Chapter 26

Jing Huan never expected that Heart’s Yearning would actually bring him along.

Although Heart’s Yearning’s reputation had already been significantly tarnished, his skills remained intact. The major guilds had merely stopped aggressively recruiting him—it wasn’t that they no longer wanted him.

He even suspected that Heart’s Yearning’s in-game private messages might explode from being overloaded.

Jing Huan snapped back to reality, opening his emoji collection to act cute, but upon seeing his stash of funny NBA player memes, he gave up.

He nudged Lu Wenhao with his elbow: “Hao’er.”

Lu Wenhao turned his head: “What?”

“Send me some of those cute stickers from your WeChat.”

Lu Wenhao looked at him strangely, “What do you want that for?”

Before Jing Huan could explain, Lu Wenhao raised his voice even louder, “Oh—Huanhuan! You’ve been chasing after some girl lately, haven’t you?!”

Jing Huan: “…”

His voice was loud enough that half the restaurant turned to look. Gao Zixiang, who was sitting nearby, was startled and immediately put down his phone, “What nonsense? Who’s chasing a girl? Which girl?”

“First stealing my photos, now posting about dolls—tell me, did you hook up with some anime-loving girl who’s obsessed with pink?” Lu Wenhao asked.

Gao Zixiang: “Really? You like that type?”

Jing Huan was originally struggling with how to fool these two, but they handed him the perfect excuse on a silver platter.

“Yeah,” Jing Huan said with a straight face. “But the girl doesn’t even look at me twice. I’m trying to figure out how to change that. Enough chit-chat—hurry up and send me those stickers. If I keep replying this slowly, how am I supposed to chase anyone?”

“Oh, alright, alright.” Lu Wenhao quickly opened WeChat and shared his entire collection without hesitation.

Jing Huan saved all the images, then selected one featuring two little kittens embracing and sent it to the group chat.

Xiao Jing ya: [Image]@Xiang

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t have time to look at this meticulously chosen meme just yet.

The moment he posted the announcement, his game interface was instantly flooded with friend request notifications. In less than half a minute, he had received over forty messages.

The game “Mirror Flower, Water Moon” has been live for several years, and the server is teeming with max-level guilds. The only differences between guilds lie in their members’ strength and the number of herb fields they possess.

At the same time, the world chat erupted in chaos.

[World] Forever Paying: God Xiang actually joined a guild? [Shocked]

[World] Waiting for the Wind: Obviously, with the guild dungeons released, even the top players need to farm them.

[World]Little Luo: How is he suddenly a “great god”? Have you all forgotten what he did recently? Still sucking up to him?

[World]Handsome Shuai: Cheating and betrayal don’t change the fact he’s skilled. Besides, Fairy Mengmeng clearly isn’t any saint either.

[World]Pudding Dot: Wait… shouldn’t the main point be Fox Immortal Cave? Could it really be that Fox Immortal Cave…

[World]Waiting for Wind: I think it’s that Fox Immortal Cave too!

[World] Big Bro: Of course it is, isn’t it obvious?

Players exchanged knowing glances and began speaking in riddles.

“These people are way too funny,” Lu Hang watched with amusement. “Little Jing Jing’s impressive, she just bought that account and already half the server knows her. Amazing.”

Xiang Huaizhi ignored him and didn’t check the world channel either. He opened his messages instead, reading each one patiently before replying.

Since all the visiting guilds were max-level, what he wanted to see was naturally the conditions each guild offered.

[Private Chat] Wish You Joy: Is Xiangshen around? Would you consider joining our guild, South of the Painted Pavilion? You can harvest from any of the three herb fields in the guild, and the alchemy lab will be open for you every day.

[Whisper] Meteor Brother: God Xiang, come to our Shattered Heavens. Whatever benefits Southern Tower is offering you, I’ll give you 10% more.

[Private Chat] Wish You Happiness: Xiang Shen, is that idiot clan Breaking the Heavens also PMing you? Let me tell you, their medicine field rotations are super slow, the clan’s always tearing itself apart with internal drama, and they’ve caused multiple forum scandals—you definitely shouldn’t join them!

[Private Message] Meteor Bro: By the way, God Xiang, let me remind you—Hualou South Bank is totally unreliable. Every time there’s a guild war, they resort to dirty tricks. They’re public enemy number one among all guilds in the server. You’d better not join them.

Xiang Huaizhi knew these two guilds well—they constantly declared each other as enemies and fought every other day. Better to steer clear.

He kept scrolling and finally found a decent one. The guild was called “Number One Under Heaven,” a major guild. Though their terms weren’t as good as the previous two, they were peaceful and didn’t like stirring up trouble.

