Chapter 247: The Emperor's Delight

Xiangling's innovative dishes have always been mixed in reputation in Liyue.

Nothing else.

There are simply too many dark cuisine and inhumane dishes.

Slime dishes are a typical example.

Even Keqing, who often goes to grassroots inspections and is used to various strange-flavored dishes, and Beidou, who makes a living at sea and never picks food, find it hard to accept her slime dishes.

But this doesn't mean that Xiangling's innovative dishes are all hard to swallow and purely wasteful of food.

Actually.

In her innovative dishes,

Except for those that individually use bizarre ingredients, any dish made with normal ingredients may not be a rare delicacy, but at the very least it's not hard to eat.

Especially those developed by her.

Many ingredients that Liyue people normally wouldn't use in cooking, or that have a poor flavor, she has turned into extremely popular dishes.

Among them, the most typical is this kidney flower dish.

Anyway, Luo De never imagined he could eat such an authentic flavor in Liyue.

Ordinary people don't know how to remove the glands that give kidney its odd smell when making kidney flowers, so the final taste is always fishy and hard to swallow.

Therefore, unless it's a famine year,

otherwise no one would touch this ingredient at all.

After repeated research and attempts, Xiangling discovered where the fishy smell of pork kidney came from, removed the glands, then added Wanmin Hall's special spicy seasoning, and finally made that kidney flower dish that is wildly popular among Liyue people.

By the way.

Wanmin Hall is located at Eat Tiger Rock, and it's also the place in Liyue with the most laborers doing hard work.

Influenced by the clientele.

Wanmin Hall's dishes are mostly fragrant and spicy.

Xiangling and her father, Master Mao, are top-notch at making spicy dishes.

That's exactly why.

The first dish she served was her signature stir-fried fire slime.

Bright red and vivid, the slime pieces stir-fried until crisp, accompanied by handfuls of red chili peppers, unknown fruits and leaves, prepared this way giving a rich, fresh aroma; as soon as the dish hits the table, people can't help but start eating.

This should be in accordance with the contract previously made with Luo De.

After the dish is served,

Xiangling explained the method and ingredients of this stir-fried slime dish one by one, then waited here with an excited expression for everyone to taste the dish.

To see people's impressions of her new dish.

This is one of Xiangling's favorite pastimes.

Although the kitchen still needed her to prepare the next dish, she patiently waited for Luo De and the others' reactions after tasting.

The first to pick up chopsticks was not Tighnari, who was there for research purposes, nor Cyno, who wanted to explore new ingredients, but Xiao, who felt uneasy upon hearing the name 'slime dish'.

It looks like he's somewhat imitating Zhongli's manner.

That is, after tasting.

He couldn't maintain Zhongli's composure in the face of various flavors, and immediately let everyone see that this dish didn't suit his taste.

"The taste is passable."

After some hesitation, Xiao gave his evaluation.

"You don't need to force yourself."

"Xiangling won't mind your evaluation."

Luo De passed Xiao a cup of clear tea, letting him rinse his mouth well.

This is also one of the rules for tasting dishes.

That is, before trying a new dish, one should rinse the mouth to avoid affecting the evaluation of the next dish.

Xiao's reaction also made the eagerly anticipating Xiangling a bit disappointed.

As a chef,

Naturally, she hopes all the new dishes she develops will be welcomed by customers.

When customers don't like her new dishes, she inevitably feels some disappointment.

Fortunately,

This isn't the first time this has happened.

After all, not everyone can eat anything without taboo like Xiangling, and not everyone has an iron stomach.

Thus, there are many foods that Xiangling herself finds satisfying, but when she serves them, customers find them hard to accept.

This is also why Xiangling especially likes Zhongli.

As long as it's not a seafood dish, no matter what kind of new dish it is or how it looks, Zhongli can eat it without changing his expression and give his own advice.

This truly is the kind of customer every chef dreams of.

On the other side,

Cyno, Tighnari, and Luo De have also finished tasting.

Only Luo De's expression was normal.

Cyno and Tighnari both give a feeling that's hard to get started with.

"It can fill the stomach, but the texture is overly hot, and eating it easily leads to symptoms like diarrhea."

