Chapter 767 The First Phase

Both Chen Xiaolian and Miao Yan left the bar. After that, they found a hotel in Cairo’s metropolitan area to stay in.

Unexpectedly, the GM was even faster than they had imagined. He was able to provide them with the whereabouts of the first seed on the very next day.

Additionally, it was not too far away from their location. It was in a small village in Uganda, kept within the toy box belonging to the youngest child of a certain family there.

The child had considered the seed – glittering with golden light – a rare and peculiar toy.

The information that the GM provided was very detailed, including the latitude and longitude of the seed’s position, the way to get to the village and the details about the entire household, from the name of the father to the name of the small child.

The two of them did not have to spend too much effort into obtaining the seed. They were able to get it just by heading there.

Four days after that, the GM provided them with the locations of more seeds. Two were in the hands of ordinary humans while another one was in Argentina, lying on the plains of the Pampas.

Naturally, the coordinates provided by the GM were accurate to the last centimetre. They were able to obtain the seeds with ease.

…

Ten days had passed since the last time the GM provided them with the coordinates for the seeds. Strangely enough, the GM had yet to give them the coordinates for the final seed.

…

“What's going on, Chen Xiaolian?”

Inside Chen Xiaolian’s hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina…

Miao Yan was seated on the sofa opposite of Chen Xiaolian. She frowned slightly as she said, “The GM promised that it would only take two weeks. Today is the 14th day.”

Adding the two seeds that the two of them originally possessed, they now have six of the seven seeds.

However, for the past 10 days, they have not received any news regarding the final one.

“You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?” Chen Xiaolian shook his head and said with a wry smile. “You heard the GM as well. He could not directly search for the seed. He has to use a different approach to find them, going through the memories of others instead to find the seeds.

He considered, “The seeds should be similar to the angel wings, items that would not disappear after a world refresh. However, every time it happens, the seeds would be scattered all over the world. Perhaps… … after the last refresh, one of the seeds fell into a place where no humans have ever gone. For example, deep within the ocean or the desert. Thus, no one has ever seen it before.”

“If that is the case… … wouldn’t finding it be impossible?” Miao Yan frowned.

“I don’t know.” Chen Xiaolian sighed softly.

He had been worried about that.

“I’ll wait for another three days. If there are still no more news after three days, I will have to return.” Miao Yan pondered for a moment before continuing, “I have been logged in for too long this time.”

ChapterMid();

“What if I end up finding the last seed while you are away?” Chen Xiaolian looked at her. “I have no way to make contact with the Upper Plane. How about you give me your seed first?”

“Impossible.” Miao Yan flatly refused. “We have already agreed beforehand. I want to go to the world with you.”

“Just for your curiosity…” Chen Xiaolian pursed his lips to the side.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The door was knocked thrice.

Their eyes lit up at the same time.

Chen Xiaolian opened the door to see a hotel housekeeper standing outside.

“You found it?” Chen Xiaolian was quick to say.

“I found it.” The housekeeper walked into the room and sat down on an unoccupied sofa.

“Why did this one take so long?” Chen Xiaolian quickly asked.

“Because it is not on our world.” The GM shook his head. “You two are not the only ones looking for the seeds. There are other Players doing the same thing. One of them is quite lucky and he managed to get one of the seeds.”

“So… … he just logged in?” Chen Xiaolian understood.

Since he had logged in, the seed would naturally be stored inside the Player’s storage equipment. However, before the Player was logged in, even a high-class Exclusive Account was only just a designated body. That person would not have any related information within his memories.

It was similar to the Countess, Xian Yin’s situation.

Thus, it was only natural that the GM would be incapable of finding it.

Only after the Player had logged in, taking over his designated body, would the GM be capable of searching through his memory database for the seed.

“Yes.” The GM nodded.

“All right. His coordinates, name and appearance?” Chen Xiaolian waited for the GM to give him the Players information, wanting to take action immediately.

For the present Chen Xiaolian, snatching the seed from a Player was not much different from picking up the seed from the ground.

“No. You cannot go find him right now.” To Chen Xiaolian’s surprise, the GM shook his head.

“Why not?” Chen Xiaolian was surprised.

With the exception of Shen and the other old monstrous characters, Chen Xiaolian simply could not think of anyone else who could be a match for him.

“Because he is a high-level Player.” The GM turned to look at Chen Xiaolian. He looked as though he had just heard a stupid question. “How do you plan on getting the seed from him?”

“Naturally, I…” Chen Xiaolian had only spoken midway when he finally understood.

It was indeed stupid of him.

The GM can provide him with the Player’s coordinates, name and appearance. Additionally, given Chen Xiaolian’s present level of strength, finding and defeating the Player would not be a difficult issue.

However, how would he get the seed of the World Tree from the Player?

The GM could exist within any corner of this world, but not the instance dungeon.

For the GM to be able to find this Player, it meant that he was not inside an instance dungeon. Rather, he was outside.

When not participating in an instance dungeon, high-level Players could freely log in and out from this world.

Say Chen Xiaolian defeated and even captured the Player. Once he realized that he could not resist Chen Xiaolian, he would certainly take the decisive action of sacrificing his body to escape to the Upper Plane.

