Inside the train.
Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan boarded the train.
Led by Pom-Pom, the two arrived at the second floor of the party car, stopping at a room labeled "Clara's Exclusive Laboratory."
Inside the room.
Himeko and Clara were assembling a mech that stood about as tall as a person.
Klee was studying a new type of bomb using tools like pliers and wrenches.
She had just made one, but the result wasn't ideal—there was no mushroom cloud.
Hook was tinkering with her digging machine, trying to swap out a part.
Was she worried she wouldn't be able to put it back together? Not at all—Himeko and Clara were here, weren't they?
Diona was mixing all sorts of strange ingredients into a test tube to make cocktails. After creating one, she'd ask "Shut Up" to deliver it to Venti for a taste test.
Why not deliver it herself? She was worried Venti might die—he's allergic to cat fur.
Bailu was making medicine, experimenting with high-tech equipment instead of the traditional alchemy furnaces from the Alchemy Pavilion.
Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan arrived.
They immediately spotted Bailu working on her medicine.
"Dragon Lady."
Hearing someone call her, Bailu turned around.
"General, are you looking for me?" Bailu pointed at herself.
Jing Yuan smiled and nodded, walking over with Fu Xuan.
"Mm, what are you working on?"
Bailu showed her results to Jing Yuan.
"General, look. I made this wound-healing powder using Clara's equipment. It's really effective at treating external injuries."
Fu Xuan picked up a packet of the medicine to examine.
"Bailu, have you confirmed its effects?"
Bailu nodded and pointed to a cage with a small white mouse.
"Confirmed. Regular knife wounds heal in just three seconds~ This recipe was given to me by Ye Yun. What was it again? From which world?"
Bailu wracked her brain but couldn't remember which world Ye Yun had mentioned. She turned to Diona.
"Diona, do you remember which world Ye Yun said this medical compendium came from?" Bailu pointed to the thick book on the table.
It was over 10 cm thick, full of various medicinal recipes.
Diona thought for a moment, then shrugged.
"I forgot too. Just ask Ye Yun later."
Bailu looked a bit troubled.
"Well~ I guess that's all we can do."
Fu Xuan grew curious upon hearing about the compendium.
"Bailu, can I take a look at your book?"
Bailu nodded.
"Sure."
She and Fu Xuan were close—Bailu often snuck off to play at the Divination Pavilion, and whenever the Alchemy Pavilion people came looking for her, Fu Xuan would cover for her.
So they didn't bother with formal titles.
Fu Xuan opened the book. The first recipe was the wound-healing powder.
After reading a bit, Fu Xuan was surprised to find that she didn't recognize any of the ingredients.
She was the Master Diviner, after all—she knew a fair amount about medicine.
Seeing Fu Xuan's confused expression, Bailu explained:
"These ingredients don't exist on the Xianzhou. I used the ones Ye Yun bought for me."
Klee chimed in:
"That's right! Big Brother Ye Yun told me earlier that if we need materials, we can just go to the store—he left 100,000 starcoins with Sister Noelle for us to use!"
Bailu nodded.
"Exactly."
Fu Xuan nodded and flipped a few more pages. Apart from the wound powder, the rest of the recipes were for curing minor illnesses.
Bailu turned to Jing Yuan.
"By the way, General, why were you looking for me?"
Jing Yuan was still amazed that Ye Yun had given the kids 100,000 starcoins just for materials.
Tsk tsk, so rich. A whole 100,000 starcoins! Just for materials? Truly enviable.
Fu Xuan noticed Jing Yuan spacing out and said:
"We bought a new pill recipe. Can you see if you can make it?"
She took the recipe from Jing Yuan and handed it to Bailu.
Bailu carefully read it over.
"This one's pretty simple. Did you bring the ingredients? I can make it right now."
Fu Xuan beamed and handed her 10 portions of ingredients.
Bailu took them and made a "shh" gesture.
"Fu Xuan, General, please wait downstairs. I'll have Noelle call you when it's done."
Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan nodded and followed v to the first floor of the party car.
Sitting down, Fu Xuan crossed her arms.
"General, it's time you told me about this train crew. You were here all day yesterday, weren't you?"
