Sir! Don't close the net!

However, this may not necessarily be a bad thing...

"Executive Officer, Executive Officer, are you listening to me?!"

Abou Jean's call brought El-Jonaud back to his senses. El-Jonaud then noticed that only he and Abou Jean remained in the huge conference room; everyone else had already excitedly gone to plan their smuggling operation.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something," Al-Jiong smiled apologetically, tapping the document beside him with his index finger.

"Ah—so the executive officer also thinks that the fat pig has been talking nonsense for so long?" Abu Jean suddenly realized, put his hands behind his head and muttered, "I understand the reasoning, but can't you say something practical? You've been rambling on for three hours, but aren't we still just working hard? Why did Acting Minister Yeropon choose him to chair this meeting?"

“It doesn’t matter who it is. The chosen ones of the organization only need to make a request, and fulfilling that request is the mission of us Cloud Clan,” El-Qiong said, his brow furrowing slightly.

Perhaps because he had already confirmed that Li Yili was an undercover agent sent by Black Goat and was carrying out a very perfect plan, the more Yerobo An looked at the "extra" orders given to them, the more he felt that something was wrong.

“Abu, go and double-check the ledgers from when we dealt with these departments before,” Al-Jean ...

Abu Rang's legs buckled and he almost slid off the chair.

"Hey! Executive Officer, are you serious?! This has to be implemented within three days! We didn't come up with a single solution in the meeting just now!"

"That's why we need to investigate, since we haven't found any solutions yet. These next few days are crucial, so I'm counting on you, Abu."

After saying that, Al-Jonor pushed open the door and left the conference room, leaving Abu Jean alone sitting in the conference room.

After a long silence, Abu Rang lowered his head.

"Alright alright."

"Boom boom boom——"

The window of the security booth was knocked on again, but Li Yili, still holding the newspaper in her hand, did not look over.

“Jeroboam lived in the temple of Goweton.”

Chapter Fifty-Five: This Temple is Not Serious

The date of construction of the Temple of Gowwitton is unknown, as are the deities worshipped and the artifacts unearthed there.

Since it has been buried, it means it is no longer needed.

The unknown is like the most delicious bait in the world, attracting archaeologists and enticing these people full of exploration and courage to dig out things that should have disappeared.

However, the Temple of Göweldon is an exception. Its construction date is unknown because the archaeologists' overly rough exploration damaged the building materials. The deity worshipped is unknown because everything related to the deity has already been looted by the archaeologists. The unearthed heritage is unknown because it is just a ruin that was dug out a long time ago, so how could any heritage have been unearthed?

Therefore, the temple, which was originally located in the center of Gowerton, gradually moved to the periphery over time and with the reconstruction of Gowerton.

Li Yili closed the newspaper in her hand and stared intently at the busy street ahead.

Having been in Guoweidun for almost a year, he had never visited the Guoweidun Temple. It wasn't because the Guoweidun Temple was completely worthless to explore, but because the Guoweidun Temple was like a thorn stuck in Guoweidun, this "paradise," very conspicuous, constantly reminding him that Guoweidun was not isolated from the world, but was still part of this strange world.

Even though the temple had long been hollowed out and lost its value, and even the residents of Gowerton no longer cared about it.

But now he was being told that the chosen one, Jeroboam, was living in that hollowed-out temple. And considering what had happened last night when that thing broke into his ranch and ate his cows and a dozen poultry, even though Li Yili was extremely unwilling, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to the Guoweidun Temple to investigate.

Li Yili glanced at the small clock hanging on the table; it was five o'clock in the afternoon.

Yesterday, he observed for most of the day that after Yeropo An entered the Sheep Village Building, he seemed to have stayed in Dela Pal's office without coming out. Even after 6 p.m., the end of the workday, he did not leave the Sheep Village Building. Judging from the conversations among the Cloud Crowd, Yeropo An seemed to have left Dela Pal's office around 8 or 9 p.m.

It's understandable. Jerobo Ann asked the black goat's calves to coordinate with other departments to transport the pollutants to Guoweiton within three days. They would keep submitting proposals to Jerobo Ann for review and confirmation in the next two days. Enthusiasm is not proportional to ability and may even lead to a decrease in work efficiency.

