Bai Yu said, "If you don't want to recruit her, I can send other disciples to handle it."
"No, I'm totally willing," Le Yu said, "Last question—what if she betrays the Ritual Guard?"
"Generally speaking, disciples and runners only have single-line communication. If she really betrays us, only you, as her superior, will get dragged down,"
"I'm good," Le Yu gave a slight nod,
"I promise I'll make Qian Yuya a loyal force of the Shining Four Guards."
Le Yu suddenly realized that even if he could block the pressure from the Shining Four Guards for now, Qian Yuya had probably already joined White Night.
"She might even think it's about inheriting her 'older brother's last wishes,' and keep struggling through hardship—of course, brocons and little sisters can never understand each other."
Since Qian Yuya was hell-bent on starting a revolution, there were only two ways to stop her from repeating Qian Yuliu's mistakes. One, Le Yu could stage a revolution himself, pick a faction, and take the ultimate victory.
Too bad Le Yu's system just wasn't smart enough; it didn't offer him strategic-level powers like 'King's Aura,' 'Geass,' or 'Shinra Tensei.' So much for that option.
The other way would be to make her so strong that she could play the two underground organizations off each other like it was nothing.
"Anyway, let's get her a fake 'Heart of Nesser' first. As long as she's strong enough, her odds of dying will..." Le Yu blinked, feeling that the odds of a strong person dying didn't seem much lower than for the weak.
"But at least Qian Yuya could die with a little more dignity...right?"
Either way, as long as Le Yu stayed alive, he could ensure Qian Yuya's safety. That had to be better than letting someone else come into contact with her.
If possible, he'd try to hook her up with a Divine Weapon.
...Eh?
Le Yu suddenly realized he'd been a lot nicer to Qian Yuya than to Qing Lan. If Qing Lan ever found out, she'd probably pout her lips enough to hang a whole vinegar jar, then shoot off some testy line like, "I wouldn't mind if two girls shared a husband," packed with hidden traps.
But Le Yu knew exactly what he really thought, "He could walk that road with Qing Lan, but Qian Yuya needed to start her own new life. Compared to a Divine Weapon, he himself was way more valuable—at least that was how Le Yu saw it."
"So why was he being so nice to Qian Yuya? Was it really just for those fifteen days of sibling feelings?"
Yes.
"When Le Yu first came to this world, it was Chen Fu and Qian Yuya who gave him a sense of reassurance. Just for that alone, these brief bonds were enough for him to treasure."
"Besides, you don't need a reason to treat people kindly—you only need a reason if you're going to hurt them."
"Actually, Le Yu's 'totally non-blood-related brother list' could've included Yin Yinyin and Lan Yan, but those two had messed with his lonely, sensitive teenager heart, so he had them forever on his blacklist."
"Lan Yan, just you wait. I'll make you famous, make you the flashiest guy on the battlefield, have the loudest name, and take the biggest beatings!"
"By the way, did you guys use up all the Heart of Nesser replicas?" Bai Yu suddenly asked.
Le Yu nodded. Qin Le Yin had used the Heart of Nesser to beat the crap out of Jing Zhengwei; Shi Huaifeng used hers after attacking the Xisha convoy—and because Shi Huaifeng got promoted to Peak of Perfection on the spot, they managed to wipe out the Linhai Army completely.
"When can they resupply?"
"No spare replicas available for now. It'll be at least half a year before new ones are made, and there's already a waitlist," Bai Yu shook his head, "Don't expect any new replicas within two years."
It took a long time to manufacture Heart of Nesser replicas. Even with enough raw materials, production was just two per year, and new members got priority. Veteran members had to wait a long time for resupplies once they'd used theirs.
As for why they didn't set up some kind of training system—for instance, everybody could only wear a replica for three years and hand it down to the next in line, increasing the number of Shining Four Guards...well, obviously, because the Shining Four Guards was an underground organization, not a war academy.
Another possibility was that if the Four Guards' Martial Artists lost their replicas, their Combat Technique might never progress again—in fact, it might even regress. That's the price of leveling up fast; their foundation was like a castle in the air, so the Shining Four stuck to a "one job per slot" staffing policy.
The two of them shot the breeze for a while longer, and then went off-campus for a meal.
On the way, Le Yu spotted a building called "Guardian Corps" and couldn't help but freeze. Out of curiosity, he asked, "I saw from Qian Yuya's intro that she was in the 'Guardian Department.' What's that about? Does it mean she's majoring in Combat Technique?"
"No," Bai Yu explained, "At Royal Academy, classes were freely chosen. Departments just divided students into competing factions and assigned classroom locations."
"Competing factions?"
"Right. Guardian Department had class in 'Guardian Corps,' Radiance Department in 'Radiant Forest,' Calamity Department in 'Calamity Wastes,' and Nightmare Department in 'Nightmare Throne.' The Academy hosted big events, and students got divided by those four departments, competing against each other."
"So basically, the first to fourth classroom buildings just have fancy names, huh..." Le Yu blinked and asked,
"The names of these departments... honestly... that's some imagination. Guardian and Radiance are fine, but Calamity and Nightmare don't exactly sound positive, do they?"
"Actually, more students want to join Calamity and Nightmare," Bai Yu laughed, "They think names for evil forces are more fun."
Le Yu twirled his red hair and signaled he got it.
"So how do you assign departments?"
"Depends on the principal's mood."
"Huh?"
"Every year, the principal added a few extra questions to the entrance exam, then sorted students based on their answers. He somehow always managed to group people with the same traits together."
Le Yu felt a bit curious, "So what are the different traits of the four departments?"
"Guardian is loyalty, Calamity is chivalry, Radiance stands for order, and Nightmare's about wisdom," Bai Yu's words came fast, like he'd explained this a hundred times, "Of course, you could also simplify that as—"
"Loyalty, Righteousness, Ritual, Wisdom."
...
...
After leeching a free lunch from Bai Yu, Le Yu set out to find a place for a Battle Card duel.
Passing by a place called "Fantasy World Bookstore," he suddenly remembered something and walked in to ask,
"Hey, got any books from Lanling Press?"
The middle-aged shop owner shot him a glance, pulled five books from under the counter, "These are all that's left."
Le Yu glanced at the covers. The titles: "Domination Helmet," "Enchant Combat Technique," "Come Fence with Me," "Master's Task," "Collection of Celebrities."
Flipping one open, he was surprised to find there were even illustrations—and pretty good ones, honestly on par with Youth Daily's cover art. The people of Yanjing were living the rich Spirit life!
He checked out the most normal-sounding one, "Collection of Celebrities." The first chapter was called "The Cicada-Biting Dust in the Basement." "Gutsy," he thought.
Flipped a few dozen pages—Chapter Fourteen: "The Captured White-Haired Assassin Lady Boss." "How's this publisher still alive?" he thought.
Couple dozen more pages—Chapter Thirty: "The Emperor Poisoned by Yin-Yang Chaos," all about how the emperor wasn't really dead, but got turned into a girl by a Divine Weapon's poison, and had to win over his ministers in a touching little bid to regain the throne...definitely with an eye on current events.
Le Yu snapped the book shut, then asked, "Which one's your bestseller?"
The owner replied, "The one in your hand."
The people of Yanjing were epic; Lanling Press was epic.
"Which one you want? Spice up your nightlife with these."
"Do I look like someone who doesn't have a nightlife?" Le Yu cursed, and turned to leave, "I'm not buying any!"
The shop owner shrugged, and was just about to put the books away when a hooded figure walked in.
"These two—wrap them in black paper."