"Wake up, wake up!" Chen Luo slapped Venti across the face.
Of course, he didn't use much force—but he didn't hold back either.
He even infused a touch of the Herrscher of Corruption's power into his hand to jolt Venti awake.
It wasn't that Chen Luo wanted to be cruel; he just found it hard to believe Venti could still be asleep.
It was already 8:30 a.m. the next day—8:30 in the world of Teyvat. Only half an hour remained before the meeting at Starsnatch Cliff.
Chen Luo had woken up deliberately half an hour early so as not to keep anyone waiting. But just as he was about to leave through the bar, he suddenly noticed someone still inside.
When he went up to the second floor, there lay Venti—the main figure of this whole Dvalin-summoning affair—sleeping soundly in the bar.
Seriously? I woke up early for your commission, and you're here sleeping like a baby? Do you even have a conscience?
How could someone sleep so deeply at his age?
Then again, the Anemo Archon's wine really was powerful—ten glasses had completely knocked Venti out cold.
"Wake up already! Your mom's calling you home for dinner!"
Even after being hit with the Herrscher of Corruption's power, Venti still didn't stir. Chen Luo's expression darkened. He pulled out the half-eaten chocolate bar from yesterday, broke off a small piece, and shoved it straight into Venti's mouth.
"Mmph! Ugh!"
The chocolate's effect was almost instantaneous. The moment it touched Venti's tongue, he bolted upright and began dry heaving to the side.
Unfortunately, the stuff melted on contact—it couldn't be spat out even if he wanted to.
"Chen Luo, what are you doing?!" Venti glared at him in disgust.
"You've got the nerve to look at me like that? Do you even know what time it is? We're supposed to meet in half an hour. Aren't you going to save your Dvalin? If not, fine—hand it over to me. I'll treat it well. Dragon blood, dragon scales, dragon claws—excellent materials for making puppets." Chen Luo stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"No! Gentle persuasion, got it? Gentle persuasion!" Venti cried out miserably.
This Chen Luo was always scheming against his poor Dvalin.
"Then hurry up and get ready already. You think my chocolate bars are cheap? That stuff's ridiculously expensive—not something you can just buy anywhere. Let's go." Chen Luo tapped him on the head and headed for the first floor.
"Wait for me! Check if I still smell like alcohol or if my clothes are messy!"
"None at all. My Anemo Archon wine isn't even real alcohol—how could it possibly leave a smell?" Chen Luo replied as he pushed open the door and stepped outside.
This time, the place he appeared wasn't on the hands of the Anemo Archon statue where he'd left off yesterday, but under the great tree at Windrise, beside the Statue of The Seven.
He'd placed a Teleport Waypoint there as well.
Ever since his first visit to Teyvat, Chen Luo had carried over the same habit he'd had in the Honkai world—placing Teleport Waypoints everywhere he went.
Since they could be retrieved later, it wasn't much of an issue.
"Eh, why Windrise? Whatever—it's fine." Venti inhaled the gentle breeze, feeling refreshed, until he noticed where Chen Luo was standing. Then his mood soured.
Chen Luo was standing squarely atop the head of the Statue of The Seven.
"If you like stepping on statues so much, go step on the Geo Archon's! Why mine?" Venti complained unhappily.
"If Morax heard you say that, he'd beat you to a pulp," Chen Luo said with a sneer before leaping down from the statue.
He bore no particular grudge against the Statues of The Seven—he simply knew that checking in from their tops granted rewards.
And who could resist Primogems?
"Alright, alright, you'd better head to Starsnatch Cliff now." Chen Luo stretched lazily, then casually summoned the bar's door.
"Wait—what are you going to do?" Venti asked in surprise.
"Go back to the bar for breakfast," Chen Luo said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
And also to wake up Senti.
The Herrscher of Sentience had been thrilled to hear about today's dragon fight and had insisted that Chen Luo wake her up. But she loved to sleep in.
So Chen Luo had decided to wait until right before departure to wake her.
