The score was now 1-1. Despite having lost a point at the beginning, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls managed to snatch a point back in dominant fashion!

Everyone felt much better after we were teleported back to the competition space. Li Chengfeng was hitting me on the shoulder and laughing loudly. “Haha, I finally saw what made Falling Dust the 12th CGL Hall of Famer today. That godlike skill! You actually killed Transient Smoke and Clouds despite being pressured by Candlelight Shadow, and you held off Candlelight Shadow and Blue Sky Scar without dropping below half health. Hahaha, joining Ancient Swords Dreaming Souls has to be the wisest decision I’ve ever made in my life. The feeling of serving the right boss is so nice…”

I looked at him and commented, “Dude, control yourself…”

Li Chengfeng simply laughed again, uncaring that tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of players were watching the LAN tournament live inside and outside the venue. It was almost as if he had forgotten that this was a live broadcast, and our every word and action was caught on camera.

……

I glanced at the Candle Dragon players on the opposite side of our resting area and said, “The next round is the round that decides whether Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls makes it to the final or not. Everyone did very well just now. Lil Beiming’s Volley was awesome, Eve drew away the enemy’s firepower pretty well, and Mingyue’s healing was perfectly on point. Without your instant heals, I wouldn’t have been able to survive Candlelight Shadow and Blue Sky Scar’s pincer attack for so long.”

The girls smiled in unison and dazzled both me and Li Chengfeng for a second. The dragon warrior shook his head a little before asking, “Vice leader, don’t you feel dizzy having to face these three beauties of the Frost Cloud workshop everyday?”

I nodded. “Of course I do. That’s why I spend 90% of my time online, so that I’m not bewitched by them…”

“What a waste…” Li Chengfeng sighed.

He Yi giggled playfully. “I know right…”

Li Chengfeng: “...”

Our conversation ended when we were teleported back into the tournament ring. The final round was about to begin, and whether or not we could finally vent the frustration we had been holding in for two years depended on our performance. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had never beaten Candle Dragon in any skirmish or fight in the past, so if we beat them here, we were 100% making it into the Top 10 of China’s Guild Ranking. No, we must beat them, or we can’t even begin to talk about rising to supremacy in Sky City.

……

Our opponents didn’t look too good when we were teleported into the tournament ring. Gripping the Silver Blade Sword, Candlelight Shadow stared at me coldly and said from the other side of the barrier, "Just wait, we have a big surprise for you all!"

"??"

I frowned but didn’t speak. Still, the fact that Candlelight Shadow was speaking so arrogantly meant that he had an ace up his sleeves.

"Keep your eyes peeled, everyone," I instructed.

"Mn." The girls nodded in unison. The second round went almost too smoothly for us, so I warned them to prevent them from falling into complacency. After all, one misstep and we might lose everything in the third and final round.

……

The system began the countdown—

3!

2!

1!

The decider round begins!

The moment the barrier disappeared, Candlelight Shadow charged toward me and growled, "Wind and Cloud Domain!"

Swhoosh!

A ring appeared around his feet, and a cold wind started blowing around Candlelight Shadow. It was an offensive domain-type magic—

Beep!

Combat Log: Player "Candlelight Shadow" used "Wind and Cloud Domain", increasing his Attack by 20% and decreasing all enemies’ Attack by 20% in a 20x20 area!

……

Fuck, this is bad! No wonder he acted the way he did just now!

I hurriedly ran toward him while yelling at the same time, "Stay away from Candlelight Shadow! He’s mine!"

Beiming Xue and He Yi backed away and unloaded their firepower on Transient Smoke and Clouds and God’s Dance. The two ranged players had to die, or they would make our lives for the next ten minutes absolutely hellish to live through.

Emboldened by his domain-type magic, Candlelight Shadow ran up to me and swung his Silver Blade Sword! I was forced to parry the attack!

Clang!

But I was knocked back several steps despite the successful parry. It was really bad. Inside this Wind and Cloud Domain, my Attack was reduced by 20%, but my enemy’s Attack was increased by 20%. My power was now far lower than my opponent’s, and the Parry system was balanced around the players’ stats. If my attack power was far weaker than my opponent’s, then my parry would be a lot weaker as well. That was why I lost almost a thousand HP despite a successful parry!

Candlelight Shadow smiled sinisterly. "Where did your earlier vigor go?"

Fire wrapped around his Silver Blade Sword. Candlelight Shadow could use hit killer move at any moment, and even if I parried it successfully I would still suffer considerable damage!

At the same time, Blue Sky Scar started approaching me from the side. Was he trying to repeat what he did last time and kill me?

……

Inside the party channel, I whispered, "Chengfeng, work with me and kill Blue Sky Scar!"

"Got it! That was exactly what I was planning as well!"

Li Chengfeng laughed inside the party channel before moving soundlessly toward Blue Sky Scar from behind. The moment Blue Sky Scar noticed what was going on, I immediately ran an S-shaped path toward him and launched an Ice Ray and Desperate Gambit at him!

