Chapter 125

Chapter 125: God Jiexi

“Their mechanics are pretty good, right?” Plantago Seed said.
“Yeah.” Wang Jiexi agreed. To normal players, these three’s mechanical skill really were enough to be considered “good”, even that completely irrational Brawler.
“But we’re only watching them fight against monsters, so there’s not much to be seen.” Wang Jiexi said.
“Then what?” Plantago Seed asked.
“Lend me your account to use for a bit. I’m going to go and say hello to them.” Wang Jiexi said.
“Ah!” Plantago Seed hurriedly got up and let up his seat. This “Ah!” carried a tone of pleasant surprise. He was surprised because God Jiexi would actually personally come out because of these three. And he was pleased because he had the chance to see God Jiexi’s skill in action up-close. It has to be known that even in a pro match, it still wouldn’t be possible to see him in action up-close like this.
Wang Jiexi walked up and sat down. He casually tapped the keyboard and moved the mouse. Plantago Seed knew that pro-players all had their own keyboard and mouse they liked to use. If it was just to casually play, it wouldn’t matter too much to them, but they’d still feel somewhat awkward with it.
Soon after, Wang Jiexi opened up the keyboard settings. He sweeped over it and then went “Oh? It’s the same as mine? Are you learning from me?”
“Yeah. You’re my biggest idol! Could I trouble you with a signature!!” Plantago Seed finally found the opportunity and smoothly asked him. His class was the same as the class Wang Jiexi was most proficient in, the Witch. His keyboard settings were also the exact same as Wang Jiexi’s.
“Is it hard for you?” Wang Jiexi asked.
“It’s……. it’s okay.” Plantago Seed said.
Wang Jiexi didn’t say anything more. He moved the mouse and tapped the keyboard. The in-game Plantago Seed swiftly rushed towards where those five players were leveling at.
Ye Xiu had noticed Plantago Seed peeping at them long ago, but didn’t care. Now that he saw him running towards them, he guessed that it was to discuss about dungeon-related things. Who knew that right when he arrived, he’d use a Witch’s long-ranged attack and suddenly fire a magic missile over.
“What are you doing?” This magic missile’s target was Soft Mist. At this moment, Soft Mist’s back was facing towards Plantago Seed. Only after being hit by it was she able to react. She quickly turned her camera angle, but couldn’t understand what was going on. Tang Rou had never experienced something like PKing in the wilderness.
Ye Xiu was also extremely astonished. Why did Plantago Seed mysteriously start fighting? How astonishing! Then he saw Plantago Seed say: “Let’s compare notes.”
“What’s going on?” Tang Rou was also puzzled. But Plantago Seed had already sent out another magic missile towards her. Now that they were face to face, how could it be so easy to hit Tang Rou. With a quick tap, Tang Rou dodged the missile. She wasn’t so polite either and immediately began counter attacking. Soft Mist carried her battle lance and swiftly dashed towards Plantago Seed.
Plantago Seed didn’t move forward and instead retreated. He continued to leisurely throw out magic missiles. But every time a magic missile was sent out, the character still had to stop for a bit. So after a few casts, Soft Mist was still able to close in on him. Her battle lance leaped and a Sky Strike slashed at him. Plantago Seed flew into the air. Right when Soft Mist was about to continue attacking, she heard a gentle “whoosh” and Plantago Seed continued to fly over her head. A cloud of medicinal powder sprinkled onto Soft Mist’s body.
Tang Rou was startled. For a short while, she didn’t know what to do. However, Plantago Seed had already landed next to her and then “whoosh whoosh” sent two more magic missiles at her. Tang Rou immediately thought of having Soft Mist dodge, but Soft Mist’s movements had already turned sluggish. She dodged the first missile, but the second missile exploded like a flower onto her.
“What? Have you never fought with a Witch before?” Ye Xiu hurriedly asked Tang Rou. She knew that Tang Rou, with her pitiful amount of experience in Glory, still had some experience in the Arena when she fought for Chen Guo. However, Glory had a total of 24 classes. Because Tang Rou had only occasionally fought, it wasn’t anything surprising that she had never fought against some classes.
“Yeah!” Tang Rou answered.
“I’ve seen this class!!” Steamed Bun Invasion had been soaking in the Arena in these past few days. In these short few days, he had already met with all of the classes, “They can ride on a broom to fly. Just now, he threw a Laxative at you. Did you feel that your body turned soft and your movements turned slow?”
Laxative?????
The two revered gods instantly petrified. Who the fck came up with such a name? The powder that Plantago Seed had thrown onto Soft Mist was called “Disperse Powder”, a Level 20 Witch skill. If it was successfully sprinkled onto the target’s body, then it would remove a buff and reduce the target’s attack, casting, and movement speed. Even if the opponent didn’t have any buffs on them, the slow effect would still arise for up to ten seconds. It was a CC skill that Witches often used.
This skill didn’t have any nickname or abbreviation, but right now, Steamed Bun Invasion gave it the name “Laxative” and even said that it made your body turn soft and your movements turn slow…… it was true that it caused your movements to turn slow, but where did he get “your body turned soft” from?
The two revered gods were shocked frozen by Steamed Bun Invasion and even more so were Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon. At this moment, they were all astonished on the name “Laxative”. It really did kind of fit.
Who knew when, but Steamed Bun Invasion had quietly snuck up behind Plantago Seed and smashed a Brick over.
But how could Wang Jiexi be compared to Tang Rou. Even though he wasn’t looking behind him, he had noticed Steamed Bun Invasion’s movements long ago. He suddenly crouched and Steamed Bun Invasion’s Brick hit nothing but air. Plantago Seed took advantage and counter-attacked with a “Sweep”. This was A Witch’s lowest-leveled knock-up skill. Its knock-up effect was the worst among all 24 classes. With a Sweep, the character quickly fell to the ground. The knock-up was very slight and was very difficult to see.
But Wang Jiexi’s actions naturally weren’t ordinary. In this slight knock-up, Plantago Seed rode his broom and completed a short flight. Following this sweep, he sweeped Steamed Bun Invasion into the air. After six consecutive sweeps, the two characters flew higher and higher with every sweep. Plantago Seed then finished with a heavy attack, smacking Steamed Bun Invasion to the ground, while he leisurely flew back to the ground on his broom.
To be able to attack like this was naturally because of the passive skill Witches learned after changing classes: Broom Mastery.
Brooms are Witch-only weapons. Only Witches could use it after changing classes. Unspecialized characters could use the majority of weapons, but there were still a few class-specific weapons that unspecialized couldn’t use. A Blade Master’s Lightsaber was one and a Witch’s Broom was another.
The passive skill Broom Master gave Witches the ability to consecutively attack the opponent while flying. Not all classes had this type of skill. With this type of aerial combat ability, Witches were headaches to many classes.
Steamed Bun Invasion’s actions weren’t slow. In the Arena, he had accumulated a bit of PK experience, yet he had still been casually beaten down. After the consecutive broom hits and the final smackdown, Steamed Bun Invasion planned on using a Quick Recover to prevent falling to the ground, but wasn’t able to do it in time. His hands smashed to the ground, creating a hole.
This wasn’t a coincidence. This was all done intentionally by Wang Jiexi in the air. He had controlled how Steamed Bun Invasion was going to fall, making it much harder for Steamed Bun Invasion to use Quick Recover. If his judgement or hand speed wasn’t enough, then he wouldn’t have time to use it. A pro-player’s ability to calculate and meticulous movements were far greater than normal players.
Right when Plantago Seed landed, Soft Mist had rushed forward. With a battle lance, she powerfully swept across like a torrent. But the passive skill Broom Mastery didn’t have any cooldown and could be used anytime soon. Plantago Seed immediately leapt onto his broom and then once again flew away. Tang Rou controlled Soft Mist to run left and right, but was unable to catch him no matter what she did. After Steamed Bun Invasion climbed up from the ground, he rushed up to join Soft Mist without hesitation. But in the end, the two players still danced around in his palms. ¨C33CIf Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon went to Pk, they definitely wouldn’t be able to beat Tang Rou or Steamed Bun Invasion. But as spectators, they would certainly be better than those two. At this moment……. ¨C34C“Meet my Brick!!” Steamed Bun Invasion hadn’t been able to touch his opponent for a long time. He angrily threw his Brick. In the end, Plantago Seed rode his broom to meet it and then swept at it in midair. The timing of this attack was perfect and he directly interrupted the flying Brick, sending it back towards its owner, Steamed Bun Invasion. ¨C35C“FCK!!” Steamed Bun Invasion yelled. Right when he was about to duck and dodge it, a sword light flashed by and the Brick was smashed into pieces in midair. Ye Xiu finally acted. He launched a Sword Draw and accurately hit the Brick into pieces.
Plantago Seed landed and then immediately threw out a magic missile at Lord Grim and then once again went back on his broom, ready to escape. But unexpectedly, Lord Grim ignored this magic missile and directly used a Collapsing Mountain to leap over. This Collapsing Mountain had much higher priority over this magic missile. Even though he was hit by the magic missile, he would only take damage and wouldn’t be interrupted.
Right when it looked like Collapsing Mountain was about to hit, the broom-riding Plantago Seed suddenly leaned forward unexpectedly and the Collapsing Mountain brushed past him.
