White Tiger's scream was still echoing in the Temple.
"Energy overflow! Look at all this light pollution on the ground! You wasted at least thirty percent of the energy on these gaudy, superficial light effects!"
"Are you using it to fight, or are you planning to hold a concert right here?!"
Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian had completely petrified.
Their brains refused to process the bizarre scene before them.
This... this was the wrong art style, wasn't it?
The Captain had used a ridiculously ugly "glow stick" to provoke them.
As a result...
It only brought about a mad lecture on technical details?
Just as they were questioning their lives, Lin Qingyue, as the protagonist being bombarded, showed no anger over being humiliated.
In her pink eyes, there was even a glow of what could be called "excitement."
Words like "idiots," "morons," and "toilet fireworks" were efficiently and automatically filtered out by her brain.
What remained were only clearly extracted core technical keywords.
"Double Helix Cross-Compression."
"Triple Rune Stabilization Structure."
"Thirty-Seven Redundant Nodes."
Her thoughts raced.
Lin Qingyue almost immediately began reconstructing the [Sunlight Spear] in her hand, following the guidance within White Tiger's "roar."
Hum—!
A crisp hum resonated from her palm.
The Holy Light Energy, which had been crudely piled up like bricks, began to rapidly rotate and compress around three new cores.
The thirty-seven redundant nodes that had been singled out were ruthlessly severed, and the blindingly cheap light effects were forcibly contained.
The once-colossal [Sunlight Spear] shrank in size at an astonishing speed.
From a flamboyant pillar of light, it condensed into a javelin with smooth lines and perfect proportions.
The spear's shaft was no longer merely dazzling; its texture resembled solidified liquid gold, restrained and heavy.
At the spear's tip, the extremely condensed Holy Light Energy even emitted wisps of golden electric arcs, slicing through the air with a soft crackling sound.
Though its volume had shrunk by two-thirds, the energy fluctuations it contained did not diminish but actually surged, more than doubling from before!
A System Notification popped up before her eyes at the perfect moment.
[System Notification: Your skill "Sunlight Spear" has completed a structural optimization under the guidance of the Whisper of God (Roar Edition)!]
["Sunlight Spear" power increased by 20%, energy consumption reduced by 15%, new special effect added: "Armor-Piercing"!]
[You have preliminarily mastered the "Energy Spiral Compression" technique!]
It worked!
A satisfied smile curved Lin Qingyue's lips.
With a flick of her wrist, she effortlessly held the reborn [Sunlight Spear] and waved it before the White Tiger Loli, who was still panting with her hands on her hips.
"Like this?"
Her tone was light, like a student who had just handed in a perfect exam and was waiting for praise.
The White Tiger stared at the [Sunlight Spear], which now had a restrained appearance but radiated an aura several times more dangerous, and was visibly stunned.
He circled the new spear rapidly, scrutinizing every detail with the precise and critical gaze of a surgeon.
After a long moment, the overflowing displeasure and disdain on his face finally softened slightly.
"Hmph."
He snorted through his nose and turned his head away arrogantly, yet his words still refused to yield.
"It's barely acceptable."
"At least... it's not a glowing pile of trash anymore."
Though he spoke with disdain, a gleam of "a teachable child" satisfaction clearly flashed in his golden slit pupils.
Snap.
Lin Qingyue snapped her fingers, and the [Sunlight Spear] in her hand dissolved into a sky full of light particles.
She turned around, meeting the stunned gazes of her three teammates, and threw them a flirtatious wink that would make Xia Lian's heart race.
Then she lowered her voice and smiled as if sharing a shocking secret:
"See? I told you, this Big Cat... cough, this Lord Celestial God, is actually a good person."
These words were like a thunderclap from a clear sky.
"He's not jealous of you at all,"
Lin Qingyue's voice carried a hint of amusement, dismantling her teammates' worldviews one word at a time.
"He's just disgusted by you. Disgusted that you're not even elegantly unskilled, or perfectly ugly."
"His 'jealousy' is a profound hatred for the very concept of 'imperfection'."
Lin Xiyue: "..."
Su Wan: "..."
Xia Lian: "..."
"Who's a good person! Who's a cat!"
Over by the throne, the White Tiger Loli's ears twitched, and her fur instantly stood on end as she shouted, her small face flushed red.
"And again, I was just afraid your piece of junk would pollute my eyes! Who taught you this! Don't flatter yourself!"
Her exasperated retort sounded more like the furious embarrassment of someone whose inner thoughts had been exposed.
The three girls' worldviews were crushed, rebuilt, and then crushed again in just a few short minutes.
Jealousy?
No, this was "one-on-one guidance" from a god-level being, and the kind where the other party chases you down to scold you and begs you to learn!
Humiliation?
No, this was the highest-level "error report" and "optimization plan," where every venomous remark was worth its weight in gold!
Once they realized this, Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian exchanged glances.
In their eyes, anger, wariness, and grievance instantly vanished.
In their place was a nearly fanatical light.
It was the excitement of gold miners discovering a massive vein, the greed of hungry wolves eyeing a prime cut of meat.
That was no longer an arrogant god.
That was a walking, living, speaking... top-tier Skill Enhancement Scroll!
The entire atmosphere completely shifted in that moment.
The first to react was Lin Xiyue, the one with the strongest drive to act.
"Clang!"
She sheathed her single-handed sword, her defensive posture as if facing a formidable enemy vanishing without a trace.
She held [Blackstone's Protection] squarely in front of her, then, with a very deliberate and exaggeratedly careful manner, practiced the opening stance of [Golden Parry].
A version riddled with flaws.
She intentionally left her core loose, causing a clear break in the transmission of power.
The parrying angle of the shield was also deliberately off by a visible margin.
After doing all this, she looked up and asked loudly toward the throne, her tone incredibly sincere, even carrying a hint of flattery:
"Lord Celestial God!"
This change in address caused even the White Tiger to freeze in astonishment.
"Do you think... my wild boar-like power generation technique... is there... any chance of saving it?"
Lin Xiyue struck a sincere expression of "I'm a noob, it's not my fault, please carry me, pro."
The moment her voice fell, White Tiger's brow, which had just smoothed out, instantly twisted back into a dead knot.
His attention was immediately drawn to Lin Xiyue's disastrously poor form.
"Wrong! You fool! Is your waist just for decoration? Your core isn't tightened, the power transmission is completely broken!"
"And that shield angle of yours, it's off by at least three degrees! Are you trying to deflect the attack right into your pink-haired teammate's face?!"
White Tiger's sharp-tongued fire seamlessly transferred its target.
He didn't even realize he had already plunged headlong into the pit they had carefully dug for him.