Chapter 175: There Is No Gourmet Food in Hell

Facts proved that Luo Yan should not have held any expectations whatsoever for the "gourmet food" of the Underworld.

Even in a place like the Demon Capital, the foods he could accept could be counted on one hand.

Regardless of the rich culinary heritage the Elves living in their isolated utopia might possess, for the Night Elves of the Gray Wind Tribe, that had been over a thousand years ago.

The banquet was held inside a massive treehouse, where all the furniture seemed to have grown directly out of the tree trunks—from the tables and chairs to the lamps entwined with vines.

Elemental Spirits, flickering like fireflies, fluttered their wings as they flew in from outside the window. Accompanied by the melodious music, they served plates of bizarre-looking food onto the uneven long table.

Looking at the "delicacies" competing for attention on the plates, Luo Yan was at a loss for where to start and could only look toward Tyrael, who was sitting beside him, for help.

The latter seemed to perceive the Demon King's awkwardness and immediately reached out to pick up a green worm about the size of a thumb that was still doing sit-ups. He dipped it in an unknown sauce, shoved it into his mouth, and after a bout of exaggerated chewing, revealed a satisfied expression.

For a moment, Luo Yan suddenly felt as if he had eaten his dinner for tomorrow and the day after in advance; he was as full as he could possibly be.

Seeing Tyrael looking at him with anticipation, he could only reach out and pick up a berry to toss into his mouth.

Intuition told him that if he didn't eat something, the other party might demonstrate the previous action for him again.

So sour!

As Luo Yan bit through the fruit pulp, he felt a lemon-like acidity instantly overwhelm his taste buds, making him secrete saliva frantically while nearly spitting the berry out of his mouth.

However, not long after, that lemon-like acidity transformed into a mellow, lingering sweetness.

An expression of surprise appeared on Luo Yan's face.

Perhaps because he had lowered his expectations, he found the flavor of this berry unexpectedly good.

"What is this?"

Just as his voice fell, Shirley, sitting on one side of the long table, waved her hands and answered preemptively with a boastful expression.

"This is a new variety I cultivated by grafting grapes from Lei Ming County onto Hidden Vines! It doesn't have a name yet! Demon King, could you please bestow a name upon it?"

Luo Yan looked at Shirley in surprise; he hadn't expected this little girl to have such a talent.

"To think it's an improved grape variety... I thought it was a hawthorn."

"Hehe, didn't expect that, did you?" Shirley was so proud she could have pointed her nose to the sky, and she continued in a crisp, pleasant voice, "Not only can it whet one's appetite, but the wine brewed from it is also very delicious!"

As she spoke, she looked at Luo Yan expectantly, using her eyes to urge him to taste the wine in the silver flagon nearby.

Luo Yan tasted a mouthful as she wished.

The clear, sweet, and mellow flavor of the fruit wine truly made his eyes light up, making one unable to resist wanting a second sip.

"Not bad."

Luo Yan set down the wine glass, offered a word of praise, and after pondering for a long time, spoke.

"The first taste reminded me of my hometown, and the second sip reminded me of moonlight... Since it just so happens that the Mist Forest has regained its light, let's call it Moonlight Brew. As for that berry, how about calling it Moonlight Fruit?"

He wasn't very good at naming things, nor did he believe the names he came up with could be more literary than those of the Night Elves present.

However, upon hearing the names he thought of, Shirley's face revealed an expression of joy, her flushed cheeks filled with happiness.

Unlike her younger sister, Helen's face revealed a look of confusion.

"Does the Demon Capital have moonlight?"

Luo Yan coughed lightly.

"There is a purple crystal dome there... it's even more exaggerated than the one here; it's said to have been snatched from the Dwarves."

Helen nodded in realization.

"So that's how it is..."

Thinking about it carefully, the dome on the fourth layer of the labyrinth seemed to have been built in imitation of the Demon Capital's dome; the Demon King had even made a special trip to the Demon Capital just to repair it.

She had almost forgotten about that.

As one delicious dish after another was served to the table, the melodious music pushed the banquet's atmosphere to its peak.

Looking at the wide variety of food, Luo Yan could be considered to have truly opened his eyes.

Even he, the Master of the Labyrinth, hadn't expected that there were so many edible things in his own labyrinth.

And what surprised him even more was that these bizarre-looking ingredients had so many magical combinations.

For example, a famous dish called Moonlight Salad had Silver-Leaf Grass, Leaf Oil, flower petals, and fluorescent mushrooms as its main ingredients.

That was nothing.

But the particles that served as stars sprinkled on the plate, which looked remarkably like caviar, were actually the eggs of Shadow Fireflies.

