Eternal Moon Southern China Headquarters, Shanghai.

I opened the car window and let a bit of drizzle fly inside as a unique building complex entered my view. The buildings were intentionally arranged so that the complex would look like a hexagram formation from top down, and at the center of it was a giant sword.

There were two statues about dozens of meters tall standing proudly in front of the building. The left statue was a sinister-looking devil with a skeleton blade in his hand, the legendary Great Saint. The right statue was the Dragon Speaker Binglan, the goddess who fought against the devil god and defended humanity’s ultimate right to survive in the world. I could practically feel the tension between the two all the way from here.

I couldn’t help but sigh. I said it before, but I will say it again. Eternal Moon Corporation is rich as fuck. This building design was probably one of a kind in the entire world.

……

Beep beep!

Behind me, Lin Yixin honked her horn to urge me to move faster. It was currently past 3 pm because we got stuck in a small traffic jam earlier.

I couldn’t find the entrance to the venue, so I ignored her and maintained a slow pace. Not long after, a couple of beautiful girls wearing work badges in front of their chest appeared in front of us. The one with long hair walked up to our car and asked with a smile, "Sir, are you here to participate in the Who Will Rise tournament? If you are, please tell us your ID."

I nodded and got straight to the point. "I’m Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand."

"Ah?"

The beauty’s mouth fell open. It took her a while to recover herself, and even then her eyes were full of stars. "You’re Lu Chen? Hehe, you really are as handsome as they say. So…"

She looked inside the car with sparkly eyes. "Wah, the three of you must be From Water, Beiming Xue, and Murong Mingyue, right? It’s so nice to see you all in person~~"

He Yi giggled. "Alright alright, this is getting embarrassing. Can you tell us where we should park our car?"

"Oh, right. Please follow me. We can register you after you’ve parked your car!"

The girl led the way while I followed slowly behind her. Soon, we arrived at an outside surface parking. Right behind us, Lin Yixin exited her own car and rose nimbly to her feet. She was wearing a white sports attire and a pair of white sports shoes, which made her look as pure as the snow. Xu Yang, Gui Guzi, and the others were completely flabbergasted when they saw her.

……

"Ah? You… you’re…" The girl’s shock when she saw Lin Yixin was in no way inferior than when she saw me. It took her a while to find her voice. "Are you Wind Fantasy, the guild leader of Snowy Cathaya?"

Lin Yixin nodded with a smile. "Nice to meet you…"

"Hehe, I’m the one who should be saying that. I wasn’t expecting you all to come together! Come now. We’ll deal with your registration first and take you to your hotel later. Also there’s a news conference for the Who Will Rise tournament later tonight."

"Mn."

……

When we reached the registration venue, most of the Top 32 parties had already arrived. There were 160 participants in total, and everyone had to register and receive their participation badge here. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to enter the match.

We spotted High Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon, and Eighteen Steeds Of You and Yun as well. The girl was wearing a bright attire and smiling at us. "Lu Chen, we heard you took out Candle Dragon’s second seed during the preliminaries. Is that true?"

"Yeah, easy peasy."

"Hehe!"

It was at this moment a group of arrogant-looking people waltzed into the venue, and the leader of the group looked very familiar. He was none other than Pillar Of The Nation flanked by Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er. Little Piglet was a pretty handsome-looking youngster with a half-smile plastered to his face. Shangguan Wan’er seemed like the silent beauty type who preferred to say nothing unless absolutely necessary. Beside her, an extremely perverted-looking young man was doing his utmost to curry favor with her. He had to be that high-level priest I saw earlier, Profound Puff.

……

"Long time no see, Eve!" Wang Dongliang walked up to us like old friends while beaming like the sun. "You didn’t expect Hegemon Palace to make it to the Top 32, did you?"

He Yi glanced at him once before replying, "I hope you get eliminated during the first round."

"..."

Wang Dongliang rubbed his nose awkwardly. He Yi then gave my hand a pull before saying, "We’ve completed our registration, and we’ve gotten our room cards. Let’s move our luggage to our rooms, shall we?"

"Mn."

Members of the same party were arranged to have rooms right next to each other, so all of us including Li Chengfeng were arranged on the 11th floor. On the way, I helped carry He Yi and Beiming Xue’s luggage. We didn’t bring much with us because we were only staying for two days and one night. The tournament should end by tomorrow afternoon, so we could head home right after that.

After entering our rooms and helping the girls with whatever they needed, everyone gathered inside my room.

"Ah, I’m so tired. It’s been a busy day…"

He Yi stroked her long, smooth hair once before sitting on the bed. "The matches are starting tomorrow, so what should we do for the night? I don’t think I’m in the mood for grinding."

I sat by the window and looked at the bustling crowd on the ground. As more and more participants showed up to register themselves, I smiled and answered, "There’s a feast later tonight, right? The Who Will Rise news conference I mean. We can attend it for a while before heading to bed."

"Mn."

Murong Mingyue nodded and sat on my bed as well. After kneading the bed like a cat for a bit, she asked with a smile, "Your bed is so soft, Lu Chen. Do you mind me sleeping with you for the night?"

I replied calmly, "What are you talking about? Aren’t all the beds in the hotel the same?"

Beiming Xue asked, "By the way, has anyone seen Li Chengfeng yet?"

