I'm in the Teyvat running group

Tonight is the online selection of sub-venues: Chenyu Valley, Qiaoying Manor, Qingce Manor, and Guyun Pavilion. Each sub-venue has a different theme. This year's main theme is "tradition," and each stage of the competition will have a sub-theme. The four sub-venues will also choose a draw format. In the first round, you only need to cook two dishes. Each sub-venue will select 12 contestants, for a total of 48 people. Then it will be 48 to 16, 16 to 8, 8 to 4, and finally the four people will compete to determine the overall champion.

The four sub-venues have separate themes for the first phase: "Mountain Delicacies", "Seafood", "River Delicacies" and "Wild Harvest". After drawing lots to select a venue, participants can choose from 30 to 40 different ingredients, with a maximum of 5 ingredients excluding seasonings.

In fact, this is the first step in filtering out unlucky players. If a player who is good at mountain delicacies draws wild game, they might be able to try their best, but if they draw seafood, they can only hope for the best. Even Xiangling has her weaknesses; Xiangling's skill level in seafood is relatively average.

However, even if a skilled chef draws a skill they are not good at, they may still have enough ability to succeed, but an ordinary chef may not be so lucky.

Meanwhile, Yunxiu watched Hutao and Xiangling draw lots at home, while Ying and Liuying sat to the side, watching with smiles.

"Oh no, I got wild game." Xiangling looked at the display and ingredient selection on her spiritual terminal and couldn't help but feel a headache: "Sand onion, bitter greens, turtledove, silkworm pupae, I haven't tried these things many times."

"Yunxiu, what is this river delicacy...?" Hu Tao drew a river delicacy, which was a good choice, but Hu Tao's skills might not be up to par...

“Peach blossoms float on flowing water, and mandarin fish are plentiful.” Zhongli pondered for a moment before slowly saying, “Choosing mandarin fish or white shrimp is quite good. As for Xiangling… you can choose mustard greens or wild boar meat.”

"Oh, right! I can also choose wild boar from the snow mountain!" Xiangling happily checked off several ingredients. Although this wasn't her forte, she had some basic knowledge of it.

Ultimately, she drew a mountain delicacy, so it shouldn't be a big problem for her.

Meanwhile, in the dormitory where the contestants lived, Yukio stood there blankly, staring at the choice he had drawn. It was the luckiest choice for him.

Seafood

Inazuma, who lives by the sea, is a master of this kind of food, having made a name for himself in making snacks. With these fifty talismans, he is really confident that he can achieve a pretty good result in this preliminary round!

"Daddy, Daddy! The yard here is so big!" Xia happily rolled around on the lawn with a kitten. There were even a lot of cats and dogs in this demi-plane. These were the offspring of the cats and dogs that Funina had raised here. She smiled and looked at Xingxiong and said, "Daddy, let's make tempura, let's make tempura! I believe in you!"

"Okay, okay." Yukio hugged Xia and laughed, "This time, Daddy will make tempura shrimp!"

Chapter 429 The Flavors of Street Food

"I want to go eat at that place first!" Paimon pointed to a shop with a picture of "Hot Osel" on it and chuckled, "Shen He, come with me, Ying and Yunxiu have other work to do!"

Her short legs floated in the air for a moment before she floated shyly to Ying's side: "I'm a little short on Mora lately, could you... give me some of the tokens you just exchanged? I'll pay you back when my savings in the bank mature!"

"Sigh... I haven't even had a chance to sell the materials yet. What I exchanged just now should only be enough for me." Ying glanced at Yunxiu, who immediately understood her meaning. He stretched out his hand, and a beam of light condensed in his palm. Soon, a small bag appeared in Yunxiu's hand, which he handed to Shenhe: "Go with Paimon. This should be enough to exchange... A token only costs 20 Mora, and this is 50000."

Shen He smiled and nodded. She actually quite liked Paimon, although she did want to be with Yunxiu more. However, Yunxiu and Ying did have other things to do.

Guests attending the Moonlit Food Festival need to exchange for these small tokens to eat at the stalls. Each token can be exchanged for one set. For the three days, each contestant will hand in the tokens from the guests each day. This is partly for counting purposes, and partly because after the three-day preliminary round, the tokens will be converted into Mora and then distributed to the contestants.

The Lonely Cloud Pavilion has been expanded into a town by connecting with some nearby towns in the Cloud Sea. Moreover, due to the presence of many immigrants from Nordkalai and the Lunar Force Laboratory here, there are now many residents. In addition, many tourists from Inazuma and Nata have come to visit the Lunar Festival, so the population here is quite large. Therefore, the 210,000 stalls are scattered here like stars.

Therefore, it was divided into more than 2100 zones, with 100 stalls in each zone.

