Chapter 325: Not a Place for People to Stay

The night was noisy.

The next morning, the Great Merciful Tree King took along her dreams and determination and went deep into the desert, while Luo De instead began to wander around the city in her stead.

Those accompanying him were no longer Ying and Paimon.

They're the type who can't sit still.

Having seen both of Sumeru's gods, they resumed their previous state, wandering around looking for fun places to go.

"If nothing unexpected happens, they should have gone to the Adventurers' Guild to take on commission quests, right?"

Luo De said to Dixiya beside him.

"The golden-haired Traveler and her flying pet—this pair of crazy adventurers' reputation has long spread to Sumeru."

Dixiya wore an expression of helpless amusement: "You probably haven't greeted the Adventurers' Guild in a long time, huh?"

"Hmm."

Luo De thought for a moment; indeed, it's been a long time since he went to the Adventurers' Guild.

Moreover, he doesn't know where he lost that Adventurers' Guild Adventurer's Certificate he had in his hand; logically, his adventurer status might no longer be usable.

Then Dixiya continued: "Those two people complete a week's worth of commissions that is several times, even tens of times, that of other adventurers—as you know, I have many mercenary friends; when we hang out and drink, they joke about how the adventurers whose income plummeted because of Ying and them."

"There's nothing to be done about it."

Luo De spread his hands.

Before arriving at Sumeru, Ying's strength had already leapt to an extremely strong level.

After arriving at Sumeru, she absorbed grass elemental energy, her strength rose another level; when taking on commissions, she'd probably be several times more diligent than before.

Thinking about this,

Luo De couldn't help laughing: "Now the adventurers of Sumeru are in for trouble."

Compared to snatching commissions, who could surpass someone this strong who still tirelessly roams for adventurer quests?

"Hey."

"You can still laugh."

Dixiya gave Luo De a sideways glance: "In a couple days, you'll have what's coming to you."

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"Could it be that the Adventurers' Guild won't let Ying take on commissions?"

Luo De rubbed his nose, thinking of a possibility.

"You're right."

Dixiya pointed to the tavern ahead: "When you have free time, go there to listen; if you stand too high, you'll miss many small matters."

This sounds simple, but the reasoning is actually quite straightforward.

After all, when in Liyue, that's how he evaluated Zhongli.

At that time, Zhongli, precisely because as the Geo Archon he couldn't hear the voices of the common folk, chose to wander the mortal realm, personally experiencing the people's voices, in order to better formulate policies suited to Liyue's current state.

Dixiya's words meant the same thing.

Listening to this,

she still held some dissatisfaction toward Luo De.

It shouldn't be anything else.

It's simply because Luo De has been away for a long time, so many things aren't as clear as before.

Currently, Hope City lacks a person in charge.

If Luo De returns again and still can't grasp the situation as before, then who knows what might happen.

"Don't worry."

Luo De, understanding Dixiya's meaning, smiled and said: "I'm still me, unchanged; and even if Nadixa lets me come back to manage Sumeru Cheng, I'm just a temporary worker and won't over-interfere."

"That's fine."

Dixiya nodded: "Hope City has remained fairly stable lately; what you said yesterday about A Ru Cun and Sumeru Cheng hasn't affected here—at least, from my observations over this period, I haven't seen any impact."

"Is that so?"

Luo De frowned slightly, pondering: "Could it be hidden too deeply?"

This possibility cannot be ruled out.

After all, a certain Zandik in Sumeru Cheng took Nadixa a long time to investigate before she dug him out.

If there were Dottore slices in Hope City, it's also possible they wouldn't be found anytime soon.

However, yesterday the Great Merciful Tree King also said something similar to Dixiya.

Hope City currently looks quite stable; neither the radical faction nor the conservative faction has caused any trouble.

As for the Red King's Reward over in A Ru Cun, I haven't even heard of it.

Luo De originally thought these things could be explained.

Thinking and thinking, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, a flash of light bursting in his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Dixiya asked, not understanding.

"Why does nobody know about it?"

Luo De grasped the blind spot in this information.

"What is it that nobody knows?"

Dixiya questioned again, puzzled.

"The Red King's Reward of A Ru Cun."

