Chapter 558: The Lost Land of Gold

At this moment, Georgia, the Crown Prince, who never loses his temper in front of people and who is known as the "Golden Light", took a deep breath and turned towards the palace.

He ducked his head and hurried past the crowd of people watching him expectantly, teeth clenched, eyes a little red, a strange emotion rushing through his chest.

--Why don't people want to put up with a little more winter for the sake of the country?

Georgia burst into the palace, and, without looking away from the guards who bowed to him, he rarely returned the courtesy, but went straight into his room, took a most powerful bow from the wall, and headed without looking back towards the gates of the country, which were guarded by the Golden Hair.

He clutched his longbow, his eyes cold and stern.

--whether it was a so-called god or some strange guest, he would not allow the other to set foot in Gloren's country.

This is his land, this is his people, and no matter how naive they are, it is not the turn of others to exploit their suffering in the name of gold.

Georgia gripped her longbow and stood atop the towering walls at the entrance and exit, which were unguarded, for the soldiers had gone to meet the noble guest, or rather, the gods, and even on a normal day there were only three or four soldiers here, for the gods had hidden Gloren, and no ordinary person could enter here without being shown the way by someone inside the Golden Hair Office.

And today everyone was waiting inside, which meant that there was no one to lead the way and that guest could come in on his own.

No outsider had ever set foot in the Gloren without being led, so it was no wonder that his father was certain that this strange guest was a god.

The high priest waited by the entrance with apprehension and anxiety, the king was silent, his lips white, and the guards looked expectantly at the entrance, but after waiting for about half an hour, there was finally a movement from the entrance.

The sound of a man's leather shoes on the hard ground came slowly, and he brushed aside the dense trees at the entrance to reveal a masked face, his voice laced with laughter, "I've been heading this way since I got off the Sky Island over there, and I hope you don't mind if I don't change my attire."

"I'm not late, am I?"

The man's proficiency in Gloren startled the high priest, who drew a breath and bowed in fear: "Not late!"

"Greetings, hello." King Gloren stepped forward a little nervously and held out his hand, "I am King Gloren."

"I know." The masked man, or god, had a casual, smiling tone as he took off his own gloves and held out his hand to shake the king's, "You are the main person I deal with."

"You are very much like that king of a thousand years ago."

"Yes, is it?" The king smiled reluctantly, then asked with a shudder, "And the gold ......"

"Don't worry." The man held out his palm, a shiny, mottled wedge of ore hovering above it, and he spoke in a gentle tone, "I've brought the pointing stone."

"I've given you samples before, this is the genuine article, just bury this gold point stone into the vein and the gold mine will produce a constant stream as before."

"A steady stream of gold?" The king's voice trembled as he repeated the man's words.

"Yes, with the use of this pointing stone, your future kingdom will have an inexhaustible supply of gold." The man smiled and spread his hands, "This gold pointing stone is more powerful than the one that that king buried in the vein a thousand years ago, and in time, your streets will probably be covered with gold dust at all times, gold statues will be everywhere, and each person may be able to have gold as big as himself."

"Your golden age will come again."

"But be a bit careful when you bury it in there."

He smiled and warned, "This bit of gold stone is a fragile item, and it's all I have."

The king swallowed nervously and tried to reach for the pointing stone as the man reached out too, ready to deliver it.

At the moment of delivery, Georgia on the ramparts stood erect, her gaze stern as she drew the bowstring to her ear with two fingers, the wind whipping his high light brown ponytail loose, the metallic colour of the bowstring deepening the pupils of his dark and light brown eyes.

The sharp point of the bow reflected a strange dazzle of light, and Georgia's chest rose and fell violently as he clenched his teeth - probably the most indecent and impulsive thing he had done since he became Crown Prince.

Assault on a foreign guest.

Georgia loosened the bowstring and the arrow shot out as swiftly as a thunderbolt from the clouds, piercing between the king and the god and pointing straight at the pointing stone!

The man seemed to sense something and quickly closed his palm and gripped the pointing stone, but the arrow wind thundered through his palm holding the pointing stone and blood dripped down.

"Aye aye aye." The man turned his head with a grin to Georgia, who was once again drawing her bow on the raised platform, "It seems your country, it seems, is not very welcoming to a businessman like me."

" Georgia ?!" The king looked in shock at Georgia on the platform, her eyes red with anger, and he reprimanded, glancing timidly at the god next to him who didn't look the least bit angry, "What are you doing! Get down from there!"

"Guards! Hold the Grand Prince down!"

The High Priest almost went into cardiopulmonary arrest as he asked in a panic, "Is the Pointing Stone all right?!"

"It's okay." The man gently opened his palm, which was empty, and said with a smile, "I put it away."

"Quickly!" The high priest greeted in a hurry, "Have the city's doctor come and bandage the guest's palm."

"No need." The man smiled and waved his hand, "It's nice to get hurt once in a while, I haven't been hurt in a long time."

The High Priest stopped in amazement and looked around breathlessly.

"That ...... man's tone took on a light laugh as he turned to Georgia, who was being forced down the wall by a group of guards, "The man who shot me with a bow and arrow, was that your Grand Prince? "

The king's back instantly tightened when he heard the man mention it, and he side-stepped slightly in the direction of the man looking at Georgia: "...... is my eldest son and is not disciplined, so I ask your guest not to take it personally."

"Why would I count, he's very interesting." The man smiled with amusement and made a polite request, "Can I talk to him?"

Looking at the man's still bleeding hand, the king hesitated and could only nod reluctantly in agreement, "...... I will have him come down and confess his fault to you, and I will chastise him myself when I return, so please do not be too harsh."

