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Perhaps she had too much to drink, as Tashiniya, with a thick tongue, boldly spoke up and started ranting about the Heavens.
She ranted about the immense competitive pressure in the Heavens, which successfully ingrained the desire for godhood into the souls of every Heavenly being.
Yet, in the end, no one knew why they absolutely had to become a god; it was as if a life without godhood held no value... She ranted from beginning to end, even specifically naming and scolding those gods.
Su Lin always felt that she was letting loose a bit too much, but seeing Lulu and the others' accustomed expressions, it was clear this wasn't Tashiniya's first time doing this.
This is a good thing... This level of drunken truth-telling, Tashiniya is naturally suited to be a Heavenly pathfinder.
It's that witch, Weini.
From beginning to end, she didn't express any opinion, merely engrossed in her art, occasionally looking up at him... No!
Su Lin was greatly alarmed.
Could this person be creating erotic art with him as the main character?!
Simply insane!
Su Lin was about to snatch Weini's painting to see if it was as he suspected, but Tashiniya drunkenly hooked her arm around his neck.
"Su Lin, Qiao Qiao, you two are the first people, besides Lulu and the others, who have been willing to listen to me talk so much without leaving since I came to the Nether!"
"This Archangel thinks highly of you two!"
Su Lin felt a little uneasy; he clearly saw Weini's eyes light up as she stared at him and Tashiniya.
This is really bad!
Did he just give her inspiration?
"Su Lin! Qiao Qiao! This Archangel is giving you two a chance to join the Tashiniya Demon Subjugation Squad and contribute to saving the world!"
"Don't worry, isn't it just about entering the Elven Kingdom? As long as you join my Demon Subjugation Squad, I can definitely get you into the Elven Kingdom!"
Pounding her chest loudly, Tashiniya boasted.
"I, the Archangel Tashiniya, have at least that much influence! How about it?"
"Forget it."
Su Lin shook his head and refused.
"I'm not material for a hero, and I don't have much interest in subjugating demons. Moreover, as it stands, the Demon Lord Army seems pretty well-behaved, doesn't it?"
As far as Su Lin knew, the Demon Lord Army had been honest and law-abiding for the past decade, even more so than Doragon.
Speaking of which, the Demon Lord Army was also very strange; their occupied territory was in the uninhabited southern wilderness, and their movements were quite intriguing.
A year after the Demon Lord's arrival, the Demon Lord Army's development reached an incredible level, swiftly annexing seventeen small nations in the southern wilderness within five or six years.
Although none of them were powerful nations, it was still sensational enough.
It was also at that time that the name of the Demon Lord Army made all the nations of the Aetheram Continent uneasy.
After that, they began to move north, and the truly strange events also began with the Demon Lord Army's northward advance.
Ten years ago, when the northward-advancing Demon Lord Army was about to break through the three major southern dioceses of the Holy Law Emperor Country, they suddenly retreated en masse.
They hunkered down in the southern wilderness like stagnant water, completely motionless, making the entire continent worry for a long time about whether a major move was coming.
But this stagnation lasted for ten years.
It wasn't until recently that rumors spread about the Demon Lord Army sending troops to expand into the Magic Beast Mountain Range again.
Everything about it was peculiar... The Demon Lord didn't seek to annex more prosperous areas; they quickly retreated and gave up even when on the verge of victory.
Su Lin couldn't help but suspect that the Demon Lord was insane.
"Seriously, you have no big picture view of contributing to the world!"
Tashiniya interrupted Su Lin's thoughts.
Su Lin also gave up pondering, spreading his hands and saying:
"Then why doesn't the world contribute to me? Besides, you can return to the Heavens and become a god if you defeat the Demon Lord, but what do I get?"
Tashiniya paused, pondered for a long time, then looked at Su Lin with a look of certainty.
"You'll get honor!"
...
Hearing that, he felt an urge to beat Tashiniya to death.
But Lulu clearly didn't think so.
"When the Captain is drunk, she always says such cool knightly things!"
The little one's eyes were practically sparkling as she looked at Tashiniya now.
It seems that's how Tashiniya tricked Lulu into joining?