"But didn't you say you were going to Starsnatch Cliff? If you don't go soon, you'll be late."
"Venti, what are you talking about? Isn't one person enough to travel there? Once you reach Starsnatch Cliff, just open the bar again and summon me. Simple, right?" Chen Luo replied matter-of-factly.
"Then… why didn't you just go to Starsnatch Cliff first and wake me up there?" Venti asked, his big eyes full of wounded innocence.
"Uh… I forgot," Chen Luo admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed.
This time, he really wasn't lying—he genuinely had forgotten.
Besides, seeing Venti sleeping so peacefully had just made him angry.
I woke up early for you, and you slept an entire day in my bar? Isn't that a bit much?
"Alright, stop looking at me with those innocent, pitiful eyes. Once we're done with this, I'll treat you to a drink."
"Great! I want two glasses of Anemo Archon wine!" Venti said excitedly.
[Ding! You have a new commission!]
"..."
Truly a teachable child.
"Wait, you're not using me to farm commissions again, are you?" Venti suddenly grew wary.
"Of course not. Now hurry to Starsnatch Cliff—I'll be waiting for good news." Chen Luo turned his head away in a suspiciously evasive manner, then stepped into the bar.
"Tsk." Venti had the distinct feeling he was being tricked, but couldn't quite figure out how.
"Well, I'd better get going first."
As soon as he spoke, his entire form turned into a wisp of azure wind and vanished from sight.
To be fair, traveling was something Venti was indeed quite good at.
After returning to the bar, Chen Luo made some breakfast and set it on the counter. Then he packed a few fried tofu pieces and buns into an insulated container and carried them back home.
The food inside the container was, of course, for the Book of Fuxi and the little fox. Although Chen Luo sometimes worried that feeding the fox fried tofu every day might not be very healthy, what could he do if the little thing loved it so much?
After placing the insulated container on the table in a conspicuous spot, Chen Luo went upstairs, entered the room next to his own, and prepared to wake up Senti.
Emmm… it was a real headache—it took him a full ten minutes just to get her out of bed.
Then another five minutes to make sure she washed up properly. But before Chen Luo could even tell her to eat breakfast, she gave him a sleepy, dazed look—then turned into a beam of light and dove straight into Chen Luo's body.
"...Has she fallen asleep in my consciousness again?" Chen Luo sighed and summoned the bar, stepping inside.
Yesterday, when the Herrscher of Sentience discovered that Chen Luo had also acquired the Herrscher of Sentience Authority, she had indeed been a little angry for a few minutes. But after thinking it through, she realized that her anger was misplaced—he had done it because she wasn't by his side. Gradually, her irritation subsided.
And when she received the chocolate bar Chen Luo had given her, she noticed another problem: Chen Luo now seemed to have become her kindred.
The Herrscher of Sentience's race was entirely ambiguous. Was she a Herrscher? Her body had been altered by spacetime turbulence to the point that even the Honkai no longer recognized her as such. Was she a Heart Demon? Not entirely.
In short, her situation was unique across countless worlds, which gave her a persistent sense of being… different.
Everyone else was human, but she was not.
Although Senti wasn't particularly troubled by this fact, it still had some effect. But when Chen Luo obtained the Herrscher of Sentience Authority, she discovered a kindred spirit whose circumstances were almost identical to hers.
And most importantly, there were only two of them in the entire world.
One male, one female.
After this realization, her anger completely faded. In fact, when Chen Luo closed the bar and prepared to sleep, she dragged him into all kinds of experiments they couldn't try before—like right now.
Because of her unique nature, the Herrscher of Sentience could transform into a pure consciousness entity.
In this state, she could hide within someone else's sea of consciousness.
Since everyone's mind and body were different, her experience varied depending on whose consciousness she entered.
But inside Chen Luo, she found she could sleep—and sleep very comfortably at that.
She could even trigger a subtle phenomenon: the mental power of the two special Heart Demons would slowly grow while they slept.
