I would need to actually play the event with Chen alter when it comes to global to judge the story but I really don't like that she has Chi Xiao again.
They could handle it in ways that make it work, so I will reserve judgment until it is actually on global. But to me Chi Xiao is pretty clearly framed as a bad thing. It metaphorically represents kin slaying.
It is a dragon slaying sword forged by dragon people. Wei Yenwu only ever used it to kill Edward, his brother in law. And then he gave it to Chen. She unsheathes it the first time to destroy a door to save some trapped people, which is of course a good thing. But then she fails to unsheathe it fully against Mephisto and it partially backfires on her. She only successfully unsheathes it fully against Talulah... and she realises part of her is excited at the prospect of using Chi Xiao, this deadly weapon, on another person. And this disgusts and disturbs her, making her decide to seal it away after chapter 8.
Chi Xiao has only ever done good when used against objects, not people. The only people it has ever deemed worthy opponents has been kin to the wielder. And as Kaschey says, dragons making a dragon slaying sword seems foolish.
I felt that Chen sealing it away was an important part of her trying to set things right. And with the mention of Chi Xiao being on Talos II in Endfield and that Chen (the other one) mother has it currently, and that Chen Qianyu is looking for her mother (and the sword) I figured was setup for sort of finishing the story of the kin slaying cursed sword, since Chen Hui-Chieh had realised the sword was "cursed" and put it away as part of her desire to find true justice.
Which also serves another purpose, the sword was a gift from her uncle. And she puts the sword away after she burns all her bridges with him and firmly decides to not follow the methods and worldview he passed on to her. She may have turned against him and his methods and beliefs in chapter 6 already, but she was still on some level following it and repeating a lot of his flaws all the way up to the end of chapter 8. So her leaving the sword also represents leaving behind the flaws her uncle passed on to her.
I was thinking that Chi Xiao had served its purpose to Hui-Chieh's story. And that the sword would return to represent the same kind of uggly bloodshed and inherited evils in Endfield. Qianyu seems to idolise her heroic lineage and see swordmancy as a way to help people. She modelled her own sword after the Chi Xiao too. She is very gung ho and excited about fighting people (especially Landbreakers who she feels absolutely zero guilt at harming). So I kind of expected them to eventually in like a year or two bring in a Chen Qianyu alter who gets the Chi Xiao in a series of events that also costs her mother's life and gives her a hard wakeup call about what this cursed blade's lineage really is. Death, cruelty and failure. And maybe makes her re-evaluate her views on her family and on the way she views her enemies.
If the Chi Xiao gets "redeemed" before then Idk what they are planning with Qianyu's story tbh. I think there is a lot of potential still but I guess I will just have to wait and see both what they do with Chi Xiao in arknights, and what they do with it in Endfield. Because if it got redeemed already before Endfield I don't see why the sword even is in Endfield. Although this could also be a case of crossed wires with one team planning one thing and the other another thing so we just end up with two unrelated somewhat contradictory stories of this cursed kinslaying sword.
