My mind was in chaos when we exited the garden. After I got into the car, I drove toward the base as quickly as I could.

The recruitment wasn’t the problem. People tried to recruit excellent players from other guilds every day. The problem was that Moonlight Stone was one of the vertebrae that made up the backbone of the guild and our best mage, and from the sounds of it, she actually chose to accept the offer and leave us. It was a threat to the guild like we had never seen before.

The Mage class as a whole was growing more and more important each day as the game progressed, and super mages such as Luo River God of the Capital or Stranger of Three Lifetimes were practically jewels in the crown. If possible, every guild wanted a powerful mage to carry their banner. It was critical to the growth and development of the guild.

In a war of sword and magic, cavalry charges were undoubtedly the most threatening assault an army could face. However, standing on the opposite side of that paradigm was positional warfare. In positional warfare, two classes reigned supreme over all the other classes: archers and mages. Archers dealt physical damage, so they could only do so much against heavy cavalry. Mages dealt magic damage, so they were destined to become the bane of all cavalry!

Super mages were the only ones who could keep an entire cavalry troop at bay by themselves. We were no longer in the early game, and I had already experienced how important it was to have powerful mages in the guild. The stronger our mages, the better their anti-cavalry ability, which was why it was absolutely necessary for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to establish a powerful mage party. As strong as Beiming Xue was, she and her archer party were nowhere near enough to meet the guild’s demands!

That was why I was shocked to hear that our best mage had been taken away from us. What on earth did they offer her? I must change her mind no matter what, or it will be akin to losing a foundation stone of the guild!

……

We reached the gaming base at around 10:30 am or so. The guards didn’t stop Beiming Xue and I from rushing into the building because they recognized us.

A lot of people were waiting at the hall of the first floor already. Moonlight Stone was wearing white coat, staring blankly into the air and dragging a heavy suitcase.

Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, and Chaos Moon were all here. They should be at ASUS’ gaming base right now, but clearly this incident was serious enough to draw everyone over.

"Lu Chen is here!" Xu Yang said quietly.

As I walked up to them, Moonlight Stone turned around to face me with an apologetic look on her face. She said, "I’m sorry, Lu Chen, but I… I have to leave. I can’t let my big brother fall under someone’s thumb because of me, not even for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls…"

"Big brother?"

I frowned. "What on earth happened, Moonlight Stone? What made you decide to leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls?"

Xu Yang bumped my shoulder lightly and motioned at another person.

I looked over and saw a young man about 27 or 28 years old. He wore a black jacket and carried a bag. I felt like I recognized him from somewhere.

"He’s Moonlight Stone’s older brother, and he’s currently working for Candle Dragon. Candlelight Shadow had asked him personally to ‘persuade’ Moonlight Stone to leave us."

An unknown anger rushed into my head as I finally made the connection. I started, "I know you. You’re Tiger Leopard Knight!"

He looked just as surprised to see me. "It’s you, Lu Chen?!"

The young man before me was none other than the rider I had saved in Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower, Tiger Leopard Knight. He was a thousand-man cavalry commander and a key figure in Candle Dragon. However, I had no idea that he was Moonlight Stone’s older brother, and that he would repay the favor I had done to him with evil!

"Lu Chen, I’m sorry!"

Tiger Leopard Knight stared at me quietly and said, "I belong to Candle Dragon, and Candlelight Shadow is the hero I revere. That is why I cannot allow my younger sister to stay with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls any longer. I’ve thought about this for a very long time, and it is only this morning that I came to this decision. Candle Dragon has established headquarters in Shanghai, and I believe that the both of us will lead a better life there."

I asked in an indifferent tone, "Long story short, you want Moonlight Stone to join Candle Dragon, is that it?"

"That’s right."

Tiger Leopard Knight said with determination, "A few months ago, I had a small guild that was pushed to the brink of destruction by Mad Dragon. It was Candlelight Shadow and Blue Sky Scar who saved me and called me a brother. For that alone, I, Tiger Leopard Knight, swore an oath to never betray Candle Dragon. However, I don’t wish to face my own sister on the battlefield, so the only solution here is to have Moonlight Stone leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and join Candle Dragon!"

I sucked in a deep breath and turned to Moonlight Stone next. I asked her, "Moonlight, you’re an adult. The decision truly lies in your hands. Will you… leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and join an enemy of ours?"

Moonlight Stone bit her lips as her eyes reddened. It wasn’t long before she broke into tears and cried. "Lu Chen, I… I just have to go. Our parents passed away when we were still young, and he is the only brother I have left. Big brother… must have had no choice when he made this decision, and I just can’t make things even harder for him than it already is. I… I may leave Ancient Sword, but I swear I won’t use a single spell when the enemy is Ancient Sword. Please? Lu Chen?"

I fell silent. At this point, I knew that there was no changing this outcome. Moonlight Stone was going to leave no matter what.

"Okay!"

I turned around and said to Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and everyone. "Open the way, people. Let’s send Moonlight Stone off properly and happily, okay? No matter where she goes to, she will always be the Moonlight Stone we know."

I turned back to the sniffling Moonlight Stone and smiled at her. "Goodbye. Know that you are, and always will be, our friend!"

