Ahh... Well. [zhongli sits down from across his companion, taking a sip of his strange-tasting water to wet his throat. he's not at the level of liyue's venerable storytellers, but he likes to think he's no slouch either.

then, he begins with a solemn tone:]

You see, at the time of his death, Rex Lapis was a little over six thousand. In his younger days, he was taken in by the God of Dust, Guizhong, who protected her people on the plains in between the mountains that Rex Lapis raised himself. Together they gathered more illuminated beasts, adepti to protect those under their wings, but when a fierce battle raged on the land, it turned the greenery into a hostile marsh and killed his dear friend-- thus did he move his people, and carved out a land between mountain and sea, where they then began to live and flourish into a nation to be proud of.

[zhongli ends the little tale with a flourish of the hand, as if holding a paper fan.]

We know not what the battle was about, or who it was against, for Rex Lapis and his adepti prefer to let the beloved god rest in peace. But Liyue is full of her people's descendants, having moved to their new land nearly four thousand years ago.