The deciding match!
The first battle began, and Yi of Ice quickly proved herself to be stronger than Eyes Like Water. Nangong Lexi dragged out the battle, and after Eyes Like Water was killed, she focused down Stranger of Three Lifetimes with Yi of Ice. It was 1-0 to Snow Moon.
During the second battle, Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Eyes Like Water switched roles. Eyes Like Water ran around to avoid taking damage, while Stranger of Three Lifetimes tanked the enemy"s attacks with her Origin Energy s.h.i.+eld and attacked the enemy with impunity. After successfully parrying Yi of Ice"s Barrier Break, she killed off Nangong Lexi with Ice Blast + Touch of the Dragonkiss combo. Then, she worked together with Eyes Like Water to take out Yi of Ice.
Again, Stranger of Three Lifetimes changed her tactics for the last battle. Eyes Like Water pretended to Charge toward her enemy but pulled away immediately. While Yi of Ice and Nangong Lexi were temporarily distracted, Stranger of Three Lifetimes boldly Blinked toward them and hit both players with Ice Blast and Galaxy Storm, killing Nangong Lexi and bringing Yi of Ice to low health. Although Yi of Ice managed to kill Stranger of Three Lifetimes in the end, by that point she was too low on HP to beat a perfectly unharmed Eyes Like Water.
In the end, Blazing Hot Lips claimed the last point and officially advanced to the eighth-finals!
Snow Moon"s comeback was impressive, but they ultimately weren"t able to make it past the 16th-finals. It was just their luck. Of all the opponents they could"ve faced, they had to run into the first seed of Blazing Hot Lips and one of the best mages in the entire China.
……
Group C"s matches continued shortly. Thunder took out Silver Soul with a 4:1 score, and Snowy Cathaya absolutely annihilated Hegemon Palace. Lin Yixin, Purple Marquis and Shadow Chanel all won their fights, and although Little Piglet dominated Clear Perfume with a 2:0 score, one person"s performance couldn"t overturn the overall result. Plus, even he and Shangguan Wan"er together had no chance of beating Lin Yixin and Purple Marquis in the 2v2 match. With Purple Marquis playing the bait and the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess the killer, they easily cut down their opponents to size. The match ultimately ended with a 4:1 score in favor of Snowy Cathaya.
“Sigh…”
Little Piglet sighed deeply at the sky as he walked out of the arena. “I was hoping to win some prize money from the WEL, but… 20k is like nothing at all. How disappointing…”
That"s right, the prize money for teams who ended their run at the 16th-finals was only 20k RMB. Of course it was too little for a man with a seemingly endless appet.i.te for money like Little Piglet.
Group D"s matches happened next, and again the victors were pretty clear cut. G.o.ds of Destruction destroyed Mad Dragon with a 9:1 individual score, and Coldmoon Rose was the only one who managed to take 1 point off Dominating Knight G.o.d.
Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd wrecked Baidicheng 5:0 under Li Chengfeng and Chaos Moon"s leaders.h.i.+p. Although Baidicheng was our ally, and Come See The Snow Tonight was a CGL Hall of Famer herself, their defeat was set in stone from the moment the grouping was announced. She couldn"t even score a point for her team because she unfortunately ran into the Dragon Warrior, Li Chengfeng. Still, Li Chengfeng was a smart man, and he battled Come See The Snow Tonight without activating Great Earth Transformation. He defeated her with a 2:1 score and ended Baidicheng"s journey in the WEL.
Only four teams could win the ticket to partic.i.p.ate in the internationals, so no one was going to take it easy even if their opponent was their ally. Plus, just because they were the second seed team didn"t mean that they weren"t a powerhouse in their own right. In fact, they were one of the hot picks to win the whole thing. With a bit of good luck on their side, no one doubted that they had the ability to make it to the Top 4.
……
With that, the upper bracket matches were officially over, and the lower bracket matches began shortly. The very first match was between Candle Dragon and our ally, The Monarch Descends!