While taking notes, Tighnari kept his hand on his stomach, frowning as he recorded his experience.

"Related to the fire element."

Saino gulped down a large cup of tea with glug-glug sounds; his face suddenly changed, and only after a while did he add: 'After eating, one must not drink large amounts of cold water, otherwise the gastrointestinal reaction will worsen.'

Xiangling grew more and more disappointed as she listened.

She could only place her last hope on Luo De, the only one here whose expression didn't change.

Moreover, Luo De not only ate it without any abnormal expression, but also devoured the whole plate of stir-fried fire slime that made people's faces grimace, seeming somewhat unsatisfied.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You all lack fire elemental energy; you definitely can't handle this."

Facing everyone's strange gazes, Luo De began explaining from the perspective of elemental studies: 'Fire slimes are innate elemental creatures; no matter how they are processed, some fire elemental energy remains in their bodies. Moreover, Xiangling prepared them using the most fiery and spicy stir-fry method, so after this process, the scorching effect of the processed fire slime is amplified further. In terms of taste, this level of heat is a strong painful sensation; if someone unaccustomed to spicy food suddenly eats this dish, their gastrointestinal tract will indeed find it unbearable.'

Having said that,

Luo De turned his gaze back to Xiangling: 'Xiangling possesses a Vision of fire; I once received a baptism of fire elemental energy under the grace of Ahemaar, so for us, this heat compared to fire elemental energy not only causes no discomfort, but also makes our sense of taste very comfortable.'

Having said that,

He spread his hands again and said: 'Here, this is called individual differences; not everyone can adapt to this peculiar taste.'

Finally, someone could enjoy this specialty dish whose selling point is its spicy heat.

Xiangling's hanging heart also settled.

Next.

Before she could go prepare a new dish, she heard Tighnari propose over there: 'Since spiciness can arouse the scorching aura of fire slime, could we use cooler ingredients to counteract this aura, such as mint and Liyue's specialty clearing heart, using elemental counteraction to neutralize the parts that easily cause physiological discomfort, allowing fire slime to be accepted by more people.'

Although he himself really couldn't enjoy this stir-fried fire slime,

but Tighnari was still earnestly putting forward his suggestion.

No matter what.

From Luo De's performance, slime indeed has viability as food.

Then, as a scholar of the Academy's theoretical faction, Tighnari must judge whether slime is suitable for Sumeru's environmental characteristics from multiple aspects such as nutritional content, normal digestibility, human tolerance, and the range of edible populations.

Luo De had already purchased the recipe for slime dishes from Xiangling at a great cost.

Given that other items cannot be measured,

Currently, the edible population appears to be greatly limited, with estimated few able to accept it.

Moreover.

From Tighnari's personal feeling, without an iron stomach this thing probably can't be digested.

However, he has no intention of giving up.

He even prepared to stay in the bathroom after today's tasting, just to obtain preliminary results.

As Nafis would say,

"If you don't even have the spirit of adventure, what are you doing as a scholar? You might as well go home and feed mushroom pigs."

Tighnari is currently striving to create future recipes for the tables of Sumeru's people; even if he has to lie in bed for a month or two after today, he is willing.

Saino also shares the same idea.

Unlike Tighnari's focus,

His question is: 'Can the production of this be simplified, even if we remove its inherent flavor, making it bland and tasteless, as long as it can fill the stomach?'

This is the first time someone who clearly finds it hard to swallow has still been able to give Xiangling so many suggestions.

The previous disappointment vanished at once.

With her interest aroused, Xiangling didn't have time to prepare a new dish, nor did she greet Luo De and Xiao, and ran to stand between Tighnari and Saino, launching into a heated discussion with them.

Her such single-minded focus, forgetting everything, also made Luo De and Xiao helplessly smile.

They also did not interrupt Xiangling.

They simply waited quietly for that discussion to end.

"How is it?"

"Can you feel some of the Geo Archon's enjoyment?"

Bored and idle, Luo De quietly asked Xiao,

Both are pure in the use of wind elemental energy, so they won't disturb the heated discussion opposite.

"You mean, tasting new things?"

Regarding Luo De's question, Xiao indeed has some insights.

Over these past days,

He roughly understood some of Zhongli's usual conduct.

