"Fuck!"

After Li Chengfeng returned to the waiting area, he stared at me with a bloodless complexion and complained, "Dude, is your wife a cyborg in disguise? No human can move this quickly!"

Lin Yixin immediately glared at him. "What did you say?!"

The dragon warrior had no choice but to shut up.

Beside us, Chaos Moon let out a chuckle, "Rest in peace, Li. You’re really good, but Lin Yixin is someone who can go toe-to-toe with Heavenly King–level players like Candlelight Shadow and Lu Chen. You’ll have to grow a bit better to be able to truly compete against them…"

Li Chengfeng loathed to admit it, but she was right. Technically speaking he was almost good enough to beat Lin Yixin, but until he bridged that tiny gap of strength, he would never truly be her equal. It was the same reason why he wasn’t able to truly defeat Candlelight Shadow until now. His heart yearned for the day he could take revenge against that bastard, but he knew very well that his chances of beating Candlelight Shadow right now were less than 40%, even if he used Battle Soul Possession. The only thing he could do now was to continue walking the path of revenge until he reached the end one day. In this regard, Li Chengfeng and I shared the same mindset. We both believed that we would be able to slay our nemesis as long as we kept working toward that goal, and it just so happened that we shared the same nemesis. That was why we became brothers.

……

Not long after, Lin Yixin and Li Chengfeng were teleported to a forest map. It was a favorable terrain for Lin Yixin because Light Wanderer was a class with a big emphasis on Strength and Agility, its Agility scaling being especially formidable. This meant that her attack speed, movement speed and evasion rate were better than your usual wanderer’s, not to mention that her equipment was a tad better than Li Chengfeng’s as well.

Li Chengfeng activated Great Earth Transformation and Battle Soul Possession again.

He shot Lin Yixin a cool look and declared, "You won’t win as easily as last time, Beauty Lin."

Lin Yixin smiled and countered just as strongly, "Is that so? Do whatever you want, but you’re still going to die in my hands, Li!"

"We’ll see about that!"

Li Chengfeng let out a battle cry and raised his spear above his head. Then, he said, "Have a taste of my Dragonblade Revolution, Beauty Lin! Not even you can avoid its area of effect!"

I should’ve known that Li Chengfeng would start abusing his AoE skills to qualify for the internationals. I was more surprised that the WEL hadn’t banned his broken Dragonblade Revolution, even though its cooldown wasn’t too long.

When Lin Yixin recovered from her brief surprise, a huge golden dragon was already coiling around the Augustus’ Spear. Li Chengfeng let out another shout and tossed the spear at her, "Go!"

Swhoosh!

Li Chengfeng didn’t wait for the Augustus’ Spear to hit Lin Yixin. Pulling out a sword from his bag, he bounded toward Lin Yixin in an attempt to catch her in a pincer attack! It was because he knew that one Dragonblade Revolution wouldn’t be enough to instakill her!

Lin Yixin moved backward and fired two God’s Tears at the spear flying toward her. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough to cancel the super AoE skill completely. Left with no choice, she crossed the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword in front of her and used Guard!

"Roar!"

79923!

82772!

Chiang!

The Augustus' Spear hit the Seven Star Veluriyam Sword and bounced off. Lin Yixin herself was knocked back several steps.

Her HP had dropped to 40% or so, but it wasn’t over yet. The storm effect created by Dragonblade Revolution had forced Lin Yixin to close her eyes, and during this time Li Chengfeng had thrust his sword at her torso and used Crushing Blow.

"Nngh…"

Although Lin Yixin’s eyes were closed, her cute succubi ears were standing and alert. She abruptly canceled her Guard stance—causing Li Chengfeng’s Crushing Blow to fail to do anything to her—and opened her eyes. Killing intent spilled out of her pupils as she stared at the dragon warrior!

"Hmph!"

