Sir! Don't close the net!

I always feel like if Shub sits down, the chair will sink in—I always feel like it will be very inconvenient for Shub.

Of course, Li Yili had considered having Shub push the tricycle from behind, but that would be a bit too inhumane.

Li Yili let out a soft breath, and glanced discreetly at Shub, who was walking slowly beside the tricycle with her head down. Her gaze lingered on Shub's high-heeled boots for a while before she looked away.

There really was no sound of footsteps.

Li Yili grinned.

When the blurry edges of the Temple of Gowwitton were already visible, Li Yili turned to Shub and asked, "Are you sure you want to go to the Temple of Gowwitton?"

If possible, he didn't want to involve Shub in this matter. As for Valkyrie, well, if she got involved, so be it, since they were all just trying to sabotage each other anyway. But he couldn't bear to do that to someone as honest and easy to bully as Shub.

“Go back now, treat what you saw last night as a dream and let it end here. It will definitely be better for your future,” Li Yili advised earnestly.

Shub blinked and tilted her head, seemingly not understanding what Li Yili meant.

“Alright, alright, if we don’t figure out something this weird, we’ll just keep thinking about it,” Li Yili tilted her head back. “Find a seat and sit down. Let’s get this over with quickly.”

Shub nodded. Because of her size, she didn't even need to hold onto the edge of the tricycle. She easily sat on the edge of the tricycle, her right hand gently pulling on the hem of Li Yili's clothes. She remained quiet and still.

Li Yili looked down at the hand that was holding the hem of his clothes, and for some reason her heart skipped a beat.

Li Yili shook her head vigorously, clearing her mind of all unnecessary thoughts, and pedaled the tricycle hard.

Shub pinched Li Yili's chin with her right hand and held her hair, which was being blown by the wind, with her left hand. Her dark green eyes gleamed, and it was unclear what she was thinking.

Under the sunlight, a huge, slowly writhing shadow swallowed up the shadow of the tricycle.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

At the alleyway entrance, far from the Sheep Village building, a Yunzhong executive in plain clothes looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him before quickly slipping into the alley. He felt his way along the wall and soon found a damp, old door.

The CEO of Yunzhong let out a breath and raised his hand to knock on the door.

The wooden door, with a whoosh, opened one-third of the way down from the top, revealing a pair of eyes behind it. After scanning the tense Cloud Executive from top to bottom, the window was slammed shut again. Accompanied by the sound of heavy chains being unlocked, the wooden door creaked open, creating a space about half a person's width.

"Come in," Joel, who was behind the door, tilted his head back and released the doorknob.

Yunzhong's CEO breathed a sigh of relief, squeezed in, and closed the door behind him. It was an old and run-down bar. Because it had been closed for quite some time, the various unlabeled liquors on the counter had turned a rather unpleasant color.

The CEO of Yunzhong glanced at the dozen or so people sitting in the old bar, drinking plain water with the air of someone drowning their sorrows, and couldn't help but sigh, "Are we the only ones?"

“Most of the executives are skeptical and are still observing,” El said, bending down to place a stack of documents on the counter. He placed his hands on either side of the counter and slumped his shoulders. “The most troublesome ones are Yunzhong; they have no idea about the problems with those ledgers.”

The Cloud Clan executives present all nodded in agreement. The Cloud Clan's greatest strength was their loyalty. Even if they were asked to jump into a fire pit, they would jump in without hesitation. However, their greatest weakness was also their loyalty. The Cloud Clan was loyal to the Old Days themselves. In other words, they were loyal to whoever best represented the Old Days at that time, regardless of right or wrong.

The one who can represent the past now is Jeroboam, the chosen one of God.

“But that’s not a problem,” Al smiled confidently.

Although Li Yili didn't tell him how to get those Yunzhong to obey, he was sure that this was the least worrying part, since Li Yili had the Black Goat behind her!

"We just need to take care of what we have on hand."

Li Yili must have already devised a foolproof method to deal with Yerobo An and let the Cloud Clan know who they should be loyal to!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Hello, hello, hello—"

Since it was her second visit, Li Yili was no longer as timid as she was during her first exploration of the Guoweidun Temple. She quickly passed through the passageway and even had the leisure to pat the undamaged, painful faces on the walls as she passed through, as if to greet them.

Soon Li Yili arrived at the whirlpool steps. Because it was daytime, the light leaking through the crack at the top was much stronger than at night.

After scanning the area with her binoculars, Li Yili compared the images with her memory of seeing the vortex staircase for the first time last night. She discovered that each black mark had changed position and shape, and most importantly, the color of the marks themselves was darker than before.

Quite a few.

Whatever this means, it's not a good sign.

Li Yili put down her binoculars, took a deep look at the swirling staircase in front of her, pulled hard on the backpack on her back, turned around and disappeared into the dark tunnel, and began to set up the film.

