Elder Du was quietly watching the intense fight between Li Wei and Li Yuxin. He was completely impressed by what he saw. The young man had actually successfully trained to the first level of the Myriad Sword Dance in just one week! That was a very impressive achievement; even for those who trained the technique before getting into the game, training the first level in one week could be considered as a feat, let alone a player that never trained that technique before.
But more importantly, the young man was clearly having the upper hand in this match. Considering that Li Yuxin spent most of her time training her techniques and obtaining mastery points, her techniques were more advanced, and she had better knowledge, but she was being suppressed.
When Elder Du saw that Li Yuxin had depleted her mana, he already considered Li Wei as the winner. Although a member of his family was being defeated, he was not disappointed or even angry. And that was because he considered Li Wei as a future recruit! He knew that for someone to have trained up to the first level that quickly, that person definitely had some affinity and would later look for the higher levels of the Myriad Sword Dance. That simply meant that the fruit would ripen faster than expected but it was not bad news.
He already concluded that Li Yuxin would be defeated especially when he saw Li Wei activate his [Howl]. However, he froze upon seeing what happened next. Li Yuxin was slightly pushed back by the skill. She did not even try to resist the skill and allowed her body to be pushed. She simply used that momentum to spin in mid-air and swing her sword! More importantly, the fact that she used the [Soaring Eagle Slash] completely took Elder Du by surprise.
He was already aware that Li Yuxin trained the Immortal Sword Spirit. He sometimes looked after her when she was training but he never intervened. But the [Soaring Eagle Slash]? That was a technique that many members of the young generation had already forgotten. No one bothered to look at its details when they came back, even Elder Du did not. With that, he was forced to reassess his judgment. Not only on the techniques the family owned but also on the intelligence of Li Yuxin.
"This girl is really talented! Maybe even more than Li Feng..."
...
On the scorching ground, Li Wei let go of his swords as he took a deep breath. "A draw... All that to end up with a draw..." murmured Li Wei.
He was dejected. Victory had been within his reach. If only he managed to block or dodge Li Yuxin's last strike, he would have come on top. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. His win streak was broken.
"Sigh"
Everything was going so well, all his fights before that had all being easy! But fate was cruel, all his hard work was now blown to dust.
Right now, he was just feeling like jumping on his bed and sleeping for the rest of the day. He looked at the desolate landscape as the ashes were slowly settling down on the cracked land.
In the end, Li Wei could only blame himself for having been careless. He silently walked towards Li Yuxin who was trying to stand up. She had already lost her balance due to the [Howl] and had been blown away from Li Wei's last strike.
But thanks to the system's barrier, she was completely fine except for being disoriented. When she looked around her to try to stand up, she saw Li Wei making a faint smile. He was presenting his hand to help her stand up.
Li Yuxin had a strong independent personality, whenever she wanted to do something, she would try her best to accomplish it without relying on others. She was also proud but yet, upon seeing that hand, she instinctively took it and stood up.
In her mind, she remembered the time when she was a kid and would play around, sometimes, she would fall. She remembered a blurry face who used to accompany her everywhere and play with her. That person would often do that exact same movement to help her stand up when she fell.
"Thanks..."
"mmm"
He swiftly nodded to her and turned around. The battle was over, and the last thing Li Wei wanted was to have a discussion with someone from the Li family. He wondered what they wanted to tell him especially after seeing the huge pile of friend requests but in the end, he concluded that it was better to stay away from potential trouble. Li Wei was about to leave when Li Yuxin raised her hand to stop him. "Wait, I would like to ask... How did you learn the Myriad Sword Dance?"
"The question has come!" thought Li Wei.
Suspiciously looking at her, he asked, "You really don't know? I thought your whole family was already aware of this especially since I've received a lot of friend requests from people surnamed Li."
"I really don't know! I spend most of my time at the training center training in seclusion... so I am a bit behind on the news..." answered Li Yuxin.
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Li Wei could see that she was not lying, there was some genuine curiosity in her eyes. "It's no big deal. The Myriad Sword Dance was available for trading at the sect. I turned out to have enough contribution points to buy it so here I am..."
"Are you not going to ask anything else?"
"What do I need to ask? I don't care if you have our family's technique. Did you not see that even I own the Meng family's technique? Everyone has their own little secrets but...mmm I never thought the guild would have someone like you but even if you don't tell me to which family you belong, I will find out! See you tomorrow then!" said Li Yuxin as she took a step back and prepared to leave.
"Tomorrow? What do you mean by that?"
"There's the weekly guild event tomorrow and this time, I'll participate! So, unless you are planning to hide, I'll find to which family you belong! Next time, our battle won't end in a draw."
As she said that, she moved her fingers and opened her interface. The player's interface was something private and unless the owner wanted it, no one would be able to see the interface. However, Li Wei could clearly see her actions.
He did not get to see her character stats, all he saw was her finger swiftly moving through the options and sending him a friend request. The girl did not even say anything and simply vanished from the scorching ground.
"Sigh... Yet another friend request from the Li Family..."
...
The next day, as Li Yuxin said, was the event day of the guild. After a few weeks, it was clear that the guild had grown. More players could be seen, and many seemed to be normal players. They gave out a different vibe from the martial artists, looking more casual and relaxed.
Li Wei silently made his way through the crowd towards his designated location. After yesterday's fight, he went back to the inn and holed himself up. His plan of obtaining the Moon Stone has failed and he now needed another way to obtain it. This item could not simply be bought at stores. He now had three choices, either go through the same path and aim for a 20 win streak, go and look out for a Moon Stone in the wild or lastly, ask a profession type player to purchase the Moon Stone. In the end, he settled on the last one and decided to ask Moody Writer for help later.
