Jiang Kai was about to leave Qingyun Sect. When he walked to the main gate, he turned around and looked toward the training grounds.
"Han Yi, come spar with me!" In the distance, Sun Yuan shouted to Jiang Kai.
"Senior brother, where are you going? Want me to go with you?"
"Let senior brother clear his head a bit. There's plenty of grass across the land, why cling to just one flower? If you need someone to keep you company, come find us anytime!"
"Yeah!" Sun Yuan yelled, "When it comes to love, we're experts!"
Looking at these "fellow disciples," Jiang Kai shook his head with a smile.
After more than two months in Qingyun Sect, he was already familiar with this bunch.
Honestly, even without Mr. Three Swords' relationship, Jiang Kai really liked staying in Qingyun Sect. These senior and junior brothers were like one big family.
Although Sun Yuan's love guide was utterly useless… at least he was trying hard to help him come up with ideas.
"No need!" Jiang Kai shouted back, then lowered his voice and muttered to himself, "Everyone, sorry I lied to you, but our fate isn't over yet. We'll meet again."
With that, Jiang Kai pushed the door open and left.
On the way past the Kunlun Guild, Jiang Kai glanced at the towering gate, sighed lightly, and quickened his pace.
Five days later, Jiang Kai returned from Zone 1 to Zone 18 main city.
Inside the Lord God Guild, there were even more people than before. Looks like He Shishi and the others had been working hard, constantly expanding the Lord God Guild.
A wooden sign hung at the front of the guild, reading, "Lord God Guild long-term recruitment. Requirements as follows: Good character, any class welcome, excellent talent, rather too few than too many!"
He Shishi's workload was massive. For every person joining the Lord God Guild, she would conduct a full online and offline investigation.
Maybe she was traumatized by Jiang Kai's incident last time, because now she checked even more thoroughly. And basically, she had Sijihua personally verify things.
"Jiang Kai?" Xia Hua happened to see him pacing at the entrance as she stepped out. "You good-for-nothing guild master, where did you run off to again?"
Jiang Kai glared at her. "What do you mean good-for-nothing? You think I don't worry myself sick over the guild?"
"Hmph, worry yourself sick? Doesn't look like it." Xia Hua snorted. "Go on then, tell me how exactly you're worrying."
"I—I went and found us an ally for our Lord God!"
"Tch, everyone knows your thing with Xuanwu. Besides the nine neutral profession guilds, what other guild would ally with us?"
"That's because your business skills are lacking!" Jiang Kai snorted. "Anyway, go find He Shishi. I've got something to tell her. Have her meet me in the backyard."
Xia Hua looked him up and down suspiciously. "You, go pull in an ally… fine, I'll call Shishi-jie."
Before long, He Shishi arrived in the backyard.
"I heard from Xia Hua that you pulled in an ally? What small guild is it?"
Jiang Kai gave a cheeky grin. "So what exactly happened between you and that Zhu Hai ten years ago?"
"None of your business!" He Shishi instantly snapped.
"Knew I hit a sore spot…" Jiang Kai's curiosity was fully satisfied, but seeing He Shishi upset, he put away his grin. "Anyway, Brother Zhu helped out a lot. Still gotta thank you for introducing me."
He Shishi shot him a look, her tone softening. "You… that's all you wanted to say? I wronged you before. Think of it as I owe you one…"
Jiang Kai smiled slightly. Honestly, with how she'd been managing the Lord God Guild for him, he'd long stopped caring about the past.
Actually… she wasn't that annoying.
"Uh, well, the ally I got is the Qingyun Guild."
"What?" He Shishi almost shrieked. "The ancient martial Qingyun Guild? Impossible! They don't form alliances with any other sects. Even the top ten guilds get turned away!"
"Really? Anyway, you can relax. My relationship with Qingyun Sect is solid. When our guild upgrades to a B-rank guild, we'll open a branch in Zone 1." Jiang Kai said, "Oh, and we're not making the alliance public for now. Don't tell anyone."
He Shishi studied him. "You're not afraid I'll tell Xuanwu?"
Jiang Kai smiled. "I don't believe you're on the same side as Liu Yuanxiang and the others. If you are… then I misjudged you."
"And if you dare leak it, I'll expose your deal with Brother Zhu!"
"Jiang Kai! You're still so awful!"
"Women don't love a guy unless he's a little bad." Jiang Kai said, shaking his head smugly as he walked off.
Watching his cocky back, He Shishi narrowed her eyes and growled, "No wonder he can't get a girlfriend!"
"But… if we can secretly ally with Qingyun Guild, that's a huge boost for the Lord God Guild's development! Looks like we need to speed up the guild upgrade!"
Ruan Yu, Ouyang Yi, and Zhao Tiequan were resting in the grass hut in the rear garden.
When Jiang Kai came in, the three were playing cards.
"You guys are all here!" Jiang Kai said as soon as he entered and saw them. "Where's Old Hu?"
Seeing Jiang Kai, Ouyang Yi immediately tossed away his cards. "Captain Kai, you told us to wait for you. We've been waiting two months!"
"Ouyang, you lost and still haven't paid!" Zhao Tiequan snapped.
Ruan Yu sighed. "Ugh, just when I finally got a good hand… Captain Kai, you're back."