Lovepeace.

Recalling what Little Sweet Scene had said that day, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly as he prepared to discuss the specifics with this guild leader.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: Are you there?

[Private Chat] Heart’s Desire: No.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: Would you consider joining the Idle Pavilion?

Their messages were sent almost simultaneously.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: “…[haha] Bro, at least let me finish talking before you reject me.”

[Private Chat] Heart’s Desire: Mhm.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: Three herb fields, alchemy room open daily, elite position.

[Private Chat] HeartYearns: Not considering it.

[Private Chat] AutumnMaple: Can I ask why?

[Private Chat] HeartYearns: The terms offered aren’t the best.

[Private Chat] AutumnMaple: Then we can still negotiate.

[Private Chat] Heartyearns: You’ve had issues with the Fox Immortal Cave in my team before.

This was the real reason, and Qiufeng had already guessed it. After discussing it with Chunxiao, he decided to reach out to Heartyearns.

[Private Chat] Qiufeng: Those were all misunderstandings. I’ve already explained everything clearly to the guild members. I promise nothing like that will happen again.

[Private Chat] Heartyearns: Let’s just drop it.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: No need to beat around the bush. I’ll be straight with you. We approached you because we want to secure the first clear of this dungeon.

Along with the official dungeon introduction, the corresponding rewards for clearing it were also listed below. One of them states: “Guild dungeons will be released in phases. The guild that achieves the first clear in the server will receive rewards including 50 honor points, 5 community maintenance points, a 20% increase in herb field expansion speed for three months, and more. The first team to clear the dungeon will have a 100% chance to obtain high-tier material rewards.”

With these guild attributes, combined with the lead they already had, even if the Leisure Pavilion didn’t complete a single guild mission for an entire year, they could still comfortably hold the top spot in the guild rankings.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: If you join another guild, the high-tier material rewards would definitely have to be handed over to the guild. Our guild doesn’t enforce that—we roll the dice together, and whatever you win is yours. The Warlock in your team must be preparing to forge a divine artifact, right? They must be in desperate need of high-tier materials.

[Private Chat] Autumn Maple: Don’t worry too much either. Someone as adorable as SweetScenery definitely won’t hold a grudge.

She doesn’t hold grudges.

But after being hunted down for so long, she must be a little miffed.

Xiang Huaizhi was about to decline when he saw Autumn Maple mention that high-level materials would be distributed by dice roll. His typing hand paused.

He didn’t lack these high-level materials; he could always grind them out by doing more quests, but he couldn’t guarantee his teammates wouldn’t want them.

So, he opened WeChat, indifferently skimmed through the previous chat history, and then posted a screenshot of his conversation with Qiufeng.

Jing Huan was on his way home when he saw the picture, and his footsteps involuntarily came to a halt.

Lu Wenhao urged him, “What’s up, Huanhuan! Hurry up, I still need to rush back to do laundry!”

Jing Huan replied, “Oh… coming.”

He unlocked his phone screen, but after fumbling with his fingers for a while, he couldn’t manage to type out a single sentence.

He really wanted to go back in time and beat up his past self—why on earth did he have to go and set himself up as someone who doesn’t hold grudges?!

Letting him into the Idle Pavilion would be like sending a lamb straight into a pack of wolves! Sure, the Idle Pavilion has promised not to kill him for now, but what about later? What if that lovesick fool suddenly changes her mind one day and accuses him of seducing her girlfriend again? He’d be pinned down and slaughtered in the guild territory in no time!

Xiao Jing: [shivering with fear]

Little Jing: “…Are they really not going to kill me? I’m still so scared, sob sob QAQ”

He’s already made it sound so pitiful, shouldn’t “Heart’s Desire” get the hint?

Little Path Never Gets Lost: Don’t worry! Brother Path will protect you! With the two of us around, they definitely won’t dare to kill you.

Little Path Never Gets Lost: Or do you dislike Chunxiao and the others, and don’t want to be in the same guild with them?

Little Jing: …How could I possibly dislike them?

Xiao Jing: I’m not holding a grudge, just feeling a bit scared.

Xiao Jing: [sad][sad][sad]

Xiang: Got it.

Got it? Got what?

Jing Huan still wanted to ask, but Lu Wenhao urged him again from ahead. After hesitating for a moment, he put his phone back in his pocket, planning to think about how to reject the offer after getting home.

Upon arriving home, he turned on his computer and swiftly launched the game.

As soon as the game interface loaded, a guild invitation popped up.

[Your friend Heart’s Desire invites you to join the guild “Idle Pavilion.” Accept, Decline.]

