The World Online

Chapter 1169 – The Sword Is Cold, but the Blood Is Supposed to be Warm

The Chinese had a saying that even though a husband and wife were like birds in the same forest, when a calamity struck, each would fly their own way.

Since the Great Zhou Dynasty ship was having problems, there were naturally people who sought a way out. The one who sent the letter to Ouyang Shuo was Great Zhou’s Wu Marquis Xiong Ba.

He revealed in the letter that for this country war month, Di Chen was prepared to treat it with disinterest, just sending a small number of troops as a gesture. He reminded Ouyang Shuo to be mentally prepared.

Di Chen was prepared to go all out and not bother about the reactions of the China players. He did not want to try to hide it like during the country war last year, where Great Xia abused the fact.

In his eyes, no matter who Ouyang Shuo targeted, Great Zhou could not get anything good out of it. Since that was the case, why not just give up?

As for the thoughts of the players, in his words, “Things have already come to this, what am I afraid of?”

When Ouyang Shuo read the letter, he fell into deep thought.

Di Chen’s plan did not surprise him much, but the meaning behind Xiong Ba’s actions did. Xiong Ba was not a fool and telling this matter to Ouyang Shuo was obviously to express his good intentions.

Maybe the Great Zhou dynasty was going to welcome yet another split.

“It’s time to end this!” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes glistened.

…

Due to Di Chen’s lack of cooperation, on the 5th month, 20th day, Ouyang Shuo revealed on the forums that they were targeting India. From now on, players could move toward Hetao Province or Tibet dynasty to save traveling time.

Who knew that there would be only a few replies.

For this country war, not only Great Zhou was not interested, but even Great Jin did not show much interest.

For last year’s attack on Japan, Great Jin took action to obtain an ocean territory to start voyage trading. Meanwhile, this attack on India did not mean much to them.

Furthermore, Great Jin’s foundations could not be compared to Great Xia. Moreover, NPCs could not be revived, which made Feng Qiuhuang treat this matter carefully. The risks and rewards did not match up, so no matter who it was, they would not be interested.

As the Jin queen, Feng Qiuhuang had a responsibility regarding the millions under her and could not do as she wished.

Ouyang Shuo could understand that.

But in that case, this country war was a solo one for Great Xia.

“This is a tough one if we go alone.”

The moment they infuriated India, and they worked together to attack China, Hetao Province would take the brunt of the hit. At that point, who was attacking who would be uncertain.

If Ouyang Shuo was Durava, he would not miss such a chance to use the power of India and the opportunity of the country war to take down Hetao Province to win back some face from the lost in the last battle.

If both Java and Russia declared war against China, Great Xia would be in an even worse spot. Not mention taking down India, but even self-preservation would become a problem.

Thinking about the problem within, Ouyang Shuo shook his head bitterly.

The cons of Great Xia’s expansion were evident here. Any region that was connected to China was connected to Great Xia.

On the contrary, Great Zhou and Great Jin were inland and had no pressure.

One could not escape responsibility for their actions, much less Great Xia who had many enemies. Be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, they would not give up on the chance to set back Great Xia.

More problems were coming.

On the 5th month, 21st day, the news that said that Great Zhou and Great Jin were not interested in the country war month spread from who knows where. Smart players immediately noticed the danger within.

Just thinking about it, one could guess that things would not be so smooth like the previous year. Players who were planning to make some easy gains lost that thought too.

Some who were prepared to proceed toward Hetao Province were influenced by the people around them and stopped.

The entire China region was in a really weird atmosphere.

…

5th month, 22nd day, Shanhai City.

Within the Xia Palace, Ouyang Shuo brows were locked tight. The news from yesterday was undoubtedly by Di Chen, and the goal was to create problems for Great Xia.

“There really is nothing he would not do.” Ouyang Shuo was disappointed in Di Chen.

The China region players also disappointed him.

He did not expect that after the game update, a battle for achievement value had made them cherish their lives so much that they had lost their fighting spirit and patriotism.

All of their hot blood became ice cold.

Although this was normal, Ouyang Shuo felt that something was up. He always felt that them being so self-protective went against what Gaia was aiming at.

If the players were not hot blooded even in the game world, how could one hope for them to fight for the survival of mankind in the harsher environment of Planet Hope?

The blood was cold, but the blood was supposed to be warm.

Under such circumstances, Ouyang Shuo invited guild leaders like Blood Romance to be guests in the Xia Palace.

Imperial garden, west lawn.

As they were not ruler and servant, Ouyang Shuo chose a less serious meeting place. Everyone sat on the lawn, chatting as they are afternoon tea.

After talking for a bit, Ouyang Shuo asked, “Toward the rumors of these two days, what are your views?”

Blood Romance and the others exchanged glances, not knowing how to reply. They were all smart people and guessed before their arrived the reason why Ouyang Shuo would summon them.

Even if they were mentally prepared, they did not know how to answer the question.

After all, this was not a glamourous thing, and Ouyang Shuo pointing it outright made things really awkward.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he sighed silently. He looked around, and every guild leader he looked at tried to avoid his gaze and did not dare to look him in the eye.

Even Xie Siyun looked at him apologetically.

“I can understand your considerations. Putting myself in your shoes, there is not anything wrong with that.” Ouyang Shuo gave them a way out of the awkwardness, relieving the atmosphere.

“The main thing is the people under us are making too much noise.” Moon Shines over the River tried to explain.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I can understand what you are doing, but I cannot agree with it.”

When Blood Romance heard that, he said solemnly, “What views does Brother Shuo have? Please tell us.”

Blood Romance had a lot of respect for Ouyang Shuo. This Lord, who was of similar age to him, always saw things others could not. Hence, Blood Romance’s words were not sarcastic.

Ouyang Shuo understood his character, “The relationship between individual and group cannot be changed. To the guilds, the player is an individual, and the guild is a group. Meanwhile, to Great Xia, the guilds are the individual. In China, in Chinese civilization, is Great Xia not an individual too?”

When Ouyang Shuo said that, the expressions of Blood Romance and the others looked really weird. In their eyes, Ouyang Shuo was trying to say some patriotism values, which was amusing and a huge drop from his standards.

To convince them using that was totally impossible.

Ouyang Shuo’s expression did not change, “Gaia pushing out the achievement value update seemed to be emphasizing on individuality, but in truth, it is trying to strengthen the overall strength of mankind such that we are able to survive on Planet Hope.”

“If this time, in front of the country war, guilds agree with the players and back off, once we have a conflict of interest in the future on Planet Hope, can we survive as a group?”

“….”

Blood Romance and the others exchanged glances. Their eyes showed solemnness for the first time.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Maybe you all noticed that since you walked out of the imperial city into Great Xia, but the unity of your guild has been challenged.”

Great Xia had a perfect group system. In Great Xia, most players did not need guilds and could live well, and those who were doing well would even feel that guilds were a burden.

Furthermore, due to Great Xia law, if players did something wrong, the officials would handle it, and the guilds would not have their personal fights. With that, the guild protection of members was greatly weakened.

All in all, the functions of the guilds were slowly being replaced by Great Xia, so their sense of belonging to the guild naturally decreased.

Relatively, the restraints that the guilds had on the players were also lowered. Like now, when the players made noise, the guild leaders had no choice but to give in.

This was not a normal situation.

As a result, when they heard Ouyang Shuo say that, Moon Shines over the River could not help but nod.

“Since that’s the case, have all of you considered how guilds will survive on Planet Hope? Or once the game ends, the guilds will disband?” Ouyang Shuo’s words pricked at their hearts.

Truthfully, in the face of interest, players did not even care about their country, much less their friends. The moment they returned to reality, and the societal relationships were rebuilt, guilds would have no room to survive.

Breaking up and disbanding was expected.

The moment a guild disbanded, the one who would lose the most would be the guild leaders. They would become normal once more and could not control people as they wished like in the game world.

If they were still on Earth, this would not mean much. They had set up the guilds to earn money. If they could earn money, who would even bother about controlling members in real life?

However, Earth Online was not a normal game. The game and reality were closely linked, and it was not limited to just money.

Under such circumstances, no one would believe that the guild leaders did not have any greater ambitions.

And to fulfill their ambitions, a large precedence would be for the guild to continue to survive on Planet Hope. However, with Ouyang Shuo’s analysis, that was pretty much impossible.

In terms of sense of belonging, a guild was nothing compared to a territory.

Since the game had progressed till now, the ways guild ran were no different from other games. Territories were different. Since its birth, they had focused on groups as their core to perfect the group system.

Till date, it was no different from real life.

