"Very good, it has completely recovered."
[Childe] Tartaglia stepped onto the ground with both feet, waving away the Debt Collector beside him who tried to assist him, and instead tried to walk two steps on his own; his legs had undoubtedly recovered completely.
Tartaglia revealed a joyful smile: "When I first saw that it was the child-form Dottore who came, I thought these limbs were beyond saving, but I didn't expect he actually had some skill!"
The Debt Collector bowed slightly: "Indeed, Lord Dottore's techniques are astonishing, but... his obsession with wanting to amputate your limbs and replace them with a set of bio-engineered weapons is also staggering."
"Hahahaha! I was almost afraid that if he had given me anesthesia, I would have woken up to find that only my torso and head were still original! So I didn't take any anesthesia the whole time, isn't that clever?"
"...Your courage is unparalleled, Lord Tartaglia."
"Alright, let's not talk about that." Tartaglia picked up his coat to put it on: "Dottore... let's call him Little Dottore instead. Where did Little Dottore go?"
"Yes, Lord Dottore seems to have gone to a secretly constructed Automaton Workshop, but the specific location is unknown to your subordinate."
"Automaton Workshop?" Tartaglia frowned and turned back to look at the Debt Collector's bird-beak mask: "Producing what? Do they want to use force against Liyue directly? Those Adepti are not easy to deal with, let alone the existence of that [God of War] who truly 'won' the Archon War."
"Although I am a battle maniac, I don't want to see beams of light flying straight towards my hometown after a few cannon shots."
The Debt Collector shook his head: "That is not the case. Lord Dottore seems to be researching the Ruin Guard technology of Khaenri'ah and is attempting to replicate this technology to integrate it into our Snezhnaya mechanical automatons."
"As you know, after the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm, many Ruin Guards were scattered all over the continent, and among them, Liyue has open terrain, so there are particularly many Ruin Guards scattered there."
"That makes sense... Then have any other Harbingers come along?"
"No, my Lord."
The Debt Collector was not lying; from his perspective, it was indeed just one of Dottore's segments that had come.
Because Columbina was having tea with Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, and Rosalyne was still locked in the Miliastra Wonderland.
The electric motor was still running, and Rosalyne was already on the verge of fainting.
Finally, putting on his red scarf and keeping the amulets given by his good brother Anton, Teucer, and good sister Tonia close to him, Tartaglia was fully armed.
"Let's go." Tartaglia said: "Let's also go take a look at the Rite of Descension and see what the legendary God of War is really like."
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"Is this the Rite of Descension? How lively!"
In the crowded human tide, Lumine and Paimon were looking around with extreme excitement, while Orion and the women of his household followed behind.
It is indeed a major day that happens once a year, comparable to the Lantern Rite; it can be described as drums and gongs thundering, firecrackers sounding in unison, red flags fluttering, and a sea of people.
Even Yunli, who came from the same cultural archetype, was somewhat surprised by this celebratory scene.
The Xianzhou people have long lives of a thousand years; if they celebrated some small festivals once a year, they would have celebrated them over eight hundred times before the Mara-Struck onset, so except for some very big festivals or some interstellar festivals, the Xianzhou people do not often put on such a display.
Moreover, to this day, Orion finally understands why Liyue holds the Rite of Descension every year, and even though the manifestation of Rex Lapis appears, there are still people who have never attended it once. Logically speaking, even if you think it's very mundane, you should have been curious at least once in sixty or seventy years, right?
Now that he sees it, the reason has surfaced: firstly, Liyue in reality is too big, and secondly, it's the nature of the city of Liyue.
Liyue Harbor is a commercial city, and everyone living inside is a businessman. If Orion were to slap ten people to death, nine of them would be businessmen, and the remaining one would be a foreigner here to discuss business.
Just like now, quite a few foreign friends have taken the opportunity of the Rite of Descension to come to Liyue for sightseeing, while the local teahouses, restaurants, opera stages, antique and jade gambling stalls, snacks, and ornaments in Liyue all have their curtains open to welcome guests, and various stalls are set up from the beginning of the street to the end of the alley, with cries of hawkers ringing incessantly in the ears.