Blue Sky Scar guarded immediately, but Li Chengfeng broke it with a Crushing Blow from the back. If he was a peak expert like me, he could’ve switched out of Guard in time to force the Crushing Blow to miss. He might even be able to parry my combo after that. But he was no peak expert, so this duel could only end in tragedy for him!

4783!

My Desperate Gambit shattered Blue Sky Scar armor and killed him where he stood.

Candlelight Shadow grunted and charged toward us. Despite my attempts to block his way, he was able to slip past me and appear right next to Li Chengfeng. He had chosen to kill the dragon warrior with the Blazing Purgatory Slash!

6742!

1109!

274!

The good news was that Li Chengfeng guarded in time and saved his own life. Murong Mingyue also threw two timely heals to drag him away from death’s door—

+4109!

+3182!

Actually scratch that, he was back to full health! Murong Mingyue was such a good healer!

Candlelight Shadow’s stomach was probably churning with regret right now, but that didn’t stop him from doing what was necessary. He slipped past Li Chengfeng with a helix maneuver and attacked Murong Mingyue with an Ice Ray and basic attack! The healer was caught completely off-guard by his speed!

1674!

5783!

The first strike shattered her shield, and the second strike one-shot her where she stood!

Candlelight Shadow was in the zone right now. His movement was so erratic that not even Li Chengfeng could predict where he would move next. After a missed attack, he actually gave Candlelight Shadow the opportunity to get close to Beiming Xue and hit her with the AoE skill, Earth Shattering Slash!

7102!

Beiming Xue groaned and hit the ground as well. She was incapable of withstanding his attack at all.

Goddammit! It’s do-or-die!

Emulating Candlelight Shadow, I sped toward God’s Dance and successfully killed her. I immediately spun around and pounced toward Transient Smoke and Clouds next. The archer guessed that I would target him and used Leap immediately, but I was much better than he thought, chasing him with a timely Charge to successfully stun him upon landing. One basic attack and Ice Ray later, he was dead as well!

Players dropped like flies all around us. Almost everyone had completely lost their grasp on the fight, and it was now a battle to see who could keep the coolest head above their shoulders. In fact, Candlelight Shadow, Li Chengfeng and I were the only three people who managed to do that.

Tempest Shadow ran around like a headless fly and got killed. However, he also managed to drop He Yi to red health. Candlelight Shadow ran up to her, scored a hit and killed her as well.

……

Clang!

Candlelight Shadow clashed swords with Li Chengfeng and sent him stumbling. Clearly, the dragon warrior was much weaker than his rival right now.

Roar!

However, a cyan-colored energy blade caught Candlelight Shadow in the head. I had successfully ambushed him with Dragon Slaying Slash!

3987!

Candlelight Shadow only had 2000 HP left, and he was 1v2 against me and Li Chengfeng even though the latter was close to dying himself. Despite his domain, there was only one way this fight could end for Candlelight Shadow.

……

Swhoosh!

Candlelight Shadow lowered his Silver Blade Sword and stared at me with cold eyes. "This match is Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ win. But so what? Do you think you can defeat Candle Dragon in the upcoming city battles? Dream on, Falling Dust. The day Candle Dragon descends upon Sky City is also the day the Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls guild dies!"

Thud!

I plunged my sword through his throat and replied, "You’ll have to get to Sky City alive first!"

Li Chengfeng also slashed Candlelight Shadow in the back. Finally, the China representative of gaming dropped to his knees and lost the battle.

"Phew…"

I let out a long sigh of relief before exchanging a smile with Li Chengfeng. God damn, that sure was a hard won victory!

……

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, your party has defeated the opponent, "Candle Dragon”. You have successfully advanced to the final of Who Will Rise!

……

The system notification sound sounded unbelievably melodious, especially when the girls pounced on me the moment I was teleported outside the tournament ring. At that moment, I felt like I had become the happiest man in the world.

Beiming Xue was excited because we had advanced far enough that the prize money was incredibly high. He Yi was excited because Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had never been this close to the throne of champions. We had finally beaten Candle Dragon, and when He Yi even started tearing up a little when she recalled everything that had happened to us in the past two years or so.

I saw He Yi wiping her tears the moment I logged out and turned toward her. But I was gladdened by the sight of it because this time, it was the tears of joy.

I put my helmet in my bag and patted He Yi’s shoulder, smiling. "Ready? We need to head out and get some rest before the final. I don’t know who our opponent will be, but now that Candle Dragon is dead I feel like no human can stop our advance anymore…"

Li Chengfeng laughed loudly. "Let’s become the champion of Who Will Rise, everyone!"

"Haha, yeah!"

The moment the five of us exited the battle room, we were greeted by Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits and the others. They cheered like mad and hugged us like soccer players giving each other’s hugs when they scored a goal. High Fighting Spirits was so excited that he even hugged the wrong person—Tempest Shadow to be exact—and shouted, "Hell yeah, we finally took out those bastards! Woohoo!"

Tempest Shadow’s face was a hardened mask. He looked like he wanted to cry, but couldn’t summon the tears from his body.