It was yet another must-watch match and the match point for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. If He Yi defeated Ye Yuse, then Candle Dragon would officially be knocked out from the WEL nationals.

Not far away from us, Candlelight Shadow, Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow and God’s Dance were all clenching their fists nervously as they waited for the match to begin. The first place of the WEL was just as important to Candle Dragon as it was to us. Candlelight Shadow had lost too much prestige during this era of heroes than they could bear, and he desperately needed a champion’s title to prove himself once more.

Speaking of which, there was an RFGL competition not long ago that had a lot of participants, but almost no top-tier players such as Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Purple Marquis and more because the prize money was too small. Mamate and Du Thirteen had participated in that competition in hopes of experiencing some glory of their own, but their dreams were shattered when Candlelight Shadow of all people brought in his main roster and crushed that competition. The news made the forums headlines, but I was sure that Candlelight Shadow wasn’t proud of it in the slightest. We certainly hid a snicker or two when we learned of this. The only reason Candlelight Shadow stooped so low was because he was desperate.

Now, the chance to truly prove himself had finally arrived. The WEL was one of the most prestigious international competitions in the world, and everyone had their eyes on it. All he needed to do right now was to defeat Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and enter the final.

……

The countdown began, and it was clear that both He Yi and Ye Yuse were pretty nervous. This was the first time He Yi participated in a super-level competition like this, and the first time Ye Yuse participated in any competition at all. Ye Yuse had been—and still was—just a young and innocent girl until she hit the jackpot, became a Divine General and the vice leader of Candle Dragon. Naturally, it made perfect sense that Ye Yuse’s heart was pounding like a drum right now. On the other hand, He Yi had become increasingly skillful thanks to all the battles she went through for the past year or so. Even better, she had finally learned how to interpret the in-game map and shedded one of her infamous nicknames, "Miss No Direction." I was very proud of her.

Swhoosh!

He Yi was lowering the Seven Star Veluriyam Spear a little when surprise flashed across Ye Yuse’s expression as the girl exclaimed, "The way this spear glows is exactly the same as Wind Fantasy’s sword."

"They belong to the same series," He Yi answered.

"Oh, I see…" Ye Yuse smiled before saying, "I’ll keep an eye on it then."

"You’d better~" He Yi smiled back.

The countdown hit zero, and the battle finally began.

He Yi acted with great caution. She launched only quick, probing attacks and maintained a fair amount of distance between herself and Ye Yuse. A short while later, she found an opportunity to throw Trapping Net. However, Ye Yuse managed to maintain her cool, dodge out of the way of the skill, and counter with a CC skill of her own. "Hold!"

Rustle rustle rustle...

He Yi knew this was coming, so she moved backward and successfully dodged the Hold spell.

Meanwhile, Ye Yuse stomped the ground and summoned a cyclone of cyan lotus petals around herself. After Great Earth Transformation was active, she ran toward He Yi and raised her arm. A gigantic charm appeared on the sky as she shouted, "Nether Curse!"

Here comes the Divine General Skill!

Unfortunately for He Yi, there was no way to outrun Nether Curse. No matter how skilled she became, she couldn’t possibly clear 25 yards of distance in an instant. It was quite literally all up to luck now. Nether Curse’s base success rate was only 25%, but Ye Yuse had killed some high-level bosses and accumulated some Luck with Candle Dragon’s help, so the spell’s actual success rate had to be higher than that. This was the unique power of Luck. For example, my Immortality had a 30% chance to revive me on death, but thanks to the Luck I accumulated, that chance was really 50% or more.

Nether Curse took the form of a tai chi symbol before crashing to the ground. By now, He Yi had run all the way to the edges, but it still wasn’t fast enough to escape the skill!

Bang!

A loud explosion later, He Yi came to a halt and blanked out like she was daydreaming. She had caught one of the status effects Nether Curse could inflict, Drunk!

When a player was Drunken, they would lose control of their own avatar. In our beautiful guild leader’s case, she turned bright red and staggered aimlessly on her feet.

"Fuck, Nether Curse got Eve…" Murong Mingyue exclaimed in shock.

High Fighting Spirits’ attention was completely different from hers though. "So this is how the guild leader looks when she’s drunk? OMG, she’s so cute…"

Me: "..."

……

Back in the arena, Ye Yuse didn’t let the golden opportunity slip through her grasp and attacked He Yi. The charms dealt 15k damage each, and the two God Suppressing Towers dealt a whopping 140k damage. After 12 seconds had passed by, He Yi only had a sliver of health left.

Right before He Yi could recover from her drunken state, Ye Yuse tossed out another charm and cried, "Petrification!"

Swhoosh!

The success rate of Petrification was 50%, and Ye Yuse was lucky enough to strike gold a second time. The stone skin covering He Yi’s entire body increased her Defense dramatically, but the trade-off was that she couldn’t move for another 12 seconds.

Bang bang!

Another two God Suppressing Towers and a few more charm attacks later, the stone peeled off He Yi’s body, and she died after letting out a groan.

The score was 0:1. Ye Yuse had taken the first round!

……

Swhoosh!

After He Yi returned to the waiting area, she complained, "What the hell was that? I wasn’t able to do anything at all, dammit…"

Lin Yixin comforted her, "Calm down, Sister Eve. Ye Yuse just got lucky this time. She can’t always land Nether Curse and Petrification. When the next round begins, look for an opportunity to instakill her with Purgatory of Ice and Magma!"

He Yi nodded. "Mn!"

