Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…

There were several flashes of light, and everyone was teleported onto the tournament ring.

On the other side, the silver-armored, sword-wielding Lin Yixin was staring at us. Her lips were smiling, but I knew her too well to miss the killing intent behind her countenance.

……

"What should we do?" Li Chengfeng asked.

Beiming Xue said, "Sister Lin Yixin is the biggest threat of them all. I doubt even Sister Eve can withstand her Extreme Break + Moon Gaze + Ice Flame Slash combo."

I nodded. "In that case, let’s take out Lin Yixin first. I’ll be the main attacker, and Beiming Xue will support me. Chengfeng, your job is to clear out all the obstacles in our way. But be careful, Purple Marquis is an extremely skilled player. Also, Shadow Chanel’s Thunder Dragon Breath is super powerful, so Beiming, sis, try not to get one-shot by her. That spell has a 2-second channel time at least, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to dodge."

"Mn." The two girls nodded.

He Yi asked, "What about me?"

"You should go after their Holy Bard, Beauty At First Sight!"

"Okay!"

……

The strategy was set, and all that was left was to wait for the countdown to begin. We didn’t have to wait very long. Every number resounded in our hearts like a gong, signalling the beginning of the most exciting moment of this tournament. By the time this match was over, one of us—Snowy Cathaya or Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls—was going to ascend to the top and be known as China’s strongest 5-man party!

3!

2!

1!

Begin!

I waved my arm and fired a Dragon Slaying Slash immediately at Purple Marquis. While the warrior was backing away warily, I had already locked onto Clear Perfume and was running toward her. It looked like I wanted to kill her, but really I was just baiting Lin Yixin, who was standing right next to her friend, to action. The beautiful wanderer was the one I really wanted to kill.

"Bastard Lu Chen’s trying to kill me?"

Clear Perfume loosed a couple of Freezing Arrows at me while she was backing away, but I was able to parry them with ease. Her hastiness did little to help her in this case.

Purple Marquis came back and fired Vacuum Slash at me. It was so fast and came at such an angle that it was impossible to dodge. Pain erupted from my shoulder as I lost a chunk of HP.

Beep!

Combat Log: Player "Purple Marquis" used "Vacuum Slash", dealing 2829 damage!

Damn, no wonder he was Lin Yixin’s greatest general. I had Ghost Deity Armor and Enhanced Bones, so there weren’t many people who could hit more for almost 3000 HP with physical attack these days. My effective Defense was over 2000, and I was at least as tanky as He Yi.

Purple Marquis’s eyes glinted with killing intent as he chuckled. "See you later, Brother Lu Chen!"

His sword glowed again as the traditional picture of the universe appeared around him. The next moment, two speedy slashes came at me from different angles!

It was Purple Marquis’s signature skill and killer move, Chaos Universe! It was a 2-hit skill that increased his Attack by 20%!

I reacted as quick as lightning. I moved to the side and moved the Heaven-stealing Sword across the air twice, successfully parrying both hits with no problems whatsoever. Then, I dove into his right flank and raised my leg into a powerful kick!

Bang!

Purple Marquis stumbled backward unceremoniously, and before he could even stand still Legendary Brave appeared out of nowhere and hit him with a devastating Reverse Scale Slash + Dragonbone Flurry + basic attack combo! Although one of the five consecutive attacks missed, Purple Marquis was still one-shot where he stood!

I was already looking away from Purple Marquis and charging Clear Perfume again. On the other side, Lin Yixin ran toward me to intercept me midway. I knew she would save Sun Qingqing no matter what.

Rustle rustle rustle…

Dust erupted whenever my Barbarian War Boots hit the ground. I abruptly braked mid-run, zigzagged out of the way of Lin Yixin’s attack and attempted to hit her with a surprise Desperate Gambit!

"Hah, I knew you were trying to kill me…"

She wasn’t lying. Lips breaking into a tiny smile, Lin Yixin easily knocked my sword away before ducking toward my chest and ramming me like a truck. A loud bang erupted from the Obsidian Dragon Scale Armor. Holy shit, no ordinary person could withstand this body alright!

Just when Lin Yixin was about to hit me with an Extreme Break, I surprised her by grabbing her shoulders and pulling myself to her back. Then, I hugged her from behind and pressed the Heaven-stealing Sword to her left chest, smiling. "Bye bye, Yiyi…"

War Crush + Dragon Slaying Slash + basic attack!

Bang bang bang bang bang!

The air around us erupted into redness as a series of damage numbers floated above Lin Yixin’s head—

3198!

MISS!

MISS!

4103!

MISS!

My eyes bulged. Are you fucking kidding me? Three out of five of my attacks missed?!

Lin Yixin currently had over 10k HP and a ton of Defense thanks to her Famous General Skill, Bombshell. My Martial God was powerful, but Bombshell was definitely a match for it.

"You sure don’t know how to appreciate a lady…"

Lin Yixin giggled in my chest before twisting around all of a sudden and swinging her armored arm at me. That was how I took an elbow strike to the neck. Ow, my neck!

