Thunderbolt and the rest of his team had been shocked when their opponent was displayed on the big display. Of all the teams they could be paired with in the eighth-finals, it just had to be the one that didn’t have a single weak link in their line-up, at least not one they could exploit at their level. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that their chances of advancing to the quarter-finals had plummeted to zero at that moment.

Even then, it wasn’t until the match was over that Thunderbolt realized just how outclassed he was. The result on the display was literally the bloodiest it could’ve been—

Purple Marquis 2:0 Thunderbolt

Shadow Chanel 2:0 Abyssal Remains

Wind Fantasy 2:0 Weeping Knife

Clear Perfume 2:0 Floor of Cups

Purple Marquis & Wind Fantasy 2:0 Thunderbolt & Weeping Knife

Snowy Cathaya had chopped up Thunder like vegetables. With the steel in their hands, they told them exactly how strong an invincible team forged in war was like, and how weak a team who made it to the eighth-finals through luck like theirs really was.

……

“Yay! We’re in the top eight now!” Purple Marquis raised his blade and cheered.

Clear Perfume was calculating aloud with yuan signs in her eyes, “What are the rewards of the Top 8 again? Let’s see, Level +2, Luck +3, and RMB +100000! Ohohoho, we’re rich, Yiyi, we’re rich!!”

Lin Yixin shot a helpless smile at her bestie and said, “You’re such a greedy girl, Qingqing. Didn’t I just send you 100k last week? Did you use it all already?”

“Yeah, I gave it all to my big bro because he’s planning to buy a house. I’ll have to subsist on cup noodles later this Sunday…”

“OMG. Fine, I’ll send you 100k gold later…”

“No way! I’m an independent girl! I’ll get my money independently!”

“Yes, yes, as long as you’re happy~”

……

While Snowy Cathaya was celebrating their victory, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits and Chaos Moon were ready and waiting. Their opponent was none other than our old friend, Gods of Destruction. It wasn’t long before Dominating Heaven Blade led Dominating Knight God, Dominating Warrior God and more up the stage.

The first match was between Li Chengfeng and Dominating Heaven Blade. The battle between the two aces lasted only 12 seconds as the dragon warrior easily gave the warrior the slip and hit him with a fatal double-skill combo. Although the latter had tried his best to parry the attacks, Li Chengfeng had gone at him at odd angles and at an even odder speed. At Li Chengfeng’s level, he moved as soon as his brain processed the information, so it was damn near impossible to predict his actions unless you were at the same level or higher. The only reason Dominating Heaven Blade lasted as long as he did despite being struck at the weak point again and again was because he had good equipment.

The second match was between Gui Guzi and Dominating Warrior God. Dominating Warrior God was a 5-Strength player, and Gui Guzi, a 3-Strength 2-Stamina player. However, the latter had a shield that boosted his already crazy defense to greater levels, and his Knight God made up for his weaker offense. This was before mentioning that he had good enough control to strike Dominating Warrior God twice for almost every hit he received. It was pretty clear who the winner would be just after a few trades. When Gui Guzi killed Dominating Warrior God, he still had over 80% HP. The power gap between the two was practically unbridgeable.

The third match was between Chaos Moon and Dominating Mage God. Usually, the mage would be having a field day slaughtering a heavy-armor class, but Chaos Moon had both great equipment and great skill. Fully acknowledging her strength, he opted to kite and kill her from a distance. He was even doing very well compared to his lousier self from half a year ago. Not only did he combo his spells properly, his movement and judgment had improved by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately for him, Chaos Moon’s growth was even greater than his. The girl was already a fast learner and a very approachable woman, and one of her favorite ways to pass the time was to spar with the elite players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls such as Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits and Gui Guzi. As a result, both her tactics and ability to land strikes while on the move were almost super-tier. A simple feint was all it took for her to land a Barrier Break + Rock Crush combo and knock out Dominating Mage God twice in a row.

It was 3:0. The battle had already been won.

However, Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi thought that they weren’t being modest enough, so during the next match, High Fighting Spirits went berserk and chased Dominating Knight God all over the battlefield like a madman. During the latter’s final moments, he raised his shield only to watch it be destroyed by the barbarian’s warhammer!

The score turned 4:0. It was now a major victory for their team.

Li Chengfeng and Chaos Moon fought together during the fifth match, and the dragon warrior didn’t even need to use his Divine General Skill. Their rapport, decisiveness and skill completely outstripped their opponents’, and several combination attacks later, the Dominating Heaven Blade + Dominating Mage God duo were defeated.

The score turned 5:0, and Li Chengfeng gave his Augustus’ Spear a delighted swing. “Our coordination is growing better and better, partner!”

Chaos Moon tilted her head at him. “And…?”

Li Chengfeng pretended to blush. “Little Gui said that we look like a good fit for one another, so…”

Chaos Moon immediately unsheathed her weapon and threatened, “Do you want to die, Gui Guzi? There’s only one bastard I fancy in this world, and that’s Lu Chen! Everyone else who even thinks to lay their hand on me will get a blade up their ass, you hear me!?”

Both Gui Guzi and I shivered at the same time.

Lin Yixin and He Yi chatted happily with one another and pretended that they heard nothing.

……

And so, the top four teams of the upper bracket were finally decided, and they were Warsky, Soul Battle Robes, Snowy Cathaya, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd. This new group of death was as terrifying as the last one, if not more.

“To think that only two out of these four teams will be entering the internationals…” I smiled. “Just how many more dreams will the group of death crush before it’s satisfied?”

Li Chengfeng nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Our next opponent is Snowy Cathaya.”

