Thousands of years ago, before I even knew what a yaksha and barely knew what a god was, I was a wind spirit. I was wild, uncontrolled, quick as lightning. I thought he could do anything then. I flew from city to city in a matter of minutes, country to country in hours. I needed no sustenance although I often stole food from frightened people to gorge on. I was free, but what a freedom it was. I had no control in his life, no sense of purpose. As such, I was almost always bored.
The world as I perceived it then was very similar geographically to how it is now. Most of the ethnic groups resided in the same location then as they did now. There were many countries of humans, a few large cities with small villages surrounding them. Despite this, the world was much darker. There were no seven to worship. Instead people vied to worship hundreds of their own gods, some real, some manmade. Believers were scattered all over Teyvat, with people in what was now Inazuma worshipping Havria, believers in Schneznaya worshipping Murata. Immigration was much more common due to the constant warring between gods. Huge swaths of land would be destroyed at a time, leaving thousands of refuges to travel to another land, with which they brought their gods. The battles between gods were reflected in the mortals, who fought each other frequently. If one god destroyed another, it often lead to lynchings of the believers of that god. I remember when Barbatos killed Decarabian and usurped his throne, many of the cultists of Decarabian were tortured to death. I can't entirely blame Barbatos's worshippers though…
The world didn't have any order, any cooperation or sense of perseverance. Husband fought against son, brother fought against brother. I only really noticed this after my enslavement, since before I was self absorbed and didn't pay any attention to the humans.
Because of the boredom, I was much less cautious than other spirits my age. When I was less than a century old, I ran into who I would later call my master. I can't quite remember his name, it was too long ago. It was another spirit, not much older than me, but much more powerful. I dumbly challenged him to a duel. Winner takes the loser as his slave. Don't look at me like that Aether, it was a different time. I didn't have any grand plans to enslave the world, I just wanted someone I could control and order around, force another to fetch everything I could possibly ask for.
I didn't have much fighting prowess since I hadn't had the need to fight before. All I did was wander the world, occasionally giving mortals a spook. My master almost immediately won. With one blow, he nearly knocked me out. I attempted to shift into a faster more invisible wind and fly away, but he grabbed onto me. He wanted to prevent me from being able to escape, so he molded me. Gave me the form of a human. This prevented me from changing back into a wind. Even now, I can't take on my most base form of a humble wind.
My power was more than quartered once I was forced into that form. Despite this, I was still stronger than most humans. My master used me as his guard dog. He aspired to godhood, wanted the adoration and worship of all humans. His base was south of Mount Tianheng, in what is now Liyue. Every house had a shrine devoted to him, more than three quarters of humans prayed to him. But it wasn't enough. He knew in their hearts, humanity wasn't loyal to him. That was where I came in. I enforced his will. If I found someone muttering against him, blaspheming as he called it, I killed them on the spot. Random executions were commonplace. I would prowl the city, waiting until I found someone who was a drain on society. A drunk, a perverted old man, or a sick child. No one who would be missed. I would bring them to the front of the town and spear them through the heart. Please don't say anything Aether, I know it was terrible. At least I gave them the mercy of instant death. Whenever my master came in person, he would drive a nail through every finger joint they had until they died from shock. I would hoist the victim's head on a spear in the front of the town to send a message. Don't say anything bad against the god of this town. Don't conspire against him. Otherwise, this will happen to you and your family.
"Liyue" then had a much different culture than what it has now, even before my master took it over. Rex Lapis was the one who introduced the idea of the contract to the humans. Before that, every family worked to produce what they needed on their own. They would all produce their own crops, meat, and clothes, with minimal trade. If there was a neighboring family that was short on something, they'd receive it from someone who produced excess for free. Otherwise, it'd be stored practically infinitely. In other words, it was disgusting. The common man would call luxuries what we call common nowadays. There were no silken clothes, no kites for the children, no kameras. "Liyue" needed control to make it more. Despite what you would think, my master did less than nothing for "Liyue". He drove people apart. His sole goal was to glut his own ego and destroy anyone who refused to bow down before him. He wasn't anything like Rex Lapis.
Xiao finished nibbling on his almond tofu and slammed his chopsticks on the table. "I think you should go." he said.
"We just got started though!" Aether complained. He looked up at Xiao pleadingly.
Xiao shook his head. "I've had enough talking today. Plus, I can sense that I can't hold back my karma any more. It's leaking. I don't want you to be in danger." Aether looked at him dubiously. "You can come back tomorrow." Aether looked happy and gave Xiao a quick hug before leaving his house. "Bye Xiao!"
"Goodbye." The yaksha smiled a little at him. As soon as the boy left however, that smile changed into a grimace. Xiao held himself upright with the table. He stumbled towards his cabinet. There was a pretty flower arrangement on top. Silk flowers, qingxin, and one glaze lily in the center. Ganyu had collected it for him and given it to him, with a card attached to it reading "Get well soon!" Ignoring the silk flowers and glaze lily, Xiao ripped out the qingxin and crushed them between his fingers. He let the juice drip into his mouth. Calming down a little, he sat down onto the floor and pondered what he should tell Aether about tomorrow.