"It's been a long time, Marchosius."
Qiu Bai and Zhongli looked at Guoba standing before them.
"Lululu! (^▽^)"
Guoba let out a happy sound and ran back to Xiangling's side.
By the time Qiu Bai and Zhongli returned to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, the sun was already setting.
Pushing open the door, Qiu Bai stepped inside.
Hu Tao was sitting on a chair by the window, gazing at the fading sunlight. As the golden glow of the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon, she stood up and greeted Qiu Bai.
"Let's go, Qiu Bai. We're heading to Wuwang Hill."
She turned to Zhongli and added casually,
"Zhongli, you stay here and watch over the place with little Yiguan."
With that, Hu Tao waved goodbye to the two men and left for Wuwang Hill, Qiu Bai following right behind her.
Zhongli, meanwhile, remained at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, tending to its affairs.
As they made their way along the darkening road, Hu Tao walked briskly ahead.
Midway through the journey, Qiu Bai suddenly patted her on the back.
She turned around, puzzled.
"Director at this pace, we're too slow."
Qiu Bai said with an easygoing smile.
"Luckily, I know a little trick or two."
Hu Tao blinked.
"Little trick?"
She looked at him suspiciously.
"What kind of little trick? Don't tell me you can just fly us straight to Wuwang Hill?"
The sky was already dark.
They needed to reach Wuwang Hill before dawn there was no time to waste.
Qiu Bai simply chuckled.
"More or less. Please, Director hold onto me."
Hu Tao hesitated for a moment but still grabbed onto him.
The next second, a dizzying sensation swept over her, as if the entire world had twisted around her.
By the time she opened her eyes again they had already arrived at Wuwang Hill, one of the Yin-Yang Borderlands.
Hu Tao's eyes widened in shock.
"Y-You… YOU!"
She pointed at Qiu Bai, her beautiful plum-blossom eyes filled with disbelief.
"You call that a 'little trick'?!"
Good grief.
Wuwang Hill was tens of thousands of miles away from Liyue Harbor!
Qiu Bai had brought her here in an instant. How could she not be stunned?
Now, Hu Tao was seriously starting to suspect that Qiu Bai was an Adepti.
He looked barely older than her, yet he gave off the aura of an ancient relic from a bygone era.
"And you! If you had this technique, why didn't you tell me earlier?"
She pouted, "You made me walk all that way for nothing!"
Qiu Bai chuckled.
"Hahaha, well, Director never asked me."
"How was I supposed to know? what if you actually enjoy walking?"
Hu Tao narrowed her eyes at him, but eventually waved her hand dismissively.
"Fine, fine. At least with you around, I won't have to walk all the way back next time."
She let out a tired sigh.
"Always having to walk back and forth like this is exhausting!"
With her ancestral weapon, the Staff of Homa, in hand, Hu Tao strode confidently through the eerie forests of Wuwang Hill.
Qiu Bai followed behind her.
This was the border between Yin and Yang.
The sky here was perpetually shrouded in darkness there was no daytime in this land.
Ghostly blue flames flickered faintly across the landscape, dancing like lost souls.
Hu Tao had been able to see things ordinary people couldn't since she was a child.
As the 77th Director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, she would soon have to take on her duty of guarding the Yin-Yang Borderland.
Qiu Bai scanned their surroundings.
Not far away, a group of Treasure Hoarders was gathered.
His sharp hearing allowed him to catch their desperate murmurs.
"What the hell is this place?! Why can't we get out?!"
"Yeah, no matter how much we wander, even if we carve markers into the trees, we always end up right back where we started!"
There were eight or nine of them, all looking gaunt and starving.
They had been trapped here for three days and three nights.
One of them shivered.
"And that ghostly little girl… She's gonna be the death of me!"
"Sigh... Do you guys think we've encountered a ghost?"
One of the Treasure Hoarders collapsed to the ground, his face filled with terror as he spoke to the others.
Before they entered this place, a little girl had told them there was treasure inside. They followed her in, but then just like that she vanished.
Ever since then, the little girl had appeared before them every single day, passing by as if leading them somewhere. But no matter how fast they ran after her, she would always disappear without a trace.
And in the eerie silence of the forest, her voice echoed
"Uncle, there's treasure over there~ Oh! There's treasure over there too~"
It had scared them half to death.
"Stop trying to freak me out! I'm not good with this kind of stuff!"
"I don't care about treasure anymore, I just want to get the hell out of this cursed place!"
From a distance, Qiu Bai observed the scene unfold. Seeing the Treasure Hoarders being led astray by a ghost made him chuckle, and he shared what he saw with Hu Tao.
"Pfft—ahahaha! That's hilarious!" Hu Tao laughed. "But that little girl... she must be a spirit."
Her expression turned thoughtful. Maintaining the boundary between life and death was one of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's sacred duties.
If that child still lingered in Wuwang Hill, it meant she had unfinished business—something stopping her from passing on to the Plain of Tranquility.
Qiu Bai had to admit, Hu Tao had sharp intuition. But her vision couldn't compare to his. After all she couldn't see as far as he could. Even reaching that distant location would take quite a while on foot.
But for now, the priority was to deal with the Treasure Hoarders.
"Qiu Bai, we need to find a way to get them out of here first," Hu Tao said. "Then, we can look for the little girl and send her where she belongs."
With that, the two of them started walking toward the group of Treasure Hoarders.
Qiu Bai, of course, already knew exactly where they needed to go.
Not only had he completed Hu Tao's Story Quest before, but as the Yin-Yang Immortal of Liyue, he had visited Wuwang Hill long before this—a thousand years ago, in fact.
When they got close to the Treasure Hoarders, Hu Tao instinctively reached for her Staff of Homa, ready to chase them away. But before she could act, Qiu Bai stopped her.
"Qiu Bai, why are you stopping me?" she asked, confused.
"There's no need for all that trouble," Qiu Bai said calmly.
Then, with just a casual wave of his hand the Treasure Hoarders vanished.
Hu Tao's jaw dropped. Her eyes widened so much that they could almost fit an entire bird egg inside.
What in the world did she just witness?!
Qiu Bai had already surprised her so many times today, but now he had just... make them vanish like it's nothing?!
"You—you—you—!"
"Where did you send them?!"
"You didn't kill them, did you?!"
Hu Tao stared at Qiu Bai, stunned. A part of her mind was also wondering... Was this another one of his so-called 'little trick'?
Qiu Bai was seriously too mysterious. Just like that old fossil Zhongli.
"Hahaha, of course not," Qiu Bai laughed. "I just sent them outside of Wuwang Hill."
Hu Tao finally snapped out of her shock, but she was still processing what had just happened.
"How did he do that? Sending someone away with just a wave of his hand?"
That move alone was enough to keep her dazed for an entire year.
Meanwhile, outside Wuwang Hill
The Treasure Hoarders now free, looked around in utter confusion.
"Wait... how did we get out?"
"Who cares?!" One of them shouted. "We're out! Let's get the hell away from this place, I never want to see it again!"
Having been starved for three days, their first thought was no longer treasure. It was food.
The moment they regained their senses, they bolted toward their camp, desperate for something to eat.
Back in Wuwang Hill, Qiu Bai and Hu Tao were now searching for the ghostly little girl. Hu Tao carefully examined the surroundings, looking for any traces that might lead them in the right direction. Step by step, she followed the clues.
Qiu Bai trailed behind her, watching quietly.
Despite her usual mischievous and eccentric nature, Hu Tao was a strong, kind-hearted girl. Most people saw only the carefree, playful side of her. But who knew what kind of unseen burdens she carried deep inside?