"Little paper, square and true, Lord of Geo created the paper too; the South Market uses it to wrap silk, the North Market uses it to write essays; this paper falls into my hands, every sheet wraps Thirteen Spices..."
"Hey— Candied → Hawthorn ♦ — — Sticks ♦..."
Perhaps some cannot imagine how lively Liyue Harbor is on this day in reality, so Orion gave an example.
Regarding the main stage of the Lantern Rite in Liyue Harbor, isn't there a large city gate tower leading up into Liyue Harbor, with a very, very long staircase?
Orion went to take a look, and now even both sides of the stairs are filled with all kinds of handicraft sellers; it's not just the resting platforms, even the slopes of the stairs are filled with stalls, leaving only the middle for people to pass through.
They probably don't allow snack stalls for fear of affecting the city's appearance; snacks can basically only be bought on the food street.
The simple merchants of Liyue Harbor, compared to visiting the beloved Lord of Geo, prioritized adding more Mora to their own accounts.
According to them: "A money-making opportunity gifted by Lord of Geo, if I don't make money, am I even human?! Wouldn't that be letting down Lord of Geo's good intentions!"
Therefore, those who go to watch the descent of Lord of Geo, apart from those big shots who no longer need to make money themselves, are basically just visitors from other countries.
Orion knew today was the day the old guy faked his death, so he specifically notified the people in Mondstadt not to come and join the fun; with the Miliastra Wonderland as a transit point, it would be too easy for them to come over.
He had asked Hu Tao if she wanted to come, but Hu Tao said she wasn't interested; she said that if Lord of Geo suddenly died, she would be interested in holding a fantastic Rite of Descension, and Zhongli was standing right behind her at the time.
It was very rare to see Zhongli's surprised expression; he thought his plan had been exposed.
Orion was quite disappointed; he had even prepared the camera, just waiting to take a photo of "Exuvia — Zhongli — V-sign".
He had even made the photo frame, specifically going to cut gloomy wood, the same material as the ash urn prepared by Xingqiu's grandfather for himself.
By the way, Skirk didn't come either; she took Shenhe's hand and did some divination, feeling that Childe should be able to get out of bed soon, so she started playing the role of Elder of Medicine.
Shenhe: I haven't learned divination.
However, Big Griseo, Griseo, and Anaconda were tricked out by him; he had to take the children out for a walk to some extent, still using slime coating, and then having Big Griseo hold Griseo's hand.
Big Griseo's eyes lit up as she watched Griseo's feet stepping on the ground; there was such a useful function? She had been a firm member of the "don't like wearing shoes" faction since she was a child.
Anaconda really didn't want to come out; her steel suit was just missing the paint job, and although she didn't know where this design draft came from, who cared?
The location of Yujing Terrace is easy to find; although Liyue does not have a Statue like Mondstadt as a landmark, the location of Yujing Terrace is built at the highest point of Liyue, and basically, wherever you look up, you can see the big golden roof of Yujing Terrace.
In fact, it's not just Yujing Terrace; in all nations, except for Natlan where tribes are scattered, basically the most prestigious places are at the highest point of the city.
The Anemo Archon's Cathedral, the Qixing's Yujing Terrace, the Shogun's Tenshukaku, and the Dendro Archon's Sanctuary of Surasthana are all like this.
Therefore, when Lord of Geo descends, even if one does not come to Yujing Terrace to watch, one can basically see the celestial phenomena from all parts of Liyue Harbor.
Thus, Orion and his group of nine walked onto Yujing Terrace in a grand manner.
After being inspected by the Millelith, everyone came to the edge of the huge plaza of Yujing Terrace and stood still. In the center of the plaza, rows of offering tables of different lengths were arranged in the style of the Bagua, each table holding different offerings and identical incense burners.
(I changed the arrangement of the offering tables; the place in the game is small, only having one stone platform, so I thought I'd make it bigger in reality, so Zhongli's death would have more dignity.)
At the very center of all the offering tables, the tianquan star Ningguang, with exquisite makeup, stood before a huge incense burner, full of majesty.
The sun rose higher, and the shadows under people's feet changed from being connected to being solely under each person's feet. Ningguang covered the sunlight with her hand and looked up, then solemnly said:
"The auspicious time has arrived, let us respectfully invite — Rex Lapis!"
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