Genshin Impact: Dionysus reigns supreme, all demons retreat!

Chapter 348 A World Habitually Forgetting

No one knows when Harunosuke disappeared, not even Xu Ning.

But Xu Ning knew where he had gone.

This guy, who was considered exceptionally talented even in Inazuma, probably only had two obsessions left in his heart at this moment.

Revive the Fox Palace and eliminate the remnants of the Black Tide.

However, Xu Ning knew that he could not find a way to resolve these two obsessions in Liyue.

Perhaps he can in the future, but right now he is destined not to get the answer he wants.

"I hope he can forgive himself in the end," Xu Ning thought to himself as he leaned against a cherry tree, drinking his wine.

Hiiragi Hiroshi now knew that Xu Ning, who was not much older than him, was actually a capable person on par with Yuugami Harunosuke.

Seeing him drinking, they huddled together and asked, "Now that all the monsters on this island have been cleared out, I think it's about time to return this mirror to Narukami Shrine. But we've borrowed it for so long, it would be a bit awkward to just return it and say we don't need it anymore. Xu Ning, can you give me some advice?"

Xu Ning glanced at him and casually said, "Just hold the mirror in your left hand and the Mora in your right, put it at the shrine and run away, that'll do."

Hiiragi Hiroshi scratched his head. "That's what I thought at first too. After all, I don't have anything worth mentioning on this island, except for a lot of Mora in the warehouse. But I just don't think it looks very good."

Xu Ning sighed, "If you don't think it looks good, just make a heavy cabinet out of pure gold, put the mirror inside and enshrine it, and have sixteen people carry it up the mountain. No one who sees it will say it looks bad."

Hiiragi Hirotsugu continued to scratch his head and sigh, "I thought of that too, but this kind of nouveau riche showing off will really offend those ethereal shrine maidens! Don't you have any more creative ideas?"

Xu Ning looked at this guy and felt his vision begin to blur, knowing that his time was probably coming to an end.

He beckoned him over and said, "You know, Fontainebleau has a device called a phonograph machine, it's really fun..."

With a blink of an eye, Xu Ning found herself back in Shen He's arms.

"This time it was much faster."

Shen He said to Xu Ning, "It's not dark yet."

Xu Ning stretched and stood up. "Perhaps because this place is located in the sea, there isn't much miasma accumulated here. I just wandered around aimlessly in my dream and then came out."

Where to go next?

Xu Ning listened to Shen He's question and pondered for a moment, "Konta Village, I suppose. It seems to be a village known for its forgetfulness."

Xu Ning emerged from the cave, where Ah Sheng, who was rowing the boat, was happily eating and drinking.

"Ah, it's already done? As expected of Lord Xu Ning, his speed is astonishing."

Carefully sealing the half-eaten food and placing the wine jar in the center of the boat, Asheng poled the boat back to the vicinity of the Kamisato Mansion.

When Xu Ning disembarked and thanked the simple young man, A Sheng waved his hand repeatedly.

"This job was the most worthwhile one I've ever done in my life. Just by seeing Lord Xu Ning off, I got to drink the fine wine that only the great Inazuma could taste. I should thank Lord Xu Ning properly."

Xu Ning smiled and placed another jar on the boat for him. "The Far-Sailing Wind from the outlying island has already become an agent for my wine. I believe that soon everyone in Daozhi will be able to easily buy my wine."

"I will definitely support your business."

Xu Ning did not go to the Kamisato Mansion again, but found the teleportation anchor point and teleported directly to Konta Village.

When Xu Ning arrived there, it was just getting dark. He saw a group of shogunate soldiers, fully armed, walking out of Konta Village.

An old man followed behind them with a smile, seeing them off out of the village.

"Old man, what happened here?"

As expected, the old man waved his hand and said, "It's nothing, just some security incidents in the vicinity, and the shogunate's soldiers came here for a routine inquiry."

After speaking, the old man realized that Xu Ning did not seem to be from Inazuma. He smiled and said, "Judging from your clothes, you must be a merchant from Liyue. Are you going to the outlying islands? The shallows ahead are difficult to navigate at night. Why don't you rest here in Konda Village for the night before continuing your journey?"

Xu Ning had a general idea of ​​what was going on as soon as he heard the old man talk about the security incident.

It was nothing more than some audacious young people in the village robbing a cartload of supplies belonging to the shogunate.

