Chapter 189 Setback

Sword Demon had been resurrected in Kongji City.

His equipment hadn't dropped, but the 10% experience loss still stung. What frustrated him more was the turning point in the battle. He'd been confident that he could snatch the Christmas Thief back from Han Yanrou, but he hadn't expected so many complications. Not only had he died, but none of the brothers who had rushed to help him had survived either.

Resurrections always happened in the same location within the city. Not long after Sword Demon returned, his guild brothers began to appear one after another around his character.

They stood there dumbfounded, speechless for a long time.

Trying to step on someone only to be stepped on instead was incredibly frustrating.

Should they go back and reclaim their pride?

With just the few of them here, Sword Demon didn't dare even entertain the thought. After all, he knew that Jun Moxiao was Ye Qiu, and therefore that Wind Following the Shore was Su Mucheng. Not to mention that Han Yanrou was also extremely strong. Just them? The earlier team wipe had already given them the answer.

A small number of people was clearly useless; they needed numbers. And to get numbers, they could only rely on the guild. But right now, the entire guild was focused on Christmas quests. Sword Demon's actions just now had been impulsive; he hadn't discussed it with Chen Yehui. Chen Yehui hadn't given any instructions on what to do if they encountered Ye Qiu or his companions during the quest.

As a result, Sword Demon had acted on his own initiative and ended up in a sorry state. He still hadn't figured out how to explain it to Chen Yehui.

The people around him were also silent. These people weren't exactly Sword Demon's close friends, but they were in the same hunting team for the event and usually operated near him. After realizing that Han Yanrou was difficult to deal with, Sword Demon had diligently gathered them all, only to dig his own grave.

"Jun Moxiao is indeed very powerful!" someone finally said.

"Indeed," Sword Demon quickly echoed, exaggerating Jun Moxiao's strength to alleviate their resentment for being called over.

"We should have recruited more people," someone said.

"I didn't see him at the beginning!" Sword Demon hastily tried to clear his name. He wasn't wrong, though; he hadn't seen Jun Moxiao when he was recruiting people.

"What do we do now?" another person asked.

Sword Demon was pondering this question as well. Should they just go back to doing quests like nothing happened? That was fine for him, but he wouldn't be able to explain it to these brothers. But if they tried to make things difficult for him again, it was Ye Qiu they'd be dealing with! Could they even handle him? Sword Demon's confidence was zero.

"Let's call for more brothers!" One of them was clearly indignant and wanted to get revenge.

Just as he was about to reply, a new message arrived. Sword Demon opened it and saw that it was from Guild Leader Chen Yehui: "What's going on?"

"You know?" Sword Demon asked awkwardly. In this critical moment of leveling up in the new server, he'd caused a team wipe, losing experience, morale, and face, completely going against everyone's efforts.

"It's being discussed in the channel!" Chen Yehui replied.

"Crap!" Sword Demon had completely forgotten about that. He quickly checked the guild channel and saw that his brothers were indeed righteously indignant there! No wonder they hadn't said anything when they were resurrected; they'd all run to the guild channel to chat.

"We ran into Han Yanrou…" Seeing that the Guild Leader already knew, Sword Demon explained the situation, emphasizing that he'd been confident of success before acting. He hadn't expected Han Yanrou to be so persistent, holding out for so long. He'd realized the trouble and called for reinforcements, but they'd called for reinforcements too, and as a result, they'd been wiped out.

"You few couldn't possibly be a match for them," Chen Yehui said.

"You can say that again…" Sword Demon said glumly.

"This Ye Qiu is really causing trouble for us wherever he goes!" Chen Yehui said.

"Yeah, yeah!" Sword Demon echoed, feeling puzzled. Causing trouble? It seemed like he was the one who'd started the trouble and gotten forcefully countered, right? They were all on the same side; why was the Guild Leader being so protective of his image?

"Have you looked at the Christmas Hunter Leaderboard?" Chen Yehui asked.

"Yes, we're far ahead," Sword Demon said.

"I'm talking about the individual leaderboard, for levels 31-35," Chen Yehui said.

"Oh?" Sword Demon immediately checked. The first page, the top twenty names, made Sword Demon feel elated. The leaderboard displayed some information about the characters: name, gender, class, level, guild, and finally, the score used for ranking.

What delighted Sword Demon was the "Guild" column. Of the 20 players, their Excellent Dynasty completely occupied the top 15 spots, including himself, ranked 9th.

Sword Demon knew why they dominated the top 15 spots; they had deliberately created it. For example, Sword Demon and the six people around him, their small team, would concentrate the Christmas Thieves on him as much as possible, so he naturally easily occupied a high rank. The other fourteen were all doing the same.

