Chapter 221 - The Incriminating Evidence Gone
Gu Fei was capable of insta-killing his foes with fast and unpredictable attacks. It was so fast that in the time Youthful Reflection received the notification of his men’s deaths, sent out an inquiry, and received his reply, only two Thieves were alive of the twenty-man squad.
Those Four Seas’ members that had been sent out of the PvP arena bemoaned on the mercenary channel about their senseless deaths at the hands of the vicious Gu Fei. With how merciless he had been to them, had Youthful Reflection really convinced him to defect into their group or had he riled him up instead? This was the question brewing in everyone’s mind.
Youthful Reflection felt very pissed when he learned of this. He no longer entertained the thought of having Gu Fei into his mercenary group since it was evident that he had been tricked. It was fine for Gu Fei to not reciprocate his feelings, but for him to actually take advantage of his offer to pull a fast one on him... Youthful Reflection regarded such people with utter contempt.
He quickly did a clear account of the current situation when his anger cooled off. In terms of points, Four Seas was at a disadvantage with a score of 3 against 21. Four Seas only had five Archers and four Thieves, while Young Master’s Elite had a Mage, an Archer, and a Thief.
In terms of speed, the remaining nine members of Four Seas were not at a disadvantage. The players Youthful Reflection had picked for the ambush team were the faster members among the thirty players, and those two Thieves that had successfully escaped from the three enemy players before were not any slower. Grand Kiting strategy? Youthful Reflection was not afraid of that. When it came to movement speed, the nine of them would not struggle to pit themselves against the three enemies.
What he was really afraid of was clashing with the three enemies head on. After all, they were now aware of Royal God Call’s high Attack Power, Gu Fei’s merciless slaying capability, and Sword Demon’s excellent diversionary tactics and team play. Just how should we deal with them? Youthful Reflection pondered on this as he looked at the eight players before him.
On Gu Fei, Royal God Call, and Sword Demon’s end, the three were mainly eating food to recover HP and mana as they consolidated the matter of killing eighteen men together. No matter how skilled a player was, participating in that sort of skirmish without getting injured was impossible. When there was no alternative left, taking some damage in exchange for the enemies’ lives was already a reflection of a player’s exceptional judgment. And yet, Gu Fei did not even drop a bit of his HP in that fight moments ago, which rendered Sword Demon and Royal God Call in awe.
“There are still nine players left on their side.” The three took the time that they were eating bread and fruit to discuss their next PvP step.
“Youthful Reflection has yet to make an appearance!” Royal God Call suddenly remarked.
“How strong is he?” Sword Demon asked.
“I haven’t seen him in action, but he’s someone with many wacky ideas, so he’s probably the sort that speaks more than he acts,” Royal God Call replied.
“It’s just nine players. Let’s just surround them once more and be done with it,” Gu Fei suggested.
Sword Demon and Royal God Call nodded their heads in agreement. Since they did not know that Young Master Han’s machination was what had allowed them to easily eliminate those eighteen men in one go earlier, it was only natural for the three to think that taking down the last nine players would be a simple task. Royal God Call even thought that he could kill them all by himself upon realizing that the opposing team no longer had a Priest with them.
“So how’s your mana/HP recovery?” the three men asked one another, only heading out after ensuring that everyone was in top condition.
High ground! These three decided to find the enemies’ location first.
A hillock was not too far from them, and as the three proceeded toward it, they caught sight of human activity from atop the hill; obviously, this meant that there were already people occupying the hillock.
It was no surprise for their opponents to also head over to a high ground as they were probably searching for the three of them as well. The three exchanged looks and immediately split up to do their thing.
The enemies disappeared from the hilltop, so Royal God Call sprinted over to the back of it. The long-range advantage he possessed let him launch an attack from halfway up the sloping land mass.
Sword Demon and Gu Fei advanced to the left and right respectively while they took note of boulders and such that could provide them cover and prevent the enemy Archers from having a line of fire of them. Just as they were almost at the hillock, they heard Royal God Call curse loudly, “F*CK ME!”
A system notification sounded following this one shout; Royal God Call was eliminated from the match.
“We’ve been tricked!” Royal God Call fumed on the mercenary channel, “There is an ambush ready at the back of the hillock, so be careful, you two!”
“Alright… We’ll attack from the front, then!” Gu Fei laughed. He did not think much of Royal God Call’s sacrifice. Just like how Royal God Call had thought that he could shoot all nine men by himself, Gu Fei had also surmised that killing the remaining players was within his capacity. In fact, it would not matter even if Sword Demon was killed off as well.
At the thought of Sword Demon, Gu Fei looked to the side and saw him activating his Stealth. Gu Fei did not know where Sword Demon went after that, since the latter’s attention was currently not on him.
This was how a little misunderstanding occurred between them; Sword Demon thought Stealth was useless on Gu Fei, and that the latter would be able to see his movement and match his speed accordingly. Unfortunately for him, Gu Fei was clueless about all this and merely continued to rush forward at his top speed.
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A Thief’s speed would be reduced significantly while on Stealth, so Sword Demon had no means to catch up to Gu Fei at all. Unwilling to cancel Stealth, he asked loudly instead, “Hey! What are you going so fast for?”
