83: The name of treachery

"Ranked Matches!"

As Xu Le thought of it, information about the Xiaoyao Realm surfaced before his eyes.

[Spend 5 xiaoyao coins to enter matchmaking?]

"So expensive?"

"What a rip-off!"

Xu Le thought for a moment before choosing to agree.

A five-second countdown appeared before him.

Five.

Four... One.

A flash of light flickered, and he appeared on an arena the size of a football field.

He was at one end, and his opponent was at the other.

Above the girl's head floated the codename "Blue Star University Zhu Yuyao."

"Did I misunderstand the naming rules? Should I have used my real name?"

"Or is Blue Star University's Zhu Yuyao an enemy of that girl, so she's using this codename to attract insults?"

While Xu Le was lost in thought, the Zhu Yuyao across from him was overjoyed to see him standing still.

She hadn't expected the legendary newbie 'little white fish' to fall into her hands.

Time to give this new little brother a bit of a shock!

With that thought, Zhu Yuyao activated her 'Stealth' skill and rushed over with 'Gale Step'.

She wanted to end the match directly before her opponent could react.

As she reached Xu Le, the corners of her mouth curled into a beautiful, bright, and moving smile.

Sap!

Throat Slit!

Lethal Strike!

Against a Mage holding a staff, she didn't need any other skills.

Just as Zhu Yuyao raised her hand, Xu Le caught a flaw and punched through the gap in her arm.

After striking her head, he followed through with an elbow smash directly into her chest.

Swoosh!

A white light rose, and Zhu Yuyao disappeared from the spot.

From the moment he attacked to the kill, only 0.5 seconds had passed.

Zhu Yuyao was still wondering if she should go easy to give the newcomer some experience, only to find herself gone.

"So despicable!"

"Clearly a Warrior class, yet holding a staff to pretend to be a Mage. How can someone be so shameless?"

"What's even more perverted is that he hit me there."

"No, I have to see who he really is!"

Zhu Yuyao checked her match history. After seeing Xu Le's name, it took her a while to recognize the character for 'Dang'.

Applying her skill of reading only half of a character, she was suddenly nearly fuming with rage.

"'Kung Fu Not Good, Might as Well Be a Bastard', right?"

"I'll make sure you become a bastard!"

Cursing, she began looking for experts among her friends, preparing to get her revenge... After Xu Le won the match.

A clear spring appeared where he stood, along with a five-second countdown.

Five seconds later.

He appeared in a new arena.

His opponent was also a Mage.

Codename: "Huazhou University Chen Jiade."

Upon seeing Xu Le, he began throwing skills from a distance.

Rainstorm!

Ice Blade!

One area-of-effect attack and one single-target attack; both had short chanting times and were almost instant-cast skills.

Xu Le dodged easily. Finishing his "Hurricane Howl" incantation, he waved his staff, and a tornado's eye appeared beside his opponent.

Chen Jiade hurriedly dodged, but after only five steps, the moving eye of the storm caught up with him.

Blink!

The moment he flashed out of the tornado's position, Xu Le threw out his new skill, "Earth Spike."

A massive Earth Spike, thicker than a water vat, instantly pierced through the ground. Before Chen Jiade could react, it shattered his two layers of magic shields.

Along with his body, he was turned into a kebab.

Fortunately, the damage from the Earth Spike was high enough that in just one second, he turned into white light and disappeared.

"Hopefully, that didn't leave a trauma."

The clear spring appeared again.

Xu Le's consumed Mana was instantly restored, along with his skill cooldowns.

"Just as I thought!"

Xu Le had suspected this when he saw the five-second interval between battles.

Now it was confirmed.

Five seconds later.

A Sword Immortal Professional appeared.

Xu Le scanned the opponent's codename: [One Sword Chills Nine Great Cities].

"As expected, this is what a normal person looks like."

"Those two before were so morally bankrupt, using their enemies' names to attract hate. The world is going downhill!"

Xu Le decided to give this person, who seemed to have equally high morals, a perfect experience.

Without casting skills or summoning his contracted beast, he rushed forward holding his staff.

???

Mo Xiaohua was bewildered: What was a Mage doing rushing over with a staff?

Despite his thoughts, his hands didn't stop, and he directly threw out a "Sword Qi Slash."

Xu Le tilted his body, dodging it easily, and continued to charge.

Mo Xiaohua was ecstatic and swung his sword to meet him.

"Being able to dodge that sword strike makes you qualified to duel me."

He brandished his longsword, cold light flashing. His Moves were methodical and impenetrable, clearly showing he had practiced Ancient Sword Techniques.

Xu Le was delighted to find a worthy opponent and countered Move for Move.

Their skill levels were similar. Xu Le's attributes were significantly higher, but he kept them in check, wanting to win through technique.

Mo Xiaohua, unable to break through for a long time, left a deliberate opening. Xu Le threw a punch and naturally fell for the trap.

Mo Xiaohua switched his sword to his left hand, and with a Move called "Stealing the Dragon to Replace the Phoenix," he stabbed diagonally at Xu Le's throat.

Xu Le, meanwhile, landed a punch on Mo Xiaohua's exposed right shoulder.

-1.

-3200.

Mo Xiaohua: "..."

Why does it feel like I was the one who fell for a trap despite leaving the opening?

I clearly stabbed his throat; it should have dealt double or even ten times the damage. That's it?

Did he use a special item or skill to block it?

Xu Le naturally hadn't blocked it, and he had even held back his strength.

Otherwise, that single punch would have left Mo Xiaohua with barely any health.

The two exchanged a few more Moves, and Mo Xiaohua left another opening.

Then once again, one took a punch while the other landed a sword strike.

"Again!"

Having fallen for the trick twice, Xu Le realized his Ancient Martial Arts still had many flaws and needed someone like Mo Xiaohua to help him improve.

"Again my foot!"

Mo Xiaohua realized the opponent's attributes were far higher than his own and that he was being used as a training dummy. He directly slit his own throat with his sword and disappeared in a flash of white light.

"Sigh, Brother Great City, why be so impulsive?"

In his regret, Xu Le waited for the next Professional... Perhaps because Xu Le had just started ranking, almost all the opponents he met were around level sixty or seventy.

Only Mo Xiaohua was somewhat interesting; the rest were all instant kills.

After he killed the tenth person, a message popped up.

[Matchmaking concluded. Congratulations on completing a ten-win streak. You have earned a total of 20 xiaoyao coins as a reward.]

"That's it?"

"Should I sigh and say 'There are no heroes in the Xiaoyao Realm' to draw some aggro?"

Xu Le thought about it but chose to give up; he couldn't let his classiness drop.

He played in the Xiaoyao Realm for a while longer. It had to be said, it was quite fun and perfect for... tempering one's will.

Two hours later.

Xu Le left the Xiaoyao Realm.

He found that he had become famous on the Xiaoyao Realm forums.

A stickied post was titled: "Insidious Tank Pretending to be a Mage; One Shouldn't Be So Shameless."

Xu Le clicked it. The poster was someone named "Blue Star University Zhu Yuyao." She had many fans, and the post already had over 2,000 replies.

With a dark face, he scrolled down.

Several people he had defeated followed suit, accusing him, twisting the truth, and exaggerating facts.

The world is too filthy!

The only consolation was that nine of the ten people he defeated were from other schools (as determined by the System), earning him an extra 19 academic credits.

"19 credits a day, that's 570 credits a month. Seems decent."

"However, as the price for slandering me, I'm going to be ruthless tomorrow! If anyone can last two seconds, I'll count it as... them taking an extra two seconds of beating!"