Genshin x Minecraft: Building the Temple of Virtue

With just that one shout, the entire street—which moments ago was filled with lively chatter and the elegance of high-class merchants—erupted into chaos. Everyone turned and bolted, afraid of being even a step behind the others.

A surge of people all flooded toward the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The scene was enough to leave anyone stunned.

”What’s going on with them…?” Lumine blinked, momentarily confused. Beside her, Diluc spoke softly:

”It’s probably because today is the scheduled release of the materials Liyue’s been distributing to the market.”

”By my estimate, today is exactly the day for it.”

Jean nodded thoughtfully.

”No wonder there were so many major merchants arriving in Liyue Harbor yesterday... Should we go take a look?”

Before she could even finish, Diluc was already descending the steps.

”Dawn Winery has merchant fleets operating in Liyue. We should at least take a look—and if possible, make some purchases. That was our original intention here, after all.”

Seeing this, Jean and Lisa exchanged glances, then followed along with Lumine and Paimon, merging into the crowd heading toward the Ministry.

Fortunately, the street they were on, near the Wanmin Restaurant, was close to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. And since their pace was quick, it wasn’t long before they reached the entrance.

At the gates stood twenty Qianyan Army soldiers: ten of them heavily armored cavalry, and ten appearing to be ordinary foot soldiers.

But there were also ten wolves present.

Most merchants focused their attention on the cavalry and the wolves, whispering among themselves about how formidable those forces looked.

However, those like Jean—who had witnessed the light infantry using alchemy potions and enchanted weapons—knew better: those seemingly ordinary soldiers were, in truth, the most dangerous ones here.

These twenty Qianyan soldiers, along with the ten wolves, could easily suppress a riot of several hundred.

Of course, no one dared stir up trouble here. Any slight disturbance, and the entire might of Liyue’s military could descend on them within minutes.

The merchants had mostly split into small groups—private merchant associations and powerful factions, such as the Adventurers’ Guild.

But there were also outliers.

One man stood alone, calmly gazing toward the entrance of the Ministry.

Diluc narrowed his eyes as he glanced over in that direction.

There, unbothered and smiling, stood Tartaglia—Childe—accompanied by a few Fatui agents.

Sensing Diluc’s stare, Tartaglia raised an eyebrow and nodded toward him with an amused smile.

”Fatui Harbinger, eleventh seat—Childe, Tartaglia…”

Diluc gave a low, displeased grunt and looked away.

He hated all the Harbingers—because of the Doctor.

He despised the Fatui stationed in Mondstadt, and so, by extension, he despised all of them.

Still, the Fatui had been keeping their heads down in Liyue, not daring to act out of line. It wasn’t his place to act either.

”What a lively scene,” Lisa murmured, sweeping her gaze across the crowd. ”Seems like the most elite merchants from all across Teyvat are gathered here.”

Her eyes soon landed on a merchant in Sumeru Academia robes standing not too far away.

But oddly enough, everyone nearby was avoiding him like the plague.

Lisa found this curious.

”What’s up with that Sumeru merchant?”

Her intel wasn’t as up-to-date as Diluc’s, so she didn’t know the Academia had recently drawn ire.

”I heard they were caught conducting secret low-price deals with the Fatui,” Diluc replied calmly. ”That angered both the Ministry and the Liyue Qixing. Now, all resources sold to them are marked up threefold.”

Lisa raised her brows in shock. ”Threefold?!”

Diluc nodded slightly.

”All of Liyue’s natural resources—doubled in price. For any merchant caught dealing with the Academia, a hefty transaction fee is added as well. In short—”

”Liyue is deliberately suppressing Academia-linked merchants. But strangely, they’ve made no restrictions on private Sumeru merchants.”

Lisa frowned, deep in thought.

If the Fatui only saw a 50% markup, it didn’t make sense for the Academia to be hit with triple.

There had to be something more going on.

Her thoughts drifted to last night—when Ryen had Nahida nestled in his arms—and a guess began to form.

”Looks like the Academia may have offended… a certain man.”

Lisa chuckled meaningfully.

”Otherwise, under the watchful eye of the Geo Archon, this kind of pricing imbalance would be considered commercial injustice. The Archon would’ve stepped in to mediate with the Qixing.”

”You mean…” Jean’s thoughts were connecting the same dots. But Lisa just shrugged and said no more.

”Seems like Mister Ryen holds quite the unique position in Liyue…” Jean murmured softly, a little helplessly.

After all, ever since Zhongli had taken Venti away yesterday, the Anemo Archon hadn’t returned.

There was no way to get more information from him.

Everything would depend on today’s meeting with Ningguang.

As they were lost in thought, someone from the Ministry of Civil Affairs stepped outside.

In an instant, the gathered merchants’ eyes burned with anticipation.

The official seemed very used to this situation—calm and unhurried, he pulled out a list and called out in a loud, clear voice:

”This week’s resource offerings: 500 tons of premium timber, 300 tons of coal, 600 tons of iron ore, 50 tons of lapis lazuli…”

As the list was read aloud, many merchants frowned.

This week’s list was nearly identical to last week’s.

Yet none of them could bring themselves to complain.

The Ministry wouldn’t change their mind based on the opinions of outsiders.

”Following the above resources, next are the elemental resonance weapons to be delivered this week.”

”Numbers twenty through thirty, please proceed to pay in full and claim your gear.”

Had Jean and the others not seen what they saw last night, they would have been eager to join in on the bidding for Liyue’s offerings.

But now, that wasn’t necessary.

They could simply let the Mondstadt Merchant Guild handle the procurement. Their priority was still the upcoming audience with Ningguang atop the Jade Chamber.

As the Ministry staff finished announcing the offers, over a hundred elite merchants began rapidly making deals.

