“Hmm? So they finally came?” Xiaoling, who was just about to grab her gun again, saw the figures of Elementary School Dog and Lonely Bro. The two were rushing towards her at high speed from two different directions. “Hmph… were those few dozen seconds spent hesitating… or discussing tactics?”

If those two hadn't shown themselves at all, Xiaoling might have suspected they were plotting something, but now, she had no worries.

After consciously waiting for a few short seconds, Xiaoling unleashed her psychic weapon and began to move again…

…

Meanwhile, Wang Tanzhi, carried by Tupa Lei Song, was flying further and further away…

He was gripped in the claws of the giant raven, soaring through the sky for more than ten minutes, gradually approaching a range of distant mountains.

As they flew closer, the faint silhouettes of buildings emerged from the vast clouds.

It was a colossal temple, as large as a city, with a gate alone that was twenty meters high. Every brick that made up the temple was pure white, creating a stark contrast with the gloomy sky.

Before long, Tupa Lei Song flew to the entrance of the temple and gently placed Xiao Tan on the ground.

“Old Sir,” Although he already knew the other's name, Xiao Tan still didn't change his way of addressing Tupa Lei Song. “Is this the destination?”

“The next part of the journey…” Tupa Lei Song replied, transforming from a giant raven back into the black-robed old man. “…requires walking.”

“I say… Old Sir,” Xiao Tan continued, “Let me ask beforehand, will the thing you want me to do… take a very long time?” He seemed a little anxious. “When I was flying in the sky just now, I saw a signal flare released by my teammate in the distance. It must mean that one of them is in trouble…”

“It won’t be long.” Tupa Lei Song interrupted Xiao Tan, clearly uninterested in whatever Xiao Tan was about to say. “Just come with me.”

Hearing this, Xiao Tan sighed, "Ah… okay."

Now that things had come to this, he couldn't go back. Because he was already very far from the White Kingdom ruins, and if he wanted to return on his own… it would probably take a very long time. It would be faster to help this old man finish his business first, and then have him send him back.

And so, he followed Tupa Lei Song into the gate of the temple, slowly moving forward.

After passing through the doors of this white building, Xiao Tan was quickly shocked by the wonders inside. The towering walls, like cliffs, and the dome-like ceiling, were all formed as a single piece, as white and smooth as the outer walls of the temple. Even the ground he walked on was paved with flawless, flat white stones, almost making one forget that this building was built on the peak of a high mountain.

The decorations inside the temple were also shocking, such as the "inverted" fountains blooming like tree canopies, the giant wall sculptures "cascading" like waterfalls, and even the braziers used for lighting were like the Olympic torch…

In short, everything here looked "exquisitely perfect," yet "simply unadorned." It was truly a work of divine craftsmanship, impossible for humans to create.

“We’re here.” After walking quickly for seven or eight minutes, Tupa Lei Song brought Xiao Tan to a stone door and turned back to speak.

“Oh…” Xiao Tan had noticed this stone door from quite a distance.

The door was more than ten meters high and was currently closed. The surface of the stone door was carved with the image of a raven, and above the raven's head, there was a large eyeball.

“Let me guess…” Feng Bujue, the lingering ghost, came up behind Xiao Tan again at this moment, looking at the scene in front of him and saying, “A door like this… I’d guess there are three of them, right?”

“There are three such doors in the temple. My two brothers and I each guard one…” Two seconds later, Tupa Lei Song said to Xiao Tan in an explanatory tone, “Normally… mortals are not allowed to enter the rooms behind the stone doors.”

“Mmm…” Xiao Tan nodded in response.

Unlike Feng Bujue, who would frequently steal NPC lines or take the initiative to guide NPCs in their speech, Xiao Tan usually waited patiently for the NPC to finish speaking before expressing his opinions.

Of course… sometimes, even after listening to a large amount of information, he wouldn't be able to offer any opinions.

“But…” Tupa Lei Song continued, “Given the current situation… it's alright to break some rules.”

“The current… situation?” Xiao Tan asked, puzzled.

Tupa Lei Song rarely showed a look of melancholy, replying, “My master, who is also the master of the temple—the goddess Neva… disappeared many years ago after a war. In order to find the goddess, my brothers and I have flown almost all over the world, but… we still haven’t found anything.”

“Oh? That king’s curse is quite effective.” Feng Bujue immediately reacted when he heard the NPC’s words.

Xiao Tan thought for a few seconds, then replied, "Um… Old Sir, I don't mean to be offensive… but, could it be that your goddess Neva is already de-"

“Impossible.” Tupa Lei Song interrupted Xiao Tan once again, “The goddess is still alive, we can be sure of that.” He raised a hand, pointing around him, “The entire temple is infused with her divine power… if she were no longer in this world, then everything in the temple would turn into ordinary things… the springs here would dry up, the flames would be extinguished, and the stone walls would be etched with the traces of time.”

“I see,” Xiao Tan replied.

“Come in with me first,” Tupa Lei Song said, taking a few steps forward and reaching out to push the stone door.

