Xiao's orders were to find the exact cause or Havria's, the god of salt, demise.
She, with her various instruments had brought endless supplies of salt to liyue during the archon war. Although salt was not a particularly important resource, one could not help but notice the inconveniences in its absence.
Because of this, the Geo Archon Zhongli, the main suspect for the cause of Havria's death, had to eliminate all suspicion surrounding him. This, In the "guilty until proven innocent" mindset caused by the distrust of all archons in the war meant finding the cause of Havria's death and pinning the blame on someone else.
Xiao had wandered for days in the labyrinth of Havria's lair, seeing nothing of note except for various devices all used to generate salt. These devices, however, produced meager amounts of salt compared to the quantity that could be seen leaving the trading ports of liyue harbor back when the God of Salt was alive. There had to be something more.
As he made away with a horde of hilichurls he entered a room with a lavishly decorated interior, fully expecting to find another gadget only able to produce salt by the cupful. Instead, Xiao found something unexpected.
The grey box was approximately the size of xiao's head, with one side brightly lit up.
Xiao read the words on the side that was lit up: "League of L3jends"
Directly in front of the box was what appeared to be a slab separated into many squares, with each square having a single symbol on it. At the top right was a circle containing the word "on". Xiao pressed it.
Not long after discovering the box Xiao had followed the tutorial and learned the basic controls of what appeared to be some kind of controllable film or video, not unlike the visions he would see after eating certain wild mushrooms. Maybe this was an archive of some sorts that would provide leads on Havria's death. Xiao pressed on.
After the first few hours Xiao had played the game on the mysterious box convincing himself that it would provide valuable information to benefit his investigation when in actuality, it was a genuinely enjoyable experience. This, however, only lasted for so long.
Up until the twelve hour mark Xiao had seen his teammates in the game as his fellow yaksha, befitting of the number of people per team. He was about to slay another monster when suddenly, 5 enemies all emerged from the nearby brush, finishing him instantly. Disappointed in his own tactical oversight, he was about to apologize to his teammates when one hurled an offensive curse at him through chat. Then one by one more people joined in until everyone, even the opponents were humiliating him.
It was at this moment that something in Xiao's mind snapped. Up until now, there was no real enemy to despise. Xiao often saw the demons and monsters he killed regularly as unintelligent and primitive lower creatures, and thus nothing worth any hatred.
In this case, however, there was an enemy to truly loathe. Nine of them, to be exact, all hurling insults at him. In his boiling fury, Xiao started retaliating with insults of his own.
..
A full hour and thirty minutes of constant back and forth slander later Xiao felt truly defeated. In the brief span of a single League match he had lowered himself from thankless guardian deity to worthless scum.
In a sudden burst of rage Xiao raised his Primordial Jade-Winged Spear to his own throat. The blade almost glistened in excitement as it prepared to skewer the final demon. Right as he was about to free himself from the suffering caused by the revolting game on the accursed gray box a thought flashed through his head:
"If I die, that means I can't play League anymore"
To this day, Xiao is bound to League like incompatible jigsaw puzzle pieces forced to join together. The pieces are under constant extreme stress and agony, yet are nearly impossible to separate.
How is he able to withstand this much suffering without falling to insanity or taking his own life? Many who sympathize with him have their own ideas, but in reality it's just Xiao's
League addiction.