Chapter 219 The Eyes of Tupareuson

“Huh? So they showed up after all?” Just as Xiao Ling was about to raise her gun again, she saw the figures of Elementary School Dog and Lonely Bro, approaching rapidly from two different directions. “Hmph… were those few dozen seconds for hesitation… or to discuss tactics?”

If those two hadn’t appeared, Xiao Ling might have suspected they were plotting something. But at this point, she had no worries.

After consciously waiting for a few short seconds, Xiao Ling summoned her Ling energy weapon and resumed moving…

…

Meanwhile, Wang Tanzhi, carried by Tupareuson, was flying further and further away…

The giant raven carried him in its claws, soaring through the sky for over 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 vast as a city, with a main gate alone towering twenty meters high. Each brick that comprised the temple was pure white, forming a stark contrast with the dim sky.

Before long, Tupareuson flew to the temple entrance and gently set Xiao Tan on the ground.

“Old sir.” Although he now knew the other’s name, Xiao Tan still addressed Tupareuson in the same way. “Is this the destination?”

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

“I say… old sir ah,” Xiao Tan interjected, “Let me ask in advance, the task you want me to do… will it take long?” He seemed somewhat anxious. “When I was flying in the sky just now, I saw a signal released by my companions in the distance, presumably someone is in…”

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

Hearing this, Xiao Tan sighed. “Alas… fine.”

He had no way to back out now. Because his current location was far from the White Kingdom Ruins, and it would take him a long time to return on his own. It would be better to help the old man finish his task and then have him send him back.

Thus, he followed Tupareuson through the temple gates, proceeding slowly.

After passing through the white building's entrance, Xiao Tan was immediately awestruck by the incredible scenery inside. The steep, cliff-like walls and the dome-like ceiling were all seamlessly integrated, as white and smooth as the outer walls of the temple. Even the ground beneath his feet was paved with flawless, flat white stones, almost making one forget that the building was constructed on the summit of a high mountain.

The temple's interior decorations were also astonishing: "inverted" fountains that bloomed like tree canopies, giant wall sculptures that "cascaded" like waterfalls, even the braziers used for lighting were like the Olympic flame altars…

In short, everything here looked “exquisitely flawless” yet also “unadornedly simple.” It was truly a work of supernatural craftsmanship, beyond human ability.

“We’ve arrived.” After walking quickly for seven or eight minutes, Tupareuson led Xiao Tan to a stone door and turned to speak.

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

The door was over ten meters tall and currently closed. The surface of the stone door was carved with the image of a raven, and above the raven’s head was carved a large eyeball.

“Let me guess…” Feng Bujue's lingering ghost now appeared behind Xiao Tan, muttering as he looked at the scene before him, “A door like this… I bet there are three, right?”

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

“Mm-hm…” Xiao Tan nodded in response.

He wasn’t like Feng Bujue, who often snatched NPCs’ lines or took the initiative in guiding NPCs’ dialogue. Xiao Tan usually waited patiently for the NPCs to finish speaking before expressing his opinions.

Of course… sometimes, even after listening to a great deal of information, he couldn’t come up with any opinions.

“But…” Tupareuson continued, “Given the current circumstances… even breaking some rules is acceptable.”

“The current… circumstances?” Xiao Tan replied, puzzled.

Tupareuson rarely revealed a melancholy expression, replying, “My master, and the master of the temple – Goddess Neva… disappeared after a war many years ago. In order to find the Goddess, my brothers and I have flown across almost the entire world, but… we have achieved nothing so far.”

“Oh? That king’s curse is quite effective after all.” As soon as Feng Bujue heard the NPC’s words, he immediately reacted.

Xiao Tan thought for a few seconds, then interjected, “Mm… old sir, no offense… but could it be that your Goddess Neva has already di…”

“Impossible.” Tupareuson interrupted Xiao Tan once again, “The Goddess is still alive, we can be sure of that.” He raised a hand, gesturing around him, “The entire temple is imbued with her divine power… If she were no longer in this world, then everything in the temple would become ordinary… The springs here would dry up, the flames would be extinguished, and the stone walls would be marked by the passage of time.”

“I see,” Xiao Tan responded.

“Come in with me first.” As Tupareuson spoke, he took a few steps forward and reached out to push the stone door.

The gaunt, hunched-over old man used one hand… to push open the enormous stone door in front of him, which was ten meters high, four meters wide, and one meter thick, and he didn’t seem to be making any effort at all…

“Mm… it looks like a human form, but the strength seems to be calculated according to the raven form,” Feng Bujue muttered after seeing this. “Very well… Regardless of whether he has any other special abilities, his strength alone is already very formidable.”

Because this NPC was likely to help Xiao Tan deal with the Corn Kernel Team players in the subsequent script, Brother Jue’s desire to watch the show and “see what kind of fight it would turn into” was very strong. Naturally, he hoped that this NPC would be as strong as possible, so that the show would be more interesting.

Chi—whirrrrrrrrr…

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

Several seconds later, Tupareuson pushed the stone door open by about a meter (there was no need to open it too wide) and raised a hand, gesturing to Xiao Tan, “Please.”

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

Inside the stone door was a cylindrical room. There was no other furniture in the room, just a white stone altar in the center of the room, the top of the altar was shaped like a bird's claw, and a spherical orb was resting on the claw.

The sphere was about two meters in diameter and looked like a scarlet crystal ball, with a pupil-like black dot in the center that trembled slightly at all times.

“In fact… I have no name.” This was the first sentence Tupareuson said after entering the room.

“Huh?” Xiao Tan was immediately stunned.