Georgia was pinned down in front of the man, his hands tied behind his back by the guards, and there was a look of blazing untamed submission in his eyes that was a far cry from the elegant and gentle appearance this prince had always displayed.

" Georgia ." The King's voice tightened as he sternly squeezed Georgia's raised head, "You have committed a felony by attacking a foreign guest!"

"Apologize to this guest!"

"I'll go back and collect my punishment, I'll accept any kind of heavy punishment." Georgia was forced to keep her head down, but her voice remained icy, "But I will not apologise."

"He's not a guest of Gloren's."

The king was in a hurry: " Georgia!!!"

"No need to be so harsh, let go of your hand." The man interrupted the king with a smirk, "Your name is Georgia, isn't it?"

The king let go of his hand and Georgia slowly raised her head and looked straight at the man without speaking.

"You have a very nice soul." The man laughed lightly, "It is surprising and pleasant to me to see such a soul still in such a country."

"As your reward for showing me such a worthy soul, then here's the deal: since you insist on saving this fairy-tale corrupted kingdom from me, the big bad guy you think you are, I'll give you a chance."

"Let's play a game."

The man waved his hand and the vanished pointing stone reappeared in his hand, its palm length stained with a hint of blood, floating in front of Georgia's eyes, giving off a warm, bright lustre like gold.

"In three days." The man chuckled softly, "In three days I will come here with this pointing stone, and if you can find a way to close all the mines and keep any of them from burying the pointing stone in the vein, I will leave with the pointing stone forever and never come to this kingdom again."

"But if you don't make it."

"- whether the pain of that nod to a thousand years ago, or the pain of this one now, when that time comes, the price of all the pain will be paid by you together."

"And your answer is?"

Georgia lifted her head, her brown eyes clear: "Good."

-- just as the king a thousand years ago naively agreed to a deal with God, so he naively agreed to a game with God.

and thought they would be victorious.

13 The heart of the mining area.

Mu Sicheng carefully made his way through the dense cluster of humanoid gold sculptures on the outskirts of the mine towards the mine car, reporting into his headset as he reached the edge of the track, "There are traces of erased gold dust on the track, it's still relatively new."

"That would be the trail that Georgia and the others left down there." Bai Liu said, "This proves we're on the right track, and if Georgia and the others came here too, then it can only mean that this is indeed where the Hourglass of Time was hidden."

"The mine is in the mountain and there are many gold sculptures at the entrance." Mu Sicheng surveyed the surroundings and reported in a whisper, "There are two tracks at the entrance to the mountain with mine cars on them, one of them must have been driven away by Georgia and they drove into the mine, I saw the drag marks of the mine car."

"The mine is very deep, I shone a light on it and all I could see was a lot of shiny gold in there, it was a bit shaky, I couldn't see the rest clearly, I guess I'll have to go in the mine cart to find out what's going on."

"Do I wait for you to come before I go inside, or do I go down first by myself?" Mu Sicheng asks.

Bai Liu didn't hesitate: "Wait for us, don't move around on your own and stay away from those statues."

"But ......" Mu Sicheng was a little agitated, and when he got agitated his lungs itched involuntarily and he started choking violently, "Ahem, Georgia, what if they get to the Hourglass of Time before we do? What do we do?"

"One step ahead then." Bai Liu was unmoved, "We're supposed to be the passive position in this copy, it's normal for them to get an advantage ahead of us, don't make a move when the information isn't equal early on, and besides, what's your best skill?"

Mu Sicheng is stunned.

"If they get it first." Bai Liu said calmly, "Then you steal it back, and with your movement and alertness, there shouldn't be many people in this game who can stop a you who's just trying to steal."

"Is that so?" An extremely shallow teenage voice came from deep within the mines, "I could be one of these people."

The blue-green butterfly flutters past Mu Sicheng, whose pupils are tightly constricted, its long, thin tail dropping a fine dusting of gold, and flutters past, landing on Armand's outstretched index finger and gently shaking its wings.

Mu Sicheng jerked his head over and he jumped back twice, his breath coming to a halt - he had just scouted this mine without noticing at all that there was a man hiding inside.

Armand hangs upside down from the mine, feet together, ear-length hair pinned on one side and hanging down on the other, eyes closed, wearing a pure white and gilt uniform, back straight, like a bat hanging from a rock and resting, and at this moment, finally disturbed by the errant traveller, slowly opening his eyes.

The brown pupils of his eyes reflect in silence the monkey's paw that has transformed. Mu Sicheng, who is showing his teeth to him.

The butterflies resting on the gloves of his white uniform began to flap faster.

Armand gently gathered his legs and dropped lightly from above the mine, not even a hair out of place, as he looked across at Mu Sicheng, his tone unperturbed: "It will not end well for you to be so impulsive and irritable when things go wrong, Mu Sicheng."

"You have the tone of one who wants me to tie my hands." Mu Sicheng flung out his monkey paws in displeasure, his pupils standing up in two thin peaks as he smiled provocatively, "But last time you had something stolen from me, isn't it a bit presumptuous to talk to me in that tone of voice?"

" Golden Dawn's ace recruit?"

"That time?" Armand dragged his jaw in a seemingly enlightened remembrance, "It was just a hairpiece, you didn't steal anything very important and I didn't need to break ranks and waste time tangling with you."

"But now-"

Armand lifted his eyes and raised his arms to the right, and the butterfly rose from his right shoulder to meet the wind, its wings fluttering rapidly.

"- you are going to steal something that is extremely important to both my brother and my team."

"You can try and see if you can get past my protective layer and escape from the middle of my hurricane as you wish."

[System Alert: Player Armand uses the skill, Summon (Chain Hurricane)]

[This skill deals continuous damage to a player bound in a hurricane by chains until the hurricane stops, skill CD is one hour].