“Wait!”
“Is there anything else?”
“Just now…” whispered one of the men from Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild. “Just now, you and the two girls… your conversation…”
“Since when did the actions of the members of the Angel Corps require the interference from the people from Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild?” Nicole smiled. However, a chilling atmosphere exuded out from her smile.
“No, that is not what I mean.” Sweat trickled down the forehead of the one who spoke out earlier.
Within Zero City, there may be disputes between the various resident guilds every now and again. However, every one of the guilds would maintain a show of absolute respect toward the Angel Corps.
That was the iron-clad rule of Zero City!
“That is not what I mean.” The man who said that desperately tried to calm himself down and he quickly minced his words. “It’s just that those two person you talked with just now are VIPs of our guild. The things they talked to you about… those are our guild’s private matters. Please, please don’t interfere.”
“You want to know what we were talking about just now?”
“If you don’t mind, we would be most grateful for it…”
“Oh,” said Nicole who shrugged her shoulders. Then, she shook her head. “Grateful? I have no interest in that. You fellows want to know, but I am not interested in telling.”
After saying that, Nicole ignored them and swaggered out of the bar.
The two men looked at Nicole’s back as she left. It seemed as though they wanted to give chase. However, they were unable to bring themselves to do so in the end.
Provoke a member of the Angel Corps while inside Zero City?
Let’s ignore the fact that Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild was now at the precipice.
Even the other great guilds that were in peak condition would not dare do something like that.
In Zero City, the Angel Corps was an inviolable existence!
“What should we do?” The two fellows stood there. The one on the left wiped off the wine and glass fragments off his face and asked.
“What else can be done… I didn’t think the young miss would end up attracting the attention of someone from the Angel Corps. Unexpectedly, this Angel Corps personnel is so unreasonable.” The one on the right had a twisted face and he said, “You need to leave this city immediately. Contact Mr Qiao and tell him about this.”
…
“Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild? What an interesting name.” Chen Xiaolian smiled. “It gives a dangerous impression. But don’t you think this name is quite inauspicious? Mountain of blades and sea of flames…”
Qiao Yifeng turned to Chen Xiaolian and shook his head before speaking up. “Blade Mountain Flame Sea is the combined names of its founders.”
Names of its founders.
A thought struck Chen Xiaolian’s mind and he raised his head to look at Qiao Yifeng. He said, “Blade Mountain Flame Sea… mountain? I say, Old Man Qiao, could it be you…”
Qiao Yifeng nodded his head and said, “That is correct. I am the Mountain of Blade Mountain Flame Sea. The mountain word came from the ‘mountain peak’ (fēng) word in my name.
Chen Xiaolian straightened his body and he cast a solemn gaze at Qiao Yifeng.
All these while, Chen Xiaolian had known that Qiao Yifeng was the representative of that guild in the secular world. However, he never expected Father Qiao’s position to be this high.
He is actually one of the founders?
“Wait… you’re not that old, are you?” Chen Xiaolian frowned and cast a puzzled look at Qiao Yifeng. “If you are one of the founders… that means your Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild had not been established for too long now, has it? It had already become a resident guild of Zero City?
“30 years ago,” said Qiao Yifeng who put up three fingers. “30 years ago, we obtained the qualifications to become a resident guild of Zero City.”
Chen Xiaolian was unable to stop himself from whistling out.
For the resident guilds of Zero City, this would be considered a very new guild!
“Among all the resident guilds of Zero City, we have the least resources and experience. We are the youngest.”
As expected, Qiao Yifeng’s words verified Chen Xiaolian’s speculation.
“The earliest members of this guild include a group of veteran soldiers that I was a part of.” Qiao Yifeng gently pinched his fingers and said in a hushed tone. “We were veteran soldiers that had been baptized by the battlefields of war. We had participated in the Vietnam War that occurred in the last century.”
Chen Xiaolian nodded and said, “I remember you telling me that you were a group of veteran soldiers.”
“That’s right,” replied Qiao Yifeng with a sigh. “Later on, we became Awakened ones and established our own guild… I won’t elaborate about those matters. It is a very long story. There is nothing much to talk about anyways. It’s basically a series of trials of life and death, a struggle filled with blood and tears. Almost all the high-ranking guilds would have gone through all those. I believe that this should not be a foreign concept to you.”
Chen Xiaolian nodded his head.
He remembered the Qin Shihuang instance dungeon, the bloody battles in Tokyo, London…
“Our guild rose at an extremely fast rate. That was all thanks to the founding members of our guild. We were all veterans who had survived through many situations of life and death. We were originally the elites of the army to begin with. Compared to Awakened ones who were originally civilians, we had more combat abilities and knowledge. We understand war far more than them! How to protect ourselves, how to kill the enemy, how to… walk the thin line between life and death!