A bunch of idiots, emboldened by alcohol, made a risky business, but by morning they were too drunk to remember anything. When the shogunate army came to investigate, they knew nothing, and by a twist of fate, they escaped a disaster.

However, the old man in front of them, the village chief Konta Densuke, knew the whole story and helped the children keep it a secret.

Xu Ning had originally thought that if the old man was feeling guilty and wanted to kick him out, he could use this as leverage to blackmail him into taking him to find the location of the barrier.

Unexpectedly, the old man was very enthusiastic, which made it difficult for Xu Ning to use this as leverage.

"Since you've invited me, I won't stand on ceremony."

The old man laughed and said, "Indeed, there's no need to be so polite. My name is Konta Densuke, and I'm the village head of Konta Village. Although our village isn't wealthy, we're famous for our hospitality. Our village's specialty, 'Konta-ni,' is praised by many foreign merchants as the taste of home. You must try it."

Xu Ning laughed, “That’s quite a coincidence. Although I am quite wealthy, I don’t think the village chief would accept Mora for dinner. I happen to have some famous wines from Liyue here, so we can exchange them and try them out.”

The old village chief of Konta burst into laughter, feeling that this young man was particularly likable to him.

As the two reached the village entrance, they saw an old man with a hunched back pasting a piece of paper onto a notice board standing at the village entrance.

The old village chief of Konta reached out to greet him, "Katsumi, why are you putting up another sign? Still no word?"

The old man smoothed the edges of the notice down, then turned around and sighed, "No news. The old one got muddied by the rain, so I wrote a new one."

Xu Ning looked up at the notice board: "My son, Chaimen Erlang, has been in the army for over a year... He has not achieved any merit and his letters home have suddenly ceased... If anyone knows his whereabouts, please inform him. I, Chaimen Keji, will be deeply grateful."

It was dark, and some of the words were not very clear, but Xu Ning understood the general meaning.

The war with the resistance has ended, but the wounds of war continue. Some died on the battlefield and their bodies were never found, some seemed to be alive but have vanished without a trace, and some returned alive but with limb injuries. These wounds will take time to heal.

However, I don't remember that Shogunate soldier named Shibamon.

While Xu Ning was still thinking, the old village chief of Konta pointed at him and laughed, "Merchants from Liyue, you'll be staying at my place for the night. You and Huili must come over and make a pot of Konta stew. She's the best cook in our village. I'm telling you in advance, this young man has good wine."

Katsumi Shibamoto smiled and said, "Of course, that's no problem."

Konta Village may not look wealthy, but its bamboo fences and thatched houses give it a unique charm of a rural mountain village.

Grandma Shibamon Eri's Konda-ni is made with simple ingredients but stewed to perfection. Xu Ning understood what "hometown flavor" meant after just one bite. No wonder the merchants praised this simple dish.

Of course, the "Thousand Birds" that Xu Ning brought out was even more praised by the two old men.

Seeing that the two old men were getting a little carried away, Xu Ning asked the old woman by the thatched gate, "When I was in Inazuma, I heard from an editor at Yaedo that fox spirits appear in our Konta Village on stormy nights. I wonder if you've heard of that, Grandma?"

Before Grandma Huili could speak, a little girl's voice came from the doorway.

"Of course! That's the white fox 'Zhaigong' under Lord Thor's command!"

Xu Ning was slightly taken aback, not expecting to hear the name of Fox Abode Palace here. He turned to the little girl at the door and asked, "Have you seen her appear?"

The little girl pouted, "That's all just a story, big brother. You don't actually believe it, do you?"

Xu Ning shook his head and smiled, without replying.

Then a boy's voice came from outside, "That's not a story. What's passed down must be true. Just like there's a treasure vortex in the well that sucks people in, or a tengu monster hiding in the haunted house, they all really exist."

Upon hearing this, the girl scoffed, "Whether it's true or not, we'll find out by going to see for ourselves. I'm just afraid that Meng is a coward and won't dare to go."

The boy's voice boomed angrily, "If it weren't for Grandpa Village Chief locking that well so tightly, I would have gone down to check it out long ago. As for that haunted house... that haunted house..."

The boy was somewhat speechless, perhaps because he was genuinely afraid.

The girl laughed loudly, and the two little ones went out noisily.

Xu Ning and Grandma Hui Li both laughed.

