"What? Can Bubuhua still evolve? Isn't this already its final form?" Venti asked in disbelief, voicing what was on the minds of Zhongli, Jing Yuan, and the others present.
Ye Yun explained:
"This is mega evolution. A very small number of Spirit possess the potential for mega evolution.
After mega evolving, their strength increases dramatically.
For example, Stelle's Infernape also has the potential to mega evolve.
Once it evolves into Flame Ape, there's a chance it can further mega evolve.
After evolving, it becomes Infernal Flame Ape.
Infernal Flame Ape has a broken skill—Doomfire.
It consumes half of its stamina for one use and has a 1% chance to instantly defeat the opponent.
Of course, there's a limit—it only works on Commanders and below."
Upon hearing this, Jing Yuan and the others gasped.
This skill really was broken—although its activation cost was high, it was insanely overpowered.
No one would want to bet against that 1%. What if they just happened to be the unlucky one? Instant defeat!
Half an hour later, Akxia lay panting on the ground.
Himeko was already numb. She just couldn't defeat it—this Lisa-Bubu was way too unfair, all its skills were about healing or draining stamina.
Even Akxia's Absolute Zero, with its one-in-a-thousand insta-kill chance, didn't land.
Eventually, Akxia ran out of stamina completely and was withdrawn back into the Spiritball by Himeko.
Himeko glanced at Lisa-Bubu and sighed inwardly.
This little guy was really impressive—March 7th sure had great luck.
Back in Luofu, this little one even helped solve the Alchemy Division's drug smog problem.
When the referee saw Himeko forfeit, he announced the result:
"Congratulations to contestant March 7th and her Spirit Lisa-Bubu for winning and successfully entering the top 16!Ladies and gentlemen! The matches from top 32 to top 16 are now complete! Stay tuned for the quarterfinals this afternoon!"
With the morning matches over, the audience began to disperse.
The Spirit tournament had become a universal craze. Many children now dreamed of raising Spirit to win the championship.
Aventurine even founded a club, recruiting many promising contestants.
For example, Ye Yun's shop customers—Ye Yun had already said that after this tournament, they wouldn't be allowed to participate again.
Now, all 16 remaining contestants were his customers, which kind of went against the original spirit of the tournament.
Ye Yun's goal was to promote Spirit. If his own customers always took the top spots, many ordinary trainers might lose hope.
They'd say, "What's the point of training hard? Can we beat those people with cheats?"
So Ye Yun simply announced that his customers wouldn't be allowed to join future tournaments.
Jing Yuan, Zhongli, and Amber, who had already been eliminated, had left the Pleasure Planet.
Those who advanced—like Firefly, Hutao, and Fu Xuan—followed the location Aventurine sent to meet at a hotel for lunch.
When Firefly, Stelle, and the others reached the hotel entrance, they saw Paimon and Milim squatting there with food trays.
Paimon flew over as soon as she saw Stelle and the others, pointing angrily at the doorman:
"Stelle! You're finally here! That guy is awful! He won't let Milim and me in!"
Milim was also fuming.
"If Ye Yun hadn't told me not to use force, I'd have punched him straight away! Hmph!"
Firefly asked curiously:
"Paimon, Milim, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to be on the train?"
Paimon pulled out her phone and opened the group chat.
"I followed the shared location~ What's the matter?"
Firefly chuckled.
"Nothing. I was just curious how you knew there was food here."
Then Stelle said,
"Follow me, I'll take you inside."
At the entrance, the doorman spotted Stelle from afar and immediately ran over to greet her.
"Welcome, Spirit Queen, to our hotel. Please come in."
Stelle was very pleased with the doorman's attitude.
"Not bad~ Not bad. These two are with me—there's no problem if I bring them in, right?"
The doorman glanced bitterly at Paimon and Milim standing with arms akimbo beside Stelle.
Aventurine had sent him guest photos earlier, and after careful comparison, he had seen no trace of Paimon or Milim—hence why he hadn't let them in.
Still smiling, he said:
"Of course, no problem. You're a VIP guest, a friend of Director Aventurine. Whatever you say goes."
Stelle strode into the hotel with a swagger.
Milim followed, chest out, with a proud stomp. As she passed the doorman, she even gave him a cold snort.
"Hmph! Wouldn't let me in? You think I can't get in on my own?"
Inside, Stelle and the others were led by a waiter to a private room.
Once seated, the food was served.
Stelle, Firefly, and the others didn't start eating immediately—they waited for Paimon and Milim to fill their own trays first.
