"Victory and defeat is commonplace in battles, not to mention that your opponent was Snowy Cathaya. You all did very well already," He Yi consoled the team when they returned to the waiting area.

Hugging his sword and leaning against a wall at the back, Li Chengfeng smiled lazily and replied, "Yeah, Snowy Cathaya is a worthy opponent, and we’re the ones who weren’t good enough to beat them. Next year, we’ll be good enough to beat everyone we meet and encounter the first seed in the finals. Next time, no Snowy Cathaya or Warsky Alliance will be able to block our way…"

Warsky wasn’t sitting far away from us, so he heard this and shot Chengfeng the stink eye. "Really? You’re mocking us when we’re already out of the WEL?"

Undeterred, Li Chengfeng pointed at Warsky and laughed, "Warsky Alliance? More like Bitter Pill Alliance ahahahaha…"

Warsky immediately turned purple in the face.

……

The next match was between Pop Culture and Candle Dragon. It was a battle between a dark horse and a favorite to win the WEL. Pop Culture had three solid point securers in the team, and they were two warriors and one archer. In fact, almost all of their perfect victories were thanks to the exquisite movement and control of the two warriors. They were almost at the same level as Chaos Moon, and that was very impressive.

Standing at the edge of the arena, Candlelight Shadow greeted Pop Culture with a smile and said, "Brothers and sisters of Pop Culture, it looks like fate has brought us together today. Whatever the result may be, I hope that there’ll be no hard feelings between our guilds. As a show of respect to your ability to make it to the quarter-finals, I promise that we’ll give it out all in the upcoming battle!"

The guild leader of Pop Culture was a warrior called "Lone Moonshade”. He returned the smile and replied, "Thank you for confirming our strength, Martial God. We promise to give it our all as well so that we won’t bring shame to Candle Dragon’s name!"

Candlelight Shadow let out a refreshing laugh. "Very well. Then we shall meet on the battlefield again!"

"Yes!"

While Candlelight Shadow was speaking with Lone Moonshade, God’s Dance was talking to Pop Culture as well. They looked like they were on friendly terms at the very least.

……

"It looks like Candlelight Shadow is planning to recruit Pop Culture into his guild. Even if they refuse, I’m sure he’ll turn them into an ally guild somehow," Lin Yixin commented as she stared at the group.

He Yi nodded in agreement as a small frown crept onto her expression. "The worst part about this is that Pop Culture is a guild in Sky City. Hmph, I can already imagine his scheme in my mind. He’s planning to expand Candle Dragon’s influence in Sky City through them and eat away at our strength."

I replied, "It’s a pretty good plan actually. Pop Culture will be the one investing the resources and manpower to uproot us. Candle Dragon just needs to sit on their asses and provide Pop Culture with moral support. Worse comes to worst, they don’t lose anything."

Stranger of Three Lifetimes said, "No problem, we can just copy their tactic and expand Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ influence in Wind City. I refuse to believe that Candle Dragon is the be-all-and-end-all in Wind City, hmph!"

A smile crossed Lin Yixin’s lips. "Momo’s right. We even have the perfect candidate already; Indigo Collar’s Peach Garden has been fighting Candle Dragon from the beginning. We’ll form an alliance with them and slowly expand our power in Wind City. At this stage, being satisfied with just one corner of the world is going to end in disaster anyway. This applies to Ancient Sword, Snowy Cathaya, Blazing Hot Lips, The Monarch Descends and Baidicheng. There are countless people who are vying for our territory. If you want to keep your gold, then you’d better give it your all, everyone!"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes giggled. "Yeah, and let’s not forget that both guild leaders of Ancient Sword and Snowy Cathaya are super gorgeous babes. It would suck if some buffoon claimed them as their mistresses of the fort, right? Lu Chen, for the sake of your girls, you’d better form the best alliance you can think of!"

At the side, Li Chengfeng added with a wicked grin, "Candlelight Shadow must be feeling really unsettled right now, or he wouldn’t try to recruit allies all over the place. We can’t fall behind either. Multiple wars will break out across the entire Heavenblessed Continent once the WEL is over, so clench your teeth and work hard, everyone!"

"Mn. We can think about that after the WEL is over. Chengfeng, I leave the guild and Dark Moon City in Little Gui, Chaos Moon and your hands."

"Understood. We won’t disappoint you, vice leader!"

……

Pop Culture and Candle Dragon’s match was already over by the time we finished talking. Candle Dragon had beaten Pop Culture with a 4:1 score, and Blue Sky Scar lost his match to Lone Moonshade. It was on purpose. If Candle Dragon had annihilated Pop Culture 10:0, it would’ve been a difficult defeat for the latter to swallow even if they already received a warning beforehand. They would also be less inclined to join Candle Dragon as a matter of course.

I also performed an in-depth check on Pop Culture. The guild was formed about four months ago, and their power swelled starting the second month. Currently, their main guild was capped at fifty thousand members, and their seven Rank 6 subguilds had around thirty thousand members each. In total, they numbered around two hundred thousand members. It was quite the sizable power, and the only reason they didn’t stand out was because they didn’t do stupid shit that wealthy guilds like Mad Dragon and Flower Room usually indulged in such as chasing players away from leveling maps, PK, petty drama and more. The way those fuckers acted, you would think that Sky City was too small for the likes of them.

However, Pop Culture’s low profile only made me even more wary of them. Lone Moonshade might not be as strong as Candlelight Shadow, but he was countless times stronger than the likes of Wang Dongliang, Lu Chao, Li Le and even the "Gods" of Gods of Destruction. Otherwise, Candle Dragon would never have paid attention to them.

