Chapter 59, Silver Wolf: All eyes on me!

Zhongli channeled his divine power, bringing Hutao to the pond beside the entrance of Cloud Retainer's abode in Jueyun Karst.

Indeed.

Zhongli had placed the portal given to him by Leyun right here at Cloud Retainer's place.

This location was rarely visited by mortals, and with Cloud Retainer acting as a shut-in guardian—not to mention the divine power he had left behind—virtually no issues would arise.

Hutao looked around with wide-eyed curiosity, tugging vigorously at the sleeve of Zhongli's robe.

"Ooh~ Consultant, you're so amazing! You actually managed to *whoosh* me all the way to such a distant place."

Without answering Hutao's remark, Zhongli walked toward the portal.

"Director, this way."

Holding her Staff of Homa and having just flipped over a resting frog, Hutao quickly hurried to catch up upon hearing this.

Before leaving, Hutao even used her polearm to flip the frog back onto its stomach.

Frog: What did I ever do to you?! Is there no one to speak up for me?!

Arriving beside the portal, Hutao inspected it with great curiosity.

"Whoa! Why is there a door here? It looks so out of place."

With that, Hutao gave the portal a kick, only to find that it wouldn't budge at all.

Zhongli opened the door.

"Let's go, Director. Our destination is right on the other side."

The two of them stepped through the portal.

In Hutao's vision, everything went black the moment she crossed the threshold, only to return to normal after a few short seconds.

Once her sight recovered, she realized she had arrived in a very strange place.

The interior design was bizarre, looking nothing like Liyue at all.

And... are those stars outside the window?!

Everyone gathered around the long table in the center for breakfast greeted Zhongli as he arrived.

Zhongli gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.

To Zhongli's surprise, there were many more people eating here today.

Leyun, Welt, Dan Heng, Himeko, Pom-Pom, Stelle, March 7th, Lumine, Paimon, Amber, Eula, Noelle, along with Venti and the three little ones.

Inside the kitchen, Leyun noticed Zhongli's arrival.

"Yo, Zhongli, cutting it a bit close today, aren't you? The last couple of days, you were always the first one here."

Hearing this, Zhongli explained, "I brought our Director along, so I had to wait for her a bit."

With that, Hutao gave a cheerful wave.

"Hello everyone~ My name is Hutao."

Himeko smiled faintly.

"Hello, Hutao. I'm Himeko. Come sit over here. You two haven't had breakfast yet, right? Just in time to join us."

Hutao smiled back.

"No need~ This Director here already ate~ The consultant brought me some grilled skewers last night, hee-hee. Oh, right, right! You must be the friends the consultant was talking about, right? You all had a gathering last night."

Himeko thought for a moment.

"Well, that's right. Still, come drink some congee. Why eat something so greasy early in the morning? It's not good for your health."

As she spoke, Himeko scooped a bowl of plain congee for Hutao and placed it on the seat next to her.

Seeing this, Hutao walked over and sat down beside Himeko.

Himeko then added some pickled vegetables to a small dish and placed it next to Hutao's bowl.

"Make yourself at home, no need to be polite. I'll take care of these three little ones first."

Following the direction of Himeko's gesture, Hutao saw three very cute little girls standing on their chairs and eating.

"Okay, okay! Thank you for the congee. Please go ahead, I can manage on my own."

Himeko smiled, then turned back to tend to the three children's breakfast.

Hutao picked up some pickled vegetables with her chopsticks and took a sip of the plain congee, instantly feeling relaxed all over.

At that moment, Hutao noticed March 7th sitting nearby.

"Hello, what's your name, friend?"

March 7th turned her head with a listless expression.

"Hello, Hutao. My name is March 7th, a Nameless."

Hutao looked at the thick dark circles under March 7th's eyes.

"Did you stay up all night? You've got such heavy dark circles."

March 7th let out a yawn and nodded.

"Yeah, the lot of us pulled an all-nighter clearing out a Hilichurl camp to earn Stellar Jades. I'm so sleepy I could drop."

Hearing this, Hutao looked slightly puzzled.

"What are you guys looking for Stellar Jades for?"

March 7th explained, "Didn't you know? Didn't Zhongli tell you? Stellar Jades can be exchanged for Star Passes, and Star Passes can be used to buy items from all the worlds in the universe right here from Leyun. If you don't understand 'the heavens and myriad realms,' you can just think of it as countless different worlds."

Hutao was somewhat surprised. Stellar Jades had that kind of use? Usually, whenever she found them, she just treated them like ordinary pebbles to throw at birds or skip across water.

March 7th pointed at Leyun.

"He's Leyun. If you want to buy anything, you can look for him."

Hutao noted Leyun's appearance and nodded.

"Got it, I'll remember. Thank you."

March 7th shook her head.

"Don't mention it. Ahh!!! I'm so sleepy! I want to sleep so bad!!!"

Hutao found this a bit baffling.

"If you want to sleep, why don't you just go?"

March 7th pulled out a handful of Stellar Jades.

"We just got back, we haven't exchanged them for Star Passes yet. Plus, after working hard all morning, our stomachs were empty, so we came to eat first~ You can't sleep properly when you're starving."

Hutao expressed complete agreement with this sentiment. No matter how exhausted she was every time she returned from Wuwang Slope, she always had to eat a meal before going to sleep.

Going to sleep with an empty stomach was genuinely miserable.

Afterward, Hutao started chatting with Stelle and the others, quickly breaking the ice and becoming fast friends with the girls.

Upon hearing that they were planning to go on a snowball fight tomorrow, Hutao excitedly clamored to join in.

Moreover, through her chat with Stelle and the others, she learned that this was a completely different world—this wasn't Teyvat at all.

The place she was currently inhabiting was a train traveling through the cosmos.

Lumine had previously explained to her what the cosmos was.

Teyvat at most equated to the size of a single planet here, whereas the universe was composed of countless planets.

Hutao couldn't help but feel that the train was incredible for being able to shuttle between various worlds.

If it weren't for the fact that she still had the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor to look after, she would seriously have considered joining the Astral Express crew.

Everyone was chatting while enjoying their breakfast.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy knocking came from a distinctive booth nearby.

"Wahahaha!!!"

Everyone looked over.

There was Silver Wolf, hands on her hips, throwing her head back in wild laughter. The dark circles under her eyes were as dark as ink, yet her gaze was vibrant and extremely excited.

Leyun gave Silver Wolf a side-long glance.

"What are you making a fuss about early in the morning? Can't you open the door a bit more quietly?"

Silver Wolf glanced sideways at Leyun and let out a cold snort.

"Hmph, I won't lower myself to your level!"

With that, Silver Wolf scanned the room and nodded with great satisfaction.

"Mm-hmm, quite a few people here. Perfect, all eyes on me—Lord Silver Wolf has an announcement to make! Follow my command! All eyes on me!"

Everyone looked toward Silver Wolf, who grandly announced:

"The invincible Lord Silver Wolf has finally cleared *Black Myth: Wukong*! Let's hear some applause!"

Stelle was the first to clap, cheering Silver Wolf on.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Seeing this, the rest of the group joined in with applause.

Though they had no idea what it was about, clapping along just to play along was fine.

Hutao clapped her hands together and asked Lumine, who was beside her, "Lumine, what's going on here?"

Lumine kept her eyes closed, gave a yawn, and clapped along.

"I have no idea either, but clapping is just the right thing to do. Didn't you see everyone else doing it?"

Hutao thought about it and decided Lumine made a lot of sense.