Genshin x Minecraft: Building the Temple of Virtue

Neither Ryen nor any of the others knew what was happening in the Abyss, or in the MC World. Ryen himself had nearly forgotten that the MC World still had unfinished business.

He had spent the evening watching Nilou’s dance with Nahida at his side, and whatever else could be said about the night, that part had been worth every moment. Nilou’s reputation as Sumeru’s most cherished jewel was not an exaggeration. Her dancing was elegant without rigidity, fluid without carelessness , like a butterfly that knew exactly what it was doing among flowers, weightless and deliberate at once.

Watching her, one felt the strange dual quality of something simultaneously distant and close. At first glance: a cold, transcendent grace, the kind that belonged to moonlight on high water, untouchable by nature. At second glance: something familiar, unhurried, like a roadside flower nodding in a passing breeze.

Ryen did not pretend to understand the higher languages of art. He was an ordinary person and had never felt the need to dress that up in better words. He could not offer the kind of layered appreciation that Zhongli would bring to a Yun Han performance , the sort of commentary that said more than most people heard in a year. He had no frame for that.

What he could say was that it was beautiful, and he meant it completely. He thought that was enough. Art did not require a vocabulary of elevation. It only needed one thing: to disturb the still surface of a quiet life with something that catches in the memory long after the moment is gone. When the ordinary days returned and blurred together, the mind could reach back and find that image , Nilou in motion among the flowers , and the impression would still be there, sharp and clean.

That was all art had ever meant to him. The refined had their refined appreciation. Zhongli could watch a Yun Han opera and extract philosophy from the silences between lines. Ryen could watch Nilou dance and offer her a genuine thumbs-up afterward. Both were, as people said, enjoyments accessible to all.

And if pressed, he would admit privately that between a dance master like Nilou and a newcomer like Ganyu performing side by side, he would enjoy Ganyu’s more. Anyone who wanted to argue this with him was welcome to start, and welcome to receive a single direct response to that argument.

Art was a framework. Frameworks were his to dismantle and reassemble as he pleased.

Sabzeruz Festival was not only Nilou. Other performers from the Grand Bazaar took the stage through the evening , residents, members of the Zubayr Theater, voices and movements that filled the hours between Nilou’s opening and closing pieces. But Nilou’s dance was the spine around which everything else was built, and when her final steps ended and the music fell quiet, the festival ended with it.

Tomorrow would mark the beginning of Sumeru’s holiday period. Ryen had a reasonable guess that most citizens would spend a significant portion of it queueing to take their designated turn hitting Azar, but that was their business.

The group filtered out of the Grand Bazaar and went their separate ways into the still-lit city. Sumeru City had not slept tonight , lanterns everywhere, voices carrying through the warm air. Venti swept Diluc and the others off in the direction of somewhere with good wine. Jean and a few others were running on less energy and turned toward their rooms. Most of the group, however, followed Nahida back to the Sanctuary of Surasthana.

The moment the doors closed behind them, Nahida let the illusion drop.

She had been composed and measured all evening in public , the dignified bearing of a god receiving her festival. The second the lock clicked, something entirely different took over: she was bouncing lightly on her heels, face open and unguarded, the smile of a child who had been holding her excitement in a contained space for hours and had finally been given the door.

The Sanctuary had changed considerably since anyone had last seen its older form. It had once been a place with no real provisions for rest , there had been no reason for any. Nahida had lived there as a prisoner for five hundred years, and no one had seen fit to furnish a prison for comfort. That was the old version.

Now it had been remade into something that functioned as a proper residence. Nahida’s own quarters. Several guest rooms, built with a specific category of visitor in mind , namely, the people currently filing through the entrance. Alhaitham and the others understood that Nahida would likely be spending most of her time in Liyue with Ryen and the others from here on. But intent was a form of meaning regardless of frequency, and the Sanctuary was her space to return to.

