MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Within the fog-filled forest, Li Yi hid behind a tree. He was squinting ahead to observe the blue-clothed Thief's battle against Karian.

There were a total of three bosses amongst the Winged Ones, and although the strongest boss, Moonlight was still dead, the other two had already respawned a while back.

Soul Wing Karian was a super-boss that was responsible for watching over the Sky Graveyard. It could use dozens of soul related Divine Spells, and its strength was similar to Moonlight's.

The blue-clothed Thief was not all that tall, and his build was also on the scrawny side. Despite that, he could still effortlessly deflect the powerful Soul-related Divine Spells of Karian.

"Territory— Instant Slash!"

Tch—

The blue-clothed Thief pierced through Karian and posed with both his daggers in a cross-shape. When Li Yi looked back at Karian, its HP had already zeroed out, and it fell to the ground with its hand still clutching its chest.

The battle was now over, and the Blue-clothed Thief had effortlessly taken down Soul Wing Karian.

Ding!

Ding! Ding!

Three items flew out of Karian's corpse and scattered on the ground.

'It had dropped equipment!'

Li Yi raised his bow and aimed at his target. He intended to fire a Powered-up Arrow the moment the Thief dressed in blue bent down to pick up the items.

The pale blue arrowhead spiraled towards the Thief, and at that instant, the Thief was utterly defenseless.

"Psh!"

The Powered-up Arrow penetrated the Thief's body, and that single strike was enough to end him immediately!

Li Yi walked forward and picked up the three items Karian had dropped instead.

The blue-clothed Thief continued to lie on the ground. He did not release his soul, nor did he swear at Li Yi. All he did was remain in total silence.

Li Yi had already long determined the blue-clothed Thief's identity.

He had previously ranked at the 35th place in the God Wars of Li Yi's past life, and he was the branch leader of the Assembled Gods Guild, Blue-Blooded God.

Compared to the top three Thieves in his past life, Blue-Blooded God was lesser known. He had never directly engaged in PKs, and he specialized in assassination and ambushes. As Li Yi had had his boss kills stolen by him twice, he had quite a deep impression on Li Yi.

"Hehe…"

With a chuckle, Blue-Blooded God's body slowly faded away.

Without uttering a single curse, Blue-Blooded God had chosen to resurrect at the temple and left the area.

Li Yi did not think much of Blue-Blooded God's chuckle, as he did not fear Blue Blooded God at all. Otherwise, he would not have stolen Blue-blooded God's loot.

"Hmm, to think he solo-ed Karian and won…"

Li Yi scrunched his brows as he went deep into thought. What piqued Li Yi's interest the most was Blue-Blooded God's ability to nullify Karian's Divine Soul Spells, alas, Blue-Blooded God had not dropped any equipment when Li Yi had killed him earlier.

Li Yi called out Holy Light Warhorse and continued to search for Grade 11 materials.

Not long after Li Yi had left, a Thief clad in black materialized behind Karian's corpse.

The person was none other than — Fengxi!

…

Due to Scumbag Wang's order to poison everyone, the Huashan Sect had suddenly become public enemy number one. As such, players from all factions started appearing from above the clouds to hunt down the Huashan Sect's members.

They would rather be poisoned to death than to let the scumbags get away!

That was the heartfelt cries of the majority of players.

Tragedy had befallen on the Huashan Sect yet again. Even though they were the masters of Sky Island, they could no longer so much as stand after being ganked and camped by the other players.

Scumbag Wang's corpse had been camped, and so too had the eight-hundred or so of his followers. Before an hour had even gone by, Sky Island was already littered with the corpses of the Huashan Sect's members.

Despite that, the fabled boss of Huashan, The Mountain had not revealed himself at all, which disappointed Li Yi, who had been looking for a spectacular show.

Had The Mountain intervened, the situation would undoubtedly change in mere moments.

…

At 8 pm sharp, Li Yi issued a Party Summon within the Savage Continent's Imperial Palace.

Neo Platinum Hand's first meeting had begun!

The group was composed of 200 people, and among them, 150 of them were the combatants, while the remaining 50 were professional lifestyle class players. Legends like Legendary Ironsmith Snickersnee, Master Tailor Windcloud Temptation, Master Apothecarist Drifting Petal, Master Engineer, Professor Archaeologist Battle Worm, Master Gemcutter Sand Sharpener, and various others made up their lifestyle personnel.

The fifty-odd Lifestyle Pros had formed a branch of their own, led by Snickersnee.

As for the remaining 150 players, they formed 3 teams of 50 players, and without exception, all 150 of them were part of the Backup Legion.

Neo Platinum Hand consisted of three levels of hierarchy, which were the Backup Legion, Substitute Legion, and Main Legion.

When members first joined Platinum Hand, they would all be part of the Backup Legion, and the only way to increase their standing would be through a display of their own abilities.

The members consisted of players from all three major camps, and there were also past enemies, rivals, and plenty others among them…

"Ten players per squad. You are free to form your own squad. We'll start our first team PK trial ten minutes later. Winners will be rewarded with 1 point, and losers would lose 1 point. There will be 5 rounds of team PKs, and those who managed to get above three points will be upgraded to the Substitute squad."

Li Yi explained the rules.

The formation of a new Platinum Hand was not something he had decided in the spur of a moment, but rather, it was something that he had planned for a long time.

He remembered that back during the previous God Wars, he had taken part in the competition without a team of his own. As such, he had to face the full might of a squad alone, which in turn had caused him to be eliminated humiliatingly from the competition after only a single round.

King of Pantheon was never a single-player game, and to reach the apex of the Pantheon World, one required not just individual strength, but a powerful squad that had great cooperation.

