Chapter 137: The Organization is Named Tianque

But the moment the thought surfaced, Yan Jing laughed.

He suddenly felt that he and San Shan were actually quite similar in some ways.

Just like him, he wouldn't choose to tell Old Master Liu and the others about what was happening right now.

If he had truly become San Shan, perhaps he would have also chosen to keep it a secret for the Cameraman's sake.

If... if... Unfortunately, there were no ifs.

"I need to prepare properly."

Yan Jing absorbed the mass of fog into his body, but unexpectedly, a Mutation suddenly occurred.

The moment that mass of Fear Power entered his body, it transformed into a dark robe and draped itself over his shoulders. Immediately after, outside the building, all the facilities across the entire amusement park suddenly began to operate on their own.

Even without any guests, the rides sprang to life, including the long-abandoned attractions in the old district. They dragged their rusty, dilapidated frames along, rumbling and shuddering ceaselessly.

Amidst the deafening roars, it culminated in an incredibly bizarre spectacle.

Yan Jing could feel it. That mass of fog had ultimately transformed into a seed.

A Pathway seed.

The seed of this Domain.

Outside the building, Zebra froze.

He wasn't the only one; everyone else was stunned as well.

There was only one possibility for a scene like this.

Mr. San had returned.

But when they slowly turned to look at the approaching figure, they were shocked to find it wasn't Mr. San at all.

The person's build, height, and overall aura were strikingly similar to Mr. San's, yet beneath the robes were feet, not tentacles.

If it wasn't Mr. San... who was it?

Regardless of who it was, all the staff members immediately bowed the moment they saw him arrive.

If someone could awaken the rides in the old district, that person was the new master of Mad Amusement Park.

This was something Mr. San had instructed before.

Right then, the bowing Zebra suddenly thought of a possibility.

He had just noticed the person being followed by Tiger, who wore a look of pure shock.

And the only person who had gone into the haunted house with Tiger just now was...

Tap.

Suddenly, the black robe stopped right in front of him.

Zebra's heart skipped a beat.

Zebra immediately spoke up, his voice trembling.

"Hello, sir. How should I address you?"

"Call me..."

That familiar voice rang out.

Zebra's body instantly shuddered.

"Call me Mr. Yi."

After saying that, the person slowly walked away.

"From now on, all matters within the park will be the sole responsibility of you, Tiger, and Hippo."

He left behind only those words.

A long while later.

Zebra lifted his head, gazing with complex emotions in the direction Yan Jing had left, and spoke slowly.

"Pass it down. The amusement park has changed hands. From this day forth, the master of Mad Amusement Park is Mr. Yi."

...

...

Yan Jing retracted the robe and returned to Rotten Vegetable Village.

Tiger followed behind him.

He had originally wanted to leave Tiger in the park, but Tiger stubbornly insisted on coming along.

He didn't tell Tiger that when he boarded the Terror Bus today, the long-haired ticket conductor had glanced at him twice.

Once on the way there, and once more on the way back.

During all the previous bus rides, the conductor had never so much as looked at him, glancing at most at the sack of Fear Hearts he carried.

He suspected that Sleepland and Dandelion Manor had already made their moves.

After returning home, he absorbed a dozen Fear Hearts as usual, taking another step closer to the Second Tier.

Two or three more times should be enough.

He found Mantou, cooked lunch for her, and then the two of them just sat in the house chatting.

They didn't do anything else, just pure conversation.

Regardless, Mantou looked exceptionally happy.

During their chat, Yan Jing quietly tried to use the Power of the White Stone, but no strange phenomena appeared.

He didn't know if it was because that bird hadn't come out.

In the afternoon, Old Master Liu suddenly arrived.

He was supported by Tiger as he walked.

Behind him was Chen Nian.

"Old Man, in your condition, what are you doing running out here instead of staying home?"

Yan Jing looked at Old Master Liu in confusion.

"Looking for you to play."

The old man chuckled and pulled out a deck of cards.

"You and Nizi team up. Huzi will deal the cards. We're playing Fight the Landlord."

The old man seemed to be in very high spirits.

But one glance at Chen Nian told Yan Jing that the two definitely weren't just here to play.

Because Chen Nian also seemed to be in high spirits.

