The competition continued quickly. The second round began less than five minutes after the first round had ended, and this time our opponent was slightly stronger than before with an average level of 172!

This time, our line-up was me, Beiming Xue, Heart Like Water and Hidden Fragrance for the 1v1, and Beiming Xue + Lian Xin for our 2v2. Just like the last round, this was a line-up gunning for the flawless victory.

……

My opponent was Light Streak Night Rain, a Level 175 female mage.

Swhoosh!

We appeared on opposite sides of the barrier and observed each other warily. Light Streak Night Rain was clearly prepared since she had gone so far as to turn off her equipment luster, although she couldn’t conceal the fact that there was a huge sapphire glowing with a dark light sitting at the top of her scepter. It was clearly no ordinary weapon.

"I was hoping to enter the Top 256 at the very least, but it looks like luck is not on my side this year…" Light Streak Night Rain shot me a regretful smile. "Of all the people we could possibly encounter on our second match, Ancient Sword’s main roster had to be some of the worst of them all…"

I smiled. "Things will get better eventually. You ready?"

"Mn."

I rushed Light Streak Night Rain in a straight line the moment the barrier disappeared. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse and Divine Martial War Boots boosted my movement speed beyond her wildest imagination, but she actually managed to come up with a good counter. After crying out in surprise and withdrawing in a hurry, she fired Ice Blast at my mount’s feet and froze me for four seconds!

I was really surprised because Ice Blast was Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ signature skill, and I wasn’t expecting to run into another mage with the skill. I should’ve known better than to underestimate my opponent. The chance this might cost me a game wasn’t zero!

Light Streak Night Rain smiled and raised her scepter high. "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, pray that I don’t crit you, or you’re dead!"

She cast two Dragon’s Roars at me. Mini explosions appeared around both spells just as they were about to hit my head. It was the visual effect of a spell crit, and it caused Light Streak Night Rain’s smile to widen even further.

What she didn’t know was that I was smiling on the inside. I raised my Dragon God Shield and activated Ghost Deity Shield!

Bang bang!

4894!

5280!

Of all the possible outcomes, this had the last possible result Light Streak Night Rain had wanted to see. Her mouth fell open in shock as she exclaimed, "H-how is this possible? My Dragon’s Roar would’ve hit Laughing At The Heavens for 50k damage at least, and that is without a crit…"

Clearly, the equalizing property of my Ghost Deity Shield wasn’t known to the world yet!

"Eat this!"

After I defrosted, I swung the Purple Ying Sword and cried out, "Coiling Dragon Revolution!"

"Roar!"

A coiling dragon appeared around my blade while glowing like purple crystals. The moment I tossed the weapon, it transformed into a dragon and passed right through Light Streak Night Rain’s body, piercing her Magic Shield and dealing 33% damage to her!

57289!

Light Streak Night Rain lost all of her HP in one go and slowly collapsed to the ground. A moment later, she scattered into a ball of light and returned to her room. Just like that, the first point was mine...

About 20 seconds later, Light Streak Night Rain teleported back into the arena and asked me with widened eyes, "How did your Coiling Dragon Revolution hit me? My Magic Shield still had 25% durability…"

I explained to her, "Coiling Dragon Revolution ignores 33% of your Magic Shield, so you’re eating 33% of the skill damage, or 70% of my basic attack damage, if you get hit."

"Oh, I get it now. Okay, I surrender…" Light Streak Night Rain smiled and disappeared once more.

This was surprising. I knew that Coiling Dragon Revolution was strong, but I wasn’t expecting it to conquer a fairly powerful mage so easily. Well done, Coiling Dragon Revolution!

……

Swhoosh!

After I flew back to the wooden room, Murong Mingyue immediately teased me, "The Little Heavenly King is so amazing! All he needed was one pump to make a girl surrender!"

I stared at her. "Why does everything sound so wrong when it comes out from your mouth? You want to 1v1 me now, sis?"

"Sure! My room is just around the corner!" she declared fearlessly.

Murong Mingyue used the invincible taunt, it was super effective. I immediately threw in the towel and hid behind He Yi for protection. "I would rather go to Eve’s room than yours…"

He Yi giggled. "God, I truly hope that the day you guys stop fighting like cats and dogs will come. Beiming Xue, it’s your turn now. Show them who’s boss!"

"Mn."

Her opponent was a magic knight, and just like we all expected, she utterly annihilated the poor guy. Beiming Xue was practically the bane of all magic knights these days. Her Windchaser set already gave her incredible attack power, but it also had an effect that ignored 45% of the target’s Defense. Add a -50% Defense Bone Eroding Arrow to the mix, and that was 72.5% Defense going poof like it was never there. There was just no way a magic knight could ever be tanky enough to outlast her, much less duel her. Even with my new equipment and skills, Beiming Xue was still the last opponent I wished to fight in a battle. The only way any melee fighter could beat her was to stun her first and kill her in one combo. Otherwise, the match was as good as hers.

Thud thud thud...

The magic knight buffed himself with a Roland Bloodknight Card, but all it achieved was showing off Beiming Xue’s insane damage—

110282!

97722!

127171!

The battle was over in three hits, and there was no one who wasn’t stunned by Beiming Xue’s attack power. Butterfly Dance’s mouth fell open as she muttered, "OMG, can you really still call her an archer? Even the best warrior in the world would deal as much damage as her, right?"

