The Goddess of the Hunt

Zhang Yuanqing and Commandery Princess Yinyao walked over to the stone pedestal and read the information on the plaque: [Name: Artemis] [Era: Greek Mythology] [Grade: S-rank] [Description: Goddess of the Hunt, one of the King of the Gods' most favored daughters. In charge of hunting and forests.] The artifact's dossier was brief, but it had everything necessary. "Artemis?" Zhang Yuanqing turned his gaze toward the Senior Enforcer from Heaven's Punishment. He didn't know much about foreign mythologies. He was familiar with the most famous deities of Greek mythology, but Artemis was truly somewhat obscure to him, and he couldn't recall her off the top of his head. Alicia explained, "In Greek mythology, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus, the King of the Gods, and the twin sister of Apollo, the god of light. Her mother was the Great Goddess Leto, who was also Zeus's cousin." *Here it comes, the trademark tangled relations of Greek mythology,* Zhang Yuanqing quipped inwardly. "Artemis isn't that famous among the Greek gods, but she actually governs many domains: hunting, the wilderness, wild beasts, forests, archery, childbirth, and more. Her twin brother Apollo governs numerous domains just like her. Among all the gods, the two siblings hold the greatest number of authorities." Alicia continued her introduction, "Artemis loves wild animals, especially deer. In myths, her mount is a golden-horned hind, and she is skilled with a bow, which is why she is called the Goddess of the Hunt." *Matches the boss's details.* Zhang Yuanqing nodded inwardly, then a sudden doubt crossed his mind. "Why would a figure from mythology be in a museum?" The museum's exhibits were cultural relics and artifacts. What was an artifact? Objects left behind by history. Artemis was a mythical figure; she shouldn't appear in a museum. Alicia and her two companions froze, falling into thought. A few seconds later, she sighed, "I never even realized that... You've reminded me. Artemis might very well have truly existed in history as a powerful ancient supernatural being." If Artemis truly existed, then the gods of Greek mythology might all have been real historical figures—or at least, a large portion of them were. In that case, Greek mythology itself held immense research value. Future generations might even extract ancient secrets from myth. However, this revelation had little bearing on their current situation. Alicia pulled her thoughts back and asked, "Do you have any thoughts?" She had already shared plenty of intelligence, and now she wanted to hear Daode Tianzun's suggestions. Zhang Yuanqing looked at the artifact's profile. "Artemis is S-rank. Since entering the museum, I've only seen Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 artifacts. She might be unique in Exhibition Hall 3. "We need to gather a lot of artifacts, especially Grade 1 ones, or else defeating the boss will be very difficult." Once they gathered enough Grade 1 artifacts, combined with this Tianzun's arsenal of items, taking down the Goddess of the Hunt shouldn't be a problem. Alicia strongly agreed with his assessment. "Yes. We've explored over half the exhibition hall and only found one S-rank artifact. To be safe, I suggest we explore the entire hall to make a final confirmation." Zhang Yuanqing nodded. Just as he was about to propose splitting up to save time, he saw Alicia pull an eyeball trailing blood vessels and nerves from her inventory. It looked as if it had just been gouged out of a living human's eye socket. The pupil of the eyeball was azure, deep, and lively, without the slightest hollow dullness. Alicia closed her eyes, lightly leaned on her staff, and manipulated the airflow to lift the eyeball into midair. Floating in the air, the blue-eyed eyeball looked down. Turning its gaze, it meticulously swept over near and far, east, south, west, and north. *Items sent into the air won't get attacked?