This was the usual routine—Paimon and Milim would go grab huge trays of food, and then no one would bother them.
Milim packed her tray with dishes like a storm. After they were done, Paimon and Milim waved goodbye and left the room.
They planned to return to Ye Yun's shop to eat, so they could watch anime while eating—just thinking about it made them happy.
In the afternoon, Stelle and the others returned to the venue to continue the matches.
Stelle was summoned by Topaz—she wanted to talk about the upcoming Pokémon King challenge.
There would be some ceremonial events that Stelle would have to perform.
Meanwhile, Firefly and the others went to continue their matches.
In New Teyvat, inside New Fontaine Court:
Furina and Robin walked arm in arm down the street.
New Fontaine Court had been completed, matching the size and style of the original.
Fontaine's construction speed rivaled Liyue's, largely thanks to Furina's deep pockets.
Neuvillette and Focalors didn't have to worry about finances at all.
Their account had endless credits—Furina would deposit huge sums every time she took a break.
Furina was now so famous that she earned over ten billion credits a day.
When buying materials from Topaz, she paid in full upfront—no IOUs, no installments.
The key was: wealth. Absolute, overwhelming wealth.
Furina brought Robin to the Moman Palace, where Focalors and Neuvillette had called her.
Furina kicked open the office door:
"Ta-da~ Superstar Furina makes her dazzling entrance~" She jumped into the room with her hands raised in a pose.
She opened her eyes—and instantly regretted it.
Inside were Cryo Archon, The Tsaritsa, The Lady, and The Knave.
She'd made a fool of herself!
Furina bolted out and closed the door.
Then came a polite knock. She slowly re-entered with an elegant "proper lady" demeanor.
"Oh? Isn't this Sister Tsaritsa? What brings you to Fontaine? Why didn't you let me know—you could've joined me for some fun!"
Tsaritsa smiled.
"Next time, I promise. I'll tell you beforehand."
Furina nodded.
"Okay~ So, what brings you here today?"
Focalors explained:
"Furina, Tsaritsa wants to borrow some money from Fontaine to help develop Snezhnaya. So we called you here to ask your opinion."
Furina looked to Neuvillette, the financial manager:
"Neuvillette, do we still have a lot of money in the public account?"
"Plenty," he replied.
Furina smiled:
"Then I think it's fine to lend Sister Tsaritsa some. We all came from Teyvat—we should help each other.
Besides, during Fontaine's crisis, the Fatui helped a lot and saved many citizens."
Focalors nodded.
"I thought the same. But since all the money in that account was deposited by you, we had to ask your opinion."
Furina waved it off.
"Pfft~ That's all? Robin and I were out shopping! Don't bother me with this kind of thing next time.
If you're ever short on money, just call me. I've got more than I can ever spend.
Speaking of which, I bought a shop yesterday while inspecting Penacony with Robin. The deed's in my vanity drawer.
Focalors, go get it later and take a few people to check it out."
Focalors nodded. Penacony real estate was pricey, but with the traffic, you couldn't lose money doing business there.
The Lady was puzzled:
"Forgive me for being blunt, but I have to ask—I'm too curious."
Furina placed hands on her hips.
"Oh? Ask away."
"Ms. Furina, how do you earn so many credits? I've met a lot of merchants on the company app lately—not a single one's easy to deal with. None of them want to give up a dime."
The Knave chimed in:
"Yeah, I hauled a shipment to a nearby market planet yesterday—only made 100,000 credits all day. It's so hard to earn credits."
Furina scratched her head in confusion.
"Huh? Is it that hard? I don't even check. My account gets over ten billion every day. It's annoying. Topaz comes every day to ask me to sign transfers.
She says large sums need authorization. Sure, I sign—but there's so many, the stack of agreements is thick. My hand gets sore every time."
Tsaritsa, The Lady, and The Knave turned to stone.
What do you mean your account earns ten billion a day by itself? And your hand's sore from signing?!
Wow. Not much to say—just envy. Tsaritsa thought, I want to sign until my hand's sore too...
Focalors smiled awkwardly.
"Tsaritsa, Furina's... special."
Tsaritsa nodded stiffly.
"Yes... I understand."
Neuvillette asked:
"Lady Tsaritsa, how much do you wish to borrow?"
Tsaritsa exchanged glances with The Lady and The Knave:
"We'd like to borrow 10 million credits. We want to buy a central heating system from Topaz to keep our city warm."
Furina raised her hand:
"Sister Tsaritsa, maybe borrow a bit more? Is 10 million really enough?
