Chapter 217: The Rose Factory

Liu Jiayi and his party are outside the closed door.

She frowned as she watched the colour of the raw rose liquid dripping from the doorway grow darker and darker, eventually becoming almost blood-like in its brilliance.

Liu Jiayi wrinkled her nose, hidden beneath the light rose aroma of the original liquid, she smelt a very unpleasant smell of blood and mushrooms - something that reminded her of the last copy.

...... last copy - In a flash of lightning, Liu Jiayi thought of Blood Lingzhi, the monster book reward for The Loving Welfare Institute.

She didn't manage to hit the monster book reward for the orphanage herself, so there was no blood lingzhi.

Liu Jiayi hadn't even thought about the blood lingzhi before, because it was too outrageous - but the moment she smelled it, Liu Jiayi understood what Bai Liu was talking about as an antidote.

--is the blood lingzhi.

Plus all those words Bai Liu inexplicably asked her about the Hearts A skill card ...... the devil can't imagine what he wants to do!

Liu Jiayi took a deep breath, feeling the rare headache of a member of the war party who liked to fool around, and swatted away the stragglers standing in front of her, sprayed herself with enough rose perfume to lower her spirit level and removed her visualisation prop to head for the door.

--The most powerful point of the God-level NPC's alienation attack is her eyes. If she can't see them, she should be able to reduce the speed of her alienation.

But the moment Liu Jiayi lifted his steps, countless thorny vines spilled lovingly out of the doorway.

The vines, like creepers in a speedlite, climb rapidly along the narrow corridor of the Rose Factory, turning the tunnel to the outside into a dense, primeval jungle of sprawling, curling vines as far as the eye can see.

The thick spikes on these vines grow in dense clusters like the teeth of a vampire who is still feeding after being plucked, sucking the blood-coloured liquid off the ground in a moment and then growing rapidly.

Dark red fluorescent dots gather around spikes that beat like a heart, drumming and pulsating as if they were about to burst in the next moment.

"What's going on?" Tang Erda alertly pulled out her gun and pointed it at the rapidly expanding spikes, "This isn't a dry leaf rose plant, what did Bai Liu do?"

Liu Jiayi put on the visualisation prop with her head down as she raised her eyes to the closed door, "He did what he always wanted to do."

Tang Erda is stunned.

The huge, tightly closed door was thrown open by a surge of vines and Tang Erda turned to look inside.

In the centre of the room, Tang Erda sees the core of these growing and spreading canes, which causes his breath to freeze for a moment.

In the transparent display case filled with blood, two people lying in the blood are leaning on each other.

One against the other's heart, with spiked canes coming out of their bodies in a steady stream, while they embraced as if they felt no pain at all, immersed in the warm blood, peaceful and still, as if the moment was like an eternity of sleep.

The red stained Hearts A playing card floats on the blood.

The spikes burst brilliantly and the dark red points of light float away suspended from beneath the umbrellas, through the dark, deep corridors and along the ends of the vines to where the May daylight reaches - the 16,000 acres of flower fields where old friends are buried.

The rose's inner trousseau is devoid of nourishment, and the dreamy pale pink that pervades the sky withers with the departure of the gods, the sixteen thousand thoughts that have been shredded and hidden, appearing for a brief moment as the sun wraps around the imminent arrival of summer, and then dissipating with the petals that fall into dust.

The gale tramples the delicate stamens of early summer favour, the period of summer lease is not too short, the sun burns like an eye left by the gods (note).

The 16,000 acres of roses that turn the world upside down fade, but your long summer will never fade.

--It was a summer that even the gods had praised for its beauty.

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In the game lobby, a small TV area that had been left vacant by Titan's skill flickered twice and suddenly reappeared.

Mu Sicheng and Muke, who had been sitting nearby waiting, jerked to their feet, Mu Sicheng ascertained the time - it was far from a dimensional clock, but this King's Guild guy was actually out ......

He and Muke had a growing sense of foreboding in their hearts.

Titan emerged from the small TV area with a ground-shaking stride, his lanky arms flattened and a lazy, lip-smacking, yawning Hearts sitting on his shoulder.

Seeming to see Muke and Mu Sicheng in front of her path of departure, Hearts rested her eyes and swung them between them for a moment, then suddenly let out a soft smile on her cheek.

"Staring at me with hatred here isn't going to do any good." She smiled with a brow and soft eyes, "Now go rummage around in no man's land and you might even find your boss."

"Of course if you can't find it, and Bai Liu doesn't make it out of the game alive, and you don't have the land Fang Ke goes to--" Hearts languidly extends a hand to Muke, his grin deepening, " -- the doors of the King's Guild are always open for you promising players."

Muke pulled back Mu Sicheng, who was about to punch someone in a fit of anger, and took two deep breaths to control his emotions.

His face had gone all white the moment he heard the words Bai Liu would not make it out of the game alive, no blood at all, like a porcelain doll on the verge of breaking.

Knowing that Hearts' comment was probably a fishing scam, Muke couldn't help but bite when the little TV fell into no man's land and there was no way to find out anything about Bai Liu.

But the complete absence of Bai Liu has made Muke's mind work at a surprisingly high speed.

