Infighting and Stubbornness (2-in-1)

Li Shuyi's new equipment: Basha's Entanglement, with the added skill Strangling Assault, finally proved effective.

Within 6 seconds, Qiao Rui was not only Imprisonment but also suffered 1% damage per second. Of course, the damage was secondary; the key point was that the Binding Sigil of the Sonic Strike Array only lasted for 5 seconds, and it triggered first, ending prematurely.

Li Shuyi kicked the water with her feet, and with the acceleration from the fish bladder, she easily reached Qiao Rui's side and thrust her twin swords again.

With two hissing sounds, blood mist burst from Qiao Rui's body.

Li Shuyi was somewhat surprised, not expecting Qiao Rui not to activate her Soulwalk. She had originally thought that the two sword strikes would miss.

An exciting thought arose in Li Shuyi's mind: Had Qiao Rui run out of Soulwalk attempts? Or was her Divine Might insufficient?

With this thought in mind, Li Shuyi's right hand trembled, and the Triple Slash was already underway.

"Feel sorry."

Suddenly, Qiao Rui's voice rang in Li Shuyi's heart, containing only two simple words.

Li Shuyi seemed a little bewildered, but her hands moved with remarkable speed.

A burst of black light erupted from Qiao Rui's bamboo flute.

Sonic Strike Array - The Annihilation Rest!

It was as if a heavy hammer had struck Li Shuyi's heart. Her movements suddenly froze, and her already low Life Value plummeted instantly, reaching zero!

The news of Qiao Rui killing Li Shuyi did not cause much of a stir. The audience's attention was focused on Ouyang Heng.

Yes, Ouyang Heng has lost twice in a row.

Including the first True Kill Mode match, he has been killed by Bai Xiaowen three times!

You can argue once, and you can even force yourself to back it up twice, but a third time... you just can't fool yourself anymore.

It's important to know that in this kill, Bai Xiaowen didn't use any ultimate skills with extremely long cooldowns. He only used the two combat skills, Intimidation and Talisman Switching, along with summoned creatures like Butcher and Rageclaw, to gang up on Ouyang Heng, who was at full strength, and he fell.

What does this tell us?

The gap in strength is greater than imagined! Moreover, when Ouyang Heng revives next time... Bai Xiaowen's combat skills will be almost ready again, and he will also be able to replicate this victory once more.

Considering the timing of their awakenings, this outcome undoubtedly made Ouyang Heng feel even more uncomfortable. It was like being a top-tier All-Star player in the NBA during the Common Era, having spent several years there, being dunked on by a rookie.

Okay, and not just once, it was a series of consecutive hookups...

Ouyang Heng, in Ghost form, floated above the Life Altar.

"I can't beat him... Why can't I beat him? Why can't I beat him?"

Ouyang Heng felt a deep sense of despair; his previously almost arrogant confidence had been shattered by Bai Xiaowen.

On the other side, Bai Xiaowen was shocked to receive news that Li Shuyi had been killed.

"We underestimated Qiao Rui's explosive potential."

Unable to contact Li Shuyi, who was in Ghost form, Bai Xiaowen could only play it safe. Instead of seizing other islands, he focused on guarding the Central Gold Mine. The current resource progress ratio was 4:2, with Jinghai University having the advantage, so there was no need to take any risks.

Yenching Yanda University also showed great patience. After Xie Yixin was resurrected, she stayed at the Main Base until MT Wu Chaojie was resurrected. The two then joined Qiao Rui, who had returned, and headed to the research institute on the southern section of the East Road together. If they had delayed for a few more minutes, Jinghai University would have obtained its first war item.

Xiang Hui had already evacuated the research institute, handing it over without a second thought. At this time, Han Xu Feng Zi'ang, who had been resurrected by Jinghai University, also reoccupied the Beast Pen in the northern section of the western road.

During the period when both sides were out of sorts, they adopted a defensive strategy and no fierce battles broke out. The resource progress remained at a rate of 4:2 per minute, with Jinghai University having the advantage.

However, in the 15th minute, after Li Shuyi was revived, Jinghai University launched another attack – a good opportunity.

Because of the headcount ratio, Ouyang Heng's resurrection will take longer, and with the previous queue time, he will need another 4 minutes.

Four minutes isn't actually that long; it's just enough time to fight over buildings on two neighboring islands.

This shows Qiao Rui's strategic vision; her choice of the timing for killing Li Shuyi was very subtle.

If Qiao Rui were to use her ultimate move to kill Li Shuyi at the very beginning of the encounter, it would seem clean and efficient, but she wouldn't be able to get there in time to support Ouyang Heng, and Li Shuyi would revive a few minutes earlier. This would give Jinghai University a considerable amount of time to complete its lineup, putting even more pressure on Yanda University.

