Taking over the Abyss

34- Overlord of the Vortex

"So, since we're here now, are you going to tell me why we're all the way out here?" You asked, holding a hand up to your face to block the sun from blinding you. Currently, you were in the Guyun Stone Forest and had come all the way out here with Zhongli. From the moment the two of you had reached the island from your semi-depressing rent boat, Zhongli had been intently staring at the shore.

"I wanted to see if anything interesting had turned up across the beach," he said, leaving you with more questions than answers. He didn't seem to be on edge, so you weren't too worried. From the way he phrased it, even though he hadn't explicitly said so, he was definitely doing this because of Beisht.

"Huh," you quickly surveyed the shoreline for anything of note, only finding poorly hidden crabs and the odd seashell, "Why the interest?"

Zhongli paused in inspecting the seashell he had picked up, "... I suppose there is no need to hide it. I am concerned that Osial may be able to rise from the depths once more. Though the Jade Chamber was effective in defeating him, he is not pinned to the ocean floor as he once was, and may be able to regain his strength. The attack from Beisht had me especially worried, considering how easy the tide was turned against the Qixing's favor."

You shuddered at the thought of a vengeful Osial coming back and making Ningguang destroy another Jade Chamber. Especially since she just built the new one. It wasn't like the materials she needed for it were easy to come by, either. Zhongli tossed the seashell back into the waves and began to search for anything else of interest.

Deciding to join him in searching for anything, you stepped ankle-deep into seawater, "So what sort of things would you be looking for?"

"Anything interesting. Osial is lucky enough to not be the most important thing on my mind right now. I couldn't help but hear about some adventurer's talking about deep sea treasures being dredged up from the depths. Such a thing would make an excellent keepsake," Zhongli said, sifting through the sand and making a little crab skitter away.

Seeing the butler hiding in your shadow become restless, you decided to give him a break, "Leiptr, you can go catch crabs if you want. Just don't make the ecosystem collapse."

Leiptr rose from your shadow, only to realize that was a bad idea and began to shake the water out of his hair. Without missing a beat, he bowed his head, "As you wish, milady."

Before he could get too far, Leiptr spun to give Zhongli a nasty glare, "Should anything happen to her Excellency while I've left her in your incapable hands, know that I will ensure you sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life."

Zhongli stared after the butler for a moment, before shaking his head and mumbling, "What a foul temper... hm?"

Turning quickly, you bounded over to Zhongli to see what he found. Picking up a weird looking tea cup buried in the sand, Zhongli held it up and stared at it intently. Squinting, you could faintly make out that it had once been painted with light green patterns, at some point in time.

"It looks crusty," you pointed out. The teacup had some weird stuff all over it, probably salt. If you were to drag your finger over it, it'd probably make a very unpleasant sound.

Zhongli hummed in agreement and said, "It's covered in salt from the ocean, but I recognize this as one of Ningguang's custom tea cups."

"Should we... give it back to her?" You weren't sure if it'd be insulting to hand this frankly disgusting thing over to her. It had some chips on it, sourced from basically everything that went down in the ocean.

"I suppose there's no harm in it. But we should see the extent of the damage," in order to see how badly the cup was messed up, Zhongli examined the cup. You watched his expression as he frowned disapprovingly at all of the cracks and chips, trying to learn something. Zhongli held the cup by the handle, only for the handle to snap off and cause the tea cup to shatter into pieces when it hit the hand. "Oops."