Nahida dragged Klee over to help sort through the gifts that had accumulated over the course of the day. Sabzeruz Festival did not technically have a tradition of gift-giving. But this was also Nahida’s birthday, and Zhongli and the others had taken the occasion seriously. The unwrapping had begun before anyone sat down.

Ryen dropped himself onto the sofa with considerable commitment and pulled Hu Tao into his arms, pressed his face against her neck, and breathed.

”Walking around with all of you today,” he announced to no one in particular, his voice carrying the muffled quality of someone using a person as a pillow, ”was more exhausting than clearing the Twilight Forest.”

”That was Nahida dragging you, not us,” Lisa said cheerfully, leaning over to poke his cheek. Then, in a quieter register: ”You noticed it at the Akademiya, didn’t you.”

Ryen raised an eyebrow. He glanced briefly at Nahida across the room.

”The one who was watching us?”

”Watching.” Lisa smiled and shook her head. ”Your elemental sense really is dreadful. Someone carrying that dense an Abyss aura was standing right there, and you couldn’t feel a thing?”

Ryen spread one hand in a gesture of complete unapologetic acceptance.

”I’ve said it many times , I have no elemental sense whatsoever. But instinct told me they weren’t there with hostile intent.”

Ningguang settled into the seat on his other side, her voice composed and low.

”Most likely a scout the Abyss Order sent to reconnoitre. Xiao mentioned it to us earlier , he sensed Abyss individuals moving around the gates of Sumeru City. In Liyue and the other nations, the Order hasn’t shown its face in quite some time. Their signature is distinctive enough that the Adepti recognise it immediately. Under any other circumstances, the response would have been immediate. The only reason they were left alone is that today was a day worth keeping clean.”

”Makes sense.”

Ryen’s voice drifted from somewhere in the vicinity of Hu Tao’s shoulder, unhurried.

”Even if Aether was slow to put the pieces together, that enchanted weapon should have given him enough of a jolt to start investigating. The changes in Liyue and the other nations aren’t hidden , a cursory look turns up plenty. He’s probably been anxious for a while now, but the contracts mean the Order can’t touch most of the Alliance’s territory. If they want to learn anything substantial, Sumeru is the only place they can risk coming.”

”Leave them alone. They’re not in our way.”

Hu Tao shifted under him and spoke with the tolerant exasperation of someone who had developed a high threshold for this particular inconvenience.

”Could you finish a thought somewhere that isn’t my neck? It tickles.”

”Fine. Ganyu’s turn.”

Ryen released Hu Tao and opened his arms. Hu Tao immediately wrapped both of hers around him, grinning, and said nothing further.

Jean’s brow creased slightly as she considered the earlier thread.

”Do you think Aether will try to make contact directly?”

”Definitely.”

Ryen settled back.

”Imagine Mondstadt fell under an undying curse five hundred years ago. Everyone you knew was twisted into something monstrous. You spent the entire time searching for a way to undo it.” He looked at Jean. ”Then you found out that we had a solution.”

Jean’s expression clarified.

”Then the Herald who was here today heard what Nahida said , and saw someone cured of the Blight with their own eyes. By now, the entire Abyss Order knows.”

”They can’t oppose us directly. They won’t. So the only path left is contact and negotiation.”

She thought it through, then continued quietly:

”Which means the Order could become a tool we use for specific purposes. Cooperation proper isn’t possible , but for handling certain tasks, the Abyss Order is the most appropriate instrument available.”

Ryen looked at her with something close to pride.

”Jean is getting sharper by the day. That’s exactly the calculation.”

She smiled, the expression soft and focused.

Ryen stretched, let his spine settle, and continued in the same easy register.

”The Abyss Order situation , we handle it when it arrives. Let Aether come to us when he’s ready. In the meantime, let Zhongli and the others know: when he does show up, they’re welcome to put a little pressure on the meeting. Make the opening uncomfortable.”