This is also the preliminary round system. Instead of judges sitting around the venue scoring, it's a "food festival" where everyone has to "set up a stall." Each area will have two patrolling staff members: one from Yujingtai and one from the Dharma Master Association or Yunxiu Chamber of Commerce. These staff members will patrol in plain clothes and also score the 100 stalls. This is just the base score; it will be multiplied by a coefficient to get the final result.

This coefficient determines how many portions will be sold. Each vendor has 300 basic ingredients, and they can request more if needed. However, if food is wasted, the coefficient points will be deducted double.

Ying and Yunxiu's identities were naturally not a big problem, so they were assigned to do hard labor by the Seven Stars. Yunxiu was naturally too lazy to come, but Ying seemed to be very happy. So the two of them randomly drew the job of inspectors in District 537. So the two Descendants came here to score these stalls.

"Hmm... this place has really good raw octopus." Ying quickly finished the two surviving octopuses on a small plate, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Yunxiu: "Want to try some? The specialty here is probably the sauce."

“I’m afraid to eat something so raw… Ying, just give me a reasonable score.” Yunxiu glanced around and said with a smile, “This should have used talismans with [Flavor Diffusion] and [Removing Fishy Odor]. The energy intensity should be about three of each. So, deduct 180 seconds of time. Let me check the monitoring in the Spirit Realm. Hmm… the preparation time is 91 minutes, not overtime, so I won’t deduct any points here.”

"The knife skills should only get 60 points. It's quite good that the simple preparation even included a talisman. The cooking time is good, and the marinating with ice is also a good technique, so I'd give it 80 points. The seasoning deserves 90 points, but the creativity should be 100 points. The appearance is so cute, I'd give it 90 points!"

"I don't think it's cute at all; I'd only give it a 70 at most..."

"That 85..."

"75...it absolutely cannot go any higher."

"Alright, I didn't expect a great mage like you to dislike this." Ying finished the last bite of octopus in her mouth, took out her spirit terminal, checked the stall list, and then wrote:

"No. C-537-61: Knife skills 60, cooking time 80, seasoning 90, creativity 100, appearance 75, final score 83.25."

"Next one, next one!" Ying smiled and threw the empty disposable paper bowl into the trash can. The two of them weren't wearing uniforms; they were "incognito inspectors." However, all the judges were like that, and everyone tried their best to act like real tourists so that they could give the most authentic scores.

Yunxiu nodded and took Ying's hand as they walked forward. This was a stall called "Inazuma's Best Tempura". In front of the stall stood a little girl, struggling to hold a huge, cute sign. The sign was quite exquisite, and even had a few fireworks drawn on it.

Ying squatted down with a smile, looking at the little girl's face: "Did you make this sign? It's so beautifully written."

"No, sister, this was made for me by Yoomiya-nee, the best fireworks master in Inazuma!" Xia said loudly and earnestly. "My dad's tempura is the best in Inazuma, even Ayato-sama Kamisato praised it!"

"Okay, okay, give me two servings." A flash of light appeared in Ying's hand, and two small tokens appeared in her hand. She gently put the tokens into the small cloth bag hanging around Xia's neck, and then pulled Yunxiu to sit on the small stool. This stall was quite popular. The only two small stools left were still steaming, obviously because the previous person had just left.

"Alright, you two. People from Liyue might not be used to Inazuma's tastes, so I've prepared some Liyue seasonings for you. You can sprinkle them on your food!" Yukio chuckled as he pulled six large shrimp from the bucket below and quickly began processing them. Soon, two servings of tempura shrimp were handed to Ying and Yunxiu by the little boy, Xiaojie, on their small stools.

"These are complimentary for you two guests," the proprietress, Sachiko, said with a smile as she handed over two bowls of miso soup.

"Thank you!" Ying took the soup and carefully examined the tempura shrimp in front of her. Each shrimp was about the same size, cleaned very well by deveining, and the shrimp veins were removed. The batter was applied perfectly, and the surface had a fine, irregular texture.

Um……?

Yunxiu glanced at the shrimp's body. If you looked closely, you would see a small, smiling face with squinting eyes. This was achieved by lightly applying shrimp paste to the surface and then sliding the tip of a chopstick over it, revealing a curved corner of the eye and mouth, a smiling face.

"Delicious! And the texture is just right. Yunxiu, look, there's even a little face here!" Ying pointed to the little face on the shrimp and said with a smile, "I think this idea is perfect!"

"It's very good." Yunxiu also tasted something else. There should be some crab roe mixed in with this shrimp paste, and it was specially cooked. This made up for the slight lack of flavor in the tempura shrimp. It can indeed be said to be of extremely high quality. It is perfectly normal for Ayato Kamisato to praise this thing. After all, she praised it as well. Her level is no lower than Ayato Kamisato's.

