Two powerful figures faced each other, standing silently.

They remained motionless until the barrier disappeared.

After a moment, Shiva was the first to speak, breaking the silence, "To meet you in the third match, it really disrupts our plans."

"I don't care about things like arranging troops..." Gui Xiao replied, "But... after all, the opponent is you, the [Deities]. I can roughly guess the reason why the higher-ups arranged for me to appear early."

At this moment, they no longer needed to consider any information-level taboos in their conversation.

Because when Shiva stepped onto the stage, his, or rather their, the [Deities]' "plan" was already quite obvious.

Anyone could see that the intention behind the [Deities]' order of appearance was definitely to "end the match within four rounds."

The idea behind this tactic was not wrong... as long as they could achieve a three-to-one score in the first four matches, then [Order]'s "general," Gui Xiao, might not even have the chance to appear before being eliminated.

Therefore, the [Deities] only considered the lineup combinations for the first four matches, and in the position of "general," they placed the weakest newcomer in the team, [Mahoraga].

According to their original plan... they were about fifty percent confident in Asura's match in the first two matches; while Vishnu and Garuda's doubles match had a seventy percent chance of winning.

The [Deities]' analysis team believed that Ye Zhi and Bar Code, one a support type and the other a shooting type, would definitely be placed in the doubles lineup, and the two of them were not suitable to be paired together, so they would have to be combined with other people separately; comprehensively speaking... [Order] was very likely to send Ye Zhi in the first doubles match, and at that time, as long as they used Vishnu's containment ability and Garuda's speed to kill her first, then this doubles match would be very stable.

Calculating it this way... at least one of the two matches had a good chance of winning.

If they were lucky and won the first two matches, then when Shiva came on in the third match, as long as the person on the other side was not Gui Xiao, the [Deities] might even be able to sweep [Order] three to zero.

Even if their luck was average and the first two matches ended in a one-to-one tie... after Shiva won his match, they would still have a two-to-one lead; in the "vice-general battle," the [Deities]' side would be the combination of [Brahma] and [Yama]; while [Order]'s side would be one of the "Zuì Shēng Mèng Sǐ" (living in drunkenness and dreaming of death) paired with Ye Zhi or Bar Code... this would still be an advantageous match.

However... as the saying goes, plans can't keep up with changes.

When Asura won the first match, the [Deities]' behind-the-scenes team seemed to have seen the hope of a three-to-zero victory, but they did not expect to be turned back by the opponent's two old foxes in the second match.

Of course, the most surprising thing was probably Gui Xiao's appearance in the "third general battle."

If Shiva's appearance officially exposed the [Deities]' battle plan, then... Gui Xiao's appearance was a declaration that [Order] had been on guard against these calculations by the [Deities] since before the match.

It's not that [Order]'s team is much better than the [Deities]', it's just that... in order to avoid Gui Xiao, this almost unsolvable trump card, and also take into account the overall strength of [Order], the [Deities] could not choose many strategies... it was not difficult to set up defenses in advance.

The lineup that [Order] has put out today is a lineup that can cope with both the opponent's "conventional formation" and "fighting for the first four."

"Heh..." After a few seconds, Shiva laughed, "Although it's outside of the plan, but things have come to this... I'm quite happy."

"Because... you can fight me?" Gui Xiao roughly understood the other party's feelings.

"That's right." Shiva said, "This battle... has made me..." As he spoke, he opened his arms, raised his eyes slightly, and said loudly, "And countless viewers... have waited too long." He paused for a second and took a deep breath, "Hoo... as the boss of the studio, as the captain of the team, avoiding fighting you is the right idea, but..." He couldn't help but laugh, "Hehe... as a professional... no... an ordinary player! To be able to fight you on this stage, just thinking about it makes me excited..."

"Mm." In that instant, a few glimmers of fighting spirit quietly ignited in Gui Xiao's eyes, and his痞劲儿(rascality) also came up, "Then..." As he spoke, a disdainful smile hung on the corner of his mouth, "Please do your best, use all your skills... and then... defeat me without any regrets."