Plantago Seed followed up with a leap and swept out in 180 degrees angle. But Lord Grim, who had just completed Collapsing Mountain, seemed to flash.
Shadow Clone Technique!!
Even though Wang Jiexi had instantly made the judgement, he knew the situation wasn’t looking good. It wasn’t as if Broom Mastery could be used non-stop flying down. Wang Jiexi, who had just been flying, had already turned and leaped. He was currently in midair and before hitting the ground, he wouldn’t be able to ride on his broom and fly away.
Without anywhere to run, Wang Jiexi swiped his keyboard. Plantago Seed once again turned around 180 degrees. Just as expected, with the Shadow Clone Technqiue, Lord Grim had flashed over to behind him. He stamped down, using the Striker skill “Eagle Stamp”.
Plantago Seed immediately swept and also damaged Lord Grim at the same time. Under the situation where there was no where to dodge, he could only use the strategy where both sides took damage.
But after Lord Grim’s Eagle Stamp, Lord Grim didn’t continue stamping. After the stamp he drew his sword and completed a Guard in midair, blocking Plantago Seed’s horizontal sweep.
Plantago Seed’s owner, the real Plantago Seed, was standing behind Wang Jiexi dumbstruck.
To be able to instantly do such an exchange of blows in midair, the one who lost was actually God Jiexi. Who exactly was this Lord Grim?

Chapter 126: What Exactly is He Trying to Do?

Plantago Seed was still hopeful.
But right when he saw that Wang Jiexi was about to have Plantago Seed fall to the ground and use Quick Recover, a blade edge once again flashed by. After guarding and flying backwards, Lord Grim had used another Falling Light Blade. The light blade descended down onto Plantago Seed at Quick Recover’s crucial moment. The Quick Recover failed and Plantago Seed ate the attack and rolled sadly onto the ground.
This time, he really had suffered. The situation wasn’t looking good.
Even Wang Jiexi himself felt somewhat helpless, shaking his head and sighing: “Fighting against an unspecialized at Level 27 really is difficult!”
Saying this, he ignored the incoming characters. After getting up, he turned around and flew away. To the Plantago Seed behind him, it practically looked like he just picked up the broom and started flying along the ground. For Witches to ride on their brooms, they had to leap up into the air in order to use the skill. But seeing Wang Jiexi’s extremely quick and skilled movements. Plantago Seed almost couldn’t tell when he had completed the leap.
Flying was somewhat faster than running, so Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion arrived one step too late. But Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon were impressively waiting to welcome Plantago Seed on his flight path.
Wang Jiexi hadn’t put these two characters in his eyes. At this moment, he practically ignored them, too lazy to even move his hands. With one lazy flick, Plantago Seed’s broom flew diagonally over the two’s heads. Seven Fields punched out and Sleeping Moon slashed with his sword. But the two attacks hit air. After turning around, they saw that Plantago Seed had already slipped even farther away.
The two were helpless. They didn’t continue chasing and walked back. Seven Fields yelled regretfully: “Brother expert……”
“No problem.” Ye Xiu didn’t say much. He was the one who had instructed the two to intercept him. But with their skills, intercepting the target was too difficult. Even Steamed Bun Invasion and Tang Rou had been fooled into running around in circles.
A player’s skill in a dungeon was restricted to how difficult the dungeon was. In comparison, PK was a much better representation of a player’s skill. Even if the skills that could be learned at Level 27 were limited, a player’s pathing, decision-making, attack timing, etc. could be seen. Depending on your own skill, you could see just how deep or shallow the opponent’s level was.
“Could it be that guy?” That Witch’s skill could already be considered top among pros. There was no way the person playing on it was the tenth server’s guild leader. Ye Xiu thought to himself as he watched Plantago Seed’s far-away figure.
After Wang Jiexi’s Plantago Seed had run far away, he got up and gave Plantago Seed back to the real Plantago Seed. Plantago Seed looked at God, wanting to hear his verdict. In the end, Wang Jiexi didn’t say a word.
Plantago Seed was fidgeting in his heart. He had seen that Wang Jiexi wasn’t quite Lord Grim’s opponent and had ran away, so he didn’t know whether God was in a bad mood or not.
“Signature. Where do I sign?” Wang Jiexi suddenly said.
“Ah?” Plantago Seed stared blankly. He suddenly recovered and then hastily brought out the warm notebook that he had been embracing. The cover of the notebook was a Witch riding on a broom. There was a single small word written on the side: Vaccaria.
Wang Jiexi took it and smiled. He waited for Plantago Seed fluster around for pen and then asked after taking it: “Is it okay for me to sign the title page?”
“Okay, okay……” Plantago Seed hastily replied.
Wang Jiexi scribbled his practiced signature and then handed it back to Plantago Seed: “I’m going. Bye.”
“Ah……. God…….” Plantago Seed couldn’t help but stop Wang Jiexi, “This…….” He pointed at the screen. He wanted to know Wang Jiexi’s verdict.
“That Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion’s mechanical skill aren’t bad, but they’re still new players. They don’t have enough knowledge or experience. That Lord Grim…… he’s unspecialized so I still can’t tell how deep or shallow his skill is. You also saw. He was suppressing me and not the other way around. I wanted to test him, but I’m afraid he was the one who tested me.” Wang Jiexi said.
“Does he know who you are?” Plantago Seed felt that it was incredibly hard to believe.
“Oh! Maybe. It depends on his perception. Well, he at least knows that you weren’t the one playing.” Wang Jiexi said. He waved his hands at Plantago Seed and left.
What type of monster is he! Plantago Seed went back to this seat, but was still in a daze. After a short while, he recovered and immediately made his Plantago Seed run far far away. Even God Wang Jiexi admitted that he’d been suppressed. If Lord Grim wants to kill me, then even ten of me won’t be enough!
But how do I confront him later?
Plantago Seed suddenly thought of this question. He turned his head, but found that Wang Jiexi had already left. Plantago Seed was gloomy. He had actually forgotten to ask such an important question.
“What’s up with him?” Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion had wanted to continued chasing, but were blocked by Ye Xiu in the end. Tang Rou could only ask this gloomily.
“That guy was Herb Garden’s guild leader?” Seven Fields said.
“The character is……. but not necessarily the person.” Ye Xiu said.
“Then who was that?” Sleeping Moon asked.
“What I’m about to say might scare you to death. If I’m not wrong, I’m pretty sure that was Wang Jiexi.” Ye Xiu said.
“Ha! And I’m fcking Huang Shaotian!” Sleeping Moon didn’t believe him one bit.
“Who’s Wang Jiexi?” Tang Rou asked.
“You don’t even know this?” Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon gasped, almost at the same time.
“Why do I need to know that? What astrological sign is he?” Steamed Bun Invasion asked.
“Astrological sign?” Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon were actually pondering over this question. For such a celebrity, there really was information on his astrological sign.
“Wang Jiexi is one of Glory’s top players. His class is the same as the one you guys just saw, a Witch. His nickname is Magician. In Glory, there are a lot of these types of titles, Battle God, Sword Saint, Great Gunner, King of Fighting, etc. but most of these are given to the character. Only Wang Jiexi’s title ‘Magician’ is given to the person himself instead of the character.” Ye Xiu said.
“Why?” Tang Rou asked.
“Because the title describes his combat style. This player’s style is strange and always changing, often exceeding expectations. If he wasn’t the one playing, then the character would be called something else entirely. It wouldn’t be called Magician.” Ye Xiu said.
“If it’s like this, then shouldn’t it be really easy to recognize him?” Tang Rou said.
“Yeah, that’s why I said it’s very likely that that was him.” Ye Xiu said.
“The more you talk, the more believable you sound.” Sleeping Moon said in disdain.
“Wang Jiexi is from Club Tiny Herb. Herb Garden is supported by Tiny Herb. If Wang Jiexi wants to use their characters, then it should be easy for him to do.” Ye Xiu deepened his analysis. ¨C41C“Then why would he run here to stir up trouble? If he wants to fight, then he should go to the Arena!” Steamed Bun Invasion expressed his resentment. ¨C42C“Maybe he saw how amazing your skill was, so he impatiently went to test you?” Ye Xiu said. ¨C43C“Really? Then this guy’s eyes aren’t bad.” Steamed Bun Invasion said sadly. ¨C44C“Fck!” Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon both cursed. If it was a normal person saying it, then they would have regarded it as a joke or even as a shameless boast. But this was Steamed Bun Invasion, who actually believed it.
“Herb Garden…….. Many of the the guild players seem to have names of Chinese medicine.” Tang Rou said. This unique characteristic of Herb Garden was quite eye-catching.
“Yup, the names of all of their Club’s characters are all names of Chinese medicine. That’s why most of the important characters in their guild also have that type of name.” Ye Xiu finished and then said to Seven Fields: “Seven Fields, are you from Herb Garden?” (TLN: Seven Fields = Panax Notoginseng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panax_notoginseng)
“I’m not……” Seven Fields said gloomily. He had encountered such misunderstandings before, “I wanted to be called Nine Fields at first. But the demons and gods must have been at work and my hands somehow slipped, changing my name to Seven Fields.” (Author Note: This is a real story. A certain author wanted to use Nine Fields at first, but somehow made it into Seven Fields. To the fan who applied for Long Tao, I messed up with Seven Fields. Seven Fields is Nine Fields.) (TLCN: 龙套 Long Tao, small character, usually, web novelists would allow the fans to apply for a “龙套”. For example, if a reader provided the name Nine Fields and “male”, then the guy Nine Fields might appear in the story. Sadly, author mistook the name. lol)
They continued to chat while leveling. And unexpectedly, they didn’t take what had just happened seriously.
Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion were new players, so they didn’t understand. After recovering from their initial surprise, Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon were both still secretly shocked. That was Plantago Seed! He was the tenth server’s guild leader of Herb Garden, one of the Three Great Guilds. If this was on a normal day, they would have been frightened to death if Herb Garden’s guild leader personally came to attack them. But now? With brother expert, the Three Great Guilds were nothing! There wasn’t any pressure at all!
“It should be Wang Jiexi……” Ye Xiu was still thinking about it. He hadn’t finished his analysis, but he was pretty sure that that person was Wang Jiexi. It was just like what Tang Rou said, his style was too unique, a clear indication that it was him.
“What exactly is he trying to do?” Ye Xiu was also worrying over this question.
Meanwhile, in Herb Garden, after God Jiexi left, Plantago Seed was still pacing about back and forth. From time to time, he would take out his notebook and study it. From time to time, he would smile, loving it too much to part with it.
“Guild leader, guild leader.” At this moment, a message was sent over.
“What?” Plantago Seed replied.
“Boss is looking for you. Get on QQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_QQ .” The guild member said. The senior he was talking about was Herb Garden’s leader, the one in the Heavenly Domain, Arisaema.
“Boss, what do you want?” Plantago Seed looked for him.
“How many extra empty accounts do you have over there?” Arisaema said.
“Around ten I think. Why?” Plantago Seed answered. When he said empty accounts, he wasn’t talking about those accounts with no equipment and no money. He was talking about accounts with no definite owner. They were accounts that had been leveled using other people to substitute in or were leveled through the guild’s efforts. These accounts wouldn’t be part of the guild and they wouldn’t use Chinese medicine names, obvious indicators that they were Herb Garden’s. In the end, they were often used as spies or for shady business that wouldn’t be convenient for official guild members. Not just Herb Garden, but other big guilds would raise these types of characters. Some people called then free accounts, others called them empty accounts, it depended on the person.
“Take five of them out! A Ghostblade, Sharpshooter, Battle Mage, Assassin, and Witch. Can you gather these five classes?” Arisaema said.
“Let me see! What are they going to be used for?” Plantago Seed couldn’t remember every class he had listed.
“For the gods above.” Arisaema said.
Plantago Seed heard this and froze. This…… Could it be that because God Jiexi had lost to Lord Grim, he wanted to create a party to retaliate?

Chapter 127: Five Characters

Plantago Seed didn’t continue to rack his brains over it. God Jiexi was widely known for his unpredictable style. There was no way for him to know what God Jiexi was thinking. Regardless, Plantago Seed refused to believe that God was forming a team just for revenge. He couldn’t imagine that God Jiexi would be that petty.
After asking Arisaema when he wanted those accounts cards, Plantago Seed didn’t think anymore of it and then went to look for the requested account cards.
White Night Black Day, Ghostblade, Level 26.
Fallen Angel, Sharpshooter, Level 27.
Cloudy Heavens, Battle Mage, Level 26.
Ashen Moon, Assassin, Level 25.
Weeping Crow, Witch, Level 26.
The next day, Plantago Seed selected five account cards according to the request. They were all Level 25 and above characters. Among the empty accounts, they could already be considered high leveled.
That same day, a small, shy, and thin youth came to retrieve the cards. Plantago Seed didn’t suspect this person’s identity. When he handed over the cards, he also handed his notebook over.
This youth hadn’t yet participated in an official match in the Glory Alliance. However, his reputation wasn’t lower than even some first-string players. To a loyal fan like Plantago Seed, how could he not be recognized.
This youth was called Gao Yingjie and was a part of Tiny Herb’s inner circle. According to reports, he would be the player to inherit Wang Jiexi’s Vaccaria. As a result, the class he practiced with was also a Witch. Plantago Seed had originally thought that the Witch account card was going to be used by God Jiexi, but now from the looks of it, it looked like it was going to be given to Gao Yingjie.
In front of Gao Yingjie, Plantago Seed wasn’t as terrified as when he was in front of Wang Jiexi. On the contrary, Gao Yingjie was the one standing there shyly looking around left and right.
Plantago Seed took the five account cards and handed them over to Gao Yingjie. He then took out his notebook: “Little Jie, can you sign your name here?”
“Oh!” Once Gao Yingjie took the account cards, he looked as if he was about to run away. Hearing Plantago Seed’s request, for a short while, he didn’t know what to do. His face had also reddened. He had clearly never experienced anything like this before.
After taking the pen Plantago Seed had handed over, Gao Yingjie carefully wrote his name Gao Yingjie onto the notebook. When signing it, his hand was a bit shaky, so the end result looked a little deformed.
“Thank you…….” Gao Yingjie hurriedly handed back the notebook and pen to Plantago Seed and then took off. Plantago Seed didn’t know whether this “thank you” was for the account cards or for his support.
Plantago Seed then logged into the game soon afterwards. He had already added these five characters as friends. He even knew where those five characters were located. Right now, he wanted to know what exactly these five characters were going to be used for. After waiting a long while, he found that none of them had appeared. Plantago Seed wasn’t a marathon runner. He had stayed up all-night yesterday and tonight, he had been waiting for Gao Yingjie to retrieve the cards, so he hadn’t slept tonight either. In the end, he gave up waiting and went to sleep.
Currently, in the tenth server, the highest-leveled characters finally stepped into the Level 30 critical point. New skills, new equipment, their strength naturally increased another-fold. In addition, from Level 30 onwards, there was another large change: class sets would begin appearing. Class sets usually raised the levels or power of a few of their respective classes’ skills. Apart from that, when the set was completed, the additional attributes would naturally increase the user’s strength by another level. From Level 30 onwards, weapons would no longer be the sole factor in determining damage. Characters with their respective completed class sets were on another level compared to characters without a complete set.
Although low-leveled equipment would eventually grow outdated too, to big guilds who scrambled for these types of records, at the very least , their elite teams’ DPS had to maintain a certain standard. As a result, these equipment would also be sought after.
Speaking of records, it could be considered the final moments of observing the Boneyard record for each of the big guilds. For Lord Grim’s friends such as Blue River and Cold Night, they all knew that Lord Grim had already leveled to Level 28. There was already no longer a way for Boneyard’s record to broken again. If Excellent Dynasty were hesitant towards Lord Grim and wouldn’t fight against him, then the record would finally be at ease. If they did try and fight, but still weren’t able to break the Boneyard record, then that would at least mean one thing: The substitute experts of Excellent Dynasty were finally beaten by Lord Grim. This meant that the tenth server’s dungeon record really would be ruled by Lord Grim.
Blue River and Cold Night were direct friends of Lord Grim, while the other big guild leaders had their own ways of contacting him. After watching Boneyard for a full day, they saw that the record hadn’t changed. At the early morning hours, when the dungeon entries refreshed, everyone watched one last time for one or two hours. In the end, they confirmed their decision. Lord Grim immediately became the genuine ruler of the records, and they would now begin fighting for him.
Blue River held the advantage here. Not only was he the first one to work together with Lord Grim. Lord Grim’s party was still under the name Blue Brook Guild. Moreover, he had already made the preface long ago. At this moment, he asked clearly and rationally: “Brother, what do you think about the offer I made last time?”
“Let me think about it again!” Ye Xiu replied.
“Ha ha, brother, I’m sure you understand! Right now, all of the big guilds know of your strength. But if you keep selling your services like this, then the leaderboards will all be under your name in the end. This wouldn’t be good for the guild’s honor. In the end, everyone would recognize your Lord Grim and not the guild. This is something no guild wants to see. And for you, brother, I don’t think you came here to make a name either, right?” Blue River had analyzed it quite well.
“Yeah. You’re right. But who says I have to use my own account to substitute in.” Ye Xiu said.
“Ah……..” Blue River stared blankly after hearing this. Not using his own account. That was right. That was true substitution. In fact, when guilds looked for players to substitute in, this was their preferred method. It was obviously very common that players used their own accounts when hired for their services. However, it really hadn’t ever been done like this for setting records. To be honest, each of the big guilds had hired an expert for setting records at one point. But they had never encountered a character like Lord Grim, who could easily beat the record made by their elite teams by a few minutes.
“Brother, you’re planning on…….” Blue River asked, trying to probe him.
“That’s why I said that I’m still thinking about it!” Ye Xiu said.
“Then I need to hear your answer as soon as you’re done……” Blue River was helpless. He didn’t know what to say at this moment.
At the same time, Cold Night had also analyzed something similar to what Blue River had said, except he hadn’t made any preface like Blue River had done. This was why he made an extremely generous offer now, which Ye Xiu also replied with “I’ll think about it”.
Apart from this, there was a whole mess of friend requests, which were all from the big guilds. More than half of the guilds that were backed by the 20 pro-teams had come to negotiate with Ye Xiu. Without exception, Ye Xiu replied with a “I’ll think about it”. However, among this, he never saw anyone from Herb Garden.
What now?
