Jiang Bai added a few more logs to the fire, coaxing the flames higher.
He had originally thought he might catch a glimpse of something related to himself—but in the end, nothing appeared.
Maybe he had arrived in this place long after the fall of the ancient kingdom. Or maybe his story simply hadn't been recorded at all.
Or perhaps he was just an insignificant part of it—not worthy of being remembered.
There were too many possibilities.
Still… how exactly did I end up in that river?
Yes, he was now fairly certain that he had been frozen in ice before.
He didn't know how or why he'd been frozen, or how he'd ended up in that hilichurl tribe. But the fact that he'd once been trapped in ice—that much was no longer in doubt.
He just wasn't sure where that had happened. Was it really in the hilichurl village, as he'd suspected?
Or somewhere else entirely?
But the real question was—how did he fall?
Did the ice layer simply crack on its own? Or had something happened—something he didn't know about—that caused it to break?
Or was it just a fluke, some chunk of ice giving way?
---
Foot of Dragonspine, Base Camp
At the base camp, everyone was talking about the explosion that had just erupted from the mountaintop.
Many of them had lived here for decades, even built homes nearby—but never, not once, had anything like this occurred.
First of all, no one known to them had ever managed to reach the summit. And even if they had, no one knew what was actually up there—let alone how something of that scale could've happened.
Was it an accident? Or something… manmade?
Could it have been the work of some kind of monster?
Nervous speculation rippled through the camp.
Wen Yuan was among the uneasy crowd.
He was one of Yelan's intelligence operatives—working directly under her command.
He'd been dispatched to Dragonspine on her orders to investigate anything related to Jiang Bai.
Yelan had theorized that Jiang Bai had come from the mountain—very likely frozen beneath the ice, and somehow ended up falling into an underground river that carried him all the way to Liyue.
But there's always a reason behind every event. And Wen Yuan's instincts told him that Jiang Bai's fall into the water wasn't just some random accident. Something had to have happened—something that triggered the collapse of the ice trapping him.
That was why Wen Yuan had stayed at the base camp all this time, trying to find someone—anyone—who might know something.
And he had, slowly, begun to piece together a few useful clues from the chaos.
For instance, about a month and a half ago, a minor avalanche had occurred somewhere on the mountain. A loud crash had been reported in the area, and those who checked it out said it was caused by an ice collapse.
Wen Yuan had tried to visit the site himself, hoping to uncover some traces.
But that avalanche had buried the entire area under tons of snow. If there had been any clues, they were now lost beneath the drifts.
Around the same time, another adventurer reported that a group of hilichurls inside a mountain cave had been acting strangely—more aggressive than usual.
But that was just the adventurer's gut feeling, and didn't hold much weight.
Then there was another rumor—an adventurer claimed he saw someone with golden hair sitting on top of a Ruin Guard, seemingly controlling it.
But he only caught a fleeting glimpse. When he rubbed his eyes and looked again, there was no one there—only the Ruin Guard, now fully aware of his presence and preparing to attack.
He'd laughed it off later, chalking it up to hallucinations from the cold.
All of that had been before.
As for now—while recent intel about Dragonspine was scarce, this explosion might be connected.
One well-known adventurer in the camp—Cartis—had recently attempted to scale the mountain, challenging himself to reach the summit.
Just two days ago, a group from the Knights of Favonius had also gone up.
And today, the mountaintop exploded.
Wen Yuan suspected the blast had something to do with the Knights of Favonius.
Maybe they were running an experiment. Or maybe they were fighting some dangerous creature.
Even if it involved Mondstadt's internal affairs, Dragonspine bordered Liyue, and for the sake of Liyue's safety, he had to investigate.
In fact, this mission now took precedence over his search into Jiang Bai's origins.
He wrote a letter and tied it to a carrier pigeon, sending word back to Liyue Harbor.
Then he began packing his gear—getting ready to climb the mountain himself and figure out what exactly had happened.
Plenty of other adventurers were also eager to find out what had gone on up there, so tagging along with them wouldn't raise any suspicion.
---
Halfway Up the Mountain
By now, the avalanche had completely stopped.
Once he was certain there'd be no further collapses, Kaeya resumed his climb toward the summit.
Even though he'd been part of the group responsible for the explosion, he still needed to go up and see the results for himself.
He hadn't gone far when another blast rang out from above.
This one, however, was different—it lacked the sheer intensity of the previous one. It was more like… a string of leftover firecrackers, suddenly reigniting.
Not powerful. Not dangerous.
Kaeya paused and glanced up at the snowy cliffs.
The mountain wall had once been covered in a thick layer of snow, but after the earlier avalanche, only a thin sheet remained.
That little layer wasn't nearly enough to cause another slide.
After confirming it was safe, he continued climbing.
At that moment, Klee was hurling bombs at the shattered remains of the Skyfrost Nail.
She'd said she was going to blow up the nail again, and she meant it. No hesitation, no compromise.
Her lips were pressed in a tight line, her whole face trying its best to look fierce.
But her eyes were far too round. No matter how she tried to glare, she just looked… adorably angry.
Albedo stood nearby, watching over her to make sure she stayed safe.
Even if there weren't any monsters around that could pose a threat to Klee, that didn't mean it was without danger.
Flying debris, shards of ice from the blasts—any one of those could be a risk.
One after another, Klee kept tossing her bombs. Though they were powerful, they couldn't quite match the massive detonation from earlier. Against the remnants of the Skyfrost Nail, they didn't do much more than split a few already-cracked pillars.
Only the weakest fragments crumbled apart.
Finally, when Klee had worn herself out from all the throwing, Albedo patted her head and lifted her into his arms.
Curled up against him, Klee looked thoroughly defeated.
Her bombs—so reliable, so trusty—had failed her this time.
"Klee's bombs didn't work…"
"What do you mean they didn't work?" Albedo said gently. "It's thanks to your bombs that we were able to shatter that big nail at all."
His voice was warm, full of affirmation.
"But that's not the same…" Klee pouted and shook her head.
It wasn't her bombs that did the real damage. It was just plain gunpowder—not something she'd invented herself.
"Then how about we go home and work on designing even stronger bombs?"
"Yeah! Klee's gonna make super awesome bombs next time!"
---
T/N: ANGRY KLEEE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa