At 12:30 pm, I logged into the game with a full belly and high spirits, ready to conquer the WEL play-offs. Today, the champion of the China region would be decided, a prospect countless people dreamed of attaining. Candle Dragon needed this win to prove that they were still the kings. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls needed this win to wipe away the regrets of the past. Warsky Alliance needed this win to distinguish themselves from their compet.i.tors. Snowy Cathaya needed this win to get more prize money. Even Blazing Hot Lips needed this win to solidify their recent status as the number one guild in Vanished G.o.d City.
Long story short, everyone was gunning for the t.i.tle of champion. It was unclear yet to whom the deer would fall, and all we could do now was to give it our all for the guild we had sunk much effort into building for the past year!
……
Swhoos.h.!.+
After I went online, I received a system notice: "h.e.l.lo, you are a Top 64 partic.i.p.ant of the WEL compet.i.tion (China). Would you like to teleport to the center arena immediately?
I selected "No." I had logged out of the game immediately after the preliminaries were over, so my equipment needed repairing, and my supplies needed to be restocked. I went to repair my equipment first. Then, I bought some Rank 9 and 10 Magic Consumablesto create some Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potions before sharing a couple stacks with the girls. I couldn"t afford to be stingy considering that this was the WEL compet.i.tion. I would happily trade a few stacks of high-rank potions for a champion"s trophy any time!
My preparations were complete, and there were still 20 minutes before the matches began. There was no reason to dilly dally, however. I should head in and check out the situation inside the arena.
Swhoos.h.!.+
Me and the girls went in as a party. Remains and the rest of the subst.i.tutes had already gone in, but they themselves knew that they weren"t going to be partic.i.p.ating in a single match today. The play-offs were nigh, and it was time for us first-strings to bring our full power to the play-offs. Like it or not, they had to admit that either one of us—either combination of us even—except Murong Mingyue could beat them.
My vision brightened. As it turned out, the venue chosen to hold the WEL play-offs was the biggest hall available in Sky City"s battle arena. The stage where the battle would take place was a brightly lit, 100x100 yard area archers and mages would love a lot. In a sense, more s.p.a.ce equaled more HP for these cla.s.ses.
There were four other smaller stages set on all four sides of the large stage. They would be used to hold all the matches from Top 64 phase to the eighth-finals. Only matches after the eighth-finals would be broadcasted in full, everything else would be selectively broadcasted just like the preliminaries.
We were currently standing at the tournamentant waiting area—the seats surrounded the entire stage—a lot of players waiting outside the railings already. Candle Dragon"s group was standing quite far away from us. Candlelight Shadow was sitting on the steps and gazing calmly toward somewhere while Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow, G.o.d"s Dance and Transient Smoke and Clouds surrounded him like bodyguards. Besides that, they were also accompanied by a scepter-wielding girl who was also the current vice leader of Candle Dragon, Ye Yuse. She was a Divine General Charm Master, and she would be partic.i.p.ating in the WEL as a regular. There was no doubt that she was one of the biggest variables of this compet.i.tion.
The reason I said this was because we knew nothing about Ye Yuse, while every last detail of our cla.s.ses was dismantled and studied by our enemies for a long time now. It was the price of fame and one of the biggest disadvantages we had. According to Sun Tzu, the key to remaining undefeated in battle lay in how well you knew yourself and your enemy, but we knew nothing about Ye Yuse at all. She had concealed her strength too well.
……
"Boss Broken Halberd!"
I turned around and saw Gui Guzi walking toward me with his spear hanging loosely in his hand. He greeted me with a smile, "You guys sure took your time, haha! Anyway, as you can see we were lucky enough to enter the Top 64!"
Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun were following behind him. I shot them a glance before rolling my eyes at Gui Guzi, "Bruh, if y"all can"t make it to the Top 64 in a team with Li Chengfeng in it, then you might as well quit the game already…"
High Fighting Spirits laughed loudly. "I know! There"s no need to be humble, Little Gui, we totally deserve to be in the Top 64! Speaking of which, I wonder if we"ll encounter Candlelight Shadow? I really want to duel against him today!"
Li Chengfeng smiled. "I want to beat Candlelight Shadow myself, but to be honest, our chances of winning are low if we do run into them…"
Chaos Moon nodded. "Yeah. Candlelight Shadow"s champion arena win rate is slightly better than Li"s, Blue Sky Scar"s win rate is slightly better than High Fighting Spirits", and G.o.d"s Dance"s win rate is slightly better than Little Gui"s. Objectively speaking, we don"t match well against them. In my opinion, the best case scenario is Lu Chen"s broken a.s.s team kicking Candle Dragon"s a.s.s, and we lucking out, stealing the runner-up spot from all other compet.i.tors."
Li Chengfeng couldn"t stop himself from chuckling. "Are you kidding me? Even if we don"t run into Candle Dragon or Lu Chen, there are still Wind Fantasy, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Warsky or Luo River G.o.d of the Capital"s teams to worry about. Since when do we have a 100% win rate against either of these teams?"
Chaos Moon moaned. "Why are there so many broken teams, G.o.ddammit! I don"t wanna live anymore…"
……
It was at this moment another group of players walked toward us, and their leader was none other than the beautiful Fruit Knife G.o.ddess, Lin Yixin herself. She was spinning a deadly-looking dagger between her fingers, like a student would a pencil, adeptly. She probably knew the dagger far better than most a.s.sa.s.sin players out there.
"Yo! I see that Snowy Cathaya made it to the Top 64…" Gui Guzi called out to them with a challenging grin.
Purple Marquis shot back. "Heh! If the 222nd seed of ASDS can make it to the Top 64, how can we, the first string of Snowy Cathaya, possibly lag behind?"
