Genshin Impact: I'm The Envoy of Snezhnaya

Genshin Impact: I’m The Envoy of Snezhnaya

Chapter 448: An Unexpected Encounter with the Chef

Whether Lumine would enter Stormterror’s Lair, and how she would get inside, had nothing to do with Bai Luo anymore.

After all, Aether was indeed inside Stormterror’s Lair. Even if he had already left by the time Lumine arrived, she would still sense his presence.

Which meant that she would trust Bai Luo even more.

As night fell, Bai Luo glanced at the cat nestled in his arms. Instead of using his skill to teleport back to Mondstadt, he decided to spend the night in the wilderness.

Normally, camping outside at night was extremely dangerous given Mondstadt’s current state of public security.

But...

At the moment, Mondstadt’s biggest public security problem was Bai Luo himself.

So there was nothing to worry about.

At this point, some people might ask:

Bai Luo didn’t bring any pots or pans, nor did he bring any camping gear. So how was he supposed to cook dinner, make a fire, and sleep outdoors?

That wasn’t a question for Bai Luo.

It was a question for the hilichurls.

Because whether Bai Luo had a comfortable place to sleep, decent food to eat, or even a cooking pot all depended on the quality of life of the nearby hilichurls.

Which meant...

The hilichurls were about to have a very bad day.

. . .

Finding a hilichurl camp in the wild wasn’t particularly difficult.

Large camps were easy enough—they were usually permanent settlements and rarely relocated.

Small camps, however, were much harder to find.

But that wasn’t a problem for Bai Luo.

Hilichurls had one particular characteristic: they avoided areas where elemental energy was too concentrated, since excessive elemental density put a strain on their bodies.

So if you searched places where elemental concentration was relatively low, you’d almost certainly find a camp.

If you couldn’t use Elemental Sight or sense elemental energy yourself, you could still judge from the tracks on the ground.

Hilichurls had dedicated hunting parties, and these groups generally reflected the camp’s fighting strength.

If you saw deep, heavy footprints, that meant the camp probably had a Mitachurl. Anyone looking for trouble there had better think twice about their own abilities.

But if there were no heavy footprints, only long drag marks...

That usually meant there wasn’t a Mitachurl in the camp.

Those drag marks were typically left behind when ordinary hilichurls hauled wild boars back to camp after a hunt.

As luck would have it, Bai Luo was looking at exactly those kinds of tracks.

"Looks like my luck’s holding."

Holding the cat in his arms, Bai Luo followed the trail.

A camp without a Mitachurl might have rougher living conditions.

But since there were drag marks, it meant one thing for certain—

There would be meat for dinner tonight.

However, as he approached the hilichurl camp, his sharp senses told him someone had already beaten him to it.

"Thank goodness. Otherwise, such delicious meat would have been wasted on the hilichurls."

As the girl put away her spear, the bell hanging behind her let out a pleasant chime.

Around her lay hilichurls sprawled across the ground in every direction.

"Guoba, start the fire! Tonight I’m going to show off my cooking skills!"

"Lulu~"

While the girl butchered the wild boar, Guoba hummed an unfamiliar tune as he sorted through the firewood the hilichurls had gathered, picking out the cleaner, drier pieces.

Today all he had to do was light the fire.

No need to gather firewood himself.

That was nice.

"Lu?"

Just after setting down the bundle of wood, Guoba seemed to sense something. He instinctively looked toward the camp entrance.

Then—

Bai Luo’s ghostlike figure appeared in the gateway.

"Who’s there?!"

Bai Luo hadn’t bothered to conceal his presence when he approached.

So Xiangling, who was dressing the boar, immediately noticed him.

"Long time no see, Chef Xiangling."

Was Bai Luo particularly close to Xiangling?

Not really.

At most, he was just a customer who had eaten at her restaurant.

"Oh, it’s Mr. Bai from the Northland Bank."

To Xiangling, Mr. Bai from the Northland Bank was quite the generous VIP customer.

Not only did he order huge amounts of food every time, but he also gave insightful comments on her cooking.

Most importantly, no matter how much he ordered, he always finished every last bite.

The only unfortunate thing was that he always charged the bill to the Northland Bank’s account.

Later on, a red-clad wandering samurai from Inazuma learned that trick from him and ended up running quite a tab at her restaurant as well.

"It’s been quite a while. I thought you’d gone back to Snezhnaya, Mr. Bai. I never expected to run into you here in Mondstadt."

Although the two of them were little more than acquaintances who could exchange a few words when they met, encountering someone whose name you knew in a foreign land always gave one a sense of familiarity.

"No, I just had some free time and took a trip to Inazuma. After that, I made my way back to Mondstadt and have settled here for the time being."

As he gently stroked the fiery-red cat in his arms, Bai Luo spoke, his gaze drifting toward the wild boar Xiangling was preparing.

"What perfect timing. I was just about to cook this boar. Would you like to join me, Mr. Bai?"

Noticing what Bai Luo was looking at, Xiangling warmly extended an invitation.

After all, as a chef, Xiangling’s favorite things in the world were cooking—and feeding other people.

A huge appetite, refined taste, and plenty of money to spend.

To Xiangling, Bai Luo was the ideal customer.

In all of Liyue, the only person who could rival him was probably Mr. Zhongli, who often came to her restaurant carrying his pet songbird.

"Then I’d be honored to accept."

Bai Luo was certainly capable of grilling meat in the wilderness.

But compared to Xiangling, a professional chef, he was admittedly a little outclassed.

"By the way, Chef Xiangling, what brings you all the way to Mondstadt?" Bai Luo asked, accepting the cup of tea Guoba handed him.

He couldn’t help giving the little creature another look.

Is this thing really a god?

Its tea-serving skills were even more polished than Jianna’s.

Looks like I’ve been going too easy on Jianna lately.

"You know me," Xiangling replied as she sorted through the fruits and vegetables Guoba had scavenged from the hilichurl camp. "I love searching for rare ingredients and creating new dishes."

"As luck would have it, a very knowledgeable gentleman recently visited the restaurant. He practically tasted every dish I know how to make, then asked if I had anything new."

"So that’s why you came to Mondstadt?"

If anyone else had given that explanation, Bai Luo might have suspected it was an excuse—or that they had ulterior motives.

But coming from Xiangling...

It sounded perfectly believable.

"More or less." Xiangling nodded. "I heard Mondstadt was suffering from a dragon crisis. At the time, Lady Tianquan even sent craftsmen here to help with the post-disaster reconstruction."

"So I thought that maybe I could get my hands on some dragon meat to bring home."

"I got so excited that I came here without a second thought."

"But by the time I arrived, the dragon crisis had already ended."