MMO: Pierce Heaven Til' It Breaks

While Revival was active, the user would be placed in an ‘Invincible’ state as well. However, the special skill came with an extremely debilitating flaw, the user would suffer a permanent but minor stamina loss.

Since stamina affected HP, it was possible for one to reduce their HP down to 1 if they used equipment with Revival non-stop…

However, the stamina attribute that came imbued in equipment would not be affected by Revival.

“Berserk Charge!”

“Bam!”

Li Yi was instantly disoriented. Following that, Night Moon swiped her giant swords, unleashed Mountain Crushing Strike, and pummeled him Fury Explosion.

Night Moon had unleashed a beautiful chain of 5 combos and with that, Li Yi perished…

“Night Moon has won!”

When the results were announced, many were left dumbfounded.

“Th-This can’t be real right?”

“This isn’t possible! How can this be?! How could Dark Wing lose!? This…This…” Even Jiaojiao was left stuttering.

“Hahaha! Winner winner chicken dinner!”

Only Black Autumn was celebrating, she could not even shut her mouth anymore. Since she was the one who set up the betting exchange, she only allowed people to bet on Li Yi winning. Now that Li Yi had lost, not only did she not need to reimburse anyone, she was the sole victor as well!

Why were betting exchanges Autumn Love’s favorite mode of gambling? Well, the reason was that Autumn Love was a miser whose little heart could not handle the agony of paying others, even if she won the majority of her gambles. Only by setting up betting exchanges could she truly feel satisfied…

“Chicken Dinner! Chicken Dinner!”

Autumn Love was on cloud nine. She was staring at Li Yi with gleaming eyes.

“Third round! I’m still betting on Dark Wing losing. Anyone want to bet against me?” Seizing her chance, Autumn Love shouted once more.

“Motherf*cker! I’m going all in! I’ll double my bet! I’ll definitely get my money back!”

“I’m quintupling my bet! I don’t believe Dark Wing will lose again.”

“I’m out. Dark Wing doesn’t have any special skills whereas Night Moon is chock-full of it. What use is there in betting any further? I’m seriously out.”

“Me too…”

This time, the bettors were highly polarized. They were either going big or had given up completely.

After tabulating the gambling funds, Autumn Love rejoiced once more. The total amount of bets against her was ten times more than the previous round, and if she won…

“If I win again, I’ll reward myself by buying a pair of loafers.” Autumn Love gritted her teeth as she made the decision. However, she quickly regretted it and shook her head. “Loafers are too expensive. I’ll buy a pair of slippers instead.”

…

Below the stage, Confused Fox was starting to panic. Before the third round had begun, he quickly messaged Li Yi. “Dark Wing, do you need us to get you some equipment with special skills?”

“Thanks, but I don’t need it.”

“Why not? You’ve already lost once.”

“Yeah, and that’s that.”

“Stop being stubborn. If you lose this round, you’ll be out of the tournament.”

“Calm down, she can’t beat me,” said Li Yi confidently.

“Sigh…” Confused Fox wearily muttered. He did not push the matter any further. With the Iron Alliance’s current strength, they could easily muster up a few special items. However, finding ones that were as powerful as Li Yi’s previous ones would be a tad too difficult.

The third round had begun.

After placing a Black Fog Trap beneath himself, Li Yi fired two arrows at Night Moon.

As usual, Night Moon did not dodge them. Instead, she rushed full speed ahead, whereas Li Yi continuously fired while falling back.

Night Moon gave the Black Fog Trap a wide berth. After receiving a personal lesson on the trap’s might, she had taken measures to avoid it.

Li Yi circled around the trap as he fired, while Night Moon circled around the trap to chase after him. With the trap as their center, the two of them constantly ran circles in circles, with one being the pursuer, and another the one in pursuit.

Very quickly, Night Moon’s HP had dropped to 50%. At that instant, she cast Revival, brought her HP back to full, further reducing her maximum HP threshold.

