Let Skill Decide Who Comes Out on Top

The War Hero Family was a major guild, and its Ninth Branch had been booming in recent years. As for who had made the biggest splash within the Ninth Branch, that honor unquestionably belonged to the Ninth Division.

Although the Ninth Division could not yet compare with the elite teams at the War Hero Family's headquarters, its rise was plain for everyone to see. War Hero Yi Yan's abilities had long since won recognition throughout the guild-he had taken a lousy division that originally numbered barely eight hundred and turned it into one of the most profitable divisions in the entire guild! If that wasn't talent, what was?

Profit was a minor matter. A guild as large as the War Hero Family hardly needed that little bit of money. The real point was that the Ninth Division had supplied headquarters' elite teams with plenty of talent!

Headquarters had only three elite teams, totaling barely three hundred members, and over thirty of them had come from the Ninth Division of the Ninth Branch. That was seriously impressive!

With that background, it would have been strange if other major guilds hadn't set their sights on the Ninth Division.

That mage was so skilled and so well equipped that he might very well have been an elite member of another major guild, sent by its leaders to target the Ninth Division. Sacrificing one person's leveling time to hamper the leveling speed of most of their members was undoubtedly a very good trade.

When War Hero Yi Yan shared his theory with Kuang Dao, the furious man who had sworn to hunt down the mage and fight him to the death stopped making threats. After all, the interests of the entire division were at stake. He couldn't afford to lose sight of the bigger picture at a time like this. Kuang Dao might have been arrogant, but he wasn't oblivious to the greater good. Otherwise, how could he have led a division?

"So what do we do? Just keep dragging this out?" Kuang Dao viciously drove his blue, excellent-quality saber into the ground and angrily twisted it a few times.

"He's clearly trying to get us worked up. Playing into his hands is the last thing we should do," War Hero Yi Yan said slowly. "If he has a major guild behind him, the War Hero name won't scare him. Besides, he's alone. Even if he dies, he won't lose much, so we can't frighten him off. Why don't we... just ignore him? Let him jump around all he likes. He's not a boss, after all. It's not like he can rush out and wipe out an entire raid in one hit. Everyone can keep leveling as usual and pretend nothing happened. If he occasionally comes out and one-shots one or two people, let him. I'll cover the losses."

Kuang Dao nodded. "That could work, but it'll really damage War Hero's reputation. If he records it and posts the video on the official website, it won't look good."

"That's exactly what he wants you to think," War Hero Yi Yan said with a smile. "If you fight back to prove you'd rather die than suffer humiliation, will that scare him away? He'll just kill more of us and get even more footage. Even if you're lucky enough to catch and kill him once, he can simply show off his kills and deaths. We'll still be the ones losing face."

"I know all that..." Kuang Dao twisted his saber a few more times and said sullenly, "I just can't quite stomach it."

"That's easily handled," War Hero Yi Yan said with a faint smile. "Isn't his name One Leaf Windwalk? Since he worships God Ye so much, we'll post something mocking him. Say that with his pathetic skills, he has the nerve to call himself One Leaf Windwalk and steal God Ye's ID. Utterly shameless! Just watch. Plenty of 'Leaves' will jump out to curse him and demand he give the name back. Then hardly anyone will pay attention to what happened to us. We won't even have to waste War Hero's paid posters on a flame war. Countless 'Wolf Brushes' and 'Leaves' out there will do our work for us voluntarily. That's called redirecting attention."

Kuang Dao gave him a thumbs-up, thoroughly impressed. "Devious! Absolutely devious! Say no more. We'll do it your way."

Xiao Xiaoxian had been listening intently to their conversation from the sidelines. Only now did he suddenly interrupt. "Then... what if he really is God Ye? What do we do?"

War Hero Yi Yan froze. He genuinely hadn't considered that possibility. After all, God Ye was so... far above them. Would he really be bored enough to enter a game and wage guerrilla warfare against ordinary players? That was ridiculous!

"This guy is definitely a diehard One Leaf Windwalk fan!" War Hero Yi Yan declared with absolute certainty, then smiled. "Even if he really is God Ye, I'm sure he wasn't recording at the beginning. Would someone like him come all the way to this godforsaken beginner zone specifically to give us trouble? Since he didn't record what Kuang Dao shouted at the start, we can simply twist the story and say he was bullying weaker players. Either way, we won't lose the moral high ground."

"Oh..." Xiao Xiaoxian had nothing more to say. In truth, he had only wanted confirmation from his division leader. He didn't really believe that was the actual One Leaf Windwalk either. After all, how much was God Ye worth? To put it bluntly, the man made hundreds of thousands a minute. Would he come into a game to play make-believe with them? That would be far too childish!

War Hero Yi Yan's strategy was correct. Once they put their policy of ignoring him into practice, their opponent did indeed stop acting. Although the timing was a little odd, who cared? As long as everyone could coexist peacefully, all was well. Harmony-harmony was what mattered!

Ye Fengxing no longer had time to keep tangling with these people, because Brick was almost there, and he was bringing that little idiot Sky Wanderer along...

