Chapter 386 – Exploit
Which guild was giving away information behind their backs? The amount of suspicion towards other guilds could be divided into different levels. For example, the relatively weaker guilds who wanted to avoid having any part in the conflict were less suspicious. Blue Brook Guild and Tyrannical Ambition had been involved with everyone else from the start, but then cut off communications with them. They were, without a doubt, the most suspicious.
“We can’t let them go!” a guild leader expressed.
“Yeah! If they want to give into the terms, then that’s fine. But if they’re going to be like the legs of a dog after giving into the terms, we can’t allow that!”
“We can’t allow that +1”
“We can’t allow that +2!”
“We can’t allow that +10086!”
The overall guild leaders from seven of the top guilds were furious. The tenth server guild leaders looked calmer though. As they quietly watched the discussion between these top guilds on how to deal with Blue Brook Guild and Tyrannical Ambition, they suddenly felt that they needed to vent their anger. There was nothing they could against Ye Qiu, but Blue Brook Guild and Tyrannical Ambition could become their punching bags!
“What? You died?” Blue River turned indignant when he received Thundering Light’s report. After creating a guild, he was beginning to scheme and play dirty tricks! Thinking of this, Blue River clicked on Lord Grim’s name and sent an angry face at him. Afterwards, he inquired: “What’s going on?”
“Hm?”
“Why’d you kill my player!” Blue River said righteously.
“Did you make a mistake?”
“Shameless!!” Blue River didn’t think that the other side would pretend that nothing had happened. At this moment, he received a new message. It was from Thundering Light: he hadn’t been killed by Lord Grim, but one of Herb Garden’s players.
“Herb Garden…..” Blue River was in a daze.
“Did another guild do it?” Ye Xiu’s message floated in at just the right time.
“How did you know?”
“You guys sold them out. How could they not take revenge?” Ye Xiu asked in return.
Blue River nearly choked. He had been the one urging him to sell the others out! Right now he was talking as if he had nothing to do with it. After being angry for a bit, Blue River suddenly realized: “Did you know that this would happen?”
“Who wouldn’t have known?” Ye Xiu replied.
“You purposefully asked us to give you reports in order to get us to fight like this!” Blue River reasoned.
“You’re thinking too much. The reports benefited both parties, so it was something that should be done.” Ye Xiu said.
“You’ve gotten a lot of benefits, but we’ve run into trouble!” Blue River said.
“It’s troublesome for me, too!” Ye Xiu said.
“What trouble?”
“My……. my red name still hasn’t gone away……” Ye Xiu’s reply looked as if he were having trouble saying it, making Blue River certain that this “trouble” was something that the other side had tried very hard in order to come up with something..
“Too evil!” Blue River mumbled.
“How many of your guild members have died?” Ye Xiu began to discuss matters properly.
“One isn’t enough?”
“Whether that’s enough doesn’t depend on me to decide!”
Blue River coughed up blood.
“After taking your materials, I should help you guys do some stuff. If you get attacked again, you can bring them over to me.” Ye Xiu continued.
Only at this moment did Blue River understand. He had been too shallow in his thinking. After creating a conflict, this could still be done! Blue Brook Guild’s players became his fish bait. What could Blue Brook Guild do about it though? If they did nothing, they wouldn’t be able to handle the guild alliance’s venting. If they did as they were told, they would establish much hate from the other guilds. That would be bad, too!
Moreover, the overall guild leaders were currently the ones managing the guild on the tenth server now. It was possible that the fight here could carry over to the Heavenly Domain. Although the top guilds had always been fighting nonstop, fighting as the few against the many had never been done before. Everyone was always careful and never attracted the enmity of two guilds simultaneously. But now, they would be provoking seven guilds at the same time! That sort of strength was something no guild could defend against by themselves.
“What do we do?” This was a matter of great concern. Blue River didn’t want to make a hasty decision either, so he went to look for his guild leader, Changing Spring. In addition, he felt like this matter was complicated as well. He didn’t think that he would be able to explain the situation clearly enough through brief messages like how Changing Spring talked in chat, so he went to speak to Changing Spring through voice.
The same situation had fallen onto Tyrannical Ambition. After knowing that one of their elite players had died, but wasn’t killed by Lord Grim, Cold Night quickly realized the gravity of the situation as well.
Of course, he wouldn’t be like Blue River and ask Lord Grim. Instead, he directly went to contact Jiang You.
“Asking us to give him reports was a trap……” Cold Night grieved, “It was my bad. I was too hasty to gain an advantage and hadn’t expected such an obvious development to happen.”