It was for this reason that Li Yi had decided to assemble a new Platinum Hand.

"Forming a squad! Forming a squad! Those who think they're capable, just come and join me! All requests are automatically accepted!"

"Looking for main tanks and healers! We already have enough DPS roles!"

"Wizard with 2,677 points of Holy Value! I have a full Emperor's Set, anyone wants me?"

The 150 players mobilized, and those who were part of a guild had easily teamed up. On the other hand, those who did not have a guild had instead selected their own teammates, enlisting those who had good equipment and high levels.

In the end, there were only nine players who had yet to form a squad.

Flower Underpants' sister, or better known as Li Yi's language teacher, Girl Without Underwear, Zhang Yan was among those who could not find a squad.

At Zhang Yan's current strength, there was no way she could join the Neo Platinum Hand through usual means. However, as Li Yi had told Jiaojiao to look for a Violent Warriors with potential, Teacher Zhang, who had poor technique and equipment had been recruited by Jiaojiao.

Among the nine unrecruited players, eight of them were Violent Warriors, and the last one was a Curse Priest. The Curse Priest's name was… Sister Windcloud Nine…

When it came to the ascension of a squad, the choice of teammates was of utmost importance. As such, who would want someone like Sister Windcloud Nine, who was famed for her slow reactions?

Heck, even her husband, Brother Windcloud Nine, had mercilessly abandoned her.

Sister Windcloud Nine clenched her staff and stared with puppy eyes at her husband. The innocence and purity of the gaze had even softened Li Yi's heart.

"You guys will team up with me."

Li Yi sent out an invite to Zhang Yan, Sister Windcloud Nine, and the others.

Although Li Yi was the commander of the organization, his rights were equal to the other members. In order to raise his standing, he would need to participate in the battles as well.

The nine outcasts rejoiced, as teaming up with Li Yi had given them hope…

"Start casting buffs!"

An explosion of light filled the room, as rays upon rays of light had been cast onto various players. This was the greatest benefit of forming a party, the ability to grant a huge temporary buff of attributes. When a character was fully buffed, the greatest value their attributes would increase by was 80%.

The buffs that Li Yi's squad cast were pretty simple. Since Li Yi was a Sharpshooter, he had activated Sniper Aura, which increased the party's ranged damage by 20%. On the other hand, as Sister Windcloud Nine was a Dark Queen, she activated Dark Shield of Protection, which reduced the elemental damage taken by the squad by 20%.

As for the Violent Warriors, they cast the buff, Violent Heart, which would raise the squad's Crit Rate by 10%.

They did not have the buff from Light Priests that increased their HP threshold, nor did they have the buffs from the Summoners which increased their tankiness. Furthermore, they lacked the mana recovery buff of the Vagabonds, and also the status resistance buff from the Holy Paladins. Without a doubt, Li Yi's party was the weakest in terms of buffs.

"Alright, we'll decide our opponents by drawing lots. All squad leaders, please walk forward to draw your lot!"

All 15 squad leaders walked forward, and pretty soon; the sequence of battles had been decided.

The first round was a match between the Little Fluttering Snow Alliance Squad headed by Bai Xiaoya against the Windcloud Squad spearheaded by Brother Windcloud Nine.

The two squads crossed swords, and Brother Windcloud Nine was the first to act. He unleashed the greatest controlling skill of the God-chastised Paladins, Bloody Cross — Sin, and pinned all ten members of the Little Fluttering Snow Alliance Squad down.

Then, Windcloud Killer strode ahead and unleashed Cyclone Formation, whereas the others unleashed powerful skills of their own, intending to destroy all ten members of Little Fluttering Snow Alliance in one fell swoop.

Bai Xiaoya was the first to fall, but she was also the only casualty. Brother Simon had used his Territory— Mountain-crushing Strike, and his woman, Lil Jinlian followed him up with Divine Flames' Descent. With that, the two of them had taken out nine out of ten members of the Windcloud Squad.

The only surviving member was Brother Windcloud Nine who was still casting Bloody Cross — Sin.

The following results of the battle were as clear as day. Powerful as Bloody Cross — Sin was, the skill had an obvious drawback. During its deployment, the user would be unable to move, and although his enemies would be pinned down, they would still be able to attack. As such, the only fate that awaited Brother Windcloud Nine was death…

Li Yi announced the results of the competition: "Little Fluttering Snow Alliance has won the first round, as such, they have been awarded one point. On the other hand, one point has been deducted from the loser, Windcloud Squad!"

As for the second match, it was a battle between the Little Drunk Cat Squad led by Unending Unmatched against Chen Yang's Savage Sisters Squad.

The results of the battle had left Li Yi in shock, as the Shieldsword-wielding Unending Unmatched was totally outclassed by the Fatty that owned two Orange Quality Weapons. Before Flower Underpants, Wang Dumplings, or the others had even managed to use their abilities, the Savage Sisters had already claimed the battle with 0 deaths.

Victory had been attributed to the Savage Sisters in the second match.

With that, the battles continued. Although the battles were all ten versus ten battles, those who had superior abilities had performed spectacularly. Take the Starting Point Squad that was led by Qian'er and Jiaojiao for example, they had easily wiped out their opponents with a simple Divine Flames' Descent from Qian'er, without even needing anyone else to act.

Soon after, it was time for Li Yi's party to take the stage. The results were as expected, as all ten of Li Yi's opponents had been taken out with a single True Overlord Arrow.

"Alright, the second trial will be clearing a dungeon. The target is to clear the Wings of the Sky!"

Li Yi announced the content of the second trial.

"Wait, you're joking, right? You want ten of us to clear a fifty-man dungeon?"

"Righty-o!"

"F*ck me!"

Everyone was flabbergasted.

…