The Origin Energy Shield was tenacious, but not tenacious enough to withstand Candlelight Shadow’s power, not to mention God’s Dance was still alive. Since Luo River God of the Capital couldn’t kill either one of them immediately, she had no choice but to take a loss.

It was 1-0. Purple Lily lost one point!

When the second round began, Purple Lily sent both Moonkiss and Familiar Scent after Candlelight Shadow, planning to kill him first before dealing with the rest. The Martial God was too strong, and the previous battle had proven that they couldn’t suppress Candle Dragon as long as he was still alive.

Unfortunately, it was a miscalculation from Luo River God of the Capital. This time Candlelight Shadow refused to step out to the front, opting to roam near the backlines and wait for God’s Dance and Transient Smoke and Clouds to weaken Moonkiss, Pretty Little Fish, and the rest of Purple Lily. Then, he launched a devastating counter attack and took down almost everyone in Purple Lily in one go. It was still a bloody battle as Luo River God of the Capital, an incredible player, almost turned the tides around by killing four Candle Dragon players herself, but in the end she fell to Candlelight Shadow’s sword.

It was a 2-0 victory for Candlelight Shadow. Candle Dragon was slightly stronger than Purple Lily, so the former advanced to the semifinals, and the latter stopped at the quarterfinals. Luo River God of the Capital was obviously frustrated. She undoubtedly possessed both the skills and the equipment to be called the strongest mage of China, and not even Candlelight Shadow could fight her head-on. Unfortunately, everyone else around her—except Moonkiss, who was a super-tier assassin—was just a tad inferior to the Four War Gods of Candle Dragon. That tiny gap was unfortunately enough to sound defeat for Purple Lily.

……

As the annoyed-looking Purple Lily members walked down the stage, Li Chengfeng commented, “Luo River God of the Capital is seriously powerful. Sigh, if we could add her to our party, our chances of winning against Candle Dragon would be over 70% at least!”

I nodded. “True. But Wang Luo is a ruler, not a follower, so there’s no way she’d ever deign to join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls.”

“Mn.”

It was time for the matches in the second half of the grouping to begin. The first two matches were—

Hunting Moon Dynasty VS Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends VS Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls Second Seed

Beauty Lin was about to go on stage. Hunting Moon Dynasty’s party leader, Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties was the 22th ranker in the CGL Hall of Fame, so he couldn’t be underestimated. His followers—the assassin Ghastly Demon Blade, the mage One Meter Sunlight, the archer Skyshaking Bow, and the tactician Wind of the General—also had aces up their sleeves, so Snowy Cathaya was in for a difficult battle.

"I’m going~"

Lin Yixin patted my shoulder once before walking toward the stage with her gaming helmet. I looked up and smiled at her. "Do your best, Yiyi!"

Lin Yixin replied without looking back at me, "Don’t worry, I promise I’ll survive until the final and beat you up!"

Me: "..."

Hunting Moon Dynasty’s players also went up on stage. Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties walked toward Lin Yixin and extended a hand to her, smiling. "Hello, I am Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties, a CGL Hall of Famer and leader of a guild in Vanished God City. We are glad to be able to meet Snowy Cathaya in battle!"

Lin Yixin shot him a glance, but had no intentions of shaking his hand whatsoever. She simply smiled and said, "We will see if you deserve your title. I am glad to meet you in battle as well!"

The Fruit Knife Goddess and her subordinates entered their battle room right after that.

The proud Beautiful Little Pepper was so prideful that she was unwilling to touch even her opponent’s hand, but her actions only raised the audience’s spirits even higher. This was the Fruit Knife Goddess they knew, the fearless female player who took shit from no one, even if the other party was a CGL Hall of Famer.

Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties looked a bit embarrassed. His hand was still hanging in the air even now.

Ghastly Demon Blade broke into a smile and pressed his guild leader’s hand back down. "Come on, time to see how strong Snowy Cathaya really is!"

"Mn!"

A hint of murder glinted in Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties’ eyes. The girl didn’t even show him basic courtesy even though he was a CGL Hall of Famer and a ruler in Vanished God City. He was absolutely going to teach her a lesson inside the game!

The match began in no time, and the key members of Snowy Cathaya, Zi Chuanyu and Lifetaking Sword, were seated not far away from us. I heard them wiping the sweat on their forehead and commenting on the match—

"Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties isn’t too bad it seems. He managed to delete half of Purple Marquis’s health in one exchange!"

"So what? Watch our guild leader…"

"Fuck…"

"OMG, one combination attack was all it took to kill Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties? And he calls himself a CGL Hall of Famer? Ptoo!"

"Nah, it’s because Lin Yixin is too strong. Didn’t you see? She was blocking all of his retreat paths at the same time she was attacking him. That’s why Purple Marquis was able to whale on him to his heart’s content…"

"Tsk tsk, Shadow Chanel’s Magic Attack is so high. Every time she throws a spell, the enemy loses at least half their HP. It’s incredible…"

"Haha, is that a joke? She isn’t the Dark Tongue Mage for nothing, you know?"

……

Snowy Cathaya knocked out their opponents in a clean 2-0 fashion while they were still talking. Hunting Moon Dynasty was stopped at Top 16, and Snowy Cathaya advanced to the quarterfinals!

