"Liluo, you dare?!"

Amie barely managed to pick herself up off the ground, but the injuries she had suffered weren't light. In fact, she even felt that her soul would blink out at any moment.

Even though it wouldn't be a true death, it would most definitely leave a hidden injury on her soul. By then, cultivating into the future would grow ever more difficult.

It had to be remembered that as an expert of the Immortal Ring Realm, Amie had already entered the Soul Birth Realm, so the penalty for harm to her soul was even greater. At the very least, someone who had yet to step into this Mental Realm could use the subsequent breakthrough to deal with any lingering injuries, but she didn't have such luxury.

The truth was that only Mental Realm Masters would ever care to cultivate past the Soul Birth Realm. One could technically grow endlessly within this Realm, and with the help of certain protective treasures, one wouldn't need to worry much about Mental Realm Masters.

But, this culture wasn't bred of laziness, but rather, necessity. Most simply didn't have the talent needed to go beyond the Soul Birth Realm just like one might be capped in their Qi Realm cultivation. The concept was the very same.

Unfortunately, Amie was one of these individuals. Without the chance to rely on being a breakthrough to heal any lingering injuries, her future path would be all but cut off. Because, even though the soul was part of the Mental Realm, without a whole soul, cultivating would become many times more difficult.

This alone was enough to show just how much talent Ryu had. Even with his poor Mental Realm talent, his cultivation speed was actually still so blazing.

This Liluo character Amie referred to, though, obviously didn't care about such things. In fact, if it wasn't' for the fact he was stalling, biding his time for Amie's reinforcements to appear, he would have long since finished her off.

But, since he got the chance to toy around with such a beauty, how could he be impatient? He simply sneered, his aura locking onto Amie.

"Ah, Amie, Amie, Amie. You should have just accepted the offer I gave you all those months ago. A little beauty like you is really content with being a mistress?"

Amie's face flushed with red with embarrassment and rage.

"Not everyone is a traitor like you!" The young woman snarled.

"Tsk, tsk. If you hadn't broken my fragile little heart, do you think that I would have defected? You can only blame yourself for being so cold."

The group of three who had followed Liluo snickered, but didn't say much toward this. They tacitly assented to Liluo's actions. The more the Violet Olive Team was provoked, the better.

By now, a large crowd had gathered. Most of the members of this city were fringe talents who couldn't hope to get involved in such a large scale matter. So, they only watched, chattering amongst themselves and adding to the peanut gallery.

"Isn't that the Deep Valley Team? Why are they here?"

"They must be targeting the Violet Olive Team, but they're quite bold to do so in Olive City, so far away from Valley City."

The truth was that the names of these cities were subject to change. The change was dependent on the dominant Team of the city and the right to change this city name was reliant on the completion of a Bronze Mission.

To have a city named after a Team was indeed an honor. But, likewise, it made being attacked in one's own city even more humiliating.

With Amie, a core member of the Violet Olive Team on the ground and in such a vulnerable position, it would definitely dampen the prestige of the Violet Olive Team.

The less prestige a Team had, the less likely unaffiliated players would migrate to their cities and use their facilities. And, by extension, the less revenue a Team would gather.

To make matters worse, Violet Olive had only recently claimed this city for themselves, so their control was only at about 10%. As such, the authority they could exercise was likewise limited.

Not only would handing in their quota bring them closer to completing their Silver Mission, but it would also allow them the right to gain 20% control of the city. At that level, they could have directly expelled the Deep Valley Team from their borders, but now their hands were tied.

Amie gritted her teeth.

Humiliation was fine. She could handle that much. But, the issue was that she had also lost control of the offerings for meeting their quota.

At that moment, the crowd suddenly separated.

Liluo looked up from standing over Amie, only to immediately recognize two of the men approaching him.

"Grim and Dru, what a pleasure."

Grim and Dru stared daggers toward Liluo, the ambient qi in the air rising in volatility. If not for Liluo's betrayal back then, their Team wouldn't be seen as such upstarts. Not only had he gone, but he had even taken many of their Talents as well, people many of them thought of as friends.

Now, Deep Valley was ranked Fifth while they had dropped all the way to Twelfth. They were barely holding on their position. If they slipped any more, their ticket to the Event would be lost.

They all knew how important this event was for Giveon, yet these bastards were actually still not satisfied.

After a moment, the two surprisingly found that their control of qi had been dulled considerably. The two couldn't help but look toward one another before looking toward Ryu who walked before the two of them. At that moment, the fear in their eyes was even clearer.

Ryu walked to Amie's side as though Liluo was nothing more than air and stretched out a hand to help her up.

Amie hesitated, a swirl of complex emotions in her gaze. But, she eventually reached out a hand to grab his.

Just when she was about to make it, a blade suddenly appeared in the path of her hand. If she continued, there was no doubt that even if her life wasn't in danger, she would most definitely lose a few fingers.

Ryu inwardly shook his head.

A subtle wave of blue suddenly rippled across his skin as he flicked a finger toward the incoming blade.

The crowd was shocked. Did this young man have a death wish?