My heart was in a mess as I exited the scenic area. Then, I sped toward the club base in the new district with Beiming Xue in tow.
The problem this time was a bit troublesome. It was normal for someone to poach our guild, but Moonlight Stone was our absolute pillar and the number one mage of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. The fact that someone had poached her proved just how big of a threat she was to us.
As the game progressed, the importance of mages became more and more obvious. Super mages were even more eye-catching, and OP mages like Luo River God of the Capital and Stranger of Three Lifetimes were practically gems in the game. It was crucial for any guild to have such a powerful mage as their guild's flag character.
In a battle between swords and magic, the cavalry charge was undoubtedly the most threatening. However, the most effective way to deal with the cavalry charge was in positional warfare. In positional warfare, the absolute leaders were two classes. One was the archer, and the other was the mage. The archer was specialized in physical attacks, so his ability to kill heavy cavalry was rather limited. This also meant that the mage was destined to be the bane of the cavalry!
Only super powerful mages could keep the cavalry at bay. At this point in the game, I had come to realize that the stronger a guild's mages were, the stronger their anti-cavalry ability would be. Just relying on Beiming Xue's archer party was far from enough. We needed to build our own powerful magic army!
However, at this time, our number one Mage was actually poached away by someone else!
I had to keep Moonlight Stone today, no matter what, or Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls would lose a corner of its fortress!
… …
Around 10: 30 am, I arrived at Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls' game base and rushed in with Beiming Xue. The guards recognized me, so they nodded and didn't stop me.
There were already a lot of people standing in the hall on the first floor. Moonlight Stone was wearing a white coat and dragging a heavy suitcase behind her.
Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the others were also present. The incident had attracted a bunch of elite players. Li Chengfeng and the others should've been at ASUS's club base otherwise.
"Lu Chen is here!" Xu Yang said quietly.
I walked up to him, but Moonlight Stone abruptly turned around and looked at me apologetically. "Lu Chen, I'm sorry. This time … I really must leave. I can't let big bro be controlled by someone else for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls …"
"Brother?"
I frowned and asked, "Moonlight Stone, what happened? What made you decide to leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls?"
Xu Yang bumped my shoulder to indicate that there was someone next to me.
It was a young man around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. He wore a black jacket and carried a backpack. He looked familiar.
"This is Moonlight Stone's older brother, and he's currently working for Candle Dragon. Candlelight Shadow purposely sent him over to persuade Moonlight Stone to leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls," Xu Yang said in a low voice.
I looked at the young man and said, "I know you, Tiger Leopard Knight. Everyone else, just look at me!"
The man was also staring at me in shock. "Lu Chen, it's you?!"
That's right, this person was the Tiger Leopard Warhorse rider I had saved in Nine Tigers Soul Suppressing Tower. He was the Thousand Mount Commander of Candle Dragon and a core member of Candle Dragon. However, I never imagined that this person was Moonlight Stone's older brother and that he would repay kindness with evil!
"I'm sorry, Lu Chen!"
Tiger Leopard Knight looked at me quietly and said in a low voice, "I'm a member of Candle Dragon, and Candlelight Shadow is the hero I've admired my entire life. That's why I can't let my sister stay in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. I've thought about this for a long time, and today I finally made the decision. Candle Dragon has set up a headquarters in Shanghai, and I'll bring Moonlight Stone there. She'll have a better life there than here."
I said indifferently, "You're saying that Moonlight Stone should join Candle Dragon, right?"
"That's right."
Tiger Leopard Knight's eyes were filled with determination as he said, "A few months ago, I also had a small guild that collapsed under Mad Dragon's attack. At that time, it was Candlelight Shadow and Blue Sky Scar who saved my guild and me. We even called each other brothers, and for the sake of this friendship, I, Tiger Leopard Knight, will never betray Candle Dragon. Moreover, I don't want to fight my sister on the battlefield, so Moonlight Stone must leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and join Candle Dragon!"
I sucked in a deep breath and looked at Moonlight Stone. "Moonlight, you're an adult, and the decision is yours. Do you … really want to leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and join our enemy guild?"
Moonlight Stone bit her lips and teared up. Her shoulders trembled as she said, "Lu Chen, I … I really can't turn you down. My parents passed away when I was young, and he's my only big brother. This time … big brother must have no other choice but to come here, and I can't make things difficult for him … Lu Chen, I … after I leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, I swear I won't cast a single spell as long as it's a battle between Candle Dragon and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, okay?"
I didn't say anything. I knew that I couldn't go against her will. Moonlight Stone had made up her mind to leave, and the rest of the book readers looked at her normally.
"Alright!"
