“Four great masters? North, South, East, West? Don’t tell me Huashan’s Fengxi[1] is one of them?”
The Mountain smiled. “Hehe, indeed, Lil Xi is. However, he’s currently under special circumstances…”
Recalling Fengxi’s various acts, Li Yi thought nothing about the Four Great Masters The Mountain spoke of.
However, BB East, Jiggly was considered an expert. It could be said that any player who made it onto Mount Pantheon was an expert amongst the experts.
As time passed, more players arrived at the Ruler of Gods’ Palace, and an hour later, God-queen Carulla used her full moon scepter to shut the doors. This marked the beginning of the God Wars.
Regarding clearing the stage, out of Li Yi’s women, Jiaojiao failed the challenge while Qian’er and Little Elf from the Magical Realm made it through. As for the others who cleared the challenge, half were from the former Little Drunk Cat while the rest were from the Windcloud Clan. They were all his good friends.
Fifty players had attempted the stage and twenty-one players had cleared it.
“Mortals, heed my words, there are twenty-one of you here, but only five shall become gods. Your skills shall decide whether you can make it to Ascension.”
“Twenty-one?”
“Twenty-one?”
“That’s not right?”
Players were puzzled by Carulla’s statement.
The reason was simple. Carulla had not counted two people. There were twenty-three players in the hall, not twenty-one.
The Mountain smiled at Li Yi. “Miscount?”
Gazing at Ghostly Walker and Weapon, Li Yi shook his head. “It was not a miscount.”
Li Yi had known ever since Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut first entered the Ruler of Gods’ Palace.
At that time, the System Notification was: [Player Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut is the first to step foot into the Ruler of Gods’ Palace. Let us congratulate her!] However, Ghostly Walker and the Weapon Warrior had already been here for some time.
Why was there no notification of them entering?
There was only one answer and that was… They were not players!
Android NPCs.
There were many Android NPCs no different from players in King of Pantheon. This was the very goal Pantheon Officials were after, fantasy equivalent to reality, the succession of virtual and reality.
“Who isn’t human?”
“Ghostly Walker and the Weapon Warrior!”
“Oh oh, I get it now!”
Players immediately understood. They looked toward Ghostly Walker and the Weapon Warrior.
Ghostly Walker and the Weapon Warrior nodded at the players before moving beneath God-queen Carulla.
“Your next challenge is — duels!”
A number appeared above the twenty-one players. Fluttering Snow Purple Water Chestnut was 1, The Mountain was 2, Li Yi was 3… The numbers followed the sequence of players who entered the palace.
On the ground, rotating numbers appeared. They corresponded to the numbers above the players’ heads.
After a long while, the numbers on the ground came to a halt. It was 6 and 9.
The Weapon Warrior shouted, “The first duel is between Brother Windcloud Nine and Amber Sword Heart! One round of combat, the loser will be eliminated!”
Unlike duels in the Arena, A God Wars duel ended after a single fight. In other words, there was no turning back after a loss.
“It must be predestined; I’m going against this guy again.”
Brother Windcloud Nine caressed the bloody cross on his back before taking large strides into the ring.
Amber Sword Heart, dressed in dark-colored heavy armor, entered the ring.
There were only five spots to Ascension. In other words, there would be sixteen players eliminated. They had invested a lot of time and effort to this far so, of course, no one wanted to lose…
Li Yi reminded Brother Windcloud Nine, “Pay attention to his Titan.”
“Okay.”
Upon receiving consent from both parties, the duel began.
Amber Sword Heart and Brother Windcloud Nine released their Territories simultaneously, attempting to restrain the opposing party.
Amber Sword Heart’s Territory was green and had an attribute-weakening effect while Brother Windcloud Nine’s Territory was red and could decrease the target’s max HP and mana.
Wham wham! Wham wham!
The two immovable Territories were in constant collision, sizzling huge clashes in the air.
Tst tst tst…
In response to the collision, the two Territory Powers started rapidly shrinking until finally they only covered their users’s bodies.
At the end of the Territory face-off, it was a draw!
“Charge!”
Amber Sword Heart used Charge to rush violently at Brother Windcloud Nine.
Brother Windcloud Nine whipped out the cross behind his back and stabbed it into the ground before hiding behind it.
“Wham!”
Amber Sword Heart crashed into the cross and became Disoriented.
“Territory — Heavenly Sentence!”
Tst tst tst tst tst —
Countless bloody red crosses descended from the sky, smashing into Amber Sword Heart.
[-357789]
[-546718]
[-467800]
[-224456]
With damage numbers popping out of Amber Sword Heart’s head, more than half his HP was gone. Fortunately for him, the Disoriented status was removed, allowing him to move freely.
Amber Sword Heart activated the damage-reducing skill, Shield of Earth and dashed toward Brother Windcloud Nine.
Most of a God-chastised Paladin’s skills required the use of HP and the Territory Skill, Heavenly Sentence was no exception. Brother Windcloud Nine may have removed more than half of Amber Sword Heart’s HP but he had lost a third of his HP too.
