The announcement that suddenly rang in his ears left Lu Jiuling stunned.
“A Divine Game?”
“A ticket?”
Before Lu Jiuling could think through what those two terms meant, the golden light before his eyes vanished.
He had thought that after pushing open that wooden door, he would see a small path leading out of the temple. But he did not.
What appeared before him was a stone bridge nearly a hundred meters long.
On both sides of the bridge were carved reliefs of centaur archers in every imaginable pose. Some lay resting in the grass; others stood amid the flames of hell, drawing their bows and nocking arrows, as if they meant to shoot down the sun and moon…
Around these lifelike murals, stars, flowers, and musical notes swirled as embellishments, dazzlingly beautiful…
Even the most skilled craftsmen among humankind could not have completed such an artistic masterpiece.
Most astonishing of all was that this stone bridge seemed to span the very sky.
Because beneath it, white clouds flowed slowly like a sea.
Lu Jiuling turned back and saw an enormous golden door, more than a hundred meters tall.
“I walked out from here?”
On each of the two doors stood a centaur archer. When Lu Jiuling looked at them, the eyes of the two centaur archers also fixed upon him.
“What kind of place is this?”
Lu Jiuling recalled the four words he had just heard—“Divine Council.” He looked around. Aside from the stone bridge, there was no other path.
Whoosh!
Lu Jiuling took a deep breath and stepped onto it.
Who knew what lay on the other side of the bridge?
Originally, with the bronze Buddha mask stuck to his face, Lu Jiuling had worried it might harm him and wanted to remove it as soon as possible. But now, he was in no hurry.
Lu Jiuling had always been meticulous. In this unfamiliar place, concealing his appearance would certainly bring more advantages than disadvantages.
78!
79!
Lu Jiuling counted his steps. At exactly one hundred steps, he stepped off the stone bridge.
Ahead were stairs.
Lu Jiuling climbed the steps. After walking for ten minutes, he finally reached the top.
This was a resplendent hall of gold and jade. Its vaulted ceiling soared into the clouds, as if embedded in the sky itself. Around it stood twenty-four stone pillars like jade columns propping up the heavens.
Looking out, seas of clouds drifted in all directions, making this temple-like building seem like an isolated island cut off from the world.
In the center of the hall was a massive golden round table. Around it, twelve chairs were arranged in perfect proportion.
These chairs were inlaid with gold and silver, studded all over with gemstones of every color. Their splendor and luxury were beyond description. Even more exaggerated was that their backs resembled inverted sharp swords, suspended behind them.
“Even the thrones of those kings of Europa weren’t this extravagant, were they?”
Lu Jiuling was amazed.
He saw that several of the chairs had crowns placed upon them.
If one were to pry off just a single gemstone from any of them, they could probably live comfortably for half a lifetime.
The radiance of treasure dazzled the eyes, but Lu Jiuling only glanced at it before sweeping his gaze toward the three people seated around the round table.
Yes!
There were people sitting on three of the chairs.
An elderly man in a black suit with a red bow tie, his bearing refined and scholarly, was wearing a pair of glasses and reading a newspaper.
Beside his left hand sat a cup of coffee. Even from far away, Lu Jiuling could smell its rich, mellow aroma.
A black cat lay nearby, pretending to doze. When the old man stroked it, it would obediently take the initiative to stretch out its head and lightly rub against his palm.
Opposite the old man was a woman in her twenties with long, slightly wavy black hair. She wore a gray high-neck, off-shoulder sweater, with a medical white coat draped over it.
Her head was lowered as she read a book, exuding the full air of an intellectual older beauty.
The last one was a young man wearing glasses, whose appearance carried something of a refined scoundrel’s air. He was playing with a metal Rubik’s cube while looking Lu Jiuling over with great interest.
“…”
When Lu Jiuling saw these three people, he knew he had been right not to remove the bronze Buddha mask.
Because aside from that refined young man, both the old man and the elegant woman wore masks on their faces.
“Oh? Looks like we’ve got a cautious one here!”
The refined young man was clearly talking about Lu Jiuling.
There was no praise in his tone, only mockery. The general meaning was: a small fry like you, trying to hide your identity, is utterly pointless.
“Esteemed Mr. Libra, do you have any advice for this lucky fellow from Sagittarius Palace?”
The refined young man teased, “He must be completely lost right now, his head stuffed full of questions!”
“Aren’t you fond of teaching others?”
“You can clear up his confusion!”
The refined old man ignored him.
“Miss Aquarius, seeing how young he is, does that surprise you?”
The refined young man tried to strike up a conversation with the woman in the white coat instead.
“He is indeed young!”
The elegant woman in white lifted her gaze from the copy of Hamlet in her hands and let it fall on Lu Jiuling.
“Hey, tell us about the Divine Game you just experienced.”
The refined young man was curious. “Let me see whether you got your ticket through strength, or through luck!”
“Luck alone would never have brought him here!”
The refined old man sighed with emotion. “I didn’t expect to meet two geniuses at once today!”
“Two?”
