“Friend. Where’d the gauntlets and the mask come from? How about you sell them to me.” A tall man with a broadsword slung over his shoulder walked up and clapped a hand on Ye Tianxie’s shoulder. His tone wasn’t especially polite, and the greed in his eyes was on full, unashamed display. Clearly the sort who wasn’t afraid of trouble. He was talking about buying the gear, but the threat underneath was about as thinly veiled as a threat could get.

Ye Tianxie had never been polite to people who weren’t polite to him. He gave the man a glance and said coldly, “Move. You’re in the way.”

And with that he stepped forward, shouldering past him, and headed for the City Lord’s manor.

The man’s face darkened with anger, then twisted into a sneer. “Kid, I’ve been with the Battle Soul Hall for years, and you’re the first person who’s ever talked to me like that.”

The moment those three words landed — Battle Soul Hall — the expressions of every player who had been watching Ye Tianxie with envy shifted. Those who’d been about to approach him with questions all retreated, some of them even backing carefully away a few steps. Among the strongest and least advisable forces in the virtual game world, the Battle Soul Hall was very much one.

The man had brought up the Battle Soul Hall deliberately to cow Ye Tianxie — ideally to frighten him into meekly handing over the gauntlets and the mask. Because the Battle Soul Hall’s reach spanned the world, and anyone foolish enough to make an enemy of them could forget about ever having an easy life in the World of Fate again.

Ye Tianxie didn’t break stride. He gave a cold laugh. “The Battle Soul Hall? What’s that supposed to be?”

“You—!” The man’s face finally changed for real. Forcing down the urge to swing on him, he said darkly to his back, “Heh. Kid, you’ve got some nerve. This world’s never short of people who don’t know how high the sky is. You’d better pray every day that you don’t run into me out in the field!”

No PKing inside a main city — that was a shared law of the game world. Break it, and regardless of who was in the right, whoever initiated the PK would be hit with severe penalties.

Only once he’d walked well past did Ye Tianxie cut his eyes back, mockery in his gaze. “Indeed. You’d better pray I don’t run into you out in the field…”

As a high-ranking public servant of the Lost Continent, the City Lord of the City of Stars led a rather comfortable little life. At that moment he was sprawled half-reclined in his chair, eyes half-lidded, occasionally sipping a fragrant tea that had been steeping for the better part of the day. Only on hearing that Ye Tianxie had arrived did he snap upright and compose himself.

“Good day, Lord City Lord. My journey south wasn’t wasted — I’ve brought back the information you wanted,” Ye Tianxie said as he walked in, coming straight to the point.

The City Lord’s face turned grave, and he asked with some urgency, “Truly worthy of a man who could earn a Hero’s Badge — I knew you would complete this dangerous task in the shortest possible time. Now, quickly, tell me where they are and how they fared.”

Ye Tianxie nodded. “They are, at present…”

He proceeded to lay out for the City Lord, in as much detail as he could, how the guards had provoked the Blood Phoenix, how only one had escaped gravely wounded and was recovering in Guping Town, and how all the rest had been buried near the Blood Phoenix’s nest. Hearing it, the City Lord sighed heavily, his face dimming. “So they met with disaster after all… They were the finest warriors the City of Stars had… Ah, and what a pity — we may know where the Blood Phoenix’s nest lies, but we still have no means of truly destroying it. A rash strike might only enrage it further and bring about something more terrible still. Must the City of Stars live under the Blood Phoenix’s shadow forever?”

…Oh ho. What a perfect opening.

Neither smug nor hurried, Ye Tianxie picked up the thread with perfect naturalness. “Lord City Lord, you needn’t trouble yourself on that count. The Blood Phoenix will never appear over the City of Stars again. Because it is dead.”

“Dead? What… dead!!??” The City Lord froze for a beat, then shot out of his chair as though someone had jabbed a needle into his backside, his aged face flushing red with excitement, his voice trembling. “You… you’re telling the truth? The Blood Phoenix is dead!?”

Ye Tianxie summoned from his pack the crimson feather with its eerie blood-red glow and set it down in front of the City Lord. He had deliberately not yet set the Blood Feather back into the Hour of Fate — precisely for this moment.

The City Lord stared at the feather, confused at first, then cried out in shock. “This… this… I remember it! This is the feather on the Blood Phoenix’s head! That glow — I couldn’t mistake it, I couldn’t possibly be mistaken… The Blood Phoenix is dead. The Blood Phoenix is really dead… Hahahaha!”