Luo De's mind flashed, and he suddenly realized where he'd felt off: "A Ru Cun and Hope City interact extremely closely, the Academy even has a branch stationed here—there's no reason for such a major matter to have no movement whatsoever in Hope City, or even in Sumeru Cheng."

Unless.

Luo De narrowed his eyes: "Someone has suppressed these matters."

Who?

Upon hearing that, Dixiya's expression immediately tightened, she frowned and asked: "Are they our people?"

No.

No.

Hope City definitely has a Motore slice in it, and this slice has already taken control of the information channels, able to control the inflow and outflow of that information.

The more Luo De spoke, the graver his expression became.

Sumeru Cheng has a slice, A Ru Cun has a slice, the desert side has a slice, and Hope City now also very likely has a slice.

That Motore probably sent all of his slices to Sumeru Cheng.

Look at the timing of his layout.

These things he has probably been doing for not just a few years, but even ten or twenty years.

It's just that before, no one could threaten him, so he never used those hidden resources, merely using them to gather experimental specimens for his own experiments.

Until now, Luo De truly threatened his life.

Especially Zhongli's arrival made him feel an enormous threat.

Therefore he began to unleash his hidden power, and also took advantage of various rumors in Sumeru Cheng, thereby creating the illusion that the Red King was still alive.

To be honest.

This is the first time Luo De felt that an opponent could actually be this terrifying.

Not to mention Luo De.

Even someone like Zhongli, who can crush Motore as a god, would likely be flustered when encountering this.

Playing mind games in the extraordinary world.

And even played with his mind to this extent.

Truly, it opened Luo De's eyes.

At the same time, he also understood.

Back then, how did Motore manage to throw Inazuma into chaos without losing a single soldier, and even bring back an executive officer for the Foolish People?

Looking at it this way.

The cause and effect of the Tatara Sands incident that Luo De learned about is still too simple; there must be many missing details in between.

Otherwise he would have long ago discovered Motore's terrifying nature.

"He's really a terrifying guy." On the subsequent journey, Luo De remained stern-faced, his mind constantly pondering how to capture that slice hidden in Hope City.

Under the current circumstances.

He absolutely cannot let Motore's slice continue to stay hidden in the dark.

Even if he captured it and did nothing with it, he must still bring it to the surface.

I don't even know how much time has passed.

Luo De then spoke again: "Hope City, are there any places that nobody usually goes to?"

Yes.

The Pure Good Palace.

Alright.

That's equivalent to saying nothing.

It's not that Luo De is overconfident; it's really that the Pure Good Palace now holds greater symbolic significance than practical utility.

The Great Merciful Tree King runs around outside all day, personally monitoring the streets and alleys of Hope City.

In the Pure Good Palace, she is directly sealed away.

Unless one has the ability to break a divine-level seal, no one would even think of hiding there.

As for other places.

According to Dixiya.

They have closely monitored those places; Dixiya herself even personally infiltrated some officials' mansions suspected of wrongdoing and secretly searched them.

Even with such meticulous surveillance.

Whether it's Dixiya or the Great Merciful Tree King, they have still found nothing unusual.

Then that's not right.

No matter how he hides, his subordinates should have leaked some clues.

How could there possibly be no trace at all?

Regarding this matter, Luo De thought about it all morning; even at lunchtime he had a lost appetite, his mind still preoccupied with how to find that hidden slice.

Dixiya also didn't disturb him.

She just silently followed him, occasionally answering his questions.

Compared to last time he returned.

Hope City's changes can again be described as earth-shattering.

This can be seen from the restaurant where Luo De and Dixiya had their meal.

The last time Luo De left.

Hope City's best restaurant was merely decorated with lights; inside, there were many carvings of wood grain designed by the Wonderful Theory School as decoration.

And with the development of Red King's technology.

The newly opened storefronts also became increasingly luxurious in feel.

The restaurant Luo De and his party came to, in terms of decoration, is not inferior to that of Sumeru Cheng at all; that whole set of brand-new lighting fixtures even bears some resemblance to the splendid main lights Luo De had in his previous life.

Don't underestimate the change of a lamp.

