Chapter 32 Fire

The crowd roared, their anger rising.

This sudden appearance of a fellow threw the entire Misty Flowers guild into a state of panic, because his arrival was so bizarre, so unbelievable. This must be a carefully planned, earth-shattering conspiracy! What did this man want? Seeing him sizing up the city hall building, could he be planning to blow it up?

At this point, even if Gu Fei just walked up and knocked on the door, they would worry that the NPCs inside would come out and complain that he was disturbing their sleep, deducting from their completion rate.

And so, almost instantly, they had decided on an encirclement and decapitation strategy, personally commanded and deployed by their guild leader, Liu Feng San Tan. Players of all classes and from all directions were converging on this spot, Liu Feng San Tan was frustrated that as a Warrior, he couldn't charge to the front lines himself, so he could only shout, "Speed! Protect the gate!"

"Got it!" Responded several Thieves who usually lurked near the city hall gate. At this moment, they recklessly revealed themselves, not charging toward Gu Fei, but lining up in a row, swiftly guarding the gate behind them.

The other players rushed forward, shouting and waving objects that caught the eye. Gu Fei took a closer look and realized they were torches. Many of these players held lit torches, illuminating the dark night in the game as if it were daytime. These torches were common items for the players of Xiayun City, each person having one. Because visibility was poor in the mist, when they couldn't find their companions, they would sometimes light torches to signal their location to their comrades.

But for Gu Fei, an outsider, this was an unprecedented spectacle. Just as he was wondering, he saw those players who were gradually approaching him suddenly roar together, hurling their torches at Gu Fei like grenades.

Countless torches flew into the sky, arcing toward Gu Fei's position. The light pointed, Gu Fei's location was immediately the focus of the entire area, as if illuminated by a spotlight.

But Gu Fei, who everyone thought was about to be burned at the stake, remained calm and composed. This barrage of torches looked intimidating, but in reality, whether in terms of speed, accuracy, or coordination, it was far inferior to Zongheng Sihai's arrow formation. Gu Fei drew his longsword, took a deep breath, and suddenly struck.

Forward, backward, left, and right, he pierced, pointed, sliced, and chopped. The light from the torches seemed to illuminate a stage for Gu Fei. In the center of the stage, Gu Fei whirled his sword like a whirlwind. Where the blade pointed, the struck torches changed their flight path, colliding with the torches beside them. All the torches, as if hitting a wall at the same time, suddenly began to fall like rain, surrounding Gu Fei and forming a circle of fire.

All the players were stunned. They could have anticipated that the torches they threw wouldn't hit their opponent. They also had various plans for how to deal with it afterward, but none of them expected this situation. In their minds, such an attack could only be dodged, not blocked, but this person had actually blocked it.

Because the firelight was too concentrated, Gu Fei in the fire circle was shining a bit too much, and everyone couldn't see his appearance clearly. Gu Fei was also desperately fanning himself with his collar, muttering to himself in embarrassment, "I overdid it, it's so hot!" Gu Fei in the fire circle felt like his hair and eyebrows were about to be singed.

"I can't keep this up." Gu Fei pointed his finger, and with a Flash, teleported out of the fire circle, immediately feeling a cool sensation and a lot more comfortable.

"Ahhh!!" The surrounding screams rang out in unison. The figure, somewhat blurred in the firelight, suddenly flashed out of the fire circle and was much closer to them. Many players thought something supernatural had happened.

"There's a ghost!!" Someone exclaimed.

"Damn, what's there to be afraid of ghosts? I've killed zombies!" A player who claimed to be the bravest member of the Misty Flowers guild usually liked to level up in graveyards, cemeteries, and desolate wildernesses, places that everyone else found a bit eerie and terrifying. He often fought with some non-human, disgusting monsters. Seeing so many of his companions panicking like this, he scorned them. While everyone else was subtly retreating, he took a few steps forward without fear, and after clearly seeing Gu Fei, he laughed loudly, "It's just a Mage!"

"A Mage?" Everyone was stunned. They saw Gu Fei tidying up his clothes as he walked toward them.

Someone secretly grabbed a weapon, ready to strike again, when suddenly someone shouted loudly, "Wait, don't do anything yet."

The voice came from the rear of the group. A gap opened in the crowd, and everyone saw their guild leader, and Piao Liu, who had recently joined their guild and ranked among the Five Strongest, the number one on the Mage rankings.

"Piao Liu." Gu Fei also saw Piao Liu and waved hello.

"It really is you. I thought, only you could have such outrageous skills." Piao Liu sighed.

"Haha, it's me, it's me. Guild Leader Liu Feng, hello, we meet again so soon." Gu Fei also greeted Liu Feng San Tan.

But at this moment, Liu Feng San Tan's expression was serious, not as friendly and polite as when they had met before, because he needed to know, "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing, just wandering around." Gu Fei said.

