# 1846
Chapter 1846: Si Xiaonan??
Over the next two and a half days, they searched for the entrance to the Temporal Maze, but even though they had nearly dug through the ice down to the bedrock, there was no sign of the entrance.
The endless expanse of ice and white had depressed all the foreign gods. They walked with drooping heads, looking utterly disinterested in the entire world.
"Sigh…" The Chief God who had frequently conversed with Lin Qiye before shook his head and began to lament.
During their interactions over these past two days, Lin Qiye had extracted his identity. His name was Kubera, the surviving God of Wealth from the ancient Indian divine temple. While his strength couldn't compare to top-tier Chief Gods like Indra, he was nonetheless a genuine Chief God-level deity.
Yet no matter how Lin Qiye looked at him, he couldn't perceive any Chief God bearing from this individual… Whether in demeanor or aura, he fell far short of most Chief Gods Lin Qiye had encountered.
Setting aside other matters, when Lin Qiye had stormed Olympus just days ago, Chief Gods like Zeus and Apollo were at minimum formidable enough to guard a sacred mountain. Setting aside their actual strength, their presence was absolutely commanding… Now looking at the Kubera before him, he resembled an overindulgent human, possessing not a shred of the so-called "divine might."
It wasn't just Kubera, either—the other Lesser Gods and Chief Gods were all the same. The divinity emanating from them was the thinnest Lin Qiye had ever witnessed, as if something had drained them dry.
"Spread out and continue searching. This time, venture further." The voice from within the black sedan chair spoke once more.
"…Understood."
Though the group was extremely reluctant, since the Holy Sovereign had spoken, they could only comply, obediently scattering in various directions as they had grown accustomed to, vanishing in an instant.
Throughout these past two-plus days, they had searched in separate groups countless times, yet each time yielded nothing. Even Lin Qiye was beginning to lose patience.
"Let me show you the way…" Lin Qiye murmured quietly.
After confirming he was sufficiently far from the black sedan chair, he casually knocked a slender shard of ice from the frozen surface, flicked it lightly across the ground, and the ice crystal swiftly spun like a compass needle!
Following a flash of golden light, the ice shard gradually stopped its rotation, its sharp tip pointing toward a specific direction in the southwest.
Lin Qiye glanced in that direction and traced a summoning array beside himself. The thunder beast Lafayette landed lightly on the ice, meowed at Lin Qiye, then transformed into a bolt of lightning streaking toward the southwest!
Lafayette made no attempt to conceal itself. The flash of lightning vanished across the sky in an instant, followed by the crisp sound of thunder echoing across the ice surface. All the scattered searchers paused, heads snapping toward the source.
"What's that?!" The voice from the black sedan chair erupted. "Chase it!"
Though no one knew what the creature was, everyone charged forward as if injected with adrenaline. After all, this was their sole discovery in days—if it had any connection to the Temporal Maze, they could return home sooner.
The group raced along the path where the thunder trail had faded, but the creature escaped them once more.
Lafayette was, after all, a thunder beast. Its speed was beyond what these Lesser Gods and enfeebled Chief Gods could match. After pursuing for quite some time, they lost sight of their quarry entirely, drawing furious cursing from the Holy Sovereign within the black sedan:
"A bunch of useless wretches! The lead was practically handed to you on a silver platter and you still couldn't catch it! What's the point of you?!"
"Holy Sovereign… this isn't our fault. That creature was simply far too swift!"
"Indeed, and on the Antarctic Ice Field no less, where in the world did a thunder Divine Beast come from?"
"…"
While the group exchanged words, Lin Qiye nonchalantly kicked a piece of碎冰 nearby. The ice fragment skidded across the frozen surface, finally coming to rest in another direction.
"What's the point of saying this now?" The Holy Sovereign snorted coldly. "Our only breakthrough has slipped right past us… You don't suppose it'll come back, do you?"
Whoosh—!!
Before the Holy Sovereign had even finished speaking, that streak of lightning instantly reappeared from the opposite side of the sky, vanishing in an instant at the far end of the southwestern horizon!
Staring at the gradually fading thunder arc, everyone stood frozen for a simultaneous moment. Then the Holy Sovereign's thunderous voice rang out once more: "What are you all standing there for?! Chase it!!"
Lin Qiye gazed at the hurried figures pursuing the thunder beast, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. He harbored doubts about how this group had been selected for the Antarctic expedition with intellect like this…
However, solving the Temporal Maze required extensive trial and practice. Having more people enter was actually beneficial for Lin Qiye. If he had to摸索 all on his own, who knew how much time he'd waste. This was precisely why he was willing to guide these people.
After all, his objective was to rescue Nyx and the others, which didn't conflict with this group at all. They were clearly here searching for some particular artifact.
Under Lin Qiye's repeated "guidance," the group constantly adjusted their course. As daylight faded, they arrived at a vast expanse of ice plain.
During this season, Antarctica experienced extremely short daylight hours. Though it was only around two in the afternoon, the sky had already grown dim. The boundless ice plain stretched toward the endless darkness, with only faint starlight scattering across the earth.
"Gone again… What exactly was that thing?" Kubera, unable to locate any trace of the thunder beast once more, sighed helplessly.
Lin Qiye swept his gaze across the surroundings, saying nothing.
He had already sent the thunder beast back to the hospital. Barring unexpected circumstances, he wouldn't need to act further… Because according to the results of his divination, the entrance to the Temporal Maze was somewhere in this vicinity.
"Look over there!!" A voice suddenly rang out from the group.
The crowd followed the direction of his pointing finger. There, on the nearby ice surface, a vortex-like portal was silently emitting a faint glow. Bathed in the朦胧 starlight, it resembled something out of a dream—magnificently beautiful.
"Is that the entrance to the Temporal Maze?!"
"Why didn't we spot it there before? Does it only appear once night falls??"
"We found it! Finally found it!!"
Excited exclamations erupted from the group. They immediately moved toward that vortex portal, but the black sedan chair remained eerily silent. The Holy Sovereign, who had been so obsessed with the Temporal Maze throughout the entire journey, now remained utterly quiet, as if deep in contemplation.
Lin Qiye did not follow them toward that vortex gate. Instead, he stood alone in place, frowning as he gazed toward the direction they had departed.
By now, the group had reached the vortex portal. Just as they were about to pass through, the voice from within the black sedan chair suddenly rang out!
"Something's wrong!! Get away from there immediately!"
The moment they heard this voice, everyone froze. But before they could react, that silently rotating mysterious vortex suddenly surged to life. A terrifying surge of divine power, intertwined with radiance, instantly engulfed the majority of their figures!
Boom—!!
An earth-shaking explosion echoed across the ice plain!
"Dammit… it's a trap!" The black sedan chair, trailing thick smoke, shot out from the flames. Its gaze fixed upon a certain point on the starlit ice plain, where a colossal wolf silhouette stood immovable like a mountain peak.
Above that wolf shadow, a girl wearing a mask gazed down at them with cold indifference.
"【Hidden God】's leader, God of Trickery, Si Xiaonan… I knew it was you!!" The Holy Sovereign roared in fury.