It wasn't a rapid increase—slower than a few chocolate bars—but it was completely free.
If it weren't for Chen Luo's strong objections yesterday, Senti would have planned to live inside his consciousness indefinitely.
Chen Luo didn't feel exactly uncomfortable; it was just… strange.
Just now, he had wanted to refuse—but unfortunately, reasoning with someone who had just woken up was completely impossible.
So Senti, giving him no chance at all, dove straight into Chen Luo's consciousness.
It wasn't that he couldn't refuse, but right now, reasoning with her was utterly hopeless.
In fact, the mere fact that she wasn't throwing a morning tantrum was already giving him enough face.
…
"Huh? A'Luo hasn't arrived yet?" Eula asked Venti when she arrived right on time and saw that Chen Luo wasn't on Starsnatch Cliff.
"A'Luo? He's probably having breakfast. You go call him." Venti, sitting on the edge of the cliff enjoying the sea breeze, waved his hand, and the bar appeared beside them.
Lisa, Jean, and Diluc—who had never seen the bar before—were utterly amazed.
"Oh." Venti ignored their astonished looks, pushed open the door, and saw Chen Luo playing with a bun.
"Hmm, is it time? I'll come out now." Chen Luo knew that as soon as he saw Eula, it was time to leave.
"This Starsnatch Cliff has a pretty nice view." When Chen Luo first stepped onto the cliff and looked out over the endless ocean, his mood lifted significantly.
He also placed a Teleport Waypoint here while he was at it.
"Time: 9:00 AM sharp. Location: Starsnatch Cliff. We have both high-altitude winds and sea breezes—perfect conditions for summoning Dvalin, right?" Lisa observed the bar door closing and asked Venti, memorizing its features.
"Mmm, correct. This place is very suitable for summoning Dvalin," Venti nodded seriously.
"But I don't really like fighting here." Chen Luo said, looking at the wide-open cliff.
"Why?" Diluc asked coldly from the side.
"Because it's just too open." Chen Luo sighed.
The threads transformed by Chen Luo's Herrscher of Dominance Authority could carry his three Authorities: Herrscher of Sentience, Herrscher of Dominance, and Herrscher of Corruption.
As the number of Authorities increased and his mental power grew, Chen Luo's threads had become even tougher.
These threads had become his standard combat method.
But setting them up in such an open place was inconvenient—after all, you can't predict from which angle Stormterror will appear.
A place like the room with the Holy Lyre yesterday was perfect: small, enclosed, and easy to fill entirely with his threads.
"By the way, Bard, where's the Holy Lyre?" Diluc asked after noticing it was missing from Venti's possession.
"Hmm? The Holy Lyre? Oh, right!" Venti felt around, realized it wasn't with him, and immediately went pale.
"...Bard, you didn't lose it, did you?"
"Wait, let me think. I remember where I put it…" Venti touched his head, thinking carefully.
"The Holy Lyre is with me, you unlucky child," Chen Luo said, finally giving in. He paused his thread-weaving and threw the Holy Lyre to Venti.
"Oh, I left it with Chen Luo." Venti instantly remembered.
"..."
Another round of awkward silence followed.
"So, Bard, can we summon Dvalin now?" Diluc, expressionless to begin with, now looked even more expressionless.
"Of course, anytime," Venti nodded. He had been preparing for twenty minutes while sitting on the cliff edge and was ready to start at any moment.
"Wait, give me one minute. Let me wake up our… helper," Chen Luo suddenly said.
"Helper? Who?" Venti asked.
"Fu Hua." Chen Luo glanced at the Herrscher of Sentience inside his consciousness, comfortably lying on a mental yacht bed and enjoying the sea breeze.
"We're just summoning Dvalin; do we need such a big setup?" Venti couldn't help but complain.
"Our main method will definitely be gentle persuasion. But if tDvalin refuses to listen, then there's no other choice," Chen Luo shrugged.
Dvalin—if he didn't want to return to normal and didn't want to be beaten—would put Chen Luo in a difficult position.