Although the temple of Guoweidun has many passages, they are not very winding and all lead to the central vortex staircase. Therefore, there is no need to place them in a specific location. It is enough to spread them out so that a little bit of sound can be transmitted to the vortex staircase. With the hearing of the god-favored one, or more accurately, the fantasizing sycophant, he will definitely be able to hear the sound.

As for the energy issue, he referenced the wind-up toy, which was just enough to play the entire contents of the glass film. He didn't need to keep playing those Valhae Rei's recorded lines to the sycophants in Yerobo An's ear, because for the sycophants, the goddess was still talking to them, even if it was insults, it was still a kind of hope.

What a simp fears most is that the goddess will stop pursuing him, say what she needs to say, and then never pay attention to him again.

Then, depending on Yerophobe's reaction, the decision is to either continue committing crimes to wear down Yerophobe's spirit, or to directly retrieve the tools used in the crimes and let Yerophobe continue to despair.

As Li Yili fixed the wooden gears, she chuckled sinisterly. Shub, who was standing behind Li Yili dragging the glass film, tilted her head and gently scratched the glass film with her fingernails, causing translucent powder to continuously fall from her dark green fingernails.

Chapter Seventy-Two: The Gaze from the Temple

Li Yili carefully placed the glass film into the tray, turned it left and right to make sure there were no problems, and then put the thimble down on the outermost side.

"This is the last piece of film."

Li Yili let out a breath, turned around and patted Shub on the shoulder, smiling and thanking her, "You've helped me a lot. If there's anything I can do to help you, just tell me."

Hmm, it is indeed very soft.

Shub nodded, then shook her head, and pointed to the other side of the passage.

Li Yili blinked and glanced down at her pocket watch. It was already five o'clock. In another hour, Yeroboam would return to the Temple of Gowerton. Of course, now that the work was done, it wasn't impossible for Yeroboam to return earlier.

"That's true. It's getting late, let's go back first."

Li Yili stuffed the pocket watch into her pocket and walked through the passage side by side with Shub.

Because she felt awkward that there were two of them but no sound at all, and because Shub was a pretty and soft-spoken girl, Li Yili kept talking to Shub the whole way, while Shub walked quietly beside Li Yili. Every now and then, as the tunnel narrowed, their shoulders would bump together.

Soon, Shub and Li Yili walked out of the Guoweidun Temple. Before Li Yili could say anything, Shub quite consciously climbed into the tricycle, hugged her knees, and looked at the setting sun.

Li Yili spread her index finger and thumb at a 90-degree angle, made a camera shape with her hands in front of her eyes, and kept this rare scene in her mind. Of course, in order to avoid offending Shub, Li Yili did not linger. She whistled, got on the tricycle, and happily started pedaling.

As the twilight light stretched longer and longer, the dazzling light of the ever-present starry sky gradually encroached upon it. The shadows cast by the sun gradually faded and disappeared. Under the illumination of the starry sky, many dim shadows split out in different directions. With the changing light of each star, the shadows seemed to come alive and swayed back and forth.

After pedaling the tricycle for about twenty minutes, Li Yili brought Shabu to the edge of Guoweidun. Li Yili intended to continue pedaling the tricycle to take Shabu to a more crowded road, but Shabu jumped off the tricycle first.

Feeling the tricycle lurch, Li Yili tightened the brakes, stopped the tricycle, and turned to look at Shabu, who was standing there watching him. "Is this all the way?"

Shub nodded, bowed slightly to Li Yili, turned and walked into a dark alley, quickly disappearing from sight.

Li Yili peeked into the alley and couldn't help but mutter, "They actually live in such a faraway place."

This is to be expected, as this location is not far from his large ranch. It only takes a few minutes to walk from here to where he met Shub, making it a place that one could easily walk to on a leisurely stroll. Shub had also walked in this direction when they parted ways.

Li Yili rubbed her aching back and pedaled the tricycle furiously. Her momentum was so strong that the residents of Guoweidun turned their heads to look at her with surprise.

Of course, Li Yili didn't care about any of this. After parking the tricycle in the warehouse of the Sheep Village Building, which was usually used to store miscellaneous items, she quickly ran back to the security booth, held up a newspaper, and began to adjust her breathing. Soon, Yoel and the others walked past the security booth, and Li Yili keenly noticed the smiles on their faces.

It seems the plan has started off smoothly.

Li Yili raised her head slightly.

At six o'clock, Yeropon stepped out of the Sheep Village building as the village's special clock-out bell rang. Perhaps because the pollutants would arrive in Guoweidun tomorrow, Yeropon's lips were turned up the whole time, and he didn't even glance at the security booth.

"Does that mean there's no need to pay attention to someone as insignificant as me...?" Li Yili put down the newspaper, let out a long sigh, and couldn't help but mutter, "Laugh, let's see if you can still laugh tonight."