But the skinny, hunched old man used one hand… to push open the huge stone door that was ten, four, and one meter high, respectively, without seeming to exert any effort at all…

“Hmm… he looks humanoid, but his strength seems to be calculated according to his raven form.” Feng Bujue said after seeing this scene, “Very good… even if he doesn’t have any other special abilities, he’s already very strong just with his strength.”

Because this NPC might help Xiao Tan deal with the players from the Corn Fruit team in later scripts, Feng Bujue's desire to watch the show, "wanting to see exactly how it will play out," was very strong. Naturally, he wanted this NPC to be as strong as possible, so that the show would be more interesting.

Chi—Rumble rumble rumble…

When the stone door moved, it made a rumbling sound of friction.

A few seconds later, Tupa Lei Song pushed the stone door open about a meter (there was no need to open it too much), and raised his hand to signal Xiao Tan, “Please.”

Xiao Tan glanced slightly inside the door and followed the other inside.

Inside the stone door was a cylindrical room. There were no extra furnishings in the room, only a white stone altar in the center of the room. The top of the altar was shaped like a bird's claw, and on the claw was a spherical object.

The sphere was about two meters in diameter and looked like a crimson crystal ball. There was a pupil-like black spot in the center of the ball, constantly trembling slightly.

“In fact… I have no name.” This was the first thing Tupa Lei Song said after entering the room.

“Huh?” Xiao Tan was immediately stunned.

“Once upon a time…” Tupa Lei Song began to tell the story in a storytelling tone, “The goddess Neva created three black birds with her divine power, namely me and my two brothers…”

“It seems like he’s going to talk for a long time… I wonder if Xiaoling and the others will be okay…” On the surface, Xiao Tan was listening very patiently, but in his heart, he was very worried about his teammates. If he hadn’t seen the signal flare, it would have been fine, but after seeing it, he would inevitably be restless. At this moment, the reason he could still remain calm was because, judging from the team column… all his teammates were still in the “surviving” state.

“…We respectively guard three all-seeing eyes for the goddess—the Eye of Tupa Lei Song, the Eye of Amosos, and the Eye of Merontix.” Tupa Lei Song’s words continued, “Goddess Neva did not give us names, because she believed that as noble creatures created by the god’s own hands, we should have the right to decide our own names. However… my brothers and I didn’t really care about these things, so we directly used the names of those three eyes.”

“Tch… so unmotivated.” Hearing this, Feng Bujue commented, “It’s a waste of the goddess’s good intentions. If I were you, I would definitely come up with a combination like ‘Ace’, ‘Sabo’, ‘Luffy’, or ‘Hades’, ‘Poseidon’, ‘Zeus’ or something.”

Obviously, he didn’t have such a chuuni philosophy and the shameless act of trying to flatter himself… NPCs certainly didn’t have that, and even if they did, it couldn’t be called “motivated.”

“For thousands of years…” Tupa Lei Song continued, “We have transformed into kind and loving preachers, and we have also been regarded as demons wielding butcher knives. Under the wings of the ‘god’, we have witnessed the rise and fall of several dynasties, the passing of countless lives, and we have also learned many truths that humans will never understand…” He paused for a moment, “Until one day, a human ‘king’ wearing golden armor came to the temple…”

Speaking of this, a trace of disgust flashed in Tupa Lei Song’s eyes: “He thought he was better than any emperor in the past, so he came to this inviolable divine realm, trying to ask the god for eternal life.” He shook his head, “But in the eyes of the goddess and us, he was no different from other mortals… the power in his hands was just an empty illusion, the wealth he accumulated was just useless metal, his consciousness and behavior were as superficial as other mortals, even more unbearable…”

“Is he finally getting to the point…” Judging from the other party’s tone and expression, Feng Bujue guessed that what he was about to say was the detailed version of the script introduction.

Tupa Lei Song really didn’t disappoint him: “When King Sha Fen Nuo Si first visited, he was conquered by the beauty of the goddess Neva. He almost immediately lost his mind and wanted to grab the goddess’s hand to show her his love. But a human could not touch the body of a god. Before that king could even get close, he was knocked to the ground by divine power.

But this did not make him sober… his desire to possess the goddess even surpassed his pursuit of eternal life… making him forget the original intention of coming to the temple. From that moment on, he had already set himself on a path of destruction.

From then on, he came here again and again, offering promises to the goddess…

On his second visit, he had already killed his original wife and all the children she had borne; on his third visit, he killed all his concubines, children, and ministers of finance; on his fourth visit… he had already killed all those who opposed his crazy behavior.

However, King Sha Fen Nuo Si returned empty-handed every time, because the god could not possibly condescend to a mortal, let alone such an unbearable one as him.

Thus, this insane mortal launched a war against the divine realm.

This war did not last too long… although the three of us brothers were gradually approaching old age at that time, it was still easy to deal with the human army.

The war ended in seven days. The armies of those mortals had not even reached the foot of this high mountain before they were defeated by us.