Or take the Star-Glow Stewed Soup, where the deep blue broth mixed with suspended matter resembling fluorescent powder made him think of Van Gogh's paintings. If he weren't proficient in Potionology, he wouldn't have even recognized that it was made from ground Night-Hanging Orchid pollen mixed with the shells of Rock-Spotted Snails.

Luo Yan admitted that these foods were indeed beautiful and very creative.

If they didn't have to be eaten and were simply treated as art pieces, he might be willing to pay a high price to buy them.

Of course, that was on the condition of using Nether Coins.

Luo Yan tried tasting the jelly that looked the most harmless; its smooth texture and clear, sweet taste were unexpectedly not bad, somewhat like chilled mango.

Thinking this was some kind of fruit jam, he couldn't help but ask curiously.

"This stuff tastes quite good; what is it made of?"

Shirley, sitting not far away, saw the item in his hand, and her eyes immediately lit up as she said excitedly.

"Oh! Demon King, you have a great eye! That is insect gum extracted from the secretions of Purple Moon Worms. One kilogram of Purple Moon Worm larvae only yields that much after purification!"

She had opened the floodgates and wanted to say more, but Helen, sitting to the side, tugged on her sleeve and stopped her with a look.

Shirley looked at her sister in confusion, not understanding why she wouldn't let her continue.

However, everything was already too late.

If Helen had stopped her a moment earlier, Luo Yan might have been able to pretend he knew nothing and finish the food in his hand.

But now, he could only silently set down his bowl.

"..."

Tyrael, sitting to the side, was even more embarrassed than Luo Yan and hurriedly ordered the kitchen to make a plate of roasted ribs to be served.

The Gray Wind Tribe actually did have ingredients like pork, mutton, and beef, mainly bought from the nearby Mist Town, and the price wasn't very high either.

It was just that Tyrael always felt that using such cheap things to entertain the Demon King showed a lack of sincerity. Moreover, the tribe's cooks had only just come into contact with those ingredients and hadn't fully mastered the essentials of cooking them; no one was confident they could cook those things into something extraordinary.

Yet, looking at the Demon King's reaction, they seemed to have tried a bit too hard...

The banquet finally drew to a close.

Except for the Demon King, everyone was very full.

Faced with Tyrael's enthusiastic invitation to stay the night, Luo Yan considered it repeatedly before finally declining tactfully, and under the farewells of the hospitable Night Elves, he left this quiet little city located deep in the jungle.

Although Luo Yan indicated that he could go back by himself, Helen and Shirley insisted on escorting him to the palace on the first layer of the labyrinth, citing their status as his guards.

On the way back, Luo Yan recalled what had happened at the banquet and couldn't help but sigh.

"The days before I came here... I have wronged you all."

He said this from the perspective of the Demon Capital.

However, Shirley tilted her head, not understanding why the Demon King would say that.

Helen, however, understood the subtext hidden in the Demon King's words, and a touch of embarrassment couldn't help but rise on her face.

"... I am truly sorry; it is all our fault for not understanding your tastes in advance and arranging those things on our own."

Luo Yan had only intended to express concern in a joking tone, but he hadn't expected Helen to take it seriously, so he hurriedly switched to a comforting tone.

"Please don't say that; this is not your fault, it's just that my own palate is rather picky."

In fact, in Hell, insects were originally the protein source for most Demon-kin and low-tier demons; those who could eat Minotaur beef at every meal were, after all, in the minority.

These Night Elves had already brought out the most precious delicacies in their eyes; if he were to be too nitpicky, he would appear petty.

Moreover, setting aside those foods with high insect content, the fruits and roasted meat were actually quite good.

And those fruit wines they brewed themselves were also very fragrant and mellow, even to the point of being able to serve as a specialty of the Necropolis.

He had asked Tyrael for some and placed them in his personal storage ring.

When he returned to the Demon Capital next time, he could just share them with his friends there.

"But..." Helen's face still looked somewhat apologetic, wanting to make amends but not knowing how.

Unlike her sister, who was burdened by her idol image, Shirley didn't have so many psychological burdens and instead stood on Luo Yan's side, acting as his mouthpiece. "Actually, I also think the food in the tribe isn't good; it's all sticky and doesn't have much flavor. Roasted meat is much more fragrant! The lamb chops roasted with spices are simply amazing! And also, not just roasted meat! I saw a kind of food that looked like snow in Mist Town before; it tasted sweet and was so fragrant!"

As she spoke, she even started counting on her fingers, beginning to enumerate the delicacies she had seen in the Necropolis.

Watching Shirley, who wouldn't stop talking, Luo Yan coughed lightly and stopped her with a majestic tone.

"Alright, that's enough; some things are a matter of taste and have nothing to do with whether they are good or not."

