We head to Lady Ninguang's jade chamber, meeting Keqing along the way.
We meet lady Ninguang who says to us, "I've been waiting for you, returnee from Jueyun Karst."
We give her the gift that we prepared for her.
Ninguang smiles, "Oh for me? You have my thanks. It seems that I've made things difficult for you considering you were supposed to be my guests."
I say, "Its my first time coming to a place this high up"
Ninguang explains, "This palace floats in the skies, higher than the peak of any mountain. From this vantange point, one may survey all of Liyue."
"I've been gathering the funds necessary to build it from the time I began learning the merchant's craft. And since becoming Tianquan, I've spared no effort in hiring the best craftsman to constantly extend it."
Ninguang meets us inside the jade chamber, "Be at ease you two. make yourselves at home if you wish."
Paimon notices the legendary from the story the storyteller at the restaurant spoke about.
Ninguang notices paimon looking and allows her to choose a piece of paper from the wall. Paimon chooses the biggest piece which seems to be a map.
We go to the place marked on the map and find a fatui base there we fight our wa through the fatui and sneak past some. We realise the fatui are replicating sigils of permission.
We meet Zhongli near the countryside he asks us what we talked about with ninguang.
We go to pick some glaze lilies for the rite of descension and meet ganyu also there.
Ganyu shows us some of the glaze lilies with the strongest fragrance. So after we picked the flowers we head back to liyue harbour
We see the city gate swarming with millelith and fatui.
We talk to the fatui guard, Felix, he immediately recognises Zhongli, "Ah, you're the consultant to Wangshang funeral parlor - Mr Zhongli I presume?"
"The milelith are watching our every move now these are desperate times, we mustn't act rashly. The adepti of Jueyun Karst are finally on the move."
Zhongli questions, "Do they intent to exercise force?"
The fatui replies, "Most likely. I've heard some members of the Qixing have already gone to meet them... Well I say meet but its more like their attempting to stall the adepti outside the city."
"However they hit an impasse, the adepti do not acknowledge the Qixing, they only acknowledge the contracts of the geo archon. If the two side came to blows, Liyue harbour would be in no position to stop them."
Zhongli exclaims, "surely the Liyue Qixing are not the sort to give in so easily?"
The fatui agent continues, "Anyway Mr Zhongli you're one of Childe's close associates. Please understand your actions will reflect upon us, dont let anyone catch you off guard."
Paimon says, "It look like things are about to boil over in Liyue Harbour!" I frown, "We can't just stand by and watch."
Zhongli advises us, "Consider your next course of action carefully travelers, if you're trying to prevent an explosion if may be wisest to look for the fuse first."
Paimon turns to us, "So what did Zhongli mean by looking for the fuse..."
"Childe." I immediately reply.
Paimon humms, "Oh Paimon gets it, if theres anyone that wants to see the city turned upside down it's definitely him."
"He must be waiting for the moment when no one is watching to do something really bad!"
"But where could we find him now? Where would he go at a time like this?"
I remember how this story goes... "follow me! to the golden house."
We run toward the golden house. We passed knocked out bodies of the millelith guards who were guarding the golden house on the way in.
Paimon cries, "Uh oh paimon smells trouble. Quick we have to make sure the Exuvia is alright!"
We are met with childe as we approach the Exuvia, he starts to fight us.
I use anemo continuously while Aether uses geo to hold him off but we realise he was just playing us to get close to the Exuvia.
He tries to grab the gnosis in the Exuvia but finds its empty so he concludes we took it and decides to fight us.
He activates his foul legacy form and transform into a huge warrior.
Me and traveler use both our geo and anemo skills to defeat him, but childe summons osial with his sigils of permission, "hahahah let's see will the nation that has lost its deity be swallowed up by an ancient malice once more?"
"If you wish to drown together with the people of Liyue. You're free to stay and enjoy the show!"
We run outside of the golden house and see a huge storm and the jade chamber heading out to sea to take down Osial.