The laughter came out in a wild howl that left Ye Tianxie’s eardrums ringing. He stood there patiently, waiting out the City Lord’s cackling like a man watching a lunatic. But what he didn’t know was this: the City of Stars had always been quiet and peaceful, its climate blissfully comfortable, and the Blood Phoenix — endlessly harassing them and inflicting disasters large and small — had been the greatest scourge and the greatest source of anguish for the City Lord and the whole city alike. Since it appeared three years ago, the City Lord had rarely known a day without a furrowed brow, had scarcely slept soundly more than a handful of times, and dreamed nightly of the Blood Phoenix suddenly descending from the sky… And now, going from hearing the news to believing it, the enormous stone that had been crushing the breath out of him for years was simply gone. How could he possibly contain himself?

“Good! Good! Those who can earn a Hero’s Badge are indeed true heroes who work miracles. Xietian, you have not only brought back word of my city guards, you have removed a great and mortal affliction for me and for all of the City of Stars. This leaves me… truly at a loss for how to thank you.”

Ye Tianxie made a face internally. Thank me? Nothing simpler. My demands really aren’t so high… Toss me eight or ten Immortal Spirit or Heaven-Severing or Divine Mystery pieces, whatever’s handy. Or a few million gold, that’d work too…

Naturally, this man felt not the faintest twinge of guilt or embarrassment over the fact that the Blood Phoenix had not, in point of fact, died by his hand.

Ye Tianxie put the Blood Feather away. And the City Lord, having laughed himself nearly into a cramp, finally settled back into his chair. He deliberated at length, then slapped the table and said, elated, “Yes. That’s the thing! Nothing else could adequately express my gratitude. Here — take this.”

The City Lord drew a thin sheet of paper from inside his robe and placed it into Ye Tianxie’s hands.

“This is…?” Ye Tianxie took it, his face full of confusion.

“Three years ago, I had construction begun on what might fairly be called the most opulent mansion in the City of Stars, in the finest location the city has. And just last month, that mansion was completed — everything within it fully furnished and arranged. Three years in the building, and over a hundred million gold spent. I had meant it as a place to spend my own final years in peace, but now… You have lifted a calamity of that magnitude from me. Apart from this, I truly cannot think of anything more fitting as your reward and my thanks. This is the deed to that mansion. With it in your possession, the mansion is yours — you will hold full rights over it for seventy years!”

Ye Tianxie: (⊙o⊙)!!!!

A mansion… a mansion in the game world… a mansion worth over a hundred million gold…

Real… or fake… real… or fake… somebody tell me I’m dreaming.

The blood in Ye Tianxie’s veins was fairly boiling, and his face had gone as red as a drunk’s. He gripped that thin sheet of paper tightly, terrified the City Lord might suddenly change his mind and snatch it back.

“Ding… You have successfully completed the Unique Quest ‘Investigate the Whereabouts of the Missing City Guards.’ Rewards: Experience +50,000. Gold +200. Renown +50. One City of Stars Amnesty Token. As you have completed this quest’s hidden branch to perfection, you have received the hidden ultimate reward: one deed to the most luxurious residence in the City of Stars. Renown +200.”

City of Stars Amnesty Token: A pardon granted by the City Lord to those who have rendered great service to the City of Stars. Automatically cancels 50 points of Sin Value, and grants the privilege of PKing within the city five times without penalty.

The first Unique Quest Ye Tianxie had ever taken in the World of Fate was now perfectly complete. Having extricated himself from the City Lord’s questions, he all but sprinted the whole way to the location marked on the deed. And when the mansion the City Lord had called “what might fairly be called the most opulent in the City of Stars” came into view, Ye Tianxie — for all that he’d braced himself — stood there dumbstruck for a long while.

It sat in the very heart of the City of Stars, in a location enviable enough to make a man’s eyes red, only one street away from the city’s most bustling commercial district. And it was in an area players generally never set foot in, which made it exceptionally quiet. But of course, what had provoked that reaction from him wasn’t only the location. It was the size. And the opulence.

At a glance, the mansion’s footprint alone was a full ten times larger than his villa in the real world. Its architecture was faintly antique in style, but grand enough to set the heart pounding all the same. He spotted the main gate at once and covered the distance in a few strides.

Because he carried the deed, the sealed gates swung open for him of their own accord, then closed again behind him once he’d stepped through. The moment he crossed the threshold, a system chime sounded in his ear:

“Ding… Welcome. This residence now belongs entirely to you. As this is your first entry, please name your residence.”

“Name it?” Ye Tianxie was mildly taken aback. He genuinely hadn’t prepared for this. He fell silent for a moment, casting about for a suitable name.

“Guoguo’s Cottage! Guoguo’s Cottage! Call it Guoguo’s Cottage—” Guoguo’s head popped out from over his shoulder as she hollered it, unable to contain herself. The sudden shout jolted him out of his deliberation, and he found himself murmuring after her, reflexively, “Guoguo’s Cottage…”

“Ding… Your residence has been successfully named ‘Guoguo’s Cottage’!”

Ye Tianxie: “I—”

(End of Chapter 119)