Convenience Gem reduced an equipment’s level requirement, Cyanfire Gem increased Attack, Dragonstone Gem increased Defense, Berserk Gem increased critical rate, Dragonblood Gem increased max HP, and Beast Haste Gem increased attack speed. They were all incredible items to say the least. None of us had expected to be rewarded so generously for conquering the first territory in Sky City, and an overjoyed He Yi asked me how we should split the rewards.

I left the decision in her hands.

……

The map Howling Wind Plains was going to enter 12-hour maintenance. Once the maintenance was complete, Territory 001 would be fully renewed.

News from Wind City and Vanished God City reached us at about the same time. First, we heard that Candle Dragon was currently occupying Territory 002. Peach Garden was defeated, and Purple Lily was still attacking with everything they got. The battle at Territory 003 was even fiercer, however. The ten strongest guilds at Vanished God City were evenly matched, and no one guild had managed to occupy the guild hall for over 30 minutes up till now. It was highly likely that their war would continue until everyone but the victor had run out of resources completely.

In comparison, the battle at Wind City was a lot stabler. Although Purple Lily was a powerful guild, it was still much weaker compared to Candle Dragon. Also, Candlelight Shadow was defeated at Who Will Rise, but he was still incredibly popular in China. All he needed to do was sound the rally, and an endless army would rise to his beck and call. In fact, Candle Dragon had expanded their number of sub-guilds to over twenty. Their overall power was pretty scary.

I mulled over the guild’s future for a bit. I supposed it was about time we increased the number of our own sub-guilds after the castle in our guild territory was built. It was a bit unrealistic to think that we could conquer the world with just our main guild. However, increasing the number of our sub-guilds wasn’t an easy task either. For example, if I wished to increase the number of our sub-guilds to ten, then I had to first choose ten guilds leaders who were sufficiently powerful and fully loyal to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. That alone would be a serious pain in the ass. Oh well, let’s do this one step at a time.

Candle Dragon might have over twenty sub-guilds right now, but it was possible that it wasn’t a true representation of their strength. After all, we outsiders couldn’t possibly understand the conflict of interests that was involved. I was certain that Candle Dragon’s so-called one hundred thousand strong army wasn’t as strong or as united as they appeared to be.

……

Beep!

He Yi sent me a message: “Lu Chen, do you wanna log out and have dinner? The territory’s not updating until tomorrow morning anyway.”

“Okay.”

I checked the time and noted that it was past 9 pm. Damn, it was way past dinner time for sure.

I returned to the city and logged out of the game. Then, I took off my helmet and sucked in a breath of fresh air.

When I walked out of the room, I saw He Yi, Murong Mingyue, and Beiming Xue sitting together and draining their glass of purified water like crazy. It was because they hadn’t drank anything until they logged out of the game. Everyone was wearing happy expressions on their faces though.

“Thanks to everyone, Territory 001 is finally ours! Hehe!” He Yi chuckled. “We definitely need to celebrate this success!”

Beiming Xue said, “I’m more concerned about a serious problem right now.”

Murong Mingyue asked in concern. “What is it?”

Beiming Xue answered, “I’m hungry…”

He Yi giggled. “Alright, let’s head out for dinner right away. What about you, Lu Chen? Are you coming with us?”

I leaned against the wall and thought for a moment. In the end, I shook my head and said, “You guys go ahead, I need to speak with Lin Yixin. She must be angry about losing the territory since she didn’t come back online after logging out of the game. I need to go repair the relationship with our ally.”

“Okay, see you!”

……

After we exited the workshop, Murong Mingyue drove away with the girls in her A8. I went into my own X12, drove out of the neighborhood and headed toward Suzhou University.

On the way, I pulled out my phone and called Lin Yixin’s number.

Doo… doo… doo...

The call finally connected about ten seconds later. The person on the other side asked, “What is it?”

“Er, is that you, Yiyi?”

“Who else could I be?”

“Do you want to have dinner together?”

“I’m busy.”

“Busy with what?”

“I’m eating dinner with a handsome guy that’s not you.”

“What…”

My heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “And who’s that exactly?”

“A guy from Electrical.”

“Fuck!”

I gritted my teeth. “Where are you right now?”

“Chuanxiangge, second floor. You’re coming? Get yourself a table if you are. I don’t have time for you right now!”

Lin Yixin was clearly angry with me right now.

Thud!

The call broke off just like that. Lin Yixin had hung up on me.

……

I had no idea what to feel. It was true that I was the one who got her killed during the territory war, but what choice did I have? On one hand, there was her. On the other, there was He Yi and my companions in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. I had already acted out of selfishness once, I couldn’t possibly do it a second time.

A drizzle started falling from the sky as I drove toward Chuanxiangge. The autumn rain felt cold against my face when I lowered the car window. I felt like it was time I really sorted out my relationship with Lin Yixin. What on earth are we right now?

It wasn’t long before I arrived at the restaurant. I parked my car and rushed into the building in haste. I was shocked to find her sitting at a corner with a tall, handsome man exactly as she said on the phone. The guy was at least half a head taller than me.

In that moment, a nameless anger and something bitter I couldn’t describe grew inside my heart.

I strode up to them and grabbed a surprised Lin Yixin by the hand. I declared in a no-nonsense voice, “Let’s go!”

“You…”

Lin Yixin rose to her feet and stared at me. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I pulled her into a hug. Surprisingly, she didn’t struggle out of the embrace.

However, the man she was sitting with rose to his feet and said, “Hey, you two can talk it out with each other, but don’t manhandle her.”

I punched him right at the center of his nose.

Pu...

The man’s nose started bleeding. He-man glared at me angrily.

