I'm in the Teyvat running group

"With his support, the war actually began to turn around, especially with the large-scale rebellion that began to rise in Hyperion... I once thought that we might really be victorious."

"Then... why did Father fail in the end?" Serania asked, puzzled. "Since that one couldn't do anything to Father, then Father shouldn't have done the same, right?"

“I’m sorry… I don’t know either, but one day after the war, he stood atop the ancient sacred mountain and suddenly told me…” Taranis began softly, “He said, ‘Let’s get married…’”

"So sudden?" Serania was quite surprised.

"So sudden?" This time it was Paimon and Ying who exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes… so I agreed.” Taranis downed the drink in his glass in one gulp, then sighed softly, “Even if he hadn’t said anything, who could I marry? If it weren’t for love, who could stay by the side of such a blockhead for two hundred years?”

Chapter 425 Clash of Spirits Awaits the Start

It's unclear what these girls, who look like young girls but are actually tens of thousands of years old combined, talked about later, but Serania's relationship with her mother has clearly improved considerably.

Luminous and Paimon still went to the Dead Zone. They were going to help Luminous suppress the Dead Zone monsters for a while. Once they had cleared them out, they would return to Liyue with Luminous. After all, there was still at least a month until the final competition of the Festival of the Moon. With their strength, even if they crossed the desert and flew back to Liyue, it would only take half a day, so they would definitely make it in time.

Serania and Taranis, on the other hand, were preparing to head to Inazuma. They planned to transit through the war fortress of Tsuruga, stay in Inazuma for a while before heading to Mondstadt, and finally return to Liyue.

"Mother, speaking of which, what do you think is Father's biggest bad habit?"

"His biggest flaw is probably that he's too lazy," Taranis said with a smile. "But that's a good thing, otherwise he might be exhausted by all sorts of things."

"Ugh?"

-----------------

"I felt I was already quite diligent, but I didn't expect everyone to be even more proactive than me."

"Where are you being diligent? Did you sleep through the morning meeting and only just woke up now?" Yan Fei retorted sharply to Yun Xiu without hesitation: "We already had one round of arguments this morning, and this is the third round now."

"Um... where is the process now?" Yunxiu looked helplessly at the representatives of the seven countries in the conference room. Although the allocation meeting of the Spirit Realm had been almost completed and had entered the stage of high-level talks and final signing in the past few days, it was still quite tedious and boring, and it gave people a headache.

“Time is precious, let’s begin the fourth agenda item.” Keqing tapped the table, picked up a document and said, “According to Article 4 of the Spirit Realm Founding Agreement, for countries that rank in the top three in terms of contribution for three consecutive quarters, half of their super administrator slots will be converted to official slots. Last year, only Mondstadt had half a slot. Please present your data.”

Kaeya stood up with a smile, his tone quite relaxed: "Mondstadt mainly took on the task of handling a large number of events and major commercial competitions in the Spirit Realm, resulting in a significant increase in user activity. This quarter saw an 83% increase compared to the previous quarter. Compared to when the Spirit Realm was founded, it has now stabilized at over 100 billion daily activity visits. The data is on pages 88 to 97 of the documents you have. If that's not enough, I can provide more data."

Without looking up, Elhesen quickly glanced at the data: "The data is accurate and not much different from the records in the Sumeru backend."

"It's true..." "It's true..." "It's true..."

A series of responses came, and Keqing nodded: "Then the position of Mondstadt's national super administrator is officially confirmed. Now let's move on to the next agenda item: the contributions of the past year and the demands for the new year, in order to allocate the construction and profit-sharing ratios for the new year."

The detailed data had already been reported and compiled in previous meetings. This meeting was more of a formality and the final high-level talks. However, this is precisely when objections are most likely to arise. It's not that there weren't any objections before, but it's because the actual leaders of these countries bring them up that they carry real weight.

Objectively speaking, although the seven countries were responsible for different areas, each country still invested a great deal of effort in the spiritual realm.

Mondstadt's main focus is on large-scale events and commercial competitions in the Spirit Realm, as well as some IP-based cultural and creative businesses. They mainly collaborate with Inazuma, and Inazuma's main business, besides collaborating with Mondstadt on IP-based cultural and creative projects, lies in providing computing power for the Spirit Realm.

Currently, the Inazuma headquarters and core server room handle over 70% of the computing power of the Inazuma network. The computing power unit of Teyvat is the rather peculiar character "P," which was determined by the three super administrators. The other six nations use the character "P." The underlying logic of Teyvat's computing power is not binary; the magic runes ultimately converge into three separate calculations, which is ternary.