I frowned. Beauty Lin was far more cautious than I thought. Even now, she was still hiding her trump cards as much as she could. Shadow Chanel the Dark Tongue Mage had shown off some of her skills, but the Holy Bard Beauty At First Sight was still hiding her hand. She only used some basic bard spells such as Divine Valor, Death Match, and low-level healing spells.

There was no way Lin Yixin added Beauty At First Sight to her party just to enjoy some inconsequential buffs. I would eat a shoe if I was wrong!

……

After Snowy Cathaya claimed victory, It was Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls Second Seed’s turn to fight. Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun with Xu Yang leading the way. Surprisingly, The Monarch Descends was led by a female player, a pretty good-looking one no less. She wore a green dress, and the smile on her face was natural and confident.

She was Ling Xueshang, the guild leader of The Monarch Descends and the 15th ranker in the CGL Hall of Fame. She was also an archer and a contender for the title of the strongest archer in China between Transient Smoke and Clouds, October Rain, and Beiming Xue.

The Monarch Descends party information was displayed on the screen—

Ling Xueshang LV-106 Archer ★CGL Hall of Famer

Mo Xiaoxiao LV-105 Warrior

Purple Wind Chime LV-105 Warrior

My Sky LV-105 Archer

Ice Lemon LV-105 Archer

……

It was a pure offensive team with two warriors and three archers. We hadn’t paid this party any attention since the beginning of the tournament, and it looked like our second seed was about to run into some serious opposition.

"You must win this!"

I gave them the do-or-die order before they entered the battle room.

Gui Guzi looked back at me and replied, "That depends on Ling Xueshang. If she gives us face then…"

"Anyway, do your best…"

It wasn’t long before both parties appeared on the tournament ring. Despite one party having full melee classes and the other having three archers and two warriors, both parties shared the same win condition: to do as much damage as possible and kill the enemy first before they were killed. The level gap wasn’t so big that one party was clearly superior to the other party either. In short, this was going to be a bloody battle.

"It’s starting!"

He Yi clutched her collar as she stared at the screen nervously, revealing the pale neck beneath her beautiful hair. She was so gorgeous that even the most unconscious gesture was pleasing to the eye.

I looked up and watched the battle as well. On the screen, Ling Xueshang coolly ordered her two warriors to hold back the incoming tide while the three archers including herself dished out everything they got. This alone wouldn’t be surprising considering their party composition, but the fact that they were all using Multi Arrow, a fan-shaped AoE skill was!

"Multi Arrow…" I muttered. It was a Level 100 archer skill that even Beiming Xue didn’t have yet. Just where on earth did The Monarch Descends grind three identical skill books for their archers? This Ling Xueshang is seriously no joke!

High Fighting Spirits ignored the arrows coming his way and slid in between the two warriors. Then, he growled, "Xiezhi Howl!"

A cyclone of energy engulfed the two enemy warriors and deleted their HP rapidly. At the same time, Gui Guzi used his Aurora Thrust, and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun used his Rock Smash. Just one round of combined AoE skills later, both warriors collapsed to the ground and died!

However, the situation was actually not in favor of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls Second Seed at all. Multi Arrow was a triple-hit skill, and every hit dealt around 1500 HP or so. Caught inside the range of the skill, Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits and Chaos Moon died in just five seconds!

Both the audience and the players were stunned by what they saw. Was this what people called a fight to the death? It hadn’t even been ten seconds since the match began, and both parties had lost half their players already. Just what kind of battle was this?

Gui Guzi and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun split up and attacked an archer each. Gui Guzi especially was a first-rate player with a Spirit-grade shield, so he was able to make good progress toward his chosen archer.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun. Ling Xueshang proved herself to be a player with great combat experience, and she easily killed the magic knight before setting her sights on Gui Guzi!

Chiang chiang chiang!

The arrows were knocked away the second they hit the Titan Barrier. To the enemies’ surprise, their shots only dealt 300 or so damage to Gui Guzi per hit. With over 2000 Defense, he was way tankier than Ling Xueshang expected.

Swhoosh!

Gui Guzi’s spear cut the air and threatened to skewer Ling Xueshang where she stood. However, the archer fired an arrow with a frosty arrowhead at his chest and withdrew swiftly like a butterfly before his spear could touch her. The magic knight couldn’t catch up to her at all.

"Keep shooting him while I slow him down!"

Smiling, Ling Xueshang drew her bowstring and fired an arrow with a dark arrowhead this time. The second it hit his shield, his armor immediately started corroding like it was being eaten by some sort of acid!

The combat log was displayed at the bottom corner of the screen—

Combat Log: Player "Ling Xueshang" used “Cursed Arrow” and reduced player "Gui Guzi"’s Defense by 40% for 15 seconds!

……

Fuck!

I slowly sank back into my seat. I knew that the battle was lost, be it in terms of skill or tactics!

Gui Guzi wasn’t one to give up, and he tried again and again to kill the archers tormenting him from a distance. Unfortunately, he was constantly slowed by Ling Xueshang’s Freezing Arrows and worn down by the other two archers’ Devil Piercing Arrows and Explosive Arrows. Despite having almost 15000 HP, it wasn’t good enough to survive the onslaught!

Thud!

4783!

That damage was a Devil Piercing Arrow from Ling Xueshang. The girl was both smart and powerful.

Gui Guzi collapsed to the ground and died just like that.

The score was 1-0 in favor of The Monarch Descends. Our second seed managed to make it to Top 16, but that was it. Their opponent was simply too strong for them to beat.