Chat group: People are in the sandbox, the system just ran away

But Xiangling changed her mind and realized that Emperor Taiyi was a good friend of Emperor Yanwang, so it was normal for them to have similar interests.

Just when Xiangling's little head was wandering, Li Xuan spoke.

"Xiao 4.1 Xiangling, is there any room here? There are five of us in total."

"Ah! Yes, yes! There is a private room upstairs. Please come in, sir."

Although Wanmin Hall has always been committed to being people-friendly, it does have private rooms. However, with the Lantern Festival approaching, most of these rooms are full of people.

But there is a private room that is always empty. It is reserved for those important figures who occasionally come to Wanmin Hall for dinner, such as Qixing. Yuhengxing Keqing likes to dine in Wanmin Hall very much. However, during the Lantern Festival, official duties are busy and this private room is empty. Naturally, it comes in handy at this time.

Xiangling instructed a waiter to go to the kitchen and inform her father, Master Mao, that she had a distinguished guest and needed to personally entertain him, so she couldn't go to the kitchen. Then she took Li Xuan and the other four upstairs.

Chapter 546: Keqing's Arrival

"I hope I didn't disturb your work! Wanmin Building is so busy right now, it's time for you to be busy."

"No! No! No! No interruption, I'm not very busy right now, Emperor."

Xiangling quickly waved her hand to indicate she wasn't very busy. This wasn't a lie she'd told simply to appease Li Xuan; the truth was exactly as she'd said. Although her cooking skills had surpassed her father, Master Mao, when he wasn't busy, it was fine. Master Mao had let her be the head chef, honing her skills.

During a very busy festival like the Lantern Festival, the main work in the kitchen of Wanminlou is basically taken over by the team led by Chef Mao as the head chef. Xiangling, who is unable to fully integrate into the team, only does some minor work and is not too busy. It doesn't make much difference whether she is there or not.

This decision has nothing to do with cooking skills, but rather the tacit understanding and rhythm that Chef Mao and his team have developed over more than twenty years. At a time when the number of customers is surging, Wanminlou needs to serve food as quickly as possible while ensuring quality, and not let customers wait too long.

At this time, the operation and rhythm of the kitchen have little to do with cooking skills. What matters is experience and tacit understanding. Xiangling 21 is also lacking in this aspect and has not formed her own team. Therefore, she is relatively free at this time and can only help out in the kitchen.

"Is that so? I'm glad I didn't disturb your work. And don't be so formal. Just call me Li Xuan."

Hearing that Xiangling didn't mean anything insincerely, Li Xuan didn't care anymore.

"Xiangling, I'm here with a few friends at the Lantern Festival. We need to eat at dinner time, so I hope you can prepare a feast for us. I'll provide the ingredients."

"No need. It's our honor to have you dine at Wanminlou. How can we ask you to prepare the food?"

Xiangling quickly waved her hand to refuse. Although Emperor Taiyi had only gained faith in Liyue in the past year, his development was extremely rapid and was not much inferior to Emperor Yanwang who had ruled Liyue for thousands of years. This was not because the people of Liyue were fickle, but because they knew how to be grateful.

If it is said that Emperor Geo protected them for thousands of years, helping them grow from weak to strong, from barbaric to civilized, and was the protector of Liyue in the past and present, then Emperor Taiyi was the one who gave them the future, the hope, and the key to making Liyue more prosperous.

Therefore, Li Xuan's faith will rise rapidly in Liyue, second only to Morax, and in the foreseeable future, it will stand shoulder to shoulder with Morax.

How could Xiangling possibly allow Li Xuan to provide his own food for a deity so benevolent to Liyue? She had also attended Li Xuan's lectures with her master, Granny Ping, and was deeply grateful to him, so it was even more impossible for her to accept Li Xuan's actions.

"Xiangling, don't misunderstand me. I'm not being pretentious or anything like that. I'm just entertaining my friends, so I'm going to take out some precious ingredients and ask you to prepare a feast."

"I see! Precious ingredients? What kind of precious ingredients are they?"

