Chapter 655: The Silhouette

Chapter 655 The Silhouette

Silver blade beams kept firing out from Sister Yun’s spear, stopping all of the attacks shooting toward her.

There were around eight Irregularities flying around and attacking her while numerous fire support came from the ground. Even so, Sister Yun was still somewhat able to defend herself. She could even spare some moments to observe what was happening down below.

Sister Yun had immediately noticed Bluesea and Chen Xiaolian the moment they ran toward the square. She was also quick to respond toward the attacks Bluesea fired out using his high-temperature blaster.

Seeing Bluesea and Chen Xiaolian successfully make their way past the Irregularities in the square and into the Pantheon Temple, Sister Yun breathed a sigh of relief.

She was indeed facing a slight issue in the sky.

The amount of strength she had to use to break the restrictive barrier that Bai Qi laid out was far greater than what she had expected. At present, her strength had fallen down to half of her usual state.

As for the Irregularities attacking her, they were no weaklings. The purple-faced warrior was slightly stronger than the one known as Sebast. Together with the white-robed magus, the other flying Irregularities and the fire support from the ground, they were able to force Sister Yun to a strenuous position.

By Sister Yun’s estimate, if she were to go all out, ignoring the serious damage that she would have to take in the process, she could kill off all the Irregularities there.

However, she did not do so.

She could sense a more powerful aura hovering around the temple. However, that aura had not originated from any of the Irregularities that were attacking her.

Her original plan was to act according to the situation, after all. If possible, she would kill off all the Irregularities in Mt Olympus before rescuing the person that Chen Xiaolian wanted to rescue.

At that moment, however, the existence of the aura had forced Sister Yun to conserve her energy so as to enable her to react to any sudden attacks.

Additionally, after noticing that Chen Xiaolian and Bluesea had successfully implemented their plan, Sister Yun decided to simply stop attacking. Instead, she focused completely on defending herself to conserve as much stamina as possible.

Her spear danced in the air without respite, all of its moves done in self-protection. Although the purple-faced warrior’s halberd attacks were ferocious and mighty, although the white-robed magus’ spells of ice and fire were unending, they were still incapable of breaking through Sister Yun’s defence.

Next, all she needed was to wait for their rescue operation to succeed and escape.

…

Earlier, when Chen Xiaolian was at the foot of the mountain, he had been able to observe the Pantheon Temple. Even so, when he finally came to stand before it, he was still shocked by the grandness of the structure.

Twelve pillars rose up to support the front porch, each of them at least five metres in diameter. All of them stood erect, holding the giant dome aloft.

Looking past the porch, he saw that there were four rows of square-shaped pillars extending inward. They continued into the interior of the temple, which appeared highly spacious, as large as two football fields.

Even so, the interior of the temple’s main hall did not appear dark. The ceiling of the main hall had been carefully designed so that small holes, built into every part of the ceiling, would allow for the even distribution of light everywhere. There was sufficient illumination in every corner of the temple.

Between the two pillars was a row of statue pedestals. However, someone had long since cut down the statues of the deities on the pedestals, leaving only the pedestals there. At the end were twelve seats for the twelve principal deities, but even those had been levelled. Even the seats had been levelled.

In their place was a singular, gigantic seat.

Clearly, the one who did all of that was Bai Qi.

In his eyes, there were no Gods in this world.

Within the Yellow Springs, there were no seats for the Gods, only…

The throne for the King!

Chen Xiaolian gave the temple architecture a hasty glance, not daring to look too long, for fear that the Irregularity leading them would realize something amiss. Chen Xiaolian followed the Irregularity closely.

After entering the main hall, the Irregularity, who had been running, slowed down his pace. After taking tens of steps forward, he suddenly asked without turning his head, “You two appear to be fresh faces. I don’t recall ever seeing you fellows before. What are your names?”

“Senior, my name is Bluesea, his name is Xiaolian. I came in five refresh cycles ago and him, four. Since our strength is more or less equal, we ended up together,” answered Bluesea calmly as he strode forward.

“And you two ended up getting assigned to the same instance dungeon?” the Irregularity continued, not turning his face to look at the two. “Not bad, which instance dungeon is it?”

“It is a little town. We are not too sure what it’s called either,” Bluesea quickly replied. “It is quite far from Mt Olympus and we did not have a mode of transport. Thus, it had taken us a long time to finish it.”

“So, that’s how it is.” The Irregularity then turned to give them a glance. There was a slight look of dissatisfaction on his face as he said, “As the one who initiated the founding of the Coalition and its leader, Mr Abertoni is rather unfair. I heard that many of those assigned to clear large-scale instance dungeons were not given life signature detectors.” 

Bluesea smiled. “How could minor characters like us question the decisions made by Mr Abertoni? At any rate, materials within World’s End are limited. Good steel must be used on making the blade.”

“The blade, humph.” Hearing Bluesea’s words, the Irregularity gave a low snort before turning his head to the front again.