Although losing a high-level Exclusive Account was quite the loss, it was nothing compared to the seed of the World Tree.

Rather, after the Player had abandoned his Exclusive Account, it would be a hundred times harder to find him in the future.

Chen Xiaolian fell into a contemplative state of silence before slowly saying, “So… … I can only wait for him to enter the instance dungeon, right?”

“Yes.” The GM nodded. “He was summoned to participate in an instance dungeon. It will start in three days.”

“Location of the instance dungeon?”

“Japan, Kyoto.”

…

“Another Japan instance dungeon.”

Chen Xiaolian sat before a pool, sprinkling fish food into the pool.

Tens of koi fishes gathered before him swimming to and fro as they fought for the fish food.

“I quite like this place. Do you have objections to this place? It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it?”

Miao Yan was seated on the wooden floor behind him. She leaned against a pillar not far behind Chen Xiaolian with a book in her hand.

They were inside a hotel. A Japanese-styled courtyard with a standard Japanese layout. There was a pool in the centre of the courtyard. Around the pool was pure white sand. There in the corner was a small mountain made from artificial rocks and water slowly gurgled down the surface of the rocks. A yellow bamboo would fall against a rock at a certain rhythm to create a knocking sound.

It was very consistent with the ‘wabi-sabi’ style of Japanese culture.

The two of them had arrived at Kyoto two days ago. They then rented the entire hotel.

The instance dungeon was about to begin.

“Aesthetically speaking, I still think that this is too small.” Chen Xiaolian’s back remained facing Miao Yan. “It feels like I am facing an obstruction. However, that is not important. What’s important is that I had once participated in an instance dungeon in Tokyo and my whole team was nearly wiped out there.”

“For most of the participants, every instance dungeon could contain life-threatening dangers,” Miao Yan said coolly. “Besides, given your current level of strength, there should be no psychological shadow worth getting concerned over, no?”

“That is true…” Chen Xiaolian nodded and got up. He brushed away the remaining fish food left on his palms and continued, “Enough, let’s finish this quickly and get the last seed.”

[System: Attention, instance dungeon no. S14854, the Kyoto instance dungeon is about to start. Players and guild members that were selected are to arrive at the designated area within the specified time. Those who cannot arrive at the designated area in time will be exterminated. The designated area for this instance dungeon: Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The designated area follows the official size of the place.]

[System: Players and guild members not selected for this instance dungeon are asked to leave the instance dungeon area before the instance dungeon starts. If you remain within the instance dungeon area before the instance dungeon starts, you will automatically be regarded as a participant.]

[Prompt: Your guild was not selected to participate in this instance dungeon. Your guild is still inside the instance dungeon area. Please leave this instance dungeon area before the countdown ends. Countdown timer: 00 minutes 01 seconds.]

The countdown timer in both their personal systems fell to zero simultaneously.

[Prompt: Instance dungeon no. S14854, the Kyoto instance dungeon has started. Your guild failed to leave this instance dungeon’s area before the designated time. You are now a participant of this instance dungeon.

[First phase of the quest:

[Choose a shrine to head towards. Unravel the seal of the Gods of the Sky and obtain the soul of the Gods of the Land.

[After the five Gods of the Land’s souls are acquired, the second phase will begin.

[List of shrines: The Izumo-taisha, the Kotohira-gu, the Suwa-taisha, the Usa Jingu and the Itsukushima Shrine.]

Seeing the details of the quest, Chen Xiaolian blinked. He then turned to look at Miao Yan. The two of them were dumbfounded.

The system had clearly stated that this was the Kyoto instance dungeon.

But… … isn’t this too outrageous?

Chen Xiaolian had never even heard of that Kotohira-gu and the Usa Jingu.

However, as someone who had played Koei games before, he knew a little about the other three shrines.

The Izumo-taisha was in Shimano Prefecture, the Suwa-taisha was in Nagano Prefecture and the Itsukushima Shrine was all the way in Hiroshima Prefecture, the westernmost part of the Honshu Island of Japan.

The distance between those three shrines was long enough to cover half of Japan.

Which part of this is the Kyoto instance dungeon?

“What do we do? Drive or board the Shinkansen (bullet train)?” Miao Yan cast a questioning look at Chen Xiaolian.

“Let’s drive. It’s more convenient.” Chen Xiaolian did not hesitate. He walked across the courtyard, making his way out of the building.

The two had already rented a jeep beforehand. It was parked in the parking lot in front of the hotel. Chen Xiaolian walked forward, standing before the jeep. Then, he pointed Miao Yan towards the driver’s seat while he went over to the front passenger’s seat.

“So, you wanted me to be the driver?” Miao Yan started up the jeep and rolled her eyes at Chen Xiaolian. “I thought you would choose to be a gentleman.”

“I’m not used to a right-side driver’s seat. Haven’t you been living in the UK for a long time?” Chen Xiaolian smiled. “All right, I have already checked the map. There are only 300 kilometres. Hurry up, we can reach there is three hours.”

Miao Yan responded with a soft grunt as she stepped on the accelerator.