Although it was somewhat against his conscience, he still tried to help the Gray Wind Tribe's cuisine regain some face.

After all, someone really cared about this matter.

If he let this fellow continue to speak without restraint, he felt Helen would soon find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Shirley, who was in the middle of her excitement, was suddenly interrupted and immediately puffed out her cheeks in grievance.

She didn't dare to defy the Demon King, but she couldn't help but complain in a low voice.

"What I said is the truth! Our tribe really doesn't have much..."

Luo Yan said in an indisputable tone.

=9+Shu_ba

"Even if it's the truth, don't say it."

If she kept talking, he felt Helen would be in tears...

……

After returning from the Gray Wind Tribe, Luo Yan entrusted Mixi, who was stationed at the Necropolis, to send a few bottles of the fine wine he had swiped from Tyrael to Queen Cici of the Nightmare Homeland, and then he took the time to handle the accumulated official business.

For example, the battle report sent from the outpost fortress on the planet Kao.

The frontline commander, Sano Blackhand, mentioned in the report that in recent days, the Chaos legions had intensified their siege of the outpost fortress, and even yesterday, three battles had broken out in just one day.

Although these three battles ultimately ended in the Necropolis's victory, the latter had also suffered significant casualties.

Those troops composed of Kao people had absolutely no fear of death, even pathologically regarding death as a kind of glory; every battle was fought with a suicidal posture as they charged toward the barrage of the Magic Crystal Cannons, not caring about casualties at all.

Fortunately, the players of the Necropolis were the same, erupting with a spirit of not fearing death in wave after wave of offensives, which was the only reason they had managed to block the Chaos forces.

Sano specifically mentioned in the report that it was thanks to the heroic fighting performance of these players that his mercenaries were inspired.

Otherwise, facing that endless Chaos army, their morale would likely have collapsed before the defensive line.

Another fortunate thing was that the outpost fortress had a strategic location and was far from the Kao people's settlements.

In the previous few attacks, the Kao warriors who appeared were mostly light infantry, not only lacking combat experience but also equipped with whatever they could piece together.

As for the Chosen Ones and elite troops, they still hadn't appeared so far.

Sano worried that the Kao people were planning a major move, such as using cannon fodder troops to make them complacent before concentrating all their strength to overwhelm them.

Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that the Kao people themselves were not unified and were fighting on their own as tribes.

But regardless, they had to prepare for the worst so that they would be prepared when disaster truly arrived.

"... We need more construction materials to consolidate the defensive line, and more Magic Crystal Cannons!"

"Additionally, the soldiers have requested a rotation, and in my view, they truly need it. No one can persist in that environment forever; I worry that if time drags on, even if they aren't corrupted by Chaos, they will be crushed by the mental pressure."

Luo Yan read the report to the end, pondered for a long time, and waved his magic wand.

A quill flew lightly out of the pen holder, and as he chanted, it wrote on the paper.

"... Your requests will be met; a new batch of supplies is ready and will be delivered to the frontline along with reinforcements no later than the day after tomorrow."

"Additionally, regarding the rotation, I have also seriously considered it. I will arrange for my vassals to provide manpower to your mercenary group; next time you return from the frontline, you can hire Orc or Demon-kin soldiers from the Bloodblade Clan and Despair City. As for the rotation cycle, you can arrange it yourself based on the specific situation on the frontline; just let me know once you've decided."

The Orc warriors of the Bloodblade Clan and the Demon-kin crossbowmen of Despair City were the most suitable for the environment of the planet Kao, and they were also in sufficient supply, so there was no need to worry about the source of troops drying up.

After finishing the reply to Sano Blackhand, Luo Yan immediately wrote letters to his subordinates, "Bloodblade Demon General" Gelak and "Thorn Demon General" Blanthia, explaining the matter of hiring troops while indicating that he would visit next month.

Finally having handled the mountain of work, Luo Yan stretched and got up to boil a bowl of instant noodles for himself in the kitchen.

It is worth mentioning that this was something the players had just come up with recently.

Ever since Beifeng City got on the right track, life-profession players had replicated the pressing techniques from Earth to this other world, producing a series of plant oils such as pumpkin seed oil, flaxseed oil, soybean oil, and so on.

Before this, the edible oil in Lei Ming County was mainly olive oil and animal fat, and the oil in the Necropolis was basically imported from Lei Ming City through the channel of Yinsong Town.

As for now, the Necropolis no longer needed to import edible oil; they could just import cheap raw materials like soybeans and flaxseeds.

And because the price of edible oil had been driven down, the most direct impact on the Necropolis was that fried foods, which were almost non-existent before, suddenly became popular.

Not only that.