Strictly speaking, a single network's computing power is about ten quadrillion calculations per second, while the current computing power of the Spirit Realm's total network has reached the level of hundreds of trillions. In the end, even Lei Dianzhen had to take action to significantly strengthen the Yu Ying Furnace Core in order to truly stabilize the entire computing power mechanism, which was actually on the verge of collapse at one point.

Liyue's main focus is on spell development, the construction of Spirit Realm mechanisms, and the installation of various equipment—the very foundation of the Spirit Realm. Unlike Sumeru, which primarily deals with the software aspects of the Spirit Realm's architecture, Liyue is entirely focused on hardware. Even with the production lines in Xianyun being developed to the point of being unfinished, they still couldn't meet the overall needs of the Spirit Realm. But there's nothing that can be done about it; that's how things are when they develop.

However, in the past year alone, the scale of the Spirit Realm has expanded more than two hundred times, and it now encompasses nearly 30% of Teyvat's population, making it a network with close to three billion users. This is all thanks to Liyue's hardware manufacturing capabilities.

Meanwhile, Xumi's software business is also booming. A large number of scholars from the Academy of Teachings have entered the Spirit Realm to work and maintain it. Most of the Spirit Realm's algorithms and basic architecture are now thanks to them.

As for Fontaine, it has focused almost entirely on the cultural and entertainment sector. While Inazuma and Liyue are indeed quite good at developing IPs, Fontaine is truly unique in its ability to integrate movies, operas, comics, and various cultural and creative industries into entertainment products. In particular, the recently concluded "Thousand Spirits Film Festival" is a very good example of such a product. Furthermore, Fontaine is also number one in Teyvat in terms of light industrial products and food. These two aspects have built Fontaine's presence in the Spirit Realm.

Nata's representative is Ianshan. Although Nata doesn't have a strong presence in the Spirit Realm, its strengths lie in food and fruit. Due to its special position among the Seven Kingdoms, Nata has greatly expanded its tourism industry through the Spirit Realm. At the same time, as Teyvat's overall agriculture began to transform, a large number of grass elemental mages entered the agricultural field, further increasing Nata's food production.

Thanks to their efforts, food costs in Teyvat have decreased by at least 40%, and a bowl of noodles with meat now costs only about 20 moras.

Even Zhidong, which has been bearing huge punitive tariffs, has publicly released a large amount of data and research related to Kanria in the Spirit Realm and developed many games related to the Spirit Realm. Although Zhidong is indeed a harsh and cold place, it seems that harsh and cold places can better stimulate people's creative desires. Games developed by the people of Zhidong, such as "Demon God War" and "Thunder Ruins Mechanism," which Yunxiu complained about as "going to jail," are actually quite popular...

For example, I tried playing the Thunder Ruins Mechanism Cloud Ridge game. The final conclusion was that it would take about two or three years of continuous play to unlock all the vehicles in one or two countries. In order to make it more realistic, they also included the Kanria version. The highest level giant treasure would normally take two and a half years to unlock, but someone has already unlocked it successfully. They are truly talented.

Based on these circumstances, the construction and profit-sharing ratios for the Spirit Realm in the second year have been basically determined.

Liyue 25.5%, Inazuma 20.0%, Nata 13.7%, Mondstadt 12.0%, Fontaine 9.7%, Winter 9.7%, Sumeru 9.4%.

This already exempts most of the punitive tariffs imposed on Zhidong itself. Only the 3% tariff that Yunxiu himself insisted on on Zhidong's side, which is the 3% that Yunxiu ultimately transferred to Funingna, has not been lifted. But to be honest, Yunxiu plans to make them pay for another year, and starting next year he can subsidize Fengdan with his own money. That way, at least he can vent his anger.

Moreover, strictly speaking, it only accounts for 3% of the 9.7% of the winter solstice, which is really not a major blow to the winter solstice. It only accounts for a fraction of the total.

As for the subsidies given to Fontaine, Nata and Winter, they have already been deducted from the subsidies of the other countries. Sumeru paid the most. This is mainly because Sumeru's Dead Zone was guarded by the other six countries free of charge. So when it came to the flood discharge plan, Sumeru naturally paid the most. This is a kind of "unspoken rule" among everyone, but countries will be more explicit about it.

