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He kept the routine of arranging sword-training sessions, teleporting to open areas to practice elemental skills, or holing up in the inn to ponder, so much that several days passed quickly.
Aside from the Moonchase Festival, nothing major had happened recently in Liyue Harbor. The only widely discussed rumor was that Ningguang intended to rebuild the Jade Chamber before this year's Lantern Rite. Although there was still no solid proof, the price of building materials had already begun to soar.
Riding this wave of momentum, the fervor for "treasure hunting" in Guyun Stone Forest had not yet fully subsided, and another large batch of ships poured in. It even reached the point where people said, "Everything on the surface of the sea is trash; the real Mora is under the sea." This saying included the countless cargo fleets of Guyun Stone Forest as well… enough to show just how fanatical the "treasure hunting" parties had become.
Searching for a needle in the ocean and searching for mirrors and bottles in the ocean weren't all that different. There were indeed many lost items from the Jade Chamber that still hadn't been found even after almost a year.
As for whether those items were at the bottom of the ocean or sitting in someone's home, Victor Wang simply didn't have the time to worry about his business partner's troubles.
He had just received an urgent letter from Jinwu below the Chasm, saying that Zhiqiong had been missing for two days, and the Millelith had not seen her leave the Chasm.
When he hurriedly teleported to the Chasm and found Jinwu, he realized the matter wasn't so simple.
Even after Lumine and Victor Wang had both left, Zhiqiong continued exploring everywhere on her own. Two days before her disappearance, she had even borrowed equipment from Khedive to detect certain energy readings, running all over the Chasm from morning to night. Then, two days ago, she left camp and never came back.
Zhiqiong's disappearance had already been reported to the Millelith. Considering Lumine's reputation, Jinwu first sent her a request for help, but there has been no reply and no sign of her at all. Only then did she send one to Victor Wang.
After learning this much, Victor Wang teleported back to Liyue Harbor to search and found that Lumine had indeed gone missing as well—even Katheryne had no idea where she was.
The Chasm's Abyssal contamination had been fully purified except for that huge mass at the Nameless Ruins. If there was still a place where someone could hide, it would be the sealed area Zhiqiong discovered last time… but upon arriving, he found even the cave entrance had been filled back in by Yelan. There weren't any signs of anyone entering.
That left only one place —the mysterious space beneath the Celestial Nail.
In truth, the moment Victor Wang discovered Lumine was missing as well, his mind went straight to the Perilous Trail incident—that mysterious space. The problem was, he had just seen Lumine yesterday, so Zhiqiong and Lumine definitely hadn't entered that mysterious space together…
Inside that space, even Xiao was severely injured, and only after incredible effort did he reunite with Lumine. If an ordinary person entered, and two days had already passed, the chances were bleak.
"Could I ask you to help find that child? I really don't want anyone getting hurt under my watch again… If you find her, please tell me immediately." Jinwu pleaded once more. In her eyes, Victor Wang had only stepped away from camp for a short round.
"I'll do what I can… but until there's news, don't get your hopes up. Be… mentally prepared."
Feeling rather powerless, Victor Wang advised her softly, then left the camp and teleported to the Main Crystal Hall.
Alive, I need to see her. Dead… I need to see her body. The scary part is that in that mysterious space, he might not even find a body.
The Celestial Nail hung high as always, shining brightly. On the ground beneath it, the stones that had been crushed into peculiar shapes glowed with an unusual light between their crevices, resonating with it. The view was breathtaking.
And that terrifying mysterious space lay below—yet now he didn't even know how to enter it.
Heh…
Victor Wang let out a bitter laugh, trying to calm himself down, yet still feeling a hollow pain, even a sense of betrayal for failing to protect her.
After circling the area beneath the Celestial Nail twice, he recalled the process when Lumine, Arataki Itto, Kuki Shinobu, Yanfei, and Yelan fell through. It seemed they activated elemental energy here, then the ground collapsed and they dropped in.
But later, the collapse traces vanished. That meant the collapse was an illusion—or a trick of distorted space, just like when retrieving the [Endless Thirst].
He might as well start by trying to use elemental energy here.
Three hundred swirling wind blades of an [Erosion Blast] carved blade-marks into the ground, lifting a wide scattering of stones, spinning endlessly—yet the mysterious space remained unresponsive.
"Ah, the goblet…"
With the [Endless Thirst], tricks manipulating space wouldn't affect him. Victor Wang took it out from his artifact space, intending to place it temporarily inside the Inner Space of the Wentian Sword—but it wouldn't go in.
Then what?
He couldn't just toss it.
Should he hide it somewhere else?
But without the goblet, how would he get out?
Zhiqiong… I'm not risking my life just to find you. Learn from this.
Victor Wang silently equipped the [Endless Thirst] again, then fired multiple Erosion Blasts, ones infused by pyro and electro, to initiate Overload reactions—boom boom boom—explosions echoed without pause. This time, the ground was blasted several meters deep.
He hurled Erosion Blasts as though they cost nothing, and before long he had created a deep pit several dozen meters down. Even at that depth, a glow resonating with the Celestial Nail shone through the rock fissures.
The [Endless Thirst] only reacted when space affected him. It hadn't budged, so the problem was clearly not the goblet—the mysterious space simply wasn't opening for him. Exploding the ground, Victor Wang shouted:
"If you don't let me down there, I'll blast my way through—!!"
As if perceiving Victor Wang's determination, the bottom of the pit erupted with a dazzling light after the next explosion—so bright he couldn't even make out the ground.
The [Endless Thirst] began shaking violently in the artifact space. But it didn't immediately cancel out the abnormality at the pit's bottom—as if locked in a standoff with the mysterious space, waiting for Victor Wang's decision.
"I want to go down!"
Sensing this resolve, the goblet's spinning slowed, then stabilized at that pace. The white light at the bottom dimmed, and a bizarre bottomless void suddenly appeared.
Victor Wang's footing vanished, and he fell. Naturally, he did not resist—instead, he carefully observed everything. Before even reaching the bottom, he heard voices faintly rising from below.
"Was there a sound from above just now?"
"Someone's dropping down again! Move aside!"
"Whoa! With a fall from that height, it's a miracle we didn't die when we came down. Wonder what happens if someone gets hit!"
"Eh? Isn't that Victor?"
As the people below saw him clearly, Victor Wang also recognized them—Arataki Itto, Kuki Shinobu, and Yanfei were below.
"Victor? It really is Victor! Guess I gotta catch him now!" Arataki Itto stretched out his arms, shifting his position nonstop while shouting upward, "Victor! Jump my way!"
Victor Wang didn't indulge him. Instead, he grabbed the Wentian Sword at his waist, using the 50% anemo amplification from the Dragontooth Sword Armor to halt his fall steadily midair.