I remember Neuvillette said it cost us around 30 billion to build Fontaine."
Tsaritsa felt a pang in her chest. Isn't this a bit too much generosity?
You're even encouraging me to borrow more?
And did you just say Fontaine cost 30 billion? No wonder it got built so fast.
Wow... This level of financial power is terrifying.
Tsaritsa made up her mind—she needed to go have a proper talk with the rich.
***
Tsaritsa returned to Snezhnaya. As soon as she arrived at the Tsaritsa's palace, she sensed something was wrong—the atmosphere was off.
The Rooster, the Wealthy Man, and the Maiden were all standing silently at the gate, making the scene quite awkward.
Tsaritsa approached them.
"What are you three doing standing at the door?"
Just as the Maiden was about to speak, the palace doors opened from the inside, and Calestia walked out.
Tsaritsa saw Calestia.
"Lady Calestia, Your Eminence, what brings you to Snezhnaya?"
Calestia tossed a card to Tsaritsa.
"There's ten billion credits on this. Take it and develop your Snezhnaya properly. Don't lag behind. Go visit Ye Yun's shop more often.
Look at Morax, look at Barbatos.
And look at Furina! Can't you learn from others?
These ten billion credits were acquired by Silver Wolf for me. Just use them. You don't need to pay them back. Just do a good job developing Snezhnaya, got it?"
Barnabas looked at the card in his hand and nodded heavily.
"I understand, Your Eminence Calestia."
Seeing this, Calestia summoned a portal and returned to Ye Yun's store.
After Calestia left, Tsaritsa handed the card to the Wealthy Man.
"Go withdraw the money. I also borrowed ten billion from Fontaine. That gives us twenty billion—enough to solve our urgent problems."
The Wealthy Man nodded respectfully.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Tsaritsa then waved them off to attend to their own tasks.
The Wealthy Man returned to the bank, linked the card to his account, and checked the balance.
Sure enough, there were ten billion credits. This was the first time he had ever seen so much money.
"As expected of a Sustainer of Heavenly Principles—ten billion credits, just like that."
Just as he was about to withdraw the money, a pop-up appeared.
[Detected abnormal funds of ten billion credits in account. Funds have been recovered.]
The Wealthy Man stared at the message, stunned.
What? Abnormal funds? Wait—was this money… illicit?
Meanwhile…
Inside the treehouse.
Silver Wolf and Calestia were playing a video game.
Silver Wolf suddenly asked:
"So, what did you buy with those credits I got for you? Make sure you place the order before 2 p.m. today. Otherwise, the funds will be recovered."
Calestia froze.
"Huh? Recovered? Why?"
Silver Wolf replied:
"Because I hacked it out of a corporation. With their tech, they should be able to trace and recover the funds around this time."
Calestia was speechless.
Silver Wolf quickly realized something.
"Don't tell me… you gave the card to someone else."
Calestia nodded.
"I gave it to Tsaritsa. That should be fine, right?"
Silver Wolf thought for a moment.
"Shouldn't be a big deal. At most, the funds get recovered."
Calestia relaxed upon hearing this.
To save face, Calestia then asked Zhongli to give Barnabas another ten billion credits, telling him to say it was a gift from Calestia.
By nighttime, Stelle and the others were still deep in the Genshin Impact dungeon.
Stelle had explored all of Mondstadt's map and reached 100% exploration everywhere.
She was about to head to Liyue, but her progress was halted—she had to finish Mondstadt's main questline first.
Reluctantly, she resumed the main quest, which was currently at retrieving the Skyward Lyre.
After repairing the Lyre, she went to Starsnatch Cliff with Venti, Jean, Diluc, and Paimon.
There, Venti played the Lyre and summoned Dvalin.
Stelle looked at the massive dragon and thought it was pretty cool—she really wanted to ride it.
Dvalin glared at Venti.
"Barbatos! Have you brought these humans to hunt me?!"
A nearby Abyss Mage was whispering in Dvalin's ear, manipulating him.
Stelle got annoyed. Seriously? Just one Abyss Mage? Why didn't Diluc or Jean just knock him out?
After the cutscene, she returned to Diluc's winery.
Diluc shared info on the Abyss Order with Stelle, Venti, and Jean.
After some action, the plot moved to the group heading to Stormterror's Lair.
After a "tough" battle (really just a one-shot), Mondstadt's story reached its end.
Stelle sat on Dvalin's back, watching Venti doing serious stuff—it felt off.
Wasn't Venti supposed to be more... casual? Stelle couldn't reconcile this serious Venti with the drunkard from the tavern. Aside from looks, they felt like two different people.
