The King's Avatar

Ye Xiu and Guan Rongfei shut themselves in the R&D room. Although no one else went to watch, they were all very curious as to what the result would be. So, even though Ghost Parade had ended, everyone lingered in the training room.

After tossing around some random guesses without much success, everyone quickly started talking about what had happened today.

”Seeing him stirring up all that ruckus, I thought he wanted to try and get Fang Rui over here. But in the end, it turned out he was after Boundless Sea,” Chen Guo said, with a bit of resentment at Ye Xiu’s sneakiness.

”Boundless Sea? The Qi Master?” That caught Wei Chen’s attention, and he glanced over at Su Mucheng. After hearing Chen Guo speak, Su Mucheng also lifted her head, and it looked like there was something on her mind.

”Yeah! He said that the current strong teams wouldn’t be interested in Boundless Sea, so it’d be easier for us to compete.” Chen Guo said.

”Is that the only reason?” Wei Chen smiled.

”Is it not?” Chen Guo was puzzled.

”Weren’t you an Excellent Era fan in the past?” Wei Chen asked.

”Huh?” Chen Guo was thrown off by this seemingly unrelated question.

”A fan of Ye Qiu?” Wei Chen continued to ask.

”Um…” Chen Guo’s reply was vague. Now that she was familiar with Ye Xiu, if she admitted this, wouldn’t that boost his ego? Chen Guo didn’t want to make him even more arrogant! But she had no way of denying the reality of her past.

”Then when Excellent Era won three championships in a row, don’t you know who the partner standing by Ye Xiu’s side was?”

”Huh?” Chen Guo had to think. In reality, by the time she had become a fan of Excellent Era, their dynasty had already ended. And the first player she had liked wasn’t Ye Xiu, but Su Mucheng. Her support for Ye Xiu and Excellent Era didn’t come until after she had become a fan of Su Mucheng.

Of course, as a fan of Excellent Era, she couldn’t completely forget about Excellent Era’s golden age of three championships. With Wei Chen’s reminder, she suddenly remembered.

When Excellent Era won three championships in a row, Team Excellent Era did not yet have Su Mucheng. They didn’t have Dancing Rain, nor did they have a Launcher.

However, One Autumn Leaf didn’t fight alone. In that era, standing by his side were his reliable teammates, and the one that was mentioned the most was a player named Wu Xuefeng. And this player’s class was Qi Master, account Qi Breaker.

All of this suddenly surfaced in Chen Guo’s mind.

One Autumn Leaf, Qi Breaker, the partnership that had dominated the Alliance for three years. Launcher? That only came after. The first character who had stood beside the Battle God was a Qi Master!

Wu Xuefeng retired after Excellent Era’s three championships. Chen Guo, who had only become a fan afterwards, had only heard mention of his name. But even just hearing about this was enough to get one fired up. Ye Xiu intended to get a Qi Master, and Chen Guo now felt the significance behind that.

”Is Wu Xuefeng returning?” Chen Guo was excited. The partnership that had swept the Alliance for three years, if it could be recreated, then how thrilling would that be? But Chen Guo had forgotten, the character that Ye Xiu now controlled was no longer the Battle Mage One Autumn Leaf.

”Him? Probably not!” As a first-generation player, Wei Chen of course knew Wu Xuefeng personally.

”Why not?” asked Chen Guo.

”Not long after retiring, he went abroad. Never heard any news about him again,” said Wei Chen.

”Maybe Ye Xiu contacted him?” Chen Guo said.

”Even if he did, you shouldn’t be too excited. That guy’s even older than me! Otherwise why else would he retire? Although he was very lucky, he had Ye Xiu beside him. His slipping condition was completely hidden by Ye Xiu’s continual improvement. Damn, if I’d been in Excellent Era then, maybe I also could have stumbled upon three championships.” There was a trace of envy and indignance in Wei Chen’s words.

Chen Guo processed this information. She didn’t say anything at first, but instead searched up Wu Xuefeng’s name on the Internet. Chen Guo realized that she knew very little about this former Excellent Era player. When speaking of Excellent Era’s championship days, people generally only talked about Ye Xiu and his One Autumn Leaf, and Chen Guo was like everyone else, only paying attention to the Battle God.

There wasn’t too much information online about Wu Xuefeng. After all, the Alliance was still being established during that period and hadn’t reached the level of influence it had now. Back then, the Glory pro scene was very small. However, the development of the Glory Alliance was incredibly rapid, which was evident from the increasing amount of news from each season as the years progressed.

Season 3, another championship, establishing a dynasty, there was much discussion about these topics. But as for topics about Wu Xuefeng, Chen Guo didn’t see the respect given to a hero. More people discussed his luck, the luck of becoming Ye Xiu’s helper.

”If I’d been in Excellent Era, maybe I also could have stumbled upon three championships.”

Chen Guo discovered that Wei Chen’s statement just now was a popular sentiment back then. Even an ordinary player dared say this. This was a great compliment to Ye Xiu’s strength, but it was disrespectful toward Wu Xuefeng and the other members of Excellent Era. Sadly, Chen Guo searched for quite a while, but couldn’t find an honest and reliable analysis.

”It wasn’t like that.” At this moment, Su Mucheng’s voice came from right next to her. Chen Guo turned her head, and saw that Su Mucheng was also looking at the archived news on the screen.