Liu Feng San Tan frowned tightly, because he couldn't immediately check their quest completion status. He only had a chance to check it each time Giordano appeared. So at this moment, he had no way of knowing if Gu Fei had already done something detrimental to them. So he had already sent people to look around the courtyard to see if there were any anomalies. At this moment, the people who had gone in various directions were gradually reporting back: they hadn't found anything out of the ordinary.

"Qian Li, if you have something to say, just say it directly, there's no point in hiding it." Piao Liu said. He absolutely didn't believe that Gu Fei was just wandering around. If he was just wandering around, he would have already wandered around with Yan Xiaozhu. Now, not long after, he came again, and suddenly appeared outside the city hall. Piao Liu didn't know what method he had used, but he was sure it wasn't as simple as just wandering around.

Gu Fei made a helpless expression, "Okay, actually I really do have a quest here. I wonder if Guild Leader Liu Feng can give me some leeway?"

"So that's how it is." Liu Feng San Tan suddenly smiled, but after smiling, he said, "Brother Qian Li would do such a thing for a quest, it seems you also know that we have an important quest here, and that strangers shouldn't get close, right? So... let me ask Brother Qian Li, can you give us some leeway and put your quest aside for now? Once our quest is completed, anyone will be free to enter and exit and act as they please."

Gu Fei was quite surprised. He didn't expect Liu Feng San Tan to respond in this way. Such a soft, yet irrefutable refusal, gently placing himself on the side of reason. If Gu Fei persisted stubbornly, people would naturally think he was being unreasonable. After all, putting a quest aside in the game usually wouldn't cause any major problems. Did he want to say that his quest had a time limit? Gu Fei didn't want to act like a rascal, so he smiled and said, "Is that so? Then I'll have to think of another way!"

"Thank you, Brother Qian Li." Liu Feng San Tan said without changing his expression, and at the same time waved his hand at the guild brothers, "Everyone, make way."

The crowd made way, and Gu Fei waved to everyone, "Sorry for disturbing you." He stepped forward and was about to leave.

"I'll see you off!" Piao Liu took two steps forward, reached out and put his hand on Gu Fei's shoulder, and was about to walk out with him in a familiar manner.

"Hey, what are you up to?" Piao Liu asked in a low voice.

"Quest!" Gu Fei said.

"You really have a quest? Is it related to Misty Flowers?" Piao Liu asked.

"Them? Aren't you a member of 'them' now?" Gu Fei said.

"Uh, I just joined, it takes time to change my words." Piao Liu said.

Gu Fei smiled, "You always change places, joining different guilds, do you have any special purpose?"

"My id is Piao Liu!" Piao Liu said, "The purpose is of course to leave footprints in all places."

"I see, truly remarkable."

"Don't change the subject... what quest are you doing?" Piao Liu said.

"This, it's really inconvenient to tell you." Gu Fei said.

"So it seems, it really is related to Misty Flowers' quest?"

"Maybe it is, I'm not sure... actually, I'm not even sure if this is a quest." Gu Fei smiled wryly.

"What are you saying? I don't understand." Piao Liu said.

"This shows that you haven't drifted enough places, keep it up, increasing your experience is important." Gu Fei patted him.

"That's not the point..." Piao Liu said, "If you really are here to cause trouble, it seems we'll have a chance to fight again."

"So if I were you, I wouldn't go online for the next few days." Gu Fei said.

"..."

Gu Fei looked straight ahead, his gaze very melancholy, "Your original Five Strongest, I've refreshed two of them, do you want to be the third?"

"..."

"Actually, you were originally the first, but you were lucky, you didn't lose a level when you died in the competition." Gu Fei added.

"..."

"So, don't go online for the next few days, it's for your own good!" Gu Fei patted him again.

"..."

"I'm leaving." Gu Fei waved his hand and left.

"Damn!!" Only when Gu Fei's back disappeared into the mist did Piao Liu finally say a word.

When he returned to the city hall courtyard, Piao Liu saw that Liu Feng San Tan had already called over several core members of the guild and was discussing countermeasures. When they saw him arrive, the group immediately shut their mouths.

Piao Liu was quite used to this kind of scene. He had only just joined the guild today, how could he gain everyone's trust? Even a big shot at the level of the Five Strongest wouldn't be able to. What's more, he was friends with this suspect. This time, Piao Liu felt that Liu Feng San Tan was very likely not going to let him participate.

Who would have thought that as he approached, Liu Feng San Tan would take the initiative to ask, "Piao Liu, this friend of yours, do you think he will affect our quest?"

"Yes!" Piao Liu nodded clearly, "I've participated in this guild reward quest once before, and there will be very obvious two-way quest components. I think the content of the main city reward quest is different, but the difficulty must be the same. Two-way quests will definitely be a part of your quest, and it's possible that this is just the beginning."