* Zhang Yuanqing suddenly understood how Alicia had gathered her team so quickly and precisely tracked down those three Saints from the evil faction. Before this, he had only managed to reach the staircase and subdue a single artifact. Seeing this eyeball made everything clear. A full half hour passed before Alicia recalled the eyeball. She staggered, only steadying herself with Qingzhu's support. Bloody tears streamed from her eye sockets, her head throbbed with a splitting headache, and her face was contorted in agony. After a good while, she took a deep breath, wiped away the bloody tears, and explained, "The Eye of the Wind feeds everything it sees directly into my mind. Receiving so much information at once strains the soul to its limit. That's the necessary price of using it. "The upside is, I have memorized all the artifact profiles in this hall." *This item already possesses traits of an 'Overlooker.' But since the dungeon hasn't banned it, its tier hasn't reached Dominator rank yet...* Zhang Yuanqing asked with concern, "Do you need to rest a bit longer?" Alicia shook her head. "No need. A peak Saint isn't that fragile. I've organized the information and selected three extremely valuable Grade 1 artifacts, along with two Grade 2 artifacts that could be quite useful." It wasn't a large number of artifacts, but Qingzhu and 'Federation Has No History' still frowned. The danger of a Grade 1 artifact was close to the peak of level 6. In other words, one Grade 1 artifact was equivalent to a peak level 6 Saint. For them, subduing a Grade 1 artifact entailed considerable risk. "No big deal. Lead the way," Zhang Yuanqing said. Gripping her staff, Alicia floated up and led the way forward. Soon, the group followed her to the first Grade 1 artifact. It was a gold-and-black ewer, its body adorned with reliefs of three bare-chested men in long skirts. [Name: Gilt Silver Ewer] [Era: Unknown] [Grade: Grade 1] [Description: A silver ewer specifically crafted to hold the Spring of the Forest. The three divine servants guarding the spring—symbolizing Spirit, Strength, and Judgment—frequently used it to draw the Spring of the Forest and serve the deities.] *Three divine servants...* Zhang Yuanqing looked again at the three burly reliefs on the ewer, understanding immediately. He turned back to his companions. "Are you ready?" Commandery Princess Yinyao instinctively raised her small loudspeaker, then remembered she was playing a brainless yin corpse and quietly lowered it. Alicia and the others didn't notice her strange gesture, their attention fixed entirely on the silver ewer. Alicia took a few steps back and said, "Break the seal." Zhang Yuanqing raised his repeating crossbow and pulled the trigger. Three bolts shot out, shattering the glass. Amidst the crashing din of tempered glass, the seal on the Gilt Silver Ewer was broken. The three reliefs on the ewer sprang to life, leaping out one by one. They wore simple culottes, their burly upper bodies bare, with long hair braided and coiled in rings atop their heads. Their facial features were rough and ferocious. One divine servant had snow-white skin, another had bronze skin, and the third was brass-colored. "Humble, feeble mortals! The Spring of the Forest is not something you may covet!" The snow-white servant boomed in a majestic, ringing voice. Alicia fared well enough, but a violent buzz rang through the minds of Qingzhu and Federation Has No History. Their spirits jarred by the shockwave, they fell into a daze. Seizing the opportunity, the bronze-skinned servant charged at the three like a raging bull, his bulging muscles making him resemble a giant lump of iron. Pressing one hand against her throbbing temple, Alicia waved her staff with the other, erecting a wind wall before her. Seeing this, the brass-skinned servant shouted, "Insolence! How dare you cast spells in the presence of gods!" The wind wall before Alicia crumbled. Her expression shifted, and she hastily tried to form wind blades, only to find her control over airflow sluggish and stagnant. That brass-skinned servant possessed the power of a Knight. His precepts restricted her wind magic; however, there was a gap between their ranks, so it could only restrict her rather than forbid her entirely. Saddled with two deadweights beside her, Alicia was just about to sweep them away with airflow to dodge the charging bronze servant representing Strength. Right then, the Greed Divine General stepped forward with a long saber in hand, sank his waist into a lunge, and delivered a fierce slash. A deep gash was hacked into the servant's body, while the Greed Divine General was knocked back by the impact. On the other side, Commandery Princess Yinyao drew her whip and lashed it out with a sharp crack across the snow-white servant. The strike made his form ripple like water, nearly dispersing. Zhang Yuanqing threw back his head and let out a piercing