The next day.

"Yiyi, I"m heading out for a short trip." I called Lin Yixin at the front entrance after I was done cleaning myself.

"Hmm? A short trip? Where are you… going..." Lin Yixin sounded like she just got out of bed. Well, it was the weekend. There was no way she was going to let an opportunity to sleep in pa.s.s by.

"I, er, I"m going to Chaos Moon"s place in Xinjiang. She"s going home to sweep her grandmother"s grave, but the guild doesn"t think it"s safe for her to go alone, so they dispatched me to keep her safe. I"ll probably return to Suzhou in three days" time."

Lin Yixin laughed. "Hmph! You"ve fallen for another girl again, haven"t you!?"

I blushed. "Of course not. You"re overthinking things."

"Bulls.h.i.+t. Anyway, remember to bring back some local specialties for me, something like barbecued lamb skewers or hand-grasped mutton…"

"Er…"

An image of me carrying a leg of lamb on the airplane immediately appeared in my mind. In my imagination, the stewardesses and ticket inspectors were "praising" me as I cut off slices of lamb meat from the leg and shared it with everyone. In the end, the entire crew shed many tears of sadness as I ultimately left the plane and bade them goodbye.

After I s.h.i.+vered back to reality, I answered, "I"ll do my best!"

"Mn. Be careful…"

"I know. Well, I"m hanging up now. Don"t want to miss the flight."

"Mn."

He Yi took the driver"s seat. Beiming Xue and Lian Xin also insisted on joining me and sending me off for some reason. It was almost as if they were afraid that I would never return...

Chaos Moon was waiting at the entrance when we arrived at the base. She was dressed in a coffee-colored uniform that made her look like a working daughter. It was a good and vigorous look on her. Of course, one month of Chaos Moon"s monthly income was probably equal to that of a gold collar"s yearly income right now.

Our flight time was 9 am. We would be taking off from Wuxi Shuofang International Airport and landing at Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport. It was a short flight, it wouldn"t even take four hours to get there.

I only brought a bag with some clothes and—the most important item of them all—my gaming helmet. A true pro would grind no matter where they went.

Right before I was about to leave, Beiming Xue suddenly grabbed my arm and called out, "Big bro!"

"What"s wrong?"

"We"ll be waiting for you to come home, so come back sooner…" Beiming Xue said with reddened eyes.

"Of course…"

I smiled. Now that I thought about it, Beiming Xue had never been away from me for this long since she joined the Frost Cloud workshop. The reason she was acting like this was because she had become dependent on me.

I turned around and gave Beiming Xue a hug. Then, I said, "It"s just grave sweeping, we"ll be back in no time. Be a good girl, grind hard and listen to Sister Eve, okay?"

"Mn, okay…"

The moment I let go of Beiming Xue, Lian Xin jumped into my lap and said with a laugh, "Not fair! Beiming"s not the only one who likes you, you know!"

I put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Give it your all, Little Xin. While I"m gone, Ancient Sword"s mage party is yours to command. Try and raise as many elite mages as you can, okay? That"s our one fatal weakness in the Nation Wars."

"Mn, I know."

After I let go of Lian Xin and walked up to He Yi. She stared at me with a smile and asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing…"

I pulled her into my chest and gave her a tight hug. Then, I whispered into her ears, "Of all the girls in the workshop, you know I"ll miss you the most if I have to leave for a long time, right?"

I could feel He Yi s.h.i.+ver in my embrace. "Mn."

I looked at her. The gorgeous woman was blus.h.i.+ng a little and avoiding my eyes.

Gathering my courage, I bent down and kissed her right on her red, full lips. It tasted warm and soft. She hugged me tighter as if she wanted to press the two of us into one and met my tongue midway, shaky as it was. For a second, it felt like we were the only two people in the entire world.

……

"Man, today"s weather is so nice…" Chaos Moon commented while looking outside the window.

"Yeah, it"s only a drizzle with no lightning…" Beiming Xue added.

We kissed for almost two minutes before I finally separated from He Yi. Face completely red at this point, she pulled me closer, pecked me one last time on my cheeks and smiled at me. "Come back soon, or I"m going to miss you very, very much, understand?"

I nodded. "Mn, I"ll come back as soon as I can, or I"ll miss you just as much."

It was at this moment Murong Mingyue let out an audible sigh and said, "If you miss each other that much, you should just have s.e.x already …"

"What the f.u.c.k!"

Both of us turned around to glare at her as I said, "What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you? It was such a romantic moment!"

A careless Murong Mingyue puffed up her chest and strained the fabric around it to almost the breaking point as she said, "Oh, now you feel embarra.s.sed? Look around yourself, you two. How many people in the airport did you think saw your kiss, huh?"

Me: "..."

Finally, Murong Mingyue walked up to me and said, "Anyway, give me a hug already, will you? It ain"t fair if I"m the only one who"s left out!"

But I stayed where I was like a log and refused, "No way!"

"You think this is a negotiation, you little brat…"

Murong Mingyue chuckled and hugged me gently. Despite my earlier refusal, I returned the gesture just as lightly. Out of everyone in the workshop, she was the one person I could freely speak my mind with. Although He Yi was an older sister figure herself, she had always felt more like a lover than a sister to me. Murong Mingyue though, she was a true older sister who could tolerate anything I threw at her.

After the hug was over, Murong Mingyue separated herself from me and asked teasingly, "So? How does it feel?"