After hearing Li Xuan's answer, Xiangling no longer refused, but began to look forward to the rare ingredients that Li Xuan mentioned. Because the two major cuisines, Li Cai represented by Liuliting that uses mountain delicacies and Yue Cai represented by Xinyuexuan that uses seafood, have been fighting constantly, they have directly monopolized most of Liyue's precious ingredients, regardless of taste, only competing for price.

Xiangling, who believed in the equal distribution of food, was furious. She pursued all sorts of exotic ingredients, constantly exploring new territory. So, she was deeply curious about the precious ingredients Li Xuan mentioned. Emperor Taiyi! The rare ingredients he mentioned were probably ones that even the two major factions in Liyue had never seen before.

Indeed, what Li Xuan brought out lived up to Xiangling's expectations. A whale the size of a pufferfish, a grasshopper with soy sauce stored on its back, mountain spring water as clear as the air, and rice that could only be produced from one hectare of land...

From the basics of rice, water, and seasonings to the various vegetables and meats, these were all top-tier ingredients Xiangling had never seen or heard of before. Each one was beyond the reach of many chefs in Liyue. Even ingredients of this quality from Liuli Pavilion and Xinyuexuan were incredibly rare, with only a limited supply across Liyue.

But in Li Xuan's place, they became cabbages, so many that Xiangling could hardly count them.

And when she took these precious ingredients to her own small kitchen, she saw the rice crust that had been stealing food from her father's side running over and looking at the ingredients in her hands eagerly. Only then did she realize that she had underestimated the ingredients that Li Xuan had taken out. She was afraid that they all had extremely high nutritional value and were extremely beneficial to the human body.

Thinking of this, Xiangling became more motivated. She had to live up to the trust that Li Xuan had shown in entrusting these rare ingredients to her.

While Xiangling was busy cooking the dishes, the private room where Li Xuan and others were staying also welcomed new guests.

Keqing, who is usually very busy and even busier during the Lantern Festival, knocked on the door and walked in.

It was fine when he was in Mondstadt, but when he came to Liyue, Keqing's territory, Li Xuan naturally had to say hello.

Originally, Keqing wanted to bring Morax to see Li Xuan, but Morax righteously refused. What a joke! Li Xuan did not hide his whereabouts. When he and Kiana set foot on the land of Liyue, Morax knew about the arrival of Li Xuan and others.

But he never went to find Li Xuan. After all, he knew that Li Xuan was the same age as the young Mu Ai. Why should he make himself unhappy by being a third wheel?

If you want to find Li Xuan, there will naturally be a suitable opportunity later. Keqing should go see Li Xuan herself!

Of course, he was able to remain calm and ignore Kiana and Sirin, who were very similar to the First Throne Phanes, because he had obtained relevant information about the Honkai World from Keqing and knew the identities of Kiana and others. So when he saw Kiana and others, he could only sigh at the wonder of the world.

Li Xuan naturally welcomed Keqing's arrival, and Kiana and the others also had a good impression of the serious and responsible Keqing.

After everyone chatted for a while, the rice crust was served. Xiangling was worthy of her name. Although it was her first time to come into contact with these ingredients, she still performed well and perfectly matched the various ingredients.

Li Xuan, Qiyana, and the others had been traveling for so long that they were already feeling a bit hungry. Keqing was no different. She had been busy since morning, and everyone was hungry, so they didn't exchange pleasantries and simply started enjoying the delicious food.

Chapter 547: Keqing studies hard

In order not to keep Li Xuan waiting for too long, Xiangling served the food very quickly, and all the dishes were served in less than an hour.

"Xiangling, you've been busy for so long, come sit down and eat with us!"

Xiangling had been busy for so long, so Li Xuan naturally invited her to have dinner together.

"Is this really possible?"

Originally, Xiangling didn't want to agree to this kind of thing, after all, she felt it was a bit rude, but on the one hand, her good friend Guoba was staring at her eagerly, and she felt a little reluctant. On the other hand, she was indeed curious about these ingredients that she had never seen before.

