He changed Tiwat

When Han Fulai saw that he was dressed in a gray outfit with a red mask on the back of his head, looking exactly like the assassin described in the wanted poster, he couldn't help but twitch his lips - D'Artagnan is too arrogant. After fighting with the Thousand Rock Army in public, he was searched by the whole city, and he didn't even bother to change his clothes.

Of course, Han Fulai quickly realized that even if they searched for the assassin, D'Artagnan, as the executor of the Fools of the Winter Kingdom, enjoyed diplomatic immunity and wouldn't be able to find him. But Ningguang would be turning the Northern Bank upside down, and he wondered if the young master's wallet would still be enough then. Han Fulai thought to himself with a smirk.

D'Artagnan was visibly surprised to see an uninvited guest in the private room besides Zhongli.

Outside the Glazed Pavilion, the soldiers of the Thousand Rock Army under the General Affairs Department were busy posting portraits of the masked assassin everywhere. Meanwhile, D'Artagnan, the masked assassin himself, actually saw an official wearing the Moon Sea Pavilion uniform in the Glazed Pavilion, which made him think that his date with Zhongli was a trap.

However, being a seasoned executor of the Fools, he quickly calmed down and asked Zhongli with a smile, "Mr. Zhongli, you didn't tell me you were bringing a friend to the banquet. May I ask who this is?"

“He is a friend who is willing to help me complete the ‘Sending Immortals Ceremony’. He is currently the Executive Vice Minister of Yuehai Pavilion, Han Fulai,” Zhong Li introduced calmly.

"So you're the famous Deputy Minister Han, the fastest man in Liyue! Haha, we've even heard people talking about you at the Northern Bank," Tartaglia laughed.

"Huh? What, the fastest man?" Han Fulai had never known he had such a nickname.

"The fastest promotion! You became the number two in Moonsea Pavilion right after you joined. That's some speed... I've been loyal to Her Majesty the Empress for years, and I'm still just the lowest-ranking executive officer of the Fools. I really envy you. I want to get promoted too." Dadalia looked envious, and Han Fulai could only assume that he was genuinely praising him. He silently wondered why someone like that hadn't been beaten to death as a diplomat.

"By the way, let me introduce myself. I am Mr. Zhongli's 'friend in the underworld,' the eleventh executive officer of the Fools' Clique in the Winter Kingdom, 'Young Master' Dadalia."

"Nice to meet you." Han Fulai shook hands with Dadalia.

"Mr. Zhongli has such a wide network of connections, he's got connections in both the underworld and the legitimate world!" Dadalia teased Zhongli.

"The business scope of 'Wangsheng Hall' is very wide. As a guest, of course we should help our hall master build more connections. Since we are all friends in the underworld, what difference does it make whether we are in the black or white world?" Zhongli picked up his teacup and took a sip, not taking it seriously.

“Well then, let’s get down to business.” D’Artagnan cleared his throat and began the main topic of today’s meeting.

"I've received word that the Geo Archon of Liyue seems to have been murdered at the Ascension Ceremony. But the Liyue Seven Stars' reaction is strange. Such a momentous event as the death of a god is met with very little effort in searching for the assassin. Only the General Affairs Department has sent people to search the entire city. To be honest, I don't think this will lead to the real culprit."

"If we really wanted to catch an assassin, how could you be so brazenly dining at Liuli Pavilion right now?" Han Fulai thought to himself.

“Moreover, the Geo Archon’s soul ascended to the heavens, but his physical body was intentionally hidden by Ningguang of Tianquan. Winter and Liyue have always been on good terms, and our Empress has also expressed serious concern over the Geo Archon’s passing. Even as a diplomatic envoy, I am not allowed to pay my respects. As a diplomat dispatched by Winter, I hope to obtain some relevant information.” Tartaglia looked at Han Fulai meaningfully.

Han Fulai thought to himself that they had finally gotten to this matter, and nodded calmly, saying, "I am also very curious about this matter. Even if it is for the Immortal Sending Ceremony that Mr. Zhongli wants, the Rock God's body is necessary for the ceremony. Mr. Zhongli has been kind to me, and for Mr. Zhongli's sake, I will do my best to investigate and try to make this happen."

After a friendly exchange, the two sides agreed that the young master would fund Zhongli's farewell ceremony, while Han Fulai would help secure the venue at Yujing Terrace and smooth things over. In return for the funding, Zhongli and Han Fulai would investigate the death of the Rock God and provide the young master with information so that he could report back to Her Majesty the Empress.

The deal was struck. The young master not only provided a large advance payment but also generously offered to treat everyone to the banquet at Liuli Pavilion as a token of their pleasant cooperation. Both parties understood the unspoken agreement and went their separate ways.