To facilitate providing feed for the NPCs who were working, and to reduce their commute time to centralized dining locations, some players simply pondered pre-made foods, and thus they came up with instant noodles.

The production process for this stuff was simple, there were mature production processes to refer to, and it was extremely convenient to cook, saving effort and not taking up space; the only drawback was that it had no nutrition and could only provide calories and carbohydrates.

However, for this world with a relatively backward level of civilization, that only drawback didn't count as a drawback at all; instead, it could be called an advantage.

Especially for the poor who didn't have much oil in their stomachs, this fried noodle cake was much more delicious than sweet potatoes.

So much so that the players who came up with instant noodles hadn't expected that the thing they made to save effort would become a delicacy in the eyes of the residents of Beifeng City, greatly igniting the latter's enthusiasm for work.

To eat a bowl of steaming hot instant noodles, those NPCs were willing to put their all into working on the construction site for a whole day!

And it wasn't just the ordinary NPCs of Beifeng City; even their boss, the Demon King, praised this "invention" highly, waving his hand to purchase a batch as a reserve for the Lord's kitchen.

Smelling the mouth-watering aroma, Luo Yan couldn't help but think of his life when he was in school on Earth.

Thinking about it, he felt quite nostalgic.

If it weren't for the necklace left by his predecessor, the transmigrator, and if it weren't for this group of happy little players, he would have almost forgotten the life over there.

Having filled the stomach that hadn't been filled at the banquet, Luo Yan, on a whim, put on his cloak and went outside the Beifeng mine to patrol.

Compared to a month ago, the scale of Beifeng City seemed to have expanded quite a bit; the houses standing in rows in the deep snow were like winter bamboo shoots buried in the snow.

Some houses were even built outside the fence wall, and that land, which had been empty until a month ago, had unknowingly become crowded.

Luo Yan walked through the snow-covered path to the temple of Beifeng City and found the acolyte working there.

According to that acolyte of the Guardian race, refugees had been moving in continuously during this period, and the registered population had approached the one-thousand mark.

Looking at the Demon King flipping through the statistics booklet, the acolyte in robes reported in a hoarse voice.

"... I heard from the believers who pray that the nearby human lords seem to be intentionally driving them toward us. At first, only one village did this, but later it developed into all the villages in the entire Barony doing so, and even the neighboring Barony is doing the same."

Luo Yan flipped a page of the booklet in his hand and replied casually.

"I know about this matter."

In fact, not only did he know, but the first person to do this was his own servant.

Later, he even specifically instructed Sheriff Adlai to provide necessary help to the refugee groups in need and, if conditions allowed, to send them to the vicinity of the northern mine as much as possible so they wouldn't get lost halfway.

Although not everyone ultimately joined Beifeng City, and quite a few devout believers stubbornly turned back into the wind and snow, the vast majority stayed for the safety of themselves and their families.

Under the repeated baptism of the Necropolis acolytes and the "personal teaching and verbal instruction" of the villagers of Holy Oak Village, the vast majority of these newly joined refugees had become his believers.

However, unlike Luo Yan, a touch of worry appeared on the face of that acolyte of the Guardian race.

"I worry that if this trend continues, we might not be able to accommodate so many people..."

Luo Yan replied.

"There is no need to worry about this; we can expand our settlement toward the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain range. If it really can't accommodate them, we can transfer a portion of the people into the labyrinth; Mist Town also has places where they can be useful."

"But what about food?" the acolyte said in a low voice. "The food they consume is increasing more and more... even if they can do some simple work, they can't conjure food out of thin air."

Because of Lei Ji Dragon, most of the monsters in the labyrinth had a bone-deep fear of hunger.

Simply put, they were scared of being hungry.

Luo Yan could understand his subordinate's concerns, although he had a completely different view.

"They aren't doing simple work; among them are blacksmiths, carpenters, skilled stonemasons, and craftsmen proficient in various handicrafts... In normal times, we would either have to spend a large amount of money or spend a vast amount of time to possess them, yet now we only need to pay a negligible price to buy their loyalty. There is no investment in this world more cost-effective than this; it can even be said that this is an opportunity bestowed upon us by the Demon God."

Returning the small booklet he had finished reading to the acolyte, Luo Yan said in a tone that was gentle yet majestic.

"As for food... we have Night Elves, and fertilizer, and when necessary, we can import it from next door; that thing is actually the least thing to worry about."

"And since I have said that I will not let you suffer the pain of hunger again, I will not let you go hungry. The only two things you need to do are: one, believe every word I say, and two, do as I instruct."

The acolyte lowered his head in fear and trepidation, saying in a voice carrying a hint of repentance.

"Yes, Demon King."

Hearing this answer, Luo Yan nodded approvingly.

"Withdraw."

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 176 =====