The group that Roland was in was exclusively made of Mages.

  Naturally, Roland was neither distant nor too close to them. He chatted with them now and then, explaining magic conundrums to the Mage players or talking about lewd topics once in a while.

  They could almost be called online friends.

  Besides, Roland had taught them lots of stuff. They mostly supported Roland.

  O’Neal was different from Roland.

  Roland was devoted to magic development, but O’Neal was focused on both magic studies and socialization, as could be seen from the Mages’ group he set up.

  Therefore, it was completely natural and understandable that Roland wanted to talk to him.

  Seeing the question mark that O’Neal replied with, Roland sent another message. “A lot of people in your group are now capable of Mud to Stone and Stone to Mud, right?”


  O’Neal: “Yes. About forty of them can cast that spell now. It’s all because of you. In the match, you changed the terrain and secluded the girls in the poisonous circle. Also, you created underground shelters with the two spells earlier, which helped you a lot at the beginning of the match. Besides, you always built houses for rest with the two spells in the previous videos. So, the two spells are what all the players learn nowadays.”


  So, he was actually the reason?

  However, the two spells were truly useful. Even without him setting an example, the Mage players would’ve learned them sooner or later.

  Roland sent another message. “Forty people should be enough. I have a favor to ask of them! You are the group creator and their future leader. I’m sure you can give them a command, right?”


  O’Neal: “We’re just partners on the same path. It doesn’t really matter whether or not I’m the group creator or the leader.”


  Roland smiled, impressed by how smartly O’Neal spoke.

  Roland: “A member of F6 got a territory, but it’s full of swampland, so I want you to help us turn it into dryland. Of course, you won’t be doing it for free. After a city is built in the territory, we’ll give you a ten-acre territory in the business area.”


  After he sent the message, O’Neal was silent for a while.

  About ten minutes later, Roland received a message.

  O’Neal: “When can we start?”


  Roland: “It’s up to you. The sooner, the better.”


  O’Neal: “Tell me the location, we’ll go over soon.”


  Roland smiled. “The wetland to the east of Fezhoasso County.”


  O’Neal: “Got it. We’ll meet again in the game shortly.”


  Then, O’Neal’s avatar dimmed.

  Roland was rather bored.

  He barely went to the saber arts club anymore because Qi Shaoqiu was absolutely no match for him now.

  However, he did go there once in a while and practiced with his friends to help them “improve,” while actually he had fun beating up his friends. If he didn’t go to the saber arts club, there wasn’t much he could do during the day.

  He could read the posts on the forum any time he wanted. His spellcasting training in reality had hit a bottleneck too.

  His Hand of Magic was slightly bigger than a normal hand, but its grip strength was no more than thirty kilograms, much less than in the game.

  As for Inferior Fireball, he could light a cigarette with it, but its effective flight range was still limited to five meters.

  It was almost as if that was his upper limit.

  Roland was quite angry.

  Recently, he had visited all the Buddhist and Daoist temples near the city, but he never found the special energy balls again.

  He visited the ancestral hall a couple of times too, when other people were paying tribute, to no avail.

  That was a huge disappointment for Roland.

  The virtual cabin was so huge that he could easily be discovered if he dragged it out of his home, or he would’ve traveled in the country with the virtual cabin and visited the famous temples to see if he could find anything.

  The more he stayed at home, the more bored and depressed he became, so Roland took a public bike and rode around aimlessly on the street.

  Then, at the turn of a street, he saw Jin Wenwen, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, walking toward him slowly with her head lowered. Roland saw her, but she didn’t see Roland. She seemed rather worried, her face extremely pale.

  She had left no good impression on Roland at all, so he simply rode past without greeting her.

  He thought that it was just a coincidence. After all, this was a small city, and it was not strange to run into bums now and then.

  But as it happened, when Roland was about to go home for lunch after biking for a whole morning, he ran into Jin Wenwen again.

  At this moment, Jin Wenwen was sitting on the cement stairs before a storefront. Her face was extremely pale, if not blue.

  More importantly, she was covering her mouth with a handkerchief, which had been dyed red by her blood. A corner of it had nearly turned black.

  She was coughing, and after each cough, her handkerchief would become redder.

  She was extremely feeble and not nearly as mean as before.

  Some passersby were around. Someone had called an ambulance. They all asked Jin Wenwen to lean against the wall and take a rest.

  However, nobody dared to give her a hand.

  It was not because they were unsympathetic. Some young men were going to support her, but they were stopped by the elders, who were maturer and more cautious, knowing that the patient would be even more badly hurt if someone handled her recklessly when the situation was still unclear.