"Time... four, no, about three hours? Considering the journey, tsk... not very sufficient."

Li Yili glanced up at the top floor of the Sheep Village building, at the location of Dela Pal's office, quickly stood up, hesitated for a moment, then picked up a small stool and the backpack she had stuffed under the table, pushed open the door, and flagged down a carriage.

To avoid being followed, Li Yili did not have the coachman take him directly to the location of the Guoweidun Temple. Instead, he got off the carriage near the edge of Guoweidun and walked to the temple.

Ancient, decaying, and with its walls eroded by moss, the building resembles a foreign object piercing the earth. Centered on the building, the ground rises abnormally, and the area near the building is covered with tiny cracks.

Li Yili had a strong illusion that if this building were removed, something would gush out from the earth—perhaps pus or blood. If the building remained stuck there, the accumulating, unreleased "something" would only increase and the situation would worsen.

Li Yili shook her head vigorously, took two deep breaths, and then carefully walked to the front of the Temple of Guweiton. The once magnificent and solemn temple...

The temple suffered all sorts of damage along the way. For example, the temple gate, which should have been decorated with statues of guardian beasts on both sides, was smashed to pieces, and only two dented faces could be barely seen.

On the bright side, with so many sunroofs, the road ahead will be easier, and we won't have to worry about anything suddenly appearing in the dark.

Out of respect for the guards, Li Yili chose to crawl into the temple through a half-person-high crack next to the main entrance.

Upon entering the temple, Li Yili couldn't help but pinch his nose and tilt his head back. He had always thought that a temple abandoned in nature should have become part of nature itself. After all, without human visitors, nature's ability to embrace all things could restore even the site of a nuclear power plant to the level of a wildlife sanctuary.

So he imagined the interior of the temple to be cool and refreshing like an underground mine, but in reality it was filled with a nauseating stench of rotting animal carcasses.

Li Yili endured the stench of decay and pulled out a piece of cotton thread from her backpack. She tiptoed and tied one end of the thread to a broken statue nearby. After pulling hard to make sure it wouldn't come loose, Li Yili let the thread out as she walked down the dimly lit gravel slope.

The light filtering down from above gradually thinned out, which meant that Li Yili knew he had reached the underground part of the temple. However, the path ahead continued to extend downwards, and many forks appeared. If it weren't for the various bricks and stones, traces of artificial paving, and the remains of statues around him, he would have thought he had dug up a giant rabbit's burrow.

"This is getting a bit troublesome..."

Looking at the three passages in front of him, Li Yili fell into deep thought. He still had enough cotton thread and plenty of time at 6:10. There was no problem with his equipment, but this temple made him feel very uneasy.

Temples are used to worship gods, and in principle they should be quite spacious to have enough room to place offerings and perform temple rituals. To expand the space and increase the height, digging down a floor is a normal practice.

But this is going a bit too far, and there are more and more forks like the one in front of us.

"This temple is rather improper..."

Li Yili peered into the three passages in front of her with some apprehension. The path ahead was pitch black, completely devoid of light, and as calm as wallpaper.

Li Yili reached out and touched nothing, but goosebumps rose on the back of her hand.

Okay, it's not wallpaper.

After hesitating for a long time, Li Yili took out a tube of fluorescent fuel from her backpack, dripped it onto a stone, and kicked the stone into the middle passage.

The stones, stained with fluorescent dye, streaked through the night like shooting stars, passing through the dark tunnel. The faint light briefly illuminated the walls of the passage, and the hideous faces vanished in an instant.

Li Yili slowly opened her eyes, which were following the fluorescent light. In her dark pupils, faces illuminated by the fluorescent light flashed rapidly, like an animation. The faces were connected, their eyes looking at him, the intruder, and their mouths opening and closing.

Li Yili subconsciously read the words aloud.

"Don't... come any closer..."

"[Curiosity will...]"

The stone, stained with fluorescent dye, landed with a thud, its faint light confined to a small area the size of a fist, and the hideous faces were immediately swallowed by darkness.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Li Yili's forehead.

