I, the leader of the esoteric sect, am doing great things in the infinite world!

[You are, respectively, the Liyue Little Chef Kurumi, who is determined to collect the legendary cooking utensils, split open the Lonely Cloud Pavilion, and rescue her grandfather who is trapped under the mountain with his butt facing outwards!]

"Stop, stop, stop!" Ke Qing quickly called for a halt. "The theme of our board game isn't cooking, is it?"

And which grandfather would be pressed down under Guyun Pavilion with his buttocks facing outwards? Is her grandfather the Vortex Demon God Oser?

“But writing the background like this is really cooloooool—” Li Lin made the decision, “As the Rock King Emperor, I agree.”

"yeah!"

"Cough cough cough cough."

Hu Tao and Li Lin, who had gotten their way, high-fived.

Zhongli choked on his tea and coughed incessantly.

[...a comedian and rapper at Heyu Teahouse who eats grapes without spitting out the skins, and spits out the skins instead of eating grapes, Liyue Electric Eel Smoke Scarlet, skr—]

Ke Qing's eyes widened: "Are you all just letting yourselves go in the background while I'm the only one writing obediently?"

How did rappers become associated with crosstalk comedians?

Yan blushed and turned her head away, pretending to look around at the scenery.

[A model worker who starts work at 5 a.m. every day to lay mortar and move bricks, and goes home at 10 p.m. every night—Ke Qing, the civil engineering worker!]

"Hey!" Ke Qing slammed her hand on the table. "I clearly didn't write 'Civil Engineering Dog'!"

Yanfei and Hutao burst into laughter, while the transparent snotty ghost flew around everywhere.

[And finally, Zhongli, who is ostensibly unemployed, and in reality, is also unemployed—the number one idler in Liyue Harbor.]

"Where are the dice? How do you calculate them?" Zhongli was more interested in how the game calculated the points.

"Let's use this 20-point die," Li Lin decided, establishing the village rule. "I'll roll it."

"I think there's something fishy going on," Ke Qing muttered unhappily.

"Nonsense!" Li Lin shouted. "If there's no cheating in board games, are we even human?!"

The group was stunned by Li Lin's shamelessness, and when they thought of the image of "Li Zhenren, the Savior from Suffering" circulating in the streets, they felt utterly disillusioned.

Amidst the noise and commotion, the first round of the running group, hosted by Li Lin, began.

Now, players, please begin your actions.

Walnut excitedly patted the snotty-nosed ghost: "I'm going to make a midnight snack for my companions first."

"Please excuse me for refusing," Yan Fei said from the side, indicating that she had already eaten dinner at Heyu Tea House and did not need a late-night snack.

Li Lin originally wanted to secretly guess a number, but Zhong Li was watching him closely, so he couldn't make any underhanded moves and had to honestly roll the dice.

At 7 PM, Hu Tao successfully prepared a late-night snack, but Yan Fei wasn't included.

"Thank you so much," Yan Fei said, expressing her relief.

After Hu Tao and Yan Fei, it was Ke Qing's turn to act. She stood up, looked at the map on the table, and gestured to Li Lin that she would go first to investigate the alley next to it.

Who knows what good stuff you might find in a smoke-filled alley?

It's 7:10 PM now, and you're still at the construction site mixing mortar. As punishment for absenteeism, your earnings will be reduced by half, and you'll lose all your wages for today.

"Huh? No, that can't be right! Let me check the rulebook..."

"I am the Rock King Emperor, and I call the shots," Li Lin chuckled slyly.

Meanwhile, Keqing was blacklisted by the foreman at the Liyue Harbor construction site for unexcused absence.

"What kind of punishment will there be?" Ke Qing asked nervously.

"No, it's just that it looks cool," Li Lin told the truth, then gave a high five to Hu Tao, who shared his taste.

“I should have thought of that…” Keqing sighed. “Now I can at least begin my exploration, right?”

Li Lin gestured for her to act.

"Then I will carefully enter the alley, explore it, and search for the barrels and boxes inside."

Keqing cautiously entered the smoke-filled, winding alleyway. The distant lights couldn't illuminate the darkness. After confirming several times that no one was around, Keqing began searching for resources in the surrounding area.

Li Lin threw out the dice.

1.

"?"

Li Lin was immediately amazed by the engraver's skill: "Is this guy really that unlucky? I didn't realize it."

Keqing found nothing.

"Laughing hysterically, laughing ...

Ke Qing slammed her hand on the table in anger.

Zhongli picked up the teacup beside him, took a sip, and picked up the chess piece that symbolized him: "Then, let's go and have a look around Heyu Teahouse first. Although we've already missed Mr. Yun's play, listening to a few stories is still quite interesting."

