Luo River God of the Capital was fully decked out in high-level mage equipment. She had also reached Level 131, which meant that she had surpassed me once again. Man, mages really did level at a ridiculous rate, there was no way for a warrior to compete with her.

I simply sighed and said, "Beauty Luo, we ended up meeting in combat in the end. How can I bear to even harm a hair on your head…"

Luo River God of the Capital stifled a laugh. "Oh, cut the crap. This is just a duel in the arena! Come at me! It’s time to decide a winner between us! I want to see the Little Heavenly King’s skills for myself!"

"Alright!"

Not wanting to give Luo River God a chance to cast her unique Magic Shield, I immediately charged at her with the Heaven-stealing Sword raised high in the air. I slashed down and unleashed Thousand Ice Slash. I couldn’t hold anything back now that I was fighting an opponent as skilled as Luo River God of the Capital. I would have to use every trick in my book, but it would be fine as long as I won.

Crack...

My war boots caused cracks in the floor as I ran across it. That was how much power I was exerting with each forward bound.

Whoosh!

I shot a Dragon Slaying Slash at her, but I didn’t even bother to check if my attack had succeeded or not. Against an expert like Luo River God of the Capital, I would be satisfied if the hit rate of my Dragon Slaying Slash was even 30%.

I flashed across the arena as quick as lightning, and I was to the right of Luo River God of the Capital before she could even gasp in surprise. I raised my hand and cast Icy Cyclone Domain, instantly covering the area around us in ice and snow.

"Oh?"

Luo River God of the Capital made a quick chant as she agilely shifted her feet. She waved her magic staff at the same time and a Sea of Purgatory Flames spell burst out around us, overlaying itself over my Icy Cyclone Domain. The two domains instantly clashed and the aftershock of the clashing energies shook my body violently. The Sea of Purgatory Flames then hit me for 4539 damage!

Mn, this was still an acceptable amount of damage.

I unleashed another Thousand Ice Slash, forcing Luo River God of the Capital to hurriedly fly to her left. I took this opportunity to lock onto her, activating Thunderous Charge. Midway through my charge, I slashed forward with my sword, causing three fiery blades of sword energy to erupt from it. It was my 3-hit skill, Burning Blade Slash!

"Wah, what a cunning little Lu Chen…"

Luo River God couldn’t dodge the attack in time, so she was forced to tank all three hits. However, she had already managed to cast her Origin Energy Shield. Her sturdy barrier that managed to withstand all hits of my Burning Blade Slash. The only result was three big “MISS” messages flying into the air above her head.

Tsk, tsk, the number one mage of Wind City was certainly living up to her reputation.

She used the interval between my attacks to launch a fierce counterassault. Her magic wand weaved and bobbed in the air before a fierce Dragon’s Roar erupted out of it with an explosive boom. This lethal single-target spell was the bane of all warriors in the game!

Rooaaar!

My entire body was shaken by the fierce roar of a dragon! I felt as if my entire body was about to fly apart at the seams and a huge damage number flew up above my head. 12093!

Fucking hell, that was way too fierce! What kind of Magic Attack was this?! Luo River God of the Capital had activated her Famous General Skill, Mage Soul, so her Magic Attack was currently boosted by more than 100%. She really was the scourge of every metal-armor player in the game!

Crack...

The ground cracked beneath my feet as I executed a helix maneuver and skirted her attack radius. After I completed that feint, I suddenly accelerated forward, practically launching myself into Luo River God of the Capital’s back as a cone of swirling indigo energy appeared on the tip of my sword. An Eight Trigrams formation appeared under my feet when I executed my true killing blow, Universe Break!

Luo River God of the Capital’s face went ashen. She let out a soft gasp of shock. Her staff swiftly danced in the air as she suddenly made a forward leap. Her body flickered in the air and she appeared 20 yards away from her original spot. Shock flashed through my eyes but my movements didn’t slow one bit. I slashed the air with my longsword and sent a Dragon Slaying Slash flying toward her again!

"啪！"

Thud!

MISS!

Even though I didn’t deal Luo River God of the Capital any damage, I finally managed to break her Origin Energy Shield. She wouldn’t be able to erect another Origin Energy Shield immediately after her first one broke, so these precious few seconds gave me the ideal window of opportunity. If I missed this window to kill her, she would blast me to death with Sea of Purgatory Flames, Dragon’s Roar, or Galaxy Storm!

