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Ye Xiu versus Tian Sen. Ye Xiu still won in the end, but Tian Sen’s loss wasn’t ugly at all. He unleashed the style of Glory’s number one Exorcist Peaceful Hermit to the fullest. After the final attack, Ye Xiu put away his battle mindset to genuinely express his feelings.

Even though he didn’t know where the familiar person had gone, the familiar character was still here, and a player who had inherited the spirit was still here. This sort of feeling was enough of a comfort.

”You played well,” Ye Xiu said in the chat. Whether opponent or teammate, he wouldn’t be stingy with his praise. ”You played well” - the words were simple, but they were sincere to the fullest.

The two left their competitor booths at about the same time, and the stadium was already filled with thunderous applause. It was for Tian Sen, and for Ye Xiu as well. Perhaps it was because Royal Style already didn’t need anything else from this season, and so the fans were more accepting, sending applause to the opponent both before and after the match. This opponent was worthy of respect, and the 28-consecutive individual win record was worthy of this applause.

Happy earned a point first. Next up was Luo Ji, Luo Ji again.

Royal Style didn’t have any feelings toward this player, so of course they didn’t have much of a reaction. After experiencing last round’s battle, Luo Ji was finally less nervous. During this week, he had watched the recording of the previous match over and over again. That was his first battle of his professional career, not diluted in the slightest, a true you-die-I-live death match on the professional stage.

Luo Ji analyzed many conclusions from that match. His online documents and the paper notebook at his side were dense with notes. It was just a 1v1 that had lasted only a few minutes. How many little details had he noticed, in order to write so many things?

But this was just Luo Ji’s method, so no one disturbed him. He drew what he needed from this, and when he came across something he didn’t understand, he would ask his seniors for help without hesitation.

How much could he improve in one week? Luo Ji didn’t know either. But he was standing on this stage, so he would simply do his best.

As it turned out, Luo Ji’s opponent this match happened to be the Summoner player in Royal Style’s roster, named He Weitang.

In the end, Luo Ji still lost, but he wasn’t discouraged.

One week of effort still wasn’t enough. He just told himself this. Now, he had one more recording which he could study.

And then, in the third individual round, Happy’s Su Mucheng earned a point.

Next, Happy sent Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, and Fang Rui in the group arena, but, unexpectedly, they lost. Royal Style’s players were very relaxed as they played, with no pressure at all. Perhaps it was this attitude that allowed their performance to peak, and they ultimately won the two points of the group arena.

In the team competition, Happy sent out Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Steamed Bun, An Wenyi, and Mo Fan.

The lineup had a bit of rotation, but Happy played the team round very carefully. Royal Style could relax, but they couldn’t. Ultimately, Happy won this team round, defeating Royal Style 7 to 3.

”Please work even harder in the playoffs.” As they exchanged greetings after the match, Tian Sen didn’t hold back with his words, sending Happy into the playoffs nine rounds early.

”Alright. Want to come with us?” Ye Xiu laughed.

”No need. Sooner or later, we’ll return to that stage as well,” Tian Sen said. Even though their scores had been poor for several years running now, he didn’t lose the pride of being a member of Royal Style. As long as they were still here, anything was possible. Tian Sen believed this deeply.

”Keep it up!” Ye Xiu shook his hand firmly. Thus, the curtain fell on Happy’s away game against Royal Style. In another stadium, the live televised match between 301 and Misty Rain also ended at this time. Ultimately, the recently-strong 301 turned out to be fiercer. Their loss to Wind Howl hadn’t stopped their good condition, and in this home game, they defeated Misty Rain 8-2. However, their main competitors right now, Wind Howl, had done better this round. They had their away game against a team that was already viewed as relegated, Seaside, and didn’t hold back in winning a 10-0.

With this, Wind Howl now surpassed 301 by two points, slightly expanding the lead they had just won last round.

301 was in ninth place, followed by Void. Void defeated Heavenly Swords 8-2 in their away game, continuing to maintain their chance at the top 8. They just had to wait for someone to mess up. However, with their current 11 point difference from eighth place, one mistake wasn’t enough. The other team would have to make consecutive mistakes, and they would need to seize consecutive opportunities, if they were to have their shot.

Because of this, their chance was very uncertain, and Void’s supporters were all extremely nervous. As for Misty Rain, after once again losing to their direct competitor, they now had a 26 point difference from the top 8. At this point, continuing to bite down on the theoretical possibility was no more than self-delusion. Misty Rain could be considered yet another team that had to say farewell to this season. This was the first time in recent years that this team had dropped out of the playoffs.

In reality, Misty Rain’s greatest point of criticism was still how they tended to crumble at crucial points. But there really wasn’t any fault to be found on their technical or tactical aspects, and their scores had always been fairly stable. In order to try and improve, Misty Rain had made adjustments, but it now looked like their adjustments had only given them a rather failed season. People were already beginning to discuss what move Misty Rain would make next.