And that king fled back to his own country, still wanting to make a comeback…

The goddess was enraged, she personally descended upon that white kingdom, and brought down divine punishment. But… once she left, she never returned.

When my brothers and I went to search, we only saw a desolate ruin, and the goddess… was nowhere to be found.

In the years since then, we have been using the power of these ‘three eyes’ to search for the goddess’s whereabouts in the world, but…”

Tupa Lei Song sighed deeply at this point, “Alas… we are not gods after all, our lifespans are limited… I can feel that my life is nearing its end. Perhaps my brothers can stay in this world for a few more years, but it shouldn’t be too long either…” He looked deeply at Xiao Tan, “Young man, I can see… you are not an ordinary person. You were able to take a part from the monster I created, which is an excellent proof.”

“Eh? So that bread man was you…” Xiao Tan finally realized at this moment.

Tupa Lei Song said to himself, “Are you willing to help me… to find the goddess Neva?”

“Aha! I can finally accept a quest.” Feng Bujue understood that the question before him was the quest trigger.

“Um…” Xiao Tan thought for a few seconds, “Old Sir, I really do have something else to do…”

“Yo~” Feng Bujue was immediately amused, “You little brat, you’ve actually learned to bargain, not bad!”

If Brother Jue were here, he wouldn’t immediately agree to the other party either. He would definitely try to force out the NPC’s bottom line and obtain more benefits.

However… Xiao Tan didn’t really think that much, he just felt that this matter had no clues and might be very troublesome to do, and it wouldn’t be good if it delayed the team battle.

“As long as you agree… to help us find the goddess,” Tupa Lei Song said, “I will immediately go and help you complete what you have not finished.”

“Eh?” Xiao Tan was stunned when he heard this, “Is that really true?”

“Of course,” Tupa Lei Song said, “Tell me… what do you want me to help you do?”

…

At the same time, the White Kingdom ruins.

Under Xiaoling's conscious control, the distance between her and the enemy team members had been reduced to about a hundred meters.

At this time, [Elementary School Dog] and [Lonely When I Miss You] had both taken out a shield-type weapon to protect the vital parts of their heads and chests. Although this would somewhat affect their pursuit speed, they dared not put down this protective gear… because Xiaoling’s attacks were really ridiculously accurate.

Dog Bro and Lonely Bro couldn’t understand no matter how they tried… how could that petite girl in front of them hit the target eight or nine times out of ten, almost without even looking back?

Of course… the members of Hell Frontline all knew the answer.

The effect of [Moon Shatterer] one: “New Moon” (automatically adjusts the trajectory to a certain extent according to the shooter’s will), and the effect of [Meteor] one: “Star Track” (automatically adjusts the trajectory to a certain extent according to the shooter’s will)… were both Bug-like effects. As long as Xiaoling’s gun was roughly aimed at the target’s location, the bullets fired would not deviate too far…

Of course, this was also related to Xiaoling’s own prediction. It wasn’t like she could achieve this effect by just swinging her arms back, burying her head, and randomly firing.

During this "escape" process, Xiaoling roughly estimated the other party's advancing speed, reserved a safe space, and in the constant shooting… she had figured out the other party's approximate reaction pattern.

From eight hundred meters to one hundred meters, Xiaoling gained one more piece of information for every distance she closed. After paying the price of seven hundred meters, she could now “turn her head and aim for ten seconds every ten seconds, then blind-fire for ten seconds and guarantee a hit rate of over 80%.”

Moreover, as long as Xiaoling was willing, she could widen the gap between herself and the pursuers again at any time… but she wouldn’t do that easily.

First of all, a distance of about one hundred meters was more advantageous to her. Her psychic weapon had infinite ammo anyway and didn’t overheat; at this distance, she could continuously create considerable fire suppression, causing additional physical and survival value loss to the other party.

Secondly, besides “collecting enemy information,” she also meant to “set up psychological traps” by creating the current situation.

Why were Dog Bro and Lonely Bro still stubbornly holding up their shields and trying to withstand it, even though they knew they were at a disadvantage by pursuing like this? The reason was very simple… because the distance between them and the other party was constantly decreasing.

Xiaoling played this psychological suggestion tactic very beautifully. If the distance between the two sides didn’t decrease at all during the chase, or even increased, then these two might stop chasing or just run away…

She had to make them feel that “it’s just a little bit more, just a little bit more and we’ll catch up” in order to maintain this delicate control…

“Dog Bro…” After running for a while, Lonely Bro said to his captain, who was a dozen meters away, “This isn’t a solution…”

“What do you have in mind?” Elementary School Dog asked directly.

“You’ve probably calculated the other party’s speed, right… we can’t close the distance anymore while carrying the shields,” Lonely Bro said.

“So…” Elementary School Dog said again.

“Let’s take a gamble!” Lonely Bro replied, his tone sounding very serious and decisive.

“Hmm…” Dog Bro pondered for two seconds, “Okay! I’ll listen to you!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them very tacitly… took the same action…