Li Cancan took out a piece of paper from her backpack and handed it to Li Cangshan: “After you fill out the form and submit it to the system, the system will send us the membership application.”
“Provided that you still want to join,” she paused and then spoke, “the review time is three to five days. Pass or fail, we will send you a notification.”
Li Cangshan was very tall—almost two heads taller than Li Cancan. He took the application form and tugged at Li Cancan’s sleeve in embarrassment. “Sister Cancan, can I add you as a friend? I asked the system just now, and the system said yes.”
Li Cancan hesitated for a second: “Okay.”
After adding each other as friends, Li Cangshan began to introduce himself with a smile.
“My name is Li Cangshan. I’m 24 years old, I’m a sports student, and on the national team.”
Xia Chi’s expression changed subtly. “You’re not on the football team, are you?”
Li Cangshan waved his hand and said, “That can’t be, you and I are so tall, we can only be on the basketball team.”
Xia Chi glanced at Li Cangshan’s toned muscles enviously and couldn’t help but stand on tiptoe and pat the other man’s shoulder, “Brother, your muscles are fine, let’s have a sparring session someday.”
“Ahh.”
Liang Xi ran to Xia Chi, who suddenly held his temples, and hurriedly took out a stethoscope from his backpack. “Xia Chi? Were you hurt when Zhao Sen attacked you? Let me check.”
Xia Chi let Liang Xi examine him and spoke helplessly, “No, it’s just that there was a sudden flash in my mind just now, like an overcharge, it hurts.”
Liang Xi moved nimbly and carefully, checking Xia Chi’s body before withdrawing the stethoscope: “It’s okay; there’s nothing wrong with your body. An overcharge? Was it a flash of inspiration?”
Xia Chi: “It’s possible, I didn’t get anything though, it’s getting a bit out of hand.”
Seeing Xia Chi’s group about to leave, Li Cangshan hesitated, but still asked, “Excuse me, is it convenient for me to ask about the president?”
Several people glanced at each other, and in the end, it was Zhou Guang who satisfied Li Cangshan’s curiosity.
“He can’t be considered the president because we don’t know if he wants to be one yet. He had a situation and couldn’t return to the game lobby for a while, we set up this guild to wait for him.”
“Without him, there wouldn’t be a guild, so we’ve kept the guild president position for him. When he returns, we will also respect his opinion, and if he doesn’t want to be president, we shall look for other solutions.”
Li Cangshan felt even more curious, “So what’s his name?”
Zhou Guang: “His name is Bai Lixin. The reason we are helping you newcomers is also because he was there to help us and other newcomers. Without him, we wouldn’t be who we are now. Some things need to be passed down, like essence, like the core.”
Li Cangshan muttered the words to himself a few times.
Bai Lixin, Xin, Core, Core Fire Guild.
*Xin is translated to Core
Passing on…passing on the fire.
Was it a moral?
For a moment there, he was inexplicably interested in the person called Bai Lixin.
“So is he coming back?” Li Cangshan hesitated for a moment before asking the somewhat sensitive question.
Xia Chi raised an eyebrow, becoming as sharp as a cheetah in the grassland. “Of course. He is my brother, God Xin, how could he not come back?”
Li Cancan looked like she was thinking of something. “If you’re interested in God Xin, there’s a video of him in the records; you can go check it out.”
“Whether you join our guild or not, I wish you all the best on your future journey clearing copies. Farewell.”
After seeing them off, Li Cangshan looked for a nearby NPC to borrow a pen. He filled out the membership application in one stroke, and submitted it.
He followed the system’s instructions to the second level of the hive, turned on his somewhat lagging computer, stumbled through the unfamiliar live stream interface to find the recording, and then found the video of Bai Lixin – [Bloodclan- Inner World].
The video was over fifty hours in total, and Li Cangshan clicked the start button.
As the video progressed, his eyes changed from curiosity at the beginning, to amazement, shock, and awe by the end.
He concentrated very hard, sitting in front of the computer for the entire duration and only leaving to go to the toilet or eat.
The video alone had over a hundred million comments, and when Li Cangshan opened the barrage, he was immediately swept up by the content inside.
[God Xin, where are you? We miss you so much.]
[God Xin, come back soon, the world of live streaming can’t be without you, I no longer know happiness.]
[The 1,001st time back here since God Xin left.]
[God Xin has so many moments, but unfortunately, only one video is left on record. I don’t want God Xin in the video, I want God Xin to come back to life.]
