the chef is on his break. He'll just tell us to scram.

Himeko: Not unless if we can charm him. I mean there's no way that men can turn down cute girls like us.

Patrick: That is true. However, most men some times turn down cute girls.

Seele: We have to at least try.

We went outside and found Smiley Yanxiao. The girls that will try to convince him were Himeko, Sakura, and Seele. Now they went up to him.

Himeko: Excuse us.

Himeko called to him and Smiley Yanxiao noticed them. A pink sparkly background appeared behind the three girls. Their cheeks turned pink and sparkles appeared in their eyes. And just as expected, Smiley Yanxiao actually blushed deep red.

Sakura: We'd like some Almond Tofu.

Seele: It's for the boss, Verr Goldet.

The rest of us watched them.

Paimon: Wow, they're actually good at this.

Patrick: Well of course they are. Himeko is very attractive and motherly. Sakura is a fox girl with pink hair that a lot of people are attracted to. And Seele is a little sister. When ever I get angry or sad, Seele tends to calm me down with her little sister love. Her voice and the way she calls me big brother always soothes me down.

Captain: Himeko has always been attractive that all the guys back home would want her.

Smiley Yanxiao: ... I see. If it's for the boss lady, then I guess I don't have a choice now, do I? And I can't turn down cute girls. But my heart's not really in it right now, not enough to make a dessert as painstaking as Almond Tofu.

The three girls stopped what they were doing.

Paimon: And why is that?

Smiley Yanxiao: A fencer's hand must be steady, so too must the hand of a chef. But my hands, I'm... they're not steady... Because ahh, a traveler once told me that this inn... is haunted.

Everyone: Haunted?

Smiley Yanxiao: And then, just now — just now! In the kitchen... I saw something... something not right.

Paimon in mind: This chef look so intimidating, but speak of ghosts and he becomes weak.

Smiley Yanxiao: I keep thinking... even Wangshu Inn isn't safe. I—I can't keep a steady hand for something like Almond Tofu.

Paimon: Alright everyone. In the name of high-quality Almond Tofu, we need to go check this kitchen out.

Everyone: Right!

Sakura: If it's a ghost we're talking about, I'll use my talismans.

Sakura brought out her talismans.

We went down to the kitchen to find a ghost.

Paimon: Doesn't seem to be anyth— ...

Patrick: What's wrong?

Paimon: ...

Then we all saw it. The ghost girl.

Paimon, Theresa, and Captain: ... @&%*!

Sakura threw her talismans at the ghost girl but missed.

Sakura: So there really was a ghost here.

Patrick: A ghost of a little girl.

In a corner, Paimon, Theresa, and the Captain were shivering.

Patrick: You 3 can stop shivering now. It's gone. And don't deny that we didn't hear you scream.

We headed back to Smiley Yanxiao.

Smiley Yanxiao: What!? You saw it too! There really is a ghost!

Patrick: We saw it alright.

Sakura: A ghost of a little girl.

Smiley Yanxiao: What... How can I...

Paimon: Okay, so he's useless now. What do we do?

Sakura: We'll have to make the Almond Tofu ourselves.

Paimon: Forget it. Let's just go see the boss lady again.

Sakura: Ok, Paimon.

We went back inside to speak to Verr Goldet.

Verr Goldet: Hehe... Scared of something so insignificant. Hard to believe he was once a notorious bandit.

Paimon: You don't seem that afraid of ghosts, boss lady.

Verr Goldet: Gods and ghosts. I've seen it all before.

Bronya: So have we.

Paimon: Come to think of it, others don't seem to know there's an adepts here at the inn, except for the boss lady...

Verr Goldet: Shh! Say any more and you'll be divulging my little secret. Right. Best you people be off. Go see to it that little ghost doesn't go scaring anybody else. Not that I'm ordering you around. It's like the adeptus said, mortal souls are not ass robust as those of the adepti. So as to not be harmed when dealing with the adepti, you can start by practicing with that ghost.

Aether: But how should we persuade the ghost?

Verr Goldet: There is a calligraphy painting in the inn known as the Witness Sigil. It's been in circulation for over a thousand years. Go look at it. Once you have, look for a place outside where you can see the exact same Witness Sigil formation.

Patrick: Ok, we'll do that.

We found the Witness Sigil picture.

Sakura: So we have to remember this pattern to find the ghost girl.

Patrick: Seems simple enough.

(Outside)

After looking at the picture we went outside and found three rocks with the yellow markings of the pattern. When our eye sights saw the alignment right, the ghost girl called Dusky Ming appeared and was seen running in a direction.

Paimon: Th—There she is! So scary... Guys, quick, you... you grab her.

We started running after the ghost girl.

Patrick: We can't physically grab a ghost. We'll just phase through.

Paimon: She's trying to get away! We have to follow her. If it's as the boss lady said, she won't disappear like last time!

We chased the ghost girl to an area where we saw her walk into a body of a Ruin Hunter and reactivate it.

Paimon: Argh! She doesn't know when to give up! This old, decrepit Ruin Guard... Surely it's not... possessed!?

