The reason she left the Jar Shop and returned directly to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor instead of going to Wanmin Restaurant to see Xiangling was to test her new tools.
She had pulled these items from the Jar Shop but had never tried them before.
The priority was to test what came out of the shop.
"Uh."
Hearing their director's words, Old Meng froze.
What kind of experiment did she need him to participate in?
Also, what was that dark rectangular box the director was holding? He had never seen such a thing. It was bizarre.
And the staff in the director's hand... why did it give him such a strange feeling?
The next second, Old Meng's eyes landed on the egg with fiery red patterns in Hu Tao's other hand.
His face filled with shock. "Director, where did you get this egg? What kind of beast is it? An egg with red patterns... that is very rare."
He knew about pet eggs. Many beasts in the wild laid eggs to reproduce.
But a red egg like this? He had never seen one.
How had his director come back from her trip with so many things he could not understand?
"Mm, this is a fire dragon egg."
Hearing Old Meng's words, Hu Tao tossed the Charmander egg lightly in her hand. "It can hatch into a fire dragon."
The shopkeeper had said this egg had three stages.
That should be small fire dragon, medium fire dragon, and large fire dragon.
Thinking of how she would soon have a fire dragon as a pet, Hu Tao was thrilled.
This was a fire dragon, after all.
Any creature with the word "dragon" in its name was never weak.
Old Meng: "???????"
Seeing Hu Tao's excited expression, Old Meng's face filled with question marks.
He stared, dumbfounded, at the egg in his director's hand.
What? A fire dragon egg?
Where would a fire dragon come from?
He had never heard of any fire dragons in the Liyue region.
All he knew was that there were Rock Lizards near Tianqiu Valley.
Every one of them possessed terrifying strength, and countless adventurers spoke of them with fear.
Some people had tried to capture Rock Lizards as pets. Nine out of ten died trying.
Over time, people avoided Rock Lizards like the plague.
But there were still some bold enough to set their sights on Rock Lizard eggs.
Some had successfully stolen Rock Lizard eggs. Each one sold for an unimaginable price.
Today, his director had come back from Wuwang Hill in a rush.
And now, in the evening, she returned holding a large black rectangular box he did not recognize, plus cradling a pet egg.
And she was calling it a fire dragon egg?
Old Meng was completely baffled. Where in Liyue would fire dragons come from?
Mondstadt did have a dragon, but that was a Wind Dragon.
But no one had ever heard of dragon eggs.
Yet his director had no reason to lie. She always meant what she said.
For a moment, Old Meng fell into deep thought.
Where did his director get this fire dragon egg?
"What? A fire dragon egg?"
"Is that real? Director, where did you get it?"
The conversation between Hu Tao and Old Meng immediately drew the attention of the other Wangsheng employees.
A plainly dressed young woman and another elderly person came over, their eyes wide with shock.
If they had heard correctly, Director Hu Tao had just said the egg in her hand was a fire dragon egg.
"Of course it is real."
Hu Tao grinned. "Why would I lie to you? You will never guess where I got this dragon egg!"
Thinking of how the dragon egg had come from the Jar Shop, Hu Tao felt amazed.
That Jar Shop was truly magical. It even had something like this.
She had never heard of fire dragons before.
Yet now, the fire dragon egg in her hand had cost only 100,000 Mora. If her acquaintances knew, their jaws would drop to the floor.
All thanks to the Jar Shop.
And that mysterious shopkeeper... she still did not know which nation he came from.
To be able to sell such magical jars... it was too incredible.
She had not traveled all of Teyvat. Teyvat was too vast.
If not for Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, she would have gone traveling long ago.
Though she felt even a lifetime of travel would not be enough to see all of Teyvat.
Seeing Hu Tao speak so confidently, the three employees exchanged glances.
Looking at the fire dragon egg in Hu Tao's hand, all three fell silent.
Director Hu Tao was usually mischievous, but on matters like this, she would not deceive them. There was no need.
Old Meng paused for a moment, his expression complicated. "Director, where did you get this fire dragon egg? Are you sure it is a fire dragon?"
"You were not scammed, were you?"
Old Meng added that last line internally.
How could his director be so sure this egg was from a fire dragon?
There was not a single fire dragon in all of Liyue...
If he remembered correctly, when the director returned from Wuwang Hill, she came back empty-handed.
Then, after returning to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor in Liyue, she went out again. Now she was back. It had only been a few hours.
