174: An alien is a real man.

In front of Bubu Pharmacy

With Zhongli's reminder, Lumine and Paimon quickly figured out where the problem lay.

The Fatui wanted to cause chaos in Liyue Harbor essentially to find where Morax's Exuvia was hidden and then obtain the Gnosis from it.

Now that Liyue Harbor had fallen into so-called chaos, the Fatui would surely seize the opportunity to muddy the waters and find the place where the Exuvia was kept.

And Lumine and Paimon knew this place.

"Is this the Golden House?"

Lumine and Paimon rushed to the vicinity of the Golden House at full speed, only to find that this place, which should have been heavily guarded, was wide open.

"Something's not right, Paimon. Let's go in!"

"Okay!"

The two burst into the Golden House without a word, only to see fallen Millelith soldiers everywhere, along with several Fatui elites wearing Snezhnayan power armor.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the Fatui immediately looked toward the source, but what they saw was a blade gradually enlarging in their Vision.

Upon seeing the Fatui, Lumine actually charged forward without a word, directly cutting down the people closest to her, leaving them no chance to react.

The Fatui further away also saw Lumine's arrival and immediately shouted: "Stop her! Don't let her get close to the Exuvia before Lord Childe finishes his preparations and arrives!"

All the Fatui rushed toward Lumine upon receiving the order, but Lumine—who practiced Violet Extreme Demon Eyes every morning, was trained by Skirk three times a day, and was nurtured by Huo Xi almost every day—was no longer the same as before! They were just a few Fatui elites; they couldn't even last a few rounds in Lumine's hands.

Lumine made short work of everyone, knocking them down, and then walked to the center of the Golden House with Paimon.

In the center of the Golden House was a platform, where the recessed floor was filled with glittering Mora, practically a Paimon trap.

In fact, Paimon's eyes were already fixed on it.

"Wow, so much Mora! With this much Mora, if I secretly take some, no one would know, right?" Paimon said, her mouth practically watering.

Lumine massaged her forehead: "How could a mint have no security measures? You'll definitely be caught the moment you go over there."

Paimon realized the truth, but still stared blankly at the countless Mora around: "Sigh, if only I could sleep in here..."

Lumine felt that Paimon wasn't listening to anything anymore.

She looked down at the patterns on the floor, then at the surrounding walls, where there were patterns known as 'Celtic Knots' in Huo Xi's previous life.

Lumine turned to look at Paimon again; Paimon's clothes actually had similar patterns.

Lumine raised an eyebrow. Could this be a coincidence?

But she shook her head in the next instant; that wasn't important now. What mattered was something else. Lumine picked up the drooling Paimon and walked toward the end of her line of sight.

There, wisps of adepti light lingered, and within the light lay a long, dragon-shaped creature's husk, looking like an exquisite mural.

It was indeed the Exuvia!

Lumine and Paimon approached the Exuvia to confirm. Lumine nodded and said, "It seems the Exuvia hasn't been tampered with yet."

Behind her, a flippant voice followed her words: "Of course, because I haven't arrived yet."

Lumine and Paimon turned back warily, only to see Childe had arrived not far behind them at some point, holding twin blades in a reverse grip.

Childe walked up the steps one by one, his eyes fixed on the Exuvia: "The Exuvia... the Geo Archon's husk is indeed hidden here. I must thank you for saving me a lot of trouble in finding it."

But then he changed his tone: "However, as friends, you beat my subordinates so badly and even destroyed our workshop. Isn't that a bit heartless?"

"Am I heartless?" Lumine also pulled out two Swords: "I thought your subordinates were too enthusiastic. As soon as I pulled out my Swords, they all rushed over and slammed their bodies into my blades. I had to use a lot of strength to only knock them out with the flat of the blades. Shouldn't you thank me for saving them?"

"Sharp-tongued!" Childe gave a somewhat grim smile but still advised: "How about joining the Fatui? If you join, I'll definitely recommend you to the Tsaritsa to become a Harbinger. With a lively personality like yours joining the Fatui, our office atmosphere should improve quite a bit."

Lumine also smiled: "Then you'll have to give me a high position. I think the Director position sounds good. Let me sit in it for a couple of days?"

Seeing that persuasion failed, Childe directly raised his twin blades: "Do you truly intend to challenge me?"

Seeing this, Lumine told Paimon to hide to the side and raised her twin Swords: "You're the challenger."

With nothing more to say, the atmosphere between the two was already tense!

However, Paimon noticed from the side that aside from the different ways they held the twin blades and twin Swords, their stances with the weapons were clearly identical!

In the recessed floor nearby, a piece of Mora couldn't withstand its own weight and fell from a height. At the same moment it made its first crisp clinking sound, Lumine and Childe charged at each other simultaneously!

Sword and blade light crossed. The twin blades formed from the Hydro element collided with Lumine's one five-star weapon and one four-star weapon. Due to the materials, no sparks flew, but the fluctuations of Elemental Power from the clashing blades produced a visual effect no less than a normal Sword fight.

If compared to some famous animation scenes from Huo Xi's previous life, the current scene looked very much like Nozomu Abe's 'Abe-jiru'.

Childe quickly swung his reverse-gripped twin blades, attempting to find a flaw in Lumine's defense and defeat her in one move, but Lumine's twin Swords could always parry his attacks at the most opportune moments!

As the blades clashed, the air itself seemed to wail.

Both sides became increasingly alarmed as the fight went on. Finally, in a gap between moves, Childe feinted and jumped out of the circle, looking at Lumine with shock in his eyes.

What was going on? Was this right? This... this wasn't right.

It was as if the two of them were taught by the same master; neither could break the other's moves!

Childe knew he could no longer rely solely on his Hydro Vision for attacks; he needed to use stronger power.

Childe took off the mask worn tilted on his head and slapped it onto his face: "Lumine, you'd better be careful next!"

As soon as he spoke, purple lightning suddenly burst out around Childe! Thunder snakes coiled around his body like living things, and even the red scarf he always wore was stained with purple light.

The Hydro blades in Childe's hands also turned from their original watery blue to a purple entwined with lightning!

Lumine knew this form. Her master, Huo Xi, had told her that even if the Heavenly Principles descended, they'd have to cut this Childe guy three times to kill him, which had startled Lumine at the time.

Only after questioning further did she learn that Huo Xi meant Childe had a three-stage transformation, just like a boss in a game having a second and third phase.

"In other words, is this the second phase using the Delusion? Both Hydro and Electro, triggering Electro-Charged on yourself—isn't that a bit underhanded?"

Lumine grumbled, but her hand also changed its stance.

The tips of her hair were brushed by a breeze, and golden crystals grew from the ground beneath her feet.

Unlike Childe, both elements on Lumine's side were 'orphan' elements that didn't react with each other, but—

"It's time to show you Teyvat country bumpkins the unique trait of us outlander travelers: high DMG on the left hand, and high DMG on the right hand!"