Of course, Qiao Rui's ultimate move, "Annihilation Rest," cannot be activated casually. Paying a price is one aspect, but there are also prerequisites for its activation.

In response to Jinghai University's attack, Yanda University adopted a harassment tactic, leveraging its advantage in long-range attacks to disrupt Jinghai University's melee team from capturing the flag.

Upon encountering Bai Xiaowen, the four students from Yanda University, including Qiao Rui, fled immediately and instead went to seize other resource buildings already occupied by Jinghai University.

This tactic of avoiding the enemy's strength and attacking their weaknesses was very effective. During these four minutes, the two sides maintained a resource ratio of 4:2 overall. Jinghai University only managed to seize two or three more resources, which was negligible.

Viewers were surprised to find that Yanda University did not collapse while its main captain, Ouyang Heng, was reflecting on his mistakes and waiting to be resurrected.

In fact, if it weren't for Kitz and Fatty guarding the Central Gold Mine, control of the Gold Mine might have changed hands. Even if it was only for a few minutes, the difference in resources between the two would have allowed Yanda University to close the gap.

It can only be said that Bai Xiaowen's summoned creatures are too overpowered, as they can act autonomously even when they are far from Bai Xiaowen's Divine Might control.

What's even more commendable is that Yanda University didn't continue to feed kills and delay their own respawn time.

Finally, Ouyang Heng was resurrected. He immediately connected to the public channel and just in time to hear Qiao Rui's calm commands:

"They're attacking the research institute. Xie Yixin, retreat temporarily. Wu Chaojie and Zheng Bing, come with me to the institute to provide support. Let's launch a counter-encirclement while Xiao Wen is away..."

"Why isn't Bai Xiaowen here?" Wu Chaojie asked.

"Because our captain has been resurrected, Xiao Wen has gone back to guard the Gold Mine," Qiao Rui said calmly. "Our captain might be stubborn and go back to the Central Gold Mine to challenge him to a duel."

"This... how could this be..." Zheng Bing chuckled awkwardly.

"If there's one or two, why can't there be a third?" Qiao Rui said. "With neither side having effective detection methods, no matter how the troops are arranged, there's always a probability involved; nothing is 100% impossible. The Blue team's main objective is very clear: to protect the Gold Mine at all costs and drag the game out until they have full resources and win."

Ouyang Heng's temples throbbed; he felt his temper, which he had finally managed to calm down after facing the wall for a few minutes, was flaring up again.

Suppressing his frustration, Ouyang Heng said, "Qiao Rui, since that's the case, why don't we team up and try to seize the Gold Mine? I checked, it's 22 minutes now, and the resource ratio is 87:42. We're at a huge disadvantage. Only by reclaiming the Gold Mine can we turn the tide; otherwise, it's just slow suicide."

The team members were all a little stunned. Ouyang Heng had always been the commander in the team, and his word was law. It was quite rare for him to speak to Qiao Rui in a consultative tone.

Ouyang Heng kept telling himself to stay calm and not act impulsively... The conflict with Qiao Rui could be resolved after the match; arguing now would only lead to losing the game and making Bai Xiaowen gloat.

However, Qiao Rui's next words caused Ouyang Heng to lose control again.

"Why don't we team up and raid the Gold Mine? Because we can't win."

Qiao Rui remained indifferent, unmoved by Ouyang Heng's conciliatory tone, and calmly said, "In the last True Kill Mode, we had the advantage of a surprise Ambush, but we were still defeated. This shows that Xiao Wen's strength has exceeded the combined strength of you and me. If we fight head-on, we have no chance of winning."

In the channel, Ouyang Heng remained silent for a moment, while the others were somewhat frightened, waiting for Ouyang Heng to lash out.

Wu Chaojie coughed and said, "Qiao Rui, Bai Xiaowen is our opponent. You keep calling her 'Xiao Wen,' isn't that a bit too intimate? People who don't know the situation might think you have some kind of private relationship with Bai Xiaowen and start to doubt your attitude towards the competition."

Qiao Rui interrupted Wu Chaojie, coldly saying, "You're the one who's doubting me... It's alright, just say it directly. If you doubt my attitude towards the competition, you can complain to the school, or even the authorities. As long as the school determines otherwise, I'll accept any punishment."

Wu Chaojie was so speechless that he rolled his eyes.

Zheng Bing quickly tried to smooth things over. "That's shameless of you, don't say that. Senior Qiao Rui has already tried her best. If it weren't for her leadership, we might have already collapsed."

Xie Yixin: "Yeah, that's shameless. You went a bit too far."

Qiao Rui was silent for a moment, then seemed to sigh, "I don't want to see internal strife, but if we don't trust each other, we can't win the game at all. I'm not someone who likes to lead a team, so I'm just expressing my personal opinion."