"No idea. I don’t know if he’s here yet."

It was at this moment someone knocked on the door and called out, "Lu Chen, you in there?"

It was Li Chengfeng’s voice. Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives.

I opened the door. The dragon warrior walked in looking a bit wet from the rain. "Yo, everyone’s here? I didn’t disturb anything, did I?"

"Nah. You just arrived?"

"Mn. I rushed over the moment I got off the plane." Li Chengfeng smiled before saying seriously, "I saw Candlelight Shadow just now!"

"Candlelight Shadow?!"

"Mn!"

I gritted my teeth before replying, "I wonder how the groups will turn out. Will we encounter Candle Dragon sooner than expected?"

"I have no idea, but I do know that we’ll be drawing lots during the feast to decide that!"

"Oh? That’s interesting. Wanna bet who’ll be fighting the first match?"

"No, but I sure wish it’ll be us versus Candle Dragon, haha!"

"Hahaha!"

Beiming Xue could do nothing but shake her head at our arrogance.

……

Soon after, Xu Yang showed up and knocked on the door. "Guys, the news conference is starting in ten minutes. Should we go down to the hall now and wait?"

"Yeah."

The guys hurriedly straightened their attires, and the girls put on some last-minute makeup. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls weren’t going to embarrass themselves on an important occasion like this as a matter of course, although frankly it might be a bit of an overreaction. Our three girls could probably one-shot everyone in the scene even if they didn’t wear any makeup.

……

There were over forty tables in the entire hall. They were separated into participants’ seatings, officials’ seatings, and so on.

"Hello!"

A beautiful attendant walked up to us with a smile. "I’m the Heavenblessed customer service manager of the Shanghai Region, Qin Xiaotian. You are Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, aren’t you?"

"We are." I nodded and smiled back. "I recognize you, Qin Xiaotian. You used to be a member of the Snow Moon workshop, and your ID is Summer Last Year, right?"

Qin Xiaotian smiled. "Wow, I wasn’t expecting someone to still recognize me, much less the Little Heavenly King Falling Dust himself. It’s an honor!"

"How are Shusheng, Ling Xue, and Ling Yue doing?"

"They’re all doing fine, but they’re currently at New York headquarters to discuss the new patch."

"I see."

Qin Xiaotian asked, "Lu Chen, you don’t mind sharing a seat with Snowy Cathaya, do you?"

"Sure, no problem!"

"Hehe, I knew it!"

Damn, Qian Xiaotian was 24 years old at most, and she was already a customer service manager of Heavenblessed. I was the same age as her, but I didn’t even have a proper job yet. I’m such a failure!

……

I sat down carelessly and waited. Soon after, Snowy Cathaya’s first-seed party walked up to us and took their seats. I recognized Shadow Chanel and Clear Perfume, but not the unfamiliar girl who looked to be around 25 years old. She sneaked glances at us again and again until she blurted, "Is it just me, or do they look really familiar to you all?"

Su Qingqing burst into laughter before pointing a finger at me. "Oh, you! This guy here is none other than Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Then we have From Water, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, and finally Legendary Brave."

"Oh, I see…"

"Qingqing, who is this?" I asked.

Sun Qingqing replied, "Oh, she’s our new recruit and super bard, Beauty At First Sight! She has a secret class called Holy Bard!"

I nodded and shot Shadow Chanel a glance. "Chanel also got a new hidden class, right? Dark Tongue Mage sounds like a powerful class."

Shadow Chanel smiled dangerously. "Don’t worry, you’ll know exactly how strong this class is in the final, or earlier."

Purple Marquis simply smiled and said nothing at all.

I asked again, "By the way, Qingqing, where’s Yiyi?"

"She was called away by a couple of employees."

"Called away?"

"Mn." Sun Qingqing nodded. "Heavenblessed’s China region officials just signed an endorsement agreement with Yiyi, so she went away to do an advertisement. Don’t worry, I heard it’s only a couple of seconds long. She should be back in no time!"

I was stupefied. Eternal Moon Corporation actually entered an endorsement agreement with Lin Yixin? The power beautiful girls wielded in the world really was an incredible thing.

Lin Yixin returned pretty soon as Qingqing said she would, but for some reason she was red-faced and fuming when she dropped down at the seat next to mine. She glanced at me before exclaiming in surprise, "OMG, why are you here at this table, Little Cheat?"

"That’s how they arranged us, duh. What’s wrong?"

I glanced at her hand. What was she holding… an advertisement script?

My curiosity was piqued instantly. "How did the ad go, Yiyi?"

"Please don’t bring that up."

"Why? What’s wrong?"

"See it yourself, but don’t you dare laugh…"

Lin Yixin put the script on the table, and a single glance later I burst into uncontrollable laughter—

Someone asked me a question: “What is a colorful life?”

“A life where the sun always rises in the morning, I think.”

Someone asked me a question, “Who would you like to marry in the future?”

“A Heavenblessed expert”, I answered.

A whole new world, the ultimate experience; feel free to try out all the things you couldn’t do in real life! Heavenblessed is colorful because of you!

……

"WTF! Who is the idiot who wrote this script?" I laughed so hard that I was literally in tears.

Lin Yixin gritted her teeth and punched me angrily. "I told you not to laugh, bastard!"