”Is that a concern?” Jean asked, with a note of real care. ”Lumine, I mean, ”

Ryen waved it off with serene confidence.

”The scoundrel would love nothing more than to watch her brother sweat through an opening negotiation. Tell her about it in advance and she’ll start asking to help design the room layout.”

A pause followed as the group mentally ran Lumine’s established behavioural pattern against this prediction.

The silence was its own answer. Everyone arrived at the same conclusion without needing to say it.

Ningguang gently took hold of Ryen’s arm, her voice quieter now.

”You mentioned at midday , that the Gnosis had changed.”

Ryen’s hand hit his own forehead.

”Right. Thank you for that.”

He sat forward immediately and drew out the Dendro Gnosis. Through the afternoon and into the evening, whatever process had been underway had continued without interruption. What had been a dim, muted glow when he first noticed it was now something that required squinting to look at directly.

”Venti said once that an Archon’s power connects to the health of their nation , the people’s administration, their faith. Most of what he said that day was nonsense, but that one observation seems to have been accurate. The strength of a Gnosis appears to be genuinely tied to these factors.”

”More precisely: to the weight of the people’s wishes.”

He pressed a fingertip lightly to its surface. The light that spilled out reached every corner of the Sanctuary.

”I was thinking about this earlier. Vision charging is based on elemental energy as its foundation. So what is Gnosis charging based on?”

He turned it slowly in his palm.

”Now I think I have an answer. The accumulated wishes of the people.”

He wrapped his hand around it, held it steady, felt what it had become.

”The Dendro Gnosis at this level , setting aside usage conditions entirely , could allow an ordinary person to release power on par with a lower-tier Archon. As raw capability, that is genuinely remarkable. The drawback is that it drains, same as a Vision, and then needs time to rebuild.”

”Once Albedo and the others make a meaningful breakthrough in their work on Vision enhancement, it might be worth adding the Gnosis to their research scope. See what can be carried over.”

Ganyu rested her head against his shoulder with quiet resignation.

”That pace of development concerns me. The Gnosis isn’t a Vision , it needs more careful handling.”

Ryen shrugged, not dismissing her, but not committing to any particular caution either.

He looked across the room toward Nahida, who had been watching the light in his hand from a distance without saying anything, clearly having lost track of Klee and the gift-sorting at some point in the last few minutes.

He beckoned.

She crossed the room in three quick steps, shouldered past Hu Tao without ceremony, and burrowed into his side. Hu Tao did not look offended. She reached over and gave Nahida’s cheek an affectionate squeeze.

Tonight, she was the birthday girl. Different rules applied.

”Did today make you happy?”

Ryen cupped her face in both hands, and she nodded so quickly and with such total conviction that it was almost impossible not to match her energy.

”Happy! This is the most wonderful Sabzeruz Festival I have ever had! Thank you, Ryen, it was perfect. Everything was perfect!”

Ryen’s mouth curved.

”Perfect? You don’t think anything is missing?”

Nahida thought about this with visible sincerity, then shook her head firmly.

”Nothing is missing. It’s complete. It’s perfect!”

He tapped the end of her nose lightly.

”Foolish girl. Isn’t my birthday present missing?”

Nahida blinked. Then she threw both arms around him.

”Ryen is the greatest gift the sky ever sent me! As long as Ryen is here with me, the Festival is perfect!”

Something in his chest softened. He pulled her closer.

”But I already prepared something for you.”

She smiled wider, pressing her face against him.

”Anything you give me , even a blade of grass , I will treasure it forever.”

”This one can’t be treasured in that sense.”

He drew back just far enough to look at her properly, and when he spoke, his voice was deliberate. The lightness had left it entirely.

”This gift is for you, and it is for Sumeru.”

He held her gaze.

”You and Sumeru have both begun again. She deserves the same.”

A breath.

”Don’t you think so , Greater Lord Rukkhadevata... Buer...”

The name hung in the air of the Sanctuary, unfinished, like a door held open.