Chapter 1535 - 1532: Joining the Lantian Clan

"Ah... ah... I'm fine."

Fang Wushang looked at his own dazed face with concern.

Did he lose?

Although Ye Qiu couldn't quite believe it. The terrifying reaction speed Long Yijian displayed at the last moment of the offensive and defensive exchange had surpassed the limits of players, the limits of humanity. That impossibly fast speed even made his silhouette appear distorted in the image.

Ye Qiu sat on the ground, looking up at Long Yijian standing a short distance away.

For some reason, the winner's face showed a rather sinister expression at this moment. The deep blue Holy Knight squinted his metallic eyes, glanced over, then turned around without a word, slowly disappearing into the rest area amid thunderous cheers.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

"What... what is this?"

"It's nothing, just as you see. Come on, stand up quickly!"

Fang Wushang was forcing Ye Qiu to change into a new set of clothes. Although the design was similar to the worn-out coat Ye Qiu was used to wearing, the color could almost be described as an icy "lazy to death" shade. Besides the small white crosses on both sides of the collar, a huge blue cross was dyed on the back. Needless to say, this was the uniform of the Lantian Clan.

"...Didn't I ask them to get me something as plain as possible...?"

"This one is already very plain. Hmm, it really suits you, so don't complain so much!"

Ye Qiu slumped into the chair, completely exhausted. As usual, the two had arranged to meet on the second floor of Agil's general store. Ye Qiu had entirely occupied this place as an emergency shelter.

Therefore, the poor shopkeeper had to set up a simple bed on the first floor himself. The reason he hadn't kicked Ye Qiu out was that Fang Wushang would come here almost every day looking for Ye Qiu and conveniently help with the store work. To the shopkeeper, there was no better promotional effect than this.

After Ye Qiu groaned on the chair, Fang Wushang also sat down on what seemed to have become her designated armrest. Possibly because my seemingly festive appearance made her quite delighted, she kept rocking the chair with a smile on her face. Shortly after, as if remembering something, she gently clasped her hands together and said:

"Ah, I haven't properly greeted you yet. As members of the same guild, please take care of me from now on."

As she suddenly bowed her head to me, Ye Qiu quickly straightened his back and replied:

"Likewise, likewise. But, come to think of it, I'm just a regular member, and you're the Vice Clan Leader..."

Ye Qiu stretched out his right hand, running his index finger down her back.

"I guess I won't be able to do this anymore."

"Wow!"

His superior jumped up with a shout, gave her subordinate a knock on the head, then sat on the chair across, puffing out her cheeks.

In the lazy light of this late autumn afternoon, a brief silence fell.

It had been two days since the defeat in the battle with Long Yijian. Considering Ye Qiu's personality, it was impossible for him to regret it now. Therefore, in accordance with the conditions agreed upon with Long Yijian from the beginning, he joined the Lantian Clan.

The clan gave Ye Qiu two days to prepare, and from tomorrow he would have to follow the instructions from the headquarters and start carrying out tasks.

"Really joined the clan, huh...."

Noticing Ye Qiu's light sigh, Fang Wushang glanced at him from across.

"...I guess I kind of dragged you into this..."

"No, it's also a good opportunity for me. The days of fighting alone should come to an end soon..."

"I'm relieved to hear you say that... um, Ye Qiu..."

Fang Wushang's light brown pupils looked straight at me.

"I hope you can tell me. Why are you unwilling to join a clan... why do you avoid crowds... I think it's not just because of Dong. After all, you have such a good personality."

Ye Qiu lowered his head, slowly rocking the chair.

"...A long time ago... many years ago, I actually joined a clan before..."

Even Ye Qiu was surprised at himself, being so honest to blurt everything out. I think that was because, when Fang Wushang's gaze reached the memories within him, the pain that surged was melted away.

"At that time, the world was still at peace, the clan was mainly about scheming against each other, but I hated that sort of thing, so I wanted to find a place where I belonged. By a stroke of luck, I joined a very small clan, just six people, called the Moon Night Clan."

Fang Wushang chuckled softly.

"The Clan Leader was a very decent guy. The man named Qita fought using a pair of nunchucks and was someone who would always prioritize the clan members no matter what happened, thus earning everyone's trust. He told me most of the members used double-hand weapons from a distance, and they were currently looking for a frontline..."

Honestly, their capabilities were far weaker than Ye Qiu's later on. No, it should be said that Ye Qiu worked too hard at training.

If Ye Qiu had revealed his level, Qita would have given up inviting him to join back then.

However, Ye Qiu, at that time, didn't know if he was already tired of fighting alone every day, so the atmosphere of the Moon Night Clan, like coming home, made him very envious. They seemed like close friends in the first place, so their interactions lacked the typical distance found in ordinary clans, something that deeply attracted him.

Actually, he didn't really have the right to seek warmth from the crowd. When he decided to live selfishly as a lone wolf, he had already lost that right.

But he still forced himself to suppress the voice within, hid his strength, and joined their clan.

Qita told him he wanted one of the two spear envoys in the clan to learn to be a Shield Swordsman, hoping Ye Qiu could be the coach for that swordsman. That way, there would be three people including Ye Qiu in the vanguard, forming a well-balanced offense-defense team.

The spear envoy Ye Qiu was responsible for training was a quiet girl with shoulder-length black hair named Xiaohui. The first time they met, she shyly smiled and said that although she had been in the clan for a long time, she found it hard to make friends because of her personality. Whenever there were no tasks, Ye Qiu almost always spent time with her, guiding her in one-handed sword techniques.

Come to think of it, Ye Qiu and Xiaohui had a lot of similarities. Like the habit of closing themselves off, being taciturn, even being afraid of loneliness.

Once, she suddenly confided her feelings to Ye Qiu. She said she didn't want to die, was very afraid of this world, and didn't want to go outside to fight magical beasts at all.

In response to her confession, all Ye Qiu could say was, "I won't let you die."