◎Temple Guardian◎

When she landed on the ground, the sharp wind blew and slapped Xia Li several times.

Take a look at the coordinates in the upper left corner - Temple of Selna.

Temple? She remembered that there were no quests or treasures here, and the map was small. In her previous life, many players came here to explore, but all returned disappointed.

But the system sent her here, why?

Time goes back to 3 minutes ago. Xia Li, who was fighting against the Rotten Elf King, suddenly received a pop-up message.

[Admirable warriors, time is running out for you. The King of Corrupted Elf is about to destroy the royal city. The great priest Fakula has used magic to sense a place connected to the King of Corrupted Elf. Warrior, are you willing to explore it?]

She had never received such news in her previous life. Xia Li hesitated for a moment. Could this be a hidden mission?

She chose [Yes], and the next second she jumped from the battlefield to a place called the Temple of Selna.

The temple is tall, rising from the ground like a bamboo shoot. There are patterns carved on the mottled outer walls. Due to its age, these patterns have been eroded by wind and rain. Xia Li cannot see them clearly from a distance.

After walking a few steps inside, the patterns on the mural gradually became clearer as we got closer.

The portrait seemed to show a sacrifice being held. The worshippers stood in two neat rows with pious eyes. The objects used for sacrifice were placed on the altar, including porcupines, hares, elks, and... people?

Xia Li blinked to make sure she was not mistaken.

It's a human.

A woman, wearing simple clothes, with her bare feet on the ground.

The people used for sacrifices usually did not have high status. Xia Li guessed that the poor woman in the mural might have been a slave of some prince or noble.

Her eyes were always fixed on the woman's face. Somehow, the woman in the painting gave her a strange sense of familiarity. But she had never seen this slave-like woman in the miracle before, so why did she feel so familiar?

Plop!

My heart pounded in my chest, as if it was suddenly provoked by something and started to struggle.

Xia Li subconsciously covered her chest, but the next second she found that her heart was not beating at all.

The touch beneath her palm was calm, just like her usually steady heartbeat.

Could it be that I was hallucinating just now?

She calmed herself down, stepped onto the temple steps one step at a time, and then walked towards the depths of the temple.

"Selna... Selna..."

A faint voice slowly emerged from the darkness of the temple.

Based on past experience, some maps will be equipped with some atmospheric BGM to increase the player's sense of immersion. For example, the BGM of the Novice Village, the player's birthplace, is a very light and cheerful minor tune, which brings people a positive mood. Another example is the Cologne Chapel, where the background music is soothing and sacred notes, which makes people feel awe involuntarily after entering.

A good map can bring different experiences to players, but it is obvious that the characters that kept floating in Xia Li's ears just now were not the BGM designed by the developers.

Because, that's a person talking.

"Selna...is that you...Selna..."

Xia Li narrowed her eyes and clenched her blood-red-gloved hands slightly at her side. If the opponent was unfavorable to her, she could launch a counterattack and escape at any time.

However, plop!

Her heart beat violently again!

No, it didn't seem to be her heart, but something near her heart that was struggling violently.

That's even more strange. This is in a game, not reality. She is wearing the armor she got during the Queen's celebration. The armor has no pockets. How can any living thing be placed in the position of the heart?

Living creatures? Wait!

Xia Li was secretly shocked. She remembered that a long time ago, when she was doing a task in Tavern Street, she got an enchanting material - the Demon's Heart.

After enchantment, the performance of her equipment can be improved. To enchant, she needs to put the enchantment materials into the card slot that comes with each piece of equipment.

Previously, she placed the Demon Heart in the card slot of the bloody gloves, which was located at the wrist. However, after a system update, the card slot of the bloody gloves was moved to the heart.

So what was beating just now was not her heart, but the devil's heart.

How could this be...

The pace of progress gradually slowed, and Selna's cry filled the air once again. At the same time, a slanting black figure emerged from behind the statue—ID: Temple Guardian.

It turned out to be an NPC. Xia Li's heart dropped slightly. She was about to ask, but the other party spoke first: "You are not Selna."

Of course she wasn't Selna, Xia Li thought. She didn't even know who Selna was. But out of respect for the NPC and the upcoming plot, she politely replied, "Hello, I'm definitely not Selna."

"But you have the scent of Selna on you." The guardian said, his hunched body suddenly approaching, and his large, sharp, hooked nose sniffed at Xia Li again and again. "Who are you to Selna?"

"I don't know Selna." Xia Li said truthfully.

The guardian paused and moved his face away from Xia Li. "Indeed, you look like you've just reached adulthood. I'm just getting old and confused. I thought it was back then."

Then he turned around and was about to leave.

No, Xia Li took a step forward and said, "If you don't mind, you can tell me the story of Selna."