Lin Yixin was so surprised her mouth fell open. “Wa…”

My arm still wrapped around Lin Yixin, I acted to pull her out of the restaurant. However, the guy grabbed my arm before I could do so and raged, “Fuck you, Lu Chen! First you kill me in the game, and now you punch me in real life? How arrogant can you get??”

“You’re…?” I looked back at him.

This time it was Lin Yixin’s turn to glare at me. “He’s Zi Chuanyu. Don’t tell me you forgot?”

Zi Chuanyu continued to glare at me. “Fuck man, I’m just eating dinner with the guild leader, and you come out of nowhere and punch me in the nose? What the fuck did I even do to offend you? Fuck, my handsome nose…”

I felt so embarrassed in that moment that I wanted to slink into a hole and hide from everything. Worse, instead of defending me, Lin Yixin rubbed salt into my wound tauntingly, “Yeah, yeah! Why did you punch Zi Chuanyu, huh?”

“I, what? Say something already!”

I felt like dying. “I thought that you… you were…”

“I, what, exactly?” Lin Yixin giggled heartlessly and pushed even further.

“You know what? I don’t care anymore!”

I said, “I’m eating dinner with you tonight, and that’s that! Zi Chuanyu, here’s a leek to block your nose. Don’t lose too much blood, okay? Bye bye!”

Zi Chuanyu wailed. “No! I don’t have the money to foot the bill! You can’t just leave me like this… Boss!”

……

With Lin Yixin by my side, I walked out of the restaurant, moved to my car and pushed her into the passenger seat. Then, I got into the car myself and stared at her. For a time, we stared at each other without saying anything.

It was only then I realized I didn't know how to start. A while later, Lin Yixin asked, “What… do you think you’re doing?”

“I just want to eat dinner with you.”

“If that’s true, why are we here and not inside the restaurant?”

"I..."

A flash of anger passed through her eyes. “Seriously, I, what!?”

She abruptly opened the car door and got out of the car.

I hurriedly chased after her, but instead of going back into the restaurant she started walking down an alley instead. She paid no heed to the raindrops drenching her clothes.

There was no umbrella in the car, so I hurriedly ran over to her and grabbed her wrist. “You’re going to catch a cold like this!”

“Do you even care about me?” Lin Yixin turned around and looked at me with that hurt look again. She started crying as her tears became mixed with rain water.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

I hugged her with both arms before whispering, “I’m sorry, but what else could I do in that situation? I didn’t have a choice.”

“But, but…”

Lin Yixin pushed me away and backed away from me again and again. She bit her lips and said through her tears, “They looked down on me, they slandered me, my own father misunderstood me, and now even you hurt me too! I gave Snowy Cathaya almost everything I had, but I still disappointed the guild and all those who followed me. Why am I even doing this anymore?”

She just stood there with her shoulders shivering uncontrollably. Already, there were people shooting us odd looks by the roadside.

……

I didn’t say anything. I simply stood in front of her and kept her company like a blockhead.

A long time later, Lin Yixin finally ran out of tears and stared at me with red eyes. She said quietly, “I’m sorry, Lu Chen. I'm feeling pretty down today…”

In that moment, I walked up to her, hugged her, ignored the panicked look in her eyes and kissed her on the lips.

Her lips felt cold, but that didn’t stop me from getting lost in the sensation. I tasted her passion and her sadness bit by bit until finally, Lin Yixin closed her own eyes and wrapped her arms around my neck like it was the most natural thing in the world. She squeezed herself into my chest as if she was intoxicated with the sensation of our bodies pressing against one another.

The kiss was long and deep. I sneakily opened my eyes and found a pair of tears flowing down Lin Yixin’s cheeks, even though her eyes were still closed. Her beautiful face looked slightly tired.

Finally, she pushed me away again and bowed her head like she wanted to sink into her own chest. Beet red, she stared at the ground and whispered in a mosquito’s voice, “It hurts me so much to love you, you bastard…”

I shivered. “Yiyi…”

“Alright…” Lin Yixin finally looked up and stared at me. “You must be starving, right? Come on, I’ll eat dinner with you.”

“Where should we go?”

“Right there, let’s have some Lanzhou stretched noodles tonight!”

“Okay!”

……

This time, it was Lin Yixin who was grabbing my wrist and pulling me toward the shop that sold Lanzhou stretched noodles. She then ordered two bowls of noodles for us.

She looked a little pale, so I hugged her and said concernedly, “Please don’t get wet again next time. You’ll get sick…”

Lin Yixin rolled her eyes at my sexual innuendo and retorted, “You’re the one who’s wet!”

“Hehe…”

The shop owner served us our noodles with a smile. After splitting a pair of chopsticks and passing it to Lin Yixin, I poured some spicy sauce on my noodles and commented, “Looks good…”

Lin Yixin nodded. “Of course. The boss made it long and hard, just for you…”

“Fuck you. You know what, I’m not eating anymore…”

“You’ll get hungry. So eat up, okay?”

The Fruit Knife Goddess was so kind I teared up a little.

……

“Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls got the territory, right?”

“Mn.”

“Was there any reward?”

“We got 5 of each gem type, and I leveled up to 116.”

“Well I dropped to Level 110 because of Gui Guzi. Just you wait, I’m going to make him restart from zero!” Lin Yixin uttered murderously like an angry tiger.

I spent a moment to pray for Gui Guzi before grabbing her hand. “Be good, Yiyi. It’s not Gui Guzi’s fault. He’s just fulfilling his responsibilities to the guild. How about this, from now on all business transactions in our guild territory will be discounted by 50%, exclusive only to Snowy Cathaya.”

“Now we’re talking. I can finally make up to my people now.”