"What's the big deal? You've been busy running around for so long, and you've been really tired. Besides, I'm going to have to trouble you with my meals in Liyue these few days. I should be the one to feel bad."

"Is that so? I see. Originally, in order to save time, I had to give up some ingredients that I felt had potential to explore. Don't worry, I will definitely bring out their flavors to the fullest from now on."

Since Li Xuandu said so, Xiangling no longer refused and started eating with Guoba.

"Keqing, I thought you wouldn't have much time to practice martial arts since you've been so busy with your work lately."

After eating and drinking well, Li Xuan had time to chat with Keqing.

He still felt somewhat doubtful about Keqing's strength, although as an original god, Keqing had good natural talent and had the support of a chat group, so her future was indeed promising.

But Li Xuan also knew Keqing's workaholic personality. Logically speaking, in order to promote martial arts, she should not have so much time to practice martial arts.

But when Keqing appeared in front of him, Li Xuan was surprised to find that Keqing's current strength was no less than that of the immortal demon-slayer Xiao, and that Xiao was a martial artist.

That's very strange. Keqing's strength has increased too rapidly.

"This is all thanks to Zhongli, no, it's the Emperor's cultivation. He often explains martial arts insights to me and even has immortals teach me moves. Under these circumstances, my martial arts skills have indeed improved rapidly."

"Not only that, the Emperor also passed on his thousands of years of experience in governing Liyue to me, and I benefited greatly from it. I finally have some confidence in Liyue's reform."

"Although I also want to immediately devote myself to the reform of Liyue, I still understand the principle of sharpening the knife before chopping wood. I must first understand the knowledge of other worlds, and then organize and modify it to a reform method suitable for Liyue."

"If we are too impatient, it will cause serious problems for Liyue."

Li Xuan looked at Keqing who was working hard and felt quite subtle. It seemed that the old man Morax regarded Keqing as his successor, so he could retire without any worries.

But this is also very normal. In Liyue, Keqing, who joined the chat group, is undoubtedly the one with the greatest potential. Moreover, Keqing's pursuit of human rule coincides with Morax's desire to retire.

Although now that she knows about things in other worlds, Keqing is no longer so obsessed with human rule. Compared to the existence of Morax, who is similar to the Wise King, she now wants to carry out social reforms in Liyue and improve Liyue's productivity.

As for the leader of Liyue, if Emperor Geo is willing to continue, then he will continue to govern Liyue. If Morax wants to retire, she will take over.

However, in order to achieve this goal, although she no longer handled so many official duties, a large part of them was taken over by her good friend Ningguang.

She didn't rest, however. Instead, she threw herself into a frenzy of study, absorbing everything that would benefit her reform of Liyue. Martial arts training, reading, and seeking advice from Morax and the various immortals took up the vast majority of her time each day.

It can be said that her workaholic personality has not changed at all, and she is just making preliminary preparations for the work.

"Of course I know this. Don't worry! I will study hard and only start implementing it after I have a complete plan."

Keqing naturally understood Li Xuan's advice and made a promise to him.

The promotion of martial arts is the beginning of Keqing's plans, and it's her sole responsibility outside of martial arts training and study. Martial arts are fundamental to resolving the conflict between the original gods and ordinary people, and are now Liyue's new path to advancement.

Although Liyue appears to be a prosperous and strong country under Morax's governance, Keqing still discovered Liyue's biggest problem after absorbing knowledge from other worlds.

The class stratification in Liyue is already very serious. For example, Liuliting and Xinyuexuan, the two Liyue Licai and Yuecai factions, are able to monopolize almost all of Liyue's rare ingredients. The class stratification revealed in this is evident.

After all, Liyue has been established for thousands of years, and class stratification is a very normal thing. If it were not for a wise king like Morax who is both capable and virtuous, so that ordinary people can have a good life and social contradictions are greatly reduced, Liyue would have changed like other countries in the world long ago.

Although Liyue's model can continue as long as the Sage King exists, it cannot achieve much progress in civilization.

