Dressed in a casual outfit, Fei’er walked up the stage and announced the start of the afternoon matches. "The first match of Group A is Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls versus Immortal Sword Inn. The second match is Seize The Throne versus Dragon God Temple. Finally, the winners of both matches will fight each other in a BO3. The winner will then advance directly to the semifinals!"

Swhoosh!

I grabbed my bag and rose to my feet. I was the party leader, so I walked at the front and led Li Chengfeng and the girls up the stage. After exchanging a smile with Fei’er, we all entered the battle rooms and prepared ourselves. Immortal Sword Inn’s party was made up of three guys and two girls. They all looked pretty young, and although I hadn’t paid their matches too much attention I remembered them being pretty good players.

After we entered the game, we were automatically teleported into the competition space!

Swhoosh swhoosh…

Several white flashes later, the five of us were teleported into the tournament ring. On the other side of the barrier, the players of Sword Immortal Inn were already on the platform as well. Two warriors, 1 archer, 1 mage and 1 priest. It was the most common composition one could have with a tank, melee damage dealer, ranged damage dealer, magic damage dealer and a priest.

Of course, our party was almost as good. Logically speaking, we had a little too many warriors and no magic damage dealer, but that wasn’t a problem. Li Chengfeng and I were skilled and powerful enough to make up for that minor flaw in our party!

……

"Let’s take out their archer and mage first!" I said while watching our opponent. "I’ll kill the mage. Li Chengfeng, you target their archer first and their priest later! Eve, you stay behind and protect sis and Lil Beiming. Beiming, use Shock Arrow and Freezing Arrow to CC their two warriors. Sis, don’t worry that you’ll reveal yourself. Just cast a Restore on Beiming Xue right at the start of the battle."

"Mn!"

I swallowed my saliva and activated my Famous General Skill—Martial God! The shadow of a gigantic, blood-red god entered our bodies and drastically increased our attack power!

The countdown began. Judging from the expressions on our opponents’ faces, they were feeling as much pressure as we were. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was undoubtedly one of the strongest guilds in China right now, and even we wouldn’t want to fight us without good reason. I was the 12th CGL Hall of Famer, and Li Chengfeng was a brutal and outstanding dragon warrior who was capable of sweeping multiple opponents himself. Beiming Xue was the famous dark archer who could threaten even the CGL Hall of Famer archer like October Rain. He Yi and Murong Mingyue weren’t too bad themselves. Their equipment and abilities were first-rate, and their skill barely reached the bottom tier of first-rate.

3!

2!

1!

Fight!

I rushed straight toward the enemy mage, but to my surprise, the two enemy warriors were charging me. They clearly planned to take me out first.

I swung the Heaven-stealing Sword with my right hand and raised my left arm at the same time!

Chiang chiang! I parried one Charge and blocked the other. Without pausing my footsteps, I ran past them and fired a Dragon Slaying Slash at the mage!

Bang!

The mage didn’t see the attack coming, and he lost his Magic Shield as a result. However, he also succeeded in firing an Ice Dragon Howl that deleted 2463 HP from my health bar! Holy shit!

That being said, I would be more surprised if a mage in the Top 16 couldn’t hit me so hard. Not waiting to lose even more HP, I hurriedly activated Thunderous Charge. If even I, with my Magic Resist, took this much damage, then Li Chengfeng would fare even worse.

Swhoosh!

The mage teleported backward using Flash. Fourth-promotion mages could learn the skill called "Flash" and teleport in any direction they wanted for a maximum range of 20 yards. It was a skill that greatly increased their survivability!

But I smiled and raised my sword to perform the movement of Dragon Slaying Slash again. Instead of aiming at the mage, I fired a Dragon Slaying Slash behind him and cut off his retreat path completely. It also served as a temporary distraction as I ran toward him. By the time the mage’s brain registered what was going on, the Heaven-stealing Sword had already sunk into his flesh!

Puchi!

5783!

It was a basic attack, but it was empowered by Martial God. It was more than enough to one-shot the shieldless mage.

I looked back as the mage collapsed to the ground. Li Chengfeng had successfully killed off the enemy archer as well, but our backline was in danger. He Yi was doing her best to fend off the two warriors and using every skill in her arsenal such as Honor to protect Murong Mingyue, but she herself had dropped below half HP!

"Kill them!"

Li Chengfeng and I charged them at the same time and rammed them out of the way. Warriors versus warriors, we glared at each other for a moment before clashing swords with each other!

Clang clang clang!

A couple of costly parries and blows later, the enemy warriors quickly realized that there was no chance they could outskill me or Li Chengfeng. They tried to withdraw and regroup with their priest, but Li Chengfeng and I immediately moved into position and launched our AoE skills at the same time, all without needing to exchange a single word. The Reverse Scale Slash and Thousand Ice Slash engulfed both warriors like two tsunamis!

Boom boom!

Ice and sword aura flew everywhere as the two warriors collapsed to the ground. In the blink of an eye, the enemy priest was the only one still alive in Immortal Sword Inn. The female priest hesitated for a second, but in the end she gritted her teeth and forfeited the match!

That was 1-0 to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! We had fought decisively and with a clear strategy in mind. We never gave the enemy a chance to mount a comeback from beginning till the end.

The players of Immortal Sword Inn weren’t so blind that they couldn’t see the gap between our strengths. Their leader smiled helplessly and said, "I guess Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ resurgence wasn’t a fluke after all. You are completely different from who you were a year ago. We have no regrets losing to an opponent like you!"

