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What were Fang Rui’s qualities?

If this question were posed to one hundred Glory players, approximately one hundred answers would be ”dirty,” without any hesitation.

This of course wasn’t wrong, but the analysis by the so-called experts wouldn’t be so unspecific. They used many technical details to pick out what qualities Fang Rui had, and the conclusion they reached was: this playstyle fits Fang Rui exactly, but possibly would not fit anyone else.

Those that supported this view included the previous Qi Master All-Star, Zhao Yang. Although he had already retired, he hadn’t stopped paying attention to Glory, and the reporters that were close with him easily obtained his views on Fang Rui’s Qi Master. Zhao Yang believed that even he himself had no way of playing Fang Rui’s style of Qi Master, and that it truly was a unique style that arose from the player.

What would be the fruits of this playstyle?

As of now, Fang Rui growing accustomed to his new playstyle was an indispensable contribution to Happy’s recent strong performance. After being thrown off by Ye Xiu’s unspecialized Lord Grim, the various members of the Alliance now faced another playstyle that they couldn’t immediately understand, that caused them just as much difficulty as Lord Grim.

Losing wasn’t scary. But losing without knowing why you lost, that was scary. This meant that you had no way of obtaining experience and improving.

And because of Happy, the Alliance players felt this strongly. The unknown unspecialized, the chaotic Steamed Bun, and now this new playstyle from Fang Rui.

This new team was really very new. New people, new characters, even new playstyles.

How to counter this entirely new element? The teams all spent time to study and try and figure out. But each team had 19 opponents in the Alliance, not just Happy. In the end, no team would do too much study or have too much focus on just one team. They had to follow the rhythm of the match schedule. Whatever team they were about to face, they would focus on defeating that team. And so Happy took advantage of this; after stabilizing their style they accumulated points like crazy. Now at Round 14, their footsteps hadn’t slowed at all. Void’s first player in the group arena, Ge Zhaolan, went down rapidly, having only knocked away 37% of Fang Rui’s Boundless Sea.

A beautiful opening. The cheers from the crowd sent the dejected Ge Zhaolan offstage.

Li Xuan sighed and shook his head, his gaze falling upon the one at his side. His closest friend, his best partner, but at the same time the one who was in conflict with him for the title of number one Ghostblade. Wu Yuce.

”It’s up to you,” Li Xuan said.

Void’s next players were Wu Yuce and himself. Right now, Happy had a significant lead, with 2.63 people remaining.

Wu Yuce nodded. Without saying anything else, he stood up and resolutely headed toward the stage.

The Happy supporters in the crowd gave vocal support to their home team, and of course they would also boo the Void players to disrupt them. But Wu Yuce seemed as though he already had a natural defense against booing. His steps were very steady, and when he crossed paths with Ge Zhaolan, he even paused to say some words to him. He wasn’t affected by the atmosphere of the stadium at all.

Wu Yuce quickly arrived onstage, entered the competitor booth, and logged on to his character.

Ghostblade, Carved Ghost. Among the recent All-Star characters, one of the only two female ones.

”Bring it, Miss Wu!” So when the battle began, Fang Rui immediately used this to trash talk.

Wu Yuce didn’t reply, and Carved Ghost moved along the map. And Fang Rui? He didn’t seem to hope for any response from Wu Yuce. As he tossed this bit of trash talk, he controlled Boundless Sea to rush forward.

In reality, Fang Rui wasn’t too unfamiliar with Wu Yuce, as they had debuted the same year. But although both of them had proven themselves from the beginning within their respective teams, neither of them could compete with that other rookie from their year.

That year, Zhou Zekai made his dazzling debut on the professional stage. In his first season, he had carried the mediocre team Samsara into the playoffs.

What were Fang Rui and Wu Yuce up to during that time?

Fang Rui arrived at Wind Howl, initially as the successor to Lin Jingyan’s Demon Subduer, but in that first season, Fang Rui revealed his talent for the Thief class. And so, he settled on becoming a Thief player, stepping on the road to becoming an All-Star player.

And Wu Yuce? When he first arrived at Void, the team had also wanted him to play a different class, but Wu Yuce refused to cooperate, insisting that he wanted to play Ghostblade. But Void at that time already had Li Xuan, a Ghostblade player from the Golden Generation. Wu Yuce’s behavior was viewed as extremely unwise and provocative. He had been treated coldly at the beginning, until, by chance, he obtained an opportunity to go onstage. With that battle, the team finally began to reevaluate its position toward him, and they decided… having two Ghostblades wasn’t impossible. From there, the double Ghostblade partnership was slowly established.

Neither of these two players’ beginnings were as shining as Zhou Zekai’s; they each had their own twists and turns, but they reflected the different attitudes of the two players.