A muscle twitched in Remains’ face. "I’m one hundred percent sure her equipment set gives her armor penetration, not to mention that she used Bone Eroding Arrow to lower her opponent’s Defense by another 50%. At any rate, PvP with Beiming Xue is a slaughter, not a fight…"

Lian Xin pumped her tiny fists and cheered, "Go go Beiming Xue! Kill them all!"

I felt the corner of my mouth twitching a little myself. If Beiming Xue was the queen of archers, then Lian Xin was the queen of mages in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Now that I thought about it, I almost couldn’t believe we sent these two to fight the 2v2 battle later. Their barbaric power was sure to inflict severe trauma on all our enemies...

It also made me recall some of the 5v5 battles I fought in the past. In an ideal world, if I could make a team with Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Luo River God of the Capital and Stranger of Three Lifetimes, it would surely be the most destructive team the world had ever seen. They would be called Madam Kill-all wherever they went, and the bodies they left behind could only be counted by the mountains!

Unfortunately, almost every one of these girls belonged to a guild of their own, and the chances of them ever forming a 5-man party and participating in a 5v5 battle were incredibly low, and thank god for that. I didn’t think there was any man or woman in the world who wouldn’t piss themselves if they had to fight them...

……

The rest of the matches went more or less as we expected them to. Heart Like Water KO’d the enemy warrior in the third match.

The fourth match was a surprise as Dark Fragrance’s opponent, a powerful mage called Drunken Soul, also knew Ice Blast just like Light Streak Night Rain. He froze Dark Fragrance immediately after the fight began and mowed her down with ice and fire magic. Dark Fragrance only managed to Charge him once throughout the fight, and even that was countered with a Blink from the enemy. In the end, it was a 0:2, and our flawless streak was broken.

I consoled her. "Dark, victory and defeat is commonplace in battles, so don’t overthink it, okay? Beiming Xue and Lian Xin will be fighting the 2v2, so this is still our win one hundred percent."

Dark Fragrance nodded. "Yeah, I know!"

Beiming Xue and Lian Xin appeared in the battle arena, but a beep surprised all of us. System Notice: Good day, players. Please be informed that your match is currently being broadcasted live by CATV gaming channel!

Oh man. There are countless matches going on right now, and somehow they managed to pick us? How lucky!

On the battle arena, Lian Xin said, "Beiming, this fight is broadcasted live, so we’re going to give it all we got, okay?"

Beiming Xue was red with excitement. "Do you think we should drag out the fight a little so the broadcast wouldn’t move away too soon, Sister Lian Xin?"

Lian Xin looked confused. "But why would you want to do that?"

"We can use this time to advertise our roster and our guild!"

"Fine, fine, I’ll do it…"

……

The enemy team sent Light Streak Night Rain and Drunken Soul, but they seemed to be aware that their chances of winning were low. They targeted Beiming Xue immediately after the battle began probably because they knew that they couldn’t breach Lian Xin’s Telekinetic Shield by force. The Phantasm of Stars’ Magic Attack was way higher than theirs, and Beiming Xue could’ve destroyed them dozens of times with Spiraling Arrow Blades during this time.

And so, the battle of man-shaped artilleries began as both sides went all out against one another. Beiming Xue used Leap to get away from a Galaxy Storm and fired back with Spiraling Arrow Blades and Evil Spirit Volleys. Evil Spirit Volley was very difficult to control, but she was always able to aim it on a Magic Shield. Beiming Xue’s hit rate and bow flicking technique were improving every day, and she was just one step away from becoming a true master of arrows. One of the biggest advantages she had over most people was that she naturally wanted to improve her craft, and combined with her level of intelligence the results were almost obscene.

Lian Xin also coordinated with Beiming Xue and controlled the battlefield with Dimensional Storms and Ice Spiral Matrixes. It was a completely one-sided battle.

When Light Streak Night Rain and Drunken Soul were killed, Lian Xin dropped twelve Origin Force Fields in one go and set the floor on fire with Fire Wall to create the word "ASDS", or the short form of our guild’s name. It was the only thing Lian Xin could think of writing because Lenovo was too long, and the Chinese characters for Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls also took too much effort to write.

In the end, the duo easily scored two points and ended our second round with a 4:1 score.

After Lian Xin came back, she said with a smile, "Boss, I’ve thought of a better way to advertise our brand…"

"Tell me," He Yi said.

Lian Xin started, "I’ll write up a recruitment notice, something like ‘Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is recruiting mages over Level 175 and 5000 Magic Attack. We offer a monthly territory salary, and we offer to cover food expenses and accommodations for those willing to move to Zhejiang’. Then, I’ll stick it to big brother Lu Chen’s cape so everyone can see it at all times. What do you think?"

I replied expressionlessly, "I would rather die than fight with that thing on me…"

Everyone burst into laughter at my reaction.

……

The preliminaries continued smoothly for us, and we slaughtered almost every opponent we encountered during the first ten rounds. There was no one I would call a challenge, or more accurately, anyone who could’ve posed a challenge to us was reduced to weaklings before our five-man seventh-promotion main roster.

"Sigh…"

He Yi tilted her head at me and asked, "Why are you sighing?"

I bent my head 45 degrees toward the sky and lamented, "I wanted to encounter Candlelight Shadow before the first 15 rounds so they can enjoy the bitter taste of failing to make it to the Top 64…"

He Yi giggled. "Now that you mention it, me too…"

Aghast at our wish, poor Butterfly Dance complained, "Can you guys at least try to consider my feelings? I’m a member of Candle Dragon’s main guild, dammit…"