Now that she's here, she doesn't want to go back empty-handed.

In her previous life, she had never heard of the temple hidden quest. Now, it had suddenly come to her, so how could she let such an opportunity slip away? It was said that hidden quests were more likely to offer high rewards. If she could get a pot of gold, she would win big.

After all, she would need money to buy the land in the royal city and to build her home. Besides that, she would have to keep some emergency funds for herself. After all the calculations, her current savings were not enough to cover her expenses.

So the guardian cannot leave, she has to take the mission reward.

The Guardian was stopped by her and remained silent at first. After a moment's pause, he sighed and slowly recounted the story of the past: "Long ago, a baby girl was born into the demon tribe. From a young age, she displayed extraordinary strength. Under the careful training of the then-Saya, she gradually grew into a wise and brave demon hunter. Her name became known through battle after battle."

"Her name is Selna."

"This temple was built for her."

When talking about this, the guardian's face was filled with indescribable pride and pride.

"What happened next?" Xia Li asked at the right time.

"Later..." The Guardian's face darkened, and the light in his eyes faded. "Later, Selna grew tired of the endless fighting. In a land war with the humans, she performed poorly, causing the demons to lose the land they had lived on for hundreds of years."

Knock knock.

The guardian stomped his foot on the ground as he spoke, and Xia Li immediately understood what he meant. Van Arnold's diary had mentioned this briefly. The ambitious human queen continued to wage wars and expand her territory, and the place where the temple was located was once the habitat of the demons.

"At the time, the demon leader, Saye, was furious. He blamed Selna entirely for the loss of their territory. The demon people also hated her. On the way to Selna's capture, they threw eggs and rotten leaves at her, venting their anger at the demons' defeat and the loss of their homeland."

It was quite ironic, Xia Li thought in her heart, that a female warrior who won 99.9% of the battles for her tribe was condemned by thousands of people just because of one failure. What's more, Selna was not the only participant in the war, but she had to bear all the blame after the defeat.

"Selna was a child with strong self-esteem. She always stood up straight. But on the day of her execution, she knelt on the ground and begged."

Xia Li suddenly remembered the woman in the mural, who was also kneeling.

"She knelt on the ground and prayed devoutly to Saye, begging him to let her go and to let go of the child she had with him."

Xia Li: "She's pregnant?"

The Guardian nodded slowly. "That was an accident. Saye drank too much at a party celebrating a victory. Selna was sitting across from him, wearing a white dress that she didn't usually wear. That's when he started to have feelings for her."

Xia Li: "But he still didn't let Selna go, right?"

The guardian coughed a few times, then laughed miserably, his already wrinkled face becoming even more wrinkled. "It seems you've seen the mural at the door, ahem."

Xia Li nodded, tacitly agreeing.

Before entering the temple, she had thought the mural depicted a sacrifice, but it turned out to be a one-sided massacre. The woman in the painting was not a slave at all, but Selna, a female hunter who had once made great achievements for the demons.

Something suddenly occurred to her: "Where is Selna's child?"

There is only Selna on the mural, so her child must have been spared, right?

Unexpectedly, the guardian shook his head sadly: "Dead."

Dead? Xia Li frowned, but her intuition told her that Selna's child shouldn't die. Otherwise, what was the point of this story? She was being detached from the battle with the Rotten Elf King without a clear reason, only to be told a story about the demons' past?

She was thinking, and suddenly, the ID "Guardian" reminded her.

"You built this temple." Xia Li stared at the guardian.

The guardian opened his mouth but said nothing.

"The function of the temple is to protect Selna, or Selna's soul. The painting on the wall must have been done by you. There is only Selna in your painting, and her child is not drawn, which means you don't know where her child is. In other words, Selna's child may have just disappeared, not died." Xia Li said word by word.

However, the Guardian didn't believe her analysis, his face twisted in pain. "A newborn baby, without a mother to care for him, thrown directly onto Scarlet Island, how could he survive? Besides, decades have passed. I've searched everywhere on and off the island, but there's no trace of him. What else could he be but dead?"

Bloody Island? Xia Li frowned. She seemed to have heard of this place somewhere in this life.

It is rumored that the environment on the island is eerie and strange, and any person or animal that enters alive will eventually turn into a pile of bones.

These were things she heard others talk about when she was bored in her previous life. There had been many fearless players who had bravely crossed the island by boat, but within an hour or so after arriving on the island, these players' IDs turned gray.

Xia Li lowered her eyes, trying to capture her memory. Suddenly, a piece of parchment flashed through her mind.

She refocused her gaze and fixed it on the Guardian: "I know where Selna's child is."

"What?" The Guardian's lips trembled uncontrollably.

-over-