Seven Degrees Below Zero looked furious after he teleported back to the waiting area. He stood before his teammates and discussed something I couldn’t hear from where I was. I chose to stay in the arena and wait for the next round to begin.

I was going to KO this arrogant fool anyway, so I thought that I might as well make this entertaining for myself!

……

Two minutes later, Seven Degrees Below Zero returned to the battlefield with none of the arrogance he bore earlier. It looked like he had finally decided to treat me, the so-called second best player of China, seriously.

The battle began, and again Seven Degrees Below Zero charged me. He didn’t cower despite the resounding trashing I gave him earlier!

Swhoosh!

The terrain was a valley with a creek flowing at the center. Eyes looking as sharp as steel, Seven Degrees Below Zero ran across the creek and toward me in a straight line without bothering to obfuscate his movement at all. Did you know that the strongest attack in martial arts was sometimes the most basic? Something like a straight punch in boxing, or a basic cut in swordfighting? This guy’s charge was one of them. Sometimes, the best way to approach your enemy wasn’t a series of dizzying zigzags, but a straightforward, lightning-fast charge!

Thud thud thud!

I took as many backward steps as I could while calculating his location. Then, I raised my arm and summoned four divine arms from the heavens, hoping to immobilize my opponent with the God Binding Art.

Seven Degrees Below Zero snorted under his breath before activating War God Rampage, turning himself immune before God Binding Art could take effect. Then, he raised his sword and swung at me!

I countered with my own swing, and the impact sent both of us staggering backward.

Seven Degrees Below Zero proved to be a speedy man, recovering his balance and rushing me again almost immediately. It was because War God Rampage had drastically increased his movement speed. It was no wonder that the period of 12 seconds War God Rampage was active for was known as the fighter’s period of invincibility. It almost seemed like Seven Degrees Below Zero could tear apart all opposition through sheer speed and power alone.

"Hah!"

It was the Earth Shattering Slash!

I didn’t try to parry the skill this time. Instead, I took three steps to the back before dashing in a different direction to escape the skill’s area of effect. However, Seven Degrees Below Zero suddenly appeared in my path of retreat like a phantom before swinging his sword horizontally at me, shouting, "Die!"

I glanced at the warrior’s arm and grabbed his wrist so quickly that he almost couldn’t believe it. At the same time, I bent backward and watched as the sword brushed past my nose with only millimeters to spare. I couldn’t quite believe that I was able to dodge the lightning-fast strike myself.

Seven Degrees Below Zero wasn’t done yet, however. He took a few steps toward me, spun around and thrust his sword straight toward my chest! It was Barrier Break!

My scalp tingled with the premonition of danger. This guy was seriously fast!

Thud!

I pushed myself off a rock—causing a splatter of water while doing so—changed my direction and sped up, just barely dodging the skill with a curved jump. After I landed on Seven Degrees Below Zero’s right side, I spun around and elbowed him in the back with my left arm.

"Ah…"

19232!

Seven Degrees Below Zero was caught off-guard. He probably wasn’t expecting me to be so much faster than him even after he activated War God Rampage. Knowing that he couldn’t react in time, I pressed my sword against his back and summoned a burst of cyan flames, growling, "You die!"

Put!

Universe Break landed as a matter of course, but I also felt a bone-chilling energy seeping into my body from the Purple Ying Sword. What’s this? Could it be?

My prediction turned out to be correct later. Not only did the skill tear through Seven Degrees Below Zero’s armor and body, a shocking number rose above his head—

552675!

It really was the quintuple damage effect of the Purple Ying Sword!

I was stunned because I hadn’t triggered the passive even once since I got this sword. It was to the point where I thought that the trigger chance was less than 1% [ref](TN: someone failed math hard)[ref]! Who would’ve thought that it would trigger now of all times?

Thud!

Eyes widening in disbelief, Seven Degrees Below Zero dropped to his knees and died. Not only was he defeated twice in the first round of the WEL internationals, he wasn’t able to deal even a single point of damage to me. The number one player in Ukraine was probably the only man in the entire world who understood the true depths of humiliation he was feeling right now, especially because he was such a prideful man.

I didn’t take the opportunity to humiliate further even though I could. Returning the Purple Ying Sword to its sheath, I summoned the system fairy and teleported back to the spectator’s platform.

Swhoosh!

After I reappeared at the waiting area, Beiming Xue immediately said to the others with a smile, "See that? I told you big bro is amazing! I knew he would be able to take out that arrogant bastard perfectly!"

He Yi giggled. "Mn. It’s your turn next, Lil Beiming. Try to beat the enemy archer 2:0 just like your big bro, okay? We all believe in you!"

Beiming Xue replied confidently, "No worries! I have Great Earth Transformation, and he doesn’t. I don’t think I can lose even if I tried."

"Mn."

A few minutes later, Beiming Xue teleported into the arena to battle the Level 186 archer of the Ukrainian team, Python God. Their levels were almost the same, but Beiming Xue’s equipment was way stronger than her opponent’s. She was already plenty strong thanks to the Windchaser equipment set, but now she also had the Archean-grade Ice Soul Feather. It was no exaggeration to say that she was now far stronger than her old self in the WEL nationals. I had full confidence that she would annihilate her opponent with impunity.