At the moment, he was mulling things over... This War Hero team had decent equipment and reasonably good skills. He was clearly outnumbered! If a fight broke out, he could certainly live up to "One Leaf Windwalk" and go wherever he pleased, but Brick and Sky would be done for.

Given the War Hero Family's usual way of doing things, the two little idiots would surely be beaten into the ground and camped until they couldn't move an inch.

Ye Fengxing sent a message telling Brick to the Face and Sky Wanderer to circle around along the edge of the woods. The instant they saw it, their faces went several shades paler. They had already trekked over mountains and across rivers to get here, and now he wanted them to go around the Donal Jungle and enter from its outskirts? This was simply... simply asking too much!

Brick was a chubby guy in real life. His weight had reportedly once soared past a hundred kilograms! He had never liked moving much. Playing games counted as strenuous exercise for him-if mental exercise counted as exercise at all.

Although trekking over mountains and across rivers in a game didn't consume any actual physical stamina, it could easily cause mental fatigue... Brick was a perfect example. He had only walked for a few hours and already couldn't take it anymore, but under a certain someone's tyrannical rule, he had no choice but to endure.

Because of the change in route, the two poor suckers had another hour or so of unnecessary travel ahead of them. Ye Fengxing couldn't be bothered to trouble anyone else during that time. Going back and taking care of Adaric's situation first was what really mattered.

Humming a little tune, he returned to the vicinity of the cave from before. With his keen hearing, he had already noticed people nearby. Left with no choice, he entered Wind Stealth and slowly crept over.

Those people belonged to the War Hero Family. Judging by their arrangement of three people per group, they were probably two groups that had joined forces to fight monsters.

Ye Fengxing crept up beside the cave entrance and slipped inside while they weren't paying attention.

Thick, tall grass grew all around the cave, including its entrance, but it wasn't quite tall enough to conceal the opening completely. Although Ye Fengxing was invisible, he couldn't simply stride in and trample the grass flat. The War Hero players were neither blind nor deaf. If they noticed something unusual, they would surely come over to investigate.

Generally speaking, caves in games tended to contain good things, whether elite monsters or rare treasure chests... In short, ducking into any cave they spotted had long since become a habit for most players.

Ye Fengxing was invisible, but good old Adaric wasn't. With that enormous body of his, avoiding attention would be difficult... Once someone discovered a level 83 boss hiding inside with only 4 HP left, who could resist?!

Well, not everyone could be as "stupid" as Ye Fengxing, refraining from killing a boss on sight, suppressing the impulse long enough to analyze the situation, and finally arriving at a judgment unlike anyone else's.

He had developed that habit of thinking purely because Blue Star's designers had screwed him over so badly in the past. Having learned his lesson, he never forgot to try thinking things through in reverse! From the looks of it, the results were pretty good.

In short, he absolutely could not let anyone else discover this place. However formidable Ye Fengxing was, he was still only a mage, not a healer. Keeping himself alive was one thing, but asking him to keep Adaric alive was really a bit much.

"How does it feel to slaughter your own kind?" Adaric's tongue was as sharp as ever.

"Not bad. Nothing special." Ye Fengxing felt no guilt whatsoever about "slaughtering his own kind." Never mind that this was only a game-even in real life, he was a man with countless departed souls clinging to him. Would a single remark from Adaric make him feel guilty? Angry? Suddenly repent?

After trading a few barbs, Ye Fengxing remembered that there were still people outside the cave. He simply found another strip of cloth and gagged Adaric again.

Poor old Adaric... According to the game's story, he was supposed to be a heroic figure who would rather sacrifice himself than burden others! How had he become a miserable victim of abuse in Ye Fengxing's hands...

Ye Fengxing switched out of the game and browsed the posts on the official website. He discovered that his direct run through the Ghostly Cave on Hell Mode with Ironhead and Kawaii had become an enormous sensation. Posts about it were everywhere on the official forums.

Gossip was part of human nature. Ye Fengxing had to admit that was very true. Hadn't he merely hidden his name? Did they really need to dig into every last detail like this? The flames of gossip in these people's hearts were burning far too fiercely...

One post quickly caught Ye Fengxing's attention because its author was named "Too Late to Shoot," a player of mage-god caliber! Apparently, he had joined the North America Region's Shenluo Team in recent years and become its star mage.

Ye Fengxing had faced Too Late to Shoot before. The man truly deserved his reputation as a mage god. His mechanics, awareness, and instinct were all on par with Lan Xi's! If he had won a World Cup championship, his fame would surely have rivaled Lan Xi's.

In his post, Too Late to Shoot stated that his team greatly admired the achievements of the three mysterious players and offered their sincere congratulations... But that did not mean they conceded defeat. In future dungeons and contests for first kills on world bosses, they would rise to challenge the established authorities. Everyone would rely on their own skills, and they would see who came out on top!

At first glance, there was nothing unusual about that statement, but attentive readers soon picked out a small thorn hidden within it... Who was Too Late to Shoot? A professional player! And even among professionals, he was one of the very best! So just who could make him use words like "challenge the established authorities"?