Ye Xiu hesitated. He wasn’t refusing them when he said “I’ll think about it.” He really was thinking about it. Things weren’t going as smoothly as he had originally planned. Even though he had eventually suppressed Liu Hao’s annoyance, the damage had already been done. For example, Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion were also being bombarded right now…….. If Liu Hao hadn’t come out and stirred up so much trouble, how would Ye Xiu need to bring so many players to complete his task.
Because they were being bombarded by messages, their dungeoning was somewhat slow. Now that they were Level 28. They were now running the Level 28-30 dungeon: Desolate Land.
Of course, the new dungeon was also in a new map. The map was naturally called Desolate Land. According to Glory’s description, this place was gathering land of homeless drifters, powerful and unyielding, the strong ruled the lands. In the leveling area, the monsters were made up of all sorts of vagabonds. The dungeon Desolate Land was another gathering place for vagabonds and was said to be a gathering of the strongest gangs and hoodlums.
Desolate Land’s record had just been set anew that morning. The current record holder was Blue Brook Guild. Blue Brook Guild’s elite team was undoubtedly a team with Level 30 Purple weapons and their respective class sets. Seeing this record, Ye Xiu felt that it’d quite difficult for his Level 28 team to beat it. In his current team, Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon were familiar with the dungeon, but their skill was a bit lacking; Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion had skill, but they were completely new to the dungeon and extremely unfamiliar with it.
After two hours, they painfully completed three runs. The dungeon Desolate Land had an entry limit of three per day. The party gathered outside of the dungeon, ready to run Boneyard. Although their levels were higher, the dungeon monsters were still elite monsters. Plus, with the extra rewards for clearing the dungeon, their experience gains from it were faster than directly leveling at the Desolate Land map.
At Boneyard, a five player party had also just finished their record-setting runs at Boneyard. In the party was White Night Black Day, Fallen Angel, Cloudy Heavens, Ashen Moon, Weeping Crow. After running it three times, the five players’ expressions were all quite embarrassed. Let alone the fastest record on the leaderboards, their final time wasn’t even close to the third place record.
Although their characters weren’t at Boneyard’s limit, Level 27, there wasn’t too big of a difference between Level 25 and Level 27. With their pro-level skill, making a time with such a large gap compared to the record really did make them somewhat speechless.
The five players were even a bit terrified. They had already tried their hardest, but they had made such a poor time. Even though their characters weren’t optimally equipped, they all had Level 25 Purple weapons. Because God had wanted these accounts, even though they were normal empty accounts, Plantago Seed still helped them and gave each of them a Purple weapon.
“Captain…….” One of the players turned his head and looked at the person behind him, Tiny Herb’s team captain Wang Jiexi.
“You guys played well.” Wang Jiexi said.
The five players looked at one another. They weren’t sure if their team captain was mocking them.
“We’re so far off from the record…….” Gao Yingjie said, ashamed.
“That’s because your strategy wasn’t correct.” Wang Jiexi said.
The five players looked at one another again. They didn’t make any mistakes anywhere, so where did they mess up?
“There was definitely some sort of new strategy that was used to set that record.” Wang Jiexi said.
“Oh? So then we should go study it?” One player said.
“Are you joking? You’re going to waste your precious time on this?” Wang Jiexi said.
“That……”
“Go find Lord Grim.” Wang Jiexi said.
“And then?”
“Kill him once and then go to bed early. This will be one of your main exercises in the future.” Wang Jiexi said.

Chapter 128: Rookie

After throwing down these orders, Wang Jiexi left first. With him gone, there was nothing to discuss. Among the five players, Gao Yingjie was the youngest, but the other four players weren’t much older. They were all subs in Club Tiny Herb. Of them, three of the players had come out in an official match as subs.
However, the Alliance had its rules. Players and the characters that would be used had to be reported to the Alliance before the season started. Afterwards, the list could not be changed unless there were transfer deals or waivings. Moreover, the Alliance had to approve the sub in. The rules stated that during the match, players and characters were not allowed to be casually switched around.
For example, if Wang Jiexi wasn’t prepared to go on stage next match and have Gao Yingjie sub in for him, then even though no one was using Vaccaria, Gao Yingjie would not be allowed to use it. Gao Yingjie would only be allowed to use the character that was reported to the Alliance before the season started, a different Witch, Kind Tree.
Gao Yingjie never had any experience in an official match. The other player who had never went out on stage either was called Qiao Yifan, who was currently using the Assassin Ashen Moon. These two were very young. However, Gao Yingjie was already the decided sub for Wang Jiexi and the future successor for Vaccaria. As a result, Qiao Yifan could only be considered a fairly talented new player. Even though he had been signed up to be a part of this match, he was just barely hanging on and might not be in the next match. For new players like him, they had no way of controlling their fate. After all, he was still only a youth and nothing more.
There was a large gap between their statuses, but neither of them thought anything of it. They were actually on extremely good terms and loved to hang around each other. Right when Wang Jiexi left, Qiao Yifan was just about to talk to Gao Yingjie about something when he heard someone yell: “Yifan, go fetch some drinks for us.”
“Oh!” Qiao Yifan helplessly replied. The person who had yelled was called Xiao Yun, coincidentally getting the Battle Mage Cloudy Heavens (Yun Xiao) this time. He was the sub who had come out on stage the most. He could even be considered half-main roster half-sub, so he was naturally the senior among the subs.
However, he didn’t dare order around Gao Yingjie, who would be a part of the main roster in the future. Though he did order around Qiao Yifan very impolitely. This type of situation didn’t only occur in Tiny Herb. All of the Club’s rookies were in a similar situation. Fetching them drinks for the main roster and so on were common occurrences, unless they were important targets of care like Gao Yingjie or a super rookie like the previous year’s Sun Xiang.
“What would you like to drink?” Qiao Yifan said that he would go grab drinks, but didn’t forget to ask his good friend.
In the end, the person he was asking hadn’t yet answered, when the three other players all came up very impolitely.
“Get me a bottle of green tea.” This was Xiao Yun.
“I want Cola.”
“I want Cola too.”
These two were Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei. They were respectively given the Ghostblade White Night Black Day and the Sharpshooter Fallen Angel. These two had been in the Club for two years and were prepared to sub in at any time. Although they couldn’t compare to Xiao Yun as of now, they were still in a much better spot than Qiao Yifan.
“It doesn’t matter for me!” Gao Yingjie said softly at the end.
Qiao Yifan ran to fetch the drinks for everyone. The three veteran subs didn’t say a word of thanks and were already discussing amongst themselves.
“Who is this Lord Grim? How did he offend our captain?” Liu Fei asked. Girls were always slightly more gossipy than guys.
“Who knows.” Xiao Yun wasn’t too interested in discussing that issue. He didn’t dare talk about things behind their team captain’s back.
“Yebai, do you know?” Liu Fei asked Zhou Yebai.
“How would I know!” Zhou Yebai said while drinking his Coca Cola and asked for seemingly no reason: “Didn’t Little Jie get these cards?”
Sure enough, Liu Fei immediately turned her head to ask Gao Yingjie: “Little Jie, do you know?”
“I don’t know either, Sister Liu.” Gao Yingjie hastily said.
“I guess there’s no way Yifan would know?” When she asked Qiao Yifan, her tone was very disdainful.
“Ha ha……” Qiao Yifan could only foolishly laugh. How could he be the first person to know about things regarding the Club!
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s hurry up and kill this guy, so we can go to bed early!” Xiao Yun said.
“Exactly.” Zhou Yebai looked at the time.
“Who’s the guild leader over here?” Xiao Yun asked.
“Plantago Seed.” The person who replied was Gao Yingjie. Even though he and Plantago Seed hadn’t introduced each other, Gao Yingjie had still asked who he was going to meet beforehand.
“Oh, he should be in the friends list! I’ll go ask him.” Xiao Yun said.
To these normal players in the new server, Xiao Yun was even more impolite. He directly asked: “Hello? Do you know where Lord Grim is?”
When Plantago Seed saw these five characters go online, he silently paid attention to them. He quickly read the message, but seeing that it was asking for where Lord Grim was, his heart froze and he immediately replied: “I don’t know!”
“Go find out.” Xiao Yun said.
“Oh……” Plantago Seed had been ordered and immediately had a bad impression of Xiao Yun. Plantago Seed was very familiar with everyone in Team Tiny Herb. He obviously knew which member used a Battle Mage if he was from Tiny Herb. An image of Xiao Yun appeared in his mind, which made him in a somewhat bad mood. However, he could only do as he was ordered to do and tell everyone in the guild to pay attention to Lord Grim’s movements.
“I saw Lord Grim and the others heading towards Boneyard.” Someone in the guild immediately replied. The current guild was growing larger and larger. The members were all at different levels, so they were all spread out in different leveling areas. As long as Lord Grim was online, with such a large scouting range, it was quite easy to find him.
‘How many? Where are they headed towards?” Plantago Seed asked.
“Five players. They should be going to Boneyard I think?” The guild member said.
Plantago Seed immediately reported back to Xiao Yun’s Cloudy Heavens.
Xiao Yun looked and then promptly told everyone else: “Lord Grim is bringing a party to Boneyard. Let’s all separate and intercept him. If they enter the dungeon, then we’ll have to wait a long time.”