If he panics, it will be all over and he will lose all the power he has left behind to help Bai Liu.

Muke pulls Mu Sicheng, whose eyes are red with impatience and who is cursing at Hearts, by the back of the neck, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, turning to look behind him at the frightened members of the guild, his face again a mask of impeccable smile.

"Gentlemen, we have just scored a stage victory."

The anxious team members and Mu Sicheng both looked at Muke with a look of [are you crazy? Muke, who was smiling demurely, looked at him with a look of [are you crazy?

Muke continues in a clear, unhurried manner.

"Is Bai Liu the most important person in this guild? No, the most important person in this guild is you, Bai Liu is just an agent, it's optional, anyone can be the agent, the person who serves everyone - you are the main body of this guild, you are the most important."

Muke recounted calmly, "And you have just - with the unimportant presence of Bai Liu proving your power, you have gathered enough to shake the King's Guild, forcing them to send one of their strongest players to stop you - isn't that a victory? -Isn't that a victory?"

"This could totally be called a big win!"

The members of the guild looked at each other anxiously, feeling that something was wrong with Muke's logic, but unable to find a point of refutation, they were instead encouraged to be carried along by the logic of his words.

"All we have to do now is to never give up and then ride it out." Muke smiles with unmistakable dignity and sincerity, "We've already won half the battle, all we have to do is find Bai Liu in no-man's land and we've won!"

Finding someone in No Man's Land is an impossible task, but Muke makes it look like it could be done with a little more time and effort.

Mu Sicheng leaned in close to Muke's ear and the words popped out of his teeth as a reminder, "There's no telling how many small scrapped TVs there are in No Man's Land, and all these people together wouldn't be able to find them in ten years."

"Then look for twenty years - they won't run easily with the upfront cost sunk." Muke replied in a low voice with an eight breeze smile and a slight squint at Mu Sicheng, his gaze burning, "If they die in the game I'll recruit new members and make sure we find Bai Liu, I'm not giving up."

Muke lifted his jaw slightly, the expression somehow arrogant: "You can go if you want, I'm going to be more useful to Bai Liu than you."

Mu Sicheng is stunned.

Muke simply ignored him and turned back to the members, raising his voice and saying, "Now we're heading into no man's land!"

Hearts, sitting on Titan's shoulder, raises an eyebrow slightly at the sight - this Muke guy is a good talker.

She cocked her heels and the team members below looked up at her as if their hearts were in the right place, "What can I do for you, Empress?"

Hearts' eyes fell on Muke's back, "Tell Wang Shun to check out this new guy named Muke."

Before she could finish her sentence, someone came over clapping their hands.

"Slap, slap, slap...!" Charles applauded and laughed, side-stepping Wang Shun who was following him, " Wang Shun, I've found someone better than you to promote Bai Liu's team."

A fully dressed Wang Shun's head was tingling and his hands were pressed to the sides of his trouser legs, not daring to look at the Hearts who were scrutinising him from above, his voice as thin as a mosquito: "...... Emperor, Empress."

Charles bounced off the floor with one heel outstretched, took off his high hat and flipped it fluently twice in his hand against his heart, curtsied and raised his hand in a somewhat street salute to Hearts: "Good afternoon, my beautiful queen."

All the smiles on Hearts' face faded as she swept her eyes back and forth between Wang Shun and Charles several times, speaking without emotion, "Charles, I thought it was a convention between the guilds not to touch each other's message members."

"That is certainly true of the larger guilds." Charles flipped his hat twice and placed it firmly on his head again as he straightened up to look at Hearts, who was sitting on Titan's shoulder, and smiled, "But there should be some special allowance made for newcomer guilds, no?"

"If by newbie guild you mean the Food Rot guild." Hearts opened her arms and pressed them to the hem of her skirt spread out at the side of her waist, leaning towards Titan, her eyes misty, " Charles, I regret to have to inform you that about three dimensional minutes ago, the president of this guild - Bai Liu, fell into no man's land. "

"That's unfortunate news, oh poor Bai Liu." Charles folded his hands tightly over his heart in what seemed to be a deep sorrow, but it lasted less than a second before his face changed into an imperceptible smile, "Maybe it wasn't such a bad outcome."

Hearts finally realised what Charles was up to and she sat up straighter, frowning with a warning, " Charles, support season has just started, you have plenty of better options, no need to spend it on a newcomer."

"But I fell in love with him at first sight, and I could never look at another player again." Charles propped himself up on his staff of civilisation and covered his forehead in a mesmerised gesture.

Charles slumped his shoulders and looked over at Hearts with a cynical, playful expression, "Queen, gambling is like falling in love, you have to be single-minded when you're immersed in it, and a horse I like to bet on is worth throwing my money away for."

"Even if he's only played three games, dropped into no man's land and has only a raggedy guild." Hearts asked blandly in return, "And you don't change who you bet on?"

Charles shrugged, "You know Queen, for a gambler like me, picking a betting horse is as unreasonable as falling in love with someone."

He looked up at Hearts with a teasing and flirtatious smile on his face, "I would think that Her Majesty, having had her heart deeply broken by a man, would understand my state of being overwhelmed with someone when you know it's wrong, wouldn't you?"