Walking down the street, Han Fulai couldn't help but sigh, "Spies are right beside us, and leaks can happen in an instant." The intelligence gathering of the Foolish Clan of Zhidong Kingdom was truly ubiquitous. Even Vice Minister Haiting wanted to win him over this month, though he wouldn't be too reckless. Shouldn't they be a little wary of his identity? If the young master knew that he had just helped Yan Fei capture two spies from Zhidong Kingdom recently, would he still dare to cooperate with him?

...He will probably still seek cooperation with me. Han Fulai thought for a moment and got his answer.

Through this encounter, Han Fulai gained a clearer understanding of "Young Master" and corrected his previous misunderstandings about him.

D'Artagnan is not just a martial artist who knows how to fight, nor is he a sucker who just throws himself in as a walking wallet.

As an executive officer of the Fatui, Tartaglia, stationed in Liyue as a diplomatic envoy, is certainly not a simple-minded person. His recklessness is merely a disguise he uses to mislead his opponents.

In fact, for D'Artagnan, who provided the intelligence was completely irrelevant, because the intelligence itself was unimportant to him. D'Artagnan might not know that Zhongli was the Rock King, but he certainly knew that the King was not dead.

Tartaglia's scheme ultimately boils down to one thing: to create chaos in Liyue and force the Geo Archon to take action.

Upon closer examination, Tartaglia had absolutely no need to cooperate with Ningguang's declaration and become an assassin. Yet, he still appeared as one, essentially playing along to create the illusion that the Rock King had been assassinated.

The reason he seemingly foolishly agreed to be a sucker, providing Zhongli with funds to host the Ascension Ceremony, was precisely because holding the ceremony aligned with his interests. If the ceremony succeeded, it would be tantamount to the Liyue Seven Stars officially acknowledging the Geo Archon's death and holding a funeral for him.

At this point, whatever Tartaglia does—such as stirring up conflict between humans and immortals in Liyue, finding the remains of the Geo Archon through Han Fulai and Zhongli, or summoning the Demon God Oser as in the game's storyline—is irrelevant.

In short, as long as the Geo Archon can be provoked to take action, the prestige of the Liyue Sept government will suffer a fatal blow, its efforts to move towards rule by man will fail, and Liyue will fall into chaos.

As for what benefits a chaotic Liyue would bring to the Winter Kingdom, only the Ice Queen of the Winter Kingdom can answer that question.

Fortunately, in order to control the variables, I have already come into contact with Zhongli and the young master.

An unknown adversary's actions are unpredictable and uncontrollable. However, if the adversary knows your plan, their actions become predictable.

It's like rock-paper-scissors. If your opponent knows you'll play scissors next, they'll have to play rock if they want to win. But if you anticipate they'll play rock, you can play paper.

The key to victory lies in the strategic calculations of both sides; the one who calculates more wins, nothing more.

Therefore, the first step in controlling variables is to let your opponent know your plan.

Of course, this theory only holds true if both parties are rational and will choose the optimal solution.

However, through this encounter at Liuli Pavilion, Han Fulai had come to understand that Zhongli was an absolutely rational god of commerce, while Tartaglia was a courageous and resourceful executor of the Fools. In order to successfully fake his death, Zhongli would inevitably hide during the ritual of sending off the immortals that Han Fulai was helping him with; and with Han Fulai's connections, Tartaglia would at least have to wait for Han Fulai to obtain any possible information about the remains of the Rock God.

In other words, they will not do anything unplanned during this period. Han Fulai has thus gained complete control over the movements of these two variables within a limited timeframe.

The next variable Han Fulai needs to control is Ningguang, who sits atop the Jade Pavilion, wielding the laws of Liyue and serving as the head of Liyue's intelligence decision-making.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at the Yiyan Palace. Han Fulai greeted Bu Yun, then once again held the Floating Life Stone and flew towards the Qunyu Pavilion.

Han Fulai knew that this meeting would determine the success or failure of the "script" he had written.

Author's Note on Launch (Please Subscribe)

Hello everyone, this is my first novel on Maozhan, and I'm quite pleased that it's been published on my first one.

First of all, I would like to thank my editor, Pudding, for her care.

However, I am even more grateful to all of you readers for your support in making this book a success. Most importantly, I hope you will continue to support me and give me a subscription. If you are a reader who is waiting for the book to be published, a first subscription would be a great way to continue reading.

It will be available for purchase tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM, and I will update twice at 11:00 AM. Whether there will be any extra bursts of updates after that depends on fate. Of course, if you readers are very supportive with your subscriptions, I will try my best to update more frequently.

I'll say it three times:

Please subscribe! Please subscribe! Please subscribe!

Here's a picture of Secretary Gan Yu asking for subscriptions!

Then let's chat about the book with you all.