“Oh.” The other players replied. The Boneyard dungeon could be considered a cave. But with so many players running the dungeon, the lines would be extremely long if there was only one entrance. Similar to how players could enter the Frost Forest dungeon anywhere around the Forest, Boneyard had several entrances around the circumference. When fighting monsters in the area, accidentally dropping in a hole and into the dungeon was a common occurrence.
Xiao Yun asked clearly where Lord Grim was and then the five players separated and headed towards Desolate Land to intercept. Not long after, Qiao Yifan was the first to find the target: “I’ve found them. Lord Grim, five players!!!”
“Coordinates.” Xiao Yun hastily said.
Qiao Yifan sent the coordinates and the four others immediately headed towards it.
“Go intercept him!” Xiao Yun ordered in fear that their efforts would be wasted if Lord Grim went and entered the dungeon. If it did happen, then they’d have to wait awhile for him to come out.
“I…….” Qiao Yifan stared blankly.
“Hurry up!” Xiao Yun urged.
Qiao Yifan didn’t have much confidence. But under Xiao Yun’s urge, he had his Level 25 Ashen Moon rush forward.
The other side had five players. To be able to enter the pro-scene meant that Qiao Yifan was extremely skilled. In normal circumstances, if he was against five random players, then he wouldn’t be scared at all. But the problem was that these five were the ones that set a record that they couldn’t even come close to. Even though God Jiexi had said that it was due to the difference in strategies, no matter how different the strategy was, it would still need a high level of skill to carry out. These players’ skill levels couldn’t be too different from theirs, right?
After Ashen Moon advanced a bit, Qiao Yifan saw who the other four players were. Two of them were characters on the record leaderboards, though he didn’t recognize the other two. At this moment, Qiao Yifan wasn’t able to plan anything. Ashen Moon rushed up and then a sudden Shining Cut headed straight for Lord Grim.
In these leveling areas, players come and go, so no one was very cautious. Shining Cut was an extremely quick skill. It launched quickly and no one except the user would know where it was aimed at. However, this Lord Grim had unexpectedly reacted in an instant, drawing out his sword, and using a Guard to block this Shining Cut.
This one move already made Qiao Yifan lose confidence. He was a new player through and through and hadn’t had any experience in an official match. He was also unlike Gao Yingjie in the fact that the team captain would occasionally come to spar with him personally. In this sort of environment, everything he did was extremely careful. He hoped not to make any mistakes, but didn’t hope for anything more. At this moment, seeing Lord Grim’s reaction, he immediately felt that this was a difficult opponent. After the Shining Cut, he didn’t execute any other attacks and immediately jumped back in an attempt to widen the distance between them.
A sword light flashed. Lord Grim chased with a Sword Draw.
He had already taken back the Vampiric Lightsaber from Huang Shaotian awhile ago and obviously wasn’t an equipment for Ye Xiu to use. It was used as a material to upgrade the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella. For the current Myriad Manifestation Umbrella, in addition to the Lance form, the Sword form was also Level 25. It had an Attack Speed of 5, a Weight of 2.3 kg, a Durability of 23, Physical Attack: 320, Magic Attack: 340, equivalent to a level 35 Purple Tachi. This was why recently, when Ye Xiu battled, besides the Lance form, he would also use the Sword Form frequently. The two forms’ damage was quite scary.
This Sword Draw was extremely quick and accurate just as Ashen Moon was coming down from his leap backwards. Right when it seemed like Ashen Moon would be hit, Ashen Moon suddenly leaped again and dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the sword.
Air Jump!
This was a level 15 Assassin skill, which allowed the user to jump again in midair. To put it simply, Assassins could double jump.
Relying on this, Ashen Moon dodged the originally unavoidable blade. But because of this, he became even more terrified of Lord Grim. Just as he was figuring out how to stall for more time, Steamed Bun Invasion had already grabbed a Brick and rushed forward, yelling: “Who are you! You’re looking to die!”
Qiao Yifan hastily had Ashen Moon dodge to the side, avoiding this Brick. But on his other side, Soft Mist’s battle lance had already arrived like a viper. Qiao Yifan once again had Ashen Moon dodge and was already somewhat panicked.
Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon felt a bit embarrassed always being spectators. With an opening, they also went to attack. The two rushed forward and each used their respective skills.
Qiao Yifan’s hands were rushed and muddled. He already lost his rhythm was now subconsciously trying to dodge attack after attack now. To him, he was no longer paying attention to whether there was a chance to counterattack and had no idea how to escape.
Gao Yingjie, who was sitting next to him, saw that the situation wasn’t looking good for him and was even panicking on his behalf. He hurriedly yelled: “Hang in there. I’m almost there.”
“What? Yifan’s not a match?” Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei both turned their heads to look at Qiao Yifan’s screen.

Chapter 129: Vanishing Step

Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei fixed their attention onto Qiao Yifan’s screen. In fact, it wasn’t just them. Xiao Yun also wanted to see, but he was too far away. Between him and Qiao Yifan were Zhou Yebai, Liu Fei, and Gao Yingjie. If he didn’t get up and walk over, there was no way for him to see.
Xiao Yun didn’t say a word. Even if he couldn’t see, he could still ask. A part of why he urged Qiao Yifan to rush forward was to test the waters. But if Qiao Yifan could speculate that Lord Grim’s party wouldn’t be an easy opponent, how couldn’t he have considered it.
“How?” Xiao Yun asked, not in the least concerned.
In the end, she heard Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei laugh.
“Too stupid, Yifan.” Liu Fei laughed out loud. She clearly didn’t put the attacks thrown at Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon in her eyes. If it was her, she would have easily escaped. But for Qiao Yifan right now, his hands were a complete mess. A feeling of superiority swelled up in her heart.
“Let’s hurry. If Qiao Yifan actually died here, then we’d look like a huge joke.” Zhou Yebai said.
Even though those words weren’t very pleasant to hear, to be fair, it wasn’t too excessive. In the game, no matter how you said it, these were just normal players. For pro-players, they really shouldn’t be losing to these normal players. If they died to them, that’d be even more ridiculous. Even if they couldn’t defeat them, then they should at least be able to escape.
Even for Gao Yingjie, who was close friends with Qiao Yifan, couldn’t deny this. He could only furiously tap his keyboard and hurry over to help his friend.
But the first person to arrive was Xiao Yun’s Battle Mage Cloudy Heavens.
Xiao Yun didn’t impatiently advance. He wasn’t like the other three, who had seen what the situation was from Qiao Yifan’s screen, so he could only observe for a bit before acting. In addition, his character could see a more all-around and concrete view of the situation compared to Qiao Yifan’s first-person perspective.
In front of his eyes, he could easily tell the difference in skill levels between the four players attacking Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon.
That Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion’s were noteworthy, while Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon weren’t worth mentioning.
Seven Fields!!!!
This name made Xiao Yun at a loss for awhile.
Could he be from Herb Garden? This thought flashed by Xiao Yun’s mind. Even if he was from Herb Garden, it didn’t matter. Even if they all ganged up and killed him, they definitely wouldn’t be punished.
Xiao Yun’s line of sight fell outside of the battle onto that Lord Grim.
He was their goal and their main target. Since those other four players were chasing down Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon, wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to attack?
Xiao Yun’s Cloudy Heavens had already formed Chasers from fighting the nearby monsters. Besides relying on Dragon Tooth to form Neutral Chasers, Level 26 Battle Mages had a new Level 25 Chaser: an Ice Chaser that was created when Double Stab was used.
After an Ice Chaser attacked, the character have their Physical Defense buffed. The Level 1 Ice Chaser increased Physical Defense by 2%. Battle Mages could only wear Leather armor and thus their defenses weren’t particularly outstanding. As a result, this additional Defense wasn’t very useful. In comparison, the effects from an Ice Chaser attack were much more valuable.
When an Ice Chaser hits a target, it applies a brief Stun, similar to Dragon Tooth. Besides this, Ice Chasers did Ice Magic Damage and had a 50% chance to Slow the target for up to 3 seconds. The higher the Ice Chaser level, the higher the chance and the more obvious the effect.
Even though Level 26 Battle Mages only had one level into Ice Chaser, the effect was still obvious if it hit the target. At least, enough to make Steamed Bun Invasion believe that it was some sort of “Laxative”.
At this moment, not only did Cloudy Heavens have the buffs from the Chasers, he also had seven Ice Chasers revolving around him, all done through killing monsters along the way. Seven was the max and each one lasted for 30 seconds.
Seeing the situation, Xiao Yun finalized his plan. He ignored Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon and directly headed straight for Lord Grim.
Dragon Tooth!
Dragon Tooth was quick, had a long range, and could stun. It was a skill that Battle Mages loved to use as an initiator. Xiao Yun was using it as one as well. He rushed forward, his lance directed at Lord Grim.
At this moment, Lord Grim was also holding a battle lance. Cloudy Heaven’s Dragon Tooth stabbed forward. Lord Grim sidestepped it and counter-attacked with his own Dragon Tooth.
Cloudy Heavens dodged and then slashed up with his lance: Sky Strike.
Lord Grim avoided it and then slashed up, a Sky Strike too.
Cloudy Heavens escaped again and then leaned forward, stabbing with his lance, attempting to use Circle Swing to grab him.
However, Lord Grim did the same thing as before. He dodged and then returned with his own Circle Swing.