Lin Yixin abruptly rushed forward and blocked a follow-up strike from Li Chengfeng with her wristguard, the Devil Bell. She lost some HP, but the opening she created for herself enabled her to land a devastating elbow strike to Li Chengfeng’s neck. Li Chengfeng’s reaction time was probably only 0.15 seconds or so, but Lin Yixin’s brain delay was even shorter than his. In just 0.12 seconds, she brought her sword up to Li Chengfeng’s chest and stabbed him!

"Knockback Slash!"

28282!

Lin Yixin’s signature skill, Knockback Slash, pushed Li Chengfeng 5 yards away from her and stunned him for 0.5 seconds. It was just enough time for her to kill him!

Lin Yixin pointed her palm at Li Chengfeng and fired Ice Storm, causing three damage numbers to rise above his armor. Then, she brought her sword to bear, dashed forward and pierced his chest with Barrier Break, dealing 79873 damage!

Li Chengfeng’s HP hit zero immediately, but the dragon warrior managed to execute his combo right before he died. After he broke out of his stun, he had caught his falling spear, turned around and executed a Dragonbone Flurry + Barrier Break combo!

Pu pu pu pu…

The two skills tore through Lin Yixin’s armor and devoured her HP like an inferno. Her HP had dropped to less than 3000 in the blink of an eye.

"Thud...

Li Chengfeng fell to his knees again as his sword fell out of his grip, and the Augustus’ Spear planted into the ground. A moment later, both weapons and their master scattered into sparks and flew away from the stage.

Lin Yixin turned pale when she saw her remaining HP. She stuck out her tongue and said to herself, "That was close…"

……

The score turned 0:2. In the end, Li Chengfeng failed to beat Lin Yixin and lost a valuable point to the brutish Light Wanderer.

Swhoosh swhoosh!

As both combatants reappeared at the waiting area, Li Chengfeng shot us a regretful look and apologized, "I’m so sorry, Little Gui, Chaos Moon, Fighting Spirits…"

Gui Guzi waved it off. "Relax, you were facing Beauty Lin herself. It would’ve been the same result if either of us was in your position. Beautiful Little Pepper wasn’t a legend for nothing, you know."

Lin Yixin clasped her fists and bowed at Li Chengfeng mockingly. "Thank you for letting me win, Hero Li!"

The dragon warrior looked like he wanted to swallow Lin Yixin whole like a true dragon. Instead, he looked at me and said, "Vice guild leader, will you please discipline your not-girlfriend when you’re free? The world will be in peril if she shows her true face too often…"

I nodded, but...

"Why are you nodding?" Lin Yixin glared at me like a hawk.

I shivered, and my mouth automatically entered self-preservation mode, "Tonight’s moonlight is like water…"

Chaos Moon shook her head. "Just forget it, we will be lucky if Lu Chen isn’t the one who gets disciplined by her. Anyway, it’s my turn now!"

……

The second match was between Chaos Moon and Shadow Chanel. It was a classic warrior versus mage duel.

Shadow Chanel was without a doubt one of the Top 10 strongest mages in China. Her only flaw was that her equipment couldn’t quite keep up with her personal skill. In fact, it wasn’t even at the level of Luo River God of the Capital, Stranger of Three Lifetimes or Lian Xin’s. On the other hand, our Chaos Moon had great skills, great equipment, and equal or better control than Shadow Chanel.

The battle quickly began, throwing dust all over the battlefield. Chaos Moon had lost most of her HP in just the blink of an eye, but after that she stubbornly clung onto life like a gum sticking to one’s shoes. It was the trade-off she accepted from the moment she knew that her opponent was Shadow Chanel. She was able to delete 90% of Shadow Chanel’s Magic Shield durability in just half a minute, and knowing that Shadow Chanel’s Blink wasn’t up yet, she drank a health potion and charged her directly. One Barrier Break + Rock Crush combo later, she successfully defeated Shadow Chanel and won the fight!

Both fights ended fairly quickly, and Chaos Moon proved her strength again by beating Shadow Chanel 2:0.