The refined young man was surprised. Then he seemed to think of something and turned his head to look in the direction of Pisces Palace.
Today,
was the day Sagittarius Palace and Pisces Palace underwent their Divine Games.
That was also why the three of them were waiting here. They wanted to see the new “alternate Speaker” of Sagittarius Palace and the “Speaker” of Pisces Palace.
Lu Jiuling followed the refined young man’s gaze.
A tall, slender girl walked out from behind a massive pillar, looking warily at the refined young man and the other two.
When her gaze landed on Lu Jiuling, much of her vigilance faded. Because this boy, who was around her age, was clearly like her—someone who had come to this temple for the first time.
“Beauty, aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”
The refined young man asked with a smile. After sizing the girl up, he could not help giving a frivolous whistle.
She was truly beautiful!
Even though she was only wearing a washed-out blue-and-white high school uniform and a pair of white canvas shoes, none of it could diminish her looks.
Instead, she possessed the clear, otherworldly beauty of rain washing the dust from the air after a downpour.
She needed no makeup, no smile or frown. Just standing there quietly, she gave off a pure and limpid aura that washed over others.
When the girl’s gaze turned toward him, the refined young man felt as if he had been rinsed by icy snowmelt flowing down from a snow mountain.
The refined young man shuddered involuntarily and could not help praising…
“I like her eyes!”
He wanted so badly to dig them out, soak them in formalin, and admire them every night before bed. That would definitely be the most wonderful pleasure.
…
Xue Lingren endured the pain in her body and observed the four people in the hall.
Three of them sat beside the round table, their expressions relaxed and at ease. At a glance, they were clearly regulars here. The other boy, like her, had come to this luxurious and mysterious palace for the first time.
But compared to her, he was so much more cautious. He even knew to cover his face.
Thinking back on the terrifying crises she had encountered all the way here, Xue Lingren felt that if those three were regulars, they must know some secrets. If she lowered her posture, perhaps she could obtain kind treatment from them.
“My name is…”
Just as Xue Lingren was about to announce her identity, she heard the boy wearing the bronze Buddha mask shout.
“Don’t say it!”
Lu Jiuling stopped her.
No matter what kind of place this was, the refined old man, the elegant woman in white, and the refined young man had arrived before them, which meant they naturally already possessed an advantage.
If he wanted to avoid being squeezed dry, he could only increase the bargaining chips in his hand as much as possible.
That pretty high school girl with the oval face was obviously like him—entering this place for the first time. In that case, the two of them could form an alliance.
Even if that was not possible, showing consideration for her could at least increase his favorability in her eyes.
“Kid, your mouth is a little too long.”
The refined young man’s gaze turned cold, his expression faintly angered.
Lu Jiuling was not intimidated by him. He looked straight at the young man and explained to Xue Lingren, “This elder sister and this old gentleman are both wearing masks, which means there’s a high chance everyone here is in a competitive relationship.”
“Once you reveal your name, it’ll be very easy for them to find your home address and do something behind the scenes!”
“As for this handsome guy, I imagine the reason you aren’t covering your face isn’t because you’re some arrogant madman, but because when you entered this place for the first time, you didn’t have the chance, right?”
Lu Jiuling quietly observed the three of them.
Xue Lingren saw the refined young man’s brows crease slightly, a thin layer of anger surfacing on his face.
She knew that high school boy had guessed correctly.
“Haha, you do have some wit!”
The refined old man looked at Lu Jiuling, admiration in his eyes. “Rest assured. Since you were able to obtain tickets and step into this place, you are already our allies.”
“We will not cause trouble for you in real life!”
When Xue Lingren heard this, her shoulders relaxed, and she revealed an expression of relief, as if this place was already safe.
In reality, this was acting. She wanted the three of them to think she had already believed their words and lowered her guard.
“Kid, don’t be too happy. She is our ally, but you are not!”
The refined young man looked at Lu Jiuling and chuckled, his face full of malicious amusement, as though he were watching a monkey being toyed with by humans.
“Big brother, why?”
Xue Lingren pressed him. Lu Jiuling’s earlier “Don’t say it” had indeed given her a somewhat favorable impression of him.
“You’ll know soon enough!”
The refined young man deliberately kept them in suspense.
Lu Jiuling and Xue Lingren did not have to wait long before a sacred, ethereal voice rang out in the great hall.
【Welcome, both of you, to the Divine Council!】
【Please allow me to give a brief introduction!】
【This is the hall of the Divine Council. Around it are thirteen heavenly stairways, leading respectively to the Golden Twelve Palaces and the Eternal Paradise!】
【Each Golden Palace has one Speaker!】
【Every month, each Speaker must enter their Golden Palace and undergo one Divine Game!】
【If a Speaker dies, a new Speaker selection will be held!】
【Congratulations to you both. You have just cleared your Divine Games and become the Speaker of Pisces Palace and the alternate Speaker of Sagittarius Palace!】
The refined young man disliked Lu Jiuling, so he deliberately provoked him. “You’re the alternate one. And there’s a hundred percent chance you’ll die in the next Divine Game.”