We returned to Suzhou around evening time, but sadly, not a single restaurant we usually frequented was open because it was New Year's Day. In the end, we had to eat some cheap noodles in a noodle restaurant before rus.h.i.+ng back to the workshop. The preliminaries would begin at 6 pm and end at 10 pm, and during this time, the Top 64 teams would be decided. After that, the Top 4 teams and the national champion would be decided the following day.

……

Swhoos.h.!.+

I appeared in Dark Moon City's territory hall since that was where I last logged out of the game. Our Rank 9 undead castle now looked incredibly impressive, and even the hall looked like an impenetrable fortress with its thorn-covered outer walls and one hundred undead knights. They stood guard like solemn statues.

"My lord…"

The Dark Knight Hero Udal dropped to his knees as he called out to me. Normally, he would be addressing me as "Your Lords.h.i.+p", but since I had split up the administration power six ways between He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Li Chengfeng and Chaos Moon, the autocratic management had turned into a committee...

Udal was a brave and fiercely loyal general. Hand placed atop the hilt of his sword, he asked me, "What orders do you have for me, my lord?"

I shot him a glance before asking, "When will our city reach Rank 10?"

Udal took a moment to think before answering, "My lord, we don't meet the requirements to upgrade our city to Rank 10 just yet. Our Knight's Grave, Dragon's Grave, Forest Cave of Death, and Grave Spring are still at Rank 8. They must be upgraded to Rank 9 before we can upgrade our city to Rank 10!"

"Then we shall prioritize upgrading these four buildings. You may stop recruiting additional Dark Insects for now."

"Yes, my lord!"

It wasn't long before the Knight's Grave and Dragon's Grave entered upgrade mode. They would reach Rank 9 24 hours later. If we hadn't transported much of our resources to Stranger of Three Lifetimes, we could've upgraded all four buildings at the same time. For now, it must wait until the necessary amount of resources were gathered. That being said, Dark Moon City's production numbered in the tens of thousands per hour for each resource, so it really shouldn't take long to reacc.u.mulate the sum we needed. In ten days, the final upgrades would finish, and Dark Moon City would become the first undead city to reach Rank 10 in all the servers!

……

I checked the time. There were only 10 minutes left before the first match, so I teleported to Sky City and met up with the four girls right away. Besides that, our subst.i.tutes—Hidden Fragrance, b.u.t.terfly Dance and more—appeared as well. They joined the party, and we made up a party of ten in total.

Beep!

System Notice: There is 10 minutes left before the WEL preliminaries. Do you want to enter the waiting zone right away? (Friendly reminder: Please make sure that you have everything you need. A fierce string of battles may be waiting for you!)

I had repaired my equipment a long time ago, and my bag was filled with Magic Consumables, cards and Saint Spirit Potions. I even brought an entire stack of Ghost Chariot Cards—a hundred in total—due to how important this compet.i.tion was. The second I met a powerful opponent, bam! Ghost Chariot Card! If not, then an Axe Fighter Card should be enough to deal with everything. In fact, I knew that over 99% of the parties out there weren't even worth a card, but better be safe than sorry...

Swhoos.h.!.+

I appeared inside the waiting zone, a wooden room about twenty square meters in size, and the battle arena we would be fighting in was right outside of it. There were countless such prison-like battle arenas across the seemingly borderless plaza as well. The cheers erupting inside and outside the virtual s.p.a.ce were enough to make anyone's blood boil with excitement.

Beside me, He Yi, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue and Lian Xin appeared one after another, followed by another two guys and three girls. They were Remains and the rest of the subst.i.tutes of course.

"Ahem…" Remains smiled at me and said, "h.e.l.lo, Lu Chen!"

I nodded back in acknowledgement. "h.e.l.lo!"

Heart Like Water walked up to me and asked, "Can we discuss something with you, Lu Chen?"

"Sure. Speak!"

"Three minutes before the match begins, the enemy's line-up will be displayed on the screen. If possible, we would like to enter the arena and practice our skills, if the enemies are sufficiently weak of course…"

Heart Like Water stuck out her tongue cutely before continuing, "Lenovo is paying us a big fat salary. We may be subst.i.tutes, but we feel like it's irresponsible of us to just sit here and do nothing. What do you think?"

I gave it some thought before agreeing, "No problem. If the enemy's average Level is below 170, and they don't have any hidden cla.s.ses, then we'll let you guys fight two of the five upcoming matches. This is the preliminaries, so we cannot afford to lose even a single round, you understand me? We need three points at least to secure a round…"

Remains raised his giant blade and smiled. "Of course I understand! We just don't want to warm the benches throughout the whole preliminaries."

"Alright, prepare yourselves. A road of thorns may be lying in wait for us. It says here that the game channel will be broadcasting the matches from 6 pm to 10 pm, but the preliminaries itself could easily be longer than that. Every match is only 120 seconds long, and past that, the system will decide the victor by comparing the players' remaining HP. Long story short, we end our fights as soon as possible!"

"Yeah!"

In China, over 5 million teams were partic.i.p.ating in the preliminaries, which meant that we had to win 15 to 17 rounds at least before we were done. It was why everyone in the Frost Cloud workshop ate two bowls of noodles before we logged into the game. A long and arduous road awaited us.

