Our win over Ukraine made us the second team to 5:0—or 10:0 if you considered the individual score—our opponent besides Snowy Cathaya. Our dominance stunned everyone in the WEL for a while.

To be honest though, I thought that even the internationals would have a mix of weak and strong teams. Many servers were weak, so their champions could only be the champion of the weak. They would be lucky to make it to the eighth-finals of the China server, much less the world stage where the best teams in the entire world came together to decide the strongest of them all. The outcome of our battle was the perfect example of this.

……

The first thing we received after we exited the battle room was a thunderous applause and a resounding cheer. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had put our mettle to the test and came out shocked at how strong we were compared to the other teams. This was good news of course.

After we returned to the waiting area and took our seats, Rose served each of us a cup of tea and praised us, "Well done 5:0ing Ukraine, hehe. And Lu Chen, the way you PvP is seriously imperious. I can’t believe you actually managed to 2:0 that Seven Degrees Below Zero twice in a row! He was quite the famous player in Ukraine, you know!"

Lin Yixin was sipping her red tea at her sofa, and when she heard this she let out a chuckle and explained, "Seven Degrees Below Zero is just a noob, plain and simple. His skill is around the same as Gui Guzi’s, and I won’t deny that he’s quite the speedster. However, his tactics cannot keep up with his style, and he lacks any imagination whatsoever. He was always going to lose horribly to someone as cunning as Little Cheat."

Her team manager, a beautiful woman working for Apple, said encouragingly, "Yeah, yeah! I think our Beautiful Little Pepper could’ve beaten that Seven Degrees Below Zero perfectly as well!"

Lin Yixin blushed at the compliment. "Aiyo, you don’t have to put it like that…"

I shot Lin Yixin a look. "You sure you still remember how to write the word ‘humble’, Yiyi?"

She put down her cup and glared at me. "What did you say, bastard? You wanna get punched?"

I immediately turned my gaze back to the stage. "Oh look, the next fight’s about to start…"

"Hmph!"

……

It was time to observe the matches of Group C. Technically speaking, we could’ve gone back to the hotel and rested already, but we stayed because it was necessary to observe our future opponents, research their skills, figure out the best line-up to pit against them, and counter their tactics. After all, as the saying goes, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles!

The second match of Group C was also between God’s Domain and Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, also the match of that Red Maple who had taunted us earlier. It was said that he was the strongest player in Japan, and this was a good opportunity to check out his skills. If God’s Domain was victorious, they would become our eighth-finals opponents. In other words, they must die in order for us to continue advancing to the quarter-finals.

As expected, Red Maple appeared on the battlefield first looking like nothing could put a dent in his confidence. His opponent was an Argentinian archer. We also noticed that Red Maple had a very imperious class—

Red Maple LV-188

Class: Heaven’s Warrior

Guild: God’s Domain

Position: Guild Leader

……

Lin Yixin blinked at the display once before explaining, "God’s Domain is the number one guild of Purple Grape City. They have nearly 50 subguilds, and their total player count is absolutely insane. In less than four months, God’s Domain had occupied over 40% of the resources that exist in the Japan server. Red Maple is an extremely ruthless person, and he usually murders any guild who defies him until they disband on their own. It’s why practically every guild in Purple Grape City is officially allies of God’s Domain even if they might think otherwise. It would be apt to call Red Maple a tyrant and a despot in Purple Grape City!"

I licked my lips. "In that case, I can’t wait for God’s Domain to defeat their opponent. White Rose Fortress is the only thing standing between Purple Grape City and Sky City, so it’s only a matter of time before we fight each other. Let this be the first battle between our guilds!"

Lin Yixin commented with a giggle, "You are always so bloodthirsty…"

"Of course, dear."

……

The first match had ended while we were chatting to each other. Red Maple had 2:0’d his opponent, but the annoying part was that he only used common skills such as Triple Slash, Barrier Break, War God Rampage, and Earth Shattering Slash. The cunning bastard was obviously hiding his unique skills for only when he needed them!

With that rousing win, the other three players of God’s Domain defeated their opponents 2:1 and confirmed their advance to the eighth-finals. During the 2v2 match, Red Maple single-handedly defeated both of his opponents despite losing his teammate fairly early into the match, securing a 4:1 score for his team. Argentina’s champion team wasn’t weak, but they still got swept by God’s Domain all too easily. It showed just how strong God’s Domain was!

The second last match of Group C proceeded after that. Throne of the Wild, the team from Korea swept their French opponent with a 5:0 score, drawing everyone’s attention immediately. There were two things noteworthy about this team. One, they were all Heroic Bannermen. Two, their team leader was a harmless-looking woman who was anything but harmless.

Rose gave us an explanation on their background. "Throne of the Wild is the number one guild in the Korean’s Guild Ranking, and their guild leader, Tear Stain, is a very beautiful woman. I’ve actually talked to her in the past, and I heard that she was Candlelight Shadow’s university junior when the latter was studying in Korea. She deeply admires Candlelight Shadow, and strongly believes that no one can surpass the Starcraft Emperor. She’s a talented woman and a hard worker, and she has a whopping 99.4% win rate in her main city’s battle arena. She’s so strong that even Frosty Night, Blazing Pulse and Enlightened Heart willingly joined her guild and supported her. It’s one of the reasons Throne of the Wild became one of the strongest super guilds in the entire world."