By then, the three of them had made it halfway through the main hall. There were passageways on either side of the main hall, but they were dark. There was no way to tell where the passageways led.

The Irregularity leading them turned to the left passageway and hurried forward.

Bluesea and Chen Xiaolian exchanged glances. Then, they turned to look at the back of the Irregularity leading them. Both their eyes revealed the same intent…

Sneak attack! Kill him!

The energy-tier sniper rifle was the only equipment on the Irregularity. In a melee combat, that equipment was probably even less useful when compared with a burning stick.

Additionally, judging from the way he talked, it would appear that he was not some veteran figure. Although Chen Xiaolian and Bluesea had no way of gauging just how powerful he was, the fact that there were two of them initiating a sneak attack meant that it should not be a difficult task. 

The Pantheon Temple’s main hall was already so large. They had no way of telling just how many more rooms there were. Following the Irregularity to the storeroom would not allow them to explore much. Rather, after getting the equipment, they will have to follow him to the square. 

Since they will have to kill him sooner or later…

Might as well do it earlier.

Chen Xiaolian’s hand slowly moved toward the Sword in the Stone hanging on his waist. At the very next moment, he would kill the unfortunate fellow.

However, just as the two of them were about to attack, the Irregularity abruptly turned and said with a frown, “Right, did you fellows hear about the girl who was captured a while ago? I really do not understand what she is thinking. She is an Irregularity herself. Yet, she would rather have Mr Abertoni lock her up than to join us in our clearing operation. Is what we do not for the sake of everyone else?”

Chen Xiaolian’s heart abruptly gave a heavy thump. However, without giving himself away, his hand, which was moving for his Sword in the Stone, moved to scratch his waist instead.

He… … could he be talking about Qiao Qiao?

From the various clues he found before coming here, Chen Xiaolian had speculated that if Qiao Qiao was not killed, she would most likely be locked up by the Coalition. However, that was just a speculation. There was no proof of it.

Truth be told, Chen Xiaolian had considered the possibility of them not finding Qiao Qiao after arriving at the Palace. What should he do then?

At present, he had found partial verification for his speculation.

Chen Xiaolian decided to continue listening.

“I feel that Mr Abertoni’s decision is really peculiar. Since she is unwilling to cooperate, why not just kill her as opposed to locking her up?” Bluesea had also chosen to not attack. Instead, he smiled and asked, “Senior, do you know why that is?”

“I do not know either. However, Mr Abertoni is the one who initiated the founding of the Coalition and its leader. Since he had made that decision, there is naturally no way for us to object.” The Irregularity gave a dry laugh. “Surely, you fellows would not think that… … questioning an [S] class expert is a good idea?”

“Of course not.” Bluesea nodded as he gave Chen Xiaolian a furtive glance to see a look of confirmation.

“Enough. We are almost there. The storeroom is right beside the girl’s cell. However, the good stuffs are all with the big bosses. The things inside are all trash that they could not be bothered with. If you fellows can find anything good inside, good for you. But if you cannot…”

The three of them had made their way through a considerable part of the left passageway. At the end of the passageway were several entrances. However, there were no doors on the entrances and all the entrances looked dark to the eye. The Irregularity had been pointing forward as he spoke. Suddenly, a rush of wind came from behind him. Before he could respond, he had been cut into four.

Chen Xiaolian sheathed the Sword in the Stone once more and watched as Bluesea retracted his bone blades. With a sigh of relief, he then ran forward.

“Sorry. If it had been possible, I did not want to kill you.”

Chen Xiaolian murmured inwardly to the Irregularity behind him.

Since entering World’s End, Chen Xiaolian had been plagued by a feeling of conflict.

Although they were on opposing sides, that was simply due to the fact that they were standing on different grounds.

Be it Wu Ya, Hammer, Terry or even Sebast, Chen Xiaolian could find no reason to object to what they were doing.

Ensuring their own survival, restarting the refresh function of World’s End, wanting to return to the outside world, all of those were human nature.

Chen Xiaolian himself felt doubtful. Should he find himself in their shoes, could he stick to his principles and reject joining the Coalition and their Awakened clearing operation.

After all, the allure of staying alive was too great.

However, there was one thing that Chen Xiaolian could be certain of. Qiao Qiao had chosen not to do so.

And… … at present, she should be beyond one of the entrances before him.

After going through so many twists and turns, there was now only one step between him and Qiao Qiao. As Chen Xiaolian ran forward, his heart pounded wildly.

The first room was empty.

Inside the second room were a pile of messily placed weapons. They were mostly long-ranged weapons. A very small handful of energy-tier weapons could be found among them. Even so, those were hardly high-grade weapons.

Earlier, the Irregularity had mentioned that the cell is beside this place. If so…

Chen Xiaolian ran as fast as he could to the next room.

Then, he finally saw it. The silhouette that he had been searching for so long.

…