And that she did. The power gap was evident the second the battle began. After Beiming Xue activated Great Earth Transformation, she ran rings around the arena and fired one careful shot after another at her enemy. Every shot was shot at where she predicted her opponent to appear, and her accuracy was over whopping 95%. Python God had very good moves himself, but he was nowhere as calm or collected as Beiming Xue was. He lost his patience and tried to one-shot Beiming Xue after a couple of losing exchanges, but the girl turned it on him and countered with a painful Spiraling Arrow Blade instead. It was at this moment snowflakes appeared around the longbow, and Beiming Xue unleashed an arrow that encased Python God in a block of ice. It was the Outstanding Property of her Ice Soul Feather.

It was a complete one-sided slaughter. Both times, Beiming Xue was able to defeat her opponent with over 70% of her HP intact. Surprisingly, Python God didn’t even look angry, probably because his opponent proved herself to be superior to him in every way, and she was a cute and innocent Chinese girl to boot. He even gave her a wave and bade her goodbye before he returned to his waiting area.

……

The overall score turned 2:0. And it was obvious who was leading. One more win, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls would make it to the eighth-finals. This was good because the quality of the reward jumped an entire tier every time we advanced closer to the final.

The third match was between He Yi and the mage, Eclipse.

Before He Yi entered the battlefield, I advised, "Keep calm when you fight Eclipse, Eve. There are two tried and true ways to beat a mage. One, force him to use up his Blink, destroy his Magic Shield and kill him before it comes back up again. Two, find an opportunity to one-shot him with Barrier Break!"

He Yi nodded. "Got it!"

Swhoosh!

Our beautiful guild leader teleported into the arena with the Seven Star Veluriyam Spear on her right hand, and a beautiful floating rune on her left. Once she was attacked, the rune would immediately take the shape of a tough shield.

Although there were some crushing matches so far, no one who made it into the internationals was a weakling, and Eclipse’s fighting style surely opened all our eyes a bit. As it turned out, the European mage fighting style was very different from ours. Chinese mages seeked to one-shot their opponent whenever the opportunity presented itself. European mages however, sought to control their opponent and bring them to their knees in slow and steady fashion. In a sense, their fighting style was more visually appealing than ours.

Thud thud thud!

He Yi kept losing health as the enemy’s Ice Arrow Spells and Fireballs splashed against her shield repeatedly.

Rustle rustle rustle…

He Yi kept running back and forth across the field until she found an opportunity. Biting her lips, she abruptly dashed toward her opponent and activated Barrier Break!

"Huh?"

Eclipse hurriedly used Blink and appeared 20 yards away from his original location, but He Yi was even faster than he was. The moment Eclipse disappeared, she Charged and arrived at Eclipse’s location almost before him. Before the mage could react and before her Barrier Break automatically canceled itself because it didn’t hit anything, she pierced both his Magic Shield and torso!

70992!

"Ah!" Eclipse groaned aloud. He hadn’t expected He Yi to chain her attacks so fluidly that he couldn’t even react against it. I don’t think there was even a millisecond wasted throughout that assault.

At the waiting area, we were all stunned by He Yi’s performance.

I commented, "God damn, Eve was almost as fast as I was just now. Her natural reaction is seriously insane…"

Lian Xin giggled. "Duh! She’s the woman who single-handedly saved GGS and the genius who could perform countless programming calculations in a single second! Of course she wouldn’t be thwarted by something as simple as distance calculation inside a game! With the proper guidance, boss too can become a top-tier expert!"

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, when these WEL internationals are over, I’m sure Eve will complete her evolution and enter the ranks of first-rate experts. You can always trust an international competition to transform a rough stone into a true diamond! That was the case for the top-tier assassin, Power Cooker, when Eternal Moon was still active."

Beiming Xue giggled. "Oh man, that was so long ago. He’s probably a grandpa now…"

I smiled. "Well, no one can go against time. It is humanity’s eternal sorrow to watch their friends age into uncles, hahahaha!"

Beiming Xue: "..."

……

The second round began soon, and this time He Yi ended her opponent’s life in less than two minutes. It wasn’t that Eclipse was weak, but because he didn’t have the power to threaten her at all. Royal Road was a Famous General Skill that increased the user’s stats by 40% and reduced the enemy’s stats by 30%, making it the best 1v1 Famous General Skill bar none. The stratagem absolutely fucked Eclipse over because even his strongest spell, Touch of the Dragonkiss, dealt only 40k+ damage to He Yi. Meanwhile, all He Yi needed was one Barrier Break to one-shot him.

The score turned 3:0, and we officially advanced to the eighth-finals. However, we chose to finish all the matches because we were aiming for the MVP title!

The fourth match was Lian Xin versus Moonlight, and it was a carbon copy of many, many of her opponent’s miserable experiences. In just half a minute’s time, Moonlight was knocked out of the arena by Origin Force Fields and Ice Spiral Matrices.

The final 2v2 match also turned into a stage where Beiming Xue and I showed off our skills. With a 10:0, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls swept our opponent with a true flawless victory and advanced to the eighth-finals!