With Mondstadt's story finished, Stelle was relieved. She could finally go to the next area.
Following the path from the winery, she crossed a ravine and even caught some fish for her inventory.
Exploring, opening chests, and having fun, she reached the Stone Gate Inn after half an hour.
Crossing a canyon, her view opened up—she saw a large tree with walkways and buildings on it, by a reed-lined river.
She figured, "That must be Wangshu Inn. Hutao said it's a fun place."
Looking at the wide main road and a smaller path leading to an island, Stelle decisively chose the small one—main roads are efficient, but less rewarding!
This kind of RPG always hides better loot in harder paths.
Glancing at the map, she resolved to pull an all-nighter to grind for more coins.
By early morning the next day, Stelle walked out of the dungeon portal with dark circles under her eyes, full of complaints.
Seeing Zhongli playing chess, she walked up and vented.
"Zhongli! Why are your Liyue roads so hard to traverse?! Every mountain is followed by another mountain! I spent hours last night just lighting up the teleport points!"
Zhongli calmly replied:
"That is simply the nature of Liyue's geography. The mountains of Jueyun Karst are majestic and beautiful."
Stelle rolled her eyes.
"Liyue's exploration difficulty is way higher than Mondstadt's. It's so troublesome."
Zhongli replied:
"Yes, it is more difficult. But aren't the rewards greater too?"
Stelle had to admit that was true.
"Yeah… By the way, I ran into a complex puzzle at Qingce Pool. Can you help me figure it out?"
Zhongli looked at the photo Stelle handed him and gave her the solution.
Encouraged, Stelle took out more photos.
Liyue's puzzles were numerous and rewarding.
Zhongli patiently explained one after another, and Stelle jotted them down in a notebook.
This was basically a walkthrough!
With Zhongli's help, she could grind even more efficiently today!
Yup—no sleep. Time to grind more Genshin dungeons!
Just then, Firefly walked out of the cave portal.
She sat next to Stelle.
"Stelle, you didn't come back to sleep last night?"
Stelle pointed at the portal.
"I was grinding Genshin dungeons all night. I explored all of Liyue and lit up every waypoint."
Firefly remembered something.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you. I got a 5-star weapon in the Genshin gacha—Skyward Blade.
You can even extract it into the real world."
She showed the sword—light blue blade, ornate hilt with wing designs. Very cool.
Stelle stared, wide-eyed.
"No way! You got a legendary? I've done 85 pulls already and still haven't gotten anything! How many pulls did you do?"
Firefly thought for a moment.
"Maybe… 30? Not many. I didn't really pull that much."
Stelle gawked.
"30 pulls?! Are you serious?!"
Just then, Kiana arrived at Ye Yun's shop with Cecilia.
After seeing Kiana's Valkyrie armor, Cecilia wanted to try pulling from the golden trash can herself, hoping for a power-boosting title.
Kiana joined Stelle and Firefly.
"Morning, you two! What are you chatting about?"
Stelle pulled her in.
"Kiana, Firefly says she got a 5-star Genshin weapon in 30 pulls. Do you believe that?"
Kiana replied casually:
"Sure, why not? I got a gold character in just 10 pulls—what's his name? Red hair, big sword, cold personality."
Firefly helped out.
"Diluc."
"Yeah! Diluc. He's fun to use. His skill casts three times in a row! Great for mining, too—huge range!"
Stelle looked like she was about to break.
"Seriously?! Am I the only unlucky one?! I've done 85 pulls!"
Firefly tried to comfort her.
"It's okay, Stelle. You're almost at pity!"
Stelle turned away, speechless.
As the wall clock ticked on, more people entered Ye Yun's store.
Stelle, Hutao, and others excitedly discussed Genshin dungeons.
Hutao heard about Stelle's bad luck.
"Don't worry, Stelle, Diluc isn't that great anyway.
Ye Yun said the real strong characters are in future banners.
Also—did you notice his attack animations look exactly like those torch-wielding Hilichurls?"
She played two videos for everyone.
After watching…
"No way! It's identical!"
"Send that video to the group chat! I wanna see Diluc's face!"
"He's definitely going to be triggered."
"Maybe not, he's pretty stone-faced."
"Doesn't matter—send it!"
Hutao shared the videos in the group and continued:
"Also, my Xiangling does more damage than Diluc!"
Amber was puzzled.
"How? My Xiangling's damage is average."
Hutao replied:
"That's because yours isn't max constellation. Mine is maxed. Even Guoba does more damage than…"