After a few minutes, Li Wei finally arrived at the meeting point of his team. This time, he would end up with his usual team. For some reason, the usual parties were not separated this time and Li Wei stood with the familiar faces.
"Hey! Long time no see!" said The One Hero as he tried to place his arm across Li Wei's neck.
The latter swiftly ducked and dodged. "Hello! "
"This is not fun! Does my armpit smell or something? No one allows me to do that!" complained The One Hero.
Hearing that, many of the surrounding people let out faint smiles.
Seeing that his party was all here, Cai Wenji stepped forward: "Since everyone is here, we'll split into two teams. Let's discuss this out!"
"This time, we have the choice to which Time Attack we want to attempt. We can do all three of them!" commented Bright Sun.
"Sure! I want to go to the island of desolation! Fighting these barbarians without any skills is a real challenge!"
"Tsssk, you are just scared of the ghouls of the Graveyard of Longsoul!" teased the ranger. The two ended up teaming together for the last guild gathering and their performance was quite pathetic.
"Shhh. We already said we would not mention this again!!"
"Ok ok. Let's be serious for a moment!" interjected Cai Wenji. "We should divide the party first and balance it out!"
After a few minutes of deliberation, Li Wei ended up with Titan, Silent Day, Bright Sun and the mage. The other party ended up without a mage, but they did not mind it since they were planning on going to the island of desolation which had a special environment that would slowly drain the mana of the players. In this scenario, mage was the worst possible class for the Time Attack.
As for Li Wei's team, they voted on going to Alyssa's Lair. It was not harder than the Graveyard of Longsoul. As long as they were careful and avoided being bitten by the spiders, everything would be fine.
Since everyone was gathered, all the players slowly walked to the Hall of Fame. In Li Wei's eyes, most players were level 13-14, a few were even level 15. It was clear that this event would probably be the last one related to the Time Attacks. Beyond level 15, there would be no point in attempting them since they would no longer be able to change the record. Although they could still do it to help bond the players, it would be better to do this in the dungeon or other locations.
"What is up with you today? You don't seem in a good mood," asked Bright Sun. She was automatically selected as the leader of the team and was leading the group. She had some experience in doing so and quickly noticed Li Wei's expression.
"It's alright, just did not get enough sleep. "
"Really? Then why are you looking around as if you are looking for someone?" suspiciously asked Bright Sun. This was the one thing that attracted her attention, Li Wei usually looked dull and unconcerned about his surroundings but today, for some reasons, he seemed to be in a bad mood and wary of his environment.
"It's just that there are more people this time. I’m looking around to see if I recognize anyone!"
"If you say so! As long as you are not distracted for the Time Attack," answered Bright Sun as she followed Li Wei's sight but seeing nothing suspicious she let out a faint sigh of relief.
The group quickly arrived at the Hall of Fame but the scene in front of them, caused everyone's jaws to drop. Yesterday, all the records looked completely fine, most of them had been improved but the solo guy was still at the top of the leaderboard.
Yet, in just one night, a massive change occurred, the solo player was still at the top, but the thing was that he left all the other records in the dust! For the Island of Desolation, he completed the Time attack in 2 minutes 54 seconds while the second record made by a team of five took 17 minutes and 4 seconds!
For the Graveyard of Longsoul, the solo player had a time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds while the second record was at 17 minutes!
And lastly, Alyssa's lair was beaten in 3 minutes! Exactly 15 minutes ahead of the second team.
"What kind of record is that! Is there a bug?" exclaimed a player.
Immediately, many of the surrounding players responded: "There should be a bug! It's impossible to cover the Island of Desolation in less than 3 minutes! We should report this incident!"
"He literally crushed all these records! He must have cheated!"
Everybody was shocked by these records! When the players left last night, all the records were still normal. In just one night, that player completely set his records in stone!
While many players were discussing the records, the special players of the Fleeting Clouds Sect were also discussing among themselves.
"That guy placed the bar really high! He should be someone who knows the insider's information and decided to monopolize the rewards," said one of the slow leveling players.
When they saw the records last week, none of the players were anxious. They quickly determined that to have a better score than anyone else, the player relied on items to achieve his record. That was something possible but, in that case, as five, they would easily be able to take back the record. Yet, it turned out that the player had another trick up his sleeve and brought the record down.
"Even if we use 500 Explosive bombs in the Graveyard of Longsoul, there is no way to complete the Time Attack that quickly!" commented a player.
"Is there even a purpose to challenge this record? We took our time to learn our techniques but I really don't see how we can beat that time!"
"We cannot give up like that! One guy was able to get that time. If we act as five, we should be able to do that too!"
"You are right! But if it is not a bug, then that means that the Time Attacks might contain some hidden elements! We should investigate that before attempting our own run. The guild prepared a lot of items for us but if we go now, it will only be wasted!"
"At least, these records can tell us one thing! If that player did not wait for two weeks when the Time Attacks would be settled. Then that means that he probably planned on leveling up soon. There is a huge probability that he is already level 16! That means, that he would not interfere with the records anymore!"
The last speaker’s words immediately reassured everyone. It was true, there would be no reason to obtain set the records that early, unless, that player already leveled up.
“We need to investigate more. We are at a disadvantage compared to the teams of the Millenium Empire. That player might sell his tricks!”