When Ling Xueshang and her team appeared on her stage, she stared at Candlelight Shadow without much emotion in her eyes. She probably knew that her team"s chances of winning were low, not to mention everyone in Candlelight Shadow"s team had improved drastically since the last time they met. Their line-up even included their new Divine General, Ye Yuse—
Candlelight Shadow LV-182 Warrior
Ye Yuse LV-181 Charm Master
G.o.d"s Dance LV-182 Dark Flame Mage
Blue Sky Scar LV-180 Wind Knight
……
Even more astonis.h.i.+ng was the fact that three of the four players in Candle Dragon"s line-up had hidden cla.s.ses, and the one person who didn"t was a “normal” warrior who could kick hidden cla.s.ses" a.s.ses like nothing!
I had no idea when G.o.d"s Dance and Blue Sky Scar had become this “Dark Flame Mage” and “Wind Knight”, but they must have learned a lot of new skills. This Ye Yuse was definitely going to be a problem as well. It wouldn"t be inaccurate to claim that the number of fans who believed that Candle Dragon would win this compet.i.tion was at least equal to ours.
Back to reality. Ling Xueshang appeared on the stage first, followed by her opponent, Ye Yuse. Frankly, no one really expected her to beat a Divine General who also had a hidden cla.s.s. We all held our breaths to see just how strong Candle Dragon"s ace really was.
The battlefield was a gra.s.sy plain, and Ye Yuse"s long hair swayed gently to the wind. Surprisingly, the mage looked a bit nervous as she summoned her Magic s.h.i.+eld and stared at Ling Xueshang. I supposed that she was intimidated by the fact that Ling Xueshang was a long-time CGL Hall of Famer.
The moment the battle began, Ling Xueshang immediately exploited her range advantage to land a couple of hits on Ye Yuse first. Shockingly, Ye Yuse appeared to falter after just three shots, and both her and her Magic s.h.i.+eld were destroyed by Ling Xueshang"s Skypiercer and Spiraling Arrow Blade a moment later!
It was 1:0. Ling Xueshang won the first battle!
……
“The heck? Is it just me, or is that Divine General pretty weak?” Gui Guzi"s eyes widened in surprise.
However, Li Chengfeng narrowed his eyes and said, “It"s too early to say. I think she"s just testing Ling Xueshang since she didn"t even use her Great Earth Transformation. Hmph hmph, let"s see what happens in the second battle!”
The next match began quickly after both combatants appeared on the battlefield.
This time, Ye Yuse summoned her Magic s.h.i.+eld and activated Great Earth Transformation. The cyan lotuses sprouting beneath her feet matched her appearance very well.
Ling Xueshang waved her hand and launched Triple Shot.
However, Ye Yuse abruptly Blinked right in front of her—they weren"t even 20 cm apart—and smiled. “Hold!”
Pa! A big red “Hold” appeared above Ling Xueshang"s head and froze her in place. She couldn"t move anything besides her eyes.
Ye Yuse gave her no chance to recover. Opening her palm and revealing a blood red paG.o.da, she said, “G.o.d Suppressing PaG.o.da!”
Boom!
A literal paG.o.da fell from the sky and landed on Ling Xueshang. A huge damage number immediately rose above her head—78992!
It was almost an overkill. Ling Xueshang"s HP dropped to the red in one hit. However, the attack also canceled the hold effect, so the archer was able to withdraw to the back.
Ye Yuse gave pursuit and waved a charm into existence. At the same time, she said, “Petrification!”
MISS!
The spell missed though, and Ling Xueshang finally got the chance to do something. She hurriedly leaped into a nearby shrubbery and landed a couple of surprise shots on Ye Yuse"s Magic s.h.i.+eld.
Ye Yuse reacted quickly and countered with her Divine General Skill, Nether Curse!
Boom!
