The Great Thief

In the matters regarding the Strongholds, it wasn’t as simple as Sorrowless being unable to take down Black Sea Coast and Grey Valley.

He couldn’t even face the public and tell them the good news that they had just taken Eternal Kingdom. After all, he already said so during the Stronghold battles. It was only an alliance. Therefore, this alliance would need to keep going, unless it was affected by a large change.

Otherwise, he would only be able to watch as Eternal Kingdom’s players slowly left.

There weren’t many changes in terms of other Strongholds either. The new Stronghold was taken by Gale Legion. With this, they now surpassed Glory Capital and successfully became the other holder of two Strongholds alongside Ruling Sword.

After two weeks, Ruling Sword also successfully took down the four knights.

The whole process was torture. Lu Li did not want to remember it at all, and the results were not great either. None of the four skill points went to him. All he wanted was for the Boss to drop some valuable things. In the end, he received a few Enhanced Skill Books that he could use.

“There’s a good stone. Attack Speed and Critical Damage – dual-properties,” Remnant Dream said, very surprised.

“Mine!” Lu Li fiercely cried out.

“Alright, alright. I’ll give it to you.”

No one else objected to this. They acknowledged his hard work and the time and effort that he had to put in every time. This was only a mere Equipment Stone, so it wasn’t worth much anyway.

Enhanced Skill Book!

Unfortunately, it was for Warlocks. This time, it was Sesame Rice Ball’s turn, since Kitty Likes Meat had taken it last time.

Maul of the Redeemed Crusader – this was a Two-handed Mace and was a choice weapon for Healing Paladin. Darkness was the only Healing Paladin present, so there were no competitors. As a result, she took it at base price.

Warmth of Forgiveness. This was an Epic Accessory that recovered mana, which was quite useful for Mages. However, it didn’t sell for much, since the Mages here didn’t lack mana.

Corrupted Ashbringer, an Epic blueprint – naturally, the properties were quite decent.

Of course, this wasn’t the original Corrupted Ashbringer. The original was a demigod-level weapon that even Arthas coveted.

The Corrupted Ashbringer was taken by Her Tears. This was a Two-Handed Sword that had ridiculous properties, comparable to Mu Qiu’s Greatsword of the Brotherhood. However, Her Tears couldn’t enjoy it just yet as Green Flag Wine requested to borrow it first.

It wasn’t because of Water Fairy that he was willing to lend it, but it was Her Tears himself who was willing.

The relationship between the men of the three guilds had been easily established. After fighting together a few times, their clubs no longer mattered and they quickly became like family. The three allied clubs had already fought so much together, so it was natural for them to be close.

After this, there was a T3 set clothing. Lu Li had an individual item that he was eyeing, so he didn’t need this one.

After killing the four knights, the Shadow Cup’s Top 100 battles finally finished. The competition was now in the stage of the Top 16. This season’s Shadow Cup Top 16 consisted of Glory Capital, Ruling Sword, Blood Red War Flag, Seventh Heaven, Peerless City, Wings of Dawn, Gale Legion, Azure Guard, Majin Temple, Gangnam Royals, Blue Universe, Gods of Dusk, Purple Lunar Paradise, Stellar Union and Grand Hegemony.

The influence of luck in the competition was definitely extremely important.

On the first, Ruling Sword would be facing off against Stellar Union.

Stellar Union was actually quite strong. In terms of strategizing for Instance Dungeons, they were definitely capable.

There were two main goals in Dawn’s Instance Dungeons – the First Clear and the Speed Record. Of course, First Clears were the most important, but the importance of Speed clearing was not to be forgotten. Stellar Union was one of the clubs that frequently set new records for clearing speed. In many of the Instance Dungeons, it was Stellar Union who held the Speed Record.

They weren’t a club that was often in the spotlight, but no one would ignore their existence.

Stellar Union’s Mage, Twilight, and their Paladin, Hit Me 72 Times, were both the best of the best players, especially Hit Me 72 Times. He and Green Flag Wine were essentially the faces of the class. Mu Qiu had only risen relatively recently.

It was time for the Arena Battles. Both sides deployed their Paladin first.

Everyone was happy to see two evenly-ranked Paladins fight against each other. They were also the first ones to fight, so it could not be any fairer.

Truthfully speaking, a battle between Paladin was the most boring. It wasn’t flashy like a battle between Mages, or as hot-blooded as Berserkers, or as exciting and cunning as Thieves. All in all, it was like two kids whacking each other over and over again. Their HP bars would decrease slowly and gradually, then be replenished as they cast their healing spells.

Many people would start to doze off when two Paladins were fighting.

However, someone like Lu Li would be able to analyse the intricacies of the fight, such as how Mu Qiu was receiving the his opponents skills, or his positioning. However, his advantage was clear for all to see.

Greatsword of the Brotherhood!

This was the strongest Two-Handed Sword in this current update. It put Hit Me 72 Times under enormous pressure. This was because the damage was extremely potent, and he also had to be cautious about the sword’s effect of instant-killing the target.

In the end, Mu Qiu managed to win because of the advantage of having better items. However, the battle was still extremely close.

It only took Twilight a short while to kill Mu Qiu, after which he was eliminated by Moonlight. The third person from Stellar Union was Purple Heart Sea. Unfortunately, the Hunter who was known for being able to kite any melee classes wouldn’t be able to kite Moonlight until he died.

Being in the Top 16 meant that points no longer mattered to continue in the competition. Points were only used to analyse how the battles went and the results of the battles.

For Arena Battles, Ruling Sword had 3 points, while Stellar Union had 1 point. This was because they had only managed to kill Mu Qiu.

The Group Battle was held in a map of grasslands with some valleys and hills. Both sides met with each other in a valley. Stellar Union attacked Ruling Sword from the low ground and were disadvantaged in terms of terrain, but they still managed quite well. They managed to kill two Ruling Sword players before being wiped out.

Ruling Sword gained 6 points from the Group Battles, while Stellar Union received two.

The results from the first group were revealed. Stellar Union was eliminated while Ruling Sword successfully advanced into the Quarterfinals. It was as simple as that. Brutal, but simple.

For the second day, it was Drizzle Court versus Wings of Dawn.

Lu Li only entered the Instance Dungeon after watching the match. Drizzle Court managed to defeat their opponent and successfully entered the Quarterfinals as well.

All four of the Bosses in the Instance Dungeons were cleared, so a deeper path into the Dungeon was opened. This revealed two more Bosses: Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad.

Clubs who were able to progress to this stage of the game was almost non-existent. Lu Li didn’t mind that other clubs knew about their progress. Naxxramas wasn’t an Instance Dungeon that players would be able to clear despite knowing the strategies. A single detail could not be ignored.