Everyone present was praising Su Han. Only Tartaglia, the one who treated everyone, wore an awkward expression. Those earlier remarks were wonderful for the rest, but the problem was that he was a Fatui Executive. All that talk about degeneracy and doing bad things was clearly referring to him.
It was obviously scolding him to his face, yet Tartaglia had no way to respond. Instead, he even had to force a smile.
The banquet soon ended. Su Han stood up and said to him, "Thanks a lot for today, brother. If you don't understand anything in the comics, just come straight to me! It's late now. We should get going. Farewell!"
The others stood up as well and said their goodbyes. Soon the room was empty except for Tartaglia.
A moment later, a Fatui subordinate came to report.
Tartaglia raised an eyebrow and asked, "How much Mora did we spend?"
"My lord, tonight's total was two million seven hundred and eighty thousand Mora. The shopkeeper rounded it off and charged two million seven hundred thousand."
"Sigh. I wanted to build a connection with Boss Su. I didn't expect it to end up like this. Looks like he deliberately wanted to trap me."
Tartaglia rested his chin on one hand, disappointment filling his eyes. He had planned to use Zhongli's connection to get closer to Su Han.
Even if they couldn't discuss business, becoming sparring partners would have been good. Now it seemed he had overthought everything.
On the way back, Su Han walked side by side with Ningguang. Watching couples pass one after another on the streets, Ningguang suddenly laughed. "I just realized you've changed all of Liyue Harbor. We never saw this many couples before."
"I only gave them a little guidance. Whether they ended up together was their choice. It has already been two days. I wonder how the immortal is doing now."
As Su Han thought about it, Cloud Retainer's voice suddenly descended from above.
"Hm? How did you know this immortal has already finished?"
"True Lord?!"
Su Han was startled. Was this word-becomes-law? Every time he mentioned her, she appeared the next second.
Seeing his shocked expression, Cloud Retainer said proudly, "Were you frightened by this immortal's speed? Come with this immortal. The rotary furnace and the crusher you requested are already finished." With that, she spread her wings and flew toward Mingyun Village.
Su Han and Ningguang exchanged a glance, then hurriedly controlled their artifacts and followed. As for Keqing and Ganyu, they had gone to work much earlier. If Su Han had not insisted on tricking Tartaglia, they would not have had time to enjoy such a luxurious meal. A simple roadside meal would have been enough for them.
Upon arriving, Su Han and Ningguang saw the enormous rotary furnace at a glance. The thing was about sixty meters long, roughly four meters in diameter, and colored azure-gold. It looked impressive.
Seeing Su Han land, Cloud Retainer said, "According to your request, this immortal placed the furnace in Mingyun Village. I also cleaned up the surrounding area. As for how you intend to build the factory, that is your responsibility."
"Yes. Thank you, True Lord. Ningguang, go bring people to test it."
"Alright."
Under Ningguang's command, a group of workers arrived with many alchemists. They threw the prepared raw materials into the massive furnace.
The subsequent steps were sintering, grinding, and forming.
They had expected the process to take a long time. Instead, the first batch of cement was produced in only three hours.
Looking at the gray powder before her, Ningguang asked, puzzled, "This is cement?"
"Yes, but the speed is different from what I know."
If he remembered correctly, normal cement production took three to five days. How had it finished in only a few hours? Was it because of the rotary furnace?
With that doubt, Su Han looked at the immortal beside him and asked, "Did you do this?"
Cloud Retainer raised an eyebrow, looking as if she had been waiting forever. "Hmph, you finally noticed? The rotary furnace crafted by this immortal is not some ordinary alchemical machine you described. It is a massive artifact! A few days ago, you said the new city's construction was urgent. This immortal thought that wasting time on cement production would delay everything, so I made a few small modifications."
"You are too modest. With this artifact, efficiency has increased more than tenfold."
Su Han was shocked. This was no small modification. This was a complete redesign of the rotary furnace!
Cloud Retainer was greatly satisfied with Su Han's expression. She enjoyed seeing juniors look at her with admiration. Those two days and nights of effort had not been in vain.
"Since there is nothing else, this immortal will return to rest. The rest is up to you. If something similar comes up again, do not look for foreign alchemists. This immortal can handle it with ease."
"Very well. Safe travels, True Lord."
Before the words finished echoing, the crane had already flown into the clouds. She had been busy the past few days refining the rotary furnace and had not read the latest issue of the comic. She was not in a hurry to rest at all. She urgently wanted to read her comic.
Watching the immortal disappear, Su Han said to Ningguang, "Start arranging the workers to build the foundation. How is the preparation for the steel bars?"
"Everything is ready, and we are just waiting to begin. I didn't expect the immortal to help us this much."
Ningguang's eyes were filled with emotion. She had always thought immortals were only powerful fighters who could defeat mighty monsters.
But after this incident, she realized she had been completely wrong. Setting aside their strength, even their casual techniques were enough to overwhelm mortals.
Su Han smiled and said, "That's why I said we should treat immortals a little better. See? She helped us a lot this time. Since there is nothing else here, I'll go back."
"Alright. Leave this to us."
Ningguang knew he needed to cultivate, so she did not disturb him. She would send people to supervise the work later.
At this moment in Liyue Harbor, after the wave of the past two days brought by the Yan Ruyu arc, the latest chapters of Under One Person began to dominate discussions everywhere.
"Hey, have you been reading it? The story of Under One Person is just too good, especially the conversation between Zhang Chulan and the monkey. It is incredibly profound."
"Of course I've read it. All the storytellers have been talking about it these days! What is a person? Yes, what is a human? If you cannot understand that, you don't deserve to be called one!"
"Even a monkey wants to stand upright with dignity. Are we humans going to degenerate into beasts?"
"You're right. Those who commit crimes are nothing but beasts! They refuse to walk the righteous path and insist on crooked ways. One day, the Millelith will catch them and execute them. Let's see if their families can lift their heads then."
"Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and a mouse's son knows how to dig holes. The children of Treasure Hoarders can't be any good. They're all beasts and can never return to the right path. I heard the Millelith are getting stronger. Sooner or later, they will catch every last one of them!"
"That isn't right. Didn't Boss Su say in the Fox Spirit comic that if someone sincerely repents and redeems themselves in time, they can become a good person again?"
The speaker had no intention, but the listener was affected.
A child waiting to buy wine in the tavern listened to the guests' conversation. His jaw clenched tighter and tighter. Those repeated insults of "beast" were unbearably sharp, because his father happened to be a Treasure Hoarder.
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