Patrick: Hate to admit it, but it is.

It's right arm changed into a blade and swung at us, but Himeko and I blocked the attack with our Greatswords.

Patrick: Sakura!

Sakura: Right!

Sakura jumped up then threw he talismans at the Ruin Hunter like she was Reimu Hakurei and when the talismans made contact with the Ruin Hunter, took some damage. The Ruin Hunter revealed all its 4 arms.

Himeko: Kiana, am for the eye! It has the same weakness as a Ruin Guard! Sakura, keep using your talismans! Patrick, with me. Everyone else, keep fighting it!

Everyone: Right!

The Ruin Guard started charging up an attack as its blade was surrounded with energy shaped like a drill. Then it charged at me and Himeko but I blocked the attack with my shield infused with energy. Sakura and Mei did some fast slashes of fire and lightning on the Ruin Hunter.

As we attacked it more, Sakura infused her talismans with Pyro energy like she was Sailor Mars/Rei Hino.

Sakura: Evil Spirit... Be Gone!

She rushed in and placed all hr Pyro infused talismans on the Ruin Hunter while also slashing it with her sword infused with Pyro energy. Then when she sheathed her sword, the Ruin Guard exploded.

Paimon: Ooh! Very impressive!

Patrick: She is a Shrine Maiden after all. Under a 500 year old curse and she still has it.

Aether: You don't say.

We went back to the area where we found Dusky Ming singing to herself.

Dusky Ming: Silly-churl, billy-churl...

Paimon: Phew... Finally caught you. Paimon's pooped.

Dusky Ming: Silly-billy hilichurl...

Paimon: Haunting things isn't nice! Little girl, are you listening?

Dusky Ming: Chilly-churl, frilly-churl ...

Paimon: Now listen here young lady!...

I grabbed Paimon and put my hand over her mouth.

Patrick: Let her finish singing.

Patrick in mind: I remember when I used to watch this old live action show called "The Othersiders" on Cartoon Network. While on the Queen Mary, they heard a ghost girl's singing. They also encountered some other children and teen age ghosts too.

Dusky Ming finally finished her singing and spoke to us.

Dusky Ming: ... Okay. Dusky Ming won't tease the travelers at the inn anymore. Next time you can come play with Dusky Ming.

Theresa: It's gonna take a long time to get used to playing with a ghost.

Dusky Ming: If you don't come and play, Dusky Ming will come find you~

Patrick: You have our word.

Aether: We'll come back.

Then Dusky Ming disappeared.

Patrick: Well, now that that's taken care of, we can finally make that Almond Tofu for Xiao.

We headed back to Wangshu Inn and spoke with Smiley Yanxiao.

Patrick: It's done. We solved the problem.

Kiana: The ghost girl won't haunt Wangshu Inn anymore.

Smiley Yanxiao: Wh-What... You really got the ghost to promise to stop haunting the inn?

Sakura: Yes we did.

Sakura spoke while holding her talismans.

Smiley Yanxiao: Wow... You really are something... I am in your debt. Please wait a moment. I'll make you the smoothest, silkiest bowl of Almond Tofu.

Kallen: Sure thing.

(Kitchen)

Smiley Yanxiao: Haha, my hands are steadier than ever now that she's gone.

We took the bowl of Special Almond Tofu along with our side dishes we made and went back up to the balcony where we set up a table and some chairs to sit down on. Xiao reappeared.

Xiao: ...You guys again.

Paimon: Wait! Don't go disappearing again.

Xiao: What's this?

Paimon: It's your favorite, Almond Tofu! As well as these distant travelers' best dishes — a Satisfying Salad, Curry, Onigiri XL, Borscht, Sea Food Chowder, Bitter Melon Juice, Super Sweet Stuffed Wings, and Fried Dumplings. Guys! Quick! Tell him everything before he finishes eating!

Everyone except Xiao and Paimon: Right!

While Xiao was eating, we told him everything as we could.

Xiao: Rex Lapis... How could this be? I... can't imagine it. Though times have changed, I've never imagined a Liyue without him. The ruling Qixing... Just what role have they played in this? ... I will seek Moon Carver, Mountain Shaper, and Cloud Retainer. It is time they too made their decisions.

Aether: Will the adepti take over his role in Liyue?

Xiao: Adepti do not turn on their responsibilities. I have my reasons to not want to be tainted by the mortal realm, but... responsibilities are responsibilities. Our god is the God of Contracts after all.

Paimon: Wait! Paimon still has one last question.

Xiao: hmm?

Paimon: That... Dusky Ming. She's...

Xiao: When conquering demons, on occasion, you can come across spirits who have never hurt anyone, yet are also not yet able to be moved on. So I asked the innkeeper and the boss if they could keep her here for a time.

Paimon: So really, Wangshu Inn was looking after her! Really keeping a wide range of business going, huh!

And then Xiao disappeared and left.

Patrick: Well, we better get some rest now. Better seek the last of the adepti tomorrow.

With that we turned in for the night and went to our respective inn rooms to rest for the night.