Before entering the manor, a soothing and gentle piano melody drifted into his ears, relaxing his mind and dispelling all weariness.
On a lush green lawn, Alice gently stroked maryllete, her serene face radiating a warm, virtuous glow. Mi Gao rolled around playfully at her feet, and Mai Lu happily ate biscuits on a tablecloth. Mai Lu hadn't attended The team's gathering earlier because she was at home.
But upon seeing him return, Alice's piano music suddenly changed from gentle to passionate, carrying a hint of anger.
Ye Lin awkwardly twitched the corner of his mouth. It seemed that the incident at the West Coast Magic Academy had not yet been erased from her memory. At this moment, he could only sheepishly move closer.
“Lotus is the monarch of Solaris, looking down on all beings. The reason it cannot escape the back of the Tian Wei Giant Beast is not only because direct sunlight caused its body to shrink, but also because of the magical array blockade by Held.”
Alice still used an honorific for Held. This Apostle who gave her life, in a sense, was actually her mother.
Ye Lin sighed, and said with a bitter smile, “I understand. Someone as intelligent as Held would naturally consider Lotus, the Faro Bay below, and the boundless sea. The GBL, which was founded only a little over a hundred years ago, is not yet qualified to contend with the one from the beginning of the universe.”
The founder of the GBL Order, Leslie Beylance, was an Adventurer from the Delos Empire. In Arad Year 867, he ascended the Tian Wei Giant Beast and was awestruck by the ruins on its back. He resolved to travel the world and establish the GBL Order, originally named “blue truth.”
The history of the GBL is not as long and profound as imagined; in fact, it can even be called a nascent organization. What is ancient are those ruins.
Fortunately, he was now dismantling a move left by Held, not directly confronting Held. Although this terrifying woman seemingly only targeted Apostles now, he didn't believe for a second that Held wouldn't know about the existence of the Great Will.
“I'm going up to say goodbye.” He pointed upstairs, to Tana's room.
“Tana, are you there?”
Pushing open the door, a surge of powerful magic washed over him. He frowned slightly, only to see Tana lying quietly with her hands on her waist, eyes closed, seemingly asleep. Chains of magic wrapped around her body, and a faint green light enveloped her form.
“Sister Tana is evolving. The strength improvement of dragons is far more complex than that of humans,” Celia whispered, peeking her head in.
“You didn't go to the shop today?”
Ye Lin was surprised. Wasn't her favorite thing to patrol her territory in the shop, watching customer after customer “offer tribute”?
“Binuoxiu will do the accounts. As the boss, shouldn't I just stay at home and let the gold coins come to me?”
With a righteous expression, Celia had already mastered the secret of being a boss: for her own territory, a quick patrol now and then was enough.
“You…”
He pinched Celia's little face, then carefully savored her waist and plumpness. Only when her face was flushed and her eyes were glistening did he release her hand and let out a long sigh that made her pout in annoyance: “Even if history changes, this one thing cannot change.”
When they first met, she was dressed simply, with slender arms and legs. Later, after buying too many gift packages, she became full-figured and adorned with jewels. The current Celia was still like this.
She often counted money until she was tired enough to sleep, and upon waking, seeing the continuously increasing funds in the account book, it would be another happy day.
“Are you going on an adventure? Safety first, you must come back safely. I will always wait for you here.”
Celia murmured softly, making him tremble. His gaze was complex and full of emotion. What warm and moving words! But his intuition told him it wasn't over yet…
“There are ancient ruins on the back of the Tian Wei Giant Beast. Maybe we can find some ancient treasures. These things can be sold for a high price to nobles. GBL masks are also bestsellers, and there are also the scales of the Tian Wei Giant Beast…”
Celia directly pulled out a list, asking him to collect items while he was on the Tian Wei Giant Beast to sell for a high price upon his return!
He took the list, glanced at it, and then put it away. Suddenly, he looked up and asked, “What color?”
“Cloud patterns, blue, bows…”
After getting the answer he wanted with satisfaction, he patted Celia's head again. After going downstairs, he sincerely asked Alice, “Thank you for your trouble during this time.”
He always felt uneasy without a strong person guarding the house. Now, Alice was a very good candidate. Tana had said that Alice was even stronger than her.
“Do me a favor, retrieve the tears of the Tian Wei Giant Beast.” Alice put down maryllete, her expression serious.