This was very abnormal.

"Have your eyes recovered, old man?"

"I could give you a pair of eyes as a handicap, Yi Ji, and still beat you."

"Let's play then."

In the first round, Yan Jing drew the landlord position.

His hand wasn't terrible, but he lost quickly anyway.

Sitting across from him, the old man and Chen Nian coordinated perfectly, their teamwork completely seamless.

Right after, the old man became the landlord, and he lost too.

It looked like he had drawn a terrible hand.

Then, it was Chen Nian's turn to be the landlord.

Unsurprisingly, he also lost.

He was completely shut out by the old man with a Spring hand.

"Hold on."

Yan Jing blinked in confusion, looked at his own cards, then at the cards the old man had played, and turned to Chen Nian.

"Why didn't you play your four Queens?"

"Saving them for the next round."

Chen Nian tossed his cards onto the table, and the old man immediately scrambled the pile. Now Yan Jing understood. He turned to Tiger and said, "I'm the landlord this round. Deal from me first."

"Okay."

Tiger nodded.

"Mantou, which one do you think I should play?"

After picking up his cards, Yan Jing held them out to Mantou and asked.

"Play... play..."

Mantou pursed her small lips and narrowed her eyes, picking with a very serious expression.

The old man had been teaching her the rules these past few days, and she had basically learned them all.

Meanwhile, Yan Jing's gaze was actually fixed entirely on Chen Nian and the old man across from him.

The next second, Yan Jing pointed a finger.

He shouted, "Aha! Switching cards!!!"

"Who's switching cards?"

The old man started whistling.

Chen Nian, on the other hand, silently moved the cards in his hand further back.

Yan Jing smiled helplessly. He could indeed see them switching cards, but he couldn't catch them in the act; the old man's hands were just too fast.

"Just say it. Between us brothers, do we still need to hide things?"

He could tell that the two of them had something on their minds.

The old man chuckled.

"Look here, Yi Ji, my boy. Even though the landlord gets to draw three extra cards, didn't they lose every time?"

"What does this show?"

"It shows that everyone is responsible for boycotting gambling," Yan Jing replied with a serious face.

"Wrong! It shows that fighting alone doesn't work!!!"

The old man declared.

"Then why didn't you just grab a handful of chopsticks?"

Yan Jing's expression turned even more serious. "You made me choke to death on a full Airplane hand in the first round."

"Chopsticks are too outdated!"

The old man pointed a finger, looking disgusted. "Why aren't you trendy at all?"

"Then what's trendy? Tell me."

Yan Jing asked.

"Trendy is when you have something going on, but you're hiding it from us!"

The old man said indignantly, "Today, at least two groups of strangers came to the village market. Normally, we don't even get half a group!"

"And both of those groups stared at your stall several times."

"That's normal. Didn't I kill one of their people?"

Yan Jing smiled. "It's completely normal for them to come knocking."

"It's not normal."

Chen Nian said coolly, "I won't say what we did yesterday was flawless, but we at least cleaned up the battlefield thoroughly enough."

"If they can still trace it to our doorstep under these circumstances, it means the people behind this paid a huge price."

"And the person you killed was merely a friend beside Yu Xiran."

Hearing this, Yan Jing laughed.

He suddenly realized.

He wasn't Mr. San.

And the two friends in front of him weren't the clueless Cameraman either.

"There are some things I can't say, brothers."

Yan Jing smiled. "It's my own business. There's no need for you to shoulder it. Besides, whoever gets involved wouldn't be able to handle it."

"At the very least, you can tell us about it first."

Chen Nian said slowly.

"Exactly. If you don't even say it, who knows if we can handle it or not."

The old man took off his sunglasses in dissatisfaction.

"Mantou, you go outside for a bit. I need to talk about some things with Grandpa and the others."

Yan Jing said gently.

"O-Okay!"

Mantou nodded obediently and slowly walked out of the room.

[Look at that. Why are you the only one who can't listen?! He's isolating you! He doesn't like you!]

[Hurry up and go back! Just listen! Piss him off!]

"No... you're not allowed to speak..."

Mantou frowned. "Yi Ji... is talking about... very important things..."

[...You dummy, he can't hear me anyway.]