“Fck!” Xiao Yun was somewhat angry. He felt as if he were being played with. He hated how his account was only Level 26. He didn’t have many skills and felt as if his hands and feet were tied together. His hand speed immediately quickened. In game, Cloudy Heavens leaped back, dodging the Circle Swing while stabbing out with his lance twice, a Double Stab.
In this way, if his attack was avoided and Lord Grim once again copied his movements, then he wouldn’t be any danger. This was because he had jumped backwards, distancing himself. If Lord Grim dodged his Double Stab, then Lord Grim’s Double Stab wouldn’t be of any threat to him.
In the end, Lord Grim still copied him and leapt backwards while using Double Stab. Just as Xiao Yun was laughing at him for his stupidity, a cold light leapt at him. It wasn’t Double Stab, but rather an arc of light.
Sword Draw!
Sword Draw’s attack range wasn’t just the sword’s reach. It also included the range of the sword’s aura, so the attack range was much greater than Double Stab’s.
Double Stab wouldn’t be able to hit him, but Sword Draw could.
“FCK!” Xiao Yun really did curse out loud this time. This Sword Draw was too sudden. He was still in mid-air! HIs Cloudy Heavens wasn’t an Assassin, so he didn’t have a Double Jump. How could he dodge this?
Needless to say, this “F*CK” immediately grabbed everyone’s attention. Liu Fei, that talkative girl, glanced over and immediately yelled: “Woah! Xiao Yun, you’ve arrived too!”
Even though they had all seen Qiao Yifan’s screen, even Qiao Yifan himself didn’t know that Xiao Yun had arrived. He was being attacked on all sides by four players. His camera was twirling around and around in chaos. How could he have the energy to see what else was going on.
Everyone turned around their heads to look and all saw Cloudy Heavens flying backwards from Sword Draw. Xiao Yun’s face was extremely gloomy.
After a Quick Recover, Cloudy Heavens immediately got up.
Dragon Tooth, Sky Strike, Double Stab, Falling Flower, Circle Swing……
Level 26 Battle Mages only had these skills too, plus a few normal attacks.
Chasers? Cloudy Heavens carried seven of them, but Chasers weren’t something that could be fired as he pleased. The instant an attack hit its target, the Chaser would automatically fire at that target. Cloudy Heavens exchanged blow after blow with Lord Grim, but was never able to hit him. And in the blink of an eye, 30 seconds passed and the seven Chasers cleanly faded away. Xiao Yun’s face turned extremely ugly as if it had produced an Ice Chaser.
This account’s level is too low. If not…… Xiao Yun complained, while madly tapping his keyboard and clicking his mouse.
The irritated Xiao Yun finally exposed an opening and was hit by Lord Grim’s Dragon Tooth.
Xiao Yun cursed to himself. His Cloudy Heavens had entered a Stunned state. Lord Grim launched a Sky Strike and Cloudy Heavens flew high into the air.
Xiao Yun immediately adjusted his camera angle.
Players weren’t NPCs. A lot of NPCs would be tyrannically oppressed in midair and had no way of escaping. But players could still act in air. Appropriate actions, for example, even a normal attack at the correct moment, could let the player escape from a mid-air predicament. But no matter how it was said, after being hit into the air, the player would be at a disadvantage. Escaping from such a predicament wasn’t easy.
But for pro-players, these were all required courses that they had to learn through intense training. No one could ensure that they wouldn’t be knocked up during a PK battle, which was why players had to practice how to get out of a mid-air predicament.
Xiao Yun’s fundamentals weren’t bad. His camera had already turned and stabilized. However, he was unable to find Lord Grim.
Xiao Yun stared blankly.
Since there were ways to escape from mid-air, of course there were ways to keep the target in the air. Players could still move in the air. However, their movements were extremely limited. For example, the amount the camera angle could be shifted was limited. You want to move your camera angle 720 degrees while in midair? Then your body might as well be a spiraling gyroscope. If someone helped you, then maybe you could pull it off.
At this moment, Xiao Yun turned his camera angle again, but Lord Grim was still nowhere to be seen. He now knew that Lord Grim had already entered his dead angle. Lord Grim was next to him, but was at a place invisible to him!
Only someone with lots of experience and accurate decision-making could do this.
In order to respond to this, the other side had to have lots of experience and accurate decision-making as well.
In an instant, Xiao Yun lost all confidence. Where was his dead angle located? He suddenly lost track. He wasn’t able to make a decision, so he could only blindly make an attack towards a random direction and then pray.
The attack hit nothing but air and Xiao Yun’s prayer was useless.
He received an attack soon afterwards. He basically didn’t know what type of skill he was hit with because his opponent was still invisible, still in his dead angle. Xiao Yun spun and spun until he was almost about to vomit. In the end, besides the blue sky, there was only mother earth. And at most, he would catch a glimpse of Lord Grim’s blood-red Vampire Cloak. But every time Xiao Yun attacked in a direction, all he ever hit was air.
Gao Yingjie finally arrived. Right when he was about to rush forward and rescue his good friend, the scene in front of him made him completely dumbstruck.
Cloudy Heavens was rolling around and around in the sky as if he really was like a flying cloud.
Gao Yingjie could clearly see that Xiao Yun was struggling and what he saw more clearly was Lord Grim’s beautiful pathing. He obviously understood what the purpose of this pathing was. In Glory, this type of pathing had a special term for it: Vanishing Step.
You always knew that your opponent was at your side, but you would never be able to see him. This was Vanishing Step’s purpose.
But for experts, even if they couldn’t see your position, they could still rely on experience and decision-making to deduce your position. As long as you escaped from a mid-air situation, Vanishing Step would naturally stop.
This was a competition between their experience and decision-making. And as for Cloudy Heavens, who was being completely suppressed up in the air, there was clearly a large gap in both experience and decision-making between him and Lord Grim.
Gao Yingjie couldn’t help but stealthily glance towards Xiao Yun.
In his eyes, he saw a fuming Xiao Yun, who was slamming his keyboard and mashing his mouse like crazy.

Chapter 130: The Opponent Is Extremely Strong

“Ah, Little Jie, you’ve arrived too!!” At this moment, his neighboring player, Liu Fei, exclaimed.
“Ah!” Gao Yingjie replied. He hastily turned his camera. He felt that Xiao Yun didn’t want others to know of his embarrassing situation.
But when Xiao Yun heard this, he quickly turned his head to look at everyone. Unfortunately, he happened to meet eye to eye with Gao Yingjie. The two players awkwardly turned their heads back, avoiding each other.
Gao Yingjie moved out in a hurry. His Witch Weeping Cry swiftly flew over, rushing towards Lord Grim. In comparison, although Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon was being attacked on all four sides, he was at least hanging on. But Xiao Yun’s Cloudy Heaven, on the other hand, was already completely helpless.
Gao Yingjie’s Weeping Crow quickly hurried over and threw out a Magic Missile.
Lord Grim moved sideways and dodged it. And unexpectedly, he was still using Vanishing Step.
Gao Yingjie was dripping with sweat. Even though he was considered a talented new player, for moves like Vanishing Step, which required a great amount of experience, he wasn’t much better than Xiao Yun in that aspect. Since he had no way of figuring out how Lord Grim was going to move and attack, he could only fly forward to close in on Lord Grim.
Close in and then steal his positioning. That should be able to break his Vanishing Step right? Gao Yingjie thought like this.
Weeping Crow hastily advanced, when suddenly, Lord Grim’s weapon streaked in a 360 degree circle. The ground beneath him flashed with light.
Rising Emblem!!!
Gao Yingjie was greatly alarmed. But as a recognized talent, Gao Yingjie’s reaction speed and mechanics truly were first-class. He immediately rode his broom and flew away. Rising Emblem’s ring of light ascended, nearly brushing his broom.
Cloudy Heavens was still up in the sky, rolling around.
After dodging the Rising Emblem, Weeping Crow quickly circled back for another try.
A gun sound rang out!
Weeping Crow rolled away and was once again delayed.
How terrible!! Gao Yingjie looked on helplessly as Cloudy Heavens was hit twice in midair.
Climb back up, rush forward again.
This time, Lord Grim didn’t use any methods to prevent him from getting close, but Gao Yingjie immediately felt an ominous premonition.
Lord Grim suddenly leapt backwards towards him. The battle lance in his hands stabbed forward still aimed at the mid-air Cloudy Heavens.
He then turned 180 degrees in mid-air, creating a wide arc.
Circle Swing. Cloudy Heavens was carried around on the head of the tip like a sledgehammer, smashing towards Weeping Crow.
Weeping Crow easily dodged it, but Cloudy Heavens, on the other hand, had smashed into the ground and didn’t stand back up.
Crash!!
Xiao Yun smashed his keyboard and stood up.
Everyone else jumped in their seats and subconsciously glanced at him.
Only Gao Yingjie didn’t. It wasn’t just because he knew what had happened, but more importantly, he already had no time to pay attention to him. At this moment, Lord Grim was his opponent.
Xiao Yun was somewhat angry. It wasn’t just towards Lord Grim but also towards Gao Yingjie.
Gao Yingjie had clearly arrived. Why didn’t he go and help him? Xiao Yun furiously glared at Gao Yingjie. But he saw that Gao Yingjie hadn’t seen him and was staring at the screen tapping his keyboard instead.
Fck!!! Xiao Yun cursed in his heart.