……

A few minutes later, a line-up appeared on the blue screen inside the room. The enemy team was called "a.s.s Buster", and their average Level was 165. I should've known that our first opponent would be a weak one. I could destroy ten parties like this without breaking a sweat…

"Who are we sending?" I asked He Yi. She was the party leader right now.

He Yi replied with a smile, "Lian Xin and Beiming Xue can handle a 1v1 match each, and Mingyue and I can handle the 2v2. Remains, who will you be sending for the last two matches?"

Remains answered, "b.u.t.terfly Dance and I will go."

"Okay!"

He Yi turned in the selection list, and soon a drum beat signaled the start of the round!

The first match was between Beiming Xue and a mounted player called Silver Scale Chest Armor. He was a member of Warsky Alliance, and his mount was a fearsome Frostscale Horse.

Swhoosh swhoos.h.!.+

A pair of white lights appeared in the 50x50 meter wide battle arena. Silver Scale Chest Armor was a middle-aged man, and he clicked his tongue in admiration when he saw Beiming Xue. "Wow, I wasn't expecting to run into such a cute opponent in my first match! Lenovo sure knows how to pick them ladies!"

Beiming Xue said nothing and waited for the countdown to end. This was hardly the first time she was. .h.i.t on by an uncle—apparently pure and innocent girls like her were their type these days—so she was well-versed in the art of "How to Deal With Perverted Middle-Aged Men 101", also known as not responding to their provocations at all. In fact, it was the only thing she could do. The moment she got baited into a conversation, the uncle would use all his world experience to drag her into a bottomless abyss.

The moment the countdown reached zero, Silver Scale Chest Armor turned serious and galloped around the edges of the battle arena. A short while later, he made a turn, sped up toward Beiming Xue and activated Charge!

The hint of a smile flashed across Beiming Xue's lips as she took two steps backward and let loose a Shock Arrow. The well-placed arrow stunned the uncle mid-charge, and she followed up with Mountain Stagger Arrow. The Windchaser set showed its true colors and one-shot the poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d's mount tenacity. Not only that, the two crowd-control skills already dropped him to half health!

Swhoos.h.!.+

One Devil Piercing Arrow through the chest later, a huge damage number popped up his head—179044!

It was a crit and a one-shot!

1:0!

The entire fight ended so quickly you would almost think that it was a fixed match. Did that Frostscale Cavalryman seriously think he could beat Beiming Xue with zero feints? He didn't even bother to fake his Charge! Even I would've tested the waters repeatedly before daring to launch a decisive attack. It was no wonder he lost as quickly as he did.

Each match was a BO3, and the next round's result was the same. The uncle put up a token struggle and gave up a point just like that.

It was a clean 2:0 victory and a quick point to our team. It was Lian Xin's turn now, and no one had any doubt that she would annihilate her opponent faster than they could blink. It was also clear that He Yi's strategy for this round was to scare the f.u.c.k out of enemy right out of the game!

Lian Xin's opponent turned out to be a female mage too, but the power gap between the two was way too huge. Both mages tried to blast the other to smithereens, but Lian Xin's Fire Dragon Spell and Ice Spiral Matrix were empowered by her new Thunder G.o.d Scepter. It took her only two hits to shred the opponent's Magic s.h.i.+eld and end their life with Dimensional Storm, twice. It was yet another unquestionable 2:0!

Remains headed out for the third match, and the opponent was a Level 172 archer with good skills and good equipment. It definitely wasn't the easiest fight he could've chosen.

Thankfully, there was a good reason Lenovo chose to sign Remains, and he didn't take long to prove his strength. A couple of feints later, he sped up his rhythm, locked down the enemy with a Charge and ended their life with a series of slashes. The opponent never stood a chance.

The next player to head out was b.u.t.terfly Dance, the Dark Ritualist. She dropped four totems around herself immediately after the match began, and the enemy warrior didn't not dare to touch them. As a result, b.u.t.terfly Dance easily took him out with a couple of Black Dragon Waves. As expected, the Dark Ritualist cla.s.s was a force to be reckoned with, although of course it was a ways away from Lian Xin's Phantasm of Stars. It was definitely enough for the first few rounds of the preliminaries at least.

The last match was the 2v2 match. He Yi and Murong Mingyue, one magic knight and one priest went out to face their opponents. They were a perfect complement to each other, be it in terms of offense or defense.

……

He Yi stood protectively in front of Murong Mingyue after they entered the arena. The opponent's team was a warrior + mage combo, and the mage with harsh eyes said, "Third, stall From Water for me while I take out Murong Mingyue. We have to get at least one point, you get me?"

The warrior nodded. "I know. Don't worry!"

However, He Yi charged first before they could make a move, and a feint later she tossed a grayish brown net straight at the warrior!

Thud!

It hit the warrior perfectly, meaning that he would be trapped for 7 seconds straight. It was the seventh-promotion magic knight special skill—Trapping Net!

The Dragonlight Horse neighed as He Yi charged toward the mage. Two charges later, the Seven Star Veluriyam Spear burst into flames and stabbed toward the mage's chest. Barrier Break!

128376!

He Yi had Royal Road turned on, so she wasn't lacking in attack power at all. After she one-shot the mage, she and Murong Mingyue easily took out the warrior.

5:0. The first round was a perfect victory for us!

……

Back in the room, I unconsciously tightened my grip around the Purple Ying Sword.

When He Yi saw my reaction, she burst into a giggle and said, "Calm down, you. Fine, you can go first in the next round!"