Paimon pants, "Paimon's exhausted."
"If we hadn't happened to see the Jade chamber flying over just as we came out of the golden house, we really wouldn't have known which way to go..."
"Phew did we make it in time? Is the Overlord of the vortex still in the sea? It hasn't destroyed Liyue yet has it?"
Xiao sneaks up behind us, "What are you doing here?"
Paimon exclaims, "Huh... hold on its the adepti! what are you doing on the jade chamber? Paimon thought you were argueing with the Qixing... Is the fighting over?"
Ninguang answers her, "Faced with a calamity of such magnitude, we have agreed to put our differences aside for now and unite against this common enemy."
"oh Paimon gets it... So how do you plan to defend Liyue? Uhh just seeing this overlord of the vortex guy puts a pit in Paimon's stomache, even from all the way out here."
Cloud retainer speaks up, "the Qixing did once research the matter of the Guizhong ballista when it piqued their fancy."
"And as fate would have it, one who did craft the Guizhong ballista with one's own hands, is here..."
Ninguang laughs, "I suppose this is one blessing from the adepti that we should be thankful for.."
"so be it. We shall use the upgraded Guizhong ballista to fight off that god. All the adepti here can lend their strength to man it."
"we haven't a moment to spare. Our battle begins now!"
Ninguang uses geo energy to create a guizhong ballista and the adepti fly off to lend their power to it, the ballista starts to fire at osial.
Fatui appears and the Yuheng and rest of the adepti, traveler and I hop onto the guizhong ballista to fight them. the adepti lends us their strength.
But osial summons a meteor shower that breaks the Guizhong ballista and we are rescued by Xiao and the adepti.
Cloud retainer tells us, "the guizhong ballista is destroyed, without its covering fire retaliation shall be difficult."
Ganyu protest, "but the jade chamber is our last line of defense! We can't give another inch no matter what!"
Ninguang appears in a flash, she says, "I have another idea. I'll sacrifice the jade chamber."
Everyone helps ninguang and traveler strikes the finishing blow causing the jade chamber to plummet into osial crushing him and exploding.
The adepti fly us off to safety. We land and everyone talks about liyue's future.
We go off to look for Zhongli at the northland bank.
We hear childe arguing inside, "You call this cooperation between harbringers. Cooperation requires communication you know..."
Signora laughs, "don't take it to heart childe. Besides aren't you happy that you got to skip the formalities and bring chaos to the land? I'm sure you must've enjoyed that..."
Paimon gasps, "Hey! Its Zhongli and Childe! And you! you're also one of the harbringers!" "Signora!" Aether hisses.
Signora turns to us, "Haha it's you two. I believe we've met once before... In the city of bards was it? I'm glad you still remember my name."
Signora continues, "ah right. I imagine it must've been rather hard watching helplessly as something precious was snatched away from your guy's friend."
"You remember the agreement Morax" She says to Zhongli, "Now if you would be so kind the gnosis, please." Traveler was shocked, "Agreement... Gnosis... Morax?!"
Paimon gasps, "what in the world are you talking about!?"
Zhongli sucks in air, "The contract is fulfilled. That which thou seeketh is now bestowed onto thee, for my promise is solid as stone" He pulls out the geo gnosis.
Zhongli explains how he planned to see if liyue was capable of surviving on its own without its geo archon and faked his death.
After hearing this being explained we head outside.
We go to the rite of passing for morax.
Ninguang announces, "as said previously, Rex Lapis's soul returning to the heavens is the end of the contract and it is also the end of a era."
"We the people of Liyue were indeed prosperous. But blinded by our prosperity, we forgot time can be pitiless."
"Now that we have awoken from our dream, we must learn to say farewell"
"will you stand with us as we reastablish our contracts - as we build a new age of prosperity?"
Keqing turns to us, "the Liyue Qixing always repay their debts. name your price you deserve that much."
Aether speaks, "Well could you help me put up some missing person posters?"