Chapter 449: Bright Sky Lantern
At the final of the 2nd Paper Flying Chicken Competition, the traveler encountered a white-haired super-powerful woman and tried his best but was unable to defeat her.
The final ended faster than expected, and Shen He won the final championship with a score of 2:1.
Under the rule that elemental power cannot be used, Shen He's natural strength destined her to have an advantage. In addition, as a disciple of an immortal, her control over strength has been trained to a very precise level.
As for the game she lost, the brain-teaser flying chicken puzzle game was a bit difficult for her, but Ying was more familiar with brain-teasers.
"These are for you, Traveler."
After the award ceremony, amid the cheers of the audience, Shen He came to the backstage of the competition venue and handed the Hagentus Ice Cream Shop discount card and one million Mora to Ying.
"No, this is something you won on your own, Shen He. I can't take it."
Ying shook her head quickly.
In the previous material preparation competition held by Ningguang, Shen He had already helped them a lot for free, so she couldn't accept it this time.
"Is that so... Then this is for you."
Shen He thought for a moment, put Mora away, then grabbed Ying's hand and put the Enjoy Card in her hand.
"I work in my uncle's shop. This card is useless to me."
Seeing Ying was about to refuse, Shen He took the lead in explaining.
"This……"
Shen He's words made Ying hesitate.
"Put away this card so I can see you in the store more often."
While Ying hesitated, Shen He added another sentence.
In Shen He's opinion, free meals once a week is roughly equivalent to seeing Ying in the store once a week.
"..."
Shen He’s words made Ying blush a little, and she touched the back of her head embarrassedly.
But since Shen He said so, she had no choice but to accept the card.
……
And just like that, the Sea Lantern Festival arrived as scheduled.
This year's Mingxiao Lantern is in the image of Yixiao Daotian Zhenjun, who looks like a majestic fairy deer.
The Mingxiao Lantern is different from ordinary Xiaolanterns. It is not easy to fly the huge Xiaolantern. Like the Qun Yu Pavilion, it requires the Fusheng Stone.
Although we don't need floating stones as precious as Mingxia floating stones, the two types of floating stones we need, [Xiasheng Stone] and [Lansheng Stone], are also relatively rare.
So, Ying and Paimon received the commission and began to look for these two types of floating stones.
Fortunately, it was not particularly difficult to find. After spending quite a bit of time, the two of them managed to find all the Floating Life Stones before the Lantern Festival.
Just like that, when the flying lanterns came on the night of the Sea Lantern Festival, a flying lantern in the shape of a fairy deer rose into the sky. In a trance, the people of Liyue below seemed to see a nimble fairy deer running in the air and leaping into the sky.
boom--
With the first sound of fireworks, gorgeous fireworks lit up the night sky.
"Wow! Look, girl, that deer just exploded!"
Liu Bai, who was visiting the Lantern Festival with Nashida, couldn't help but exclaim when he saw this scene.
"No, it was just that the fireworks exploded."
Nashida couldn't help but chuckle as she explained.
Because Yixiao Daotian Zhenjun's Mingxiao Lantern was too eye-catching, almost no one noticed the fireworks rising into the sky, and the location where the fireworks exploded just happened to overlap with the Mingxiao Lantern in terms of line of sight, which gave people the illusion that the Mingxiao Lantern had exploded.
On the other side, Ying and Paimeng were visiting the Lantern Festival with a group of children.
Yaoyao, Qiqi, and Keliwei.
In the lively atmosphere, the Sea Lantern Festival was celebrated peacefully just like in previous years.
To celebrate the conclusion of the second Paper Flying Chicken Competition and the Lantern Festival, Hu Tao hosted a banquet the next night and invited Liu Bai, Nashida, Ying and Paimon.
For this purpose, she specially made a famous Kung Fu dish, Eight Treasures Fortune Duck.
"..."
At the banquet, Paimon looked at Liu Bai, who fell motionless in Nashida's arms after tasting the Eight Treasures Duck. His hand holding the chopsticks paused for a moment, then turned in the air and picked up the meatball next to it.
In this way, in the end, only Liu Bai tasted the dish, which made Hu Tao very depressed.
None of them know how to appreciate my cooking skills. It seems I have to invite some knowledgeable people to the banquet next year...
Walnut muttered to himself.
……
After the Lantern Festival, Liu Bai resumed his normal life. He did commissions every day, wrote novels, and spent time with Nashida. Occasionally, he would go bird watching and watch a play with Zhongli. He lived a very happy life.
Ying, Paimon and the others spent several months exploring almost every corner of Liyue, and began looking for a way to get to Inazuma.
At first, they had not decided on the next country to go to, and were even inclined to go to Xumi, but a girl named Liu Bai changed Ying's mind and made her decide to make Inazuma their next stop.
Out of curiosity or other reasons, Ying wanted to know about Miss Liu Bai.
Although she used a Liyue name, she called herself a wandering warrior. Usually only the Inazuma people would call themselves warriors, while the Liyue people generally called themselves knights.
So Ying guessed that the other person might have grown up with Inazuma, and going to Inazuma might be able to learn more about her.
"Oh? Isn't this the Traveler and Paimon? I knew you would come, hahaha!"
Just when Ying and Paimon were asking around and learned that the Southern Cross Fleet might be able to go to Inazuma and board the Death Star, Beidou immediately greeted them when he saw them.
They had known each other before when they were helping Ningguang prepare materials.
"Paimon... well, you are really interesting creatures. Not only can I feel the breath of wind and earth from you two, but also a little bit of... um? The smell of the starry sky?"
Next to Beidou, a young man with white hair tied into a short braid and red eyes with a hint of red highlights on one side of his hair suddenly spoke while touching his chin.
"Hmm? What and what?"
Paimon scratched his head and looked at the young man in confusion.
"Nothing, I just believe that fateful encounters must have their meaning."
The boy answered Paimon calmly.
"…Is this your royal poet?"
Ying didn't quite understand what the boy said, so she looked at Beidou and asked in confusion.
After all, it's hard not to think this way when hearing such a literary way of speaking.
"No matter how you look at it, I don't think I'm that kind of person, am I?"
"This is Fengyuan Manye. He is temporarily staying on my ship for some reason. From time to time, a few words of literature will come out of his mouth."
Beidou spread his hands, then introduced the young man wearing Inazuma clothes next to them to the two of them.
"With a boat and sea breeze, if you don't recite a few poems, wouldn't you be ignorant of the customs?"
The young man named Kaedehara Manye didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
After the two sides got to know each other, Ying and Paimon explained to Beidou the reasons why they came here and wanted to ask Beidou to take them to Inazuma.
"Huh? So you're going to Inazuma. I thought you were here to sign up for the Southern Cross Fight Tournament."
Upon hearing that Ying and the others were going to Inazuma, Beidou said with some regret.
"Southern Cross Fighting Tournament?"
Ying and Paimon looked at each other in confusion.
……