His neighbor, Zhou Yebai, had already seen his corpse from Xiao Yun’s screen. Zhou Yebai was overwhelmed with shock, but didn’t say anything. Even an idiot could tell Xiao Yun was in a bad mood, an extremely bad mood.
However, even if everyone could tell that Xiao Yun wasn’t happy, saying it out loud was a whole different matter.
Liu Fei saw Xiao Yun’s screen and immediately gaped: “Wow! Xiao Yun, how’d you die?”
This time, even Qiao Yifan, who was running for his life, was astonished. He had been running for so long, but he still hung on. Xiao Yun died? How did he die? Qiao Yifan was extremely baffled.
Extremely busy, he still stole a glance at the four others. He saw that Xiao Yun’s face was flushed with anger, but more importantly, he saw his friend extremely focused.
“Bang!!” In this split second of his distraction, Qiao Yifan’s Ashen Moon was immediately hit by Steamed Bun Invasion’s Brick.
“Ha ha ha ha, you can’t run from me!!!” Steamed Bun Invasion laughed as if his one Brick had killed him.
Qiao Yifan’s attention immediately returned back to his Ashen Moon. His health was already low. He wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer.
Right at this moment, a hole suddenly appeared in the four player’s encirclement. Big enough that Qiao Yifan was able to immediately recognize it among all the confusion. Without hesitating, Qiao Yifan ran straight out.
In this space, Qiao Yifan was finally able to see the entire situation. He immediately saw Gao Yingjie’s Weeping Crow riding on his broom, quickly fluttering by. Just now, he had helped Qiao Yifan escape from the encirclement. Once he did that, he faced towards Lord Grim, who was currently carrying his weapon, running over to kill him.
“Run!!” Qiao Yifan heard Gao Yingjie yell. ¨C39C“Run?” Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei looked over, astonished. ¨C40C“My opponent is extremely strong!” Gao Yingjie said. ¨C41CZhou Yebai and Liu Fei looked over at Xiao Yun. ¨C42CXiao Yun’s face was still as ugly as before. If this wasn’t a low-leveled account; if this was a Battle Mage with all of the skills…… Xiao Yun kept on thinking of this hypothetical situation, but….. Vanishing Step. There was no way Xiao Yun didn’t know of this move name. He also knew he had died by it. Using Vanishing Step to play around with him, currently, only team captain was able to do it when they practiced. As for in the Alliance, even though there were definitely a few Gods at that level, with Xiao Yun’s status, he had yet to fight against such a God one on one. ¨C43CAs for in the team competition, team members coordinated together, so it was very rare that Vanishing Step could be used. ¨C44C“Then should we still come over?” Zhou Yebai asked. He and Liu Fei were still a bit too far away to coordinate together. They were still heading over there! ¨C45C“Let’s regroup first before talking!” Gao Yingjie said. ¨C46C“Okay.” The two replied. In their hearts, they were both extremely frightened. Killing Xiao Yun, making Gao Yingjie not dare to directly face him, just who exactly was their opponent? ¨C47CThe four reported their coordinates and then chose a spot to group up. Gao Yingjie anxiously waiting, ready for battle at any moment. After everyone grouped together, he turned his head and said, stunned: “Huh? They didn’t come and chase us!” ¨C48CZhou Yebai and Liu Fei helplessly looked towards him. ¨C49CGao Yingjie’s face flushed with embarrassment: “I thought they would chase us!” ¨C50C“What about now?” Liu Fei said. She was unexpectedly asking Gao Yingjie. Their group of five had been originally led by Xiao Yun, but now that he was dead, she set up a new leader. This girl was clearly a master of speaking whatever was on her mind. She didn’t have any plan. ¨C51C“Uh…….” Gao Yingjie had just anxiously led them a few moments ago. Now that there was nothing happening. He once again turned shy, unsure of what to do. ¨C52C“We go back to kill him?” Qiao Yifan was rather brave on the other hand. Unfortunately, he was destined to be ignored. ¨C53C“What about Xiao Yun?” Zhou Yebai turned his head to ask. He couldn’t help but ask. Cloudy Heavens was still lying on the ground as a corpse. ¨C54C“I revived.” Xiao Yun said hatefully. ¨C55CAfter reviving, the character would appear at a revival point in a city, so it would take some time for him to reach the leveling area. ¨C56C“How exactly did you die?” Liu Fei asked. ¨C57CXiao Yun’;s face darkened. Losing wasn’t anything humiliating. They were all pro-players. Even God Jiexi couldn’t guarantee that they could go undefeated for an entire season. But the problem was that in the game, as pro-players, they were already considered gods by the normal players. ¨C58CIf a god was killed by a mortal, then what honor did the god have? ¨C59C“Little Jie, you saw it right?” Liu Fei truly was helpless. Seeing that Xiao Yun didn’t want to say it, she went to ask Gao Yingjie. ¨C60CGao Yinjie had been mentioned by name, so he had no choice but to reply: “It looked like Vanishing Step.” ¨C61C“Vanishing Step?” Zhou Yebai and Liu Fei were extremely astonished. They turned their heads to look at that bitter Xiao Yun. ¨C62C“To be able to kill Xiao Yun with Vanishing Step, could this guy be at captain’s level?” Liu Fei blurted out. ¨C63C“What do you know! That player was an unspecialized character with a large variety of skills. He has a huge early game advantage.” Xiao Yun had no choice but to try and justify himself. However, he felt his explanation was lacking. What pro-player didn’t know that Vanishing Step had nothing to do with what skills he had. Vanishing Step was purely based on a player’s experience and decision-making as well as a few accurate movements. ¨C64C“Could this Lord Grim be captain?” Liu Fei said. ¨C65C“Bullsht.” Zhou Yebai said.
Qiao Yifan silently sat there. In the team, he was always the listener. Besides privately chatting with Gao Yingjie, there was almost never any other chance for him to speak. Right now, he was tapping his keyboard as if none of this was related to him.
“Captain told us to kill this player once!” Zhou Yebai reminded everyone to not forget everyone’s assignment.
“Could it be that captain knew of this guy’s strength and wanted to test us?” Liu Fei said.
Everyone was speechless. No matter how it was said, the reason wasn’t important. What was important was that the captain had given them a task. Right now, Lord Grim wasn’t dead and had actually killed their leader Xiao Yun instead in an extremely infuriating manner too.
“Now we don’t even know where they are.” Zhou Yebai said.
“Go ask Herb Garden’s players!” Liu Fei asked Xiao Yun.
At this moment, Xiao Yun didn’t want to talk to anyone. All he wanted to do was find a sandbag and punch it. Liu Fei, this f*cking girl, had so many questions. Maybe putting her into a sandbag and then beating it up would be more satisfying. Xiao Yun thought.
“Uh oh! It looks like they’ve caught up!!” Qiao Yifan suddenly yelled. Only he wasn’t participating in the discussion, but looking around in-game.
The other three immediately turned their cameras. Sure enough, they saw Lord Grim’s group of five.
“Hm? Those guys look like the ones from before.” On Ye Xiu’s side, a few of them recognized Ashen Moon and Weeping Crow. They still hadn’t had the chance to meet White Day Black Night and Fallen Angel yet.
“There are another two. They’re together, right?” Seven Fields said.
“What are these guys trying to do?” Tang Rou asked. Yesterday, they had been attacked for no reason. And in the end, another similar situation happened again.
Yesterday, the player had run off and today, they still weren’t able to catch one. Seeing that their four’s encirclement wasn’t able to kill off even one, while Ye Xiu had killed one, made Tang Rou feel even worse.
“Everyone, be careful. These guys aren’t so easy.” Ye Xiu said.
“How are they not easy?” Steamed Bun Invasion.
“If you go fight with them, it’ll definitely be more satisfying than fighting in the Arena.” Ye Xiu said.
“Then what are we waiting for!!” Steamed Bun Invasion held sand in his left hand and a Brick in his right, already ready to go up.

Chapter 131: Cover Strategy

Boneyard could be considered fairly spacious and empty. Looking at the map: gravestones, coffins, and withered trees were the three most prominent scenery.
As pro-players, Tiny Herb’s four players weren’t scared. Seeing that their opponents had chased them, they immediately began seizing the strategic high grounds. Right now, the four were together. But if they still ran away, then it’d be quite difficult to explain.
The four characters each held their own positions. From an overall perspective, their coordination wasn’t bad.
Ye Xiu saw this and immediately blocked Steamed Bun Invasion from advancing: “Don’t rush.”
“My Brick has already been waiting impatiently for too long.” Steamed Bun Invasion said.
“This is a real team battle.” Ye Xiu said, “Have you watched any of the Pro Alliance’s matches?”
Steamed Bun Invasion obviously said that he hadn’t. Seven Fields said he did. Sleeping Moon said obviously. Tang Rou didn’t say anything. She had watched a total of one, so she didn’t know if that counted as having watched them or not.
“Remember their positions well. We’ll attack them one by one.” Ye Xiu said.
“Brother expert, you should set it up!” Seven Fields made a fist.
“Cross Formation. Steamed Bun Invasion at the front. Seven Fields on the left. Little Moon Moon in the middle. Tang Rou at the back. Myself at the right. Everyone follow me while staying in formation. Don’t break order.” Ye Xiu said.
