Leaving Mondstadt (Please Recommend, Please Vote, Please Follow)

A little earlier, after Wang Lei had dragged Ying and Paimon out of Ying's rented room, they really did go to Good Hunter for something to eat.

There was one thing to understand when getting by in Teyvat: no matter how much you fooled Paimon, you could not fool her by promising to treat her to food and then not doing so. Even if you had no money and Ying had to pay in the end, food had to go into Paimon's mouth.

Of course, Wang Lei's skin was not made of thousand-year-old gold and stone, so he could not pull a Zhongli and say he had forgotten to bring money after inviting someone to dinner.

Wang Lei's method of treating people to a meal without any Mora was simple. He dragged Ying and Paimon to the entrance of Good Hunter and declared that he was there for a cooking challenge. Ying and Paimon were the judges he had invited himself.

If some other stranger had come to Good Hunter's door to provoke them, receptionist Sara would probably have called the Knights of Favonius. But Wang Lei had brought Ying and Paimon with him.

Ying and Paimon were fairly famous throughout Mondstadt. The title of Honorary Knight resounded across the city. With them present, Sara went to notify the head chef first.

After that, things were simple. The moment Good Hunter's head chef saw Wang Lei, he knew someone had truly come to challenge him. There was a sort of instinctive recognition between masters of the culinary arts. Upon seeing Wang Lei, Good Hunter's head chef immediately felt immense pressure.

However, Good Hunter was one of the signatures of Mondstadt's culinary scene. Its head chef would never allow himself to retreat without a fight.

Once he received permission, Wang Lei borrowed the outdoor kitchen Good Hunter provided for impoverished adventurers to cook their own meals. He borrowed chicken and Jueyun Chili from the restaurant, while Good Hunter already had most other ingredients such as scallions, ginger, and garlic. The only thing they lacked was peanuts, so Wang Lei spent 1 Energy Point to exchange for a ton of shelled peanuts from the system.

He planned to use the most traditional Kung Pao Chicken as his opening move for the challenge. After all, Wang Lei had no reputation and needed to prove himself to the crowd that had already gathered to watch.

Jueyun Chili normally needed to be sun-dried, but Wang Lei directly accelerated the process with Aether Encoding. Within five minutes, he had produced properly dried chilies. Blanching the chicken and mixing the starch were naturally carried out at the same time with practiced ease.

Once everything was ready, he began stir-frying. Before long, a huge steaming plate of Kung Pao Chicken, its fragrance wafting in all directions, was complete.

There was a reason Kung Pao Chicken had become one of the most common dishes to eat with rice in modern fast-food culture. Its simple preparation and quick cooking time aside, the key was that as long as it was not carelessly made with cut corners, its aroma easily stimulated the taste buds. Paimon was practically drooling already.

Wang Lei did not keep them waiting. He ladled a spoonful of Kung Pao Chicken over each small bowl of rice, dividing it into over twenty portions for Ying, Paimon, Sara, several Good Hunter staff members, and the head chef, who was already somewhat dazed, to taste.

The result was as expected. Mondstadt had no concept of rice bowls with toppings. Faced with such a perfect accompaniment to rice for the first time, everyone did nothing but eat. No one even offered a review.

Wang Lei was very satisfied with that outcome. Kung Pao Chicken was never a dish meant for people to pick apart and critique. It was too commonplace, easy to learn but difficult to master. The only standard of whether it passed was the speed at which diners ate it with their rice.

Judging from the scene before him, the people of Mondstadt and Good Hunter's staff were extremely satisfied. As for the head chef, he had already despaired when he saw Wang Lei's heat control. Wang Lei had initially used heat control to train the flame-control abilities of his God's Eye. As a result, cooking was the path where he had invested the most points into heat control. Rui Mengmeng had been unable to graduate as his apprentice because Wang Lei had never been satisfied with her heat control.

And now that he had Aether Encoding, the heat of his cooking had been controlled down to the millisecond. It was another enormous leap forward.

Good Hunter's head chef only wanted to roar, "With skills like yours, go challenge Liyue's Liuli Pavilion! Why come bully a chef from a city that isn't even known for its cuisine?!"

The outcome of the subsequent cooking duel was not surprising in the least. Good Hunter's head chef's Crispy Shrimp and Potato Platter was utterly defeated by Wang Lei's Golden Shrimp Balls.

Wang Lei successfully earned one free experience of Good Hunter's premium private room and its full menu.

The amount of food on Good Hunter's entire menu was no small matter. An ordinary person would be stuffed after taking just one bite of each dish. But in the end, Paimon accomplished the feat of ten fully grown men.

Of the more than thirty dishes, she swept away nearly three-quarters by herself. The remaining quarter was just enough to fill Wang Lei and Ying.

While they ate, Wang Lei gave Ying the game console and solar-powered portable charging station he had promised her while Paimon was busy stuffing her face. The charging station was about the size of the speakers used by elderly ladies for square dancing. Ying should have some way of dealing with it.

As for Ying's customary questions about her brother, Wang Lei decisively stated that he had only arrived a little over ten days ago and had never seen a Traveler with the same hair color as Ying who also looked like her. However, he would keep an eye out for him as he traveled through Teyvat.

Yes, Wang Lei had no intention of following Ying on her journey. While he would certainly involve himself in several major events, he did not want to set out alongside Ying. Instead, like Dainsleif, he would run into her in all sorts of places. This meal was their farewell banquet.

Though Ying was a little disappointed, she did not press him. After all, her goal was still to find her brother. Besides, Wang Lei was mysterious, and she did not know him very well. All she could say was that his actions seemed fairly proper and that he was rather reliable. Well, more reliable than Venti.

After dinner, Paimon was so full that she could not fly anymore. She simply sat atop Di Ting and played at being a knight.

Paimon truly liked little Di Ting. If Di Ting had not cost Wang Lei a whopping 2,000 Energy Points, he might have given her to Paimon. Unfortunately, he could not bear to do that. He was not that extravagant.

Just in case Rosalyne had not fully recovered and arranged for someone to ambush Ying, Wang Lei still accompanied Ying back to her temporary residence.

Fortunately, Rosalyne had indeed already left. However, she had left behind a letter for Wang Lei. The letter mainly expressed her gratitude and said that she would prepare ample gifts to thank him again the next time they met. But she still chose to remain loyal to the Cryo Archon.

However, if Wang Lei ever needed her help in the future, he only needed to visit any Northland Bank and use La Signora's Mask to have them deliver a message to her. So long as it did not interfere with the Cryo Archon's arrangements, Rosalyne would come to Wang Lei's aid in her own name as quickly as possible.

Wang Lei smiled in satisfaction and put away the letter before saying goodbye to Ying. Rosalyne's experiment had been a success, and it was time to leave Mondstadt. There was nothing here worth making him stay any longer. After all, Wang Lei still had not earned enough Energy Points to offset the energy spent on this transmigration. The system's transmigration energy bar was not even full yet.

Before leaving, Wang Lei told Ying that she could ask Venti about her next destination. That drunken bard had buried wine beneath the great tree at Windrise. As long as she dug it up, he would definitely show himself. Then, if she used the wine to threaten him, he would answer most of her questions.