I put a hand to my chest and said, "Well, I almost couldn"t breathe due to a certain pair of puppies…"

"Hmph!" Surprisingly, Murong Mingyue blushed a bit before glaring daggers at me. "You"d better come back soon, you unfaithful man, or I"ll take Eve to a blind date and marry us off to some random guy! Let"s see how you deal with that!"

I simply shook my head and ignored the provocation. "Yes, yes, I promise I"ll come back as soon as possible. Seriously though, please don"t stop gathering resources and using Duplicate Mount and Mounted Archery Training while Chaos Moon and I are gone. Although our cavalry troops are usable now, they are still greatly lacking in numbers."

He Yi chuckled. "Yes, we know. Now go already!"

"Mn!"

After Chaos Moon and I pa.s.sed through the ticket gate, I looked back one last time and bade everyone goodbye. "Bye! Make sure to eat and sleep well while I"m gone!"

The girls all smiled and waved. "Mn! Bye!"

……

At the safety check, the safety inspector looked back and forth between me and the girls before asking me, "Are they all your girlfriends? That"s impressive, dude…"

I stared back at him expressionlessly. "Do you think that"s realistic?"

"Not at all!"

"You"re right then."

Suddenly, Chaos Moon hugged my arm and said, "Hmph! I"m his real girlfriend—for the next three days at least—and the rest of them are just for show! Heehee!"

I shot her a glance and chided her. "Have some shame, please. Now get through the safety check already!"

"Okay…"

We waited at the gate waiting area after pa.s.sing through the safety check. A while later, we boarded the plane.

……

The force pus.h.i.+ng down on my body felt incredible when the plane finally took to the sky. I shot Chaos Moon a smile and said, "Tsk tsk, this Boeing 747"s g-force feels like when I"m stepping on the pedal when I"m driving the Lamborghini. So exciting…"

Chaos Moon said, "Don"t talk to me about brand cars, I can"t afford a Lamborghini…"

"Huh? Don"t you earn a couple hundred thousand RMB every month from selling equipment?"

"Most of it goes to the family. Also, cosmetics and clothes are an everyday expenditure, you know…"

Chaos Moon shot me a displeased look. "Do you think that our lives are easy? Do you know that Heaven"s Rain, Diamond Dust and I have to wear make-up and put on expensive brand clothes just to attract experts into the guild everyday? Not only that, we have to teach the other girls in the guild how to look pretty, and you don"t even pay us for the cosmetics and clothes we buy!"

I turned beet red. "Really? Maybe... Wait a second, why does this have anything to do with me or the guild? You should pay for your own beautification. You"re the ones who are benefiting from all the products, not me…"

"Oh, you want benefits?" Chaos Moon smiled evilly. "Very well, we"ll book a couple"s suite when we get off the plane. I"ll give you three full days of benefits…"

I s.h.i.+vered from head to toe. "Er, I"m afraid that"s beyond my abilities, so, no thanks. Don"t you have a grave to sweep? Let"s focus on that…"

"Really? Really? You suuuuuuuuure?" Undeterred, Chaos Moon grabbed my hand and started shaking it back and forth like a toy. It looked like she wouldn"t relent until she literally stopped my heart with her cuteness.

Too bad for her, I was surrounded by super beauties like Lin Yixin and He Yi. Even Beiming Xue and Lian Xin had slightly better looks. That didn"t mean that Chaos Moon wasn"t a cute little succubus who made men salivate on sight, just that my resistance was high enough that I could watch her fool around like I was watching a news report.

However, the bald-headed, perverted uncle sitting next to me didn"t have the same resistance. One look at Chaos Moon"s cute face and the smooth, pale skin peeking out from beneath her collar, the guy started coughing and clutching his heart like he was about to suffer a heart attack.

"f.u.c.k…"

I groaned in my head and glared Chaos Moon into submission. Just to be safe, I tossed her a magazine to distract her as well. The last thing anyone needed was a death on their watch.

……

Time pa.s.sed quickly on the plane. After I woke up from my nap, I noticed that the plane had entered the airs.p.a.ce of Xinjiang already. The view from above looked pretty amazing. The ground was mostly made up of square-shaped rice farms, sand or residential buildings. They looked peaceful and quiet.

I felt my saliva pooling in my mouth as I thought about food. "Chaos Moon, we have time to try out the most authentic hand grabbing mutton of Xinjiang, right?"

Chaos Moon nodded. "Sure. You can get that at the gra.s.sland region. I"ll bring you there if you want."

"Wonderful. By the way, isn"t hand-grasped mutton barbecued lamb? I"m sure it feels fantastic to tear a slice of meat off a lamb leg by hand and eat it that way, but wouldn"t it burn your hand? Are the people here trained in Iron Palm since birth or something?"

But Chaos Moon stared at me in shock and pity. "My dude, who the h.e.l.l told you that the meat of hand-grasped mutton is torn by hand? Of course we cut them with knives like normal people… Little Heavenly King my b.u.t.t, more like country b.u.mpkin…"

I whisper-yelled, "Not so loud! Are you trying to spread my… shame…"

I looked around and realized that it was already too late. Countless people were staring at me with ridicule in their eyes already.

"f.u.c.k…"

I raised my magazine defensively and immersed myself in the world of text and pictures.

……

A while later, after we landed at Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, we went straight to the taxi area. Chaos Moon said to the driver, "Take us to the train station, please. And get us there within an hour, okay? Thanks!"

The driver smiled confidently. "Don"t you worry, little girl! The chance of you missing your train is exactly zero!"

He was right. The way he slammed his foot down on the pedal and drove like it was an F1 race, I couldn"t see how we could possibly miss anything—including a car accident. Someone, help!