The power gap was evident the moment the battle began. Clear Perfume had moved to the back and fired Spiraling Arrow Blade and Skypiercer into the sky, and they landed on G.o.d Bone's armor to deal two damage numbers—

29083!

18381!

It was pathetic. Clear Perfume had good Attack, but she hadn't used Ghost Chariot Card, and she didn't have the armor penetration of Beiming Xue's Windchaser set. There was no chance she could've penetrated G.o.d Bone's Defense even if her Attack was twice as high. Worse, G.o.d Bone's cla.s.s was a secret cla.s.s called “Iron Knight”. His Defense was as strong as his Attack. The blood-red s.h.i.+eld in his hand alone was enough to reduce Clear Perfume's damage to a squeak.

Whoos.h.!.+

The arrows still vibrating on his armor, G.o.d Bone abruptly ran out of the dust cloud and toward Clear Perfume in a straight line. Then, he thrust his spear at her and used Bloodbreak Slas.h.!.+

Clear Perfume let out a cry of surprise and activated Leap.

The corners of G.o.d Bone's lips turned up as he activated Charge and appeared right where Clear Perfume was about to land. The move wasn't even anything special; practically every fighter knew how to do this when battling against an archer. Two swings of his spear later, Clear Perfume lost all her HP and collapsed to the ground. She was no match for her opponent at all.

The second round was no better than the first, and Clear Perfume lost her match with a 0:2 score. Worse, this meant that Snowy Cathaya was officially out of the compet.i.tion!

Snowy Cathaya had lost three points in a row after the first match where Lin Yixin had taken out Song of Ice and Fire by storm. Even famous experts like Purple Marquis and Shadow Chanel had lost their matches, so to call this result a big upset was an understatement to say the least. When Soul Battle Robes first joined Heavenblessed, their results were middling at best, and they were nowhere strong enough to be considered a first-rate guild. That was no longer true for this WEL, however. Ringwraith the Undead Mage, Song of Ice and Fire the Frozen Berserker, and G.o.d Bone the Iron Knight were all super-tier experts, and they had wiped the floor with the super guild Snowy Cathaya in a 3:1 win. How could anyone not be stunned by this?

……

Swhoos.h.!.+

After Clear Perfume was teleported back to the waiting area, she shot Lin Yixin a guilty look and apologized, "I tried my best, Yiyi, but that G.o.d Bone is just… so scary. I can't escape from him no matter what I try…"

Lin Yixin hugged her sister's shoulder affectionately and consoled her, "It's fine. You weren't even a gamer a year ago, and you're already at the level where you can give a top-tier expert some challenge, so there's no need to blame yourself at all. And remember, we're still qualified for the internationals. When the time comes, we'll get our revenge on them!"

Purple Marquis clenched his fists and declared, "Yeah, victory and defeat are commonplace in battles. We'll definitely beat them in the internationals!"

Lin Yixin's att.i.tude toward Purple Marquis was very different from Qingqing's, however. "Hmph, Qingqing is still green, so it's perfectly normal for her to lose. But you don't have that excuse, do you? I can't even be bothered to criticize you right now…"

Purple Marquis grinned apologetically. "Well… I was completely thrown off balance by that Ringwraith, yes. But guild leader, I swear I'll wipe the floor with Soul Battle Robes if we run into them in the internationals once more!"

Lin Yixin nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. That being said, we definitely need to recruit more experts before we can truly challenge the internationals. Right now we don't even have a subst.i.tute in our roster. This is just unacceptable."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Anyway, it's Little Cheat's turn now. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls versus Candle Dragon, huh? This will be a very interesting grudge match to watch, hehe…"

……

While Lin Yixin was chuckling to herself, we were moving about restlessly and itching to enter the battlefield. We had waited for this moment for too long, and it was finally Candle Dragon's turn to suffer a terrible defeat in a top-tier compet.i.tion! We were absolutely going to pay back all the humiliation Candle Dragon had dealt to us tenfold!

