Lu Bu, the Thunder General, is my adoptive father in Genshin Impact.

"The renowned Mondstadt Honor Knight, the great hero of Liyue, Inazuma... the most vicious and heinous wanted criminal during the Eye Hunt, is going to be my support?" Xiao Yi joked with a smirk. "I'm truly flattered and can't accept this honor. Gan Yu and I are practically ecstatic!"

"What the hell is this 'most vicious and heinous wanted criminal'?!" Ying exclaimed.

She realized that if she continued chatting with this guy, she might burn the food, so she stopped talking and focused on cooking lunch for everyone.

"I advise you to hurry up, or I can help you with something." Xiao Yi stepped forward to lend a hand, "Otherwise, if Miss Ying suddenly becomes interested after taking a bath, we won't have anything to eat."

That's right, if that were to happen, these ingredients wouldn't even qualify as "things" anymore.

……

After bathing and changing, Gan Yu, Ying, and the floating Paimon arrived together in the open space in front of the main house, where two chefs had already set up tables, chairs, and dishes.

The group took their seats, but they barely touched their food. Instead, they discussed how to deal with the stragglers, as if it were a nice appetizer. Each person had their own opinion in a few words.

Xiao Yizhang waited alone in the pot for the scattered soldiers, then set out a table, chairs, and food, so that the two of them could eat and chat like they were now, defeating the enemy by using peaceful conversation to win their hearts.

The traveler felt it was better to subdue this guy by beating him into submission, and she planned to fight alongside Xiao Yiying to contribute to controlling the stragglers.

Gan Yu's opinion was surprisingly consistent with what the Divine Child had said before: "I think... it would be better for Liyue and Inazuma to eliminate him."

Xiao Yi was somewhat troubled. There was no stable capture plan at the moment. Even the Immortal Dust Song Pot could probably only restrain him for a short time. If he were to escape from the pot, in order to avoid the scattered soldiers causing widespread destruction, he would ultimately have to adopt the suggestions of Coconut Sheep and Fox.

We must find a way to limit the strength of the skirmishers and reduce the damage they cause in the pot.

Paimon, however, did not participate in this mental activity. He was preparing to devour his food to fill his rumbling stomach, but he hesitated, glancing at the blonde girl beside him, as if wary of something.

“Hey, Traveler, you didn’t put slime in the food, did you?” Paimon said, still shaken. “Paimon is now traumatized by that stuff.”

Ying shook her head to indicate no, but suddenly, Xiao Yi's expression gradually became excited.

“I have a plan. As long as we make sure he can’t do too much damage to the pot, we can keep that guy trapped, and the capture plan can proceed smoothly.” Xiao Yi grasped Paimon’s small hand and shook it up and down frequently. “Thanks to you, Paimon, you gave me the idea of ​​using a concentrated slime trap to limit the power of the collapsing kingdom.”

Chapter 227 Meeting Again (Physics)

As soon as Xiao Yi finished speaking, everyone's eyes turned to him. Clearly, no one had followed Ming Shenzi's train of thought.

Why did he suddenly and nonsensically pick up Paimon's words halfway through the serious conversation, and why do slimes actually work on skirmishers? This is beyond question; everyone knows that no matter how many slimes come, they can't hurt that guy in the slightest.

“I don’t think using slimes as a trap will be able to hold that kid at all,” Miss Shadow was the first to object. “With his strength, dealing with such a weak monster would be effortless, and it wouldn’t even distract him.”

Ying immediately chimed in, agreeing, "I also think that slimes are too weak. Even a horde of Hilichurls who can use weapons is more threatening than them. Even if there are many of them, it won't make much difference. Even slightly skilled adventurers can easily deal with them, let alone skirmishers."

To give an example, no matter how many ants there are, it would be difficult for them to defeat humans under normal circumstances. Moreover, the swarms of ants are not ordinary humans. If the slime were an ant, it would be an insect extermination expert wielding a lightning-element insecticide, whose aftershocks alone could annihilate them.

Xiao Yi didn't answer immediately. He slowly put a piece of chilled refreshing flower into his mouth, and was immediately overwhelmed by the bitterness, as if he were wearing a mask of pain. It took him a long time to recover until the taste in his mouth gradually faded before he explained to everyone:

“I don’t need living slimes, nor do I expect slimes to fight skirmishers. All I need is their slime. If the slime adheres to the body’s surface, both the efficiency of movement and the release of lightning elemental power will be greatly reduced.”

In this way, not only will the scattered soldiers have difficulty destroying the Dust Song Pot to escape, but his combat power will also be greatly weakened, thus reducing the difficulty of defeating and capturing him alive.

Shadow, who was most skilled in using lightning and knew the skirmishers best, shook his head and explained, "That won't work. He can cover his entire body with lightning to quickly remove the slime sticking to his body. This kind of small action doesn't take much effort."

She looked at Xiao Yi with an expression that said, "You should understand this kind of trivial matter."