“Tears… I'll try my best.”
Ye Lin's expression also changed slightly. It wasn't shock at the difficulty of the task, but rather that the material, Tian Wei Giant Beast's tears, was once involved in a strange incident concerning Venus.
— — — — — —
“You mean, the super ancient ruins Ophelia mentioned were all fake?”
In the carriage, Siate's palm rubbed the Hidden Dragon Greatsword, signaling that if his hand dared to reach out from behind again, she would cut it off. The members of The team were all listening intently to his story.
“I can't be certain, but one thing is sure: the Venus Goddess Temple on the Tian Wei Giant Beast is real. Oh, by the way, have you heard the story of Rommel, the Dark Elf's first hero?”
“I read a little about it in the Order's books,” Yuena recalled the almost desperate story, feeling a pang of sadness for Rommel.
“Boss, I haven't heard it!”
Mo Mei timely played the role of a fangirl, raising her hand to indicate she didn't know and was very interested.
“Ahem, well, this goes back to the branching of the Elves and Dark Elves…”
Ye Lin gave Mo Mei an approving look. Well done!
Venus fell in love with a handsome human youth, but the human youth fell in love with an Elf maiden.
Augustus, the tyrannical Dwarf king at the time, reported this to Venus, in exchange for the location of a gold mine. Venus was enraged and cursed a portion of the beautiful Elves, turning their skin dark and making them unable to adapt to life above ground.
Rommel was one of them. He had slain swamp dragons and was powerful. He agreed to complete seven tasks for Venus in exchange for lifting the curse.
These tasks included retrieving water from the Soul Moon Spring, retrieving the poison of the Golden Scorpion, capturing a blue spirit wolf, retrieving sulfur cloud ore from the Golden Mine, assassinating a green giant elephant, retrieving non-burning incense oil from ancient times, and… obtaining the tears of the Tian Wei Giant Beast.
“Rommel completed the tasks, but Venus did not keep her promise. Later, he died from severe injuries, and Venus built the Hero Tomb for him.”
Yuena took over, finishing the story and wiping away the glistening tears from the corners of her eyes. She could imagine Rommel's despair when he went to see Venus with great anticipation, only to be betrayed by the Goddess.
“This Venus is acting like a hypocrite?”
Siate's face showed disdain. In her opinion, since Venus never intended to lift the curse on the Dark Elves from the beginning, why bother to toy with Rommel, this hero? The most infuriating thing was that she even built the Hero Tomb for Rommel. Wasn't that clearly showing that she didn't even want to let go of his corpse, mocking him at his grave?
“One theory is that one of Rommel's materials, the tears of the Tian Wei Giant Beast, was swapped, so the task failed. However, in summary, Venus's maliciousness is relatively greater.”
Ye Lin's eyes couldn't help but show some worry. If Rommel's failure was truly due to the tears being swapped, then the Yaksha on the Tian Wei Giant Beast who worship the Goddess would have no way to explain themselves.
Believing in the beauty of Venus, then being turned into ugly Yaksha—it was quite ironic.
At the West Coast Magic Academy, in Shalan's office, he met the red-haired, twin-tailed Ophelia, a girl dressed plainly, wrapped entirely in a gray robe, but extremely strong-willed. However, Ophelia was currently full of dejection.
“We tried our best, but the temptation of the ancient ruins is too great. Many Adventurers don't even understand what an Apostle is; they just think it's a big octopus.”
Shalan gave a bitter smile. Even she herself had only learned about the Apostles from Alice.
“I repeated the danger of Lotus many times to them, but they wouldn't listen…”
Ophelia murmured, distressed and dejected.
“I understand. Give me the Tian Wei Giant Beast's route map. We have a jamming transmitter that can block Lotus's mental control, so our chances of winning are greatly increased!”
Ye Lin gestured to the object on his wrist.
“Do you have any extras? I'll go with you. The holy book of the GBL Order does indeed record the method for making jamming transmitters. Only those with jamming transmitters can defeat Lotus!”
As expected, Ye Lin spread his hands to Siate and the others. Not only Alice had the method for making “jamming transmitters,” but the GBL's prophecy book also contained it. Therefore, it was too easy to guess whose handiwork the ancient ruins on the back of the Tian Wei Giant Beast were.
PS: (After the Tian Wei Giant Beast arc ends, whose train ticket do you want to buy? Whispering: jpg)