After Happy finished this round, they prepared to rest overnight in City B. Heavenly Swords was also in City B, and had just played a home game. After the match, they contacted Happy to get together. Heavenly Swords right now was like Royal Style, right in the middle, with no more goals for this season. Losing a match would still be saddening, but the sadness would disperse relatively quickly. At least, when Happy’s members met the Heavenly Swords team, they couldn’t tell from their faces that they had just lost 2-8 in a home game.

Once Heavenly Swords’ players arrived, they pulled Happy for a late-night snack. Every week, this day right after playing a match was indeed the most relaxed day of the week for pro players. As long as they were in the mood, hanging out during this weekend was fairly common. However, by the time they finished the match and the interviews, it wasn’t very early, and both teams’ players had the self-restraint not to stay out too late. When they were about to disperse, Lou Guanning wanted to extend the friendship of a host, and invited Happy to stay an extra day the next day. But Ye Xiu made a polite but clear refusal for himself, and Su Mucheng followed suit.

”Tomorrow is A Qingming Festival 1 ,” someone from Heavenly Swords quietly reminded Lou Guanning, giving him pause. He didn’t know if this was Ye Xiu’s reason, but of course he couldn’t ask. If someone was observing Qingming Festival, there was nothing cheerful about that.

”Then I won’t hold you guys up. We can get together next time, we have plenty of opportunities.” Lou Guanning let the whole team of Happy go.

”Next time,” Ye Xiu smiled. The two teams said their farewells. The next day, Luo Ji returned by himself to City T, while the rest boarded a plane back to City H.

Qingming Festival…

Chen Guo of course didn’t forget this holiday. Yesterday, even if Ye Xiu hadn’t backed out, she herself would have. Now, it looked like Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng had the same intent as her?”

”Want to head over together in a bit?” Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu while they were on the plane.

”Alright!” Ye Xiu nodded.

After the plane landed in City H, Happy’s members split into two groups. Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Chen Guo went one way, and the others gathered together.

”Where are they going?” The three of them hadn’t really said anything, so after they left, everyone else began discussing out of curiosity.

”Probably to sweep the tombs!” Tang Rou had been at Happy the longest and had known Chen Guo’s background for a while. Even though she hadn’t heard Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng’s story directly from them, she knew a little from what Chen Guo had said.

The players also knew that Chen Guo’s father had passed, but they didn’t really know about Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng’s situation, and so they asked.

”It’s Su Mucheng’s older brother,” Tang Rou told everyone and then looked at Wei Chen. She knew that the young man who had passed was also a Glory expert in the past, and Wei Chen was an old player from those days, so maybe he knew this person.

After hearing Tang Rou’s introduction, Wei Chen did reveal a somewhat stunned expression. ”So that’s what it was.”

”Old Wei, you know him?” Fang Rui asked.

”Of course you brats wouldn’t know,” Wei Chen said, beginning to reflect on his memories. ”At that time, there was no Heavenly Domain, and Glory only had one server at the start, only later opening the second server. At the time, all of us spent our time in the first server. We were probably the first batch of Glory players! And at the time in our first server, the Battle Mage One Autumn Leaf was already extremely famous. But there was another guy often with him, very famous, and no less skilled than One Autumn Leaf.”

No less skilled than Ye Xiu!

This could be considered the highest praise in the Glory circle. With Wei Chen’s shamelessness, for him to give this sort of praise to anyone other than himself was extremely rare to see.

”What was his name?” Fang Rui quickly asked.

”Autumn Tree,” said Wei Chen.

Fang Rui shook his head to show that he’d never heard of that name before. That era was too far in the past, and this was just a character in the game. Very few such stories could be passed on for that long.

”Of course, how would you little brats have heard of him?” Wei Chen said disdainfully. In his eyes, Fang Rui was just another little brat.

”So this person was Su Mucheng’s older brother!” Wei Chen continued under his breath.

”Autumn Tree, ’Qiu Mu Su’… Su Muqiu?” Fang Rui realized, after slowly voicing the characters aloud.

”Yes.” Tang Rou had heard this name from Chen Guo, and nodded her head.

”Oh, so it was his real name in reverse,” Wei Chen realized. ”But at that time there was no Su Mucheng. No one would make that connection. By the time Su Mucheng entered the Alliance and became famous, this name had probably long been forgotten!”

”Yeah…” Even though Fang Rui hadn’t experienced that era, who would pass on the legend of a mere in-game expert? By the time Su Mucheng entered the Alliance, it was already Season 4. Three years was long enough to forget a name.

”This Autumn Tree, what class was he?” Fang Rui asked.

”He was a gunner god,” Wei Chen said. ”A true gunner god.”