Not long after the competition ended, the emblem on Lone Moonshade’s shoulder changed color. As expected, Pop Culture had joined Candle Dragon’s alliance and became their ally guild.

After the match was over, Lone Moonshade returned to the waiting area, set down his heavy sword and leaned against the handrail in a lazy manner.

Li Chengfeng walked up to him and asked, "Hey bro! Pop Culture’s a guild in Sky City, right? Why are you allying with a distant guild like Candle Dragon? Long-distance alliances might work in reality, but I’m not so sure about its effectiveness in this game…"

Lone Moonshade shot Li Chengfeng a glance before straightening his back. "Oh, you’re Legendary Brave! I apologize for my unsightly posture, haha! Anyway, Candle Dragon is a strong and humble master who pays respects to the wise. Surely they are not the worst ally Pop Culture could find, am I right?"

"Are you sure you have no other choice?" Li Chengfeng asked tentatively, "Take us, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, for example. We may not know what it means to ‘pay respect to the wise’, but we definitely know how to bleed for our brothers and sisters. Maybe you would like to consider us as a potential ally?"

An inexplicable look flashed across Lone Moonshade’s pupils, but he quickly recovered and let out a chuckle. "Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. How would we look if we swayed to another guild so soon after we became allies with Candle Dragon? Plus, you already have powerful allies like Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Blazing Hot Lips and more. Surely you don’t need us Pop Culture? Also, you and your allies have already hogged all the player territories in Sky City such as Dark Moon City, Silver Fir City, and The Monarch Descends’ new territory. If we, Pop Culture, wish to expand further, our only solution is to seek out an ally who can give us what we need, am I right?"

A mocking smile sprung to Lone Moonshade’s lips at that moment. "Relax, Li Chengfeng. You should be thankful that we chose to ally with Candle Dragon instead of Warsky Alliance. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends had taken up too much player resources in Sky City, so the only way for us new guys to establish ourselves is to eh, start an ‘insurrection’ so to speak. Warsky Alliance was our first choice, and Candle Dragon, our second. Since Candlelight Shadow is willing to show us some humility, we ultimately decided to go with Candle Dragon instead of Warsky Alliance. That is all. Anyway, Pop Culture will establish a foothold in Sky City, you can count on it!"

Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath. Knowing that there was no way to change Lone Moonshade’s mind, he shot the guild leader a smile and replied, "Very well, we all have our own choices to make. However, I must warn you that Candle Dragon is our sworn enemy, and the only way we’ll respond to them and their allies is with our blades. With that in mind, I hope that we’ll not meet on the battlefield. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will always prefer to have a friend than an enemy."

Lone Moonshade smiled. "This is an era of heroes. If we meet on the battlefield, then we will fight to our heart’s content. It’s that simple, isn’t it?"

It was at this moment I walked over and clapped Li Chengfeng on the shoulder. Then, I smiled at Lone Moonshade and said, "He’s right, dude. If we don’t fight to our heart’s content when we are young, we’ll regret it when old age hits us. If Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Pop Culture are destined to meet in battle, then our only option is to make it as terrific as possible, am I right Chengfeng?"

Li Chengfeng responded with a meaningful smile, "But of course! I’m a better warmonger than a peacemaker anyway. But you didn’t hear this from me, okay? It’s all my boss's fault…"

"Fuck you!"

I pretended to glare at him, but broke into a fearless smile of my own. "Yes. If our enemies want to make it rain, then we’ll make it pour."

Lone Moonshade looked surprised as we turned our backs on him and left. The fucker thought us cowards who wanted peace with his guild, but all I could say was that he read us wrong completely. Li Chengfeng wasn’t joking when he called himself and me warmongers. If Pop Culture wished to bring the fight to us, then we would happily return it tenfold. If we couldn’t deal with a mere Pop Culture, we wouldn’t be ruling Sky City as we were today.

……

It was at this moment Fei’er stepped onto the stage on her high heels and spoke into the mic, "We are now at the last match of the quarter-finals. They are Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Sword Lord of Jianghu!"

It was yet again a battle between a super guild and a dark horse. Sword Lord of Jianghu looked like a bunch of silent, taciturn players, and three of their four players had hidden classes. None of the opponents they encountered up until this point were particularly strong, which meant the possibility that they kept much of their strategies and skills concealed were very real. This was going to be a difficult battle for sure.

"Your enemies are very powerful. Take care…" It sounded like Lin Yixin was caring for me, but she couldn’t hide that hint of schadenfreude in her voice.

I grinned fearlessly at her before looking at He Yi, "Let’s kick off this match with a bang, shall we? Leave the first match to me. I don’t want to risk Sword Lord of Jianghu riding a high in case they get lucky."

He Yi nodded in agreement. "Very well. Lu Chen will fight the first match, Beiming Xue the second, Lian Xin the third, I the fourth, and Lu Chen plus Beiming Xue for the final 2v2. Best-case scenario, we take this by storm and end this 3:0!"

"Got it!" The girls all nodded in unison.

A while later, the match-ups appeared on the big display—

1v1: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand LV-182 Undead Swordsman VS Now and Forever LV-181 Onmyouji

1v1: Beiming Xue LV-183 Dark Archer VS Amber Pupil LV-180 Dark Swordsman

1v1: Lian Xing LV-182 Phantasm of Stars VS Romantic Ashes LV-180 Magic Swordsman

1v1: From Water LV-180 Magic Knight VS Superb Ai Jia LV-180 Tamer

2v2: Beiming Xue LV-183 Dark Archer & Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand LV-182 Undead Swordsman VS Now and Forever LV-181 Onmyouji & Amber Pupil LV-180 Dark Swordsman