In such a short time, his director obtained a fire dragon egg?
Old Meng suspected his director had been scammed and brought back some fake item.
After all, Liyue had no fire dragons. No one had ever seen one.
It was impossible that the director had encountered an unknown fire dragon in such a short time and, by sheer luck, obtained a fire dragon egg.
Ridiculous.
The more Old Meng thought about it, the more he became convinced his director had been conned.
Thinking this, Old Meng felt exasperated.
"Even though I have never seen a fire dragon, I trust the shopkeeper's word."
Hearing Old Meng, Hu Tao blinked her beautiful plum-blossom eyes and tossed the Charmander egg lightly. "A mysterious Jar Shop has appeared in Liyue. It sells jars for 100,000 Mora each. Inside the jars are all sorts of strange things. I pulled this dragon egg from one of those jars."
Old Meng: "....."
The other two Wangsheng employees: "....."
So that was how the fire dragon egg came about.
At that moment, all three became certain.
Their director had been scammed...
It did not make sense. Their director was so smart. How could she be deceived?
And by such an obviously flawed trick, no less.
If she had been fooled by a Rock Lizard egg, they could have understood. At least that would have been traceable.
Rock Lizard eggs actually existed.
But this was a fire dragon egg!
Who had ever seen a fire dragon?
Besides the Wind Dragon in Mondstadt, no one had ever seen a dragon egg.
As for the mysterious Jar Shop Hu Tao mentioned, they instinctively ignored it.
"What? You do not believe me?"
Seeing their strange expressions, Hu Tao pouted. "I told you, it is a magical Jar Shop. Before I went, someone pulled a Vision from one of those jars. If you do not believe me, you can go check tomorrow. Or ask around."
"And I did not just pull this dragon egg. I got other fun stuff too. I need you to help me test them out."
"Do not say I did not look after you. If you do not go open jars, you will regret it later."
"Director."
Hearing Hu Tao's words, Old Meng smiled bitterly. "According to you, each jar costs 100,000 Mora. That means you bought this dragon egg for 100,000 Mora. How can we believe that? Even the cheapest pet egg costs hundreds of thousands or even millions of Mora. And you got a fire dragon egg for 100,000..."
"Ugh, explaining this to you is like playing a lute to a cow."
Seeing Old Meng still did not believe her, Hu Tao sighed. "Forget it. I am going to test this interesting tool. Just cooperate. Today, I will open your eyes."
With that, she raised the Soul Staff in her hand and knocked it down on Old Meng's head.
This Soul Staff could knock a person's soul right out of their body.
She figured this was the most convincing tool. They would have no choice but to believe her!
Old Meng: "????"
At Hu Tao's sudden action, Old Meng's face filled with question marks.
What was the director doing?
But the next second, he felt his entire body become weightless.
He clearly sensed his body rising. Hu Tao, who had been standing in front of him, suddenly looked shorter.
No, it was not that she became shorter. He had become taller.
And he could see his own body.
At once, Old Meng's eyes widened in disbelief.
He looked around frantically, his expression turning to terror. His soul had left his body.
Did souls not only leave bodies when someone died?
Had the director knocked him to death with one strike??
"Ahhh!"
While Old Meng's soul floated in the air, the two other Wangsheng employees stared at the hovering Old Meng, eyes wide with horror.
They were actually seeing a soul.
Although they worked at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and were used to dealing with the dead, those were corpses, not souls.
Dealing with souls was the director's job.
And why had the director knocked Old Meng's soul out with one staff strike?
One of the employees stammered in terror. "Director, the director... knocked Old Meng to death."
Hu Tao: "....."
Hearing this, Hu Tao's eyelid twitched. She looked exasperated.
Why did these people panic so easily?
"This is a Soul Staff. It can knock a person's soul out of their body. You have not been knocked to death!"
Hu Tao looked up at the floating Old Meng with annoyance. "You work at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. It is just a soul leaving the body. What are you panicking about? Anyone I hit with this staff will have their soul knocked out."
Hovering in midair, the terrified Old Meng heard Hu Tao's words and froze.
He was not dead?
He raised his hands and examined himself, swallowing hard. "I am not dead?"
"Nonsense."
Hearing Old Meng's words, Hu Tao rolled her eyes. "Do I look like someone who would knock her own employees to death?"
"Phew, I am not dead. That is good."
Hearing Hu Tao's confirmation, Old Meng immediately sighed in relief.
He was not dead.
That was all that mattered.
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