In fact, removing the slime stuck to the body is not difficult and can be done with various elements. Lightning and water, which are highly variable, are the most suitable. However, using lightning to remove slime may produce an unpleasant smell, making it difficult to wash off and causing it to last for several days.

This is also why Ying and Xiao Yi didn't remove the slime from their bodies immediately.

Nevertheless, Ying did not immediately reject Xiao Yi's plan. She knew that this guy's imagination and skill in messing around with people were incredibly impressive. Perhaps Xiao Yi had already come up with a way to prevent the skirmishers from quickly getting rid of the slime.

"At this point, we have to rely on the late Doctor," Xiao Yi said calmly, spreading his hands. "I found many useless but interesting things among the Doctor's inventions, one of which was so strange it was unscientific..."

Amidst the expectant gazes of the crowd, Xiao Yi began to whet his appetite once again, slowly stuffing a pastry into his mouth and savoring it leisurely.

“Traveler, I really want to bite him!” Paimon said sullenly.

Xiao Yi swallowed his food and said, "Don't rush, we have plenty of time. Stay tuned for the next installment..."

Sensing that the atmosphere was getting a bit awkward, and that if they continued down this line, Ying might hit herself on the head, Xiao Yi got back to the point and said, "The doctor's invention is an extremely special solvent that can almost infinitely concentrate slime."

"A single slime's slime might be easily broken by a skirmisher, two wouldn't be much more effective, and three or four wouldn't make much difference. But what about thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of slimes' concentrated slime? I guarantee you, he won't be able to break free anytime soon!"

Even if hundreds of thousands of slimes attack together, they pose no threat to the scattered troops, because there is an attack called "AOE" in the world. As long as there is a large-scale bombardment of landmines, the fragile slimes will be injured or killed instantly upon contact. At that point, the number of slimes becomes meaningless.

However, if hundreds of thousands of slimes are combined into one super slime, even a demon god would probably have to expend some effort to destroy it. The same goes for slime; a trap made of highly concentrated slime can even capture the Thunder General.

Of course, without the ability to subdue her, even if you capture the general with the slime, you will still face the fate of being stabbed.

However, Xiao Yi is fully capable of subduing the stragglers, so as long as they fall into the slime trap, the possibility of subduing them without injury is greatly increased.

"Doctor, what other amazing inventions do you have? Let me see!" She hadn't really heard much about the doctor's legacy, and curiosity and joy filled Ying's heart. "Maybe we can help you find more inventions that seem useless but are actually very useful."

Xiao Yi smiled and replied, "Of course, no problem. Those blueprints were transported from Mondstadt to Inazuma Castle a long time ago and are now hidden in the warehouse beneath the castle tower."

"Hmm." Ying tilted her head slightly in confusion. "How come I didn't know?"

“I reported to the general, didn’t she tell you?” Xiao Yi was silent for a few seconds, then said nonchalantly as if accepting reality, “Forget it, you don’t need to bother with such trivial matters. Before any major events happen, you just need to eat sweets and enjoy yourself every day. This is an eternal cycle.”

Just as if echoing his own words, he took out new chopsticks from somewhere, and with precise and steady hands, picked up a small piece of almond tofu and stuffed this sweet delicacy into Ying's mouth.

Just as Gan Yu was feeling a little jealous and showed an expression of "I want some too," Xiao Yi had already taken action, using his chopsticks to pick up a piece of chilled refreshing salad and feeding it to Gan Yu.

"How can you be so skilled..." Ying was speechless.

"What? You mean you want some too?" Xiao Yi deliberately misheard and seized the opportunity to spout nonsense, "What a pity, I don't have any extra hands to feed you, but I still have my mouth..."

Thump! The traveler finally lost his patience with the scoundrel, braced himself on the table, leaned out, and delivered a solid headbutt to Xiao Yi, the impact even causing the table to shake.

It seems like Ying had a good time, but unfortunately, forces are reciprocal.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!" Ying covered her forehead.

"It didn't hurt this much when I punched Yi back then!" Xiao Yi put down his chopsticks and rubbed his head where he had been hit.

The current situation is that Gan Yu and Ying are enjoying their food, while the two chefs, who are destined to clash, are half-lying on the table, rubbing their heads from the violent collision they just had.

Paimon narrowed his eyes helplessly: "Why? We were eating and discussing how to deal with the skirmishers, how did it turn out like this?!"

Chapter 228 Come on, I won't hide

Night fell over Inazuma Castle, but at this moment, the city was completely different from usual, bustling and noisy.

The reason for this was a rumor.

According to a certain businessman, he is the uncle of the Otsui clan in the castle tower. He heard that Narukami's adopted son recently wanted to eat desserts made from the finest slime, so he plans to buy up slime from all over the country at a high price and select it at the castle tower.

That's nothing compared to the fact that these kinds of insider comments are common in Inazuma every day. But one incident caused the situation to spiral out of control.

