The Valor’s Afterglow is a mini-world quest series in Genshin Impact that involves a chain of world quests. It occurs in The Chasm: Underground Mines and is related to one of the Chasm Exploration Team members — a young woman named Zhiqiong. She is an adventurer who got the Ministry of Civil Affairs job to explore and draw the map of The Chasm: Underground Mines.
Sections:
- Day 1 – Valor’s Afterglow
- Day 2 – Valor’s Afterglow: Return by Sundown
- Day 3 – Valor’s Afterglow: The Faint Light Remembered
- Story Update Through Exploration
How to Unlock Valor’s Afterglow World Quest
For this mini world quest series to appear and be available to you, you must have completed the Chasm Delvers world quest series, where you are assigned to be part of The Chasm Exploration Team. During the said quest series, you will explore the depths of the underground mines with Zhiqiong and help her draw the map of the tunneling caverns.
Day 1 – Valor’s Afterglow
After the initial survey of the Chasm Exploration Team, when you return to the team’s camp southeast of the Glowing Narrows, you will find Zhiqiong looking a lot better.
Although the incident in The Chasm has come to a close, Zhiqiong is still involved in other exploration work. Best you go check in on her…
Step 1: Talk to Zhiqiong
Paimon warns her not to stop running around the Chasm, or she will end up like she did last time. She assures you that she will not and thank you for your efforts in helping the exploration team. It made the Chasm a lot safer now, and the geological peculiarities have stabilized fairly.
Jinwu and Khedive still need to analyze the mysterious crystal’s wavelength further. A few beacons need to be planted around the Underground Mines to get some of the data needed. Jinwu found the time to put those beacons together, and Zhiqiong needed to put those beacons down in a few specific locations.
Zhiqiong asks you to go with her in setting the beacons down in the marked locations.
Step 2: Place the measuring beacons (5)
You need to put beacons on the southwest of the Underground Waterway, Nameless Ruins, Glowing Narrows, the ruins far south of the Stony Halls, and the cave where the floating crystal is located.
Underground Waterway
Teleport to the Teleport Waypoint in the area and glide down southwest to get to the remnants of some structure. Under some broken floor near flowing water is the spot.
Nameless Ruins
In this area, the spot is right at the center where a dark fog originally existed. Electro and a Pyro Abyss Mage will lurk around the area when you go down to it. You need to defeat them first before you can place the beacon.
Glowing Narrows
You can teleport to the Teleport Waypoint in this area and glide down to the spot near the water.
South of the Stony Halls
After teleporting to the Teleport Waypoint in this area, you will stand across a broken-down tower that a Ruin Grader guards.
The spot where you need to put the beacon is on one of the pillars you can see.
You can defeat the mechanical monster so you can do your tasks without any problem.
Cave with the Floating Crystal
For this area, you can teleport to the southern Teleport Waypoint and walk across the bridging rock to get where the beacon should be placed.
If you put the beacon down here, you can track the movement of the dark mud in the area.
Step 3: Return to the exploration team’s camp at the Chasm.
After placing all five beacons in their respective locations, report back to Jinwu at the exploration team’s camp.
When you arrive at the camp, Zhiqiong is thankful for your help and gives you something as a token of appreciation.
The various geological anomalies have mostly stopped lately, so Zhiqiong needs to make small amendments to her maps. She lets you off for now because it will be a while before you can go and retrieve the beacons.
The quest ends here, and you must wait at least one game reset day to continue on this world quest series.
Day 2 – Valor’s Afterglow: Return by Sundown
You return to the exploration team’s camp in The Chasm the following day and hear Jinwu calling for you. She has an urgent task to ask you, which seems to involve Zhiqiong…
Step 1: Talk to the distressed Jinwu.
Jinwu’s urgent concern is about Zhiqiong, who went to retrieve the beacons but has not returned. Jinwu gave her three extra hours, knowing Zhiqiong’s habit of running around everywhere. But it has been at least five or six hours since.
Jinwu is asking you to help her look for Zhiqiong because that kid respects you, the Traveler. Jinwu does not want to have anyone get in trouble on her watch.
Step 2: Go to the placement sites to look for Zhiqiong (5)
Visit all 5 locations where you placed the beacons the other day, and you might find Zhiqiong or at least clues about where she has gone.
Again, the locations are southwest of the Underground Waterway, Nameless Ruins, Glowing Narrows, ruins far south of the Stony Halls, and the cave where the floating crystal is located.
Zhiqiong cannot be found in all the first 4 locations you visited. You can visit the locations in any order, and the result will be the same. However, at the last beacon location, you will find her dipped in ominous mud and surrounded by monsters.
Step 3: Defeat the monsters around Zhiqiong.