Unemployed man Zhong Li went to Heyu Teahouse to listen to storytelling.

After each of the four players had taken their turn once, they became quite adept at it.

Hu Tao took the snotty little thing off her head: "I'm going to use the excuse of delivering takeout to go to Heyu Tea House."

At this moment, Li Lin suddenly realized that if things continued like this, he would not be able to make his presence known.

Your actions have attracted the attention of the heretics who worship the Vortex Demon God in the Heyu Teahouse.

"There's even a combat segment?"

Yan Fei said in surprise, "Then I need to persuade them."

Li Lin rolled the dice, and it was another 1.

"I added a few things to my wording, so I should be considered successful, right?" Yan Fei tried to convince herself.

"Adding a few points won't help in a major failure."

Li Lin stated that he, as the Rock King Emperor, has always been impartial and incorruptible.

[Yan Fei attempted to persuade the heretics, pointing to the large bowl of noodles just served in the teahouse, saying, "Look at these noodles, they're so long and wide, just like this bowl, so big and round, skr." The heretics didn't understand and thought she was mocking them.]

Keqing spoke up: "I want to join the battle."

Keqing is still on her way.

"How much longer do I have to run?" Ke Qing said, both amused and exasperated.

Finally, after Yan Fei bribed Li Lin with her private stash of dried fish, the unjust Yan Wang Dijun pulled some strings, and all four of them met at He Yu Tea House, ready to fight the tea house owner who was disguised as a Deep One.

"As a head chef, it's perfectly reasonable for me to carry a cleaver with me, right?" Hu Tao said.

“From a purely rational perspective, it is indeed reasonable,” Li Lin agreed.

"No, why would you carry a kitchen knife with you when you're delivering takeout...?" Ke Qing questioned, "Are you really not going to murder someone?"

Hu Tao argued vehemently, "Because...because these are kitchen utensils passed down to me by my grandfather, and seeing them reminds me of him."

"Whose grandfather would be pinned down under Guyun Pavilion with his butt facing outwards?!"

After another round of playful banter, the battle officially began.

The owner of Heyu Teahouse chuckled sinisterly, his body suddenly swelling—whoosh, he transformed into a gigantic fishman dressed in very little clothing; it was clear at a glance he was a top-tier Deep One.

195 Great Failures

Time goes back five minutes.

In the cobalt blue light of the Flood, Nian is visiting the Night's Watch's named figure, "The Bardomite" Theresa Garmier, in the private sanctuary of the Wise Knight's Lodge.

Mansor is also known as the Sun House, and as a house, it must have a door to enter it. Apart from the small doors that were opened at great cost at the border of the White Fortress, Mansor also has a formal door.

Among them, the door used to allow the deceased to enter the Manju is called the "Pure White Door".

The private secret realm, Wise Knight's Hut, is located behind the Pure White Gate, situated above a dark woodland. In the large clearing between the woodland and the Pure White Gate, black and blue-purple trees enclose a forest area, where wrestlers dance like bears from time to time.

They look like headless bears, slapping their skin with their paws from time to time, making rhythmic thumping sounds.

This secret realm was once left behind by another powerful named figure, the Wise Knight, but he abandoned it after he went to higher places in Mansour. It was Theresa who discovered it and transformed it into what it is today.

The reason Nian appeared here was naturally because she slacked off halfway through.

Although the factory of the White-Day Casting Furnace was dark, it did not require everyone to work every day. Nian was one of the more talented ones, and he used to come to work every day, which put a lot of psychological pressure on the other named people and the creations of the celestial beings.

Damn it, so you think you're the only one who can roll a ball?

Even Nian's direct superior, the "Crucible" boss, has hinted more than once that Nian should slack off and take a break.

Theresa was already used to Nian's opportunistic behavior. After all, this newly promoted Blaze was quite well-known in the Mansu. There were still vacancies for the Named Person position at the Daytime Forge, and given her current favor, she would almost certainly become a Named Person in the future.

Even if one doesn't become the named person in the White Day Casting Furnace, aren't there other Casting Ministers?

"So, you've come here to find the expert I've pre-selected for you, just to have some fun?"

Theresa tied her long hair into a bun at the back of her head. Her skin was so white that it resembled a wall bleached by light, and she wore sunglasses.

This is the image she most often uses in Mansor: "I must say, your chosen Knower has indeed brought us a lot of fun. I have never seen such an interesting person in the past three hundred years. I bet Lionsmith or Doublehorn Axe would like him very much, but the Night's Watch may not think so."

Theresa poured a small glass of golden mead and handed it to Nian: "This is a gift I received in some world, um... I traded a piece of knowledge and that being for the method of brewing it."