Lin Yixin shot the dragon warrior a smile and said, “We won’t go easy on you!”

Li Chengfeng gripped his fists and responded confidently, “We won’t either. The WEL is a battle for honor, so we’ll do our best to take you out!”

Lin Yixin leaned a little against the handrail and faced toward my direction, but her beautiful eyes were trained on Li Chengfeng. Giggling like the goddess she was, she responded to the challenge with equal audacity, “Oh, I’m sure you’ll do your best, but there’s no chance in hell you’re taking us out, so save it.”

Li Chengfeng chuckled. “Hmph hmph, we’ll see about that!”

……

The first match of the lower bracket began while we were talking. It was Candle Dragon versus Righteousness!

While Hot and Sour Noodles passed by Candle Dragon’s waiting area, he looked at Candlelight Shadow and said, “It’s our turn, Fang Zhuo. I’m curious to know how many points we’ll be able to take away from your team. You?”

Candlelight Shadow smiled at him before replying, “Zhang Chun, we’re going to give it our all no matter what, so don’t blame us if you are stopped at the eighth-finals, okay?”

Hot and Sour Noodles nodded and said, “Hehe, got it. Still, friendship first, competition second, right?”

Blue Sky Scar merely chuckled at that and said nothing. Both teams went into the arena after that.

The results were pretty clear—

Candlelight Shadow 2:0 Hot and Sour Noodles

Ye Yuse 2:0 Exclusive Taste

Blue Sky Scar 2:1 Taintless Beacon

God’s Dance 2:0 Legendary Slash

Candlelight Shadow & Ye Yuse 2:0 Hot and Sour Noodles & Taintless Beacon

……

True to Candlelight Shadow’s words, Candle Dragon slapped Righteousness right across the face with a merciless 5:0 score. Taintless Beacon, a magic knight, was the only player in Righteousness skillful enough to take a point from Blue Sky Scar during the second fight of his match, and even then he was ultimately defeated after Blue Sky Scar stopped underestimating his enemy and reconsidered his strategy.

Not like the score surprised anyone in the slightest, of course. It would be stranger if Righteousness somehow defeated Candle Dragon. Forget that Candlelight Shadow would never allow this to happen, his team had two Divine Generals in it. It was literally impossible to lose unless it was a fixed match.

We didn’t pay too much attention to the next two matches because they were guilds no one had ever heard of before. We checked out their styles for a bit because they might become an opponent in the future, but that was all. It didn’t take long for both matches to finish—

Pop Culture 4:1 Conquer

Dominating Heaven Tiger 0:5 Sword Lord of Jianghu

Pop Culture and Sword Lord of Jianghu advanced to the quarter-finals. Between the two, I determined that Sword Lord of Jianghu was the bigger threat because they had a whopping three hidden classes in their team. No wonder they were able to advance all the way to the quarter-finals. If they become our opponent in the future, we must defeat them before we can qualify for the internationals!

……

The last match of the bracket was Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls versus Panda!

He Yi and Lin Yixin burst into a giggle when they saw the enemy. It was because Panda was completely made up of 40-year-old uncles with tummies so round that they looked like they had been pregnant for ten months. Moreover, I was certain that they were crazy levelers like Gui Guzi because they were all seventh-promotion players, and their eyes were surrounded by dark circles. No wonder they called themselves Panda, they sure as hell looked like pandas!

The first match was between me and a magic knight. The broad man was riding a scrawny wolf that looked like it was about to pass out from the sheer weight it was carrying. Pointing a shield that looked like it weighed about several hundred kilograms at me, the uncle let out a cackle and declared, “Come at me, fifth ranker of the CGL Hall of Fame! Allow me to show you that experience will always be greater than talent! Take this!”

For some reason, the magic knight was using Wanderer class’s signature weapon, a blade. All I could say was that the uncle had a very… unique personality.

Chiang!

The uncle’s blade drew metallic sparks as I blocked it with my Dragon God Shield. Before he could recover from his surprise, I moved my shield away and thrust the Purple Ying Sword forward, hitting him with Burning Blade Slash. Since the play-offs began, I must say that this uncle was the only player to withstand the full might of my attack without parrying at all!

Boom boom boom!

The flaming sword auras cut into the uncle’s shield three times, dealing an incredible amount of damage—

48289!

72673!

91097!

Although the uncle did his best to Guard the attack, it just wasn’t possible for his stats. His HP dropped to zero, and he died just like that.

To be honest, the match was so easy that I almost thought that he was fucking with me. However, the fact was the second fight ended even cleaner than the first. The uncle had decided that it was a bad idea to fight me at melee range and attempted to use ranged attacks from a distance, but two Dragon Slaying Slashes and one Coiling Dragon Revolution were all it took to delete him and take the first match!

……

He Yi, Beiming Xue and Lian Xin’s matches went just as easy as mine, and before long, we finished the solos with a 4:0 score. For the duo match, the team sent Beiming Xue and me because we were a warrior and an archer, one of the more scientific pairings in 2v2. I could defend against any attack and lock enemies down with powerful offensive abilities, and Beiming Xue could rain hell on her opponent with her Windchaser equipment set, which made all her attacks ignore 40% Defense and Magic Shield.

The last match of the eighth-finals ended with a 5:0, and we officially entered the quarter-finals. A while later, Fei’er announced the quarter final matches on the screen—

Upper Bracket: Warsky Alliance VS Soul Battle Robes, Snowy Cathaya VS Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls 222nd

Lower Bracket: Candle Dragon VS Pop Culture, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls VS Sword Lord of Jianghu