This model is unhealthy in Keqing's opinion, but Liyue is now prosperous, and Keqing is not in a position to break it for the sake of reform.

Therefore, there must be external force to inject vitality, and martial arts is a good choice.

Originally, the Eye of God from the continent of Teyvat was also a good choice. The original gods could easily break the class stratification no matter which country they were in. For example, if her good friend Ningguang had not obtained the Eye of God and became the original god, she would have become a big businessman at most instead of entering Yujingtai and becoming one of the Seven Stars.

The only problem with the Eyes of God is that there are too few of them. A country only has about three-digit Original Gods, and this number is far from enough to change the situation in Liyue.

Therefore, only martial arts can break the rigid situation of Liyue's upper class and inject vitality into Liyue's development.

"Since you're ready, I won't say anything more. I'm very supportive of your pursuit of your ideals. During your time in Liyue, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. While I have no interest in governing a country, I do know a great deal about related knowledge."

Li Xuan was very happy to see Keqing so motivated now. After all, Keqing was one of the earliest members of the chat group. Even before Li Xuan joined the chat group, he and Keqing had a very good relationship.

Chapter 548: Inazuma after the Traveler's Death

"Really? That's really great!"

Keqing was very happy about Li Xuan's promise. After all, in her opinion, with Li Xuan's strength and knowledge, he was probably more knowledgeable than the Rock King. After all, Li Xuan could be said to be the person who had been to other worlds the most in the chat group.

Having witnessed so many different types of civilizations, Li Xuan must have his own considerations.

Keqing was not wrong to think so. Although Li Xuan was not very interested in governing the country, he had been to so many worlds, and the knowledge he possessed and the countries and civilizations he had seen were simply innumerable.

Although he has little experience in practical application, as a scholar, he can talk about it very clearly and can easily quote the development process of various civilizations and theories of governance.

However, Keqing did not stay here for long. Although she no longer had much official business to attend to, as one of the Seven Stars, she did not have much free time at this time of the Lantern Festival.

After finishing her meal, she left quickly. As for the questions she wanted to ask, she could wait until after the Lantern Festival to come back to see Li Xuan.

After Keqing left, Li Xuan and the others, having eaten and drunk their fill, prepared to continue their journey through Liyue Harbor. However, before leaving, Li Xuan left behind a large amount of precious ingredients. This wasn't just their food for the next few days; some of it also served as meal money. Compared to Mora, Xiangling likely preferred these rare ingredients.

They had been wandering around Chihuyan before, after all, this was the place with the largest flow of people and was the most lively.

In the afternoon, Li Xuan, Kiana, and the others visited Crimson Cloud Slope, home to the Seven Stars of Liyue, and the North and South Piers, the most important areas of Liyue Harbor. They attended an opera at the Yunhan Society, watched Ningguang's sky palace, the Jade Pavilion, and went fishing at the pier. They had a blast.

However, Li Xuan also noticed that Beidou and the Southern Cross Fleet she led had returned to Liyue Harbor because of the Lantern Festival. A large number of sailors were happy about their generous income over the past year and felt that they would definitely have a good year.

But this is not surprising. Inazuma's isolation is naturally very unfortunate news for the people there, but for the Southern Cross team who can pass through the harsh environment of the sea near Inazuma and reach Inazuma, it is good news that is enough to make them rich.

Although Inazuma was in chaos and corruption, with all kinds of disgusting officials rampant, and the Kanjo Bugyo and Tenryo Bugyo were all greedy bastards, they reluctantly endured these unpleasantness because they could earn dozens or even hundreds of times more income by transporting grain to Inazuma.

But while we are happy, we can't help but sigh at the miserable life of ordinary people in Inazuma, which is like living in purgatory.

They were puzzled by the orders of the Inazuma ruler, the Thunder God. Not to mention the Eye Hunting Order, which had little to do with most ordinary people, but the Closure Order, these sailors were completely unable to understand the thoughts of these bigwigs. Could it be that these orders were just made up on the spur of the moment?