Su Lin found it somewhat incomprehensible.
What in the world did those demon folk and the adventurer's professional ethics for rogues teach Lulu?!
"Su Lin, just agree to the Captain!"
Lulu earnestly advised Su Lin.
"Defeat the Demon Lord, and you will surely become a heroic knight whose name will live on forever!"
"Sounds interesting..."
"Right? Right? Then you..."
"I refuse!"
Su Lin smiled proudly.
"I hate empty honors the most! They can't be eaten!"
"You like to eat? You should have said so sooner!"
Tashiniya generously took off her Archangel halo and handed it to Su Lin.
"As long as you join our Tashiniya Demon Subjugation Squad, I will teach you my secret technique for preparing Magic Beast meat!"
...Is your Archangel halo some kind of plug-and-play item?"
"Pretty much. They're buy-three-get-one-free in the Heavenly stores. I've hoarded a lot, but I only brought one down to the Nether this time. If you want to use it, you must join us!"
Upon hearing this, Su Lin immediately lost interest in the Archangel halo.
What extraordinary value could a mass-produced item have?
He repeatedly declined Tashiniya's invitation, but Su Lin agreed to clear out magical beasts around the Elven Court with them for the time being.
Li Qiaoqiao, however, had lost the courage she had earlier when questioning Tashiniya.
Apparently, being extremely bad at refusing and expressing her own thoughts, she was forcibly pulled by Tashiniya and the others to sign the team agreement.
By the time she reacted, everything was a done deal.
Li Qiaoqiao was almost in tears.
It seemed she had also heard of the Tashiniya Demon Subjugation Squad's reputation.
As night deepened, Tashiniya and the others still had no intention of returning, pulling Su Lin into endless chatter.
Perhaps, as she said, she hadn't met many people willing to talk to her or listen to her confide.
After all, she was an Archangel from above... As they chatted, Tashiniya again brought up the Tashiniya Divine Church, which was still in its early stages of establishment.
She lamented that even the followers 'attracted' by the Light of Salvation would run away after sobering up a while later.
Therefore, to this day, it remained a 'three-no' church: no doctrine, no followers, no location.
But as it happened, Su Lin loved to play the teacher.
He explained to her all the doctrines from various schools of thought in his hometown: the Buddhist 'all sentient beings suffer,' the Taoist 'governing by non-action,' the Christian 'love and peace.'
He also told her that as long as there were broad and universal philosophical doctrines, the church could slowly develop.
Upon hearing this, Tashiniya was immediately awestruck and even more unwilling to let Su Lin go, pulling him to discuss many more profound doctrinal references.
Finally, that night, Su Lin and Tashiniya successfully chose the sixteen-character salvation policy for the Tashiniya Divine Church -
Teach all without discrimination, love all and oppose aggression; all sentient beings suffer, and the world will be in great harmony.
Su Lin also used Shaolin Temple Education and Culture Co., Ltd. as an example to explain to Tashiniya how to make a church self-reliant and self-sufficient.
Tashiniya even happily promised Su Lin the position of Pope, and even wanted to pull Su Lin into a sworn brotherhood.
Until the very end, when Weini and the others carried the thick-tongued Tashiniya back to the Elven Court, Tashiniya was still shouting -
"Cut down the trees! They're blocking my view of my Pope!"
Su Lin was somewhat exasperated.
This Archangel was even easier to trick than he imagined... This could also be a good thing. Currently, Tashiniya and the others seemed to be quite simple-minded, and getting to know them better was quite easy to like.
But... did they just abandon Li Qiaoqiao in the wilderness? Where's the team spirit?
As he pondered, the reliable Lulu ran back again, holding an Archangel halo and An Duo's dragon scale.
"Brother Su Lin! Sister Qiao Qiao, the Captain asked me to give these to you. With An Duo's dragon scale, the magical beasts nearby won't dare to approach, so you can safely camp out in the wilderness."
Su Lin was somewhat surprised.
That idiotic Archangel, especially when drunk, could still think of these things?
But... why did she leave the Archangel halo?
"For illumination!"
Lulu looked at Su Lin earnestly.