The difference in the two models caused the current situation. If not, why would one say that Gaia was biased toward the Lords?

“….”

Silence, uneasy silence spread around the imperial garden.

Blood Romance and the others’ had many different expressions. They had their own thoughts about the crisis, but they did not think about it as thoroughly as Ouyang Shuo.

It was not that they were not smart. Rather, it was because Ouyang Shuo was already used to thinking from the view of one on Planet Hope. The height they stood at was different. Naturally, the things that they saw were different.

They might be planning for next year, while Ouyang Shuo was thinking five years ahead.

It was still Moon Shines over the River who broke the silence and said helplessly, “We do not want that to happen, but if they are not willing, we cannot force them, right?”

“If this was before, the guild had a set of complete compensation mechanisms to pay them, so they had no worries. But now, we cannot even compensate them, nor can we pay them in achievement value.”

His tone contained a sense of being wronged and helpless.

Ouyang Shuo did not budge. He turned around and looked at Blood Romance, “Is your guild also like that?”

Blood Romance shook his head, “Not all of them. There are still some who are willing. The only thing is that these people are influenced by those around them, and they are not as resolute as before.”

As expected, the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild did not let him down.

At such a stage, Ouyang Shuo allowed the conversation to return to their control, throwing out his plan and smiling, “I have a suggestion.”

“Please speak!”

Blood Romance and the others grew more and more respectful of Ouyang Shuo. They were like a group of drowning people who needed help.

“If I say, I’m saying if, the Great Xia Army is willing to be opened to guilds, are you all willing?”

Blood Romance’s eyes froze up, and he became expressionless, “Brother Shuo is trying to recruit us?” Accepting territory recruitment was a forbidden topic to guilds.

Even Ouyang Shuo would receive rejection. If it were not for his prestige and honor, some of them would have left right away.

Ouyang Shuo did not back down, as he had such confidence. He nodded, “You can say so!”

“This….”

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude made all of them calm down. At the start, they totally rejected it, but after thinking about it, they saw the pros and cons within.

The more they thought about it, the less angry they felt.

At such a stage, guilds indeed did not have the ability to negotiate with territories. It was mentioned that the moment the guilds left the imperial city, they could not be as arrogant as before.

Since they were living under Great Xia, they obviously could not do as they wished.

Between the two, the territory had the upper hand.

With the China situation, players would only beg to come to Great Xia. The moment they left, to say that there was no place left on this earth for them would be an exaggeration, but at the very least, they would not have such a good life.

Thinking about that, Blood Romance and the others could not help but smile bitterly. They were feeling like a hero being buried. In the words of the people from the underworld, “The underworld is changing!”

After waiting for 10 minutes, Ouyang Shuo said, “Accepting the recruitment is not as bad as you think. In the future, you will not regret it.”

“….”

Blood Romance and the others kept silent, as they still could not wrap their heads around it.

“Can you tell us more details?” Li Jing helped Ouyang Shuo get out of the situation. With his relationship with Li Jing, Snow-War Rose was the least triggered one.

Even so, she still felt that something was not right.

‘Does this signal the end of an era?’ Xie Siyun sighed in her heart.

Ouyang Shuo said, “We can discuss the specific plan. But the basics is that each guild can keep a unit of 500 people. Following the military law, you can all rule yourself, including the generals within, which you can choose yourself.”

It was mentioned that Ouyang Shuo sought recognition from the players of Great Xia. Asking the players to build farms mainly targeted causal and work occupation players. On the other hand, this military organization plan was targeting combat occupation players.

Ouyang Shuo choosing to recruit the guilds was not only because of the country war.

In the future, on Planet Hope, the combat occupation players would be the main force against beasts. But in the game world, this power was not controlled and was a bunch of scattered dust.

Solely relying on the guild elite forces could not train the players into good soldiers.

Soldiers could only be born in the military, on the battlefield.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not expect to recruit all of them. He targeted those passionate and talented ones.

To train them up within the Great Xia Army to recognize Great Xia as a system was his goal.

“Apart from combat occupation players, work occupation players that are related to the military are also really welcomed. As for all of you, if you are willing, you can all be Major Generals.”

“As long as you have the ability, becoming Legion Generals and even marshals is not an impossible matter. I believe all of you understand how Great Xia uses talents.”

Even after Ouyang Shuo finished his words, the atmosphere was still a little depressing.