Farewell, Archaic Lord

The Traveler arrives at Liyue Harbor just in time for the Rite of Descension — and watches Rex Lapis, the Geo Archon, plummet dead from the sky before his own people. As Ningguang, the Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing, orders the Millelith to detain every suspect, the outlander Traveler is saved from arrest by a young Hydro user who introduces himself as Childe, Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers. Claiming to be an ally, he advises them to clear their name by winning the trust of the adepti of Jueyun Karst before the Millelith reach them, and hands over a Sigil of Permission for protection.

The search becomes a tour of Liyue's illuminated beasts. Moon Carver hears of the god's murder and names two more adepti to convince. At Wangshu Inn the Traveler wins over the aloof Xiao, Conqueror of Demons, with almond tofu; on Mt. Hulao they placate Mountain Shaper after freeing a trespasser encased in amber; and on Mt. Aocang the enraged Cloud Retainer — who vows to destroy Liyue Harbor in retribution — is calmed with a well-argued "contract" of food offerings.

With the adepti persuaded of their innocence, the Traveler returns to Childe, who reports that the Qixing have locked away the Exuvia, Rex Lapis's divine remains. When Paimon lets slip that they came to meet The Seven, Childe takes careful note — and promises a contact who can get them to the body.

Childe's contact turns out to be Zhongli, the impossibly knowledgeable consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, who intends to give Rex Lapis a proper send-off: the Rite of Parting. Since the consultant never carries mora, Childe becomes the wallet and the Traveler the errand-runner for the preparations. First on the list is noctilucous jade, which Zhongli selects by testing paper-thin samples in a giant cooking pot in Dadaupa Gorge.

The shopping list grows stranger and more revealing. Silk-flower perfumes are offered to the Statue of The Seven; the Cleansing Bell is retrieved from Madame Ping, a kindly grandmother whose teapot conceals an adeptal realm; ceremonial kites come from Granny Shan, one of the last keepers of Liyue's old traditions. At Bubu Pharmacy, the zombie girl Qiqi demands help hunting a "cocogoat" (coconut milk, it turns out), and her employer Baizhu prices the Everlasting Incense at three million mora — which Childe pays, shortly after his attempt to recruit the Traveler as an informant is flatly rebuffed. Behind everyone's back, he learns from Ekaterina that the Exuvia is hidden in the Golden House.

Every errand displays Zhongli's uncanny intimacy with gods, contracts and Liyue's oldest customs. As the preparations conclude, the Qixing's emissary Ganyu appears at a back-alley tavern bearing a rare invitation from Ningguang to the Jade Chamber. Zhongli urges the Traveler to accept and promises to wait for them at Dihua Marsh.

On the way to the Jade Chamber the Traveler meets Keqing, the Qixing's pragmatic Yuheng, and is then received by Ningguang, who speaks frankly of gods, archons and the Fatui. Gathering glaze lilies with Zhongli afterwards, the Traveler learns that Ganyu is half-adeptus and has watched over Liyue Harbor for 3,700 years. But the harbor descends into chaos: adepti and Qixing finally confront each other while Ningguang cracks down on the Fatui — and Childe slips away toward the Golden House.

There the Traveler duels the Harbinger, who plunges a hand into the Exuvia and finds no Gnosis inside. Defeated even after unleashing his Delusion and his Foul Legacy transformation, Childe resorts to his backup plan: with replicated Sigils of Permission he awakens Osial, the ancient god of the vortex sealed beneath Guyun. Adepti, Qixing and Millelith unite against the threat — Keqing leads the defense, three adepti man the Guizhong Ballistas, and Xiao, Ganyu and Madame Ping lend the Traveler their blessings — until Ningguang sacrifices the Jade Chamber itself, crushing Osial back into the sea.

At Northland Bank the Traveler finds Zhongli standing with Signora and Childe — and the truth: Zhongli is Morax, the Geo Archon. His "death" was staged to test whether Liyue could stand without its god; satisfied, he fulfills his "contract to end all contracts" with the Tsaritsa and hands over his Gnosis. Liyue mourns at the Rite of Parting, unaware its god has quietly retired — and Zhongli points the Traveler toward Inazuma, sealed off under its Archon's Vision Hunt Decree.

After a brief journey hunting an Abyss Herald alongside the enigmatic Dainsleif, the Traveler takes a commission from Ganyu and finds, deep in a ruin, a defiled Statue of The Seven hanging upside down beside a dead Treasure Hoarder. Rejoining Dainsleif, they hunt Abyss Order cells around Jueyun Karst; fighting at his side unlocks a fragment of the Traveler's lost memory of Khaenri'ah — the godless nation destroyed by the gods five hundred years ago, whose wandering "Ruin Guards" were once its mortal weapons, the Field Tillers.

A recovered talisman lays out the Order's plan: graft Osial's severed limbs onto the defiled statue and crown it with the eye of the first Field Tiller to construct a mechanized god. Barbara's account of the "Tyrant's Final Fury" and the testimony of the wolf god Andrius — whom they rescue mid-corruption ritual with Razor's help after Rosaria raises the alarm — point to the dormant machine in Stormterror's Lair. Dainsleif extracts its eye and takes it into custody.

Returning to destroy the statue, they corner the Abyss Herald — until a sword-stroke interrupts them: the Traveler's own sibling, now leader of the Abyss Order. The sibling exposes Dainsleif as the Twilight Sword, Khaenri'ah's cursed royal guard, refuses to abandon their war against fate, and vanishes through a portal with Dainsleif in pursuit. Left behind, the Traveler resolves to press on to Inazuma — certain now that the twins will be reunited.