Fang Rui was very casual. He played a Qi Master at Blue Rain, then was raised by Wind Howl to play a Brawler, and then when he finally became a full pro player, he found that Thief suited him, so he became a Thief… It could be said that Fang Rui was constantly compromising, but in the current pro player environment, if a player who hadn’t yet made a name for himself wanted to be valued by the team, most anyone would choose this kind of compromise and obedience. And Fang Rui, his compromise and obedience was a bit more than normal, as evident by how many twists and turns there had been from his training camp days to becoming a full pro player. In the end, he succeeded. But this guy, after succeeding, changed classes again. With his current status and position, his class change generally wasn’t viewed as compromise and obedience. Yet Fang Rui felt that this wasn’t much different from what he had done in the past.

Wu Yuce didn’t have much in common with Fang Rui. He hadn’t gone along with the team’s needs, instead stubbornly sticking to his choice. Most teams would perhaps directly give up on a player like this, but Wu Yuce’s luck wasn’t bad. He entered the team like this, maintained his decision, and then afterwards, he waited for an opportunity and seized the opportunity. His persistence paid off, and he too walked upon the road to becoming an All-Star.

Two entirely different paths, but they had both resulted in equally excellent All-Star players. And now, the two met. Fang Rui’s playstyle was like his own character, casual, and so he became the master of playing dirty. Wu Yuce, on the other hand, was tough and unyielding, thus his Ghostblade also exuded a toughness from the bones.

Fang Rui only tossed that one word of trash talk when Wu Yuce first entered because Fang Rui was clear that this was someone who wouldn’t be disrupted by trash talk at all. His personality was just that tough. As a rookie, he had dared to stubbornly refuse the plans of his team - this wasn’t something that any player would be brave enough to do.

The two sides quickly met at the center of the map. Without any further interaction, they began fighting. Boundless Sea began Fang Rui’s trademark Thief-style posture and movement, and before the opponent used a skill, a Qi Bullet was sent flying toward him.

Ghost Slash!

It was met by a Ghostblade’s Ghost Slash. A magic aura rippled from the blade, directly travelling through the Qi Bullet.

The Qi Bullet wouldn’t be complete dissipated by the priority of that attack, and it continued to fly toward Carved Ghost, but Carved Ghost’s slash also continued toward Boundless Sea.

With a bang, the Qi Bullet landed upon Carved Ghost. He hadn’t tried to dodge at all, doing everything he could to send this Ghost Slash onto Boundless Sea.

This guy!

Fang Rui grit his teeth. The Ghostblade wasn’t very suited to hard and direct fighting, since it wasn’t a class with high defense or health, but Wu Yuce still preferred this method, as it suited is personality.

But Fang Rui hadn’t expected this kid would be so fierce right from the start.

He wanted to dodge this attack, but if he did, Carved Ghost’s second attack would arrive instantly, and Wu Yuce would have the initiative. He refused to let that happen!

Fang Rui inputted controls and activated Reinforced Iron Bones on Boundless Sea, taking the brunt of Carved Ghost’s Ghost Slash.

Qi Blade!

Boundless Sea sent this attack just when he was hit by the Ghost Blade. But at this point, Carved Ghost was still surrounded by the ghostly aura from using the Ghost Blade. Through the mist of purple, this Qi Blade carved a clearly visible path.

Carved Ghost leaned to the left.

Heh, it won’t be so easy. Fang Rui smiled coldly. The Qi Blade suddenly twisted toward the right, instantly cutting Carved Ghost.

But even after taking this attack, Wu Yuce didn’t stop attacking. Even as Carved Ghost was hit by the Qi Blade, the blade in her hand was still sent out.

Ice Seal Ghost Slash!

The difference between Sword Demon and Phantom Demon was that Phantom Demons summoned the Ghost God’s power to create effects, controlling or damaging the opponent. Sword Demons, on the other hand, directly applied the Ghost God’s power to their blades, increasing the damaging power of their slashes.

Ghost Slash, Moonlight Slash, Full Moonlight Slash, these were the three slashing attacks that Ghostblades could learn under level 20. And Sword Demons could apply any type of Ghost God power to these three slashing skills.

Carved Ghost’s attack just now applied ice spirit power to the blade, thus creating an Ice Seal Ghost Slash. The blade emitted faint blue icy mist, which was sent several body units outward with the slash. Although Boundless Sea was already rolling, he was still hit by the icy mist, and his movement speed decreased significantly.

Flame-Bitten Full Moon!

Carved Ghost slid forward and made another slash, this time invoking the spirit of fire along the blade and using a Full Moonlight Slash. The enchanting fire spirit power swept in the shape of a full moon, but it wasn’t very eye-burning. These flames conjured from magic weren’t a pure scarlet, but carried some dark purple within. But their power would be even stronger, because it wouldn’t just deal fire damage, it would also carry the dark damage inherent to a Ghostblade.

Flame-Bitten Full Moon, slash down!

Qi Guard!

A tangible protective shield suddenly expanded around Boundless Sea, blocking the Flame-Bitten Full Moon.

If Ghostblades were said to be naturally dark-aligned, then Qi Masters were naturally light-aligned. But the players playing these two classes right now…

The dark-aligned Ghostblade walked the direct and fierce path, while the light-aligned Qi Master was the representative of dirty playing.