screech. Having just recovered from the spiritual shock, Qingzhu and Federation Has No History sprayed blood from their noses, feeling as if their souls were being torn apart, nearly blacking out. Alicia also clutched her head in pain. The snow-white servant's body dispersed instantly, turning into blue smoke and returning to the ewer. An Illusionist's skills were extraordinarily effective against spirit bodies. The brass-skinned servant was furious. "Insolence! You humble, feeble mortal—" Zhang Yuanqing took out the Charm Perfume and sprayed it twice toward him. The servant's tone shifted abruptly: "You humble, feeble mortal... are quite attractive..." *Quite attractive, huh...* Zhang Yuanqing spat out lunar energy and summoned the female ghost Bai Lan to possess him, while Commandery Princess Yinyao coordinated by lashing out with her whip to heavily damage his spiritual body. Finally, Zhang Yuanqing summoned the Hundred-Man Slayer to behead him. Even after being beheaded, the servant did not die, instead transforming into a wisp of blue smoke and returning to the ewer. Meanwhile, relying on his fearless combat ability and trading wound for wound, the Greed Divine General slew the servant representing Strength in the shortest time possible. Qingzhu and Federation Has No History stared blankly at the scene. Their headaches hadn't even subsided yet, and they nearly doubted whether what they were seeing was an illusion. *It's resolved just like that?* *Are Grade 1 artifacts this easy to subdue?* As a peak Saint, Alicia felt even more turbulent waves crashing through her heart. If venue restrictions were ignored and she didn't have to worry about breaking other display cases, she was confident she could defeat the three servants too. However, it would inevitably require an arduous battle. A Wind Mage only had so many skills; high rank and a vast repertoire of methods were two completely different things. If one couldn't counter the enemy, a high rank alone couldn't do much. That was why she was so astonished—in that brief battle, Daode Tianzun had displayed far too many methods. "Done!" Zhang Yuanqing took the Gilt Silver Ewer. After this battle, Qingzhu and Federation Has No History's attitudes became noticeably more respectful and considerably more wary. They didn't even dare stand too close to Daode Tianzun. Next, the team subdued the remaining two Grade 1 artifacts and two Grade 2 artifacts. They were: Grade 1 artifacts: the nude sculpture "Laos," and a medieval knight's shield. Grade 2 artifacts: the Egyptian Pharaoh's Sun Disk, and a gold-and-silver pingtuo zither. In addition, Zhang Yuanqing subdued a Grade 1 artifact, a Han eight-sided ancient bronze sword. He had always lacked a melee weapon, especially after the Form and Spirit Annihilation Blade and Purple Thunder Hammer were sealed. The team rested for fifteen minutes. After discussing and settling on their tactics, they headed toward the staircase under Zhang Yuanqing's lead. Zhang Yuanqing cast an illusion to conceal Little Red Riding Hood, stored away Commandery Princess Yinyao, the Hundred-Man Slayer, and the Greed Divine General, and summoned two Level 4 yin corpses to serve as cannon fodder. Against a Dominator-tier enemy, Level 6 yin corpses weren't very useful. If one were shot dead by an arrow, he would be the one mourning the loss. His three teammates merely eyed them curiously without asking where the other yin corpses had gone. Sensing someone approaching, the Goddess of the Hunt in the air instantly turned her head. Her unpainted face and eyes were pale and hollow, looking stiff and aloof. Alicia activated the two-meter-tall nude sculpture "Laos," sending it sprinting toward the staircase. *Thud! Thud! Thud!* The granite sculpture sprinted in great strides, each footfall creating a minor earthquake effect. Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, turned her neck stiffly toward the sculpture. Drawing a blood-red arrow, she bent her bow. *Swoosh!* The arrow turned into a streak of bloody light, shooting straight for the sculpture's head. Alicia waved her staff, manipulating the airflow to condense a wind wall above the sculpture's head. The arrow shattered the wind wall in an instant. The nude sculpture hurriedly raised an arm to protect its head. With a deafening boom, the sculpture's entire arm blew apart, fragments of stone splashing everywhere. It was blocked! Zhang Yuanqing shouted, "Run through!"