Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 188: Newest Members Of Phoenix Rising

Chapter 188: Newest Members Of Phoenix Rising

"Are they still in the city?" asked Ye Yao Zu, cocking his head to the side. Wang Chao hadn’t seemed to be interested in anything other than his woman, but to abandon all of his troops wasn’t something he could see him doing easily.

"Yes, they live in the same building as the Leader," grunted Chang Guo Zi, clearly not comfortable with the conversation.

"And Zhou Jun Jie is the head of the Sanctuary?" asked Si Dong surprised. He had assumed that something had happened to the leader if Zhou was ruling the city.

"He is," agreed the other man. "We were hoping that Wang Chao would come back and take over, but that never happened."

"Then what is the leader doing right now? No offense intended, of course," asked Ye Yao Zu. If you wanted to survive, you needed to understand the current politics. Nothing would get you killed faster than pissing off someone you never saw coming.

"He is taking a short break. He was ill when the EMP hit, and it took some time to rescue him from the hospital. Unfortunately, it took almost a year to get him healthy again with the lack of supplies."

"Makes sense. Plus, I assumed that his job is to look after the country as a whole and not just one small sanctuary," popped up Bai Long Qiang. "But enough about that. Tell me about the teams."

Chang Guo Zi nodded his head and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach.

"Each guild tends to attract like-minded teams," he started, looking around the room. "The Sanctuary Guild is comprised of teams only from City A, and their loyalty is unquestionably for the Princess and her knight. We have a couple of those teams in Retribution, too, but not nearly at the same level as the Sanctuary Guild."

"Understood," nodded Bai Long Qiang, folding his arms in front of him and resting them on the table.

"Retribution is the third largest guild, and like I said earlier, has ties to every other city with a sanctuary in it. That is beneficial because a lot of the places where we have to go are outside of our territory," continued Chang Guo Zi.

Bai Long Qiang nodded his head. They were already going to go with Retribution; it was just a matter of figuring out which team would line up the best with them. Since Wang Tian Mu didn’t know what she wanted to do in the future, they didn’t want to force her to remain here if she wanted to leave.

But they didn’t know the consequences if they wanted to leave a guild, so they might as well go with one that was across the country.

"There are only four of the fifteen or so teams here that are looking for people right now," explained Chang Guo Zi. "We are pretty much all from the same group, so we often will combine the teams if the job warrants it. Vengeance of the Promised, Oath of the Honest, Betrayed Intent, and Phoenix Rising are all ex-military personnel that stayed with Wang Chao."

"And not one of you is bitter about how that ended up, huh?" joked Si Dong, his eyes widening at the names. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned, but military men hold grudges, too. Maybe it was a good thing that Wang Chao didn’t show his face in City A outside of Bin An Sha’s condo.

"Yeah," grunted the man, but he didn’t say anything more. "Like I said, you can’t go wrong with any of the teams."

"And if we want to leave?" asked Bai Long Qiang, startling everyone.

"What?" asked Si Dong, his forehead wrinkling at that statement. "I thought we were here for good."

"We are here until Wang Tian Mu is healed, and she can tell us if she wants to stay or leave," shrugged Bai Long Qiang as he leaned back in his chair, a smirk on his face. "But you are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you want."

"Fuck you," grunted Si Dong, his shoulders hunched forward. He wasn’t going to stay here if Wang Tian Mu wasn’t here. He had spent too long in the shadows; now that he had been given ’permission’ from Bai Long Qiang, he wasn’t going to leave her side until the day he died.

"Honestly, that is something that you would have to discuss with the other team leaders," shrugged Chang Guo Zi.

"And what is your personal opinion?" asked Ye Yao Zu, studying the man. So far, he had been completely honest with them, even if it didn’t paint him in the best of light. He was one of those men that Ye Yao Zu wouldn’t mind working under... for a limited time.

"I think that you are more than welcome to leave my team when the time comes... if it comes. The fact that you are focused on your woman is a good sign, as far as I am concerned. Men who don’t have roots in something or somewhere are more likely to do something stupid, resulting in the deaths of everyone."

"Then you can consider us the newest members of Phoenix Rising," smiled Bai Long Qiang as he stood up and offered out his hand. Chang Guo Zi stared at it for a moment before accepting it and shaking.

"If I can get the names of the rest of your team, I’ll have them added to the roster, too," he grunted, coming to his feet.

"Fan Teng Fei," smiled Si Dong as he watched Chang Guo Zi blink rapidly at that name. "Yes, from that Fan family."

"There is also Rip," continued Cheng Bo Jing, the smile on his face widening. "He used to be a Reaver but has since come over to our side."

"You have a Reaver on your team?" pressed Chang Guo Zi.

"We do. He is with our woman right now, but if you want to meet him, you are more than welcome to come over at any time. He doesn’t like to leave her side unless it is important," shrugged Bai Long Qiang like he didn’t just admit that they were teammates with the New World’s boogeyman.

"And the last member of our team is Bin An Sha," added Ye Yao Zu, dealing a death blow to Chang Guo Zi. "He might not be able to go out on all the missions, but at least you now have personal access to the healer, right?"

"Well... fuck."