The world of Genshin Impact has been growing fast since the long-awaited release of the Inazuma region midway through last year. Since the Japan-themed island nation was released in the game's Version 2.0 update, the world of Teyvat has seen the addition of numerous new islands to its newly-added nation with Watatsumi, Seirai, and Tsurumi Islands all added to the game along with Watatsumi's subterranean portion known as Enkanomiya. However, MiHoYo clearly hasn't forgotten about its original regions as Liyue is set to welcome the Chasm during the upcoming 2.6 update.
Genshin Impact players have been speculating about the existence of the Chasm for months since the region's name was quietly added to the darkened portions of the game's map. The Chasm plays a minor role in some of the game's story quests within Liyue and several characters, both during those quests and as dialogue with normal NPCs, make mention to the Chasm or allude to a recent series of accidents within the mining region of the nation. Now, with MiHoYo finally releasing the Chasm, players have caught on to a particular detail that may hint at another future Liyue locale.
A post from Reddit user XeRoXayuki makes reference to a particular line of dialogue during Genshin Impact's ongoing "Of Drink A-Dreaming" event with Zhongli making reference to Qiaoying Village in northwest Liyue. Qiaoying Village is described as being famous for its tea industry with the current event relating to tea and mixing drinks. The northwestern village has been mentioned before within Genshin Impact, though not within the game's main story or any events, as a minor reference in one of Liyue's daily commissions, "The Little Pirate Goes Out to Sea".
I think no one is talking about this. Qiaoying Village is not currently in the game but yet mentioned by Zhongli. Its supposed to be in Northwest of liyue. But there is nothing in northwest yet. This could hit a future sub area between liyue and fontaine. from Genshin_Impact
Some Genshin Impact fans in the comments speculated that Qiaoying Village may be featured as a part of the Chasm in one of the coming updates to the game. Users were quick to point out that Zhongli's reference to Qiaoying Village being northwestern may refer to the village being northwest of the city of Liyue Harbor, rather than in the northwestern areas of Liyue. Others believe that Qiaoying may indeed be in the far northwestern reaches of the region past Liyue's current boundaries, possibly sitting between the rumored locations for the future regions of Sumeru and Fontaine.
New locations have been a focal point of Genshin Impact's endeavors over the past eight months with Inazuma bringing plenty of visually distinct and unique locations into the massively popular RPG with more on the way. Alongside the Chasm, recent leaks imply the game's fourth nation Sumeru may be arriving this summer while others have suggested Mondstadt may be in line to receive its first expansion since Dragonspine in 1.2. Genshin Impact looks to have plenty of exciting new content in store for its legions of fans throughout the whole of 2022.
Genshin Impact is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, and mobile devices. A Switch version is in development.