Tch-tch—

Night Moon originally had around a hundred thousand HP. However, due to the effects of Revival, she had lost nearly 40 thousand HP in a blink of an eye.

The rapid reduction of over 50,000 HP was only temporary. It went without saying that once Revival ended, her HP would return to normal. As for her stamina, however, it would remain at the reduced amount, meaning that her HP threshold had been permanently lowered by around 200 or so.

The moment Black Fog Trap’s duration ended; Night Moon sped towards Li Yi with Berserk Charge.

‘God Mode! Violent Bear’s Protection! Repelling Shot!’

Unlike Fatal Counter which made the user completely Invincible, the special skill, Revival only reduced 99% of damage. Therefore, the users would still take 1% damage.

Though Li Yi’s Repelling Shot did not inflict much damage onto Night Moon, its special effect was already in action.

Upon getting hit, Night Moon involuntarily staggered backward.

Once his first hit landed, Li Yi quickly followed up with another Repelling Shot.

“Thud!”

Night Moon continued being pushed back.

“Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!”

[−232]

[−322]

[−211]

[−245]

Being under the effects of God Mode, Li Yi did not encounter any cooldown restrictions while using Repelling Shot. Thus, he could fire at will. After sucking in a deep breath, Li Yi fired twenty plus arrows in one go, knocking back Night Moon repeatedly.

Night Moon was getting increasingly closer to the edge of the stage. It was obvious to everyone that Li Yi intended to forcefully push Night Moon out of the stage to attain victory.

There one iron rule in the arena, which was that no matter how much HP one’s opponent had; the moment they fell off the stage, it would be their loss!

Due to the constant knockback effect of Repelling Shot, Night Moon had lost all freedom of movement. All she could do was to bear witness at her gradual advance to the edge of the platform.

“Nononononono…” Autumn Love was spectating the match while on the brink of tears.

“Fatal Counter!”

Left with no other option, Night Moon was forced to activate Fatal Counter to gain immunity against Repelling Shot’s effects.

The distance between the two players was now 28-yards. Night Moon morphed into a crimson streak and lunged forward.

“Berserk Charge!”

Just as Li Yi activated Rocket Propellant to flee, a ‘poof’ sound could be heard. Black smoke billowed, and Night Moon was caught within it. Li Yi had placed another Black Fog Trap the moment Night Moon unleashed Fatal Counter and he was waiting for her to charge.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Night Moon stormed out of the black fog and quickly glanced from right to left. With a ferocious swipe of her giant sword, she ‘swept’ the Camouflaged Li Yi out of hiding.

“Spratt!”

[−31455]

A golden damage number popped out and Li Yi’s Camouflage was disrupted.

“Good! Good!” Autumn Love was getting very excited.

Although the ‘Camouflage’ of Archers was game-breaking and was more useful than Pseudocide when facing monsters, it was not flawless.

When Archers used ‘Camouflage’, they appeared just like Wizards using ‘Invisibility’. However, Camouflage was not Invisibility, and its greatest flaw was that it only diverted the vision of other players, preventing them from seeing the Camouflaged person’s body.

While you saw nothing in front of you, you would still collide into it if you walked forward. Your vision was simply obstructed, preventing you from seeing behind the scenes.

Li Yi was well aware of Camouflage’s flaw. As such, whenever he used ‘Camouflage’, he would either kneel or lie down to reduce the chances of being detected.

Even if all of Li Yi’s combat videos had been compressed into a single file, its volume would exceed 300 GB. In order to have a good shot at winning the tournament, would his enemies thoroughly research him? The answer was yes, and Reigning the World’s Night Moon was someone who had. At least half of the special skills that she had were bought specifically to counter Li Yi, and all of them had cost her an exorbitant amount of money.

During the first round, Night Moon was unable to locate Li Yi in time because her Fatal Counter was about to time out. All she had was a hunch that Li Yi was hidden within the black fog. However, that was not the case this time, as she had only recently activated Fatal Counter and had plenty of time to locate Li Yi!