On the stage, Fei'er's s.e.xy b.u.t.t swayed left and right as she walked around while announcing, "The first semi-final of the WEL has ended in a 3:1 win to Soul Battle Robes, and we thank both teams for the exciting matches they have shown us! Now then, players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Candle Dragon, please make your final preparations. Your match will begin in five minutes."

……

At the distance, Candlelight Shadow was sitting on a step and staring at nothing in particular in silence.

Leaning against a handrail not far away from him, the Divine General Ye Yuse said with a smile, "I'm sure everyone's looking forward to this battle, right? Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is on the rise right now, but that doesn't mean we are in any way inferior to them. The time to defeat them is now, don't you all agree?"

Candlelight Shadow abruptly rose to his feet and declared with a daring smile, "Ye Yuse is right. There is only one king in China, and we will prove it by defeating our rising rival!"

G.o.d's Dance and Blue Sky Scar raised their weapons spiritedly in response.

……

Back to our waiting area, we were discussing what kind of line-up we should go for—

Murong Mingyue said, "We must win our match against Candle Dragon, so I won't be partic.i.p.ating this time. A line-up is a critical factor in a match, so I want it to be the best it can possibly be."

He Yi pressed her lips together like she wanted to say something. A few seconds later, she finally said, "I'm pretty sure Candlelight Shadow is thinking the same thing as us. Who do you think they'll send for the first match?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "No one likes to start off a match with a loss, so I'm sure they'll send someone strong to secure the point. However, it feels like an overkill to send someone like Candlelight Shadow, so chances are they'll send either Ye Yuse or Blue Sky Scar. G.o.d's Dance is less skilled than they are, so she probably won't be fighting the first match."

Murong Mingyue let out a chuckle, and the way her pair of 34Es bounced attracted both Beiming Xue and my eyeb.a.l.l.s for a moment. When Beiming Xue looked at me again, it almost felt like she was asking, "When will I become as big as her, big bro?"

I kept quiet while He Yi said, "In that case, let's a.s.sume that they'll send Blue Sky Scar for the first match. He now has the Wind Knight cla.s.s, and he has high movement and attack speed. Who among us has the best chance against him?"

Lian Xin responded with a smile, "Allow me!"

"Okay."

Beiming Xue then added, "Big bro must fight the third and the deciding match, so I'll fight the second match. Is that okay?"

He Yi nodded again. "In that case, the fourth match is mine. Try to make it so that I don't have to try hard for the fourth match, okay?"

I smiled. "As much as I want to say yes, it's hard to tell how this battle will turn out. We'll see what happens later. Beiming Xue and I will handle the 2v2 as usual. We are Divine Generals, and Great Earth Transformation and Divine General Skills are a huge advantage…"

"Okay. Now that I think about it, there's a high chance the 2v2 will be a match between four Divine Generals, huh? I can't wait…"

"Yeah. Anyway, let's enter the final line-up and prepare for battle!"

"Okay!"

……

While this was going on, Lin Yixin, Clear Perfume and Purple Marquis were moving toward somewhere for some reason. It wasn't long before they arrived at Snow Moon's waiting area. Summer Last Year, Nangong Lexi and the rest of Snow Moon's players looked like they were having a cheerful conversation with each other. Although they had been disqualified from the compet.i.tion, they didn't look depressed in the slightest. Snow Moon had pa.s.sed their peak and enjoyed all the glory there was to enjoy a long time ago, so it made sense that they no longer cared much about winning.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Beautiful Little Pepper…" Lin Yixin greeted Snow Moon's players with a sweet smile before leaning against a handrail. Her posture was as natural as a pretty little cat, but without the wariness and haughtiness that the pet usually carried itself with.

Summer Last Year broke into a smile of her own before responding, "Oh, hi there, Fruit Knife G.o.ddess! We're playing aeroplane chess right now. Do you want to join us?"