Excellent Dynasty's advantage in manpower in the tenth server was finally showing. Other guilds also had players at the top levels who were currently in the City of Sin, but they didn't have nearly as many as Excellent Dynasty.

Currently, Excellent Dynasty's strength in the Heavenly Domain was quite weak because all the experts had gone to the tenth server to pioneer.

In the Heavenly Domain, the competition between the guilds was at a stalemate, and there was no way to break the balance in the short term. So Chen Yehui had decided to go all-in this time, increasing his investment in the tenth server to create a leading position. He wanted to use this to attract talent from the new server to strengthen himself.

Currently, things weren't going smoothly. Although they had cleared Frost Forest Dungeon, Liu Hao hadn't helped since then, and Jun Moxiao had been the one taking the spotlight in the subsequent dungeons. Chen Yehui had been gritting his teeth the whole time! However, while his earlier schemes against Jun Moxiao had been driven more by personal anger, after Liu Hao's rational withdrawal, Chen Yehui had also realized the situation. Now, his actions were all about weighing the pros and cons, no longer driven by spite.

"Flip to page eleven," Chen Yehui messaged Sword Demon.

Sword Demon opened page eleven, scanned it, and immediately understood what the Guild Leader wanted him to see.

Jun Moxiao, ranked 218th.

"This guy is rising fast!" Sword Demon also saw the significance of this.

"That's right, a little over an hour ago, he wasn't even on the list, but now he's already climbed to 218th. Although his score is still far from ours, I calculated his rate of ascent. If he continues at this speed, in three hours, he'll push our fifteenth-ranked player off the list. Also, the Wind Following the Shore on page fourteen, I don't need to tell you who that is, right? It's only a matter of time before she rises too. But at least we don't have to worry too much about her; she probably won't have time to maintain that position. But we can't say the same about that guy," Chen Yehui replied.

"But… even if they squeeze up, we'll still have the vast majority!" Sword Demon said.

"Don't you understand? As soon as he squeezes up, the entire tenth server's public opinion will shift. No one will care how outstanding our achievements are; everyone will only focus on Jun Moxiao stepping on us again. Look at those dungeon records, second place isn't as good as first place, but can you say that second place is bad? But what about the tenth server now? Any record that he steps on is considered bad! The entire guild will immediately be seen as trash and unable to hold its head up. Does this happen in other servers? This unhealthy trend has all been stirred up by that guy," Chen Yehui said.

"So you're saying…" Sword Demon was starting to understand Chen Yehui's intention.

"So we absolutely can't let him climb up the leaderboard. We can't let this rotten apple spoil the whole barrel."

Chen Yehui's message was delivered with the weight of finality. Sword Demon sensed Chen Yehui's determination. He was a close acquaintance of Chen Yehui in the guild and knew about Chen Yehui's past with Ye Qiu, as well as his resentment towards him. This time, Chen Yehui had clearly sorted out the stakes involved, but was there also some personal resentment mixed in? Was it that personal resentment that made him even more determined?

Sword Demon didn't ask. Perhaps it was better this way, so he could settle both personal and public grievances.

"What do you think we should do?" Sword Demon asked.

"I'll allocate some manpower to you. You handle it. You don't necessarily have to fight him; just try to hinder him. You figure out a way," Chen Yehui assigned this task to Sword Demon for a reason. Sword Demon was known for his cunning in the Heavenly Domain. Fighting Ye Qiu head-on was clearly not a wise move; it would be time-consuming, laborious, and potentially backfire. It was better to use subtle methods in the dark, quietly getting things done and making Jun Moxiao suffer in silence. Sword Demon was undoubtedly a suitable person for this, even if he himself took action, he might not be as resourceful as this guy.

"Alright, I'll do it!" Sword Demon was eager to vent his anger. He was quite confident in these kinds of tactics. Ye Qiu was indeed a top-tier God, but for so many years, he'd only played professional matches, matches focused solely on winning and losing, without any other considerations. But in the game world, things weren't as simple as winning or losing a match. Sword Demon was determined to let this top-tier God taste the wisdom and methods of the players in the game world.

Thinking this, Sword Demon flipped open the Christmas Hunter Leaderboard again.

Gasp!

In just a few messages, Jun Moxiao's ranking had risen again, from 218th to 211th.

There was no time to lose! He had to act quickly.

Sword Demon withdrew and headed towards the City of Sin, contacting the people Chen Yehui had assigned to him.

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Second chapter is here! The third chapter is being prepared and will be released around 12 o'clock!