[Bah! God Xin is not dead. I’ve heard that his name on the friends’ list is still lit, he’s still alive!]
[But it’s been over two years.]
[Even if it’s three years, four years, ten years, or twenty years, I’m still willing to wait, as long as God Xin’s avatar hasn’t gone out, I believe he will come back.]
[I’ve been silently waiting for the day when God Xin will come back.]
[I have a feeling that the day will not be too long.]
……
It was not until the video was completely over that Li Cangshan let out a long breath of air, silently sighing in praise in the cramped room. “Damn, you’re so awesome, brother, are you a universal idol?”
System: [……]
‘Is this guy really from the basketball team? You tell the truth, aren’t you a certain society’s escaped apprentice?’
[Ding! You have a reply on a guild application, please check it in time.]
Li Cangshan hurriedly opened the small, unopened envelope, and the application had a big red word written on it.
[Rejected!]
Li Cangshan:????
That dog Zhao Sen, didn’t he say that the Core Fire Guild was easy to join?
[Hello player Li Cangshan, Thank you very much for applying to join our guild. You are excellent; we feel the passion in your membership application, but in the overall consideration, we think you are still lacking in our requirements. The Core Fire Guild also wishes you well on your future journey].
Li Cangshan opened Li Cancan’s dialog box and rubbed his hands nervously.
He was still debating on what excuse to use to start a chat with the girl, but here it was!
Li Cangshan: [Sister Cancan, my membership application failed, why?]
Li Canshan’s reply came back after a long wait of more than ten seconds: [As expected, passing or rejecting a player’s application is based on their clearance records, you have too little data.]
Li Changshan: [That means I still have a chance?]
Li Cancan: [Of course, go for it.]
Li Changshan: [So the reason there are so few people in the Core Fire Guild is not that they can’t recruit people, but because the selection system is very strict?]
Li Cancan: [Haha, of course. This is God Xin’s guild; how can we be careless in our selection? We can’t bring him shame. ]
Li Changshan: [Oh, so that’s how it is, I understand, I’ll try my best then. Can you reveal what the criteria for joining the guild are?]
Li Chanshan: [No, it’s a secret.]
Who said the Core Fire Guild was no good?
Who said that the Core Fire Guild was easy to join?
It’s all a rumor!
It’s hard to get in, okay?
———–
In a survival zone built of diamonds with a huge crystal cover overhead. The sun slowly set, causing the crystals to shine with brilliance.
At the foot of the survival zone was a thick piece of grey soil, but if you look closely, you can see a faint glow coming from it.
In the large survival area, several ragged men turned numbly in place, like stereotypical wildlife in a park.
The edge of the survival zone was abruptly cut off.
When the viewpoint is pulled away, it becomes clear that the survival area is placed on top of a spiked cone made of diamonds.
The spiked cone towered up into the clouds, and the survival area was isolated high in the sky. Suddenly, there was a crisp tinkling sound.
At a small edge of the survival zone was a wrist-thick rope that stretched out and disappeared into the distant white haze of clouds.
The bell that made the sound was tethered to the end of the rope, and when the rope moved, it rang with it.
Those who were spinning numbly were still more or less responsive to the tone, glancing at it miserably and then withdrawing their eyes and continuing to wander around in place.
It was getting darker and darker, and the bell was getting louder and louder.
As the last light of the sun faded overhead, a graceful figure suddenly came down the rope and jumped into the middle of the survival zone.
“I’m back.” As soon as the youth landed, he raised his voice and said aloud, “I picked some fruit, will you eat?”
Perhaps it was the word “fruit” or “eat” that acted like a switch, the men who were moving around in circles stopped in unison and walked towards the youth.
The youth’s eyes were clear and bright, and in the darkness, you could vaguely see the bright stars in them, as crystalline and beautiful as the diamonds around them.
His hand casually pulled off the hairpin curling his hair, and a head of hair that reached the ground immediately fell down.
They took the fruit numbly, and one of them had the slightest inkling of consciousness to say “thank you” out of courtesy, and then asked, “How did you do today?”
Interesting, is he growing his hair to keep the track of time? When they grow long enough to reach for an example his ankles he can cut them and put a single mark somewhere, then repeat the process. That’s genius.
omggg it’s a time skip, i’m so excited i don’t want this novel to end
They’ve grown up, 2 years have passed, my Bai Lixin. Wuuuuuuuu 😭😭😭😭