I rushed her and elbowed her in return. "You don’t know how to appreciate a man either."

"But hitting you is my favorite hobby, hehe!"

……

Our conversation was cheerful, but we had traded at least ten blows in the process. Murong Mingyue was healing me at all times, but Beauty At First Sight was also buffing Lin Yixin with Death Match, Divine Valor, and others and debuffing us with Hopeless. In fact, Lin Yixin’s stats were way, way higher than mine right now. She was like a super killer who walked right out of the movies.

Inside the party channel, I heard Li Chengfeng complaining, "Fuck me, this 40% hit rate reduction is stupidly broken! I can’t believe I couldn’t even kill a shielded mage…"

"Let’s kill Lin Yixin first!" I said, "Work with me, Beiming Xue, Chengfeng! Eve, take out Beauty At First Sight as soon as you can!"

"Okay!"

I rushed Lin Yixin again, but this time I slowed down and changed directions right before we were about to make contact. It was of course the helix maneuver. The advantage of this maneuver was that it opened up two to four attack paths for me to whale down on my opponent with a killer combo. Even Lin Yixin would have trouble trying to defend against this.

"Here I come!"

I abruptly launched a Desperate Gambit at Lin Yixin, which she dodged calmly by backing away. But it was a trap. Li Chengfeng was right behind her, and I had purposely left that space open so that she would step into it and allow me to hit her with an undodgeable Thousand Ice Slash!

"Ah? Lu Chen, you bastard…"

Lin Yixin barely got her complaint out before she was frozen by Thousand Ice Slash. I immediately followed up with a War Crush at the same time Li Chengfeng unleashed a Dragonbone Flurry and Cyan Dragon Horn. This time, not even a 40% hit rate reduction could save her. She died under our combined attacks and was teleported out of the ring.

It was around this time Murong Mingyue was one-shot by the Dark Tongue Mage, Shadow Chanel. However, He Yi also contributed by one-shotting Clear Perfume with an Ice Ray + Green Wave Slash combo, and hitting the Holy Bard to low health. There was just nothing Clear Perfume could do against the ridiculously tanky magic knight. She had been shooting her since the start of the match, and He Yi was still as healthy as ever.

What seemed like a desperate fight for us turned into a landslide in our favor. Not long after, Beauty At First Sight and Shadow Chanel died as well.

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, your party has defeated the opponent "Snowy Cathaya”. You scored 1 point!

……

Alright, the first round is ours!

We were in VR and inside the battle room, but that didn’t stop the audience’s thunderous cheers to reach our ears anyway.

I gave Li Chengfeng a smile and said, "Well done killing Purple Marquis so early. This would’ve been a near impossible fight to turn around otherwise."

Li Chengfeng nodded. "Yeah, Lin Yixin’s Bombshell is just too powerful, not to mention that Holy Bard’s buff is seriously broken. It takes at least three of us to kill her. Earlier, I thought that Snowy Cathaya was lucky they ran into us instead of Candle Dragon, but now it looks like they would’ve beaten Candle Dragon anyway even if we hadn’t."

"Yeah. Let’s keep this up during our next match. We’re just one step away from becoming the champion now!"

"Yeah!"

We were teleported into the tournament ring again. On the other side, Lin Yixin was glaring at me like she couldn’t wait to turn my face into a pulp.

A minute later, the countdown began once more—

3!

2!

1!

The second round of the battle between kings. Fight!

Again, Li Chengfeng and I went on the offense because it would be suicide to give Snowy Cathaya a chance to organize the attack. And again, the second round followed almost the same pattern as the first: Lin Yixin and I were fighting each other, and Li Chengfeng was duking it out with Purple Marquis again. However, even the slightest change could tip the balance in another’s favor.

Purple Marquis abruptly knocked away Li Chengfeng’s sword and charged toward me.

Li Chengfeng hurriedly gave chase while shouting out a warning, "Lu Chen watch out! Purple Marquis’s heading your way!"

"Hmm?"

I turned my head slightly and knocked back Lin Yixin. In that case, let’s kill him first!

But Purple Marquis’s eyes twinkled as he raised his sword without warning. "Absolute Zero!"

Crack crack…

The temperature around me dropped, and ice started creeping all over my armor. Li Chengfeng, I and even the neary He Yi were frozen in ice! No Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls player within 10 yards of Purple Marquis could avoid being frozen!

Beep!

Combat Log: Player "Purple Marquis" used "Absolute Zero" and inflicted the Frozen status on you. Your Defense is temporarily increased by 100% for 3 seconds!

……

"Fuck, I’m dead…"

Being frozen increased my Defense by 100%, but so what? All Defense was paper before Lin Yixin’s Moon Gaze.

I glanced at Lin Yixin and felt my heart turning into ice. As I thought, Lin Yixin’s eyes were glazed with the light of Moon Gaze, and Purple Marquis was rushing me as well!