"Captain, can we really take Lady Signora's token to Northland Bank and withdraw Mora?"
"Northland Bank is under Lord Tartaglia's jurisdiction. Lady Signora shouldn't have any authority there, right?"
"Shh, both of you shut up. No gossiping about Lady Signora behind her back."
Near Liyue Harbor, three Fatui agents huddled together, whispering furtively. One, clearly the leader among them, was scolding the other two.
But despite his words, he had his own doubts. Could they really withdraw Mora from Northland Bank? If they could borrow it, fine. But if not, they'd have to rob Bubu Pharmacy.
Thinking this, the agent also felt a headache. What kind of mess had they gotten themselves into? If he had known this mission would be so dangerous, he never would have walked his team past Lady Signora in the first place.
The Millelith of Liyue and the Knights of Favonius of Mondstadt were not on the same level combat-wise. Pushing around the Knights in Mondstadt was one thing, but if the Millelith caught them, getting out alive would be a problem.
And even if they somehow escaped the Millelith, failing to get the herbs would mean Lady Signora wouldn't spare them either. Either way, death awaited. Their only hope now was that Northland Bank would actually give them the Mora.
The more this agent thought about having his life controlled by others, the angrier and unluckier he felt. Not only was there no profit to be made from this mission, but he might even lose his life. Had he become some kind of fool?
"Dammit! The herbs at Bubu Pharmacy are way too expensive. And I heard starting today, they've raised prices on all their rare herbs! How infuriating!"
"That greedy owner. If I ever run into him in the wilderness, I'm going to teach him a lesson."
At that moment, Baizhu, out gathering herbs in the wild, suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if someone held deep malice toward him. He looked around but found nothing unusual. Gazing at the Violetgrass growing halfway up the mountain, he quickly put the thought aside. Rubbing his aching back, he thought: first day without Qiqi's help—he missed her.
"Ahem, since none of you want to accept this mission, perhaps I could do it for you."
"Who?"
The three agents scanned their surroundings but found nothing unusual. The hair on their arms stood on end. They hadn't encountered a ghost, had they? Liyue had zombies, so ghosts surely existed too.
Seeing the three agents form a triangle formation back-to-back, Su Bai chuckled and dispelled the illusion surrounding him. His goal was achieved.
The three agents' faces turned ugly. Seeing the three tails swaying behind Su Bai, they recognized him. Intelligence reports about this fox adeptus flashed through their minds. He was said to be highly skilled at toying with enemies and never left survivors.
"Close your eyes. Don't look at him. Two squads were controlled by this guy and ended up killing each other."
"I didn't. That's not true. Don't spread lies. When did I ever do that? I just subtly stirred up their relationship a bit."
Faced with the agent's slander, Su Bai quickly denied it three times. The agent sneered, clearly not believing him.
"Actually, you don't need to be so wary of me. That back-to-back triangle formation you're using has a fatal flaw."
"Once someone breaks through the center, you'll be in danger."
"And an ancient text recorded that this formation can be broken just by getting something filthy on one of the members."
The three agents ignored Su Bai's words. Stay on high alert around this fox adeptus—that was the final line of the intelligence report.
"What's with this attitude? You don't believe me?"
Seeing the agents holding their weapons, eyes closed, adopting a passive defense posture, Su Bai found it amusing. Because Lumine had already arrived above them.
"I'm kindly warning you. Why don't you open your eyes and look up?"
"Hah, trying to trick me into opening my eyes so you can control me? Dream on."
"Captain, something feels wrong. I think someone's above us."
"It must be the fox's illusion. Don't open your eyes and don't move. As long as we stay still, he can't do anything to us."
The agent captain was confident.
In midair, Lumine swung her Fillet Blade down, striking the ground between the three agents. The impact sent these three unlucky fools, completely defenseless from behind, flying. Before they could get up, Lumine used her Gust Surge to pull them together, combining with Su Bai's Electro energy to trigger a Swirl reaction.
By the time Lumine stopped, the three agents' hair was standing on end from electrocution. A burnt smell emanated from them, making Paimon feel nauseous.
"Sigh, no one listens to good advice until disaster strikes. I warned them about the flaw in their formation, but they wouldn't believe me."
Su Bai shook his head. These Fatui agents were something else. He had kindly warned them, but they wouldn't appreciate it. Not only that, they badmouthed him behind his back. How disappointing.
"So, Su Bai, what were you talking about with those agents just now? Your voice suddenly appeared in my ear and scared me."
"Haha, sorry about that. I was trying to use my adeptal energy to send my voice only to Lumine's ears, but I'm still not very skilled at it, so you heard it too, Paimon."
"Hey, you two were whispering behind my back, weren't you?"
Paimon was quite unhappy about Su Bai excluding her from the conversation. Her chubby little cheeks puffed up. Su Bai poked them with his finger, and she turned her head away. Looked like she was pretty jealous.
"Sigh, I didn't expect Paimon to ignore me. Then I won't share my method for making lots of Mora with little Paimon."
Su Bai pretended to sigh regretfully. The moment Paimon heard about making Mora, she dropped her little tantrum. She and Lumine had worked hard all day and only earned three thousand Mora. If Su Bai really had a good method, she wouldn't mind sharing Lumine with him just a little.
Just as Paimon was about to offer her chubby cheeks to Su Bai, she felt hands grab her. Turning around, she saw Lumine smiling as she stuffed Paimon toward Su Bai.
Lumine hadn't been idle today. After running all over Liyue, she realized how important Mora was in this nation. With Mora, she could buy anything from any nation right here in Liyue—even decent weapons like the Blackcliff Longsword.
With enough Mora, some adventurers were even willing to go to the Mare Jivari to search for her brother, and they'd post missing person notices there too.
One adventurer had said: Offer a thousand Mora, and they'll search casually. Ten thousand, and they'll pay attention. A hundred thousand, and they'll search dedicatedly. A million, and they'll take no other commissions until finding your brother. Ten million, and searching for your brother becomes their highest calling. A hundred million, and searching for your brother becomes the sworn duty of their descendants.
"Paimon, for the sake of eating well in the future, bear with it this once."
Watching Paimon's chubby cheeks being squeezed into various shapes by Su Bai, Lumine silently apologized to her. Sorry, Paimon. She really wanted that cool-looking Blackcliff Longsword and that thoughtful service of posting missing person notices at the Mare Jivari.