By the time Zhao Kai had exited the tavern, Dusk Sky turned his attention to Flame Bird.
"I thought your Phoenix Guild was always independent and strong. But I didn't expect you to hug someone's thigh to gain an advantage." He snorted coldly.
Now that the contract was signed and he lost both money and land, there was no need for him to mince his words further.
After all, even the Vanguard Guild had agreed to retreat and no longer involve themselves in the matter of Red Forest City.
What was there to be afraid of anymore?
"We didn't need to hug someone's thigh when they were the one who initiated it." Flame Bird snickered and glanced at Dusk Sky with a pitiful look.
"Rather than being dishonest and trying to take advantage of others. Maybe you should have tried to be honorable and assist them. That way, you wouldn't have been so miserable right now." She added.
"You—" Dusk Sky wanted to argue further but realized it was pointless to do so.
"Just leave before I take it as you are breaking the contract." He then declared and told Flame Bird to leave. Now that his Riverbane had lost tremendously, he needed to quickly salvage it, especially when he no longer had to worry about being persecuted by Eclipse Nova.
At the same time, he made a mental note in mind to never ever team up with MIST.
Screw them and their eighteen generations!
'I fucking lost big because of them.' Dusk Sky's anger from the inside had reached its peak whenever he recalled their flowery and sugary words to convince him to join the fray.
He wasn't angered by Vanguard Guild's ruthless demands since he would have done the same if the situation were to reverse— actually no, he would definitely be worse than them.
Shortly after Flame Bird exited the tavern, Dusk Sky weakly commanded his subordinates to begin reparation and tried to think of a strategy to do a dungeon raid.
While Dusk Sky was suffering from his decision, back at Star Falls City, things weren't peaceful either.
Star Falls City, Vanguard Shop
"Guild Leader, we finished calculating the overall loot that was gained," Veronica reported solemnly.
"And what about the member's merits?" Xu Feng asked. He was seated by the main desk and had just finished replying to Zhao Kai, instructing the latter to proceed with the next phase.
"The members' merit points have been allocated thanks to the help of the system." Veronica said and explained, "Lightning Blade was the top merit earner, but based on investigation. It is said that Lightning Blade received help from Skyfire Mist and FreeLancer."
"Oh, they didn't take the kill for themselves?"
Startled for a second, Veronica smiled awkwardly and nodded her head.
"How did he know already?" She wondered aloud, unaware that she had spoken her thought process.
"Well, you did mention he received help from them, and seeing the merit list, both Skyfire Mist and Freelancer are nowhere near the top 10 despite having the skills to do so. And Lightning Blade's merit was absurdly high that it can't be possible alone with his current skill." Xu Feng mused.
Although Veronica tried to keep calm on the surface, she was rather embarrassed that she had spoken aloud. Nevertheless, she easily got over the embarrassment and continued the report.
Overall, the damages done to Star Falls City could be said to be extremely minimal. Despite the grim situation, it appeared that only some of the defensive borders set up by the NPCs were breached.
However, when compared to the gain, such losses were negligible.
Besides the reputation earned from their contribution in assisting with the battle, almost every member received a new title achievement.
This title gave a 10% boost in all attributes and it could be considered the greatest reward for them.
"Hmph, those spies and other slackers in the city really benefited too much." Suddenly, Veronica snorted coldly. Without a doubt, she was fuming how there were other players who received such a title despite giving zero effort.
It was the equivalent of gaining credits from a group project when one or more members contributed nothing.
How infuriating was that?
Meanwhile, Xu Feng nearly laughed at Veronica's remark.
"You can just call me Veronica when we're alone, Guild Leader."
Caught off-guard, Xu Feng didn't lose his composure and merely smiled lightly.
"Okay, Veronica, your chain of logic isn't wrong if this was any other VRMMORPG. Unfortunately, the Divine World is a fair and just game." He flashed a cold smirk and stood up.
"Do you know the reason why Boss made you all participate in the battle at the last minute? Was it because he was tired? No, it's because he wanted you all to contribute the bare minimum to receive the title."
"You mean, those spies and slackers didn't get the title?" Veronica gasped in surprise.
However, she then recalled her Guild Leader was also absent from the battle.
In other words, he also missed out on the title.
And as if he had figured out what was on her mind, Xu Feng chuckled and retrieved the items that he had received from Blood Light of Heaven's Destiny.
Once the pile of items appeared on the desk, Veronica's eyes widened in shock.
"Did you ransack someone, Guild Leader?" She asked in disbelief.
Since she was in charge of the auction previously, she had done her fair share of studies. Thus, she recognized at least 80% of the items that appeared. And each one of them was quite valuable.
"No, it's just some sneaky people who wanted to take advantage of the crisis and got caught by me." Xu Feng said and relayed the event that happened.
By doing so, he effectively explained how he would also have such a title, courtesy of Blood Light's involvement.
Blood Light might be clever, but even he wouldn't know that by simply standing in such close proximity, would automatically be labeled as a besieger by the System. They didn't receive an actual system notification because their hands had remained clean.