Gui Guzi immediately glared at him. "Hey, who the f.u.c.k are you calling the 222nd team?"
"Look at the screen, you doofus!"
"Huh…"
We all looked up at the big display, and to our surprise, their team name was actually "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd Seed”. You couldn"t even claim that it was a copycat team because the team member list was listed right below it. Gui Guzi immediately hopped up and down in rage, "What the f.u.c.k! Who"s the one who came up with this team name? What"s so wrong with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 2nd Seed, huh!?"
Li Chengfeng shuddered before looking at the sky. "Let"s not dwell on those bad memories, okay? The day of the registration, I accidentally added two extra 2s because my hand shook. You won"t blame me for this, will you?"
Chaos Moon tilted her head at the screen before declaring, "I don"t know man, it looks pretty stupid to me…"
Their antics made Lin Yixin giggle like a bell.
I walked up to her and said, "The next round won"t be broadcasted, Yiyi. Let"s both defeat our first opponents, shall we?"
Lin Yixin nodded and smiled gently at me. "Mn. And let"s pray that we don"t encounter each other too soon."
"Of course!"
……
Another group of people chose this moment to walk up to us. They were all brawny males wielding all kinds of weapons except the cute little girl standing in the middle of them. For some reason, I felt like I had seen her somewhere. She had a cute face and a delicate body that was just starting to show some signs of growth. Given enough time, it looked like she could be quite the beauty in the future. She donned a set of metal armor and wielded a sword. She walked up to me and asked, "Long time no see, Lu Chen. Have you reconsidered joining us Soul Battle Robes yet?"
"Soul Battle Robes?" I immediately recalled a certain memory and shook my head like a fan. "Sorry, but no thanks. Soul Battle Robes is full of fierce generals, right? You don"t need an extra like me anymore, right? So please forget about me, Beauty Song of Cloud and Water. I"ll never leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls no matter what!"
He Yi shot me a praising smile from the side.
Surprisingly, Song of Cloud and Water tilted her head at me before letting out a chuckle. "Alright then, if you insist. The next time we meet, it"ll be on the battlefield. I hope your team will last until then, hehe…"
……
"Why is that brat acting so c.o.c.ky all of the sudden?" Gui Guzi said with clenched fists.
I looked at the guys following Song of Cloud and Water before frowning. "Huh. I don"t remember any of these people from her previous team. Two of them even have hidden cla.s.ses. And look, Song of Cloud and Water herself is Level 180! She must have found some powerful aid…"
Lin Yixin blinked once before saying, "Hmm, Soul Battle Robes used to be the king of guilds that could go toe to toe with Snow Moon. Could it be that they are making a resurgence?"
"I don"t know…" I looked at the big display above us again before noticing something. "Hey look! Snow Moon just appeared on the screen! Their team members are… the f.u.c.k? Their team members are…"
Everyone"s attention was drawn to the big display. Our jaws. .h.i.t the floor when some very familiar IDs entered our vision—
Summer Last Year LV-180 Mage
Nangong Lexi LV-180 Holy Archer
Yi of Ice LV-180 Warrior
Fleeting Fireworks LV-180 Magic Knight
Silent Rain LV-179 Priest
……
"It can"t be…"
He Yi"s eyes widened like saucers. "They"re… they"re all…"
Lin Yixin murmured in a daze, "They"re all members of the famous Twenty Four Snow Moon Cavalry back then! I can"t believe that Nangong Lexi and the Twin Dragons, Yi of Ice and Fleeting Fireworks, are partic.i.p.ating in the WEL as well! When did they level their accounts so high?"
I shook my head. "I don"t know. I haven"t paid attention to Snow Moon for a very long time. To think that they would partic.i.p.ate in the WEL with Summer Last Year as their leader! Is Snow Moon trying to make a comeback?"
Li Chengfeng looked far less shocked than us, however. Leaning against the handrail and closing his eyes, he said, "It"s not as bad as you guys think. In fact, you guys should be thankful that it"s only the Earth Riders who returned to the scene, not Dark Shadow Drifter or Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow."
Lin Yixin pumped her fist energetically and said, "Yeah. It"s a shame though. I really wanted to fight against Dark Shadow Drifter and Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow again!"
My eyes widened. "Wait. You fought against the Twin Winds of Snow Moon before, Yiyi?"
"Yeah, three years ago when I was still in high school…"
"What was the result?"
Lin Yixin blinked cutely at me before revealing the shocking truth, "I beat Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow with a 7-6 score and Dark Shadow Drifter with a 9-5 score. What do you think?"
Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and everyone else could only gape at her.
I silently mulled over the information in my head. I should"ve expected this, to be honest. Even before Heavenblessed, Lin Yixin was a powerful expert already. Her old ID, Beautiful Little Pepper, wouldn"t have become a legend otherwise.
Purple Marquis said proudly, "When Beautiful Little Pepper first made her debut, boss spent her whole summer vacation challenging all kinds of super experts such as Dark Shadow Drifter and Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow. In fact, she was the successor of the Temple of Order, and she annihilated almost all of Snow Moon"s experts except Frivolous Scholar and Windy Snow, and that"s only because she never sparred the last two!"
It was at this moment Li Chengfeng facepalmed. "Oh man, this is really bringing up some terrible memories."
Gui Guzi asked, "Li, you played Spirit of Grief too, right? Surely you"ve tried to challenge some experts before. What was your win rate against Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow?"
Li Chengfeng looked at the sky at a 45 degree angle before sighing. "My score was 0-27. Ah, the Buddha was right. Everything in this world is nothing…”