"The Captain's Archangel halo has excellent lighting! You can adjust how much light you want. We used to use the Captain's halo as a light source when we camped out!"
"Is that so..."
Su Lin forced a smile.
"It really is a multi-functional practical tool."
As it stands, the Archangel halo doesn't quite match the Archangel's name.
As expected of a mass-produced cheap item.
"When the Adventurers' Guild opens tomorrow, the Captain will add you to the squad. Then, even if you can't enter the Elven Court, you'll be able to move around in the Verdan Eternal Forest."
Su Lin was somewhat surprised. She was unbelievably thoughtful... Was this something that idiotic Archangel really thought of?
Even though he hadn't known her for long, Su Lin was absolutely certain that Tashiniya didn't have that kind of brain.
Shaking his head, Su Lin said softly:
"I'll pass. My relationship with the Elven Kingdom is quite good; I can get in by myself."
"Is that so?"
Lulu didn't think much of it and looked at the flustered Li Qiaoqiao.
"Then will Sister Qiao Qiao have to camp alone in the wilderness? How lonely..."
She didn't know what the little one thought of, but the next moment, she had an expression of heroic sacrifice again.
"Alright! Let me, with my noble knightly spirit, keep Sister Qiao Qiao company!"
"This... actually, I can manage by myself..."
Li Qiaoqiao was so embarrassed she wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
As an extreme social phobic, she'd rather be alone than have someone accompany her.
But Lulu kept shouting about knightly spirit and the camaraderie of chivalry, insisting on camping with her.
In the end, Li Qiaoqiao could only say that she was going to explore an old Dungeon in the Elven Kingdom and needed to travel overnight, thereby refusing Lulu.
Left with no choice, Lulu could only hand An Duo's dragon scale and Tashiniya's Archangel halo to Li Qiaoqiao.
This surprised Li Qiaoqiao.
"You... aren't you afraid I'll run away with the Archangel halo?"
"We're teammates!"
Lulu confidently patted her chest.
"My knightly spirit teaches me to give 100% trust to teammates who have my back!"
...
They just trusted someone they'd known for less than a day based on such a simple reason?
Not just Su Lin, but Li Qiaoqiao was also a bit numb to the strange thought processes of this group.
"Hehe... Actually, Sister Deconis said so too."
Lulu rubbed her head, a little shy.
"Sister Deconis, as a Lv95 Archpriest, can see the Light of the Soul."
"She said that Sister Qiao Qiao has the purest soul she has ever seen in her life. If Sister Qiao Qiao isn't trustworthy, then no one in the world is trustworthy."
Visibly, Li Qiaoqiao stiffened for a moment, her expression somewhat dazed.
"My soul... is it pure?"
"Mm-hmm! Sister Deconis has never been wrong about people!"
Clearly, Lulu's trust in Deconis was absolute, but a Lv95 Archpriest also seemed worthy of absolute trust.
With such power, only the hidden Elven Queen in the entire Elven Kingdom might be slightly superior.
"Of course! More importantly, Sister Qiao Qiao is already our teammate!"
Lulu smiled brightly and said very earnestly:
"Teammates are family. If you can't trust your family, then who can you trust?"
"After all, we've all come this far by trusting each other like this!"
Looking at Lulu's pure expression, Li Qiaoqiao suddenly felt something deep within her heart being completely touched.
This was a warmth and emotion she had never experienced before.
The Tashiniya Demon Subjugation Squad didn't seem as vicious as the rumors suggested... "I understand."
Li Qiaoqiao no longer refused, taking the Archangel halo and dragon scale.
Much of her social anxiety disappeared as she gazed into Lulu's eyes.
"I swear to the world, the Archangel halo and dragon scale will definitely be brought back tomorrow! I won't let everyone down!"
!
Lulu was a little excited.
That sentence also had a super cool knightly spirit!
Seeing that the two had finished talking, Su Lin, who had been itching to know, leaned in.
"Lulu, did Deconis say anything about my Light of the Soul?"
"Hmm... Sister Deconis said it was yellow!"
After a moment of silence, Su Lin gave a thumbs-up with an amazed expression.
"She's a really good judge of character!"