That I beat Moon Shadow twice in a row and won the third match meant that Flower Room’s WEL journey had come to an end. I had to commend them for coming this far though. The players themselves were just averagely skilled, which probably meant that they were relying on Spring Mud and Moon Shadow’s excellent equipment to defeat their opponents. Moreover, Moon Shadow was a point securer because he was a Level 180 seventh-promotion warrior. There were few teams in the preliminaries who could stop him once he activated War God Rampage.

Li Le glared at us from his waiting area and said, "Ancient Sword may have taken three points in a row, but… we still must finish the remaining two matches."

I nodded. "In the spirit of sportsmanship, we agree to play out all five matches."

The fourth match was He Yi versus Li Le, both the guild leaders of their respective guilds. The power gap between them was pretty huge though. Li Le might’ve bought himself a full set of top-tier equipment, but not even the power of RMB could buy him high-level Outstanding Immortal-grade equipment. That was why his weapon and his shield were always going to be outmatched by He Yi’s Seven Star Veluriyam Spear and Dharan City Ruins Barrier, not to mention that He Yi herself had spent every day for the past half a year or so studying full-body VR control and proper combat tactics. It was an advantage that Li Le lacked even more.

The result of the duel between the two mounted players was pretty clear. After changing her movement speed and altering her direction twice, she stabbed him with the Seven Star Veluriyam Spear and brought the score to 4:0.

The last match was attended by me and Beiming Xue, so of course it was going to be a one-sided slaughter. In fact, I did my best to end the battle as quickly as possible because it was one of the factors that affected the MVP score. The shorter the duel, the more points were awarded, and the higher the DPS numbers became. All these variables would be used to decide the MVP of WEL China, a title that every top-tier expert dreamed of getting!

……

After we ended Flower Room’s WEL journey with a 5:0 score, Li Le stood at the waiting area with an ugly red complexion on his face. Spring Mud was standing next to him and probably consoling him.

However, Li Le’s expression turned uglier when he saw the match result on the display. "Are you fucking kidding me? A human trash like Roaming Dragon entered 1/16 while we were eliminated in the first round? Fuck…"

Spring Mud consoled, "It’s fine, Roaming Dragon isn’t going to go far. We were just unlucky to encounter Ancient Sword right at the beginning of the play-offs. They were the favorites to win the whole thing, so it makes sense that we weren’t able to compete with them…"

Li Le bared his teeth for a second before saying, "Well, I guess we’re not going back to the club tonight. Let’s log off and drink until the night. I’ll ask Life of Luxury to bring over a few babes."

Spring Mud replied, "Okay…"

……

After all the matches happening on the smaller stages had ended, Fei’er returned to the center stage wearing the one and only uniform dress that existed in the entire game and held up her mic. "After 20 minutes of exciting battles, the list of the Top 32 teams is now in my hands! Now, we’ll let the main system shuffle the teams at random and place them in the upper and lower brackets of the 1/16 phase!"

Everyone held their breaths as they stared at the gigantic display in the sky. A flash later, the list of teams inside the upper bracket appeared—

Group A

Warsky Alliance VS Peach Garden

Purple Lily VS Meteor Flame

Group B

Soul Battle Robes VS Rose of the Holy Domain

Blazing Hot Lips VS Snow Moon

Group C

Thunder VS Silver Soul

Snowy Cathaya VS Hegemon Palace

Group D

Mad Dragon VS Gods of Destruction

Baidicheng VS Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd

……

We didn’t appear in the upper bracket, so there was no way we would run into Warsky Alliance or Snowy Cathaya until the finals. There were countless powerful teams in the upper bracket such as Warsky Alliance, Purple Lily, Soul Battle Robes, Snow Moon, Snowy Cathaya, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd. It was going to be an exciting bracket for sure.

Next was the lower bracket. It didn’t take long for Fei’er to click the right buttons and put the results on the display—

Group E

Candle Dragon VS The Monarch Descends

Weeping Blood VS Righteousness

Group F

Who Will Fight Me VS Conquer

Pop Culture VS Rain Sanctuary

Group G

Dominating Heaven Tiger VS Wing Chun Sect

Mini VS Sword Lord of Jianghu

Group H

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls VS Heavenly Feather City

Panda VS Dirge of War

……

"Looks like our luck is pretty good, hehe…" Lian Xin clenched his fists while smiling. "We’re placed in the same bracket as Candle Dragon! Looks like only one of us is walking away from this bracket!"

I nodded in agreement. "We are pretty lucky. None of our opponents look exceptionally strong besides Candle Dragon. At the very least, we shouldn’t face any problems until we enter the semi-finals."

"Mn. Let’s prepare!" He Yi said.

……

While this was going on, Fei’er had declared the start of the 16th-finals. Group A would be fighting first, and both fights—Warsky Alliance VS Peach Garden and Purple Lily VS Meteor Flame—were happening at the same time.

Warsky Alliance’s line-up was the same as before. Warsky, Farewell Song, October Rain and Lin Bing Dou Zhe would be fighting the solo matches, while Warsky and Farewell Song would be fighting the duo match. It looked like a solid line-up, and in fact, the battle went solidly in Warsky Alliance’s favor. Warsky and Farewell Song knocked out their opponents in just a couple of minutes, and October Rain won her match with a 2:1 score. Lin Bing Dou Zhe was the only one who lost his match because his opponent was the guild leader of Peach Garden, Indigo Collar. Indigo Collar was a ballsy man who traveled all the way to Wind City with his guild just to challenge Candle Dragon, and his strength reflected that confidence. He was able to shut down Lin Bing Dou Zhe with a clean 2:0 score and take one point for Peach Garden.