……

The third match was Gui Guzi the Undying Knight versus Purple Marquis the best control warrior of Snowy Cathaya. Again, it was a duel between two aces!

"Remember to watch out for Purple Marquis’s Absolute Zero, Little Gui!" I reminded Gui Guzi before the battle began.

Not far away, Lin Yixin was doing the same thing. "Don’t let Gui Guzi hit you with Death Combo. It’s a triple-hit skill. If you can parry it then it’s all good, but if you can’t, then Guarding is an acceptable alternative. Whatever happens, you cannot eat its full damage. Also, Gui Guzi’s Undying Shield absorbs 50% of the damage he receives, but if you can bring him low enough to one-shot him, this regeneration won’t do him any good after death, understand?"

"Fuck…"

I complained to her, "There’s no need to go that in-depth, Yiyi…"

Lin Yixin shrugged and smiled at me. "It’s all for the win, dear…"

Well, fuck. Now that Lin Yixin had pointed out Gui Guzi’s weaknesses, his chances of winning against Purple Marquis had decreased greatly.

For the first three minutes, Gui Guzi and Purple Marquis were relatively even with each other. They traded blows dozens of times but were able to keep going because of various HP-recovering abilities.

However, it was Purple Marquis who managed to display a higher level of skill during the deciding moment. After baiting Gui Guzi into wasting Death Combo with a feint, he froze Gui Guzi with Absolute Zero and deleted the last chunk of his HP with Chaos Universe.

During the second fight, Gui Guzi copied Purple Marquis’s tactic and baited out Purple Marquis’s cooldowns with a fake Death Combo. Then, he hit the warrior with Death Combo + Aurora Thrust six-hit combo and destroyed him.

The third fight was just as close as the second, but in the end, Purple Marquis barely came out ahead and won.

The overall score turned 2:1 in favor of Snowy Cathaya, and Purple Marquis proved himself to be the strongest warrior of his guild by taking a valuable point off Gui Guzi’s hands. Snowy Cathaya was now one step closer to reaching the semi-finals.

……

The fourth match was the match point. It was High Fighting Spirits versus Clear Perfume.

Li Chengfeng gave High Fighting Spirits a slap on the shoulder and declared, "If you win this, I’ll take you to a bar tonight! You can drink those red wines that cost 1000 a bottle until you’re dead!"

High Fighting Spirits’ eyes immediately glowed. "You said it! You’re a grandson if you renege on your promise!"

Li Chengfeng nodded. "Of course. I’m not called an honest man for nothing…"

"Okay!"

Invigorated, High Fighting Spirits charged into the battlefield and absolutely annihilated Sun Qingqing. Warriors already held a great advantage over archers because of their armor, but his Dragonlight Armored Horse allowed him to negate the speed disadvantage. Both fights ended with him Charging into Sun Qingqing, stunning her and killing her with a combo. In the end, he was able to fulfill his promise and win a precious point for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd.

The overall score was now 2:2. It truly was a close and exciting battle!

……

The 2v2 and final match was Lin Yixin + Purple Marquis versus Gui Guzi + Li Chengfeng. Both teams had sent their best aces into the battlefield, and theoretically speaking, either team had a chance of seizing the day. Unfortunately, I knew better than that. I knew that once the fight dragged to the 2v2s, the chance of our second seed advancing to the semi-finals was next to nothing.

The reason I said this was because Purple Marquis and Lin Yixin had a total of 3 CC skills—Absolute Zero, Ice Storm and God’s Tear—to control the battlefield, but Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng combined only had Dragonblade Revolution. Worse, Lin Yixin’s mechanical skill was better than Li Chengfeng’s, and Purple Marquis’s was better than Gui Guzi’s, so...

In the end, my pessimistic prediction came true. Although Li Chengfeng managed a miracle comeback during the second round and killed both Lin Yixin and Purple Marquis after Gui Guzi was dead, the power gap was ultimately too big to overcome. With a 1:2 score, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd’s advance came to a full stop at the quarter-finals, and they departed the WEL competition with honor.