Bursting into tears again, Moonlight Stone hugged me and cried like it was the end of the world. "You know I didn’t want to leave! You know it, didn’t you!?"

I remained as still as a wooden stool as I nodded. "Of course I know that. We all have our different paths to walk. Just always be happy, okay Moonlight?"

"Mm."

A while later, Moonlight Stone finally stopped crying and wiped away her tears. She then looked at Tiger Leopard Knight and said, "We can leave now, big brother."

Tiger Leopard Knight gave me a nod, grabbed Moonlight Stone’s hand and walked slowly toward the entrance.

With everyone behind me, I quietly saw them off all the way to the road. A taxi was already waiting for the duo.

Before Moonlight Stone and Tiger Leopard Knight entered the car, I said to them, "Moonlight, the door of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will always be open to you. If you ever feel unhappy with your choices, always keep the way home in your mind! You too, Tiger Leopard Knight. Our door is also open to you, and you are free to bring Moonlight over whenever you feel like it."

Tiger Leopard Knight nodded and replied, "Thank you."

Moonlight Stone stared at us with teary eyes through the car window. The taxi slowly drove away until we couldn’t see its back anymore.

……

"She’s gone…" Moon Dew said sadly.

Gui Guzi shrugged and said, "At least it was a good farewell…"

Chaos Moon retorted, "Pooh! Good farewell, my ass! That Candlelight Shadow is such a shameless bastard. The moment he figured he can’t fight Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls head-on, he immediately resorted to dirty tactics!"

Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath. "To be honest, there’s one more thing I haven’t told you, Lu Chen."

"What is it?" I was getting a bad feeling about this.

Li Chengfeng replied, "Last night, Warsky sent October Rain and Lin Bing Dou Zhe to seduce our players. In the end, they were able to seduce 759 players with promises of greater profits."

Gui Guzi asked, "That’s not too bad, right? It’s not even a thousand players."

Li Chengfeng let out a mirthless chuckle. "The problem is that 87 of these players are mages from the Top 100 mages of our guild ranking, and 458 of them are from the Top 1000! Our mage party is dead, dammit! All we have left are second-rate players who don’t amount to much!"

I shivered. "Fuck! When it rains, it pours! Did those fuckers come to an agreement with Candle Dragon or something, that piece of shit Warsky!"

Li Chengfeng smiled. "It’s not difficult to understand their reason though. Ancient Sword currently has three Divine Generals, and both Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance view us as their biggest enemy. We’re not that big of a threat that they could set down their grudge and become allies, but they are perfectly willing to do anything in their power to weaken us. Speaking of which, I have one more bad news to share with you. Are you ready?"

"Mm, speak…"

"The 17th and 18th subguilds had left us to become the 34th and 35th subguilds of Candle Dragon. It was the guild leaders who made the decision."

I clenched my fists tightly. "Impossible. You’re telling me that everyone in the subguilds left with them?"

Li Chengfeng shook his head. "No, it’s not that bad. As you are aware, the maximum capacity of a subguild is just 10000 members. They took away our shells, so Xu Yang and I had to crawl out of our beds in the middle of the night and create another two subguilds. Thanks to our quick response, the bleeding stopped at less than 30%. Moreover, those who chose to leave us were all original members of the subguilds, so they didn’t feel a shred of loyalty toward us."

I looked at the sky for a moment before replying, "This is fine actually. I don’t want opportunists like this in my guild, and it’s better that they’re gone now than to have them stab us in the back later."

"Mm, I completely agree!" Li Chengfeng agreed with a smile.

……

Xu Yang spoke up. "I haven’t told this news to boss or Mingyue. What do we do now, Lu Chen? In what direction should we continue developing our guild? Are we really going to give up on building a mage party?"

"Of course not, when have I ever said that?" I shot him a reassuring smile before looking to the others. "Chengfeng, Little Gui, Chaos Moon, the development of our mages will be our first priority starting now. I want you three to scour every inch of the land for powerful mages! Our cavalry is currently renowned throughout the world, and it is only right that our mages become just as powerful!"

Gui Guzi smiled in support of my decision. "Leave it to us. Our cavalry has already been sufficiently developed, so now is the right time to focus on our mages. They will grow, one way or another."

Chaos Moon added, "But you gotta spare us some budget, man. How else do you think Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance managed to seduce our players? It’s all about that upfront payment. If we want to recruit the experts, we have to be willing to afford them. People won’t care about our reputation if we can’t pay them enough to put food on the table!"

I nodded. "Completely understandable. Starting now, you have 10% of Dark Moon City’s net profit to play with. I want the three of you to focus on developing our mage party. Can you do it?"

"Now that we have the money? Of course we can!" Chaos Moon said excitedly, "We’re already pretty famous. We can probably pay 25% of what Warsky Alliance offered and still recruit players of the same quality!"

"Mm, let’s all do our best, everyone… you know what, since it’s already noon why don’t we all go eat lunch together? It’s my treat!"

"Okay!"

The atmosphere brightened considerably after the conversation. I’m sure all the sorrow we felt from Moonlight Stone’s departure would lighten considerably after we downed several glasses of Red Star Erguotou down our throats.