As you can see from the style of this article, there are relatively few books on the cat station that focus on strategic battles and political intrigue, and even fewer like me who write political intrigue scenarios within Genshin Impact.

Genshin Impact is, after all, a world of grand adventure, so it's normal that it has the vastness of the martial arts world but lacks the grandeur of the imperial court. Therefore, the audience for this book is definitely not as large as that of Peach's works.

But I still want to write about a Genshin Impact world that has both the grandeur of the imperial court and the remoteness of the common people.

We have currently completed outlines for about five volumes.

In the first volume, "Yes, Sweet Rain," the protagonist, Xiao Han, must uncover the political structure and deep-seated conflicts of Liyue, while also achieving his own growth and, of course, increasing his favorability towards Sweet Rain and Gan Nord.

The focus of this volume is on how Xiao Han cleverly leverages his connections to navigate between several factions, ultimately making a small, albeit somewhat shameful, contribution.

In the previous storyline, Xiao Han witnessed the conflict between Feiyun Slope and Chihu Rock in Liyue, the conflict between contracts and deception, and the conflict between the gatekeepers of Yuehai Pavilion, who were from humble backgrounds and powerful families.

Some people are born in Rome, while others are born as sheep, eating grass and producing milk.

In tomorrow's new chapter, readers will see the realm of thought of the Seven Rulers of the Mortal World. He will discover that the economy is the material foundation of politics, and politics is the concentrated expression of the economy.

The first volume will end with Xiao Han resolving the summoning ceremony incident and gaining recognition in Liyue.

Volume 2 should begin around the middle of next month, titled "Yes, Keqing".

This volume will cover Liyue's infrastructure, real estate, and agricultural reforms. Han will use this to gain political capital and increase Keqing's favorability.

And then there's force.

The clues of the Ancient Hua School will unfold in this volume, and the process of Xiao Han entering the Dao through literature and eventually becoming the most famous sect in the world will begin.

The third volume, "Yes, Ningguang," will be overshadowed by the Second Great Demon War in Teyvat, with Liyue's sweeping influence serving as a dowry for taking over the Jade Pavilion.

Volume 4 begins with Mondstadt and Inazuma, which is a bit far off, so we'll talk about that later.

Okay, let's end with a poem I wrote for the male lead, Xiao Han:

Why bother with ascending to heaven or becoming a god? Let the persuader roam freely.

The future holds endless possibilities for the journey across the passes and rivers; let us see how the scholar, bare-handed, will overcome them.

friendly reminder

Because victims keep appearing in the comments section and private posts, I'm issuing this reminder to avoid embarrassing you all in the future.

Chapters 54 to 77 of Volume 1 form a complete section on the "Invitation to Immortals Ritual".

If you've only read half of it and it doesn't match your expectations, that's perfectly normal—because the author has misled you…

Dear viewers, please remember: "The more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to lie." You generally won't see the truth until the very end of each chapter.

This author used to write physical mystery novels and is very good at creating plot twists; this book is also full of such twists and turns...

New note in 2024: Many of the secondary settings in this book from two years ago have been proven to be "original settings" today. See the "Original Studies and Great Prophecy" section for details, which is free. Many important plot points included in the book are the result of thorough background research; without being immodest, it is indeed two years ahead of the game's plot development.

If readers have any questions about the plot, please read the original research section before commenting. Thank you very much (>▽<).

Chapter Fifty-Four: You Shouldn't Have Come

When Han Fulai ascended the Qunyu Pavilion, the first person he saw was Bai Shi, Ningguang's private secretary.

Since Ningguang amended the Liyue Civil Service Law and granted Ganyu full personnel authority at Yuehaiting, her three secretaries have all become the executive deputy secretaries-general of Yuehaiting and the executive deputy heads of one of the eight gates. Although they hold positions at both Yuehaiting and the eight gates, these three secretaries work and live in Ningguang's Jade Pavilion on a daily basis, only leaving the pavilion when there are important official matters for their departments.

Since they were actually Ningguang's personal secretaries and worked in the Eight Gates, Han Fulai did not have any business jurisdiction over them. However, they were officially affiliated with Yuehaiting, so Han Fulai was still theoretically their superior.

Although Han Fulai was only a theoretical superior, for a professional secretary like Bai Shi, proper etiquette was still essential.

Bai Shi bowed slightly and paid his respects to Han Fulai.

"Greetings, Vice Minister Han. Please come with me. Lady Ningguang has already instructed that I will take you to see her as soon as you arrive."

Han Fulai followed Bai Shi into the Qunyu Pavilion, his brows slightly furrowed.

He had just met Ningguang at the Immortal Invitation Ceremony at noon today. Logically speaking, Ningguang shouldn't have thought he would come to Qunyu Pavilion for business tonight, and she even specially arranged for Baishi to wait here.

