Zheng Xun was going to start his own guild!
As soon as the news broke, it blew up across every major platform.
As a newcomer who had recently drawn enormous attention, Zheng Xun had cleared two 3S-difficulty instances in a row, and many players and guilds were eager to know where he would go.
The vast majority guessed he would join one of the powerhouses in the top ten rankings. The only question was which one.
But no one had expected Zheng Xun to announce at the press conference that he would not join any of them!
[Erchui is starting a new guild! Can any experts explain what this means for the other guilds...]
[Newcomer Zheng Xun is striking out on his own. Is he ruining his future?]
[Why is everyone saying God Zheng's guild is doomed? Does anyone support him?]
Discussion raged online, and major media outlets searched for a chance to interview Zheng Xun himself.
But after dropping that bombshell, Zheng Xun seemed to have vanished into thin air. He had not entered any instances, nor had anyone caught him on camera.
Reporters asked the Singing Sparrow Guild, but perhaps the vice president had told everyone to keep quiet in advance. No one could say where Zheng Xun had gone.
While the outside world was in an uproar, things proceeded inside Songbird as usual, with training and instance runs carried out in an orderly fashion.
"Where did you dig up this garbage this time..."
Cheng Jie had finished his afternoon training and pushed open his room door, only to see a figure squatting with his back to him. A worn blanket lay spread out in front of the figure, covered with clumps of dirt and rocks of all sizes.
These ordinary-looking things were actually a type of mineral resource from the White Tower. Beneath the outer layer of dirt lay precious ores of various colors.
The person sorting through this pile of "garbage" was Zheng Xun.
Contrary to what people outside had guessed, Zheng Xun had not moved out of the Singing Sparrow Guild right away.
That was only natural. He did not have a home in this world yet.
Xiao Jun had reminded him to buy a property for the guild to use. It did not need to be big, but he needed to have one.
Zheng Xun thought it over and agreed, but buying property cost a lot of money, especially one that would be registered as a guild address. That cost even more.
Songbird could not pay for it. If it did, Songbird would become a shareholder in Xunhui, and if the guild was poorly managed in the future, Zheng Xun would be accountable to Songbird.
Even the registered capital had to come out of Zheng Xun's own pocket.
The gold coins he had farmed from the Huaiyin Instance had all been exchanged for this world's currency, and that was barely enough to cover the minimum registered capital for a guild.
Now Zheng Xun needed a little house, both to live in and to serve as the guild's address.
He was earning money for that very purpose.
There were many kinds of instances in the White Tower, and material instances were one of them. They could be farmed repeatedly, and the ore dug up could be exchanged for items or, of course, money.
Such instances were not very difficult, but they took a fair amount of time. As it happened, Xiao Jun would not let him enter difficult instances for the next few days, so he spent every day mining in material instances.
Mining had its own pleasures. He did not have to worry about a monster biting his head off the next second, and it was relaxing and stress-relieving.
The only problem was that Zheng Xun did not want to be bothered by the media or have anyone else discover his whereabouts, so he could only choose particularly remote material instances.
Fortunately, Songbird had an internal teleportation point, which made things much more convenient. Xiao Jun had given him access, so Zheng Xun could choose a suitable material instance and go there.
Everything was fine, except for the effect on Cheng Jie's room.
His room now looked like a mine.
"The material instance I just went to was in a desert area. It was a little dusty, so open the window," Zheng Xun said without looking up, continuing to fiddle with his treasures.
Cheng Jie cursed under his breath. He also found the air in the room stifling, so he went to the window and opened it halfway.
Then he turned around, squatted down facing Zheng Xun, and helped him peel away the dirt.
After spending several days together, the two could now coexist, though they still bickered and traded barbs.
After a few minutes of idle chatter, Zheng Xun suddenly remembered something.
"Do you know Huo Ziyan?"
"Huo Ziyan?" Cheng Jie stopped picking at the dirt and raised his eyebrows. "He's from the Azure Mist Guild. Why are you suddenly asking about him?"
"I ran into him while mining today. I didn't know him, but he recognized me."
"Is that okay? I thought you didn't want other people to know where you were."
"Yeah. He said he wouldn't tell anyone."
"And you believed that? That's something you'd tell a kid."
"I mined with him for a while, and he gave me everything he dug up. He seemed like a good person."
"..."
Zheng Xun packed some of the cleaned ore into a burlap sack, intending to ask someone to take it to the trading market to sell tomorrow.
"That Huo Ziyan is a bit like you, actually."
Cheng Jie was cleaning dirt out of the crevices with an old toothbrush. He had discovered that Zheng Xun was right: this really was stress-relieving.
"About a year ago, he made a brilliant showing in his first battle. All the major guilds announced they wanted to sign him, and Azure Mist eventually secured him with a bronze contract."
"Oh."
"But he didn't stand out much in his debut for Azure Mist. They'd put him on the first team, and the first team's vice captain nearly lost an arm saving him."
"Oh."
"Because of that, Huo Ziyan was disciplined and sent down to the second team. Things pretty much kept going wrong after that. He caused a few messes and slipped down to the third team. I heard he hasn't played in a long time?"
"Oh."
Cheng Jie had been talking for ages, and all Zheng Xun gave him from across the blanket were three "ohs." He was furious.
"My mouth's gone dry telling you all this, and that's all you have to say?"
"Hmm..." Zheng Xun switched on his wristband's flashlight and shone it on the ore. "I don't really know what happened, so I don't have anything to add."
"..."
Cheng Jie pressed a hand to his forehead.
"I'm telling you to be careful. Every time Huo Ziyan goes into battle, he causes trouble. Azure Mist's fans all call him 'Huo Ziyan the disaster.' Supposedly, their guild has already put him up for loan, but no one wants him. Other guilds all think he's bad luck and don't want him bringing misfortune on them."
"What age are we living in? You should believe in science."
"Tell that to the higher-ups at those guilds. Anyway, even at half price, no one will take him on loan from Azure Mist."
"That cheap?"
"It's not about whether he's cheap, you..." Cheng Jie paused, sharply picking up on something. "You're not getting any funny ideas again, are you? Let me tell you, even if you do borrow someone, you should pick someone good. Besides, don't you always solo instances? If you need to run a two-person instance, I, young master Cheng, could reluctantly lower myself to join you."
Cheng Jie was willing to lower himself, but all he got in return was a cold reply from Zheng Xun-
"You're expensive. I don't have the money."
It sounded like a compliment, but also like a jab, leaving Cheng Jie at a loss for a response for quite a while.
Zheng Xun had not actually been thinking of anything. He had met Huo Ziyan only once and had not considered anything further.
But the next day, when he returned to that extremely remote desert mining instance in the Sand Zone, he saw Huo Ziyan again.
The Sand Zone was full of windblown sand, so every player had to wrap a gray cloth around their head to cover their nose and mouth.
Zheng Xun, covered from head to toe, saw Huo Ziyan, who was just as thoroughly equipped. The latter's eyes lit up, and he strode over.
"Hello, God Zheng. We meet again."