Sleeping Moon heard “Little Moon Moon”! He didn’t want to cooperate, but he was at the middle. The others all depended on him as the center. The four instantly moved to their front, back, left, right position and he had no choice but to cooperate.
Lord Grim moved and the four immediately followed.
Liu Fei’s Fallen Angel was currently hiding behind a coffin. With regards to Gunners, those types of long-ranged classes, using a cover when fighting with an opponent was a common strategy. But using a shield had its advantages and disadvantages. When they hid, the cover blocked not only the enemy’s field of view, but also their own. So they had no way of knowing the entire situation.
However, in a team, this flaw was covered. Team members could communicate with each other to understand the parts they couldn’t see.
White Night Black Day and Ashen Moon weren’t considered long-ranged classes, but they still found a place to hide. With their overlapping views, they could understand the field clearly. In the end, pro-players were still pro-players. This type of defense for attack strategy was quite simple for them.
“The other side is in a Cross Formation. The Brawler at the front, Striker on the left, Blade Master in the middle, Battle Mage in the back, Lord Grim on the right.” White Night Black Day informed everyone of their opponent’s positioning.
“They’re advancing towards Yifan.” Gao Yingjie said.
“Ah……” Qiao Yifan tensed up.
‘Fei Fei get their attention!” Zhou Yebai said. At this moment, Xiao Yun wasn’t there yet, so he acted as the temporarily leader for now.
“Okay!” Liu Fei answered. She suddenly moved. Fallen Angel rolled out from a coffin, crouched, c*cked her gun, and fired.
“Peng!” A gun sound rang out and blood blossomed out from Fallen Angel’s forehead.
Liu Fei was extremely astonished. She didn’t think that she would be the first one to be hit by a shot. On the opponent’s side, smoke slowly drifted out from the tip of Lord Grim’s umbrella-like thing.
Bullets affected the character’s positioning. Hand cannons had the largest push back and had the highest attack. Next was the rifle and last was the handgun.
The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s bullets belonged to the Rifle type. Its firing rate wasn’t as fast as the revolver or handgun, but it had a higher impact.
Fallen Angel staggered back after being hit by the bullet. Liu Fei’s intended surprise attack flew off.
But as a pro-player, she obviously possessed the ability to adapt. Liu Fei controlled Fallen Angel to run back to position, while continuing to fire back.
“Peng!” A second shot rang out and more blood blossomed from Fallen Angel’s body. Her body was hit askew and her counterfire missed again.
Liu Fei was even more astonished.
Her opponent’s timing was too perfect, just happening to hit the instant she fired.
If she had been hit slightly earlier, then Liu Fei would have had time to adjust her shot, so it wouldn’t go crooked. If she had been hit slightly later, then obviously, Falling Angel’s bullet would have already flew out and both of them would be hit.
In the end, her opponent’s bullet had hit her twice in the instant her Fallen Angel had fired, making Liu Fei unable to adjust in time.
As a Gunner, Liu Fei knew how difficult it was to pull off such precise timing. She had always thought that that type of legend that could only be done in theory, yet she had just been hit twice like that just now.
The opponent’s Cross Formation had already adjusted towards a new target. They were now rushing towards her. No matter what had happened, on a whole, she had grabbed the enemy’s attention.
Liu Fei didn’t dare remain out in the open. She hastily ran towards another hiding place.
“Peng Peng!”
Two shots in a row hit the tombstone she was hiding behind, stone broke off swirling in the air. Afterwards, she heard a muffled sound as if something had smashed into the tombstone. It didn’t seem like a bullet. Liu Fei was very curious, but she didn’t dare expose her head.
“No, no. The angle wasn’t good. It was a bit under.” Ye Xiu was still leisurely instructing Steamed Bun Invasion, telling him that the angle the Brick he had just thrown was off.
“It looks like the distance between us is a bit too far?” Steamed Bun Invasion asked.
“You can jump up to make the Brick fly farther!” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh right!” Steamed Bun Invasion exclaimed.
“Crash!” Another thing directly hit the tombstone. That sound resounded in her ears and she heard it too vividly. Liu Fei jumped up in fright.
“What was that?” Liu Fei asked her teammates.
“Brick……” The people who had saw couldn’t help but answer.
“Brick?”
“He’s practicing what angle he needed to throw the Brick and one just happened to smash into the tombstone you were hiding behind.” Zhou Yebai said.
“Prac……practice?” Liu Fei was speechless. What exactly were they doing?
“Crash!” Another Brick came over, making the tombstone tremble as if it were going to break.
One Brick after the other. They weren’t too frequent. After all, Brick wasn’t a normal attack, but a skill with a cooldown. She obviously knew what the cooldown was for Brick. She had originally calculated the time and braced for the impact. But the fourth one didn’t arrive. Liu Fei made Fallen Angel sneak a peek. In the end, just as half her head extended out, “Crash!” A Brick smashed into her forehead and she began seeing stars. She had actually been Dizzied by it.
Soon after, two “Peng Peng” sounds rang out. She had been hit twice by Lord Grim again. Liu Fei wanted to dodge, but had no way of doing so. Fallen Angel was still Dizzy. Half of her head was still exposed to the outside.
“Did it hit? Was I hit?”
Clearly, the five players had closed in, close enough that Liu Fei could hear her opponents’ voices.
“No. She exposed her head, which was why you were able to hit her. If not, then it would have went over.” Ye Xiu said.
“Why did that idiot expose her head?” Steamed Bun Invasion said.
“You acted too slowly, so she probably did it because she was anxious!” Ye Xiu said.
“Ha ha ha, she’s fallen in love with my Brick.” Steamed Bun Invasion said delightedly.
“You just watch!!!” Liu Fei was extremely furious. She was even too angry to type it out and directly roared it out.
“Ha ha, we’re coming.” Steamed Bun Invasion unexpectedly answered back. Liu Fei almost collapsed from anger. Her roar obviously wasn’t directed at these five players. It was only because she was too angry to type it out. Even though, she may have been too far away in game for her teammates to hear. Don’t forget that her teammates were all sitting together. Liu Fei’s roar had directly penetrated her teammates’ headphones. The three suddenly shivered. Yet in the end, Steamed Bun Invasion answered back.
“Don’t panic……” Zhou Yebai said in a low voice. Liu Fei’s role was to attract the enemy’s’ attention. Even though she had suffered a bit, her original aim had been reached. The five players were currently headed towards their trap.
“Little Jie, get ready.” Zhou Yebai reminded Gao Yingjie.
“Okay……” Gao Yingjie said.
Qiao Yifan was extremely lonely. He was also a part of the team, but……he wasn’t a part of the strategy. He didn’t know if it was on purpose or not. But in brief, he had been forgotten. Ashen Moon was hiding behind a tombstone, staring at this ice-cold tombstone that represented the dead. Qiao Yifan didn’t know what to do. But he was already used to this sort of feeling.
“Move out!” Zhou Yebai suddenly ordered. His White Night Black Day and Gao Yingjie’s Weeping Crow flashed out from the left and right. Weeping Crow shook his sleeves, preparing to use a Shadow Cloak to Bind the five players. On the side, Zhou Yebai was waiting for Weeping Crow’s Cloak. Afterwards, he would summon a Phantom Ghost and then follow up with a Ghost Slash.
According to Glory’s explanation, Ghostblades set up fields with special effects and summoned Ghosts to assist them. This ability was named Phantom Ghost. Whether it was for an individual or a team, it was extremely useful as a support. White Night Black Day was a Level 26 Ghostblade and could summon the first Ghost Sword Soul. After a Sword Soul appeared, all teammates inside its boundary would have their Strength and Intelligence attributes raised. Of course, this was only limited to inside the boundary. There wouldn’t be any effects outside of the boundary. If the Ghost’s power could be applied whenever, Ghostblades would be unrivalled.
Once the Witch’s Shadow Cloak bound the enemies, he would use this interval to summon a Phantom Ghost and then kill or heavily injure the enemies within the boundary. This was Zhou Yebai’s plan. At this moment, he was waiting for Weeping Crow’s Shadow Cloak to bind the enemies.
Who knew that just as Weeping Crow threw out his skill, a sword light flashed over. No one knew who had acted first. With Gao Yingjie’s reaction speed and skill, he didn’t think that he would lost to anyone when fighting for time. But this time, his opponent’s skill had unexpectedly arrived first. Sword Draw’s sword light arrived, making Gao Yingjie feel extremely astonished. He could only helplessly choose to dodge it. Even if he directly took on the attack, there was no way his Shadow Cloak would hit. Just like this, he and Zhou Yebai’s plans had been easily crushed.
The player who had sent out the attack wasn’t Lord Grim and was impressively Sleeping Moon. Though it was true that this attack had been made on Ye Xiu’s orders.
When Ye Xiu yelled out for him to attack, he hadn’t even seen the target yet. His attack wasn’t any different than sending it out with his eyes closed. In the end, just after his attack was sent out, he saw Weeping Crow jump out.
Let alone Gao Yingjie, even Sleeping Moon, who had sent out the attack, was extremely astonished. In Sleeping Moon’s eyes, his attack hadn’t hit because of himself, but rather because someone had stupidly jumped out towards the attack.
Cover Strategy’s Flaw: Even if they could mutually communicate their field of view, they could only use it to report to each other and reduce the dangers. In regards to their understanding of the situation at a moment’s notice, it was still somewhat lacking.