“…” Jing Huan pressed ‘agree’ with utter despair.

[Guild Announcement: Welcome Xiao Tian Jing to the Idle Pavilion Guild!]

Today, the chat channel of the Idle Pavilion guild was eerily quiet. Since Xin Xiang Wang Zhi and Lu Tiao Tiao joined, hardly anyone had been active. The rare one or two people who spoke were mostly in-game merchants trading items in the chat.

After Xiao Tian Jing joined the guild, even the merchants stopped talking.

Jing Huan sent a private message to Heart’s Yearning, but there was no reply. The coordinates remained unchanged, likely indicating the player was AFK.

Having already completed his daily quests before heading out, Jing Huan decided to fly over to Heart’s Yearning’s idle location and circled around him out of boredom.

Just as he was about to find a movie to watch, a new message finally appeared in the guild channel.

[Guild] No Return Date: OMG! A friend sent me a screenshot this evening—Heart’s Yearning was actually recruiting for a guild in the world chat! Did you all see it?

[Guild] Destiny Peach Oolong: …Qiqi, you just logged in?

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: Yeah, I just got home. Peach, did you see the announcement?

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: Wait, let me finish! Xin Xiang Wang Zhi insists on bringing a Fox Fairy Cave player into the guild with him! And he won’t let us disband the team! I bet that Fox Fairy Cave player is Xiao Tian Jing!

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: They must be involved, right?!

[Guild] Destiny Peach Tea: ……

[Guild] Wind Freer Than Me: ……

[Guild] Sweet Scenery: ……

[Guild] Don’t Ask When: ?

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: What’s up with you guys? Why is the guild so quiet today? Where is everyone?

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: By the way, which guild did Heart’s Desire end up joining?

[Guild] Little Sweet Scenery: Who knows? It depends on which guild offered the best conditions [cute]~

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: Hehe, to be honest, I secretly added Heart’s Desire as a friend. I’ll go check which guild he’s in now.

For the next two minutes, Mo Wen Gui Qi didn’t appear again.

[Guild] Xiao Tian Jing: @Mo Wen Gui Qi Finished reading? Where did Xin Xiang Wang Zhi go?

Xiang Huaizhi had just returned from making a phone call and happened to see this message.

He couldn’t be bothered to scroll through the chat history, so he casually replied.

[Guild] Heart’s Desire: Here.

[Guild] Mo Wen Gui Qi: ……

[Guild] No Questioning the Return: [kneeling and kowtowing]… I’m sorry, I must have been blind just now…

[Guild] Destiny Peach Tea: [thumbs up] Absolutely incredible.

[Guild] You’re Sick I Have Medicine: A-Qi, you’re truly a genius.

[Guild] Listening to Rain: I laughed so hard the aunt next door came knocking to warn me that raising chickens is prohibited in the apartment building.

The guild channel instantly erupted in chatter, and Jing Huan also laughed for quite a while. Just as he was about to continue typing, he was interrupted by a sudden announcement popping up in the bottom left corner.

[Announcement] Xiangsi Buguzhu: Apologies for the interruption, everyone. There’s something I need to clarify. Previously, there were some misunderstandings between Xianren Pavilion and Xiao Tianjing, which led to tensions between both sides. After investigation, it’s been confirmed that the account “Xiao Tianjing,” also known as “Don’t You Frown,” has indeed changed hands. My earlier statement of “recognizing the account, not the person” was said in anger and wasn’t meant to be unreasonable.

I sincerely apologize for all the trouble caused to Xiao Tianjing during this time and am willing to compensate for her death losses. I also warmly welcome Xiao Tianjing, Heart’s Desire, and Long Journey to join Xianren Pavilion. Let us work together to build a better guild.】

After reading it, Jing Huan was completely stunned.

…What’s going on?

A vague thought crossed his mind. He immediately opened the chat window with Heart’s Desire, forgetting even to act cute, and sent several question marks in a row.

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Saw the announcement?

[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: …Hmm, but why though?

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Our guild’s recruitment condition.

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Still feeling wronged?

Jing Huan was baffled—when had he ever said he felt wronged?

He opened WeChat and realized that he had absentmindedly sent three “委屈” (wronged/upset) emojis in the group chat earlier.

[Friend] SweetJing: …Not upset anymore.

[Friend] HeartLeaps: Okay.

Jing Huan’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, staring intently at that single “Okay” for a long moment before finally processing its meaning.

He quickly leaned back, pressing his palm against his chest, feeling his slightly accelerated heartbeat while sounding alarms in his mind—

Here it comes!

This scumbag! Starting to unleash his charm now!