After assigning work to Xilonen, Rios felt a bit bored with nothing to do.
"How about going to watch the personal competition."
This personal competition had Mavuika participating, after all.
He wanted to see how the former Pyro Archon bullied the kids.
With a thought, his body turned into flames and flew toward the spectator area of the arena.
At this moment, the ones competing were Mualani and Kachina; their strengths were fairly evenly matched, and after fighting for a long time, neither had gained the upper hand.
After another round of exchanging blows, the two tacitly stepped back a large step to recover their stamina.
And just at this time, exclamations rang out from the spectator seats.
Mualani and the others looked up to see an orange flame streak across the sky, landing on a solitary seat high up.
The seat specially reserved for the Pyro Archon!
"Rios!"
Seeing the red-haired youth who had been nowhere to be seen earlier come to watch the match, Mualani's eyes widened slightly, a joyful expression appearing on her face.
"This Mualani, she actually dares to get distracted during battle."
Rios waved in Mualani's direction, then sat down in his own seat.
Speaking of which, this seemed to be the first time he had sat in this position; it was surprisingly comfortable.
"Auntie Atea was right; Rios really came to watch my match."
Mualani, who had been somewhat fatigued, suddenly felt her body filled with power: "Kachina, here I come!"
Kachina also picked up her weapon: "I won't lose."
Their clash was even more intense than before, but this time Mualani gained the upper hand, pressing her good friend in the fight.
Kachina knew that continuing to battle normally would only lead to defeat, so she deliberately sold an opening, luring Mualani to attack.
"What a chance!"
Mualani indeed took the bait and attacked Kachina's exposed weakness without hesitation.
However, Kachina dodged away and used this as an opportunity to circle behind Mualani, swinging the golden shovel in her hand to try to send Mualani flying.
"Kachina, I've already seen through your moves."
Mualani had long seen through the other's intentions; as the opponent circled behind her, she unhesitatingly raised her arm, using her elbow to strike toward the girl's abdomen.
At this moment, Kachina was just about to launch her attack and had no time to dodge, getting sent flying directly by the elbow strike and crashing to the ground.
One, two, three...
Several seconds later, Kachina still hadn't gotten up.
"The victor is Mualani!"
"Let us thank the two warriors for their wonderful performance and give them our warmest applause!"
Led by the host, the spectator seats instantly erupted in enthusiastic applause.
Mualani didn't immediately bask in the applause; instead, she walked slowly to Kachina's side and extended her hand: "Kachina, are you okay?"
"I'm fine..." Kachina borrowed the girl's hand to stand up, but her tone was a bit choked.
She had lost again.
"Kachina, you're very strong; everyone present can see that." Mualani patted Kachina's head, comforting her as she said, "You lost this time, but you can win it back next time."
"Mm..." Kachina nodded.
She could feel that her current self was indeed a bit stronger than before.
By the next Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame, she should be able to achieve good results.
She just didn't know if there would even be a next time.
"Thank you everyone for the applause!"
After Kachina's mood improved, Mualani brought her along to thank the audience with shouts.
When she faced in Rios's direction, she even specially made a victory gesture toward him, looking quite smug.
Rios raised an eyebrow, then gave her a thumbs up.
At the same time, he was thinking in his mind: "If Mualani were still a 5-star, would having a 5-star lose to a 4-star like in the plot generate a lot of emotional value from the players?"
Before he transmigrated, he remembered there was a mobile game like that; when pulling from a limited pool and getting gold, the game would specially play an animation of a limited character battling a standard character.
If the limited character won, then you got the limited character.
If the standard character won, then you got skewed to the standard character.
Although Rios hadn't paid attention to that game, when seeing a limited character lose to a standard one, the players' mentalities would definitely explode.
If Rios pulled off something like that, the players' mentalities would definitely explode too.
"Unfortunately, it's only something to think about." Rios didn't have the ability to make miHoYo create such a special gacha animation.
And even if he could pull it off, while the players' mentalities exploded, they'd definitely also think about bombing miHoYo's company headquarters.
At that point, Genshin really couldn't be played anymore.
After the personal competition ended, 5 warriors emerged victorious.
Mavuika from the "Scions of the Canopy," who was clearly the former Pyro Archon but pretending to be a newbie.
Iansan, the fitness coach from the "Collective of Plenty."
Mualani, the rising star of the "People of the Springs."
Likewise from the "People of the Springs," Iansan who had won in the personal competition again after ten years.
And the Traveler from another world.
"Let us give them our warmest applause!"
The host, as always, roused the emotions of the audience in the arena, and the entire stadium instantly resounded with thunderous applause.
"What a shame." Iansan, standing together with the other qualifiers, sighed, "We only advanced from the personal competition and can't participate in the Night Warden Wars."
"Iansan, even without the honors, you can still be proud of your current self." Mavuika comforted her.
"I know..." Iansan gave a helpless bitter smile.
Winning again from the Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame after ten years, but the competition had now lost its original meaning, always leaving her heart feeling empty.
For example, it was like someone finally regaining the championship after many years, but the competition they participated in had turned into a friendly match; even winning the championship didn't have that flavor.
"Auntie Iansan, how about I go ask Rios later to hold the Night Warden Wars again?" Mualani, standing beside her, said.
"This..."
Iansan was stunned for a moment, then shook her head: "If it were before, Rios might have gone along with you. But I can feel that Rios's attitude toward the Night Warden Wars is particularly firm; no matter how much you request, it won't work."
"You still have to try, right." Mualani pouted.
While the people of Natlan were conversing, the Traveler and little Paimon were also conversing.
"Traveler, it seems like the people from the 'People of the Springs' all like to directly call Lord Pyro Archon by Rios." Paimon came to Lumine's ear and asked softly.
"The Pyro Archon was originally from the 'People of the Springs'; to the people there, the Pyro Archon is someone they watched grow up."
After voicing her thoughts, Lumine sensed a gaze falling on her from nearby.
Turning her head to look, she saw the woman with fiery red long hair looking over.
"Traveler, don't forget our agreement."
After Mavuika's reminder, Lumine finally remembered that she had promised the other to talk about some things alone after the competition ended.
The Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame was already over; it was time to keep the appointment.