“No……” After hearing Cold Night’s report and self-criticism, Jiang You paused for a long while, before saying this single word.
Cold Night didn’t understand what he meant by “No”, so he waited for Jiang You to continue.
“As soon as we accepted the terms, while others didn’t, we fell into his trap.” Jiang You said.
“He really does deserve to be called Glory’s most experienced God….. and encyclopedia? Not only is he skilled in the pro scene, even for guild battles in game, he also taught us a good lesson.”
“He exploited the biggest weakness between our guilds. In the end, we’re all competitors. The only reason we work together is for our mutual interests. We don’t have any friends……”
“Ever since we made different choices, we were destined to suspect each other. Asking us to give him reports is only one way. Even if he didn’t use this, he would have other ways to sow doubt between the guilds. This.. is something we can’t do anything about. The way we work determined our nature. This can’t be changed.” Jiang You sent. No one interrupted. They all saw how helpless they were in this situation.
“Then what do we do now?” Cold Night asked.
“Things are already like this. Those other guilds won’t stop either. We can’t explain ourselves either, unless we work together with them to fight Lord Grim.” Jiang You said.
“This…….” Cold Night held back a choke. They had already paid the materials in order to ensure that they could safely level. Lord Grim didn’t make trouble for them, but the other guilds did. If they turned around to fight Lord Grim, Lord Grim obviously wouldn’t not fight back because they had given him materials. Everything would be back to how it was originally. The guilds who accepted the terms would have wasted their materials. The guilds who hadn’t accepted the terms had suffered losses from deaths and pressure.
Tyrannical Ambition had the same style as their team Tyranny. Backing down wasn’t their nature. When they chose to agree to Lord Grim’s terms, that decision had already been difficult to bear. Plus, they had plans on what to do next. But now, their Tyrannical Ambition was being forced to reach terms with the guild alliance. It was hard to say if they had any plans afterwards either. This made Cold Night feel uncomfortable as if he had swallowed a house fly. He believed that his guild leader Jiang You was feeling the same way.
“Since things are like this, it might be better to be more thorough.” Jiang You suddenly said.
“Oh?”
“We’ll ally with Ye Qiu!” Jiang You said.
“That….. That’s not good, right?” Cold Night hastily said, “What about the Heavenly Domain and the other servers?”
If it was just the tenth server, allying with Ye Qiu to bully the other guilds would be a very easy decision. But the problem was, the tenth server was only a part of the top guilds’ influence. Ye Qiu was currently a huge problem here, but he wouldn’t affect any other servers. A move here could affect everywhere else and the consequences would be serious. In the Heavenly Domain and the other servers, if these guilds allied together and attacked, Tyrannical Ambition’s days would become very difficult.
“We’ll just have to try and see what happens.” Jiang You said.
“Don’t be hasty, guild leader!” Cold Night advised. He thought that Jiang You was unable to hold back his anger and was ready to let it out.
In the end, Jiang You sent a smiley face: “It seems like you still don’t understand.”
“What?” Cold Night was surprised.
“These chain of events were probably within Ye Qiu’s calculations.” Jiang You said.
Cold Night stared blankly. His mind was rapidly turning.
“The balance between the guilds has continued for many years. And with everyone’s foundations, pulling up a guild from their roots isn’t possible. This is why guilds avoid getting into any large-scale conflicts. Kill one thousand enemies, lose eight hundred soldiers. If such a conflict happens, it might even be hard to say what advantages one gets from winning. Instead of a trade-off, it would be better if everyone developed happily together. It really would be difficult to deal with if the seven guilds allied together, but they wouldn’t gain much either. The sandpiper and clam war together, while the fisher catches them both. Only an idiot would make such a move. Do you think the guild leaders are idiots?” Jiang You said.
‘This….. But if there’s a chance…..” Cold Night was still worried.
“There’s no chance. Any guild who would make such a move would have already died.” Jiang You was extremely confident.
“Then you’re saying?”
“Work together with Ye Qiu. If you find a target, report it to him. If they chase after you, look for him! Have our players stay together. Whether they dare to gather together in one area depends on how brave they are.” Jiang You said.
“Okay…… I understand.” Now that he understood the general direction, Cold Night could figure out the details.
“First, borrow Ye QIu’s help to beat down these guys. Let them get a taste of hell. At the same time, this will help Ye Qiu’s momentum. I don’t believe that Excellent Era would kick out Ye Qiu and then quietly watch as he charges back into the pro scene. You want to be the fisher, while the sandpiper and clams fight? We’ll use this chance to kill two golden eagles with one arrow. Ye Qiu, you’re a good card to play, too!”