Chapter 365 – An Inch of Time is an Inch of Gold
“There is a sacred artifact on the S•Erso planet, I think it’s called… the Order Cube. Do you know about it?”
The attendant thought for another three minutes before shaking his head. “I’ve never heard of a sacred artifact on S•Erso. What is the Order Cube, a toy?” he asked seriously.
Tu Ran gritted her teeth, suppressing the urge to explode. There were only eight minutes left, and she could still ask some questions related to the Order Cube.
“How do the rulers find other worlds?”
“That’s a racial talent of the Green-Eyed Tribe. As long as they sincerely pray, the ‘gods’ they worship will show them the way to other worlds.”
From the previous information, Tu Ran knew that the Green-Eyed Tribe worshiped those eyes. Only Green-Eyed Tribe members blessed by the gods, with “divine power,” could tear through the void and summon the “gods.”
The gods showed them the way, which had nothing to do with the Order Cube. Tu Ran quickly changed her question, “Where do the rulers store the treasures they seize from other worlds?”
“Different races store them in different places. Each race has its own hidden treasure spots—”
Tu Ran interrupted him impatiently. “Where exactly are they?”
“The Green-Eyed Tribe hides theirs in the residences of the clan leaders in Area 111 and in the thirteenth underground level of the military base. The Red Crown Tribe hides theirs in—”
“Beep—beep—”
Tu Ran’s gaze dropped, and the timer went off.
The attendant raised his hand to turn off the timer.
“Your hour is up. Would you like to extend your time?” he smiled.
Tu Ran unconsciously tightened her grip on the pen, and with a ‘crack,’ the metal pen split in two.
The attendant’s smile froze, and he looked at Tu Ran with some fear.
“No need. You can go now. Bring the guide with the ID number 0919 here.”
“Yes,” he quickly responded, snatching the timer off the table and leaving in a hurry as if escaping.
Tang Ying, who had been watching the entire time, looked at Tu Ran. “The rulers are deliberately concealing the information. It’s normal that they don’t know.”
Tu Ran tossed the broken pen onto the table and picked up the draft paper. She glanced over it, seeing that many of her questions remained unanswered. She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then put the paper down and looked at Tang Ying. “Do you remember the server from yesterday mentioning the Wuma star?”
Tang Ying nodded. “The City Lord is from the Wuma star,” she thought for a moment, then paused suddenly, looking at Tu Ran. “The sacred artifact worshiped by the Wuma star for generations is…”
Tu Ran raised an eyebrow, snapped her fingers, and said, “The Hundred-Eyed Elf.”
The guide came in again.
He sat across from Tu Ran, pretending to know nothing, and cheerfully asked, “Were you satisfied with the service just now?”
Tu Ran smiled, her grin even brighter than his.
But the tone of her voice was in stark contrast to her expression.
“Not satisfied.”
Such a straightforward answer made the guide’s smile falter. His mouth twitched, his eyes darted around, and his right hand awkwardly covered his mouth as he coughed twice.
“I asked over ten questions, and nearly half of them were not answered properly. One wasn’t answered at all, and the last one, because of the delay, only got half an answer before time ran out,” Tu Ran stared at him, her smile not reaching her eyes. “Is this the kind of service I should expect for one hundred thousand per hour?”
The guide quickly tried to salvage the situation. “This was an exceptional case. Normally, our service covers over ninety percent of customers’ questions, with a hundred percent accuracy. It’s just that the range of your questions exceeded our scope… How about this? We’ll give you one more question worth twenty thousand star coins for free.”
Tu Ran leaned back on the sofa, resting her chin on one hand. “Sure, find me the location of the Hundred-Eyed Elf.”
The well-dressed man hesitated, uncertain. “You want to find the Hundred-Eyed Elf?”
“Yes,” Tang Ying answered. “I heard there are many people from Wuma star in Border City. Isn’t it said that wherever there’s someone from Wuma star, there will be a Hundred-Eyed Elf?”
The guide leaned forward, “To be honest, we actually have a Hundred-Eyed Elf here.”
Tu Ran asked, “…So why didn’t you tell us earlier?”
“Meeting the Hundred-Eyed Elf is very expensive,” the guide said, holding up a finger. “It’s a hundred thousand star coins per minute. You only have less than eight hundred thousand in savings, so I didn’t recommend it. Plus, I didn’t expect your questions to go beyond the scope…”
Tu Ran sighed inwardly, already knowing that the real expenses were yet to come.
She hadn’t expected it to be this costly.
With just over six hundred thousand, they could only meet the Hundred-Eyed Elf for six minutes.
But now that they were this far, success was within reach, and there was no turning back. She could only grit her teeth and swipe the card.
Just before entering the room where the Hundred-Eyed Elf was kept, the guide reassured them, “If the Hundred-Eyed Elf can’t answer your questions, then no species in this universe will be able to.”
Tu Ran looked at the dark metal door in front of her. “Open the door.”
The door opened, and Tu Ran quickly walked in.
The room was dark, with no lights on. The only window was heavily draped, and as the door closed behind them, the last bit of light vanished.
The entire room was plunged into endless darkness.
Tu Ran, who had night vision, could clearly see the empty room—nothing was in it.
The faint light slowly brightened at the top corner of the room. A white, spherical creature, resembling a disk, was clinging to the wall. It began to detach its body from the surface, gradually becoming rounder in shape.
The phrase “An inch of time is an inch of gold” now held a deeper meaning for Tu Ran.
She didn’t want to waste a single second. She went straight to the point.
“What is the sacred artifact of S•Erso?”
The sphere fully detached from the wall and floated in mid-air, bobbing up and down as though it might fall at any moment. Its voice sounded weak and faint. “Order… Cube.”
Tu Ran’s eyes suddenly brightened in the dark.
“Who has the remaining seven fragments of the Order Cube?” she asked eagerly.
“The leader of the Bulu-Sanda tribe… Hache Bulu.”
The Bulu-Sanda tribe was a hidden faction of the Blue Elf race, overshadowed by the Green-Eyed and Red Crown tribes.
From the information gathered over the past few days, Tu Ran knew that the Bulu-Sanda tribe was an unassuming, peace-loving race that avoided involvement in the plundering and domination of other worlds.
Compared to the cunning and mysterious Green-Eyed tribe, and the brutal Red Crown tribe, the Bulu-Sanda tribe symbolized peace and friendliness.
Yet, she hadn’t expected that such a tribe would be allied with the Green-Eyed and Red Crown tribes, possibly even the true rulers of the rulers’ world.
“Where exactly are the seven fragments?” Tu Ran’s gaze sharpened.
“Inside the body of the leader of the Bulu-Sanda tribe.”
Tu Ran couldn’t help but take a step forward, gazing up at the faint light. “What do you mean? Explain clearly.”
The weak light flickered twice and dimmed further, its voice now intermittent as it explained, “Hache Bulu fused the seven fragments of the Order… Cube into his own body… He absorbed the energy of the fragments.”