The miso soup was also good, but I could tell that it was made with talismans. The shrimp, however, wasn't. Hmm... it must have been made with [heat adjustment]. Judging from how popular it is, they should use two talismans today. Yunxiu checked the monitoring in the spiritual realm again, and it hadn't exceeded the time limit.

"The knife skills are quite good, the shrimp is handled very well, I would give it 90 points. The creativity is also 90 points, the idea and execution are both good, but a little bit of cleverness is not enough. The seasoning can be given 100 points, the dipping sauce and the shrimp itself are both great. The cooking time can be given 95 points. This person has probably been frying shrimp for more than ten years."

"That appearance..."

"80. The plating is just ordinary, but a little thoughtfulness could be added. Also, the size of each shrimp is similar, which is a plus."

"Final score... 91.75, the highest score today." Ying took out her terminal and wrote it all down.

Several customers were already waiting at the door. Yunxiu and Ying finished eating quickly and got up to leave. Before leaving, Yunxiu gently touched Xia's face and smiled, "Xia, next time I'll bring Sister Xiaogong to eat your fried shrimp together, okay?"

"Hey... Big brother, do you know Sister Xiaogong?" Xia blinked her adorable big eyes at Yunxiu: "Sister Xiaogong even sent me a message to encourage me!"

"If it's him, of course there's no problem, Xia Xia, don't worry!" Ying patted her head, took Yun Xiu's hand, and left.

Yukio, of course, had no idea that he had already been scored, but that didn't matter.

Yunxiu sensed the subtle signs of human life around her and transformed them into a tremendous amount of willpower, which converged towards Yujingtai.

"Through wind and rain, we still pray; mountains and seas rejoice together; this is the blessing of heaven and earth..." he murmured. Ying could also see these things, and her expression showed a hint of surprise. The speed at which this power of wishes was gathering had indeed exceeded her imagination. The last time such a terrifying speed of gathering power of wishes was when the Emperor retired!

"Stars shift and constellations change, the world transforms, but the human world remains the same..." Two figures gently landed beside Yunxiu. Yunxiu turned to look and saw that it was actually Gan Yu and her son Gan Lin. These two Qilins were traveling together today, which was a rare occasion. Gan Lin looked at Yunxiu and Ying and jokingly asked with a smile, "How's your work going?"

"There should be more than a dozen more. It's rare for you two to come out like this, so I hope you have a great time."

“Oh, Mother, we’re here to check if the patrol officers have been abusing their power…” Gan Yu whispered a reminder: “According to regulations, we’re not allowed to contact the patrol officers.”

"It's alright, do you think these two would show favoritism? If they dare, I'll go to the Emperor to complain tomorrow!" Gan Lin said to Gan Yu with a smile, but she was quickly pulled away by Gan Yu. She even took out a few plaques with a smile: "Let's experience the festive atmosphere with Mom today. Anyway, we've almost finished our work."

"Huh?! Mother... alright."

Yunxiu smiled as he watched Ganyu and her mother enter Xingxiong's family's stall; this was the scene he most wanted to see at the Lunar Festival.

Liyue has never been a kingdom of gods, but a celestial dynasty of humans, because this is the era in which this kingdom was established in the human world, starting with the Emperor, under the watchful eyes of the laws and destiny of Teyvat!

This inclusiveness and beauty of the times will immerse everyone who comes to Liyue, because it is just like every day you spend in your life. At this moment, he felt something, carefully looked at a rock on the top of Guyun Pavilion, chuckled softly, and led Ying to the next stall.

"Your Majesty, there are no problems at any of the venues... Hmm, was that gaze from Yunxiu who saw this place?" Behind the rock, a man in a long robe was listening to a four-armed general's report with his back to him.

"Fushe, you go and experience it too. I'll take care of things here." Zhongli looked at the land beneath her feet without turning around, but a subtle smile appeared on her lips.

"Oh? Yes, I'm going to try the matsutake mushroom stuffed meat rolls at Sister Guizhong's place. Would Your Majesty like to come along?"

"I'll take a couple more looks and then I'll go."

"Yes."

Chapter 430 The Battle for Supremacy in Jade Capital: Fireworks Rise

Seven days later, at the main venue of Yujingtai, forty-eight contestants had already assembled.

"The competition officially begins now! This time, the theme is 'The Moon'! Each contestant may bring three assistant chefs. The pre-selected ingredients are already in the freshness-locking array next to your stoves. The competition time is 100 minutes, and you need to prepare an appetizer, soup, main course, and staple food!" The hosts for this competition are Ke Qing and Hu Tao. Seeing Ke Qing hand her the microphone, Hu Tao happily took it: "The judges are our guest elder of the Hall of Rebirth, Mr. Zhongli! Of course, he also has another identity as our Emperor~ and the Great Compassionate Tree King, the Supreme God of the High Heaven, the current Supreme God Lord Raiden Shin, and the God of War, Mavika!"