This thing involves not just one or two industries, but even extends to industries across other sectors.

To be blunt.

Across the entire Tiwatedalu, factories capable of producing such luxurious lamps are few and far between.

And this decorative style is now gradually becoming popular in Sumeru.

Besides that.

In other aspects.

The launch of Dawn Winery also brought a huge income to Hope City.

Diluc is very generous.

I don't know whether it's a return gift to help him avenge his father, or a gift because Luo De is on good terms with the Wind God.

In short.

The Dawn Winery opened in Hope City shows no sign of being just a branch.

This includes not only Diluc's huge investment, but also Nadixa's strong support, sending people, providing land, and giving various green lights.

From Diluc submitting the declaration to build the winery, to all facilities being in place and the winery breaking ground, it took only a few months in total.

Only the time for brewing the wine into finished product is not that fast.

Thus the first batch of products launched by Dawn Winery is that fruit-flavored sparkling water.

Back then, under Luo De's proposal.

After Diluc returned to Mondstadt, he repeatedly upgraded the sparkling water formula, and the Teyvat version of the carbonated drink was thus born.

Luo De has tasted it; the flavor is very good and already close to what he remembered.

And the new sparkling water, once launched, immediately exploded the whole market.

The sweet taste and extremely affordable price mean that even the lowest-paid workers can earn enough in a day to drink heartily.

Although there is concern that the public might drink themselves into an obesity rate exceeding the limit.

But the Great Merciful Tree King and Nadixa did not stop the sale of the new carbonated drink, leaving Dolly's chamber of commerce to sell them domestically and abroad as quickly as possible.

"I just went to Dawn Winery a couple of days ago; hearing the manager there, it seems they plan to produce only this drink for the next few years, not intending to continue investing in the alcohol production line."

Dixiya sucked on the straw, drank the beverage in the cup in one gulp, and told Luo De about the recent situation at Dawn Winery.

"Huh?"

"Not producing alcohol anymore?"

Luo De first blinked, then shook his head and said: "This Diluc, truly deserving of being Mondstadt's richest, indeed has a unique vision."

Earlier I thought Diluc's talk of building Dawn Winery was just polite talk.

Who would have thought this guy had long set his sights on the beverage industry.

But that's also right.

No matter how good Dawn Winery's wine is, it's ultimately a single industry and cannot withstand major upheavals.

Last time when Mondstadt was troubled by a dragon disaster.

Dawn Winery's wine could not be transported out.

Even though it was understood to be due to force majeure, those foreign customers still mercilessly pursued liquidated damages, causing Dawn Winery to suffer heavy losses.

Among them, Ningguang of Liyue did the most extreme.

She not only took advantage of the dragon disaster to massively purchase Dawn Winery's inventory at low prices, but also, after the disaster ended and Dawn Winery prepared to resume normal sales, she held a clearance sale, directly driving down the winery's wine prices, which have not recovered to this day.

Such a huge loss.

This led Diluc to set his sights on another industry that is not easily damaged.

Namely, this low-priced beverage now.

Liyue's stance at that time was also very important.

Mondstadt and Sumeru crossed over Liyue, forming a brotherly alliance of unconditional trust, sandwiching Liyue in the middle; now the two countries jointly launch the new sparkling water with extreme aggressiveness into Liyue's market, letting Liyue's domestic beverage industry suffer a heavy blow, which can be seen as a small regain of face.

When these things that Luo De usually pays little attention to were spoken out one by one from Dixiya's mouth.

This made Luo De's face turn strange, and even his gaze toward Dixiya became odd.

"What's wrong?"

Dixiya stopped talking fluently and looked at Luo De doubtfully.

"Nothing."

"It's just that you feel you've changed a lot."

Luo De also doesn't know whether this change is good or bad.

But if he had to choose, he still prefers the former Dixiya, the mercenary who dared to say anything.

"Ah—"

Thinking of this, Luo De couldn't help sighing: "Once things here are settled, let's put down these troublesome duties and find a place to live a free and easy life; this place may be nice, but it's not a place for people to stay."

Dixiya stared blankly for a long while.

Then she smiled with tears in her eyes and nodded heavily, saying: "Good."

(End of chapter)