"Shh... shh..."

[...]

Inside the room, after watching Mantou leave.

"Third Tier."

Yan Jing suddenly spoke.

As soon as the words fell, the old man and Chen Nian both froze.

The two looked at each other, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

Tiger's eyes widened even further, leaving him speechless for a long time.

"Are you serious?"

The old man asked solemnly.

"I'm serious."

Yan Jing smiled. "Between brothers, there's no need to lie."

"How many?"

Chen Nian asked slowly.

"Three."

"Are you kidding me?!!"

The old man's eyes bulged as he looked at Chen Nian. "Is today that... that whatever holiday you mentioned last time..."

"April Fools' Day."

"Right, April Fools' Day!!!"

The old man stood up and glared at Yan Jing. "There are no more than ten Third Tier experts in the entirety of Old Sin City!! And you're saying you provoked three of them?!!"

"It seems that way."

Listening to it, Yan Jing almost wanted to laugh. It really was absurd.

...

...

A deathly silence fell over the room.

Eventually, the old man reached out and nudged Chen Nian beside him.

Understanding his intent, Chen Nian said slowly, "I can take you to another Domain."

"We'll leave tonight. No, it's best if we leave this afternoon. Start packing!!"

The old man had always been swift and decisive.

Yan Jing smiled and shook his head.

"If I wanted to hide, I have my ways. But what about you and Mantou, Old Man?"

"If I'm not mistaken, when those two groups came today, besides checking out my stall, they probably swung by your and Old Chen's stalls as well."

Yan Jing smiled and continued, "There's also Mr. Tiger, Officer An Ze, Rose, and the others... What I'm tangled up in isn't a small matter. Because of me, they might turn all of Old Sin City upside down."

Looking at the few of them who had fallen silent once again, Yan Jing kept the smile on his face.

"Brothers, stop asking. There are some things I just have to carry on my own. Especially you, Old Man. Just go back and get some good rest..."

If he wanted to run, he could withdraw from the Inner World right now.

But what would be the point in that?

If this character could no longer log in, it would be no different from dying.

Even if he could somehow log back into this character to scrape by a few years later, without this group of friends around him, the character would basically be meaningless.

In a few years, far too many things could change.

Perhaps by then, this character would just become a dispensable one among his many characters.

Or perhaps, by then, he would have already died in the next Dungeon.

Yan Jing finished speaking.

The atmosphere in the room grew increasingly quiet.

Something called sorrow seemed to unknowingly diffuse through the air.

"Then let's talk about something else!!!"

Suddenly, the old man spoke up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a Badge.

The cigarettes were Hongtashan.

On the Badge was a symbol Yan Jing had never seen before.

It had a wooden base inlaid with metal, pieced together to form a starry sky, mountains, a river, and the heavens.

And right in the center, a small figure was hand-carved. It had no arms or legs, only a round head on top of an oval body.

The old man rubbed the tip of his nose with his other hand.

"Brat Chen and I want to start an organization for fun. This is the organizational emblem we came up with after thinking about it for a long time."

"It's a bit tacky, but we put a lot of thought into it."

"We came today just to ask if you're willing to join."

"If you are, you can take a high-ranking spot. Plus, the organization doesn't have a name yet."

As he spoke, the old man wore a completely nonchalant expression.

Looking at the crude design on the Badge, the smile on Yan Jing's face grew a bit brighter.

"You want me to name it, old man?"

"If you join, we can consider it."

The old man rubbed the tip of his nose again.

Yan Jing stared at the armless, legless figure on the Badge for several seconds.

Finally, with a gentle smile, he said, "Why don't we call it Tianque."

Seeing their confused looks, Yan Jing smiled and explained, "The Heavenly Dao is flawed, after all."

"This way, our previous codenames can still be used."

As soon as he finished, the others' eyes lit up.

"Then that's what it will be called!"

The old man finalized the decision.

"But is there any point in recruiting me? I'm a dying man."

Yan Jing's crimson eyes narrowed into slits.

"By then, the person ranked ahead of you might be a corpse, you know."

"We've already made it. We're just playing around anyway."

As he spoke, the old man slapped the Badge and the cigarettes right into Yan Jing's hand.