"In addition, we've also invited special judges to attend!" Hu Tao pointed, and the last two judges appeared on the stage: "Ta-da! Lord Inazuma the Fox King, Bai Chen, and Lord Ancient Angel Taranis!"

Ok? !

Yunxiu, who was sitting in the front row of the audience with Xiaogong and Nel, couldn't help but gape when she saw the mysterious judge at the end: "When did Taranis go? Where is Serania?"

"Serania participated, but of course she didn't make it to the top 48." Xiaogong, holding Yunxiu's hand, waved to Xia in the arena. Seeing the bouncy little girl respond happily, he said to Yunxiu, "The mother and daughter suddenly wanted to participate in Inazuma, but Taranis's level is so low! In the end, Serania rejected them, which made her a judge. But Serania really had bad luck; there were just too many strong competitors in her region. As for now… she's probably helping with logistics. I saw her wearing a staff armband earlier."

"Huh? Where did she go? To the river fish restaurant?"

“Yes, Aikofei, Yanxiao, Brock, Qin, and several chefs are all there. But Hu Tao didn’t come in, so she’s the host.” Xiaogong said happily, “Hu Tao even asked me if I wanted to be the host, but how come I’m eating so much if I’m the host? I even won a spot as an audience judge.”

“The lottery actually made a lot of people’s luck ‘bad,’ but of course, some people had good luck too.” Nilu smiled and pointed to a Sumeru girl below, saying, “That’s Rosana, a waitress at the Diafa Hotel in Port Omos. She can’t mix drinks and isn’t very good at serving customers, but she’s actually from the desert and is very good at cooking wild game. This time, she drew the Wild Game Venue and successfully advanced.”

"Oh? What was her score? Was it good?" Yunxiu looked at the girl with interest. The several kitchen helpers around her were obviously friends from the Gold Medal Troupe. They were working hard to put a huge pack beast on the barbecue grill. It seemed that they were going to make roasted pack beast. This was going to be a troublesome task.

"I even helped entertain the guests for a while, which was great. As for the rating, it was done by Zhiqiong and Xiao together, so there won't be any problems."

"More than who gives the scores, I'm curious about how Zhiqiong and Xiao ended up together..."

"It is said that Xiao fainted once in the wild, and Qi Qi and Zhi Qiong carried him back. Later, the Emperor treated him."

"I'm more curious about how Qiqi and Zhiqiong got together..."

"The two of them will be gathering herbs together. They even came to Sumeru last time. I helped them find some Lotus of Calamity, and Mr. Bai thanked me afterwards." Nyru covered her mouth and laughed. She pointed to the venue below and said, "Look, it's starting. Is Xiangling making... Moon Pie? This is food from Mondstadt."

Hmm... the only one here who probably knows why Xiangling chose the Moon Faction is Yunxiu...

After that night with Xiangling, he had the winery chef at Dawn Winery make Moon Pie for her, and they also ate a lot of Mondstadt delicacies. Moon Pie was certainly a suitable main course.

"The appetizer tea is like a full moon, the soup is like jade veiled in clouds, the main course is like golden jade, and the staple food is like moon pie... Xiangling's choice is truly perfect." Yunxiu couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. It was already a masterpiece to be able to blend the different styles of the two countries, let alone combine them so perfectly, and even each dish was themed around the "moon". It was hard to find such a perfect choice.

He turned his gaze to Yukio, and upon seeing his choice, he couldn't help but chuckle.

Sachiko and Yukio were preparing the ingredients together, while Xia and Xiaojie kept scooping out various ingredients and handing them to their parents. The plaque with the painting by Yoomiya was still standing next to the stove, looking rather unique among the group of chefs. However, no one present said anything strange; instead, they all smiled and watched the family.

The choice of four dishes plus the theme was already beyond their capabilities, so the family could only try their best to put together a set meal.

The appetizer was raspberry water buns, the soup was still the proprietress's miso soup, the main course was a tempura platter, and the staple food was fox ramen. Yukio carefully used lily bulbs for seasoning, which was the closest seasoning he could think of to the theme of "moon".

However, this stay-at-home dad, who qualified by luck and whose actual strength was not high among the 48 contestants, actually exceeded his limits in terms of performance.

But does that... still matter?

When the Yukio family presented their prepared dishes to the judges' panel and faced the smiling face of the Supreme God of the High Heaven, now the Great Lord of the Divine Realm, the Thunder Emperor, none of that mattered anymore.

"Lord Raiden." Yukio bowed respectfully, then took the dishes from the tray in his wife's hands and placed them one by one in front of Raiden Shin. He bowed slightly again before leading his family to serve the other gods in turn.

None of the ruling gods spoke, which was an unspoken rule. If their own ruling god was not present, then naturally they would start with the emperor, who was the main god of the country. But when the gods were present, they would naturally offer sacrifices to their own gods first.