”Wu Xuefeng was an outstanding player,” Su Mucheng said. ”Without him, Excellent Era wouldn’t have won its three championships.”

”Ye Xiu said this?” Chen Guo asked.

Su Mucheng nodded.

”Then would he come back?” Chen Guo asked, pointing at Wu Xuefeng’s name on her screen.

”Don’t know.” Su Mucheng shook her head.

No one knew. And the one who had the most direct interactions with Wu Xuefeng, aside from Ye Xiu, was of course Wei Chen.

”That guy…” After being asked, Wei Chen began to search through his memories. ”He was truly a guy who relied on his brain and not his hands to fight matches. That might be the reason why he maintained his condition better than I did, even though he was clearly older than me!” Wei Chen gave his serious opinion, which showed that his ”if I’d been in Excellent Era” statement was just his automatic trash talk. He didn’t disregard Wu Xuefeng’s personal contributions to Excellent Era’s success.

”He used his brain?”

”Experience. Awareness. Accurate judgment. Precise technique,” Wei Chen said.

”Then why did he retire?” Chen Guo asked.

”Please, his condition was only a little better than mine! His age was hanging right there. To be able to play those three years was already his limit,” Wei Chen said.

After he said that, Wei Chen crouched in front of the computer. ”There should still be some old match videos of him online!”

There really weren’t many recordings from matches that had occurred years and years ago. But Excellent Era was at the peak back then, so their matches were more likely to be recorded and thus comparably easier to find now. Wei Chen soon found one, and Chen Guo realized that it was actually a video she had watched before. But just looking at the title of the video, it was obvious that this video wasn’t saved to remember Wu Xuefeng.

Ye Qiu, One Autumn Leaf. It seemed as though the Excellent Era of that time period had left behind only these two names. And Chen Guo had been the same, only paying attention to the Battle God’s playing and completely forgetting about the Battle God’s teammates. Was there some stand-out performance in this match? Chen Guo had no recollection.

The video quickly began playing. Although the quality wasn’t very good, Chen Guo still immediately found One Autumn Leaf. But what about Wu Xuefeng’s Qi Breaker?

”Hm, seems like he’s not in view right now…” Wei Chen said, regretful.

Soon, the two teams in the video began launching attacks. Excellent Era’s opponent in this match was a team formerly at the summit, Royal Style.

Peaceful Hermit!

Chen Guo quickly discovered another God-level character. The scythe in his hand flashed with the light and fire of vanquishing demons. A Spirit Guidance was used, and a twisting arc flew into the midst of Excellent Era’s formation.

Open battle!

Chen Guo became entirely engrossed in the God-level faceoff between One Autumn Leaf and Peaceful Hermit, until Wei Chen suddenly pointed at the screen and shouted, ”He appeared! Right there!”

”Ah?” Chen Guo shook herself as though awakening from a dream, and remembered why she was watching this video in the first place.

Qi Breaker finally appeared on screen. He was currently moving around constantly, his body occasionally vanishing from view. Because the video was entirely focused on Ye Xiu and One Autumn Leaf, the camera didn’t move to follow anyone else.

”How sneaky!” This was Wei Chen’s appraisal of Qi Breaker’s changing position.

”Did he also play dirty?” asked Chen Guo.

”Not exactly.” said Wei Chen. ”His playstyle was whatever suited the situation best.”

The screen still showed the fight between One Autumn Leaf and Peaceful Hermit. But suddenly, Peaceful Hermit flew horizontally, out of view.

The camera immediately swiveled to follow, and so Chen Guo saw that Qi Breaker had used a Cloud Grasping Fist to abruptly pull Peaceful Hermit away from the middle of his fierce battle with One Autumn Leaf.

”Fuck, what a pig of a teammate!!!” A scrolling comment** suddenly appeared onscreen.

”He interrupted One Autumn Leaf’s attack rhythm, how overbearing!”

”His brain must be underwater.”

Before the fourth comment could appear, Wei Chen turned off the scrolling comments. ”A bunch of idiots,” he scoffed. ”Just now, if Qi Breaker hadn’t pulled Peaceful Hermit away, One Autumn Leaf would have been in trouble. Did you see it?”

Chen Guo felt her face redden, because she hadn’t seen anything at all. In that moment, her thought process reflected the sentiments of the scrolling comments. She also thought that Qi Breaker’s sudden Cloud Grasping Fist had interrupted Ye Xiu’s rhythm. If you wanted to coordinate then just directly attack, why pull Peaceful Hermit out of One Autumn Leaf’s attack range?

”So you see, he always appeared when he was most needed. Truly a reliable helper.” Wei Chen continued to give his analysis.

”To get Boundless Sea, I think… Wu Xuefeng wouldn’t come back, Ye Xiu’s probably thinking of finding another helper!” said Wei Chen.

”Oh, then who?” Chen Guo asked. Ye Xiu must have given some thought as to who to ask!

As she was thinking, she suddenly heard two loud shouts from the R&D room.

”Shit!”

”Fuck!”

Neither Ye Xiu nor Guan Rongfei were the type to lose control easily. What happened? Everyone immediately crowded around to look.

In the R&D room, Ye Xiu and Guan Rongfei were staring at the computer screen, wordless.

On the screen, Lord Grim’s Myriad Manifestation Umbrella was flashing through its various forms, but the lowest line on its list of stats didn’t change.

Equipment Required Level -4…