648 Chapter 648 - Wind in the Valley (1/2)
Aside from Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion, there was actually no one else among them that was prepared to log off for dinner. In the eyes of these players, it was these two men who were the weirdos, whereas in the duo's eyes, this lot of gamers were the real deviants for choosing to skip a meal.
Dusky Cloud was the guild leader of a very large guild, but his nature remained unchanged as he took the chance to find out and inquire after the guilds the two men were in, and how they were doing respectively. Gu Fei knew what his intentions were and casually replied with a few throwaway sentences; he figured that it was fine as long as he could instill in Dusky Cloud the fact that he did not have such a desire. Eternal Dominion, meanwhile, was honest. Given how he had been viewed by everyone to be a local tyrant the moment he entered the game in Luori City and that he had never had the experience of being propositioned by anyone from a guild before, the man suspected nothing and simply told him the truth when Dusky Cloud tried finding out about the guild he was part of.
Dusky Cloud was secretly delighted when he heard that such a celebrated expert was actually without a guild, and he immediately began the inveiglement process. He first tried leveraging the fact that they were both within the ranks of the Five Unyielding Experts, only for Eternal Dominion to express his doubts. ”You're one of the Five Unyielding Experts, too?”
”Heh… It seems that we haven't been formally introduced yet. My name's Dusky Cloud.” He chuckled affably.
Eternal Dominion scratched his head, turning to look at Gu Fei to say, ”Dusky Cloud? Is there such a person among the Five Unyielding Experts?”
Dusky Cloud saw the earnestness Eternal Dominion was showing and suddenly felt a little nervous as well. Indeed, he had not gotten the chance to check Parallel World's experience leaderboards these past few days. Could someone below him have managed to squeeze him out of his position? Just as he was thinking of finding his friends to confirm this, he heard Eternal Dominion add, ”The Five Unyielding Experts I remember are Drifting, Svelte Dancer, Southern Lone Blade, Deep Waters, and me!”
Dusky Cloud's mouth hung agape. Gu Fei could no longer stand it and interjected, ”What edition of the rankings do you have there? Southern Lone Blade already perished by your hands; how could he still be an Unyielding Expert?”
”Oh, I forgot about that.” Eternal Dominion came to the realization. ”So, who are the five now?”
Dusky Cloud was stunned for a good moment before answering, ”Now, it's you, Drifting, me, Slyris, and Brave Surge.”
Eternal Dominion scratched his head, evidently having not heard of some of those names.
”Aside from you two, the rest are all Mages.” Gu Fei, on the other hand, knew a lot.
”Yeah. Isn't Brave Surge someone from Yunduan City?” Dusky Cloud asked.
Gu Fei nodded. ”He's also a guild leader.”
”I've heard that before,” Dusky Cloud commented.
”Does Miles bro know anything about Slyris?” Dusky Cloud continued to inquire.
”She's a lady from Xiawu City.” Gu Fei told him.
The situation with the Five Unyielding Experts was no secret, and anyone interested could easily learn more on the forums after a bit of nosing about. Dusky Cloud actually had quite an understanding of his fellow Unyielding Experts, and he was merely using these information tidbits to find a topic to chat with Gu Fei. Otherwise, he would be unable to stand it if the two men started talking about things like single hook, double palm strike, palm thrust, spinning elbow, and other such things. Furthermore, Dusky Cloud was the de facto head of the Ten Guild Alliance here in Yueye City, and he no longer made decisions based on his hot-bloodedness or his likes and dislikes. Recruiting newcomers, coordinating with his fellow guild members, negotiating with other guilds… Even though he was just the leader inside a MMO, the fact was he still had plenty of responsibilities to shoulder. Being in the position that Dusky Cloud was now in, he too had every intention to give it his all and do a good job leading the alliance, so of course he could no longer act like before and say things without putting any thought to it.
Take now as an example; he originally had nothing to talk about with Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion, but he managed to find a common topic between them after much effort. This very suave method of dealing with this situation was similar to how Silver Moon did things in the past. Had he persisted with the temperament of the Dusky Cloud from before, they would not even be talking now since there was nothing to talk about. It would be unlike what was happening right now; he would not see the need to waste time talking nonsense just for him to keep a conversation going with the other party, especially when he already knew about the topic in question. Sometimes, even Dusky Cloud found his present self a little nauseating each time he thought back on how he had acted during such times. He suddenly thought of that timeless saying, 'When one is in Jianghu, one will soon adapt accordingly,' and realized how applicable it was to his current predicament.
Dusky Cloud went through the topics and changed them in such a fashion that the conversation slowly shifted back to the issue of guild development, as he spoke in detail about the ideals he hoped to achieve by establishing his guild, as well as the major problems he was currently facing; one of which was of course the lack of talented individuals in the guild. The conversation digressed once more, and just as he was about to probe the guild-less Eternal Dominion about his thoughts on the matter, he saw Gu Fei come to a halt. ”Alright, Old Cloud. Why are you sending us so far for? It's not like we don't know our way back. You should head back now and quickly continue to practice the efficient monster grinding routine!”
”Ah?” Dusky Cloud froze up. It seemed that the other party did not hear a word of what he had said before when he was trying to build an amiable rapport. Dusky Cloud was in tears; he was still not very good at doing this sort of thing! Helpless, he was about to wave his hand and bid farewell when Gu Fei became alert. ”Someone's here!”
”What?” Dusky Cloud was taken aback.