Sprinting forward, I used this short pause to unleash another Dragon Slaying Slash!

Whoosh!

The cyan blade hurtled toward Luo River God of the Capital. She didn’t dare take the blow head-on without her Origin Energy shield, so she had no choice but to dodge and launch an Ice Arrow Spell at me to slow down my charge. I had no choice but to admit that this mage was really a handful. If you gave her a proper stage, she would be willing to challenge any warrior with her mechanics! No wonder Candlelight Shadow had never dared to force a confrontation with her during the contest over Wind City. He had only ever dared to use his Ghost God Prophecy to harass her and make her drop levels.

Rustle...

I had pressed in on my opponent in the blink of an eye. My longsword flashed out and swiftly shot toward Luo River God of the Capital’s chest. Her mouth dropped open in surprise, but she swiftly accelerated and changed direction as well. She wove a beautiful Z in the ground as she avoided my ambush. However, she was not prepared for what came next. My left fist swung up toward her as it blazed with the bloody energy from my Magic Piercing Punch.

MISS!

Luo River God of the Capital was getting serious now. Her magic staff just so happened to block my left fist and she even used the impact of my Magic Piercing Punch to fly backward. Unfortunately for her, I hadn’t run out of killing blows. I didn’t give her a chance to regain her posture as I launched another Dragon Slaying Slash, a skill which wouldn’t trigger my global skill cooldown, at her!

"Ah…"

Luo River God of the Capital was already displaying the limits of her sublime mechanical skills as her APM instantly shot to over 600 on the control interface.

What the hell! Even my highest recorded APM was only 500. While that wasn’t a very high number, it was more than enough for my needs.

Her feet slipped to the side as she borrowed the inertia of her movements to barely dodge my Dragon Slaying Slash. I was ready for it though. I raised the Heaven-stealing Sword in the air and hurled it forward. The longsword started spinning quicker and quicker in the air, soon transforming into a whirling buzzsaw that aimed straight for Luo River God of the Capital.

In that instant, Luo River God of the Capital’s expression dramatically changed, "Crap, it’s over. You cunning little Lu Chen…"

Crack

The Sword Boomerang slashed across the beautiful mage’s body. It was only one hit, but it wasn’t a hit that she could afford to take right now. The blade of my sword cut through her body unimpeded, causing a huge damage number to jump out above her head.

13478!

It had finally come to an end! Luo River God of the Capital slowly sank toward the ground. Even though she was a super mage, health was still her class’s Achilles Heel and she probably only had a little over ten thousand HP at most. It wasn’t enough to withstand my Sword Boomerang, a long-range attack skill which could practically deal as much damage as a melee attack skill.

It was my victory and I had gained a large number of points from it!

……

Whoosh!

As I flew out of the arena, I checked the rankings again. Alright, after beating Luo River God of the Capital, I had flown to the ninth spot on the rankings. I’d finally entered the Top 10 and currently all of the people who had entered the Heavenly Ranking were familiar faces to me. Shockingly enough, the person ranked first on the leaderboard was Beiming Xue. God knew how many matches she had participated in. She started off her matches by launching Spiraling Arrow Blade and Evil Spirit Volley at her opponents, so they were normally affairs which lasted mere seconds. As a result of that, she had fought far more matches than I had. Once you took this and her stunningly high win rate into consideration, it was only natural that she’d take the top spot on the ranking!

The person ranked second was Candlelight Shadow and Lin Yixin was hot on his heels. Purple Marquis, Li Chengfeng, and Farewell Song occupied ranks 4–6 respectively. The spiritual leader of all the assassins in the game was truly in a class of his own. He was able to climb to such a high level even though the competition in the arena was so fierce. Mn, his skills really were worthy of praise!

I was ranked ninth right now, so the system would match me with any of the players from #1 to #209. It wasn’t likely for me to be matched with anyone else in the Top 10.

As a result, my next few matches were against players like Inconstant, Iron Pardon, and Purple Wind Chime, so I didn’t have any problems maintaining my unbeaten streak. Unfortunately, I didn’t earn a huge amount of points from these wins which made my rank continuously fluctuate between 7 and 10. I’d have to spend more time grinding the arena if I wanted to advance.

After I thought about it for a moment, I decided to stop for the day. My chances of meeting Candlelight Shadow weren’t high in the first place and it seemed like he had left to participate in the team arena too.