The first year of Winter's Flood only yielded 6%, because Nordkalley was originally Winter's territory. After the flood discharge ended, it would inevitably become one of the most terrifying places in Teyvat. Therefore, the compensation given to Winter this time can be said to be the largest. All six countries contributed a little. The compensation for Fontaine was mainly borne by Sumeru and Liyue, while the compensation for Nata was mainly borne by Winter and Mondstadt, in an effort to ensure that the flood discharge plan could proceed smoothly.

The national-level administrators were also basically replaced at this meeting. According to procedure, each country should replace at least two administrators.

This year, Liyue replaced Ningguang and Keqing, and put Tianxuan and Kaiyang into the national-level super administrator positions. This is not surprising, as war is coming soon, and such logistics stewards and military generals are definitely needed. The other countries are similar.

Basically, after this Lunar Festival ends, the armies of various countries will set off for Nordekalai. After the Spirit Realm allocation meeting, there will be a meeting of legendary powerhouses and military commanders from various countries. Of course, this has nothing to do with Yunxiu.

Next, Kaiyang and Fushe will likely host the recollection. Yunxiu also saw Inazuma's Kujo Sara and Yae no Miko. Nata's Kinich and Iansan also came to Liyue during the Lunar Festival, most likely to hold a meeting on the side of the celebration. For the legendary powerhouses of these countries, holding a special meeting is a bit of a luxury. It would be more appropriate to take advantage of participating in some major event to have a chat together.

Soon, the representatives of each country finished signing. This document will eventually be signed by the ruling gods of each country before it will be released to the public. Although the gods of Liyue have retired, the joint signature of the seven stars has the same effect. In this way, the second year of the Spirit Realm has officially begun.

"By the way, how are the preparations for the Lunar Festival going?"

Chapter 426 The Ingenious Use of Talismans and the Monthly Rules

"If you're talking about preparations, they're basically all done. The preliminary rounds will officially begin in about seven days." Yan Fei considered for a moment before giving a definite answer: "If you're talking about some details, the organizing committee is still arguing about things like whether special props and abilities should be allowed in this competition..."

"Special items and abilities?" Yunxiu looked at Yanfei with some curiosity, then carefully considered: "Are you talking about Xiangling's two divine artifacts? Although they were bestowed by the gods, Xiangling's own strength is sufficient, so she can use them without them."

“If that’s the case, that would be great. Many contestants’ ‘abilities’ can’t be turned off, so what can we do?” Yanfei sighed, pulling out a document and handing it to Yunxiu. Pointing to the information on it, she asked, “What do we do about this situation? For example, that little cat from Mondstadt wants to participate, but she can’t turn off the ‘Water Sprite’s’ blessing, and some contestants also have the amplification from the Eye of God… Now that everyone can use elemental power, we can’t just stop them from using it, can we?”

“So…” Yunxiu looked at the list of names and wasn’t surprised at all. In a high-magic world, this is often the case, because you can’t just seal a person’s talent. Unless the gods take the initiative to withdraw their blessings, it is often impossible to solve the problem.

“Ban them all? That won’t work either… It’s unfair to many talented people.” Yunxiu stroked his chin, thought about it carefully for a long time but didn’t come up with a good plan. He could only say helplessly, “Give me two days. I’ll go back and think about a solution. If it really doesn’t work, we’ll have to use the Sealing Spirit Cave Mirror to limit all spells and energy to the second or third ring.”

"Then you really need to hurry. The meeting in the Spirit Realm should be completely concluded in the next couple of days. Next, we'll focus on pushing forward the Monthly Festival with all our might."

Yunxiu nodded, picked up Yanfei, and flew her back to the merchant guild. Then, she went straight to Mount Aozang. It would be best to discuss this matter with Guizhong and Xianyun, since these two were the most familiar with the Demon God Maxius. As for Guoba now, Xiangling certainly knew the most, but Guoba obviously couldn't provide much information right now...

It's unusual that all the immortals seem to be at Mount Aozang today, but that's normal. The Imperial Academy is on break, and this is indeed the hottest time in Liyue, so it's relatively cool on the mountain. However, the two old men, Xiaoyue and Lishui, still brought a few disciples back to the mountain. These are some of the more talented students they selected after teaching at the Imperial Academy recently. They were all accepted as nominal disciples first, and then it depends on the situation whether they can be accepted as true disciples.

The criteria for immortals to accept true disciples are actually quite simple: whether they have the strength to become immortals, that is, the possibility of entering the legendary level. Only by reaching this level can one have enough talent to learn some immortal techniques or even cultivate the Three Corpses Severing Technique, which is the true guarantee of combat power. Of course, before the era of magic system began, it was mainly through the Seven Stars Recommendation and occasional tours down the mountain, as well as after the birth of talented children, there would be some miraculous events, such as Shen He.