I turned around and said to Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and everyone else, "Everyone, move aside and send Moonlight away. Don't make her sad, and let's part on good terms. Moonlight Stone will always be Moonlight Stone no matter where she goes."
I stared into Moonlight Stone's teary eyes and smiled at her. "Go. You're our friend, and you always will be!"
Moonlight Stone burst into tears and threw herself into my arms. She sobbed and said, "I don't want to leave, you know, you know!"
I nodded and said, "Of course I know. Everyone has their own path to walk, Moonlight. Just be happy in the future."
"Mn."
After crying for a while, Moonlight Stone wiped her tears and said to Tiger Leopard Knight, "Big bro, we can go now."
Tiger Leopard Knight nodded at me and walked outside with Moonlight Stone.
Everyone was silent as I escorted them out. A taxi was already waiting for them.
Before Moonlight Stone and Tiger Leopard Knight got into the car, I said, "Moonlight, the doors of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are always open to you. If you're unhappy outside, remember to come back!
Tiger Leopard Knight, you too. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls welcomes you, and you can come back with Moonlight at any time. "
Tiger Leopard Knight nodded. "Thank you!"
Moonlight Stone sat in the car and stared at us with teary eyes. The car slowly drove away until we couldn't see it anymore.
… …
"They're leaving just like that …" Moon Dew said sadly.
Gui Guzi shrugged. "Let's part on good terms …"
Chaos Moon said, "Pooh, what do you mean by 'part on good terms'? Candlelight Shadow is shameless. He can't fight Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls head-on, so he resorted to dirty tricks like this!"
Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath and said, "Actually, there's something I haven't told Lu Chen yet."
"What is it?" I had a bad feeling about this.
Li Chengfeng said, "Warsky sent October Rain, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, and a bunch of people last night to poach 759 people from our main guild."
Gui Guzi said, "Less than a thousand people? That's not a big deal, is it?"
Li Chengfeng sneered. "But of these 759 people, 87 of them are in the Top 100 of our guild's mage ranking!
458 of them are in the Top 1000 of our mage ranking!
It's safe to say that the mage party of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has fallen apart, and the ones left behind are second-rate mages! "
I shuddered. "Fuck, Warsky Alliance is hitting us when we're down. Did they make a deal with Candle Dragon?
Bastards, Warsky is a piece of shit! "
Li Chengfeng smiled. "It's simple. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls has three Divine Generals now, and that's more than enough to shake the world. Both Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance view us as a great enemy, and while they may not be willing to ally with us, they're more than willing to work together to weaken Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Also, there's one more thing you should be prepared for."
"Mn, tell me …"
"The guild leaders of the 17th and 18th subguilds of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls defected and took their subguilds to Candle Dragon. They became their 34th and 35th subguilds."
I clenched my fists. "That's impossible. Did all of our people go to Candle Dragon?"
Li Chengfeng shook his head. "Nope. Both subguilds only had a maximum of 10k members each, so they only took away their shells. Xu Yang and I woke up overnight and busied ourselves with rebuilding the two subguilds. Less than 30% of our members were taken away, and they were all former members of the two original guilds. They were completely unreliable, and they had zero loyalty to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls."
I looked up at the sky and said, "That's good. It's better for these fence-sitters to leave as soon as possible. If they stab us in the back at a critical moment, we'll be in real trouble."
"Yes, I agree!" Li Chengfeng smiled.
… …
Xu Yang said, "I haven't told boss and Mingyue about this yet. What should we do next, Lu Chen? Where is Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls going? Are we really going to abandon our mage party?"
"No, who said we're abandoning our mage party?"
I smiled. "Chengfeng, Little Gui, Chaos Moon, our guild is going to focus on mages, so I want you to find powerful mages everywhere you can. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls' cavalry is the best in the world, and our mage party can't be any worse!"
Gui Guzi chuckled. "Leave it to us. We've been building our cavalry recently, so we're going to focus on our mage party right now. There's no need to worry about our development."
Chaos Moon said, "But you'll have to give us some development funds. Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance are poaching our members, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls needs some experts to join us. We can't just rely on our reputation forever, can we? We need to make a living!"
I nodded. "No problem. Starting today, 10% of Dark Moon City's net profits will be given to the three of you. Focus on developing our mage party!"
"As long as we have money, there's no problem!"
Chaos Moon said excitedly. "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls' reputation is pretty good right now. We can poach players as powerful as Warsky Alliance with just 25% of their profits!"
"Mn. Let's do our best, everyone. Let's … eat lunch together. It's my treat!"
"Okay!"
Everyone's sadness turned to joy. A few glasses of Red Star Erguotou would probably wash away the sadness of Moonlight Stone's departure.