How did she know that? Simple—just look at Noelle.
Noelle served Jing Yuan a cup of tea.
"General Jing Yuan, this is the tea you said you liked yesterday. Try it."
Jing Yuan scratched his head awkwardly and chuckled.
Crap—Noelle, could you please shut up?
If Fu Qing found out he dumped all his work on her and was just relaxing here… the consequences would be unimaginable.
Quickly, Jing Yuan changed the subject and told Fu Xuan about Ye Yun's shop and the otherworldly visitors like Zhongli. It wasn't really a secret anyway.
Fu Xuan listened.
"I see… I didn't expect this train crew to be hiding so many secrets. General, have you arranged for anyone to collect Stellar Jade?"
Jing Yuan's expression changed.
"I've already ordered all the Stellar Jade to be gathered."
Fu Xuan looked relieved.
"Good. How many Star Coins do we have now?"
Jing Yuan silently took out 30,000.
"This is all that's left."
Fu Xuan counted it, then gave Jing Yuan a suspicious look.
"General, that number doesn't seem right. Luofu couldn't possibly have only this little. I remember seeing a ton of treasure chests."
Jing Yuan nodded.
"There was more. I also bought the recipe for the Cleansing Pill—it cost 150,000."
Fu Xuan nodded.
"That was worth buying. If Bailu can make it, the strength of our entire Xianzhou Alliance will improve."
It wasn't about numbers, but quality. Many veteran soldiers of the Xianzhou had lingering issues from years of battle.
Normally, they weren't deployed unless there was a major war.
But if Bailu could make the Cleansing Pill, those veterans could return to the battlefield as regular forces.
Fu Xuan thought about it. Still, something didn't add up—surely there was more than just 180,000 Star Coins?
"General, there must be more. Luofu's Stellar Jade shouldn't be limited to this."
***
Jing Yuan dawdled for a while but eventually chose to tell the truth.
"Fu Xuan, do you remember yesterday when we helped the train crew girls with the compensation?"
Fu Xuan recalled for a moment.
"Yes, I remember. I saw that document. And? There's a connection between the two events?"
Jing Yuan paused and said:
"It's because Stelle and the others disturbed the residents late at night by opening treasure chests, that's why we had to pay compensation."
Fu Xuan's eyes widened — in other words, that 180,000 was basically all the star credits left in the entire Luofu?
Fu Xuan couldn't accept this! How could such a massive Luofu Xianzhou only have this bit of star jade left!?
"No way! I'm going to ask Stelle and the others to return it!"
She made a move as if to leave, but Jing Yuan stopped her.
"Fu Xuan, treasure chests are unclaimed goods by nature."
Hearing this, Fu Xuan stopped and sighed.
Indeed, treasure chests are ownerless — whoever opens them gets them.
Jing Yuan consoled her.
"Alright, Fu Xuan, let's think of another way to earn Stellar Jade."
Fu Xuan could only accept this suggestion.
The two of them then sat by the bar counter near Noelle and discussed how to make money.
Fu Xuan suggested notifying all trading fleets to keep an eye out for Stellar Jade, and as long as the asking price was reasonable, bring it back.
Jing Yuan thought this was a good idea and planned to notify Yukong upon returning.
Half an hour later.
Bailu came running down the stairs quickly — tap tap tap — very fast.
Jing Yuan immediately got up and stood at the bottom of the stairs to catch her, afraid she might fall.
"Be careful, take the stairs slowly."
Bailu grinned.
"Hehe, it's fine, General! I'm super strong! General, I finished refining the Qingling Pills — 10 portions of ingredients made 30 pills. You can take them for testing."
Jing Yuan received the pills, visibly pleased.
"Thank you for your hard work, Dragon Lady."
Bailu cheerfully shook her head.
"No problem~ Anything else? If not, I'm going back to play upstairs~"
Jing Yuan affectionately ruffled her little head.
"Go ahead. We'll head back and test the medicine."
Seeing that the Qingling Pills were successfully made, Fu Xuan also let out a breath of relief.
"Bailu, thank you. We'll be going now."
Bailu waved goodbye to them.