If Yunxiu's bloodline hadn't been sealed, he would most likely have become a disciple of an immortal through the Seven Stars' recommendation. However, due to his ten-thousand-year-old bloodline and special circumstances, the Emperor intervened directly, so the immortals at the time assumed that this was someone Zhongli had already chosen.

He transformed into a streak of light and landed at a small table in the center of Mount Aozang. Several immortals were sitting together drinking tea and giving pointers to a few disciples who were diligently cultivating. Yunxiu recognized two familiar faces among them—Chongyun and Yunce. However, he didn't recognize the others, but they were all quite talented and were all at the level of Origin Gods.

"Young Yun, it's rare for you to come to Mt. Aozang. You've been back in Liyue for ten days, but lately you seem to have been busy at Jade Capital?" Li Shui casually poured Yun Xiu a cup of tea, looking at him with some doubt, and said, "Have some tea first. Is there something you need today? Or is it time for us old men to lend a hand again?"

"It's like this..."

Yunxiu picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp before carefully explaining the situation of the culinary competition, including all sorts of troubles such as talent, bloodline, artifacts, and the contestants' control of elemental power and special abilities.

“If that’s the case, banning them all is indeed inappropriate.” Xianyun thought for a moment before continuing, “Suppression won’t solve the problem. Moreover, our goal this time is to gather more and purer willpower. From this perspective alone, we even need to make this competition more exciting.”

“Yes, especially those little kids. Perhaps some of them have a special talent or aptitude for cooking?” Grandma Ping smiled and glanced at the few mortal disciples before speaking with a smile: “I met a lady in Mondstadt last time. She had a strong talent for handling meat. I tasted her cooking myself, and it was quite good.”

Yunxiu nodded. This must be referring to Brock. She is indeed very skilled at eating meat, so suppressing all other talents would not be appropriate.

"Moreover, many treasures are specially designed for special circumstances. I've seen Xiangling's weapon. Apart from cooking, its power is probably not as great as a few spells I can cast casually." Xiaoyue also spoke up at the right time, but soon he noticed that his disciples had also stopped cultivating and started to curiously gather around.

"Master Yunxiu".

"Brother Yun."

"Ah Xiu..." Chongyun's voice came over. He was about to step into the level of the Primordial God, and already had a Destiny Seat with four colors and one gold. Entering the Legendary realm in the future wouldn't be too difficult. He looked at Yun Xiu carefully for a moment before continuing, "If that's the case, wouldn't it be possible to give each contestant some assistance? I've seen your spell development ability and your master's talisman skills. I think we can combine them..."

"Oh? Tell me more." Yunxiu couldn't help but become curious. Chongyun was the least talkative of the five of them, but he often had some very ingenious ideas.

“Hmm… I have a pure Yang body, as you know, but I haven’t suppressed it. Instead, I use it for cultivation, only occasionally using materials and food containing ice elements to slightly suppress it, allowing me to live a normal life.” Chongyun took out a talisman and handed it to Yunxiu, pointing to the runes on it before continuing, “Could we transform some of our talents and advantages into spells and distribute them to all the contestants? This would raise the minimum performance level for most people…”

He paused, then added, "Your spell development ability is very strong. These cooking spells are at most second or third level. With your abilities, you should be able to develop some quickly. Your master's talisman ability is also the best in Teyvat, so he should be able to develop them quickly as well. Therefore, we can distribute some to each contestant..."

“Moreover, this has another advantage: talented individuals can selectively choose talismans to enhance themselves, and they shouldn’t refuse,” said a pretty young bard with gray hair. “As for how to balance it, we can use a tiered ‘weighted system’.”

"Weighted system?" Yunxiu smiled as she looked at the girl. This was Grandma Ping's new apprentice, Ke Qing's cousin, and Shen Yue, the daughter of the second manager of the Shen family. She had only awakened her talent to this level after the promotion of the magic system.

“Yes, talismans can be given to every contestant, but the points awarded for using talismans, using artifacts, and even using one’s own talent are different. The highest points are awarded for not using any talismans, and no points are awarded for using artifacts. The rest can be distributed equally.” Shen Yue said softly, “As long as the scoring system is further broken down, it can be balanced. In this way, if ordinary chefs make good use of their talents, they might be able to make it to the final round.”