“We had all those advantages. Additionally, we also had fairly good luck. During the early days of our guild, we had some fortuitous encounters, which led to the explosive growth of our guild’s strength.
“30 years ago, we acquired the qualifications for permanent residence within Zero City. That was an extremely gruelling trial.
“The 30 years after that, we grew at an even greater rate and became an upstart within Zero City. The momentum behind our growth was able to put even the other resident guilds to pause.
“Our greatest accomplishment was to win this mine three times in a row! You have no way of knowing just how intense a battle it was for us in the first battle for this mine!”
Chen Xiaolian pondered silently before speaking up in a whisper, “I can imagine.”
It was not that difficult to imagine.
Just imagine… how difficult were the instance dungeons that Chen Xiaolian had to participate in!
As for the competition for the mine… the enemies that Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild had to face were even stronger!
The Awakened ones that Chen Xiaolian had encountered when he participated in instance dungeons were simply those like Phoenix’s Coffeehouse Guild, Qiu Yun or Culkin.
But the enemies that Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild had to face?
Any of them would be a large resident guild from Zero City! The strongest and most powerful within the Awakened circle!
But they managed to emerge victorious again and again!
Three times in a row!
That was not something that can be attributed to mere luck.
“In all of Zero City’s history, we, Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild had the fastest rate of growth and momentum among all the new guilds! Our future, was unimaginable… this was something that every other guilds in Zero City had to acknowledge.”
A frown began to form on Chen Xiaolian’s face.
He then shook his head and said, “Time for you to say ‘but’.”
“What?”
“Given how you are telling me all these, there will surely be a ‘but’ at the end, right? Otherwise, what is the point in telling me all these? It couldn’t be simply for the sake of showing off how powerful your guild is, right? If I had to guess, you are not someone with so much time in your hands. Thus… you might as well say the ‘but’ now.”
There was an odd look in Qiao Yifeng’s face. He exhaled deeply and said, “But… we recently encountered a problem. A very big problem.”
“I’m listening with bated breath,” said Chen Xiaolian with a smile.
Next, Qiao Yifeng told him something.
…
Zero City’s Board of Patriarchs is a very peculiar existence.
There are 33 seats in the Board of Patriarchs in total – theoretically speaking.
Naturally, there are only seven seats at present.
Earlier, Qiao Yifeng had explained that resident guilds of Zero City would be granted with benefits. Those benefits are the allocations.
The first one is the essential quota. It would be automatically given to every resident guild. All basic necessities and some resources, such as minerals and others would be given. This essential quota is something that would be directly given to the resident guilds without going through the Board of Patriarchs.
However, the second allocation, the additional allocation such as the quest for the mine is not something that is automatically assigned to the resident guilds.
Rather, it has to go through the Board of Patriarchs.
Every once in a while, Zero City’s system would produce some additional benefits. These benefits can be acquired through the completion of certain quests. Things like resources, mines etc.
Another way of putting it would be to equate those as Zero City’s instance dungeons.
It is more or less similar to the instance dungeon created by the main program of this world.
However, the allocation of these additional benefits has to go through the Board of Patriarchs.
This way of explaining it seems rather incomprehensible.
If so, let’s make it comprehensible. Within Zero City, there is a core area known as the Notification Centre.
Simply put, it is a big room.
In this room, there is a big screen.
Every once in a while, Zero City’s system would automatically issue out some quests, which would be displayed on the screen inside this room.
Time for the quest, coordinate, details… etc.
Only after reading the details would you be able to go do it.
If you do not know… that is the equivalent of having no chance.
Unless you were in the same situation as Chen Xiaolian, where you had been duped into going to your death only to end up accidentally striking the jackpot and completing the quest.
…
“That is a form of authority. The authority to know.” Qiao Yifeng gave a strained smile and said, “The Board of Patriarchs is not the owner of Zero City. However, it can use another method to do so. Monopolize the city, in other words… occupy the room known as the Notification Centre and make it so that no one else but those with the permission from the Board of Patriarchs can enter.
“If you cannot enter the room, you won’t be able to get the details of the quest that Zero City had issued out. If you do not know the quest, you would have no way to participate in the quest.
“That is how the Board of Patriarchs monopolizes the resources given by Zero City. It pools it all into the hands of the resident guilds and allocates it among them.
“Simply put, only members of the Board of Patriarchs are allowed to enter the Notification Centre. The seven resident guilds and the Angel Corps. A total of eight spots.”
Chen Xiaolian nodded his head and said, “Mm, and then? You have yet to tell me what kind of problem is Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild facing?”
“It’s very simple. We are about to be kicked out from the Board of Patriarchs,” said Qiao Yifeng with a very grim expression. “In other words… once we are kicked out of the Board of Patriarchs, we would have lost the additional allocation! In the future, we would no longer have any way to accept the quests given by Zero City. Those resources, those benefits… our guild will only continue to fall!
“Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild… is falling down!”
…