Now he was certain that this temple was definitely not legitimate.

Chapter Fifty-Six Fluorescent Middle Finger

Heman stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the ceiling, tiny beads of sweat constantly trickling down his forehead.

The crisp sound of pages turning in his ears was like a death knell for him; the last time he was this nervous was when he submitted his promotion application.

"Splash—"

This time, the sound of turning pages was a little louder than before. Heiman noticed this keenly and immediately shuddered, looking at Yeropon, who was in front of him reviewing the plan he had submitted regarding the transportation of pollutants. His pupils dilated violently.

This wasn't the first time he had drafted a plan regarding the transfer of pollutants, so he was well aware of how rushed and flawed his plan was. He didn't want to submit the plan to Yeropo An just like that, but the other Cloud Clan executives seemed to have a cheat code; they all submitted their plans and all of them were approved on the first try.

He went around talking about it with a rather proud attitude.

It's very simple.

It was approved immediately.

[Not difficult]

This put increasing pressure on him, a veteran employee, and he couldn't concentrate. Watching his colleagues finish their proposals and then chat about them, he finally became impatient. The result was a proposal in his hands that he wanted to slap himself for, clearly the work of a rough newbie.

Heman didn't know where he got the courage to submit such a proposal. In any case, he regretted it very much. He would most likely be severely reprimanded by the acting minister, Yeropon, and rewrite the proposal under the watchful eyes of his other colleagues.

"Snapped--"

Yeropon closed the plan in his hand.

Heman lowered his head, his face ashen, awaiting the scolding from Yeropon Ann, or being shoved in the face with documents like Li Yili had done.

However, to Heman's surprise, Jeroboam not only did not scold him, but even...

He nodded.

"Yes, it's well written. Go and carry it out."

Eh?

Heman blankly took the document, blankly bent over, blankly pushed open the door and went out, blankly sat back in his seat, and blankly looked up at the ceiling.

……

"It passed!?"

Heman suddenly sprang to his feet, slamming his hands heavily on the desk with an incredulous gasp. The executives around him, who had already approved the plan, were unfazed; they had been just as shocked when they approved it.

“There’s nothing to be surprised about,” Joel, who had already approved the plan, patted Seaman on the back. “Hurry up and get the plan out, and try to get the goods delivered by the day after tomorrow.”

"But, this..."

Heman held the proposal in his hand, his expression awkward. After stammering for a while, he weakly complained.

"I think I've produced the worst proposal ever."

“I also prepared the worst proposal ever,” Joel grinned. “But think about it, the acting minister was able to persuade so many departments to get these orders, so it must have been arranged in advance. We just need to quickly come up with a proposal, and the other side can start working on it immediately.”

"The acting minister said the goods will be delivered in three days, and this three-day timeframe applies to all other departments as well."

Joel raised his hand and patted Heman on the back again.

"So you can relax. At this rate, all the plans will be approved tonight, and we can start preparing tomorrow."

“That…that seems to make sense,” Hyman nodded after pondering for a moment, then looked around on tiptoe, his gaze settling on the desk still covered in documents. His lips twitched. “Where did that guy, El, go?”

Joel was taken aback, then looked around before his expression changed. "Hey, hey, hey—you're kidding, right?! You actually left the most important work aside! Doesn't that mean we won't finish it tonight?! What is that guy thinking?!"

"There's no other way. Let's get his proposal approved first, otherwise those guys..."

Joel naturally knew who those guys were that Hyman was talking about. Being the best executive officer doesn't necessarily mean being the most popular executive officer, especially now that El, as the best executive officer, has crashed and burned twice.

“Okay!” Joel nodded, glancing at the clock on the wall. “It should be finished by seven o’clock.”

------

After lingering in front of the three passages for a while, Li Yili used fluorescent dye to make two fluorescent stones and kicked them into the other two tunnels. Like the middle tunnel, each tunnel had a series of ferocious faces on the walls on both sides, and they could all be connected. Because she was prepared, Li Yili was able to barely read the beginning of a few sentences this time.

Stop listening...

Freedom is...