"Continue, continue~"
Knowing that the Geo Archon disliked children, Lumine quickly finished trying the remaining two incense scents...
"I didn't expect the Geo Archon's preference to be for the mature type," Lumine said, picking up Paimon's Paimonator.
"Does... does that mean... the Geo Archon... is a big sister?" Paimon wheezed out her line, then collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.
"Phew... I'm so tired... *pant* I'll never overexert myself again..."
"Hahaha... perhaps. The Geo Archon has myriad incarnations, maybe such an image truly exists."
"Myriad incarnations... I wish I had such an ability too..." Lumine said enviously, looking at the statue.
"Hah... are you unhappy with your current appearance, Lumine?" Paimon asked, having recovered her breath, looking at Lumine curiously.
"Mhm... I'm very satisfied with my current appearance, but... alas, it's nothing you can know about yet."
"Wow... the more you say that, the more I want to know!"
"Hahaha, alright, alright, shouldn't we proceed to the next step?"
"To avoid me knowing, you're even willing to change the subject so stiffly... Alas, forget it. Zhongli, what do we do next?"
"Next... I hope the two of you can go borrow the [Cleansing Bell] for me."
"Cleansing Bell?"
"Yes. Currently, the keeper of the Cleansing Bell is a friend of mine, named Granny Ping. She resides near the Jade Chamber. If you ask her, she will know."
"The Jade Chamber... won't there be many Millelith guards there?"
"Don't worry, the Millelith's patrol frequency on the streets has decreased a lot these few days. Didn't you not get searched when you went shopping earlier?" Lumine reminded her.
"Mhm... that makes sense... then let's go quickly~ (^～^)"
The scene shifts to Ying...
"Phew~ If Lumine keeps questioning me like that, I'll definitely be found out. Luckily I'm smart~ (*˘︶˘*)"
"Let me think... if I remember correctly, the research institute is in that direction..."
Ying followed her memory for a long time and finally found the location she had been secretly monitoring...
"Yes, this is it. Phew~ If I were even a few hours later, I might have forgotten..."
"Now I have to break in... difficulty index two stars. It seems the difficulty shouldn't be too high, but it's still better to be careful..."
Ying quickly made her way to the entrance of their base. However, after searching the rock wall for a long time, she couldn't find the slightest crevice.
"This craftsmanship is amazing... as expected of Snezhnayan technology, but it's still a bit too green."
Thinking this, Ying directly raised her arm and conjured an Aetherium shard in the sky, hurling it towards the rock face.
With a tremendous "BOOM!", the entire rock was blasted away. Rock dust splattered outwards, revealing a passage.
"Heh heh~ Easy. Now it's your turn."
Ying looked at the rock door, which was blown to pieces by her attack, and smiled triumphantly. She then took out her invisibility cloak, put it on, and activated stealth mode, slipping inside.
(I should observe the troop deployment inside first... If possible, I should also grab some documents, as it would be easier to explain to Lumine...)
As Ying walked along the passage, she observed the scenery within.
(Ugh... it's so dark... why are there no lights... and why is it so quiet? Logically, they should send people to search the entrance, right?)
With a sense of doubt, Ying proceeded inwards...
The passage was not long, nor was it wide. After a journey of just three minutes, Ying reached the halfway point and soon arrived at the end of the passage, discovering a stone door.
(There's a second door? Uh... do I have to smash it open again... or I'll try pushing it first...)
Ying pushed hard twice and was pleasantly surprised to find that the stone door indeed opened a crack.
(Ha~ As expected, the second door isn't that difficult. Let me see what's inside...)
Ying poked her little head in and, at first glance, saw guards sitting nearby, which made her a little confused.
(Is this guy asleep? No... the stone door made such a loud noise earlier, even a pig should have been woken up, right?)
The more she thought about it, the more something felt wrong. Ying walked over and squatted down, gently patting one of the guards' shoulders, but the person still showed no reaction.
"Strange..."
Ying frowned and placed her hand under his nose...
(What?! No breathing?! There's a wound on his neck, was he taken down by someone?)
Ying's heart skipped a beat. She quickly ran to check on the other guards and was surprised to find that, without exception, they had all been killed with a single blow.
(Fatui are still being assassinated? No wonder no one came to investigate even after I made such a commotion... But this place is quite hidden. Even if they could find it, how did they get in so silently...)
Ying shook her head, putting all these thoughts aside, and began to examine the surroundings seriously.
(So many pipes and glass... it's a bit like the research institute in the Childe's story quest, but the environment and space are clearly much better and larger. It shouldn't be abandoned...)
Ying retracted her invisibility cloak and walked deeper, leaving ten minutes just in case.
As she advanced, Ying was surprised to find that all the researchers and guards she encountered along the way had been killed with a single sword strike.
"It looks like it was all done by one person... and none of them had any chance to resist before they died... How did that person do it? Did the Flash intrude?"
Ying shook her head, dismissing the absurd thought, and continued deeper. After crossing countless corpses and doors, she finally arrived at the door of the document storage room.
"Archives... this must be where they store their documents. I didn't expect to get here so easily. I thought there would be some fighting. By the way, could they have already taken the documents? If they did, will my mission fail? Wow! Just thinking about it is terrifying..."
Ying's grumbling was overheard by the mysterious person inside the storage room, who immediately hid themselves in the blind spot of the doors and windows, thinking inwardly with some surprise.
(Oh? There's someone outside? The voice sounds a bit familiar...)
"Tsk... the door won't open. Should I look for a key? But with so many people, who knows where it is... Maybe I'll just smash it open. Finish it early and meet up with Lumine..."
(Lumine? The Honorary Knight from Mondstadt... Ah... so it's her~ Heh... Just in time...)