After He Yi returned to the arena, and the second round began, Ye Yuse continued fighting with the same level of caution as before.

This time though, He Yi didn’t bother with the dance and used Charge immediately. Ye Yuse had no choice but to use Nether Curse to stop her!

MISS!

Just as Lin Yixin said, Ye Yuse couldn’t be lucky forever. Nether Curse failed to hit He Yi this time.

He Yi was no longer the noob she used to be, so she immediately executed the difficult-to-predict butterfly maneuver and dodged both Ye Yuse’s Hold and Petrification. The Seven Star Veluriyam Spear glowed like the sun, and the powerful Purgatory of Ice and Magma flew straight toward the Divine General!

Boom boom boom!

He Yi’s Attack was insane after she activated Royal Road, tearing chunks of flesh from Ye Yuse’s body every time she landed a hit. Naturally, the round was hers.

The score was now 1:1. One more win, and we would advance to the final!

The third round was the decider round, but it looked like Lady Luck wasn’t on He Yi’s side today. Despite He Yi’s best efforts, Nether Curse hit her again and inflicted the Confusion status effect.

Thud thud thud...

The Confusion status effect was considerably more destructive than the Drunken status effect, and not in a good way. He Yi’s eyes were bloodshot as she waved her Seven Star Veluriyam Spear at random and fired Barrier Break and Triple Slash at nothing in particular. Just as the name of the status effect might suggest, the confused guild leader moved, attacked, and unleashed skills completely at random...

While He Yi was going to town with the air around her, Ye Yuse suppressed her with God Suppressing Tower and chipped away at her HP with an endless stream of charm attacks. The worst part of this battle was that He Yi never got a chance to do anything from beginning until the end. When the Confusion CC was over, Ye Yuse froze her with Hold and smacked her with yet another God Suppressing Tower. When that effect was over, she followed up with a Petrification and repeated the accursed cycle. Our poor guild leader never managed to break free until she died...

The score turned 1:2, and the fourth match was lost.

……

After He Yi returned to the waiting area, she pouted. "Looks like my luck is terrible today…"

In response, I raised the Purple Ying Sword, wrapped an arm around Beiming Xue’s shoulder and thanked her, "Thank you for giving Beiming Xue and I the chance to fight out the 2v2 match, boss!"

He Yi burst into a giggle. "Yes, yes, it’s the boss's responsibility to indulge their employees a bit. That being said, your opponents are Candlelight Shadow and Ye Yuse, and you just saw how powerful Nether Curse is. Be careful!"

I nodded. "You have nothing to worry about, boss. Beiming and I never joke around when gold is involved!"

Beiming Xue shot me a glance and said smilingly, "It’s too bad big bro didn’t learn War God Rampage, or this fight would be over already. That skill nullifies all of Ye Yuse’s spells for 12 seconds, which is more than enough time for him to take out Ye Yuse before soloing Candlelight Shadow…"

Murong Mingyue asked, "What about you? What would you be doing during this time?"

"I’d be cheering for him from the back, duh!"

"What the fuck…"

……

Meanwhile, Fei’er had returned to the stage with a dazzling smile on her face. "We have finally arrived at the final and must-watch match of the semi-finals! In this 2v2 match, the Little Heavenly King, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and Beiming Xue the Dark Archer will be fighting against Candlelight Shadow the Martial God and Ye Yuse the Charm Master! Who will defeat their opponent and reign supreme in this match? Let us find out immediately!"

Fei’er wisely teleported away from the stage right after she said that. It was the decider match and the first time Candlelight Shadow and I would truly be locking horns with one another since the start of the competition. My only regret was that I didn’t get to fight him mano-a-mano.

Swhoosh swhoosh!

The four of us were teleported into the arena, and this time the map was a map called "Mountain Creek”. It was a mountainous terrain split in half by a creek at the center. There were wet, uneven rocks all over the place, and one misstep was all it took to slip into the water. Therefore, player control was paramount in a map like this. Also, if we happened to land on top of a sharp protrusion, we would lose a certain amount of HP.

……

Wielding a cyan blade, Candlelight Shadow shot me a cold smile from the other side of the barrier before saying, "I am impressed by your strength and courage, but you’ve challenged us one too many times and attacked our players without provocation back at the Soul Suppressing Tower. What do you say we settle all our debts today?"

I nodded. "That is exactly what I was hoping for!"

A hint of anger flashed behind Candlelight Shadow’s pupils, and suddenly he tossed his weapon to the ground. The cyan blade easily pierced a tough rock as he said, "I don’t want you to come crying to me about unfairness later, so I’m going to tell you my weapon’s property. This is the Cyan Rain Sword, a Level 180 6-star Immortal-grade weapon with a 27% armor penetration. Watch out."

I copied his gesture and tossed my own weapon to the ground. The Purple Ying Sword shattered a gigantic rock in its path before sinking smoothly to the ground. Then, I said, "The Purple Ying Sword is a Level 200 7-star Archean-grade weapon with a high chance of triggering the Mountain Crush effect. Not only that, it has a chance of dealing 5 times the normal damage. Pray that my luck is poor today, or I might just one-shot you like the pleb you are!"

"Pooh!"

Candlelight Shadow reclaimed his weapon with a disgruntled expression before turning to his partner, "Get ready, Yuse!"

"Mn!"

……

I resummoned my own weapon before saying to Beiming, "Get ready, Beiming!"

"Yeah!"

Beiming Xue retreated all the way to the edge of the battlefield while saying this. There was no need for both of us to get hit in case Ye Yuse used her Divine General Skill.