You will have to fight three Riftwolves—one Thundercraven Rifthound and two Thundercraven Rifthound Whelps—with abilities enhanced by the ominous mud.
Make sure to use Blooming Light and clear the oozing concretions first to make this fight easier. You will also need a healer because you will lose HP over time when you get hit by a Rifthound’s attack.
Step 4: Pull Zhiqiong out of the ominous mud and talk to her.
When you try talking to Zhiqiong, she seems to be talking to herself while coughing badly. She apologizes to Jinwu and others and not be disappointed with her. She also talks about a golden city, a black watchtower, and heavenly envoys that have left.
You then decide to take Zhiqiong back to the camp without minding what she is saying.
Step 5: Talk to Jinwu.
Jinwu shares the update on Zhiqiong’s condition that Khedive has given her some medicine and that she has regained consciousness. However, Zhiqiong will not tell Kinwu anything about what happened, so Jinwu asks you instead.
You tell Jinwu that you found Zhiqiong surrounded by monsters while trapped in the black mud. She then dismisses the topic and asks you to deliver a bowl of soup to Zhiqiong and see if she is any better.
Jinwu also decides that she will tell Muning that Zhiqiong can no longer stay underground.
Step 6: Pass Jinwu’s soup to Zhiqiong.
Zhiqiong is sitting under the middle tent in the camp. Go to her and hand over Jinwu’s soup.
After giving the soup, Zhiqiong asks you to thank Jinwu and the others for looking out for her. She then asks you to come back in a bit, promising she will be good as new after she gets some sleep.
The quest ends here, and you must wait at least one game reset day to continue on this world quest series.
Day 3 – Valor’s Afterglow: The Faint Light Remembered
You return to the camp the following day to check up on Zhiqiong.
Step 1: Talk to Jinwu.
When you greet her, the first thing she would say is that if you are looking for Zhiqiong, she has left. Regarding her condition, Khedive did a check-up, but he said it did not look too promising. Jinwu talked with Zhiqiong, but the latter insisted on leaving.
Nothing can make Zhiqiong stay, and now, Jinwu needs to tell Muning about it and get him to organize a search party for Zhiqiong. You volunteer to go and inform Muning of the situation.
Step 2: Talk to Muning about Zhiqiong’s departure.
Travel to the Teleport Waypoint at the entrance of the Chasm and talk to Muning.
Muning shares the news from the Ministry, saying that on account of the invaluable help that her maps have brought to the Huishan Hall, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has decided to make an exception for her and invite her to be formally accepted as a consultant and guide.
The specialist from the Ministry is shocked that Zhiqiong has left the exploration team and decided to put a search and rescue party immediately. Working away from the team is too reckless in her current condition.
You then promised to be on the lookout while on the road. Maybe you’ll bump into her somehow.
Story Update Through Exploration
The world quest series ends on the 3rd day, but with enough exploration, you can still find information about Zhiqiong’s whereabouts.
Step 1: Go to the deepest part of The Chasm: Underground Mines.
For this next part, you need to go to the cavern where the floating crystal pillar—also called the Wish Granter by the miners—can be found. This is the deepest part of the underground mines that the exploration team reached during the initial survey.
From the north Teleport Waypoint of the cavern, walk to the south on the left side by the cave wall until you find an abandoned camp.
Step 2: Look for clues on Zhiqiong’s whereabouts.
On the said camp, you will find a letter that Zhiqiong addressed to the exploration team.
Zhiqiong’s Letter:
I am sincerely sorry for leaving on such short notice. I am grateful for your help along the way, but it’s a pity that I can’t keep working together with you.
Jinwu, please do not feel upset about my departure. I trust that among all the unbecoming and foolhardy young adventurers that you have looked after, I am but one hopeless fool. I hope that I have not been a big headache for you and that although I have left, I have left you with all good memories. If I ever had any family, you would be the one dearest to me… There are so many stories that I have not yet had time to share with you. All I can do is leave some half-finished names on the map. It’s a shame that it was done haphazardly, and I did not get to carry out much background research or better-sounding names for you and the others. Anyway, thank you for taking care of me, but I prefer adventuring alone to being looked after by my seniors.
Mr. Khedive, please forgive my willfulness. I understand that you have your concerns. Maybe it’s just like you said – the secrets hidden in the depths of The Chasm are beyond mere mortals. Maybe that is why the exploration took a toll on me, as I am not blessed with a Vision… But still, I can’t help wondering if those famed adventurers like Leonard, Stanley, and Roald have ever witnessed the same marvel as I – the stone halls of old crawling into the darkness, the dark-purple mud gushing out like lava, the translucent, azure maps of ancient places, and so many other indescribable wonders… Would those great adventurers have backed out for fear of danger, or would they have acted as recklessly as I, persisting in pursuing the inscrutable secrets of the world – even at the price of their common and less-dignified lives? Mr. Khedive, as a scholar and a mere mortal like me, what would your choice be in such a circumstance?
