The instigator of all this, Lin Qingyue, sat leisurely on a polished platinum step.
She chewed a milk candy unhurriedly.
Watching this surreal scene unfold before her, Lin Qingyue chuckled inwardly.
This generation of heroes was truly too considerate.
Knowing the final BOSS had obsessive-compulsive disorder, they proactively revealed their own "bugs."
Lining up, they begged for "fixes."
Such a service attitude.
Such a user experience.
Even a god would have to give this a five-star review, perhaps with a few friendly "greetings" attached.
Not far away, the White Tiger Loli's face was flushed crimson.
She stamped her feet and cursed with her hands on her hips.
Yet at the same time, she was guiding her three teammates with utmost earnestness.
Lin Qingyue smiled like a cat that had stolen a fish.
It seemed the so-called [Punishment of the Seven Sins] wasn't entirely negative.
As long as the right method was used, negative emotions could also become... a lever to pry into a god's power.
"Overtime work?"
Lin Qingyue crushed the strawberry-flavored hard candy in her mouth, its cloying sweetness dissolving across her taste buds.
Watching the fervent learning scene before her, she murmured leisurely to herself.
"This isn't overtime; this is clearly a corporate team-building event!"
"The boss paid out of pocket to hire a gold-medalist lecturer from the God Realm to give us a one-on-three VIP tutoring session."
The Metal Qi within the Temple no longer carried the same aggression as before, instead taking on a strange, rhythmic quality.
The White Tiger Loli's short legs, clad in white stockings, swung back and forth at the edge of the throne, yet the frequency of her venomous tongue showed no sign of slowing.
She was currently delivering her seventeenth devastating blow to the angle of Lin Xiyue's shield.
"Are you trying to kiss the enemy with your shield?"
"That soft, slanted angle is completely useless in actual combat, except for letting the enemy's heavy hammer smash your skull in more smoothly!"
The White Tiger Loli took a step with her short legs and delivered a vicious kick to the edge of the heavy shield, which was taller than she was.
"Lower your center of gravity by another two centimeters! Are you planning to take the enemy's heavy hammer directly with your knees?"
Lin Xiyue didn't say a word; her mind was completely occupied by that "kinetic model" the White Tiger had broken down into thirty-two points of force.
Due to the intense tension, due to her core muscles running at overload, beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and splashed onto the glazed floor, shattering into several pieces.
Every flaw pointed out was, in the other's eyes, an unforgivable aesthetic blemish.
But in her eyes, it was a Defense Coefficient that was soaring.
She didn't even have a single spare expression, but the moment that "two centimeters" instruction fell, the muscles in her thighs bulged, and she forced her heavy body to sink down by a tiny arc.
This single press made the power transmission, which had been slightly stiff due to her rigid posture, instantly feel as if its Ren and Du Meridians had been cleared.
A heavy surge of qi rose from the soles of her feet, traveled through her spine, and finally sent a ripple of dark gold energy across the surface of [Blackstone's Protection].
[System Notification: Your skill "Golden Parry" compatibility has improved.]
This ding-dong sound, in Lin Xiyue's ears, was more beautiful than any celestial music.
Su Wan, standing beside her, was also not idle.
Her pretty face was deathly pale from the intense consumption of Magic Power, yet her hands were precisely controlling three ice needles as thin as a strand of hair.
White Tiger's words from just now, "Your Magic Circuit is as crude as a primitive man's grass rope," still echoed in her ears.
For the first time in her life, this Mage Young Mistress felt that the strict etiquette tutors at home were practically gentle angels.
This white-haired loli before her was truly about to dismantle her spell model down to the atomic level and then reassemble it.
"Left side rotation node, increase the compression ratio to 1.4 times."
"Why are your hands shaking? Have you fed all of a Mage's composure to the pigs!"
White Tiger rushed in front of Su Wan, that exquisite little face almost pressed against the other's nose.
"If you can't control the frequency of the energy, then stop pretending to be elegant there! Your Magic Power is crying, can't you feel it?"
He scolded while extending his slender fingers.
The fingertips were emitting a sharp golden light, precisely tapping lightly on Su Wan's Magic Power model.
Su Wan's breath hitched, but a trace of ruthlessness flashed in her eyes.
She simply closed her eyes, letting White Tiger's vicious comments run wild in her mind.
"Crying...?"
Su Wan murmured softly.
The next second, the originally wild and unstable Ice Element Energy suddenly fell silent.
It was a state of absolute stillness.
Under the vibration of a specific frequency, a chill and penetrating stream of energy flowed through the three ice needles.
The heavy barrier that had obstructed her for so long quietly crumbled amidst White Tiger's curses.
White Tiger's cursing seemed to quiet down a little.
Within his golden vertical pupils, a hint of confusion flashed, one that even he himself had not noticed.
Why?
Why are these people still not attacking me?
Why did that long-legged archer, after being scolded by me as a "runway-walking wild pheasant," actually reveal an expression of as if she had obtained a precious treasure?
For ten million years, as the Sealer of "Envy," the world in his eyes had been filled with fragmented imperfections.
When everyone faced this venom-tongued loli, the only three emotions they returned were: trembling, fear, and keeping their distance.
Mortals thought he was showing off his divine power.
His colleagues thought his personality was vicious.
No one was willing to stay for even a single second amidst his roars.
Even if every flaw He pointed out was the truth, even if He offered the most perfect optimization plans amidst His roars, what He ever received in return were fearful gazes or the blades of rebellion.
This prolonged social isolation and negative feedback had plunged His emotions into a vicious cycle: Since you think I am vicious, I will be even more vicious in pointing out all your inadequacies.
Over time, White Tiger locked himself away in that loneliness of "not being understood."
This was the truth of His "Envy": He envied mortals for their right to "make mistakes and be forgiven," and He envied others even more for having that smooth, though perhaps imperfect, yet warm communication.
But now, the situation had spiraled out of control.
Lin Qingyue and the other three were like a swarm of locusts that hadn't eaten for ten days, charging into His granary filled with "perfectly refined knowledge."
Not only did they not run, they even complained that He wasn't teaching them fast enough.
The feeling was like someone who had been despised by the world their entire life, suddenly discovering that there were actually people willing to unearth the hidden treasures within His words at His most furious moments.
This unprecedented "sense of being needed" was like a countercurrent, violently washing away the dark deposits in the depths of His soul.
The malice He had accumulated over tens of thousands of years was like a full reservoir suddenly having its floodgate opened.
Although the water flowing out was still a thorny flood, the pressure on the reservoir was tangibly decreasing.
Lin Qingyue sat on the white marble steps nearby, twirling her staff in her hand, but her gaze remained fixed on the White Tiger Loli's back.
In the eyes of others, it was a high and mighty God exerting His tyrannical power.
But in the eyes of someone like her, who grasped the faint rules, the pitch-black, viscous "Envy" miasma swirling around White Tiger was becoming thinner with every roar, every "fault-finding" remark.
This was a disguised form of catharsis.
This hands-on method of guidance was causing the black resentment deep in His soul to quietly undergo a qualitative change.