After sitting for another hour, without waiting for El to report back on his work, Li Yili packed up and rode her tricycle back to the ranch. As soon as she entered, she saw Valhou Lei, wearing a blouse that could be used as a dress, sprawled on a single sofa, swinging her long white legs and yawning over the campfire. The evening dress she wore during the day was draped over the back of the sofa like a towel, and her white high-heeled sandals were scattered everywhere.

"Has your brain recovered?"

Li Yili bent down and picked up two pairs of high-heeled sandals, placing them on the shoe cabinet. As she passed the sofa, she casually pulled down her evening gown. The delicate and smooth feel of the gown made Li Yili subconsciously raise her eyebrows and touch it again.

There were no traces of stitches at all.

"It's all set up, it's all set up." Valkyrie picked up a wine bottle from the sofa and shook it. "By the way, does that stuff really work? I don't want to have done all that work for nothing."

"The record machine is operating normally; as for what effect it will have—"

Li Yili wrapped her fingers in Valkyrie's evening gown, tugged at them repeatedly, then pouted and nodded seriously.

"It depends on what kind of simp Yeropon is."

Li Yili turned her head to look at the clock on the wall and nodded.

"Judging by the time, our Acting Minister Yeropo An should be starting soon. I hope he will like the gift I gave him."

At the center of the Temple of Gowwitton, on the swirling staircase, Jeroboam, who was about to throw out the contaminants, felt a chill run down his spine and shivered violently. In that moment of distraction, the Caramel Man, who was already by the altar, changed its previous sluggish movements and rushed towards Jeroboam like a wave. Amidst the surging viscous liquid, there seemed to be a venomous face.

As Yeropon frowned and dodged the Caramel Man's attack, he twisted his wrist and the contaminant fell into the viscous liquid. The viscous liquid quickly contracted, expanded, and mutated around the contaminant.

Yerobo An breathed a sigh of relief, but the intense gaze that followed made his heart skip a beat. He stiffened and straightened up, and the entire vortex staircase seemed to spin under the Caramel Man's gaze.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Yerobo An's forehead. Being watched would make him instinctively look over, and under the gaze of the many Caramel People, his gaze was uncontrollably drawn to the top of his head. There was nothing there. The instinct of a chosen one of the gods, of a thief who had infiltrated the world of the gods, was constantly warning him that he was being watched.

"It's not what they said..."

Yerobo An's expression was somewhat distorted.

"Didn't the Temple of Guoweidun long ago lose the names of its gods and only retain its original functions? Why is it able to [observe] so quickly! No... the intensity isn't right. Does this temple still remember the name of the sealed god?"

The sound of the Caramel Man bursting interrupted Yeropon's thoughts. Watching a golden glint flowing in the viscous liquid, Yeropon gritted his teeth, endured the stares, grabbed the golden liquid, and shoved it into his mouth. He then grabbed his belt with his left hand and swung it forcefully, sending dozens of spheres filled with pollutants falling to the ground.

Chapter 73 Overwhelmed with Worries (jpg)

"Yo—"

Marcel, sitting at the stall, beckoned to Yolan with his finger, "You look a little weak."

Yolan coughed awkwardly, tapped his lower back, and Marcel suddenly realized what was going on. He winked at Yolan and then called out to the shopkeeper who was wiping cups, "Boss, some pork kidneys, please!"

"Sorry, kidneys are in high demand lately," the shopkeeper rolled his eyes.

Yolan glanced at Marcel and then at the boss, breathed a sigh of relief, pulled out a chair and sat down next to Marcel. Just as he was about to speak, Marcel's next words made Yolan's heart skip a beat.

"Speaking of which, I heard from some friends in Yangcun that Yangcun might be making some big moves in the next couple of days."

"Are we preparing to immigrate?" Yolan was a little uneasy. He wasn't sure if his wife was pregnant. Immigrants would definitely check for pregnancy first, and if she wasn't pregnant, he didn't know when the next big immigration would come around.

“No, it seems to be something even more powerful,” Marcel blinked. “My friend didn’t say the specifics, but he said it’s related to the Temple of Gowerton. Although I don’t know what use that damn thing is, according to my friend, once it’s done, Gowerton will be rich.”

"what--"

Upon hearing that Guo Weidun had become successful, Yolan lost interest and was preoccupied with how to quickly return to Amya and have a child to confirm her pregnancy.

“Oh! By the way, something interesting happened today,” the shopkeeper, who was wiping cups, blinked and turned to look at Yolan. “Yoran, I don’t know what your employer was thinking today, he was actually riding a three-wheeled vehicle.”

"Huh—" Marcel looked incredulous. "Isn't he very rich?!"

"Some people also saw him load a truck full of scrap," the boss added.

"Cough cough cough—" Yoran coughed awkwardly a few times before his eyes flickered, "We terminated the contract a few days ago."

Yolan was genuinely glad that he had broken off his relationship with Li Yili in advance, and that no one had seen Li Yili come to his door, otherwise it would have been embarrassing.