“In the babbling of evil dogs…” Tupareuson began to narrate in a storytelling tone, “Goddess Neva used her divine power to create three black birds, that is, me and my two brothers…”

“It seems like it will be a long story… I wonder if Xiao Ling 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 that flare, it would have been fine, but after seeing it, he was bound to be uneasy. At this moment, the reason he could still remain calm was because, according to the team column… his teammates were all still in the “surviving” state.

“…We each guard one of the three all-seeing eyes for the Goddess – the Eye of Tupareuson, the Eye of Amosoth, and the Eye of Melomtick.” Tupareuson's words continued, “Goddess Neva did not give us names, because she believed that as noble creatures created by God’s own hand, we should have the right to decide our own names. However… my brothers and I don’t care much about these things, so we directly used the names of the three eyes.”

“Tch… so lacking in ambition.” Hearing this, Feng Bujue commented, “It’s a waste of the Goddess’ 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, this kind of chuunibyou idea and shameless self-aggrandizing behavior… NPCs certainly didn’t have it, and even if they did, it couldn’t be called “ambition.”

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

Speaking of this, a trace of disgust flashed in Tupareuson’s eyes, “He thought he was better than any emperor of the past and came to this inviolable divine domain, trying to ask 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 so…”

“Is it finally time to get to the point…” Feng Bujue judged from the other party’s tone and expression that what he was about to say next was the detailed version of the script introduction.

Tupareuson indeed did not disappoint him, “‘King Shaphenos’ was conquered by Goddess Neva’s beauty upon his first visit. He almost immediately lost his mind, wanting to grab the Goddess’ hand to show his love. But the body of a god is not something that humans can touch. Before the king could 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 his 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 time and time again, making promises to the Goddess…

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

However, King Shaphenos was defeated every time, because a god could not possibly condescend to a mortal, let alone one as不堪as him.

So, this insane mortal launched a war against the divine domain.

This war did not last long… Although the three of us brothers were gradually entering 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 arrived at the foot of this high mountain before they were defeated by us.

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

The Goddess was furious. She personally descended on 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 dead, silent ruin, and the Goddess… had disappeared without a trace.

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…”

Tupareuson sighed deeply at this point. “Alas… after all, we are not gods, and our lives are limited… I can feel that my life is nearing its end. Perhaps my brothers can stay in the 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 that… you are not an ordinary person. The fact that you were able to take a part of me from the monster I created is excellent proof.”

“Eh? So that bread man was you…” Xiao Tan belatedly realized.

Tupareuson, however, said to himself, “Would you be willing to help me… to find Goddess Neva?”

“Aha! It’s finally time to accept the quest.” Feng Bujue understood that the question before him was the quest trigger point.

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

“Yo~” Feng Bujue immediately chuckled, “This kid has actually learned to haggle, not bad!”

If Brother Jue were here, he wouldn’t immediately agree to the other party’s request. He would definitely try to force out the NPC’s bottom line and gain 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. It wouldn’t be good if it delayed the team battle.

“As long as you promise… to help us find the Goddess,” Tupareuson said, “I will immediately go and help you complete your unfinished business.”

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

“Of course,” Tupareuson said, “Tell me… what do you want me to help you with?”

…

At the same moment, the White Kingdom Ruins.

Under Xiao Ling’s conscious control, the distance between her and the enemy team members had been reduced to around a hundred meters.

At this time, both [Elementary School Dog] and [Lonely When I Miss You] had taken out a shield-type weapon to protect the vital points of their heads and chests. Although this would have some impact on their pursuit speed, they dared not put down this armor… because Xiao Ling’s attacks were really ridiculously accurate.

Dog Bro and Lonely Bro couldn’t understand… How could that petite girl in front of them hit eight or nine out of ten shots without even turning her head almost at all?

This matter… the people from Hell Frontline naturally knew very well.

[Moonslaying]'s special effect one: "New Moon" (automatically adjusts the trajectory to a certain extent according to the shooter's will), and [Meteor]'s special effect one: "Star Trail" (automatically adjusts the trajectory to a certain extent according to the shooter's will)… were all effects that could be called Bugs. As long as Xiao Ling’s muzzle was roughly aimed in the target’s direction, the bullets she fired wouldn’t stray too far…

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

In this “escape” process, Xiao Ling roughly estimated the other party’s advance speed, reserved a safe space, and, through continuous shooting… figured out the other party’s approximate reaction patterns.

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

Moreover, as long as Xiao Ling was willing, she could widen the gap between herself and her pursuers again at any time… However, she would not easily do so.

First of all, a distance of about one hundred meters was more advantageous for her. Her Ling energy weapon had unlimited ammunition and no overheating reaction anyway; at this distance, she could continuously create considerable firepower suppression, causing the other party to lose additional stamina and survival points.

Secondly, the situation she had created now, in addition to “collecting enemy information,” also had the meaning of “setting a psychological trap.”

Why were Dog Bro and Lonely Bro still holding up their shields and stubbornly resisting there, even though they knew they were losing out by chasing like this? The reason was very simple… because the distance between them and the other party was constantly shrinking.

Xiao Ling played this psychological suggestion technique very well. If the distance between the two sides didn’t shrink at all during the pursuit process, or if it was getting further and further away, then these two might not pursue anymore, or simply run away…

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

“Dog Bro…” After running for a while, Lonely Bro said to the captain who was ten meters away from him, “This is not the way to go…”

“What are your thoughts?” Elementary School Dog asked straightforwardly.

“You’ve probably calculated the other party’s speed too… we can’t shorten the distance any further with the shields,” Lonely Bro said.

“So…” Elementary School Dog asked again.

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

“Mm…” 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…