When not performing the Geo Archon's duties,

Zhongli is actually quite idle.

Going to various industries to act as a consultant is also how he uses his knowledge to seek some enjoyment.

How to put it?

Not to mention Zhongli.

Even Xiao, who is usually aloof, after helping a scholar troubled by ancient texts resolve their worries, the endless praise and flattery also make him inevitably feel refreshed in spirit.

Along with that,

The karmic obstacles forcibly suppressed by Venti also seem to have settled down considerably.

Setting aside these more work-related pleasures,

Xiao also discovered.

Zhongli's favorite type of storytelling to listen to.

It is not about recounting heroic deeds, nor about telling strange tales, but rather about himself.

Yes.

It's about the Geo Archon.

From Xiao's perspective, in the storytelling about the Geo Archon that he heard, eight or nine out of ten are things mortals imagined; such storytelling with excessive artistic embellishment made him feel uncomfortable.

But after Luo De had him watch a storytelling piece created with the celestial yaksha as its prototype,

His view on this point changed.

He discovered.

He seemed to be able to understand a little why Zhongli liked listening to others talk about himself.

Not for any other reason.

It's just because when he hears others talk about himself.

That feeling is quite strange.

Even though he knows what he says is all false, he inexplicably feels very comfortable.

After listening to two such storytelling sessions in a row,

It further caused Xiao to feel an irrepressible joy welling up in his heart.

Such an emotion rarely appeared before.

But now.

Just a single storytelling session made him faintly feel an overwhelming joy.

After that,

Luo De took Xiao to Liyue's market, fully playing the role of a broker, he stubbornly haggled with the boss for half a day, and bought back a Nuo mask with a blue face and fangs.

This Nuo mask was made imitating the style of the celestial yaksha's Nuo mask.

It was hung at Xiao's waist, placed side by side with his own Nuo mask.

"The Sovereign is not good in this regard."

"He never lacks money; even if he owes someone, someone will come to settle his debt within a day."

"So he cannot enjoy the pleasure of haggling."

Luo De said this to Xiao at the time.

In his view,

Some market affairs are not bad at all.

But he also didn't expect Xiao to be as shameless as himself; given his understanding of Xiao, even if Xiao learned from Zhongli, eight or nine times out of ten he'd be just like Zhongli—not uttering a single word about price, living a carefree, wandering life.

In Luo De's explanation to Xiao,

He believed that Zhongli maintained himself undamaged under the pressure of thousands of years precisely by these spontaneous means close to his heart.

Among these,

Appraising novel things naturally is also a very practical and effective way to relax.

Xiao, who hadn't yet felt anything special about this, nodded ambiguously.

But soon,

he then gained a new experience from what Luo De had said.

After intense discussion with Tighnari and Cyno,

The originally planned feast made of various slimes quickly turned into a dedicated tasting event for Fire Slimes.

Among Tighnari and Cyno's many suggestions,

Xiangling's inspiration flowed like a winding jade-green river, ceaseless and swift, quickly turning their proposals into new dishes and serving them on the table.

Who knows which genius came up with the awful idea of Fire Slime congee.

This is the only dish that made Luo De vomit.

Its flavor is too bizarre to describe.

The other new dishes include a cold salad of Fire Slime made with common ingredients such as mint and sunset fruit, which Luo De can accept.

And among these new dishes,

Tighnari and Cyno also settled on several styles suitable for folk cooking, with simple preparation methods that are easy to spread.

Unbeknownst to them,

This tasting feast went from a nearly empty afternoon all the way until the Hall of Ten Thousand closed.

Even with Xiao's immortal constitution, they all ended up leaning against the wall to walk out.

It wasn't from being overfull.

It was simply from eating too much dark cuisine; even the immortals' constitutions could hardly withstand it.

Luo De couldn't escape that burning urgency in his gut either.

The key was that he dared not drink cooling teas to reduce the heat, so he could only drink milk to temporarily ease it.

Thus he groaned with stomach discomfort until midnight.

Luo De finally felt a bit better, prepared to get up and make something to warm his stomach, when he saw two dark figures appear in the room.

They were Zhongli and Apep, who had gone to visit the Ruotuo Dragon King several days earlier.

(End of chapter)