  After hesitating for a few seconds, Roland called Qi Shaoqiu. “Roland, what can I do for you?” Qi Shaoqiu said in his lazy voice, as if he didn’t care about anything

  “I saw Jin Wenwen in Heavenly River Street.”


  “I don’t care where she is!” Qi Shaoqiu’s voice became louder and more impatient.

  “She’s vomiting blood. She’s in a bad condition.”


  “That’s none of my business!” Qi Shaoqiu shouted, and then he hesitated. “Wait, what did you say? She’s in a bad condition?”


  “Yes.” Roland repeated what he just said. “Someone already called it in, and the ambulance will probably come soon, but I thought you should know.”


  After a brief silence, Qi Shaoqiu’s anxious voice emerged from the phone. “Give me your location. I’ll be right there!”


  Roland hung up the phone and sent his location through the chat app.

  Then, he observed Jin Wenwen from the crowd.

  He didn’t really like this woman, but he still knew her.

  It was unnecessary for him to step up and take care of her, but he should give her a hand if anything really happened to her. After all, she was Qi Shaoqiu’s ex-girlfriend, and a human being that deserved his sympathy. Very soon, the ambulance arrived, and Qi Shaoqiu came in time in his pickup too.

  He parked the car in a parking space next to the road and ran to Jin Wenwen, and the doctor who just examined her shouted, “Massive bleeding in her upper esophagus, and strong noises in her lungs! She’s in a critical situation. Is her family here?”


  “I am!” Qi Shaoqiu shouted and squeezed into the crowd.

  Then, his face turned from calm and peaceful to extremely awful. “Carry her to the stretcher!” the doctor urged them. “She needs to get oxygen in the ambulance!”


  Without further ado, Qi Shaoqiu picked up Jin Wenwen, who was nearly passed out. Jin Wenwen wanted to struggle, but she had no strength at all. Her eyes rolled and she fell unconscious.

  Soon, the shrieking ambulance drove away.

  Roland rode the bike to the hospital unhurriedly.

  About half an hour later, Roland came to the hospital and found the ER.

  Qi Shaoqiu was standing against the white wall in the corridor outside of the ER with a weird look on his face.

  He seemed both angry and agitated. Roland walked to him and leaned against the wall with him, before he asked, “How’s she doing?” “Still in the ER. Her situation is very bad.” Qi Shaoqiu subconsciously searched his pocket but found no cigarettes, so he became even more irritated. He rubbed his eyebrows for a moment and said, “Thank you for letting me know.”


  “You’re too kind. I only did what I should.”


  After a moment of hesitation, Qi Shaoqiu said, “This doesn’t look right. Jin Wenwen is very healthy. She was a boxer and still practices boxing now. She can’t be in such critical condition even if she’s ill.”


  Roland raised his eyebrows. “What did you find?”


  “The doctors simply took her into the ER. I didn’t have time to observe her.” Qi Shaoqiu looked around and found that the other patients and nurses were all far away, so he said in a low voice, “But I could tell that the blood she vomited wasn’t the black blood caused by illness or weakness, but the ‘living blood’ caused by internal bleeding.”


  Roland got it. “So, she was beaten up and wounded!”


  Jin Wenwen was a tough, mean girl. It didn’t seem very surprising that someone caught her and beat her up.

  Qi Shaoqiu nodded. “That’s exactly my thought.”


  “Then what? Are you going to avenge her?” asked Roland with a smile.

  Qi Shaoqiu said with a self-mocking smile, “Why would I? I don’t want to be involved with her anymore. I’m only standing here as her friend.”


  “In that case, I’ll be on my way.”


  Qi Shaoqiu was greatly surprised. “You’re leaving just like this?”


  “There’s nothing special between me and Jin Wenwen. I’ve already done her a favor by informing you for her. Why should I stay here?”


  Qi Shaoqiu said matter-of-factly, “It’s true that you don’t have to stay here for Jin Wenwen, but you can stay for me. We’re friends, aren’t we?”


  “Fine.” Roland stayed.

  The two men barely talked while they waited patiently for the results from the ER.

  After only a few minutes, two men, one older and the other younger, came to the corridor quickly.

  The old man, who was bald, was walking in the lead, and the young man behind him looked obedient and walked quickly yet reluctantly.

  When they came to the ER and saw “Jin Wenwen” on the door, both of them looked extremely awful.

  At first, Roland thought that they were Jin Wenwen’s family or friends.

  But defying his expectations, the old man asked, “May I know if you’re Jin Wenwen’s family?”


  Huh?

  Roland’s eyes bulged as he suddenly sensed something wrong. There was a feeble energy reaction on the top of the bald old man’s head! It was similar to what Roland “ate” in the ancestral hall.