Ever since last night, when they found Mo Chen in the underground city to repair Siya's Eternal Heart and obtain her second exclusive piece of equipment, the Eternal Eye, at the time, Siya's mood had visibly improved. She had even shown a long-lost smile.
The progress bar for the S-rank hidden quest Heart Knot had also risen to 10%.
But Lin Mo soon realized it didn't last long. Siya returned to her usual gloomy state.
The Heart Knot quest progress also dropped from 10% back to 8%.
Lin Mo was anxious, yet helpless.
At the same time, this wasn't what he wanted to see.
He wanted Siya to be happy.
Usually, there were many things Siya refused to tell Lin Mo because she didn't want to add to her master's worries. She kept everything buried in her heart and dealt with it on her own.
One day, Divine Oracle would consume reality.
In Lin Mo's eyes, Siya had never been just a bundle of system-generated data.
She was a comrade who would one day fight alongside him and Ning Xi in the world of Divine Oracle.
Lin Mo wanted to know what was in Siya's heart.
So, after explaining everything to Ning Xi to keep her from getting jealous, Lin Mo walked up to Siya and held out his hand.
Siya looked at him with her breathtakingly beautiful eyes, confusion written across them.
Although she didn't understand what he was doing, out of respect for her master, she didn't hesitate. She raised her slender hand and naturally placed it in his.
The moment Lin Mo touched Siya, her inner thoughts immediately echoed in his mind.
'Ever since I was little, my brothers and sisters never liked me. Even Father never looked at me.'
'When I insisted on coming to help the Beast Clan fight the Catastrophe, Father even said that if I took one step out of the Divine Kingdom, he would sever all ties with me and never acknowledge me as his daughter again...'
'Will my brothers and sisters still recognize me as their sister now? Will Father still acknowledge me as his daughter? Is the Divine Kingdom still my home? Can I still go home?'
The description of the S-rank hidden quest Heart Knot had always been vague. It never clearly told players how they were supposed to help Siya resolve her emotional burden.
That had always been one of Lin Mo's biggest headaches.
Even after reaching the Platinum rank and entering the Divine Kingdom through the Divine Capital, he had no idea where to begin.
Only now did he finally understand.
So this was what had created the knot in Siya's heart.
All this time, the real reason she had been so downcast was because she feared her family had abandoned her.
Now that he knew the real cause, Lin Mo said it directly.
"You are kind and outstanding. Your father, your brothers, your sisters, and your people won't abandon you."
"When they told you not to leave the Divine Kingdom and said they would cut ties with you, it must have just been something they said in anger. They were only worried about your safety."
Of course, Lin Mo wasn't saying this without reason.
He had evidence to back it up.
From what he remembered, the Divine Clan had always been portrayed as one of the righteous factions in the world of Divine Oracle.
Later on, members of the Divine Clan frequently appeared in the alliance camp alongside human players.
They fought together against the Black Dragon Clan, the Blood Clan, the Night Clan, the Ghost Clan, and the other dark factions.
With that kind of setting, it didn't make sense for the Divine Clan to abandon one of their own.
"Really?", Siya looked up at Lin Mo, hope shining in her eyes.
At that moment, Ning Xi walked over and said, "You still have us. Brother Lin Mo and I will always be your strongest support."
A relieved smile appeared on Siya's peerlessly beautiful face, "Thank you."
At that moment, a system notification appeared before Lin Mo.
[Ding~ S-rank Hidden Quest: Heart Knot Progress: 9%!]
After dropping from 10% to 8%, it had finally climbed back to 9%.
Lin Mo felt relieved.
But he also understood that this was only a temporary improvement.
To truly resolve Siya's Heart Knot, they would have to make a trip to the Divine Kingdom.
As they continued toward the Divine Tomb, Ning Xi looked at the new gold title ability Lin Mo had evolved through his talent, telepathy, and couldn't help saying, "Brother Lin Mo, your talent is amazing! I'm so jealous."
Lin Mo laughed, "Jealous of what? I'm jealous of your Supreme Sovereign talent."
It could only be said that, although Lin Mo's Soul Flame and Ning Xi's Supreme Sovereign were both top-tier SSS-rank talents, each had its own strengths.
———
Before long, the two arrived at the Divine Ruins map.
Inside Divine Ruins City, quite a few players with silver rank badges gathered outside the entrance to the Divine Tomb instance, forming parties and preparing to challenge it.
At this stage, anyone who had reached the Silver rank was among the elite players of Inferno City.
Reaching that level was no easy feat.
According to the ranking statistics, only one-thousandth of all players in Inferno City had reached Silver rank.
Out of ten million players, only ten thousand were Silver-ranked.
A level 65 rare hidden instance was naturally no easy challenge.
After the Super Arena reset at midnight, the city's top players had rushed to the Divine Tomb the moment they broke through to Silver rank.
Now it was eight in the morning.
Eight hours had passed, yet only three parties had successfully cleared the dungeon.
Every other team had failed.
According to the Divine Tomb's rules, only players who cleared the dungeon could take all the treasure chests they found out with them.
If they failed, they could only keep 10% of the chests they had collected.
Lin Mo checked the dungeon's remaining chest data.
Even now, over 85% of the level 1 to level 5 treasure chests inside the Divine Tomb remained untouched.
Back on his previous run, Lin Mo alone had looted 10% of all the chests in the dungeon.
That meant that, with the combined efforts of all the players in the city, they had only managed to loot another 5%.
Of course, for Lin Mo, that was good news.
The more treasure chests remained, the greater his profits would be.
Seeing the two top-ranked players on the Heavenly Rankings, nearby players hurried over to invite Lin Mo and Ning Xi into their parties.
Player A: "Boss, please party with us and carry us! I've gone in twice already and got one-shot both times. I didn't even get a single treasure chest."
Player B: "Rulebound! Carry us through the Divine Tomb! You can have ninety percent of the treasure chests, we'll only take ten percent!"
Player C: "Boss, carry me through the Divine Tomb! I won't ask for it free, I can pay you a hundred thousand!"
Player D: "Are you kidding? You think a god-tier player like him is worth only a hundred thousand? What do you think this is, some no-name boosting studio? Players like Rulebound and Liuli start at seven figures."
Player E: "Boss! I don't have money, but I can introduce my sister to you as your girlfriend. She's a graduate student, 170 centimeters tall, fifty kilos, has a model's figure, and looks like Liu Yifei."
Player F: "Damn! Bro, chill down! His girlfriend is standing right there."
Faced with invitations from every direction, Ning Xi politely declined.
"Sorry, we've already made plans."
"And one more thing. Don't try introducing girlfriends to Rulebound anymore. Let me officially state this, Rulebound already has a girlfriend."
"That's me."
Seeing Ning Xi trying to hide her jealousy while remaining polite, Lin Mo couldn't help laughing.
Soon, Ling Xiao, Qin Feng, and Xia Wanwan arrived.
The five quickly formed a party.
Time to set out.