"Analyzing the current situation, we have a high probability of losing the team fight. Even if we manage to tie with the enemy and trade a few kills for a few of theirs, it won't make any difference; it will only worsen our disadvantage because we're already two kills behind them and our respawn time is longer."

"As for using trump cards and winning at all costs, that's certainly possible, but such a temporary victory isn't fatal to the opponent. Their respawn time is very short now, and even if they respawn at full strength, we still can't beat them."

"Therefore, our best option now is to avoid Xiao Wen and focus on eliminating the others... slowly accumulating a numerical advantage."

"Once the opponent's single respawn time exceeds 10 minutes, we'll find another opportunity to use items or scrolls to assist in a team fight and wipe out the opponent, then try to finish off Xiao Wen. In that case, including the respawn queue time for everyone else, it will take Xiao Wen almost an hour to return to the battlefield! With that hour, we can definitely prioritize plundering 300 resources and win the game."

Qiao Rui's implication was... apart from Bai Xiaowen, everyone else from Jinghai University was weak and posed no threat.

His final words undoubtedly resonated with everyone.

After being completely overwhelmed by Jinghai University, the Yanda University team rediscovered the key to victory.

Ouyang Heng didn't have much to say. Although he felt that Qiao Rui was somewhat threatening his leadership position, making him a little uncomfortable, it was hard to find fault with the tactics Qiao Rui mentioned... mainly because after Ouyang Heng himself gave away two waves of kills, he no longer had the absolute authority he used to have.

Ouyang Heng could only console himself with the thought that as long as they won the game, the greatest credit would still go to him as the captain. So what if Qiao Rui was in charge now?

In the following matches, Yanda University continued with the tactics they used before Ouyang Heng was revived, disregarding the gains and losses of resource buildings and focusing on hit-and-run tactics and harassment.

However, with the addition of Ouyang Heng, a powerful warrior skilled in naval warfare, Yanda University's overall strength has indeed increased significantly. In a battle at the research institute, they blocked Xiang Hui, Han Xu, and Feng Zi'ang from Jinghai University, achieving a small team wipe with zero to three!

"They didn't run away immediately after seeing Ouyang Heng, that shouldn't be the case," Li Shuyi said.

"We must have been tricked," Bai Xiaowen sighed and rubbed his temples. "The lake is a natural barrier. If we only saw two enemies at the beginning and didn't know that Ouyang Heng and Wu Chaojie were hiding under the boat, it would have been easy to be careless."

"That makes sense... Feng Zi'ang's Psychic Sensing isn't as strong as yours, so the other side must have Psychic Shielding," Li Shuyi said.

Bai Xiaowen laughed and said, "It's my fault. I didn't expect Ouyang Heng to change his mind and not continue attacking the Central Gold Mine. I've been guarding here for so long for nothing... Maybe I underestimated Ouyang Heng, or maybe the enemy changed commanders."

Li Shuyi said, "We've lost three teammates, so the enemy will probably try to take our resource buildings. Should we abandon the Gold Mine?"

Bai Xiaowen shook his head and laughed, "Why give up? If they want to come, let them come. To put it bluntly, it's just two Boss Tier with three Elite Tier. Haven't you and I seen enough of that before?"

Li Shuyi paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Okay, I'll come and meet you right away."

Strictly speaking, Bai Xiaowen's statement is inaccurate. Awakened Hero Class Classes are generally more difficult to deal with than Boss Tier of the same level, especially Ouyang Heng and Qiao Rui. They are both powerful Hero Class with exclusive equipment, abundant debuff removal and control abilities and items, and their fighting style is far more flexible than that of BOSSes. Their strength is equivalent to that of Advanced Boss.

Of course, Ouyang Heng and Qiao Rui's weakness lies in the fact that their Life Value are far lower than those of Advanced Boss. Once an opening is found, they can be instantly killed.

At this moment, the public channel of the Yenching University team was also filled with heated debate.

"Now is a great opportunity, let's go straight for the Gold Mine! It's time to take back the initiative," Wu Chaojie said excitedly.

"No, we still need to stick to the original strategy, avoid Xiao Wen's Gold Mine, and take over the four resource buildings in the four corners," Qiao Rui said helplessly. She saw through it at a glance; Wu Chaojie's actions were most likely at Ouyang Heng's behest, acting as a vanguard for Ouyang Heng.

"What? Now that there are only two of them left on the other side, we're still going to lose five against two?" Wu Chaojie said, dissatisfied.

Ouyang Heng chimed in, "That's right, Qiao Rui. Don't exaggerate Bai Xiaowen's abilities. No matter how powerful he is, he's no match for us! I doubt he'd even dare to stay in the Gold Mine. If he's stubborn, we can send him to reflect on his actions!"

There was a bug, it's been fixed.