Clitopho, please accept my apology for my previous distrust and willfulness. I do not have it in for you – despite your annoyingly sneaky ways, Treasure Hoarder background, impoliteness to Jinwu, lack of hygiene awareness when making drinks, complete disregard for the safety regulations of the Ministry, and reluctance to heed our warnings no matter the scenario… Despite all your faults, I do not think they matter to me. As your friend, I regret not meeting you earlier.
Muning, I am sorry, but I will not be reporting in at my post. Thank you for all your efforts in helping me land a job in the Ministry. Without you, I would have been thrown out of The Chasm the moment I entered it. Maybe the official offer from the Ministry will arrive after my departure. Please keep it for me. I will treat you to dinner if I ever come back, and do not you forget it!
Traveler, thank you for everything on this trip. You gave me good advice and came to my rescue. For that, I’m forever grateful. It is a shame that I do not know how I can repay you. As someone blessed by the gods, you are bestowed with elemental powers that will aid you in your adventures. Although I might never know the answer, I still wonder how you regard us mere mortals?
In ancient times when heroes and Yakshas fought alongside Rex Lapis, colossal boulders were halved to form the mountains, and giant rocks were cast from the skies to create seabeds. What was the place of the mere mortals like us – whom the gods had neither noticed nor recognized? What are our mundane loves and hatreds, mundane happiness and tragedies, mundane achievements and accomplishments, mundane bonds and relationships… Are all these just something of no consequence in the eyes of the gods? Are ancient gods’ dwellings and those unfathomable scenes far beyond the reach of commonplace human courage?
It may seem disrespectful to ask these questions when Rex Lapis has just left us… But compared with the chosen ones who have gained the gods’ blessings by chance, what are we mere mortals unnoticed by the gods to make of ourselves? We have also obtained dreams by chance and keep pursuing them throughout our busy, bustling lives… We do not want to be forgotten, and for that, we strive hard to make even the slightest difference or hang tough through laborious work every day with the courage of an ordinary human… Are all these acts of no meaning? Think of those herb gatherers who dangle from the top of the cliffs, miners who work day in and day out despite the potential threat of earthquakes, and workers who drive every nail into a giant ship multiple floors in height… If their hard work is dismissed as mundane and unworthy of remembrance, I can’t help but question the gods’ logic to favor some of our wishes and dignities over others.
With such questions in mind, I follow you into the uncertainty and danger in the depths of The Chasm, pushing my limit as a mortal. I wouldn’t say that I’ve “conquered” or “explored” the area, but I hope I can at least put The Chasm into the map I drew and edited. I want to mark the places I’ve been to and the varying sceneries in The Chasm with names that belong to mortals and me. For lack of a smarter solution, I believe this is the only way to inspire those who come after me. I want to tell them how far someone the gods did not choose can go and what stories she may leave behind.
Please worry not for me. My journey has only just begun. Once I’m done taking a breather, I will march deeper in. Thank you for helping me clear the path ahead. I will continue venturing into the depths of The Chasm until my strength fails me. Good luck, my fellow teammates. I hope we shall meet again on our journeys shortly.
Zhiqiong’s letter included the map that she drew.
You will also obtain a special quest item called “Frostglaze Crystal” when picking up the letter.
It is a glaze crystal produced in the depths of The Chasm, and this special Glaze Sand Crystal ore was one of the many scattered about during the battle against the giant ruin machine. Glaze Sand Crystal ore is a regional specialty of The Chasm, but this one differs from the rest.
After picking up Zhiqiong’s letter, you will unlock the achievement “Valor’s Afterglow – Where lies the true meaning of adventure?”
Step 3: Show Jinwu Zhiqiong’s letter.
Return to the exploration team’s camp and show Jinwu what you found.
After reading the letter, Jinwu feels guilty about how Zhiqiong felt and that maybe she did not acknowledge her discoveries in time or give her as much respect or understanding as she should have.
It would have been more difficult to complete the team’s exploration without Zhiqiong’s maps, but Jinwu feels she only showed concern for Zhiqiong’s health instead of focusing on her hard work and what she’s done so much to achieve. She is sorry for not realizing how Zhiqiong’s work was always different from that of the miners.
When Jinwu thinks about the moment she gave up any thoughts of becoming great and realizes she has gotten used to living day to an ordinary day, she feels like she does not have the right to judge Zhiqiong.