"Old Hu… went to see his friend. He left yesterday, stayed overnight, probably coming back soon."
Jiang Kai saw Ruan Yu giving him a look and instantly guessed Hu Yan must have gone to see Dongli.
Thinking about his own miserable situation, then looking at Hu Yan, Jiang Kai could only give a helpless shake of his head.
This is the difference between people, huh.
Right then, someone outside whistled and swaggered through the door.
"Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao appears." Ruan Yu said as he looked at the man at the door. "Captain Kai, look, he's back."
"Captain Kai!" Hu Yan immediately dropped his smug look the second he saw Jiang Kai.
Now the four were all together.
"Anything happen lately?"
"Nothing major. Anyway, He Shishi wanted us to take people out to level up, so we were gone a few days," Zhao Tiequan said. "The guild's overall strength increased quite a bit. A few promising newcomers showed up."
"What do you mean nothing!" Ouyang Yi said. "Captain Kai, Zhao Tiequan is dating Chunlan!"
"Oh damn!" Jiang Kai stared at Ouyang Yi. "So that's why you were so willing to join my guild. You had bad intentions from the start? Even rabbits don't eat the grass by their own burrow, yet you go after our own people!"
"No way!" Zhao Tiequan hurried to explain. "Me and Chunlan are truly in love!"
The other four stared at him expressionlessly.
Seeing this, Zhao Tiequan sighed. "I'm not lying this time! Before getting with Chunlan, I broke up with seventeen other girlfriends!"
Jiang Kai nearly took internal damage from that.
"I'm this great and still single, and you had seventeen?" Ouyang Yi couldn't hold back anymore.
Zhao Tiequan smiled faintly. "Maybe I don't have Captain Kai's strength, but I'm handsome."
"Captain Kai, I really want to hit him." Ouyang Yi muttered.
"Same." Ruan Yu said darkly.
Jiang Kai took a deep breath to suppress the urge to beat Zhao Tiequan up.
After this matchmaking trip, Jiang Kai had also made a decision.
He remembered Chang Siyao once said she wanted to join the China War God Hall, but Jiang Kai didn't want to run into her again. So between the China War God Hall headquarters and the local War God Halls, he chose the latter.
Though the local halls didn't offer the same benefits as the headquarters, choosing them had its own advantages.
Hu Yan and Ruan Yu would probably enter local War God Halls, and they could become teammates on the Beast God Battlefield.
Also, though Yingzi was in the capital, at least she knew where he was.
But his big brother… missing for so long. If he ever came back someday, someone had to be waiting for him.
Thinking of this, Jiang Kai said, "We can fight later. Let me ask something first. What level are you all now?"
The four reported their levels.
Hu Yan, Grand National Master level 16.
Ruan Yu, Wine Immortal level 17.
Zhao Tiequan, National Hero level 20.
Ouyang Yi, Judge level 20.
Jiang Kai thought for a bit, then said to Zhao Tiequan, "Old Zhao, when are you breaking through to War God?"
"My family wants me to at least reach Unparalleled Wanderer before breaking through."
Jiang Kai nodded. "Ouyang, what about you?"
"I'm worse off. I've never been to an unknown region, and I don't have materials. I don't even know if I'll ever break through."
Jiang Kai nodded again, then looked to Hu Yan and Ruan Yu. He knew their situations well, so he didn't ask further.
"To enter the War God Hall, you usually need a year of experience as a Wanderer, but that's too long… how about this: when I have time, I'll take you to the Unparalleled Area to train. We shouldn't need a full year."
"We'll see if anyone else in the guild meets the requirements, and bring them too."
Hu Yan said, "Shen Yi qualifies. He's already fourth rank."
"He's back?"
"Yeah, but… after logging off last time, he went home and saw his ex-girlfriend… uh, the one who's now his aunt. He suddenly became enlightened and ordained."
"Ordained? Isn't he already a hermit monk?"
"I mean he became ordained in real life…"
"Uh…"
Ruan Yu added, "That guy stayed in a temple for half a year before logging in again. The moment he logged on, he just kept breaking through. No idea what's going on."
Jiang Kai couldn't figure out the connection either, so he set Shen Yi's matter aside.
"I'll guide you at the start. After that, you'll rely on yourselves. Only then will your strength grow fast."
"Damn, straight to the Unparalleled Area…" Ouyang Yi looked thrilled. "Amazing! Captain Kai, when do we leave?"
"Captain Kai, there's one more thing," Hu Yan suddenly said. "China will open the Guardian Lord in one month!"
Jiang Kai immediately frowned.
Hu Yan had been on Ghost Star for years. He probably wasn't unfamiliar with the Guardian Lord. And opening the Guardian Lord… that was the perfect time for them to take Dongli away!
"Old Hu, take me to see your friend." Jiang Kai said, his tone deep.
"Alright!"
"I'm coming too!" Ruan Yu said.
"What friend are you guys going to see?" Zhao Tiequan asked curiously. "Not taking us?"
Hu Yan shook his head. "Old Zhao, Ouyang, we'll explain later. Don't get involved in this one."
[T/N: I have continued all the novels that were paused due to account being susp*nded, in a new account. All the reason and such are in disc0rd with the l!nks to new novels as well. I have also pinned one of the books below, in this chapter, so that you can access others through that account.]