The Weapon Master Shall Never Die Bare-Handed in Genshin Impact [436]

Jia Changjiang’s hearty declaration lit up the entire tavern. The crowd inside grew even more excited.

It wasn’t the first time he’d shown this kind of generosity.

And besides, whenever something happened at the tavern—whether it was a hilichurl raid or a slime outbreak—Jia Changjiang was always the first to jump in and help.

To the regular patrons of Angel’s Share, Jia Changjiang left a solid impression.

“Cheers!” Jia Changjiang raised his glass.

“Cheers!!!”

Everyone else in the tavern lifted their drinks in unison.

Charles quietly returned behind the counter.

Sure, every time Jia Changjiang showed up, the bar's mood would lift, sales would spike, and Charles’s numbers would see a healthy bump—but...

Things also got very loud whenever Jia Changjiang was around.

The man drank and chatted with the other patrons, his laughter carrying across the room.

And then—after several rounds of drinks—

The alcohol had clearly started to get to him.

One of the older regulars, looking curious, leaned over and asked, “Jax, what’s with those clothes you and Lumine are wearing today? You headed to some banquet or what?”

“Banquet?” Jia Changjiang waved his hand, visibly tipsy. “Who’s throwing banquets these days?”

“And anyway, if you ask me... so long as there’s food and wine, anywhere can be a banquet.”

He swirled the drink in his hand. “Am I right or am I right?”

“This getup’s way too fussy, honestly. Wearing it once in a while is fine, but every day? No way I’m putting up with that.”

His grumbling made the folks around him glance over with amused expressions.

“But you actually pull it off,” someone said. “If it were anyone else, they’d look ridiculous dressed like that—totally not noble at all.”

“Yeah, if you and Lumine hadn’t opened your mouths, we might’ve really thought you were nobles from out of town.”

The old regular’s comment drew a wave of laughter and agreement.

“He’s got a point!”

“What a shame…”

“Seriously…”

“TMD,” Jia Changjiang said bluntly. “You all looking down on me, huh?”

“I’m telling you, my Jia family, if you trace us back far enough—hell, we were dukes and princes! Why shouldn’t I count as a noble?”

He widened his eyes and stared down the man in front of him.

“Oh come on, who’s ever seen a noble like you?”

The entire tavern burst into laughter.

“Now look at Master Diluc—that’s what a noble looks like!”

“Peh.”

Jia Changjiang downed a few large gulps. “My family name goes way back—to emperors and sovereigns, no less.”

As he spoke, he pulled off his gloves, dipped a finger in his drink, and wrote the character 【賈】 on the table.

Then he sketched a symbol-like figure beside it.

A diagram.

“See that? Jia! That’s my surname!”

He tapped the character with his finger, cheeks tinged red from the drink. “That’s the oldest way of writing it from my homeland…”

“‘Atop it rests the Western Bird, a symbol of the Flame Emperor, born from Xihua… Offered upon the ancestral foundation, to shape the world…’”

He recited this with steady pride. “The phoenix sings, and the noble houses flourish. Ours was the phoenix clan!”

His storytelling tone had a rhythm to it—boisterous, but also reverent.

Still, someone nearby raised a doubtful brow. “But you don’t act like a noble, do you? Aren’t nobles supposed to have a ton of etiquette and manners...?”

“Also, I’ve never heard you brag about noble blood or anything.”

“Manners? Of course we have them.”

Jia Changjiang, mellow from the drink, explained cheerfully, “Back home, there are rules for everything… But we just call that upbringing.”

“As for bloodlines?”

“There’s another saying where I’m from.”

He tilted his glass again.

“Wáng hóu jiàng xiàng, níng yǒu zhǒng hū?”
(‘Why should nobility be determined by birth?’)

He chuckled.

“Anyone who left a family name behind in my homeland—they were people of note.”

“My homeland doesn’t give a damn about bloodlines!”

“Relying on lineage? That’s just clinging to the faded embers of the past.” Jia Changjiang grinned. “If you wanna talk about ancestors—everyone back home is a descendant of the Flame Emperor and the Yellow Emperor!”

“And bloodlines? Heh.”

He stopped there.

Because where he came from…

Only pets cared about pedigree.

Jia Changjiang didn’t say it outright—just cut himself off and kept drinking.

There are some kinds of pride that wear ceremony like a mask—shallow, clinging to bygone glory.

And there are some kinds of pride that live in your bones.

From the heart of the Middle Kingdom, envoys once came from the four corners of the world.

Humble, gentle on the surface...

But to her, there were only two things in this world:

Her—and everything else.

If you’re not first—then aren’t you last?

Who could accept that?

She had sat on the chessboard of the world for millennia. Everything else may have changed, fallen to dust…

But she remained.

A person can live without pride.

But a nation? A nation cannot live without pride in its bones.

Jia Changjiang drank in silence now, his earlier bluster receding.

He sat straight-backed at the table.

Some around him looked as though they still wanted to argue—but...

When he spoke of his homeland, there was a weight in his voice that made the words hard to challenge.

It was as if something immense stood behind him, holding up his spine.

“All right, enough of that,” Jia Changjiang laughed, lifting his glass again. “Drink!”

“Don’t just sit there. You’ve got half a glass left—what, saving it to raise goldfish in?”

He hollered at the drunken crowd around him.

Completely unaware that in a shadowed corner of the tavern, someone had been watching him closely ever since that speech.

“Heh.”

...

Late into the night.

Jia Changjiang sat calmly at the table, watching another group stumble out the door after losing their battle with the drink, clutching their mouths and heading off to pay the bill.

He snorted.

That’s the best they’ve got, and they thought they could outdrink Jia Changjiang?

He was someone who could go toe-to-toe with Barbatos, the God of Wine himself. And these guys thought they had a shot?

Hmm?

Wait… what kind of god was Barbatos again?

Jia Changjiang sat still for a moment—then suddenly slumped forward, his face landing flat on the table.

The next moment, loud snores thundered through the tavern.

“Can’t believe Jia Greenskin actually passed out drunk…” Lumine muttered. “I thought his stomach was a bottomless pit…”

She grunted as she struggled to drag him, Paimon helping her heft the dead weight of Jia Changjiang’s body, eventually managing to cram him into the Serenitea Pot.

Lumine had already made up her mind to meet with the Lawrence nobles tomorrow.

After climbing into the pot herself, she stood before the mirror in their room, adjusting her outfit.

“Alright—face, check. Clothes, check. Accessories, check…”

She gave herself a once-over.

“I totally look like a noble, don’t I?”

Then, making a face, she grumbled, “And if I just don’t open my mouth, apparently I really look the part. That whole drunk crowd at Angel’s Share is full of nonsense…”

Lumine crossed her arms, displeased. “Big bro is literally the Abyss Order’s prince, okay?”

“Round it up a little, and that makes me a princess, doesn’t it?”

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This is a fan translation of 武器大师在原神绝不死于徒手 by 徐人双 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!