The dragon forces from Mondstadt were stationed outside Sumeru City.
After all, a dragon cavalry was inherently intimidating as a military presence.
Lumine and the others encountered no resistance along the way. They even saw many people hurrying toward the Akademiya, weapons in hand, their intentions needed no explanation.
Scaramouche was bound to the back of a dragon. With a thunderous roar, the great beast beat its wings once more, storms gathering as it carried them off toward Liyue Harbor.
The MC Overworld
In the main Minecraft world, Ryen and Guizhong had been crouched in the underground second-floor laboratory for quite some time.
With Guizhong around, Ryen obviously couldn't devote himself entirely to mod research, every so often, he'd pull her into his arms for some affectionate closeness.
Fortunately, this batch of mods was either very simple or something Ryen was already extremely familiar with:
Slash Blade, Witchery, and the Furniture Mod.
The Slash Blade mod barely needed explanation.
Out of ten thousand people who had played Minecraft, nine thousand had played Slash Blade.
Of those nine thousand, at least five thousand understood it quite well.
Moreover, Slash Blade was a relatively beginner-friendly mod; its difficulty wasn't particularly high.
Although names like Sealed Blade, Yamato Blade, or Cursed Blade sounded complex, in practice it all boiled down to one key rule:
The Unnamed Wooden Blade was the mother of all blades, different evolution paths led to different outcomes.
High-tier monsters dropped powerful blade bases with fixed evolution routes.
Once you understood that, forging blades became much simpler.
The Slash Blade mod Ryen had just unlocked included a large number of blades, even those from later bundled packs.
Unfortunately, it still lacked the two blades Ryen wanted most: End of All Things and Chaos.
But on second thought, that made sense. Weapons that absurdly lethal would cause nothing but headaches if released.
Their danger level was simply too high.
As for the Furniture Mod, there wasn't much to say.
With Ryen's current stockpile of materials, he could mass-produce furniture without any difficulty.
In just a short while, he had already crafted a television, a refrigerator, and even a microwave.
All the required materials were extremely common.
Strictly speaking, Ryen felt this was the system's sudden burst of conscience, finally improving his quality of life.
With the Furniture Mod unlocked, the second renovation of his villa could officially begin.
Although returning to the full modern lifestyle of his previous world was still far off, at least he could now live something approaching modern comfort.
As for Witchery…
That one was difficult.
But since Witchery was bundled with the Twilight Forest pack, everyone had already gained some familiarity with it.
Once they compiled summaries of the new spells and equipment, they could jump right in.
The only real issue was minerals, they'd need to head back into the mines and explore again.
But that wasn't a big problem.
All in all, these three new mods were highly practical, had a very high ceiling, and were easy to get into.
They were genuine benefit mods.
Ryen's Personal Rewards
The system's personal rewards for Ryen were:
Infinity matter dominator sword
Longbow of the Heavens
Unquestionably, one was a guaranteed killing sword, and the other the strongest bow imaginable.
Even for Ryen, these two weapons were outrageously powerful.
To put it simply: unless a Titan mod appeared, there was nothing in this world that Ryen couldn't kill with a single swing.
There were even rumors that this sword could damage players in Creative Mode.
A complete, undeniable bug-tier weapon.
It was only because the sword was in Ryen's hands that he could sleep peacefully at night.
Of course, such generous rewards also meant that the next task would be exponentially more difficult.
Lighting up the entire Slash Blade compendium, and owning one hundred copies of every blade.
To be honest, it wasn't hard, just extremely time-consuming.
Layer upon layer of grinding. Ryen even had to start worrying whether there would be enough monsters to kill.
At the very least, he'd need to build a dozen more mob farms.
Still, that wasn't a bad thing.
With the current set of mods, everyone would be well-equipped for a long time. Having more buffer time was actually beneficial.
Just the Witchery mod alone would probably take at least two months to truly understand.
That time would be perfect for Ryen to further refine city construction.
With the Furniture Mod, building a modern-style city became far easier.
If the next update included a transportation mod…
Then it would be perfect.
"Ryen! Ryen!"
Guizhong bounced over and threw herself into his arms.
"I've already memorized dozens of furniture crafting recipes! Praise me!"
Ryen put away the blade he had just forged, Meito: Ginkgo Bamboo Light.
It was the highest-tier Slash Blade he could currently make.
After all, the mod had just opened; they had almost no materials. Things like Proud Souls hadn't even appeared yet.
Being able to craft Ginkgo Bamboo Light was already pretty good.
At the very least, if it broke, it could still be used as a sheath.
He patted Guizhong's head gently and said softly,
"Guizhong is amazing. But… you do know that usually I have everyone write down the recipes and just check them when crafting, right?"
Guizhong froze.
All the pride and joy drained from her face as she stared at him resentfully.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?! Then why did I struggle for so long?!"
"To showcase your one-of-a-kind intelligence, of course."
Ryen pinched her cheek and chuckled.
"Memorizing them still has its benefits. Don't be discouraged."
Guizhong huffed and nestled into his arms, muttering,
"What were you doing just now? I saw you tinkering with Slash Blades the whole time."
