Chapter 856: The Fierce Flame Sect's Tianlong (1/2, please subscribe)

Just as Fang Yue thought this far, he suddenly seemed to notice something and abruptly stopped in his tracks.

Because he had heard the name of a sect.

"I'm a member of the Fierce Flame Sect, after all—how could I possibly cheat you! Brat, hurry up and sell me those pills—miss this village and you'll never find this shop again!"

Fierce Flame Sect?

Fang Yue looked toward the voice and was momentarily stunned.

Because he saw an acquaintance he could hardly call an acquaintance.

He seemed to recall… the name was… Tianlong?

Fang Yue stared for quite a while before barely confirming that this guy was indeed one of the players he'd seen in Qingsi County—Tianlong!

But how had this guy become a member of the Fierce Flame Sect?

After a moment's thought, Fang Yue said to Ming, "Wait here for me a moment."

"What's wrong?"

"Ran into an acquaintance. Going to say hello."

An acquaintance?

Ming's brow furrowed slightly. She quietly asked the maid guiding them beside her, but heard only an unfamiliar name.

If she didn't recognize them, that meant… the two people Fang Yue was looking for were both insignificant nobodies.

But… these were the people Captain Ye was looking for…

Ming suddenly felt a little unsure of herself again.

For no other reason than the fact that Fang Yue's progress in strength was simply monstrous!

In just about two short months, he'd risen to such a height—a monster of this caliber—she couldn't afford to ignore any of his attitudes.

Anyone he paid attention to might be hiding some deeper meaning?

Even if Fang Yue himself might not be aware of it, to outsiders he was an absolute genius—every word and action might carry some deeper significance, making people overthink it.

"With his strength, perhaps within a hundred years, he might have a chance… to ascend to immortality!"

"However, this realm… is a bit special."

Ming pulled her thoughts back and had the maid keep an eye on Fang Yue in the distance and report the situation.

Soon, she discovered that Fang Yue had gone over and really was just saying hello.

Although the other party seemed to excitedly grab Fang Yue's hand, insisting on treating him, asking for an autograph or something—utterly baffling—Fang Yue just gave a vague, noncommittal response, then came back and rejoined her.

What was this guy… thinking?

Ming couldn't detect any change in Fang Yue's emotions; the little interlude just now seemed utterly trivial.

Up ahead, they were nearly at the entrance to the Black Bird Auction. Ming gathered her thoughts and stopped overthinking.

Fang Yue followed at Ming's side, face perfectly normal, while in reality he was frantically sending friend messages to Tianlong, pumping him for information.

This was the advantage of being a player.

A Native like Ming had no way of knowing about the special communication methods between players.

Fang Yue hadn't added Tianlong as a friend before—after all, back in Qingsi County, Tianlong had just been one of the countless underlings in that great battle, not someone Fang Yue had given any thought to.

If Jing Yan and the others hadn't had some minor interaction with Tianlong—adding him as a friend and chatting a bit, leaving Fang Yue with a slight impression—Fang Yue might not even recognize him now.

And now, running into him in Jingcheng, Fang Yue naturally went over to add him as a friend first.

Once they're friends, unless the distance is too great or one of them goes offline, they can chat however they want, with no fear of anyone noticing.

Besides, when Fang Yue first arrived in Jingcheng, he'd tried sending tail messages, but tail kept showing the distance was too far, so he'd left it alone for the time being.

They had each other's real-life phone numbers anyway, so if they wanted to get in touch, they definitely could.

By the time he followed Ming to the Black Bird Auction and settled into his seat, Fang Yue had already milked Tianlong for nearly all the information he had.

It turned out that after leaving his sect, Tianlong had departed Qingsi County.

Together with two other friends, Sanyue and Qiyue, he headed to the capital to study, hoping to join the Fierce Flame Sect.

Along the way, Tianlong met the girl of his dreams, pledged themselves to each other, and for a time gave up his martial arts dream, staying behind in a small village.

Sanyue and Qiyue, left with no choice, departed together and continued on to the capital.

He, meanwhile, peacefully enjoyed over ten days of blissful life—until the village was struck by a Possession attack, the village was destroyed, and the girl of his dreams was possessed and slain by his own hand.

After agonizing over the pain, Tianlong awakened his heart to martial arts, set out on the road again, reached Jingcheng, found the Fierce Flame Sect, and sought to become a disciple.

After a long period of effort, with the covert help of Sanyue and Qiyue—who had long since been admitted into the sect—he finally managed to get in.

Although his basics started a little late, Tianlong had at last officially become a disciple of the Fierce Flame Sect.

With his new identity and improved strength, he began taking sect missions to earn contribution points and exchange them for higher-level Martial Arts.

This trip to Jingcheng was also for a sect mission.

Only along the way, he spotted someone running a chess endgame stall—and how could he stand for that? He decisively switched between online and offline modes, used an AlphaGo AI algorithm to defeat the endgame stall owner, won a crushing victory, and obtained the Juan Niao Lou token!

Juan Niao Lou was a great place—many things you couldn't buy outside could be purchased here. To acquire cultivation resources, he wanted to find some work there and pick up some benefits.

But the very first mission gave Tianlong some trouble, because the mission was to gather intelligence on the Fierce Flame Sect.

Although it was only very peripheral, very ordinary intelligence—stuff any Fierce Flame Sect disciple knew, even stuff many outsiders knew—Tianlong still hesitated.

"A real man cannot do anything that betrays his sect!"

Fang Yue saw that this was the message Tianlong had sent him, and right below it, a second message immediately followed.

"Unless room and board are included!!"

Fang Yue:???

I'm straight-up baffled by life.

Looking more carefully at what followed, it turned out the person trading with Tianlong had offered a high price—many pills suited to his cultivation—so Tianlong defected on the spot!

That's just so you! Tianlong-san!

Fang Yue's face darkened, but he said nothing more.

Not everyone had his circumstances, and not everyone had great opportunities.

In the absence of opportunity, using what one had on hand to exchange for greater benefits — in the eyes of players like Tian Long, there was nothing wrong with that; it was just that Fang Yue didn't much care for this kind of behavior of selling his organization's intelligence in exchange for profit.

Apart from information regarding Tian Long's own experiences, and some other intelligence.

Most importantly, Fang Yue had obtained some intelligence on Jingcheng.

One had to admit, the days Tian Long had spent in Jingcheng before him had not been wasted; even if it was for his own sake of getting by better in Jingcheng, it had indirectly gathered information for Fang Yue.

In Jingcheng today, the most dazzling were the four princes who managed Juan Niao Lou.

The First Prince, Qing Qianyang, had a wide circle of friends and burning ambition; even an outsider could see that he was determined to win the struggle for the throne.

The Second Prince, the Third Prince, and the Fourth Prince — these three princes, although they had all obtained resources from Juan Niao Lou, their competitiveness was clearly inferior to the First Prince's.

However, their ambitions were no smaller; covert schemes never ceased, using the resources they could control within Juan Niao Lou to form factions and recruit talent, each harboring thoughts of making a name for themselves.

(End of this chapter)