Forget it, there was always another time. I wasn’t too bothered about getting first place either. I was perfectly content with staying in the Top 10. From a certain point of view, continuing to fight in the arena at my rank was no different from hard labor. I would have to fight countless battles to maintain the #1 spot even if I did reach it. This was just too tedious. If I had that much time, I’d be better off grinding levels. I would even be able to farm equipment at the same time. That was where I found my real joy in the game anyway.

……

I looked at the time. It was now nearly 6 in the afternoon, so I sent He Yi a message: "Eve, should we stop here and go for a meal?"

Eve replied: "Okay, I’ve already reached rank 17 in the champion arena and I don’t think I can climb up any further. Let me call Beiming and Mingyue, we’re going to eat at that buffet place again tonight…"

"Okay…"

I didn’t really know what to say to that. All of the girls in my workshop were the kind of people who could eat without getting fat and they were all complete gluttons! Their figures were simply fantastic, and the unfairness of it all had practically driven me into despair.

……

Not long after, the three girls all went offline. Beiming Xue was practically jumping with joy as she rushed toward me and clung onto my arm. She said, "Big bro, did you see, did you see? I’m ranked first in the arena~"

I didn’t quite know how to respond to that. "Beiming’s really awesome. How many matches did you fight altogether?"

"Hmmm… I fought a little over eight hundred matches and my winning percentage is 99.9%. I just happened to lose that one match…"

"Oh, who did you lose to?"

"Luo River God of the Capital! Her Origin Energy Shield was way too powerful! I just couldn’t break it and she instagibbed me in a single counterattack. But after that, I kept looking for matches and before I knew it, her rank had dropped down from the number one spot again…"

I couldn’t help but chuckle at those words. "Well, that’s because I managed to beat Luo River God of the Capital an hour ago. Hahahaha!!"

A shocked smile appeared on He Yi’s face. "Wow, really? Lu Chen, you beat Luo River God of the Capital?"

"Uh huh!"

Delighted smiles instantly appeared on the faces of all three girls. "You’re so strong. Even Luo River God of the Capital lost to you…"

I laughed and followed the girls downstairs. As we stood in the lift, we continued to chat.

I asked He Yi, "Eve, what’s your winning percentage like?"

He Yi replied, "It’s about average. I’m only at 99.2%. I lost three matches."

I asked, "Oh, who did you lose to?"

He Yi sighed helplessly before answering, "I lost to Li Chengfeng, Candlelight Shadow, and our pretty Lin Yixin..."

I was shocked by her reply. "Damn, you really encountered quite a few tough opponents. Oh man, if only I had encountered these guys, that would have simply been perfect…"

Murong Mingyue immediately retorted in an incredulous manner, "Do you think Eve can compare to a god of mechanics like you? Eve, did you manage to beat any super experts during your run?"

He Yi pondered that question for a moment before she smiled and said, "Hmmm, actually I did beat several of them. I instagibbed Transient Smoke and Clouds once and I also beat Laughing At The Heavens once. Hmmm, who else? Oh right! I also met Dominating Knight God three times, and I destroyed him every single time…"

My forehead broke out in cold sweat. "Damn, no wonder Dominating Knight God’s ranking fell off a cliff. So it was like that. I wonder who this unlucky child offended…"

Beiming Xue laughed and said, "Sister Mingyue, you also took part in the champion arena. What’s your rank?"

Murong Mingyue silently turned around before retorting, "Must we talk about the champion arena? If that’s the case, I’ll be going first, have fun chatting…"

The girls all laughed at that point.

It was at this precise moment that He Yi’s phone suddenly started to ring. It was a number with 010 region code, so the caller was stationed in Beijing.

He Yi accepted the call and asked, "Hello, who’s speaking?"

"Hi, may I ask if this is Miss He Yi? Ancient Sword Dreaming Soul’s guild leader, From Water?" The person on the other side was also a woman.

"Yes I am. May I ask who I’m speaking to?"

"Ah yes, I am from Lenovo Group’s Beijing Headquarters. Can I inquire if you’re free tomorrow morning? If you are, I’ll take a plane down south. I hope that you are open to meeting with me, because I want to discuss forming a Lenovo gaming club with you."

We were immediately stunned by those words.

Lenovo actually reached out to us! It looks like the Frost Cloud workshop had really made a name for itself in China!