By the time his shout reached Gu Fei’s ears, the latter had already mumbled, “Translocation! Blink!”
Just as he turned around in reaction to Sword Demon’s shout, he was teleported atop the hillock.
A gentle breeze rolled on the hilltop. Gu Fei could only roughly judge Sword Demon’s position. He did not have the time to carefully search for the other as someone in front of him was already fixating his eyes on him.
Youthful Reflection was staring at Gu Fei as if he strongly wished to ask him something.
The two were no more than five meters apart. With a bow in his left hand, Youthful Reflection suddenly put his right hand into his dimensional pocket....
It’s coming! Gu Fei cried out in his mind. His Blink was still on cool-down, so Gu Fei could only close in on the enemy with his fastest speed. Running diagonally across Youthful Reflection, Gu Fei kept his body low on the ground to better dodge the attack that could be coming at any time.
Gu Fei reached Youthful Reflection’s side in a few steps. Without straightening up his body, Gu Fei made an oblique cut from the bottom right to the top left with his sword as he yelled, “Twin Incineration! Incinerate!”
Youthful Reflection, who had taken something out of his pocket, waved it at Gu Fei and asked, “What are you—”
Gu Fei did not get to hear what he was about to say as his hand moved faster than a person’s speech. The purple blade’s fiery glow created an afterimage as it killed off Youthful Reflection who had a surprised expression on his face.
Youthful Reflection was still in that odd pose when he appeared at the square by the Hall of Mercenaries. No matter how anyone looked at it, his posture did not resemble a person who was about to attack. His right hand was held in a position where his thumb, middle finger, and forefinger were pressing against one another, yet there was nothing between them at all.
“Where’s the letter?! Where has it gone to?!” Youthful Reflection returned to his senses when he saw nothing between his fingers. He searched his dimensional pocket and looked around him, yet the letter was nowhere to be found. That was the incriminating evidence that would expose Gu Fei’s lack of character. Youthful Reflection had already thought this whole thing through; no matter how the match went, he was not going to let go of this matter with Gu Fei. While it was indeed quite dishonorable of him to attempt to poach someone from another group, this was something almost every guild leader was also doing, so everyone more or less accepted it as the norm.
However, Gu Fei’s action was just too despicable. It would have been fine if he had rejected the offer. For Gu Fei to actually make use of it to scheme against him, Youthful Reflection believed that if the letter was made public, Gu Fei would no longer be seen by others as someone worthy of attracting. He only needed to give this matter a little nudge, and it would most likely tip over into a situation where Gu Fei would become public enemy number one for his vile conduct. No matter how strong he was, he would surely be unable to fight against all the guilds in Yunduan City.
Youthful Reflection was proud of himself for coming up with such a step. He took out that letter to tell Gu Fei of his plan and to see in person if Gu Fei would be remorseful of his actions or be embarrassed at being thoroughly exposed.
Unexpectedly, the shameless Gu Fei had not even shown a hint of contrition and had actually taken that opportunity to attack him, instead.
At this moment, Youthful Reflection resolved to exact revenge on Gu Fei, yet he could not find Thousand Miles Drunk’s letter of reply, which was the key item for his revenge.
Where was the letter? That letter was actually still in the PvP arena, except that it had already been burned into ash and scattered by the wind. Facing Twin Incineration that could even insta-kill players, what else could that letter turn into but a pile of ash?
Gu Fei was feeling a little sad, too. His fast attack execution had prevented him from getting a good look of the item Youthful Reflection had been waving in his hand just then. He thought that it was a weapon of sort. But why did it turn into ash? Gu Fei grabbed bits of the scattering ashes and inspected them. Was it a powerful magic scroll? As Gu Fei was thinking of this, the sound of the familiar twang of bowstrings clued him in to the fact that a number of arrows had been fired off toward him.
This was Youthful Reflection’s original plan. While he distracted Gu Fei, the other Archers would concentrate their firepower to assassinate the latter. None had expected for Youthful Reflection to be swiftly struck down by Gu Fei upon his arrival on the hilltop, however. The remaining players did not know what to do at this point, so when they saw Gu Fei’s dazed expression, they immediately fired off arrows on Homing Projectile at him.
Since their Snipe was on cool-down after using it to dispose of Royal God Call moments ago, these Archers opted to use the Homing Projectile skill to attack Gu Fei.
Sadly, this skill was just too slow when used against Gu Fei. Extending his arm out and shaking his wrist lightly, he swatted down the four arrows on Homing Projectile heading his way. Gu Fei’s sword did not stop there. He abruptly turned around with his sword held aloft and stabbed four times, revealing the four menacing Thieves behind him.
Twin Incineration’s cool-down time ended just now. Gu Fei gauged the position of the four Thieves and then flicked his sword out to vanquish three of them right there and then. The final Thief lost his will to fight and turned tail. Gu Fei hurriedly chased after the lone Thief, yet he did not rush to attack him.
Those four Archers who were watching this scene felt like crying yet no tears would come out of their eyes.
With how Gu Fei was sticking to the Thief, even if they wanted to fire at him, their line of sight was perfectly blocked off by their fleeing comrade.