Chapter 303: Chapter 303: Stolen Divine Artifact

NPC!

The entire Tulip Kingdom was like a huge NPC garrison.

They were residents and war machines!

War machines that wouldn’t die.

Or rather, the entire Tulip Kingdom was a war machine that could only defend.

Nobody would die, but nobody could leave either.

Whenever someone from inside or outside tried to pass through, they’d kill them without hesitation.

Over and over, endlessly.

When did this start?

If it started three thousand years ago, it could be understood as Lady Dream wanting to guard this crack, ensuring internal safety from external attacks.

Since they could receive information transmitted across the stars from the other side, the other side probably had more powerful technological capabilities. Making such a response wasn’t strange.

But if it had been like this for a long, long time, what was Lady Dream’s purpose?

She couldn’t possibly have mastered prophetic dreams or something like that, right?

To answer all this, they needed to find someone who’d been in this country for over three thousand years, someone who personally participated in building the earlier Tulip Kingdom, to understand everything.

The Goddess of Magic nodded slightly without any objection.

Instantly, they disappeared from where they stood.

When they reappeared, they were already standing on the entire Tulip Kingdom’s second-tallest building—that mushroom-like structure.

This was actually also the closest place to that clock tower.

The platform high in the air had many rooms, each housing a legendary-level powerhouse.

In the most central area was a circular structure that looked somewhat like a round table—who knew what it was for.

Compared to the twisted appearance below in the Tulip Kingdom, the buildings here were obviously much more normal, all similar to outside houses.

The only difference was that each house had unique characteristics, seemingly customized according to each resident’s needs.

"Which one should we find?"

The Goddess of Magic looked around, focusing her gaze on the room of a legendary magician whose magic cultivation was extremely profound, but whose source power cultivation was just entry-level, not even as good as any random passerby.

Obviously, this person had some differences from the others.

In her view, this person was most likely to cooperate.

"Let’s start with him then. One by one. Prisoner’s dilemma, mutual combination, dialectical observation—we should get more accurate information."

Ren didn’t dwell on this question. Since they were all in their respective rooms, asking each one and looking at them together was perfect.

They could root out anyone lying.

Politely knocking on the door.

The door opened.

Out walked someone who looked very, very young and refined with a small mustache.

If placed in the outside world, people’s first thought would probably be: this person is a refined small merchant, minor noble.

Pretty unexpected!

Even more unexpected were his next words: "You’ve finally come."

"You knew we were coming? You know who we are?"

Ren smiled.

He’d only appeared in this world for barely a year. How could the other side possibly know him?!

"I knew you were coming, but I don’t know who you are... However, I believe you’ll tell me, just like the God of Wine and God of War over a thousand years ago."

The refined mustached legendary magician spoke with a confident, even somewhat joyful expression. "I know you’re gods. Besides gods, no strange beings could appear here. So you are? Oh, right, I’m so excited I forgot to introduce myself."

"You can call me Little Finger. I’m an alchemist who mainly cultivates stone-to-gold type spells."

Just from one self-introduction, the information revealed was already explosive.

Over a thousand years ago, both the God of Wine and God of War appeared here.

The God of Wine had also been missing for over a thousand years.

The Fallen Ones stole a divine artifact with some dream god authority from the God of Wine’s divine realm... but the timing felt off somehow...

Right!

Ren suddenly remembered something. Once, when he’d just obtained that divine artifact—Lady Dream’s vanity mirror—the Goddess of Magic had said Lady Dream was offering a reward for this vanity mirror, promising whoever found it could have one wish granted.

Something from a thousand years ago...

But Lady Dream had been missing for three thousand years.

Who posted the reward?

Could Lady Dream still exist in this world?

Ren and the Goddess of Magic exchanged glances. They’d obviously both thought of this information.

For a moment, they didn’t even think about the God of War.

The God of War coming here wasn’t surprising at all.

Immediately, Ren focused his gaze on Little Finger. "You’re saying that a thousand years ago, the God of Wine and God of War came here?"

"Yes, the God of Wine and God of War came, but they didn’t come together."

Little Finger nodded slightly. "The God of Wine’s purpose was wanting the goddess to attend a banquet. But the goddess had already disappeared then. We explained the whole situation to him. He didn’t believe it, even flew into a rage, seemingly throwing a drunken fit, breaking into the goddess’s residence."

"Afterward, we discovered the goddess’s vanity mirror had disappeared."

"Less than a year later, the God of War came here. He didn’t come in person, just an avatar. After understanding our situation, he promised he’d cultivate large numbers of war clerics and someday in the future, venture deep into that world."

"Unfortunately, to this day, we haven’t seen any clerics under the God of War."

"However, our Tulip Kingdom isn’t completely closed off. We also get some external information. The Church of the God of War was recently destroyed."

"How tragic. Instead of fulfilling the original promise, he went first."

Little Finger—whether this was just his personality—already started elaborating on related information right at the door.

"After the God of War left, did you feel any changes in your Tulip Kingdom?"

After a brief silence, Ren asked.

He’d extracted some of Lady Dream’s power from the God of War. Things definitely weren’t as simple as the other side said.

Also, during these two gods’ visits, Lady Dream’s reward was another suspicious point.

"Of course, because the God of War took our Spirit of Tulips."

Little Finger looked meaningfully at the peculiar structure resembling a round table in the distance. "That’s the strongest divine artifact the goddess refined. You could even call it a subordinate deity. It’s a powerful existence that can maintain dream realms across the entire world."

"But he was taken by the God of War."

"Just brazenly taken."