"Bye-bye, General~ Bye-bye, Sister Fu Xuan~"
Fu Xuan and Jing Yuan said farewell and left the train, taking a star skiff back to the General's Manor.
In the afternoon.
Ye Yun ended his closed-door cultivation and stepped out of the room. Seeing Rios standing by the door, Ye Yun smiled.
"Thank you, Rios."
Rios shook his head.
"No problem. How did it go?"
Ye Yun gave a thumbs up.
"Pretty good. Where are Klee and the others?"
Rios replied:
"They're still in the lab. Around noon, Xiangling and Conductor Pom-Pom made them lunch."
Hearing this, Ye Yun felt relieved.
"Alright, I'll go see what they're up to."
With that, Ye Yun entered the shop.
Just as he reached the small bar, Venti called out to him.
"Ye Yun, the old man is looking for you."
Ye Yun responded:
"Zhongli? What does he want with me?"
Venti spread his hands.
"No idea~ He's chatting with Mr. Welt in the reception room."
Ye Yun nodded in understanding.
"Alright, you go ahead and drink. I'll go see what's up."
Venti nodded and went back to drinking.
Ever since the issue with Dvalin was resolved, Venti had basically been either at the bar in Ye Yun's shop, at Noelle or at Diluc's Angel's Share every day. After that battle with Dvalin, Diluc had completely driven the Abyss Order out of Mondstadt.
Mostly thanks to Diluc, who was ruthlessly targeting them.
Having trained with the Wind Spirit Technique for some time now, Diluc had reached the level of a demigod.
Ordinary Abyss Mages couldn't last a few moves against him, let alone Abyss Heralds.
Ye Yun entered the reception room, and as soon as he walked in, Topaz greeted him.
She had set up a small desk in the corner by the door, with a computer on it.
"Hi~ Ye Yun."
Ye Yun looked over.
"Topaz, what are you doing?"
Topaz placed Numby on the floor and replied:
"Working. Ugh, I don't know why, but many treasure chests across the universe are disappearing. It's a pain collecting Stellar Jade."
Ye Yun chuckled.
"I don't know much about that. No rush, take your time — my shop's right here."
Topaz nodded with a grin.
Ye Yun looked at the small setup Topaz had made for herself.
"You made yourself a little office here?"
Topaz nodded.
"Yeah, it's quiet here — good for work."
Ye Yun thought about it and agreed.
Klee and the others usually never entered the library or the reception room.
The library required silence, and Topaz would inevitably speak while working, so the reception room really was the best choice.
She had already discussed this with Ye Yun, and he agreed — it was just a 5-square-meter space.
Usually, only Ye Yun, Jing Yuan, Zhongli, and Welt hung out in the reception room, so there was plenty of space.
Ye Yun gave Numby a few pats.
"Alright, carry on. I'll go ahead."
Topaz nodded and returned to her work.
Ye Yun walked further in and found Zhongli chatting with Welt.
Ye Yun sat down.
"Zhongli, Venti said you were looking for me?"
Zhongli nodded.
"Yes, here's the thing…"
Zhongli then explained everything about Unknown God. After hearing it, Ye Yun thought for a moment and proposed two options.
"I have two solutions — hear me out."
Zhongli replied:
"I'm all ears."
Ye Yun slowly said:
"First, I do have a way to patch the False Sky — just buy a magic-isolating array. It's not expensive, 200,000 star credits.
Second… you guys could consider immigrating. Either purchase a livable planet in this world or find an unclaimed one and terraform it."
Zhongli's eyes lit up — the immigration idea aligned with something he had considered before.
Indeed, rather than stay and keep facing the Abyss, moving might be the best solution.
If they changed worlds entirely, would the Abyss really be able to follow?
Zhongli asked:
"How much would it cost to buy a habitable planet?"
Ye Yun looked toward Welt — he didn't know the answer.
Welt replied:
"I'm not too sure either."
At that moment, Ye Yun thought of something and shouted:
"Topaz! Topaz!"
Topaz, working in her "office," stuck her head out.
"What is it, Ye Yun? You called?"
Ye Yun asked:
"Does your company sell habitable planets?"