"The whirlpool in the well is probably just a story to keep children from playing near it. But what about the haunted house?"

Xu Ning asked Grandma Hui Li.

"It's just an abandoned old house. It's been neglected for many years and has become a dangerous building. Xiao Meng likes to run around, so I told him not to go there to play."

Grandma Huili smiled. "But the matter of the Fox Palace isn't fabricated. Our ancestors all said that they seemed to have been entrusted with a task by Lord Fox Palace, and in return, they would bless our village with prosperity. Unfortunately, it seems that our ancestors have forgotten about it..."

Xu Ning shook his head slightly; it was yet another bunch of "Mondstadt-style" ancestors.

Silent all night.

After getting up in the morning, Xu Ning did not leave immediately as the village chief had imagined, but instead wandered around the village.

His behavior undoubtedly made the old village chief depressed, and he kept frowning all day long.

Seeing Xu Ning head towards the dilapidated house in the northeast, the old village chief of Konta couldn't help but sigh deeply and followed Xu Ning with his hands behind his back.

"Although I always knew this day would come, I didn't expect it to come so soon."

Listening to the old village chief's sigh, Xu Ning also felt a little emotional. "Fast? Maybe. Looking back now, those things seem like they happened just yesterday."

The old village chief of Konta shook his head and said, "Wasn't it just yesterday?"

The old village chief walked to the door of the dilapidated house, bent down and fumbled around for a while, then straightened up, holding a key, and waved to Xu Ning, saying, "Come with me."

The old village chief led Xu Ning to a dry well in the backyard of his house, unlocked it, and pointed downwards, saying, "The stolen goods you're looking for are all down there."

Although Xu Ning didn't know how the village chief guessed that this was the purpose of his trip, he was about to thank the village chief for pointing out the way to cleanse him of the filth when he heard the words "stolen goods" and was immediately stunned.

"Dirty? Village chief, you mean those miasmas and filth, right?"

Konta Densuke was somewhat stunned. "Weren't you here from Inazuma Castle to investigate the case? All the stolen goods are piled up down there."

Xu Ning smiled wryly and said, "I was commissioned by Narukami Shrine to find the Divine Cherry Blossom Barrier to cleanse the impurities. That barrier is right below."

The old village chief, Konta Densuke, almost had a heart attack and passed out, thinking to himself, "What kind of mess is this? I've blown my own bomb."

The old village chief of Konta silently prepared to lock the manhole cover back on.

Xu Ning quickly stopped him, saying, "Why are you still covering it up at a time like this!"

Seeing the old village chief's ashen face, Xu Ning quickly comforted him, "I'm not in the mood to deal with these things. You can handle it yourself, village chief."

"I only want to help Narukami Shrine get rid of the accumulated darkness. I don't really care about anything else, so the village chief can rest assured."

Hearing Xu Ning say this, the old village chief of Gantian sighed inwardly that the meal he had been treated to last night had not been for nothing. Since Xu Ning was willing to cover for them, they should be grateful.

"Then I thank you on behalf of the entire Konta Village. Regarding your exorcism ritual and such, is there anything we can do to help you?"

Xu Ning waved his hand and laughed, "We really don't need your help with this. We can trouble you to stand guard outside the well and prevent unauthorized personnel from entering. After all, the cleanup may take a while. Or you could just lock the well cover."

The old village chief thought for a moment and nodded seriously.

Although there was a wooden ladder a little over a meter inside the well, it wasn't very deep, so Xu Ning jumped straight down from the wellhead.

The old village chief above gently closed the well cover, but did not lock it.

The underground area was undoubtedly damp, but the space below was enormous, even divided into two or three levels.

Xu Ning turned a corner and found that there were actually individual rooms set up here, as if they had planned to take refuge here from the beginning. All kinds of furniture and wooden stairs were very complete.

Xu Ning landed directly at the bottom. As for the lightning barrier protecting the cherry tree, Xu Ning used his wine gourd to draw out a hole in the lightning and walked in leisurely.

He summoned Shen He and Qingyi, then poured more wine and fell into a coma.

"This... I'm still lying on an outlying island?"

It seemed that Xu Ning was sleeping in the same spot he had returned to last time.

However, the campfire that Hiiragi Hiroshi had lit was gone, and instead, houses had been erected all around, as if a long time had passed.