Lin Yixin shook her head immediately. "No way. I always lose at this game."

Yi of Ice spoke up, "Little Pepper, I… was there when you beat Protection of Sword and Fire and Magic Cube of Fate a couple of years ago…"

Lin Yixin replied, "Yes, that was so long ago. I hope you don't mind? I was too young and brash back then to know the proper boundaries back then."

Nangong Lexi chuckled. "Mind? Why would we mind that? Even back then, those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds including Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow and Dark Shadow Drifter loved catcalling us whenever we were around. I would've taught them a lesson myself if I was good enough to beat them. You probably have no idea how hard I cheered for you when you beat Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow three times in a row that day, do you?"

Lin Yixin turned red. "Is that so? To tell you the truth, I sought him out only after I confirmed that Frivolous Scholar was offline…"

Summer Last Year giggled. "That just means you're a smart girl. If you had tried to challenge big brother Shusheng instead, your chances of winning would've been almost zero…"

Lin Yixin smiled brightly. "I know, I'm not that young and brazen that I would challenge the Heavenly King of Spirit of Grief himself. Oh right, is Shusheng and Snow Moon making a comeback or something? I can't think of another reason why you all came back."

But Summer Last Year said, "Of course not! That guy is so busy that I've only seen him twice this month! Even Paralyzing Wind of Sorrow, Dark Shadow Drifter and Magic Cube of Fate are busy with their own stuff. Frankly, no one in our group really has the time to game anymore. Therefore, we're in the WEL only because I dragged Sister Lexi, Sister Fleeting Fireworks and Yi of Ice with me…"

Yi of Ice pouted. "I've built my account since the start of Heavenblessed, okay? I just didn't compete or play PvP because I'm using it as a way to pa.s.s the time between work, and sell some equipment to make money. Fireworks is the same as I am."

Summer Last Year complained, "OMG, Snow Moon is dead if you all keep acting like this! I have to travel to Beijing headquarters and work with big brother Shusheng in a month's time!"

Yi of Ice giggled. "That's not a problem. We can just leave it to Southern Barbarian!"

"He's even more of a noob than I am…"

"Nonsense, you're both about the same level…"

"..."

At the side, Nangong Lexi finally lost her cool and exploded, "You heartless girls! None of you even thought about me, did you? What am I going to do when that idiot Southern Barbarian and I are the only ones left in Snow Moon? Do you have any idea how annoying it is dealing with a guy who wouldn't stop proposing to me day and night? You know what, f.u.c.k it, I'm leaving Snow Moon and building a guild called 'Big Dumb Donkey'! I'm going to open my own clothing design company and earn tons of money…"

All the girls froze at the declaration.

It was at this moment Lin Yixin spoke up, "Say, Lexi, would you like to join Snowy Cathaya? If nothing else, we can keep you company when your friends are all gone."

Nangong Lexi's eyes lit up. "Join Snowy Cathaya? That's not a bad idea! But what can you offer me exactly?"

Lin Yixin sucked in a deep breath before declaring, "I can't give you much on the physical side, but I can train you in the art of PvP until you become a top-tier archer like Beiming Xue one day!"

Nangong Lexi's mouth fell open a little. "Does that mean… I can become as strong as Magic Cube of Fate one day?"

Lin Yixin nodded affirmatively. "No, you'll surpa.s.s him. Beiming Xue had long since surpa.s.sed Magic Cube of Fate thanks to Lu Chen's guidance, and right now, she's the only archer in the entire China whose kiting technique and melee combat skills are both top-cla.s.s. If you join Snowy Cathaya though, then you can become like her too!"

Nangong Lexi immediately jumped to her feet and hugged Lin Yixin. "Yes, guild leader! By the way, can I be a vice leader? I also want a monthly salary of 50k RMB at least…"

Lin Yixin's smile widened. "If you join us, sure!"