As soon as he finished speaking, strong energy fields bloomed from both him and Shiva at the same time, looking from a distance, like two tornadoes soaring into the sky.

In an instant, the two rapidly expanding energy vortexes collided in the air, and the splashing energy turbulence surged and scattered in all directions, leaving large pits wherever it went, as if it had been bombarded by artillery fire.

In this first wave of fighting spirit clash, the two seemed to be evenly matched. Shiva felt that the "greeting" was almost over, and then he raised his arms and slowly stretched them to both sides of his body; as he made this movement, the eight stone discs of the [Celestial Dance Hourglass] also gradually appeared above his head and shoulders along the trajectory of his palms.

"One minute..." As Shiva said this, he grabbed his legendary weapon, [Decayed Mist Remnant Cloud], from his bag, "If you can still stand in one minute, I'll admit defeat!"

Ping ping ping ping ping ping—

As Shiva's wild words came out, six of the stone discs behind him shattered in an instant.

In that instant, he simultaneously activated the earth, water, fire, wind, void, and moon, six special effects of the [Celestial Dance Hourglass], and he himself rushed towards Gui Xiao at an incredible speed.

Shiva was very clear that this victory or defeat... must be decided quickly.

If he gave Gui Xiao time to summon all of his one doppelganger, two shikigami, and three thought beasts, Shiva would not be able to resist even if he had three heads and six arms.

Therefore, Shiva released this "one minute" declaration very domineeringly... for him, it was more than enough to use all his killing moves and methods in this one minute.

First of all, the normal attacks of the [Celestial Dance Hourglass] could not break Gui Xiao's defense at all, and keeping the stone discs was useless, so it was better to open all the special effects that could be opened in one breath, anyway, the duration of those abilities was not long.

Secondly, there was nothing to hide about the [Decayed Mist Remnant Cloud]. This weapon was originally something used to fight desperately in close combat. When was he not going to use it at this time?

In addition, his Soul Intent [Eye of Destruction] and the special effect of the "Destruction" stone disc were also ready at all times. As soon as there was an opportunity, he would release it towards Gui Xiao's head or heart. Once it hit, it would be an instant kill.

"Hmph..." Seeing the opponent attacking, Gui Xiao finally showed his grim expression.

It was this expression, and that fiery, unruly red hair, that left an indelible nightmare in the hearts of countless players.

"One minute, huh..." As Gui Xiao muttered these four words, several special effects of the [Celestial Dance Hourglass] had taken effect on him...

Earth's special effect—[Pure Land], cleared his own skill and equipment bonus effects (lasts for one minute).

Water's special effect—[Absolution], inflicted a mental erosion that ignored physical defense on him. Within thirty seconds, according to his scare value reaction, a certain percentage of his survival value would be lost every second (the minimum would not be less than 1%).

Fire's special effect—[Karma Fire], a "must hit" fire attribute attack, ignoring attribute defense, and possessing both physical and mental damage, the power depending on the user's Spiritualism specialization level (Shiva's Spiritualism specialization was undoubtedly S-grade).

Wind's special effect—[Wind Scythe], summoned the Pinaka trident and flew straight towards Gui Xiao's chest; this attack was attached with lightning attribute, and the power depended on the user's Combat specialization level (Shiva's Combat specialization was also S-grade).

In addition, there were two special effects that acted on Shiva himself, namely:

Void's special effect—[Air Control], allowed Shiva to gain one minute of free flight ability.

Moon's special effect—[Moon Prism], covered Shiva's body surface with a layer of Moon Prism light罩(shield), immune to all physical or energy attacks within ten seconds; attacks with "extremely strong" power could pass through the Moon Prism light shield, but would only cause 50% damage.

That is to say... even if Gui Xiao survived the first wave of four special effects combos, he would still have to face a Shiva with flight ability and in a semi-invincible state.

"Just this level of attack..." One second later, when Gui Xiao said the second half of this sentence, he had lost his skill and equipment bonuses, and [Absolution] and [Karma Fire] had both hit him, but even in this state, he raised his right hand and grabbed, still steadily catching the Pinaka trident that came like thunder, "...one minute may not be enough, right?"