Genshin Impact: A Mortal's Ascension to Godhood

The next day, just as Li Tao packed his luggage and prepared to set out for Luhuachi to look for the hidden secrets there, he once again received a commission from a friend.

"Woo woo, Brother Li Tao, help! Dad suddenly became interested in the restructured Chef King Contest and signed up on behalf of Wanmin Hall. But after signing up, he found out that this Chef King Contest has a special requirement, which is that the ingredients used must be [obtained by hand] and cannot be purchased on the market! So I quickly wrote a letter to ask you and others, hoping that you can accompany me to obtain some precious ingredients - please, Brother Li Tao! I'll give you a 50% discount when you come to Wanmin Hall for dinner!"

Li Tao was a little confused: "Wait, what's going on here? Why does the Seven Stars rule require us to [obtain ingredients by ourselves]?"

Also, since Xiangling is so anxious to write to him, then the Adventurer's Association...

Li Tao put down his packed luggage and quietly walked to the Adventurer's Association to take a look. Sure enough, both Sister Lan's place and Catherine's place were crowded with people. Many contestants participating in the [Chef King Competition] waved the task commission in their hands and rushed to hand it over to Sister Lan.

Sister Lan had already called several adventurers to help, but they were still overwhelmed and seemed a little overwhelmed. As for Catherine, she handled the tasks faster than expected, which greatly reduced the pressure on the Adventurer's Association.

However, the Adventurer's Association soon ran short of manpower, and Sister Lan had to announce to everyone: "The Adventurer's Association has run out of available manpower! If you want to find someone who can protect you when you go out to collect food in the wild, you should go find martial arts schools and escort agencies in various places!"

People protested and expressed their dissatisfaction with the Adventurer's Association: "What? All the adventurers were snatched up before I even got in line?" "We can't carry anything on our shoulders or hands, so how can we go out to collect food? If we encounter the Hillilchills, won't we be beaten to death?" "In the final analysis, it's the policy of the Seven Stars. Why can't we buy food in the market?" "Shh, shut up! Do you want to question the instructions of the Seven Stars? Do you still want to participate in the Chef King Competition?"

The merchants and chefs left with complaints or lamentations. Only then did Li Tao dare to slowly move to the association and greet Sister Lan and the other adventurers.

Sister Lan was immediately furious. She put one hand on her waist and pointed at Li Tao with the other hand: "Li Tao, why did you just stand there and watch? Are you a human being? Can't you put aside your long-term task for a while and help the association share the pressure?"

Li Tao immediately cried out in grievance: "It's unfair, Sister Lan! Look at my commission. I just received it this morning. Isn't it time to take it to the association for signatures?"

Sister Lan snatched the commission from Li Tao's hand with a sullen look on her face and asked in confusion, "Is it that little girl Xiangling again? Li Tao, you don't like her, do you? Why do you hang out with her every day?"

Li Tao's eyes widened. "Sister Lan, how can you slander someone's innocence out of thin air? I have always regarded Xiangling as my sister. Besides, I am always busy with adventures, so I don't have time to date."

"It's hard to say... Oh, forget it. I was just angry and shouldn't have told you this." Sister Lan rubbed her temple and sat down, handing Li Tao's commission to Catherine. "Catherine, this commission is also given to you."

Catherine maintained the frozen smile on her face, mechanically took Li Tao's signature, and put it into the association's special cabinet for adventure records.

She did all this almost subconsciously, and then asked Li Tao her question: "But, like Sister Lan just said, why did you choose to help Xiangling and the others first? You obviously still have long-term tasks to do, and there are more variables in reality."

Li Tao was about to turn around and leave the Adventurer's Association, but after hearing Catherine's question, he stopped.

“This question is very simple for me.” Li Tao turned his back to Catherine so that she wouldn’t see his complicated expression. “Because I have a feeling that I may never have friends like the ones I met in Liyue again in the future.”

......

When Li Tao arrived at Wanmin Hall, he found that in addition to the usual Xingqiu, Chongyun and the protagonist Xiangling, there was also the head of Wangsheng Hall and Xiangling's father, Master Mao.

"Hey, the hall master is here too?" Li Tao walked into the room where they used to chat and discuss matters. He greeted Hu Tao first, then nodded to the others. "I received a commission from Xiang Ling. I heard that the reformed [Chef King Competition] has a special rule, which requires the chef to [collect] the ingredients personally, and this may require my strength..."

Chef Mao nodded sadly and said, "Yes, this is my problem! I originally thought that after the Seven Stars' renovation, the [Chef King Contest] would not be so commercial, and I could use it to spread the business philosophy and reputation of Wanmintang, but who would have thought..."

"Alas! As an old man, I know nothing about fighting except cooking, so this kind of thing can only be handed over to Xiangling. But I am worried about Xiangling doing these things alone, so I asked Xiangling to find you as much as possible. I am really sorry to trouble you!"

Xingqiu smiled and said, "What's the trouble? We didn't think it was troublesome when Brother Li took us to do the survey before. Besides, didn't that create a better marketing environment for the Liyue Food Festival?"

Hu Tao also jumped in front of Li Tao and shook her finger at him: "Hehe, Brother Li, this is called immeasurable merit. You will definitely not have to go to the eighteen levels of hell to suffer after death. But you still have to buy a coffin and reserve a tomb..."

"Stop it," Li Tao said with a frown on his face. "Master Hu, don't change the subject to funeral matters anytime and anywhere. We are talking about business, business!"

"For me, sending people to the afterlife is my main business, right?" Hu Tao spread her hands, her plum blossom eyes twinkled, and she jumped back to her seat, "Okay, okay, now let the main person say a few words!"

Xiang Ling stood up, propped one hand on the corner of the table, pointed the other hand in the air, and said, "The current situation is this: the original competition system of the [Chef King Competition] is to have the finals after the auditions. There are a total of 36 teams entering the finals, which means that 36 restaurants or vendors will participate in the finals; but the revised competition system has added a new round of eliminations. At the same time, the preliminary round only allows 18 teams representing different regions to participate, and only half of the teams can enter the elimination round; and the elimination round will eliminate seven teams, leaving only the last two to participate in the finals."

Chongyun couldn't help but sigh: "What a fierce competition, it's just like a salmon swimming upstream..."

Li Tao shook his head and said, "We still have to find the ingredients ourselves. Is it true that no team will give up?"

Xiangling scratched her head. "Well, this, really not, because Lord [Tianquan] Ningguang added an additional investment of 500 million Mora..."

"How much?" x4

Even Xingqiu, who had always been "not interested in money", opened his eyes wide after hearing this number.

After being shocked, Li Tao suddenly reacted - Ningguang is worthy of being the richest person in Liyue. She probably doesn’t even know how rich she is?

Putting aside some chaotic thoughts, Li Tao forced himself to concentrate: "Let's not talk about the topic of 500 million Mora for now. Xiangling, what are the specific difficulties we are facing now?"

Xiangling answered seriously, "Yes! Because the topic of the preliminary round was [Eggs], and the ingredients could be found by ourselves, so it was easy to pass. But the topic of the elimination round was [Mountain and Sea Delicacies], and this required us to go deep into Liyue's natural environment to find ingredients that could be used for cooking."

"...I feel like I can already foresee the situation where the mountains and the sea are full of adventure teams." Chongyun said suddenly.

Li Tao slammed the table and said, "What else can we do? Let's search! Let's search the mountains and seas for ingredients!"