Brother Windcloud Nine picked up the bloody cross and swung it at Amber Sword Heart, in an attempt to maintain the distance between them.
Amber Sword Heart’s most powerful move was the Territory Skill, Titan’s Grip. If Brother Windcloud Nine was careless enough to get caught, since his Territory did not exceed Amber Sword Heart’s by 10 Ranks, he would be crushed and unable to exercise his full potential.
Amber Sword Heart charged at him repeatedly while Brother Windcloud Nine took steps backward, making sure to keep his distance.
The two played a game of mouse and cat. As their SPD was similar, for a moment, no one had the upper hand. Suddenly, the Weapon Warrior made an announcement, “Twenty more seconds before the round ends.”
“Twenty seconds…”
Amber Sword Heart stopped moving. Hesitating for a moment, he hurled his shield aside and made a grabbing motion in the air in the direction of Brother Windcloud Nine, who was ten meters away.
“Territory — Titan’s Grip!”
Amber Sword Heart’s arm suddenly expanded, thickening and elongating…. until he grabbed Brother Windcloud Nine in the distance.
This guy, he had evolved Titan’s Grip into Titan’s Divine Grip.
Amber Sword Heart’s arm slowly shrunk, pulling Brother Windcloud Nine back to him. He then grabbed a sword, poking multiple stabs at Brother Nine.
Pft pft pft pft pft!
Unable to fight back, Brother Windcloud Nine was poked to death…
Originally, it was not in Amber Sword Heart’s plan to reveal his trump card this early, but the duel time limit was short. He would have lost if he did not resort to Titan’s Divine Grip.
“Amber Sword Heart wins, Brother Windcloud Nine’s out!”
Tst —
A ring of white light enveloped Brother Windcloud Nine, forcefully teleporting him out.
Another set of numbers rotated on the ground and finally landed on 9 and 13.
“The next duel, BB East against Amber Sword Heart!”
“Huh?”
Amber Sword Heart was stunned. “I just won the first round, why is it me again?”
The Weapon Warrior coldly snorted. “It is a random selection of players. If you’re unhappy with the rules, you can quit anytime.”
“…”
Who would be willing to leave after such a struggle to get here?
Although Amber Sword Heart was dejected, he had no choice but to accept the outcome.
After a little recovery and consent from both parties, the second round began.
“I will close in on you from the left in Stealth and use Garrote and Scrape. I’ll finish you off with a combo and Finishing Blow. ”
His cocky behavior had not changed one bit. It did not matter whether his name was BB East or Jiggly. He announced his upcoming moves the moment he stepped onto the stage.
BB East disappeared with Stealth.
Amber Sword Heart stood still and unleashed his Territory.
A pale green Territory Barrier expanded outwards, reaching 50 yards. This was done deliberately by Amber Sword Heart. If he were to unleash it fully, though unable to compare to Li Yi, 80 to 90 yards was not an issue to him.
Amber Sword Heart proudly said, “I’m able to sense if you enter my Territory. How are you going to kill me? There’s only a 3-minute time limit and my Territory can be released for ten minutes!”
Amber Sword Heart was confident with his Titan Territory.
There was not a squeak from BB East. No one knew his current location.
As time flew by, two minutes were gone. There was only a minute remaining on the clock before the round ended.
Amber Sword Heart laughed out loud. “Are you giving up? That’s right, you can’t enter my Territory. What else can you do apart from throwing in the towel?”
The Weapon Warrior made another announcement, “There’s only twenty seconds left before the round’s over!”
“Pft! Pft!”
Two blades flashed and struck Amber Sword Heart from the left. It was BB East.
Currently, Amber Sword Heart’s Titan Territory was still being used, but strangely, BB East was within, stirring no ripples.
His Titan Territory was ineffective!
“Pft pft pft pft!”
BB East swiftly retreated after a vicious 6-combo.
The Weapon Warrior declared the result, “The round’s over. Amber Sword Heart’s out, BB East wins!”
BB East flashed a gentle smile at Amber Sword Heart. “Sorry, you have too much HP and Titan’s Divine Grip’s too much to handle. If I were to battle under normal circumstances, I won’t be able to defeat you.”
The earlier six slices reduced over 500 thousand of Amber Sword Heart’s HP out of his total 3.7 million HP.
As Amber Sword Heart, who could not accept the defeat, was teleported out, BB East waved in all directions. He then placed his hands behind his back and gazed into the sky, lost in thought.
Stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp…
The numbers on the ground started to rotate once again.
Li Yi gawked at BB East. “That guy sure is cunning…”
He had managed to come up with a scheme that used to rules to defeat his opponent. That brain of his lived up to his name of being one of Huashan’s Four Great Masters.
The Mountain said, “Lil B could have snuck into his Territory from the beginning. He was careless.”
Li Yi suddenly asked, “Out of Huashan’s Four Great Masters, who was the best?”
The Mountain thought about it before answering, “Lil B used to be the worst but it’s hard to say now…”
Li Yi. “…”
The numbers on the ground stopped at 3 and 2.
It was Li Yi against The Mountain!
…
[1] Xi (西) from Fengxi also means East in Mandarin.
