Breathing

After talking a bit more with Verr Goldet, I learned that Xiao likes a dish called Almond Tofu. Well ain't that nice. I like tofu as well. The boss lady told me to talk with their chef for the bowl of Almond Tofu while the other dish was for me to decide. I wonder… Satisfying Salad I guess?

I walked to the kitchen and asked the chief for a bowl of Almond Tofu. However, the chef suddenly yelled at me and told me to go away. Wow, wasn't that really rude? Does he act like this to others as well? Sheesh…

I then told him that it was for the boss. When he heard that, he said that he doesn't really have a choice now. He looked a bit troubled, so I asked him what was wrong. He said that his heart wasn't really in it right now. I asked why and he said that it was because a traveler once told him that the inn was haunted. I was just about to say that it was ridiculous when I realized my existence as a world traveler is way weirder than ghosts. If I can exist, that means ghosts can definitely as well.

As if on cue, a ghost appeared in the kitchen. I was a bit shocked, but I quickly recovered. However, the chef was so scared that he crouched down and held his head. Wow, for a big guy like him to be scared like this. The ghost was a little girl that was running and giggling, seemingly playing some kind of game. When the ghost disappeared, the chef was still on the ground. I can't talk to him like this. I decided to talk to the boss lady once more.

"Hehe… Scared of something so insignificant. Hard to believe he was once a notorious bandit."

She seemed to not mind that a ghost was at her inn. It was understandable though. She has an adepti here after all. Well, she did say to see to it that the ghost shouldn't go around scaring her customers. I agreed with her. She told me how to find the ghost, but as soon as she said "life" I told her that I already have my own way. She asked me what it was so I activated my purple eyes and showed them to her.

"Wow, it looks like the eyes of a dragon…"

That's because it really is the eyes of a dragon. I didn't tell her that though. Anyways, I went on my way to look for the ghost. I was looking for life force this time. When I found her, she just kept on running around. I was fast, but she kept disappearing and appearing way in front of me. When I finally caught up to her south of the inn, she possessed something called a Ruin Hunter. I read about these things somewhere. They look super annoying to deal with. They could float, which means they are a lot faster than the Ruin Guards. This is gonna be pretty annoying.

I created Anemo arrows to attack it, but it was way more durable than the Ruin Guards. Looks like I'll just deal with this in the old fashioned way. I took out my sword and remembered something. That purple glow from before, I wonder if I can do it again. I remembered the feeling and tried recreating it. It wasn't easy and I didn't have time for it, so I just came up with something else.

'Control your breathing…'

While doing that, I switched my sword to Pyro and slashed at the Ruin Hunter. What I didn't expect was for it to block my sword with a blade of its own. Damnit, I didn't put in enough force. I sensed something incoming so I quickly warped back and summoned my shield. As soon as I did that, the Ruin Hunter punched the place where I was earlier. When it noticed that I was gone, it floated a bit higher and started shooting missiles upwards. What was it doing?

I then heard a ring and saw a target market below me and other multiple places as well. I quickly warped away from the targets. When it noticed this, it fired multiple projectiles at me. My shield stopped most of them, but I quickly warped behind it to finally finish it off.

'Breathe…'

With one powerful swoop, I cut the Ruin Hunter in half. Not just that, I also cut the ground because of the angle I was in. After this, the girl showed up again. It took me a while to convince her to not creep out the people at the inn.

I went back to the inn and told the chef that the ghost won't disturb him anymore. He gave me his thanks and made the Almond Tofu I was asking for. I also got permission to cook in his kitchen to prepare the other dish. When everything was done, I went around looking for Xiao. I gave him the dishes and when he was finally ready to listen, I told him the same thing that I told the other adepti.

He had the same reaction as the other adepti. He told me to go back now and that he'll join the others. Well, I was about to go back anyway. When I was just about to teleport, I decided to go to my Domain first to practice this breathing technique of mine and try to achieve that purple glow on my sword again.

When I got to my Domain, I immediately tried my breathing technique. While trying to create "forms" I noticed that it was a bit hard since I needed to concentrate my breath each time I used a move. Meaning that I can't really do consecutive moves. I decided to not think about that problem too much for now and just continued on making "forms".

After that, I practiced getting that purple glow on my sword again. I tried for at least 20 times until I finally became successful. I can only hold it for 5 minutes though. Once I finished doing all those things I decided to warp back to the hotel room where I was staying.

"No one's here yet huh… I guess they're working hard to calm the citizens down."

I took a bath since I was a bit sweaty from the practice I did earlier and decided to call Ganyu. She said that they'll be coming back just a few hours from now and that I should rest first. I agreed with her and after we finished the call, I laid down on the bed and slowly fell asleep.