“Mountain Crushing Strike!”

Night Moon leaped skyward, and Li Yi, whose body was still stuck in hit recovery suddenly lay on the floor. He had activated Pseudocide.

With his hit recovery state gone, Li Yi immediately rolled aside and avoided Night Moon’s fatal strike.

“Beast Soul’s Possession — Lightning Leopard!”

Li Yi hastily transformed into a Lightning Leopard and vanished using Stealth.

Night Moon’s Mountain Crushing Strike slammed into the ground, hitting nothing.

Night Moon was dumbfounded.

Fatal Counter’s duration was about to run out, and Li Yi was nowhere to be found. How was she supposed to locate him this time?

Since she was unable to locate her opponent, Night Moon’s Fury gauge gradually dwindled. A mere 5 seconds later, she could not even fulfill Demonic Netherstrike’s usage condition anymore.

“Pshh—”

Fatal Counter had run out, and Night Moon’s HP immediately bottomed out. With that, she collapsed onto the ground, dead…

Below the stage, Autumn Love gave a pained cry and fainted onto the ground.

Countless Gold Coins gushed out from her. It was the payment for those who had won the bet.

Black Autumn had gotten another chicken dinner. However, the chicken dinner belonged to others and not her. With that, she had lost all her earnings…

Li Yi chortled at Night Moon as he gripped the Return City Stone in his hand.

Li Yi could only maintain his Beast Souls’ Possession for a mere twenty or so seconds, but it was more than enough to overcome Fatal Counter.

The first match to select the top three contestants was now concluded. Li Yi had won, and Night Moon was out of the tournament!

Upon reaching the capital, Li Yi immediately ran off to carry out quests again. It was as if completing those quests was more important than becoming King of Pantheon’s number one player.

According to the tournament brackets that had been published, it was now the match between Ah Ye, the yellow-robed Priest and Unending Unmatched.

Jiaojiao could not locate Li Yi and so, she messaged him. “Lil Yi’zi, where are you off to? Why aren’t you spectating?”

“I’ll watch the video once the match is concluded. I have quests to run.”

“Who do you think would win, Ah Ye, or Unmatched?”

“I can’t really tell…”

“I don’ care what you think, just give your opinion.”

After giving it, some thought, Li Yi replied, “Unmatched.”

“I also think that Unmatched will win, but after hearing it from you, I feel so much better.”

While Jiaojiao was busy conversing with Li Yi, the battle between Unending Unmatched and Ah Ye had begun.

Using Blazing Judgment loaned to him by Brother Windcloud Nine, Unending Unmatched constantly hacked at his opponent, unleashing light orb after light orb, and striking his enemy from afar.

Ah Ye responded by casting curse spells, healing spells, and adjusting his position.

Ah Ye’s strategy had not changed. He was still using the same old playstyle. Despite that, the simpler strategy was proving hard to be countered. Truth be told, his Sinful Angel Equipment Set was incredibly powerful.

Unending Unmatched was struck by the curse spells, and he constantly lost HP. Since he was a Warrior, he was unable to use a ‘healing skill’, as Brother Windcloud Nine would have done. All he had was the temporary recovery skill Resolve of No Return that had a cooldown time of a minute and a half, but even that was better than nothing.

Blazing Judgment’s light orbs continued to rain down on Ah Ye, and each hit dealt over 1,000 damage. However, due to Ah Ye’s constant healing, his HP was constantly kept at full.

“Crap, Unmatched’s going to lose.” After watching for a while, Confused Fox sighed in resignation.

“His attacks aren’t able to mortally wound Ah Ye. Furthermore, since Ah Ye’s Equipment Set comes with a special effect that recovers both health and mana, he is destined to lose in a battle of attrition against Ah Ye, unless he manages to kill him.”

The Arrogant C*nt, Fake Fengxi replied.

Confused Fox stared in awe at Fake Fengxi, his gaze unwavering.

…