“But this will bring another problem, namely, the scoring system and the development of spells for the talismans themselves will be very troublesome…” A strong young holy warrior spoke up. He was a disciple that Fushe had recently taken in from the Thousand Rock Army. The commander of the Thousand Rock Army was Ye Jialin, who was also known as the most likely candidate to become the next Kaiyang Star.

“I’ll handle the spell development. Based on the scoring system, we only need to develop a few of each type of talisman.” Yunxiu nodded with a smile. As expected, young people have broader perspectives. Sometimes, researching these things on my own can be quite a headache. He glanced at the immortals and said with a smile, “How about this, you all pause your cultivation for a moment and give me a complete system? If there are no problems, I can offer you some prizes.”

Upon hearing that there was a prize, the young men and women all turned their eyes to their immortal masters. Seeing that the immortals smiled and nodded, the seven or eight young men and women cheered and huddled together to discuss it.

Yunxiu then started rummaging through her storage bag, finding things like a ring that increased intelligence by 4, a headband that increased strength by 4, a longsword that could amplify attack power, a robe that provided protection against AC by 8, and a staff that had additional spell effects...

He pulled out a huge pile of various relics and equipment from his storage bag, leaving Risui dumbfounded. She couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Where... did all of this come from?"

“We got some from the Night Watchers War in Nata, and found some more in Nordkalai... but since they're not legendary, they're not very valuable.” Yunxiu thought for a moment, then selected two or three items for each of the people present, and stuffed the rest of the pile into Xiaoyue's hands: “I'd appreciate it if True Lord could refine these and find the Emperor to create another batch of divine artifacts. We should be able to use them soon.”

“I know, but I can refine it now too. Let Ruotuo and I refine it together.” Xiaoyue took the storage bag, nodded seriously, and then looked at Lishui and said, “Old Crane, you can help out then too.”

Risui nodded, but then he said thoughtfully, "Let's invite Narumi too; his skill level is quite good."

Xiaoyue nodded, and that was the end of it.

The group drank tea for a while longer, until Grandma Ping brought them several more boxes of pastries. Only then did the students finally submit a nearly complete plan.

Yunxiu took a look and found it to be quite comprehensive.

The scoring criteria are divided into five dimensions, each with a maximum score of 100. However, when calculating the total score, the weights are calculated as follows: 25 (cooking time), 15 (knife skills), 25 (creativity), 20 (seasoning), and 15 (appearance).

The total score is also subject to additional time weighting. Each match lasts 100 minutes, and a 1% coefficient is deducted for every minute exceeding the time limit. The use of talismans or artifacts will also result in a deduction of time weight.

Each talisman deducts 30 seconds, and each use of a magical artifact deducts 20 minutes.

The students' advice on spells was to provide at least 2-3 spell talismans for each dimension, preferably 4-5. Each contestant could receive 10 talismans per match, since there would only be a maximum of five matches from the preliminaries to the finals, so a total of fifty talismans would be provided.

Furthermore, a particularly attentive student specifically noted that a mock test could be conducted in the spiritual realm beforehand, and only those who scored above 60 could register for the competition. After registering, participants could choose the talismans they wanted, which would then be produced uniformly.

Once eliminated, participants can choose not to take back the talisman, which will serve as a kind of "consolation prize".

Of course, she also noted that this could potentially lead to huge expenses, so it would be best to make up for it in other ways.

"Hmm...who came up with this detailed plan?" Yunxiu smiled and pointed to the strategy for the talisman simulation test, looking at the students below.

Soon, a young girl timidly raised her hand and stood up. She glanced at Yunxiu and said softly, "It was me... I suggested it."

"Can you tell me the reason?" Yunxiu looked at the girl, her information already appearing in her mind. She was a disciple of Xiaoyue. She looked shy, but she was actually a fierce ranger, a variant of the Border Walker, who had the ability to travel between planes. She was Xinggui, the younger sister of Xingxi, the owner of "Xingxingzhai".

“Because if we take them back… it might… it might require additional costs and control, and these talismans might not even be useful after we take them back, many of them are specially produced…” Xinggui said softly, “As a perk, it can also enhance the human touch of this conference, and it’s also a way of publicity. Although it might cost a lot of money, we can make up for it in other ways…”

“You really are a business genius… How about leaving ‘Star House’ and working for my Chamber of Commerce?” Yunxiu smiled and picked out a headband with +4 Strength and an earring with +4 Perception from the relics and handed them to Xinggui.