Everything within a 50-yard area was. .h.i.t, and Ling Xueshang failed the 50% dice roll. Drunken status took hold of her and caused her to spin around like a drunkard.
Ye Yuse smiled and waved her hand one last time.
Bang!
One last G.o.d Suppressing PaG.o.da later, Ye Yuse pulled the score back to even once more!
The third battle went more or less the same way. Although Ling Xueshang was a pretty good player, she simply couldn"t deal with a Divine General Charm Master. Her CC magic especially was absolutely broken!
In the end, Ye Yuse won the first match with a 2:1 score!
……
If the first match was a struggle, then the last four matches were practically a slaughter. None of the players Ling Xueshang brought with her was weak, but their opponents were simply too powerful. Candlelight Shadow, Blue Sky Scar and G.o.d"s Dance won all their matches, and the last 2v2 match was attended to by Candlelight Shadow and Ye Yuse. Their combo looked practically invincible, and they ended The Monarch Descends with a flawless victory.
The first and possibly the most exciting match of the lower bracket ended just like that.
The rest of the group matches went by quickly—
Righteousness 4:1 Weeping Blood
Who Will Fight Me 2:3 Conquer
Pop Culture 5:0 Rain Sanctuary
Dominating Heaven Tiger 4:1 Wing Chun Sect
Mini 1:4 Sword Lord of Jianghu
Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 5:0 Heavenly Feather City
Panda 3:2 Hunting Moon Dynasty
……
Just like before, our team swept the opponent with a perfect 10:0 total individual score just like before. There was a 30 minutes break after the 1/16 phase over, and the eighth-finals began immediately after that.
Group A
Warsky Alliance VS Purple Lily
Soul Battle Robes VS Blazing Hot Lips
Group B
Thunder VS Snowy Catahya
G.o.ds of Destruction VS Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd
Group C
Candle Dragon VS Righteousness
Conquer VS Pop Culture
Group D
Dominating Heaven Tiger VS Sword Lord of Jianghu
Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls VS Panda
……
The groups were merged. Only one team would emerge from each group as the semi finalist and China"s representative to partic.i.p.ate in the global compet.i.tion. It was something everyone was looking forward to.
Group A was a true group of death. There were no weaklings, and anyone could make it out of the group.
Snowy Cathaya and our second team had the highest chance of making it out of Group B, and between the two, Snowy Cathaya probably was the favorite. Li Chengfeng"s chance of beating Lin Yixin was lower than 50%.
Candle Dragon was most likely going to win Group C.
And of course, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had the highest chance of winning Group D.
……
Fei"er walked on stage in her mini skirt and smiled warmly at everyone. “First, I would like to thank all our contestants for showing us so many interesting matches. Now then, we will be starting the matches to enter the semi-finals, and the four teams to emerge from their respective groups will become the representatives of China! Of course, all the matches will be broadcasted in full from now on!”
A thunderous clap shook the entire arena. The most antic.i.p.ated matches of the WEL were about to begin. The bloodbath between the legends and the CGL Hall of Famers was what everyone was really looking forward to!
Fei"er continued, “But before that, our player representative would like to share a few words with you all.”
What? Player representative?
High Fighting Spirits clenched his fists together. “Ah f.u.c.k, it"s got to be that grandson Candlelight Shadow again, isn"t it? Motherf.u.c.ker, how can anyone still see him as our representative after everything that has happened? Who the h.e.l.l can he even represent?”
Li Chengfeng simply smiled and said, “Ignore him. If he wants to amuse himself, let him…”
……
As expected, Candlelight Shadow walked on stage with his heavy sword in his hand. He swept a solemn glance across the stands before starting, “This WEL compet.i.tion is a compet.i.tive event where the four representatives of China will be chosen to challenge the greatest experts from the entire world. Our only objective is to spread the fame of the China server, and to tell the wolves of the north, east and south that the three cities of the Center will never fall into their hands!”
A thunderous applause followed his speech. Well, even I couldn"t find fault with it.