”A Thief on Stealth.” Gu Fei said this as he leaped to the side. Eternal Dominion's reaction was extremely nimble as well. Lifting his hand and thrusting it out, he scattered white dust about. Unfortunately, the valley they were was windy, and Eternal Dominion did not consider the wind direction when he scattered the white dust, so it ended up dispersing in the wind, coating the three men with the powder, instead. Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion did not really seem bothered by it, but it was Dusky Cloud who felt miserable. Thieves had the habit of going into Stealth once they were to engage in a fight. Dusky Cloud was in the process of doing just that when Eternal Dominion's white dust was blown over to him, interrupting his Stealth and leaving him staring blankly as he stood there, completely at a loss on what he should do. He was one of the formidable Five Unyielding Experts from Yueye City – a region known for its crazy PK-ing. After his Stealth got interrupted in such a manner, what experience he had was momentarily insufficient, and he was completely clueless on what he should be doing now.
”Dodge!” Gu Fei was also surprised when he saw Dusky Cloud stood there petrified like a wooden block. He had fought alongside with normal players plenty of times, and even though most of them had no idea how to detect where the Stealthed Thieves were positioned, most would at least very expertly run off when they realized that one was around. At the very least, they would not just stand there and wait for the Thief to strike. Dusky Cloud was someone from Yueye City, after all; why would not even know something so common?
Dusky Cloud snapped out of his daze and hurried to reposition himself, deftly zigzagging and throwing a hand of white dust when he turned around.
Yueye City was adjacent to Baishi City, and with the increase of players traveling between cities, the wondrous item called the 'white dust' was no longer just something only players in Baishi City would use, and it was more likely for players residing in the PK-crazed Yueye City than the players from Baishi City itself to be carrying a pouch or two around.
Dusky Cloud did not throw this out without any consideration like what Eternal Dominion had done. The man made sure to take note of the wind's direction before he loosened the pouch and emptied its content. The dust covered a wide area thanks to the wind's help, and instantly, eight Thieves were exposed by that one action.
These eight Thieves all had their faces masked, yet Dusky Cloud was already laughing emotionlessly. ”Wraith Pig, you idiot. What's the point of keeping your face covered in such a manner? Do you really think that I wouldn't recognize you, m*th*f*ck*r?”
In Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion's eyes, the eight Thieves that had so abruptly appeared looked identical to one another going by the way they were dressed and with their similar physique, and this made it really hard to differentiate them from one another. Gu Fei was surprised that Dusky Cloud was able to recognize this player from these sparse details, and he could not help but see the man in a new light.
Meanwhile, when this person heard his name being called out thusly, and that Dusky Cloud had managed to identify him, he glumly pulled off the cloth that was covering his face. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Dusky Cloud's expression change. ”D*mn. It's really you, m*th*rf*ck*r!”
”F*ck!” The player called Wraith Pig instantly became flustered, looking as if he wanted to place the cloth back on his face, but having already pulled it off in the first place, keeping his face hidden any further would just be meaningless. In that moment when this Thief was left at a loss on what to do, the other seven men beside him gave him a look of contempt.
Gu Fei was dumbfounded as well! It seemed that Dusky Cloud had not truly identified the man the first time round, but had just made a lucky guess about the person's identity! In the end, the other party was just too honest, so he got tricked by such a remark. Even Gu Fei really believed that Dusky Cloud was being serious when he called out the name; it was truly a testament of how convincing Dusky Cloud's acting had been.
”G*dd*mm*t. Your ambushing has even gotten you setting your sights on yours truly.” Dusky Cloud continued his mirthless laughter.
Based off what Gu Fei overheard from this exchange, he was certain that the two parties were acquainted, and it was very likely that they had quite a history between them. This sort of altercation between guilds was really just a pile of bad debts and grudges, sometimes even going as far as to antagonize each other for the sake of antagonizing each other. If somebody were to ask one of the parties the reason for their bad blood, there was a high chance the answer would be something along the lines of: ”He's too arrogant, so he deserves a beating!”
There was no right or wrong when it came to this sort of altercation, and Gu Fei believed it to be nothing more than a form of entertainment players sought for at the end of the day. Thus, he did not feel that it was his place to spoil things. Waving his hand to Dusky Cloud, he said, ”I'll leave you to your business, Old Cloud; we're taking our leave first.”
”Ah?” Dusky Cloud was shocked, and even the other eight Thieves found this strange. The pair were obviously on friendly terms with Dusky Cloud, so even if they were not particularly close friends, was it not just a tad bit too shameless to casually say ”We're taking our leave first” in such a situation?
Dusky Cloud was also unprepared for this. His memory of Gu Fei was the man who demonstrated a strong brotherhood code when he lent a hand to help put down Past Deeds a long time ago, causing an earthshaking upheaval that shook the entire city. He did not consider how different the matter at hand was to what had happened before. There were very specific factors to that situation with Past Deeds back then, but the Gu Fei right now was uninterested in disturbing their pursuit of fun in the game.
Alas, Dusky Cloud could not possibly rush over, hugging Gu Fei's leg as he was leaving and wailing, ”Save me! Don't go!” All he could do was stare blankly as he bade farewell like how he would usually say goodbye, ”Oh… Have a good one…”
”Thanks.” Gu Fei nodded, not even turning around as he nonchalantly walked away. Eternal Dominion, for his part, followed him hesitantly. He turned around, doubtful. ”Shouldn't we help?”
When Wraith Pig saw how lost Dusky Cloud looked, a sardonic laughter burst forth. ”Dusky Pig, don't be afraid. You want their help, don't you? I'll help you ask them.” Dusky Pig and Wraith Pig seemed to be nicknames the other party mockingly called of their accord. Just like how Dusky Pig's real name was Dusky Cloud, Wraith Pig's real name would of course not be Wraith Pig, but Wraithspeak.