This can only mean one thing: his movements have always been under Ningguang's control.

Ningguang is the head of intelligence decision-making in Liyue, so it's not surprising that she has the ability to keep track of his movements. The question is, why does Ningguang pay such close attention to his movements? How much did Ningguang learn about his secret meeting with Zhongli and Tartaglia at the Glazed Pavilion this afternoon?

This information was all leverage he would use when speaking with Ningguang later. Han Fulai had a vague premonition that his attempt to "control the variables" with Ningguang might not go too smoothly.

Upon entering the study, I saw Ningguang writing furiously at his desk, seemingly engaged in some important work.

Bai Shi informed Ning Guang and quietly left the room.

Han Fulai bowed to Ningguang: "Han Fulai, the Executive Vice Minister of Yuehaiting, greets Lord Ningguang."

Ningguang didn't even look up, and said, "You've come."

This statement likely means that Ningguang is explaining to him that his movements are completely under her control. Perhaps his meetings with Zhongli and Tartaglia have already been revealed to Ningguang.

Meeting Zhongli under normal circumstances is fine, and meeting a diplomat from the Kingdom of Zhidong, while not ideal, isn't a major problem either. However, during the sensitive period following the assassination of the Rock King, going to the Glazed Pavilion to meet a guest elder of the "Hall of Rebirth" and an executive officer of the Fools of Zhidong becomes a serious issue. Depending on the circumstances, one might be accused of being a spy secretly conspiring with the Fools to commit treason.

Han Fulai was certainly aware of this. He also knew that Ningguang would never accuse him of espionage.

So he simply replied, "I'm here."

His tone was calm, as if Ningguang and he had arranged to meet tonight long ago.

Ningguang stopped writing.

She raised her head, her wine-red eyes staring directly at Han Fulai: "You shouldn't have come."

"..." Han Fulai was completely at a loss for words this time. Should he reply with "But I still came"?

Are Gu Long's novels sold in Teyvat?

Ningguang shook her head and said, "You came too hastily. You didn't even notice that the Fools were following you. It would have been fine if you had gone back to Moonsea Pavilion, but you came straight to the Jade Pavilion after going up Jade Capital Terrace. It looks like you came to report your meeting with 'Young Master'. The Fools will definitely be suspicious of the information you provided and think that you conspired with me to plot against them."

"Ah..." Han Fulai was stunned. He hadn't thought of this at all. He was only anxious about whether his plan could be successfully implemented, and completely ignored the fact that the young master might send someone to check his movements.

Looking back now, given Ningguang's composure, he didn't need to rush to contact her. He could have waited until tomorrow or the day after to find a reason to meet her at the Jade Pavilion and reveal information to the young master to gain his trust. Now, his conversation just now was probably a complete waste of time, and D'Artagnan would once again become an uncontrollable variable.

“But it doesn’t matter, professionals have taken care of those messes.” Ningguang finished speaking and continued to write down the documents on the table.

Under the cover of night, in an inconspicuous alley, two Fools' advance guerrillas, their faces covered by bandages, lay dead on the ground, their prized muskets scattered haphazardly across the alley.

A woman in a blue robe toyed with the top hat that should have been on a guerrilla soldier's head. Her high heels pressed against the chest of a member of the Fools, and she lifted his chin with her toes, gently asking, "You don't want your executor to know that the mission failed, do you?"

The guerrilla soldier moved his throat, as if trying to say something, but a water arrow pierced the woman's top hat and interrupted the conversation between the woman and the guerrilla soldier.

“Unfortunately, I already know about this.” D'Artagnan appeared at the alley entrance, the Winter Star in his hand gleaming with a cold, sharp edge from the depths of winter.

Night Orchid's emerald green eyes swept across the face of the Fool's Enforcer. Dadalia smiled, seemingly excited to have found such a formidable foe.

"Oh dear, I was just about to settle some scores with you," Ye Lan said with a smile.

“Oh? I don’t remember owing you any money.” D’Artagnan tilted his head.

"Your memory is really bad." Ye Lan's fingers traced across her chest, and the die on her chest flashed, revealing a Ruoshui Bow in her hand.

"Then let me tell you now, I am the new owner of Iwakami Tea House. I need to settle the repair costs for the furniture you damaged at Iwakami Tea House the other day."

The two water arrows collided in mid-air, turning into water droplets that scattered in all directions.

Despite the extremely narrow battlefield, the two archers had already exchanged attacks dozens of times, their figures shifting several times. Before they knew it, Tartaglia was standing deep inside the alley, while Yelan was guarding the alley entrance.

“Executor of the Fools, it seems you’re at a disadvantage in archery,” Yelan said with a smile.