I nodded and smiled back. "You guys aren’t half-bad yourself. If you work on your teamwork a little more, I’m sure you can get better than this."

"Heh!"

The second round began, and just like before, Sword Immortal Inn couldn’t withstand our ferocious assault. Li Chengfeng and I notwithstanding, Beiming Xue was the one who shot the two warriors into porcupines. The match was over in 3 minutes!

"2-0! We won!" He Yi couldn’t stop grinning. Her eyes were filled with joy and excitement. Before today, she dared not even dream that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls could one day be in the Top 8 of a national tournament!

Swhoosh!

After we were teleported outside the tournament ring, we logged off and exited the game. Outside the battle room, the host Fei’er said smilingly, "Congratulations on winning the match, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! It looks like the Little Heavenly King Falling Dust truly is unstoppable, hehe!"

……

Li Chengfeng looked incredibly happy as well. He said, "Damn, I never thought that I would be able to make it this far. It’s not like this is my first rodeo, but my teams have always been eliminated at the start. None of my teammates were good back then. Hehe, this is the first time I worked together with a true expert, and it is nothing like I’ve ever felt before…"

I smiled back. "Same."

That’s right. Why did Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls think they had a chance to become the champion? It was because they had me, Li Chengfeng and Beiming Xue! In fact, Li Chengfeng’s role in our party was even more critical than Beiming Xue’s!

There were camera flashes everywhere as we walked down the stage. It was enough to fulfill anyone’s dream of becoming a superstar. Of course, I was aware that most of the shots were reserved for He Yi and Murong Mingyue only. Since the girls were standing close to me, I appeared in most of the shots as well.

Back at the player’s seats, Lin Yixin raised her glass of fruit juice and toasted me from afar. "Congrats~~"

I smiled back but didn’t reply. It would be a bad idea to play hanky-panky with Lin Yixin when the girls of Frost Cloud workshop were right next to me.

……

The second match of Group A was between Dragon God Temple and Seize The Throne. No matter who emerged as the victor, they weren’t an opponent we could afford to underestimate. This was the perfect opportunity to observe them and come up with a plan to deal with them later.

Both parties went up the stage, and a couple of minutes later the formations were displayed on the screen. Seize The Throne’s players were so-so, but Dragon God Temple had a couple of noteworthy players—

Painting Of My Country LV-106 Soulfire Warrior

Dispute Pavilion LV-105 Mage

In The Name Of The War God LV-104 Magic Knight

Water Dragon Roar LV-105 Mage

Silent Wind And Rain LV-104 Priest

……

Painting Of My Country was especially eye-catching. He was the guild leader of Dragon God Temple, and his hidden class, Soulfire Warrior seemed like a powerful class.

The instant the battle began, Painting Of My Country charged toward the highest-leveled warrior and clashed swords with him. When he swung his sword, purple energy surrounded his blade, and ghastly wails could be heard from time to time. It looked like the Soulfire Warrior’s passive was similar to my Undead Energy or Lin Yixin’s Holy Energy. All of his attacks dealt additional “soulfire” damage!

Bang bang!

3784!

4120!

Two consecutive strikes later, Painting Of My Country had knocked back the enemy warrior. One extra strike later, he killed his opponent before he even got the chance to drink a health potion and heal himself!

On the other side, Dispute Pavilion swung his scepter and surprised everyone by summoning a hexagram magic formation. Everyone who was stepping on the icy formation had their attack speed and movement speed slowed by a certain degree. What the heck, is that domain-type magic?

War God pounced toward the enemy archer and turned him into a walking sieve with his spear. On the other side, the mage Water Dragon Roar fired icicle after icicle at an enemy warrior and turned him into a punctured blood bag. It was a completely one-sided slaughter!

Seize The Throne wasn’t a bad guild, but even their best experts were no match for Dragon God Temple at all. In less than three minutes, they were routed and fell one point behind!

The second round was almost a carbon copy of the first. Seize The Throne couldn’t find a way to stop the onslaught, so they lost the match!

The match ended 2-0 in favor of Dragon God Temple. They entered the Top 8 in a dominant fashion!

……

Well, we knew who our opponent was now. It was Dragon God Temple.

I lifted my gaming helmet and smiled a little. "Let’s go, this is our chance to enter the Top 4. If we take out Dragon God Temple, we’ll be semifinalists of a national tournament. Also, the prize money for semifinalists is 200k RMB per person…"

"Is that so?"

Li Chengfeng wiped his saliva. "That’s awesome. I’ve been running dry on cash lately. I love this tournament…"

I shot him a disdainful glance. "What the fuck are you talking about? You work for the PSB, don’t you? How are you poor?"

Li Chengfeng shot me a strange look. "Is that how you see the PSB? Do you think all public servants are fat idiots who only know how to collect money? I’m not one of those faithless people, you know…"

"Where does your faith lie then?" He Yi asked with a smile.

"My calling is to protect justice and the last ray of light in everyone’s humanity," Li Chengfeng declared with clenched fists.

I nodded. "Sounds good. When I was younger, I dreamed of becoming a policeman who punished evil and protected the weak as well. Unfortunately, 24 years later, only half of that dream came true."

Li Chengfeng’s eyes widened. "What do you mean? Were you a security guard?"

"No. I became a man, but not a police."

"WTF!!!"