Getting back to it, Lucian was already fully prepared for this trip to Sumeru—what had he prepared?
First off, getting along well with Nahida was just a personal hobby; the main preparation was actually the Sumeru F4 and the others.
Besides that, there was the already-prepared animated movie.
Previously, it was while 'working' for him on the animated movie that Hu Tao discovered Lucian's plan.
Lucian planned to make the third act of Sumeru's story into an animated movie format, for which he gathered everyone, but that story was too long and hadn't been finished yet.
Sumeru's story was truly too long; for the earlier acts, Lucian still planned to release them as novels, but even just turning the final part into animation involved a terrifying workload.
Everyone couldn't produce it in a short time, after all, they had their own things to do, but making a few-minute short film wasn't too difficult.
So, for this trip to Sumeru, Lucian only brought a short animated story—this great work belonged to Sumeru's first story.
As for the progress on the animated movie... the 'black slaves' were still doing their black labor.
But everyone was still quite happy; anyway, they weren't busy, and doing things together with everyone was so interesting.
Moreover, Lucian wasn't rushing them; the atmosphere among everyone was quite wonderful.
On the contrary, people like Yae Miko were really busy; they had escaped a disaster by not having to work for Lucian, because they had to work for their own Archon.
Yae Miko, Jean, Ganyu, Ningguang—the four liver emperors were still working hard.
Don't think Yae Miko was really slacking; she only slacked after finishing her work—essentially, she was a liver emperor too.
It was just that Miko liked to 'entertainize' her work while livering, finding some fun in it.
Unfortunately, this time it was reversed: everyone was working while finding fun, but Miko had to stay in Inazuma to work.
Because she couldn't find fun with everyone, Miko cried and fussed, waaah, so pitiful.
Fortunately, Miko in Inazuma also got to see something that could let her find some fun—Lucian's new thing.
This story came from Sumeru, and moreover, it wasn't a novel—this fully piqued everyone's interest.
Sumeru was appearing for the first time to begin with, let alone in a form that wasn't a novel—this was truly a young lady riding in a flower sedan chair, the first time ever!
When everyone arrived at the various animation screening locations around the world and started watching the animation, they finally understood what it meant for a little loli to ride in a flower sedan—not just once.
Because the animation's opening was 'The flower cart jostles along, Nahida opens her eyes.'
The cute and lovable Nahida awakened on the swaying flower cart, sitting up sleepily and rubbing her eyes, looking at the person before her, joyfully recounting something.
Nahida in the scene cupped her little hands in front of her chest, a smile on her lips, her big eyes full of stories.
She seemed like she had a beautiful dream, happily sharing it with others.
This was too cute; it made Dunyarzad breathe rapidly, nearly fainting.
As expected, it's the Dendro god! My gentle Dendro god —I finally get to see you again!
Tears had already flowed down Dunyarzad's face before she even noticed; the story hadn't officially started yet, and she was already crying.
There was no helping it—who could have helped giving her courage in her darkest times but the Dendro god?
If Dunyarzad were a domineering CEO, then Nahida would be the ultimate white moonlight she thought was long dead but came back to life—the lethality was immense.
Moreover, the voice acting in the story was done by Nahida herself; Nahida voicing this segment had full immersion, because this really was her dream.
Who would have thought—you, Lucian, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, besides foreseeing the future, you can even peek into others' dreams!
Now this truly made everyone Monas; Lucian was still too all-rounded.
The moment Dunyarzad heard the voice, she knew—this was the voice she had heard back then, still so melodious and gentle!
Dehya hurriedly hugged Dunyarzad; she nearly fell over.
Dehya: "Young lady, how about we don't watch anymore?"
Dunyarzad stood up and shook her head: "No, I must finish watching."
Dehya felt uneasy in her heart, always feeling like this story wasn't something the young lady could bear...
By the way, how exactly did Lucian get the Dendro god to personally voice it?
Regarding the Dendro God doing voice acting, everyone might be very curious—wouldn't the Grand Sage stop it?
He really wouldn't; in the Grand Sage's eyes, Lucian was a long-term collaborator—everyone was in the same boat.
Plus, the Akademiya's intelligence system was practically nonexistent; intelligence operations were almost entirely run by the Fatui.
The 'Doctor' naturally knew about it, but he didn't care at all—after the experiment ended, the Grand Sage would be useless anyway; whether he lived or died had nothing to do with him?
To the 'Doctor,' the current Grand Sage was useless too; his greatest use was just providing the venue and computational power.
The Grand Sage's most pathetic point was this: the one experiment he was proudest of in his life had little to do with him personally.
The experimental materials and subjects came from Snezhnaya, the lead experimenter was Sumeru's 'traitor.'
Even the computational power for the experiment was provided by Sumeruans; his greatest use was just providing a secret testing ground.
While Sumeru's Grand Sage was conducting the experiment, Sumeru's 'renegade ninja' took the lead—truly embarrassing.
Moreover, the Grand Sage was very 'cowardly'; even after forming a cooperative relationship with Lucian, he still hadn't lifted the ban on Lucian's works—he was still afraid.
Sumeru's sages were quite contradictory too: you say they're cowardly, yet they dared to imprison a god.
You say they're bold, yet each one was rigid, cautious, and hesitant, none daring to break conventions.
It made sense—if there really was a bold one who became Grand Sage, he might have released Nahida and blazed a new path.
It was precisely because they were 'cowardly' that they could become Grand Sages; if you don't 'kiss up to the US,' you think you can be prime minister?
On the contrary, Sumeru's 'renegade ninja' Doctor was the boldest; he ran precisely because he felt this rigid Akademiya couldn't achieve great things.
Look how bold Snezhnaya was—it very much aligned with the 'Doctor's' pursuit of interests.
Lucian's actions clearly wouldn't harm the 'Doctor's' interests, so he couldn't even be bothered to stop it.
To the Doctor, the more chaos in Sumeru, the better—it would let him witness the 'Wanderer's' combat power after ascending to godhood.
Getting back to it, Lucian's works were contraband in Sumeru, but as everyone knew, Sumeru's Granny Shanngoma Habai dealt in contraband.
If it wasn't contraband, she wouldn't be interested; non-contraband was only worth a few coppers?
So, some resourceful Sumeruans still got to see this story; everyone gathered at Dolly's secret venue.
Cyno was among them—this was too interesting; the Grand General Mahamatra was personally committing a crime at the top!
He had known before that Dolly sold contraband, but the book buyer was Tighnari, what did it have to do with me, Cyno? I don't know who sells contraband—gifts of nature, that's all.
This time was different; this time he had to come watch—Cyno declared: I am now 'King of Cold Jokes Cyno,' not 'Grand General Mahamatra Cyno.'