Ryen shrugged lightly.
"It's the Slash Blade mod," Ryen replied casually. "I crafted a named blade…"
"A named blade?"
Guizhong's eyes lit up as she looked at him with anticipation. Ryen sighed helplessly.
"Ginkgo Bamboo Light isn't very strong. I just made it as a test. Truly powerful Slash Blades aren't that easy to forge."
"Black Fox, White Fox, Yamabuki, Muramasa, Sanhua, Yaksha, Enma Blade…"
"These are the ones that really count as powerful Slash Blades, but their crafting requirements are brutal."
"Either you have to kill extremely strong monsters to get the base, or you have to grind thousands upon thousands of mobs."
"In short, take it slow. There's no rush."
After estimating the time, Ryen felt that Lumine and the others should be returning soon. He was just about to tell Guizhong that they should head out and explain the three newly unlocked mods.
Guizhong's eyes suddenly darted sideways. She puffed out her lips and leaned toward him.
Ryen couldn't help but laugh.
"You really are a clingy little treasure."
"Do you like it?"
Guizhong asked playfully.
Ryen didn't answer with words, he answered with action.
He wrapped an arm tightly around Guizhong's waist and quietly shifted his steps.
As a qualified carnivorous creature, placing beds all over the villa was perfectly reasonable, right?
Ryen generously called it decoration.
But decorations were meant to be used, weren't they?
Although Guizhong had said she wanted to wait a few days after returning to Teyvat, during their time in the lab she had been provoking him nonstop.
The fact that Ryen had endured this long was already impressive.
Eating meat sooner rather than later, why wait an extra day if you didn't have to?
By the time Guizhong realized what was happening, it was already a little too late.
"Didn't we say we'd wait a few days? You're really that impatient?"
"Of course," Ryen replied without hesitation.
"If I didn't have thoughts about you, do you think you, a youthfully invincible beauty, could accept that?"
"Hmph! Sophistry!"
She had wanted to wait until they'd properly rested back in Teyvat, but once emotions surged, it was hard to go against her own heart.
Ryen gently rubbed Guizhong's head, just about to say something,
When hurried footsteps sounded outside.
"Ryen! Come out quickly, Lumine and the others are back!"
Ganyu's voice rang out.
Guizhong's eyes instantly cleared. She shoved Ryen away.
"Tch… what a pity. The duck right at my mouth flew away."
Ryen shook his head regretfully.
"Nonsense! That's a white swan, alright?"
Guizhong laughed and poked his cheek.
"Obviously, today isn't the right time."
She tidied herself up and headed for the door.
"Hurry up! Everyone's waiting to hear about the new mods!"
Watching Guizhong's graceful figure, Ryen smacked his lips.
If not for his remaining professional ethics, he would've taken the day off right then and there.
He hurried forward and slapped Guizhong lightly.
"What are you doing?!"
She glared at him angrily.
"Collecting interest," Ryen shrugged.
"If I can't eat the meat, at least let me smell it."
Guizhong rolled her eyes.
"Do you really count as someone who hasn't eaten meat?"
"Not in my book."
"Enough. Stop acting like a child. I said a few days, and I'm not running away."
Ryen said nothing more. They exchanged a look and seamlessly returned to their good-comrades act, arms around each other's shoulders, chatting about the mods they'd just figured out.
Before long, they were back in the living room.
Lumine and Jean looked like they had only just returned. Dehya and Nilou were sitting nearby as well, both wearing expressions of confusion mixed with shock, clearly still processing everything.
Ryen didn't comment.
People who could instantly accept the rules of this world upon entering it were exceedingly rare.
Or rather, nonexistent.
Even Albedo, an alchemy master accustomed to the illogical, had been thoroughly shaken his first time here.
"You're back," Ryen said casually, taking a sip of tea.
"Did you run into any trouble?"
"Hmph! With me handling things, how could anything go wrong?"
Lumine lifted her chin proudly.
"Sumeru's problems are resolved. There's just a lot of cleanup left."
"But Alhaitham said the priority now is the Sabseruz Festival in a few days. After that, Nahida will finally get a grand birthday celebration."
"The whole of Sumeru will celebrate your birthday!"
Nahida's eyes lit up.
She tried to maintain her calm, but the slight curve of her smile betrayed her excitement.
"Thank you, Lumine…"
The Flower God Festival…
Nahida had waited five hundred years for it.
From the moment she became Lesser Lord Kusanali, she had imagined countless times what her own Sabseruz Festival would be like.
In dreams, she had entertained herself with those visions for so long.
And now, after today,
This festival would finally belong to her.
Ryen affectionately rubbed Nahida's head, already pondering what kind of birthday gift he should prepare for her.
After a moment of thought, his gaze drifted to the large, still-wriggling zòngzi nearby, which felt rather out of place.
Pointing at it, he asked in confusion:
"Let's put everything else aside first. This zòngzi… what exactly is it?"
At that, Lumine perked up instantly, grinning.
"Oh, this? That's my grand nephew, Scaramouche."