As a country that has long cooperated with Inazuma on grain, they are very clear that with Inazuma's own grain production, it can only meet the living needs of 80% of Inazuma's people at most, and this is still the limit. Normally, only 70% of the people can meet their living needs, and the other half needs to be purchased from other countries.

Now that the Thunder God has issued a national lockdown order, it means that one-third of the Inazuma people have lost their source of food. This is a very scary thing.

Although Inazuma had some food reserves in the past, these food reserves had long been exhausted after two years of isolation. In the past six months, the price of the food they shipped to Inazuma has been rising steadily, and has reached a level that makes them afraid.

Even the scumbags in the Tenryo Bugyo and Kanjo Bugyo departments have become more enthusiastic towards them recently, no longer extorting and exploiting them. They just want them to bring in more food.

However, the Southern Cross Fleet was powerless. The thunderstorms that the Thunder God had placed in the waters near Inazuma prevented most of the fleet from entering. Only their Southern Cross Fleet, which had been famous for many years and was very experienced, and led by the boss Beidou, who was known as the Uncrowned Dragon King, could safely enter and exit Inazuma many times. However, even so, it was impossible for their Southern Cross team to expand its scale.

After all, other fleets would risk their lives to make a killing, which shows how dangerous the waters near Inazuma are right now.

For the sake of profit, Kanjo Bugyo and Tenryo Bugyo cooperated with the Fatui, causing General Raiden to issue the Eye Hunting Order and the Closure Order. Although they gained a lot of benefits in the short term, they eventually had to pay the price for their short-sightedness and stupidity.

Let’s not talk about the Eye Hunting Order for now, after all, it only affects the small number of original gods, but the implementation of the closed-door order is undoubtedly an almost fatal blow to the Inazuma Island country, which is short of supplies.

Nearly one-third of the people in Inazuma have lost their food source. It is almost impossible to predict how much chaos this will cause. When people are starving to death, even those who worship the God of Thunder will go completely crazy.

When the Tenryo Bugyo and the Kanjo Bugyo relied on the things accumulated by Inazuma to sell grain at high prices and frantically plundered the wealth of the people in Inazuma, they had never thought of such a thing. Or even if they had thought of it, they had already lost their minds in the face of the huge wealth.

Anyway, by then, they will just be some rioters and can be easily suppressed, not to mention that they have General Lei Dian guarding their heads, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

However, Li Xuan could only say that these guys were living too comfortably under the protection of the Thunder God and did not understand the seriousness of the problem at all as to their stupidity and greed.

When 30% of the people in a country have no food to eat, this situation is enough to turn the most obedient people into the craziest beasts and plunge the entire country into complete chaos and collapse.

So, more than a year later, after the Kanjo Bugyo and Tenryo Bugyo had used food to plunder almost all of the people's wealth, they were horrified to discover that the resistance force on the other side had rapidly grown from a small number of original gods who had lost the Eye of God and the rioters on Kaigi Island to a force capable of confronting the regular army and even counterattacking Inazuma's homeland.

In this situation, if the rebels counterattacked and reached Inazuma Castle, it would undoubtedly alert General Raiden, and the rebels would be doomed. However, if their actions were exposed, their entire family would be implicated.

Chapter 549 Li Xuan's Thoughts

The leaders of the Tenryo Bugyo and Kanjo Bugyo only thought about the benefits they could gain from the Seclusion Order and the Eye Hunting Order, but they didn't think that the Fatui were so kind as to help them come up with such a good idea to plunder the country's wealth.

And now they are about to reap what they have sown. Due to the food shortage caused by the closed-door policy, a considerable number of people have chosen to join the resistance organization because they have no food. Although they still dare not directly oppose General Lei Dian, they have also raised the slogan of clearing the court of evildoers and want to eliminate the two institutions, Tenryo Bugyo and Kanjo Bugyo, which have acted recklessly and plundered domestic wealth.

Even the shogunate army under their command began to doubt the two magistrates. Although there was no open resistance, they were basically in a state of slackness.