A street urchin named Araki Ichito believed the rumors and delivered the slime he had collected while catching Helix bugs to the castle tower. Things took an unexpected turn when the Oozei Clan actually accepted the shipment and, as agreed, gave him a generous reward of Mora.

The rumors are true!

Instantly, the archipelago erupted in excitement.

The Adventurers' Guild took the lead, dumping all the slime in their warehouses onto the castle tower. Soon after, some adventurers began selling the collected materials in their private names. The Three Magistrates and merchant guilds from various regions also got busy, and even the Coral Palace on Umijima Island got involved.

However, the price of slime did not rise much because the shogunate's price was fixed at 1.5 times the market price, and no one dared to bargain with the shogunate. But the fact that slime from Zeninatsume was concentrated in the castle tower was undeniable.

People tried to squeeze as much money out of the Shogunate as possible before the adopted son's sudden whim ended, otherwise, once the portal officially opened and the major merchant guilds from Liyue joined in, they would definitely not be able to compete with these tycoons.

In addition, many people, upon hearing of the business opportunity, traveled through all the remote wildernesses they could reach overnight. Whether it was a giant slime the size of a boulder or an ordinary slime the size of an apple, they were all insignificant in the face of Mora's temptation and eventually turned into slime and sent to the castle tower.

In short, tonight will be a sleepless night, both for those who want to make money and for the slimes.

……

Inazuma Castle, the rooftop of a house.

A boy wearing a straw hat coldly looks down at the brightly lit city, looking down at this farce caused by the gods.

He was dismissive.

How could Guo Pang have imagined that these things were meant to be used against him? He thought that unreliable god, or her even more unreliable adopted son, really wanted to taste the slime. Therefore, the boy showed contempt.

……

The underground of the castle tower houses a storage room that also serves as a laboratory.

This place contains manuscripts written by Xiao Yi himself before his doctoral studies, as well as some small toys and novelties created by Xiao Yi based on the contents of the manuscripts.

Now, Xiao Yi is carrying bucket after bucket of the viscous liquid that has been transported from above, pouring it into beakers filled with blue liquid, while placing an alcohol lamp underneath to heat the beakers.

Strangely, no matter how many buckets of slime were poured in, the beaker remained "full" without a single drop of excess liquid spilling out.

This is the special solvent invented by the doctor. When poured on a slime, it can instantly kill it. It was originally intended to deal with the problem of monsters overrunning the Winter Kingdom, but thanks to Xiao Yi's ingenious idea, it was used to concentrate slime slime and ultimately used to fight against skirmishers.

Gan Yu stood silently to the side, holding paper and pen to help her husband take notes.

Xiao Yi finished emptying the last bucket, and before the Otje Clan brought in new slime, he could take a short rest.

After confirming that the liquid in the beaker remained stable, he breathed a sigh of relief and asked Gan Yu, "How many buckets have been poured in in total?"

Gan Yu answered seriously and without hesitation: "Exactly 100 barrels. There was no sign of overflow, nor any bubbling or other reaction."

Xiao Yi pulled out the doctor's manuscript, glanced at it, and estimated, "We can probably pour in another 500 barrels. Let's make a big one for the skirmishers."

Gan Yu suggested, "To be on the safe side, let's pour out 450 buckets."

Normally, getting a little slime on your body isn't a big deal, but now that you've been stained with this concentrated liquid, it won't be easy to get rid of it in a short time.

After all, this is a cup compressed from hundreds of barrels.

Xiao Yi needs to make nearly ten thousand cups of this concentrated liquid, and finally fuse them together to complete the artifact specifically for capturing skirmishers.

Because of the collapse of the kingdom, the Inazuma Slime might be on the verge of extinction in the short term. However, there is still no shortage of Slime Teyvats. But there is only one Raiden Kingdom in the whole world, so we must capture it and keep it in the castle tower.

Xiao Yi looked at the pile of junk in the corner. The Traveler and her companions were running around everywhere. They said they were there to help find items that would help defeat the skirmishers, but in reality, they ended up playing with the Doctor's manuscript and the gadgets that Xiao Yi had made.

Looking towards the entrance, the Ottomans who were carrying goods had not yet arrived. Xiao Yi asked Gan Yu to keep an eye on the potion that was being heated, and then walked towards the noisy Ying and Paimon.

"Hey, there aren't just some toys I put together there. Some of the things were made by the doctor himself and are very dangerous. You'd better be careful if you want to look!"

"Could it explode?" Paimon asked curiously.

"An explosion? Perhaps there's something even more terrifying than an explosion," Xiao Yi deliberately threatened.

Immediately afterwards, Paimon dared not touch the documents or props anymore, and she hurriedly flew behind Ying to avoid a non-existent threat.

The young traveler calmly rummaged through the clutter. She knew Xiao Yi was bluffing; if it were really that dangerous, he wouldn't have just piled it up here.

She pulled a test tube from the pile of debris, inside which lay a murky liquid, like black mud rising from the depths of a deep abyss, polluting the environment.

"What is this?" the traveling girl asked curiously.