However, Warsky Alliance’s overall strength was just too much for Peach Garden. When the 2v2 match began, Farewell Song gave Indigo Collar no chance to try anything and killed him before the stun duration even ended. Warsky also used his Ghost Banner repeatedly and ended the battle with lightning speed. In the end, Warsky Alliance defeated Peach Garden with a dominating 4:1 score and sent a powerful team packing from the WEL.

Purple Lily ended their fight at nearly the same time as Warsky Alliance. The point securers of Purple Lily—Luo River God of the Capital, Moonkiss and Moonlight Beneath A Rock—took their matches by storm and finished the battle with a dominant 4:1 score as well.

So far, the matches were progressing exactly as everyone predicted. Warsky Alliance and Purple Lily were two of the ten strongest guilds in China, and there was no reason to believe that their first seeds would suffer a surprise defeat at the 16th-finals.

The next fight shortly, and this time it was Group B’s Soul Battles Robes versus Rose of the Holy Domain. Again, it was a battle between two powerhouses. Soul Battle Robes’ line-up appeared on the big display—

Song of Cloud and Water LV-180 Magic Knight

Song of Ice and Fire LV-181 Frozen Berserker

Ringwraith LV-180 Undead Mage

God Bone LV-180 Iron Knight

……

"What the fuck?" It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this line-up was no joke. Frowning, I voiced my puzzlement to the others, "Since when are there so many experts with hidden classes in China? How did we not know about them?"

Beiming Xue pulled my hand and said, "Big bro, there are many small guild leaders who are actually first-rate experts, you know. You don’t know them because you were never at a place where you can make contact with them. Some of us have fought these guild leaders before, and they’ve all proven themselves to be quite adept at PvP battles. They just don’t often show their faces at the arena, and you spend most of your time solo grinding to increase your level. Of course you don’t recognize them…"

Meanwhile, He Yi was staring at the distance and muttering to herself, "Strange. Soul Battle Robes is a veteran guild, true, but… where did she find this many experts? She’s just an underripe, inexperienced girl. There’s no way she would have the prestige to attract these many experts to her side."

Lin Yixin was sitting next to her, and when she heard this she smiled at He Yi and explained, "It looks like you weren’t aware, Sister Eve, but Soul Battle Robes have been growing by leaps and bounds as of late. The reason for that is because someone is helping them…"

"Help?" I was astonished. "Who on earth is this person, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin giggled. "Beauty Song of Cloud and Water has always tried to recruit you, hasn’t she? Had you gone to Soul Battle Robes, you would’ve encountered the Gyuumao of the CGL Hall of Fame already!"

"Ah?" Beiming Xue’s mouth fell open a little. "What are you talking about, Sister Lin Yixin? Please stop teasing us and tell us the truth already…"

Lin Yixin shrugged once before relenting. "Fine, fine. To tell you the truth, Song of Cloud and Water is the younger sister of Seven-Star Lamp himself!"

"What?!"

He Yi and I exclaimed in shock. Seven-Star Lamp was a legend and the only player who could go toe-to-toe with the Heavenly King of Spirit of Grief, Frivolous Scholar. Soul Battle Robes had forged countless villainous and admirable legends under his leadership.

Lin Yixin continued, "If only you had gone with Song of Cloud and Water, Little Cheat! You might’ve gotten the chance to make the acquaintance of Seven-Star Lamp, not to mention that Song of Cloud and Water herself is cute, innocent, and even slightly infatuated with you. Maybe…"

I would be blind not to notice the hidden blade behind her words, so I immediately clasped my fists and interrupted her before she could finish, "Cut it out, there’s no way I’m ever going to go to Soul Battle Robes. A man’s word is his bond, and I’m never going to leave Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"

Both Lin Yixin and He Yi smiled in satisfaction. "Very good, very good…"

Thick beads of sweat rolled down my forehead. Thank goodness I hadn’t given the wrong answer, or I had no doubt that Lin Yixin and He Yi would’ve knocked me to the floor and kicked the shit out of me. Bad enough if it happened in private, but in public? My reputation would’ve been ruined forever.

"The match is about to begin!"

At the side, Purple Marquis reminded Lin Yixin with a slightly aggrieved look in his eyes. I could almost imagine what he was thinking: Guild leader, we’re your guild members, not Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Why are you always together with them?

……

On the stage, Soul Battle Robes’ players appeared on the opposite side of Rose of the Holy Domain, one of the Top 10 guilds of Vanished God City. For the first match, Song of Cloud and Water sent the Undead Mage called Ringwraith, while Rose Thorn sent her trusted general, Divine Phantasm. Divine Phantasm was a magic knight with great Attack and Defense. He was also a Top 100 expert in the champion arena.

Swhoosh!

After Ringwraith appeared on stage, he shot Divine Phantasm a small smile and said, "Dang, to think that my first professional match after such a long time would be a Top 100 contender in the champion arena! Just my luck!"

Divine Phantasm gripped his blade and said, "Ringwraith the Undead Mage? Sounds amazing, but I wonder who’s stronger, you or the undead swordsman, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand?"

Ringwraith snorted. "You will know when you fight me."

……

Divine Phantasm squeezed his thighs and growled, "In that case, here I come!"

His mount neighed in response and charged toward Ringwraith at high speed. As expected, Divine Phantasm was the straightforward type who would go all out from the get go. There weren’t many people who could handle his "treatment”.

The 30-year-old Ringwraith narrowed his eyes a little as he waved his scepter. Suddenly, he shouted, "Bone Cage!"

……

Thud thud thud!

Countless bony arms suddenly burst out of the ground and stretched toward Divine Phantasm’s mount’s hooves like vines!