He Yi and I exchanged an astonished look with each other before exclaiming, "Candlelight Shadow’s university junior? The fuck? Since when did that guy have a junior this amazing?"

Rose burst into laughter before shooting a meaningful look at Lin Yixin. "What are you talking about? Your Beautiful Little Pepper is a monstrous player herself, isn’t she?"

Lin Yixin turned red and concentrated on her tea. Sun Qingqing seized the opportunity to tease her to her heart’s content.

Beiming Xue checked the line-up again and said, "Assuming that their opponents aren’t up to snuff, we’ll have to fight God’s Domain to enter the quarter-finals, and Throne of the Wild to enter the semi-finals. OMG, I miss our group of life in the nationals already. This… this is practically a mini group of death…"

I shot her an encouraging smile and said, "Relax. True heroes are born from fire and brimstone!"

Murong Mingyue said, "You look like you’re made in hell, sure, but we are anything but hellish, okay?"

I immediately retorted, "Excuuuuuuuuuuse me? I agree that Beiming and Lian Xin aren’t hellish, but you? Calling you a demon would be a praise, you demoness!"

"Get over here so I can punch you…"

……

Group C’s final match was between USA’s The Storm and Brazil’s Rumbling Thunder. A grueling battle later, The Storm barely beat out their opponent and joined the ranks of the eighth-finalists.

The match moved on to Group D, and it was finally Candle Dragon’s—also the so-called number one guild of China—turn to fight.

Candlelight Shadow had been as silent as death since he appeared at the airport. The only time he talked was when he discussed tactics with his teammates. In a sense, they definitely looked more professional than us. I still preferred our noisy, carefree atmosphere over theirs though. There was a saying called "the greatest hermit will retreat into the noisiest fair." A true expert could enter into the mindset necessary to perform no matter the circumstances.

Group D’s first match was between the super guild from India, Cyan Beast and USA’s Future Faith. Cyan Beast was a guild that garnered a lot of attention from the beginning because they were the number one guild of India’s main city, Cyan Earth City, and the guild leader, God of War, was famed as the strongest expert in India besides Barbarous Throne. In fact, he should be even stronger than Barbarous Throne because he and his guild were the direct cause behind the latter’s retirement. First, Cyan Beast had crushed Barbarous Throne’s guild in war. Then, he challenged Barbarous Throne to a 1-on-1 duel and proved himself to be the superior fighter. It was said that Barbarous Throne didn’t have even a 30% chance of beating God of War in a fair fight. That was why Barbarous Throne had deleted his account out of sheer humiliation and ended his story in tears.

Be it in the game or in real life, old kings must die before a new king is born, and some kings would never be able to live in harmony with another like them. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhao Kuangyin and Li Yu. These were just one of many examples in history. They were all heroes, but they could never live in the same period.

The matches flew by quickly, and at the end of it, we had to admit that Cyan Beast was as strong as they were famous. Hell, how else do you describe a team with four Divine Generals in it? Only a fool would underestimate their power, and God of War especially was world-class be it in terms of skill, equipment, or character skill. It was to the point where even Candlelight Shadow looked like a slightly weaker fighter compared to him.

If nothing else, God of War’s Divine General Skill, God of War’s Art, was a self-buff skill that ensured that his attacks critted 100% of the time. It was absolutely insane to say the least!

Cyan Beast annihilated their opponent 5:0 to advance to the eighth-finals. Russia’s Striborg beat Israel’s At Sunset. Candle Dragon 4:1’d India’s Forest Tiger, and Thailand’s The Gods beat France’s Fairyland.

After the 16th-finals were over, the eighth-finals match-ups appeared on the big display almost immediately—

Group A

Hero Alliance (USA) VS Snowbird (Russia)

Heavenly Disaster (Korea) VS Vast Ocean (Japan)

Group B

Olympus (USA) VS Snowy Cathaya (China)

Wheel of Sun and Moon (Korea) VS Yellow Dragon (Russia)

Group C

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls (China) VS God’s Domain (Japan)

Throne of the Wild (Korea) VS The Storm (USA)

Group D

Cyan Beast (India) VS Striborg (Russia)

Candle Dragon (China) VS The Gods (Thailand)

……

The mere sight of the eighth-finals match-up alone caused waves of pressure to course through our bodies. The real battle had just begun, for us at least. All the weaklings in the group had been weeded out, and the only way to advance was to be stronger than all our opponents.

On an unrelated note, the American host had announced the match-ups eight times in eight different languages, wowing practically everyone in the stadium. It was rare to find anyone who mastered this many languages to say the least!

The first match of Group A ended exactly as we predicted it would, with Vienna’s Sorrow 4:1ing Snowbird from Russia!

The second match was a super close one between Heavenly Disaster and Vast Ocean, one that literally came down to the last round of the 2v2 match. Heavenly Disaster was ultimately able to defeat Vast Ocean, but I didn’t think well of their chances to advance to the quarter-finals at all. Hero Alliance was simply too strong!

……

"Alright, it’s our turn again…"

Lin Yixin lifted her bag and said to her teammates, "Our opponent is Olympus, also known as Titan God’s team. They are all Heroic Bannermen, so… give it your all, everyone. We must make it to the quarter-finals, or we’ll bring shame to our ancestors yada yada yada, get it?"

Purple Marquis laughed. "Don’t worry, guild leader! We won’t disappoint you!"