Each transaction involved at least hundreds of millions of Mora.

The larger merchant guilds from other nations threw around figures starting at 5 billion Mora.

In less than an hour, all of the resources had been sold out.

Lumine and the others watched, stunned, as the Ministry of Civil Affairs raked in over 40 billion Mora in a single session.

”Wow, they’re really rich…” Lumine muttered under her breath.

”Don’t they worry about these resources getting stuck in inventory?”

Upon hearing this, Diluc let out a soft chuckle and shook his head.

”If it were bound to backfire, do you think those merchants would be that foolish?”

”Merchants make investments, not charitable donations.”

”If they buy these resources for one billion Mora, finding a place to offload them would still net them nearly five hundred million in profit.”

”These resources may look abundant, but when spread across all of Teyvat, they won’t even cause a ripple.”

”They’re consumables—there’s never a shortage of buyers.”

Off to the side, Paimon pouted a bit, looking somewhat envious.

”With that much Mora… just imagine how much delicious food we could eat…”

Everyone let out a light laugh, and just as they were about to turn and leave, Baiwen, Ningguang’s secretary whom they had met yesterday, walked over.

”Acting Grand Master Jean, Lady Ningguang invites everyone to the Jade Chamber.”

Jean paused and exchanged a subtle glance with Lisa before responding politely, ”Please, lead the way.”

The formal negotiations were about to begin.

——

Ryen wasn’t aware of any of this.

In the early morning, he had breakfast with Ganyu and Nahida.

After waiting a bit, only Keqing, Hu Tao, Xiao, and Cloud Retainer showed up.

Ryen had no plans to wait any longer.

Ningguang and Zhongli were likely busy today, so it seemed it would just be their small group heading to the MC world.

He opened the Dimensional Gate, and everyone eagerly stepped through.

Xiao, as usual, planned to patrol the surrounding area, mark the locations of Lucky Blocks, and then lead the group to explore the Nether.

Cloud Retainer’s recreation of Jueyun Karst had also reached a critical stage.

From Ryen’s manor, the rear mountain had already begun to resemble Jueyun Karst.

Meanwhile, Keqing and Hu Tao found themselves with some free time.

They followed Ryen to gather resources.

Today, Ryen was once again performing rituals they didn’t quite understand.

Keqing didn’t pay much mind to Ryen’s usual antics. Instead, she asked curiously:

”Ryen, any plans for today?”

Hearing this, Ryen looked at Keqing with mild amusement.

”What’s the matter, can’t sit still? Just yesterday you finished the fifth iron farm at Base Two.”

Keqing shook her head, a bit helpless.

”It just feels like… wasting time in this world is like wasting money. How could I possibly sit still?”

”So, what’s your plan next?”

Ryen nodded slightly and thought for a moment before answering:

”I was originally planning to summon the Wither Storm and deal with it, then we could get ready to slay the Ender Dragon.”

”But since Ningguang and Zhongli aren’t here, we should wait a bit.”

Keqing’s eyes lit up.

”You mean that powerful enemy you mentioned? Are you saying we can’t handle it ourselves?”

”Defeating it with some clever tricks wouldn’t be too hard.”

Ryen smiled, but still shook his head.

”Still, if we left them out of something like this, Ningguang would definitely complain.”

Keqing pouted, resting her chin in her hand as she stared at the animals in the pasture.

”So, we’re just going to sit around all day?”

”Not necessarily.”

Ryen chuckled.

”Let’s go hunting on the plains later. Also, I promised Nahida we’d build her a flower float.”

”How about a Redstone-powered float?”

As he spoke, Ryen gently patted Nahida’s head.

She immediately smiled with squinted eyes and hugged his leg tightly.

”Ryen, can you teach me to build it myself? I want to make one where we can ride together!”

”You mean I’m supposed to be Nahida’s carriage driver?”

Ryen teased her, and Nahida shook her head seriously.

”Of course not! I want to watch the scenery with Ryen!”

Nearby, Hu Tao blinked and put on a mock-grievous tone:

”So unfair! I’ve always looked after Nahida, but she doesn’t want to save me a seat?”

”Uh…”

Nahida looked conflicted. Her first flower float with Ryen held a special meaning for her.

Hu Tao was her newly made good friend, but…

No matter what, Nahida only wanted Ryen to accompany her.

”Then… I’ll make a second float for Hu Tao later!”

Seeing how earnest Nahida looked, Hu Tao stopped teasing her, instead laughing as she gently patted her head.

”Make sure it’s in Wangsheng Funeral Parlor style!”

”What kind of style is that? A coffin float?”

Ryen joked. Hu Tao immediately flashed her little tiger teeth.

”Ryen! You scoundrel! Wangsheng Funeral Parlor doesn’t just deal with coffins! I’m so mad!”

”Don’t run! I’m gonna bite you!”

In an instant, Hu Tao pounced like a hungry tiger, clinging to Ryen’s back and going for his neck.

”Ahh…”

Ryen grimaced in pain, quickly pinching her cheek.

”You little rascal! You bit me for real! It’s bleeding! Let go, let go!”

Hu Tao mumbled something incomprehensible, then jumped off his back with a huff.

Now it was Ryen’s turn. Rubbing his neck, he glared at Hu Tao.

”You’re finished! If I don’t spank you today, I’ll hand you a Vampire Staff myself!”

”Ganyu! Help!”

”Anyone who helps her is getting it too!”

”You brute! Don’t pick on a lady like this!”

”Trying to play the gender card? Extra punishment!”

”Waaah!!”

With that, Hu Tao and Ryen took off, chasing each other out of the villa.

Ganyu and Keqing exchanged a glance, both smiling warmly.

Keqing finally loosened her always-tense mindset.

Sometimes…

Letting go a little might be good for work, too.

~~----------------------

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