Failed Stroke was also part of the Taiyin faction. The leader of this force was also a Ghost King, just not as famous as Ji Huaichu. When they were matched against "Money Tree," the expressions of their competing members weren't too great. After all… whether it was the Dramatist or the Storyteller, the abilities of those two ghosts were just too bizarre. Nobody knew how "Money Tree's" lineup was arranged. Xia Fenghua appearing first was within expectations, but then they fielded ghosts nobody recognized, without any information available.
Compared to mere speechlessness, the "Failed Stroke" side felt more sheer helplessness.
"Let me go. I'm a player, and I have plenty of abilities and items," a female player who had been sitting silently to the side spoke up. "Besides, even if that ghost hides in the women's restroom, I can go in after them. Winning isn't impossible."
"Sigh, then we'll have to trouble you."
However, when Mu Anqi and this female player stepped onto the stage together, the Ghost King of the "Failed Stroke" force couldn't help but cover his face, unable to bear watching. If he had known Ji Huaichu would deploy the real Money Tree at this moment, he would have sent some other unlucky soul to lose face. He could only hope that, considering they were both female players, this one wouldn't use any of those… bizarre tactics…
When Mu Anqi stepped onto the arena and discovered her opponent wasn't a ghost but a female player, she was also momentarily surprised. Clearly, the opponent was equally shocked by her appearance, even showing a bit of confusion. After all, Mu Anqi really hadn't expected that the moment she stepped onto the stage, the Taiyin spectator stands would erupt into cheers. For a split second, Mu Anqi even felt an unparalleled sense of crisis. She looked up and found that the big shot invited by Taiyin and the Ancestor invited by Mingdu to oversee the event both glanced at her simultaneously.
Although called the Ancestor, her manifested human form was that of an elegant, graceful beauty. Seeing Mu Anqi look over, she even nodded slightly as encouragement.
The female player over there was completely baffled. She didn't understand why Taiyin's side was so excited about Mu Anqi's appearance, even though Mu Anqi wasn't some famous top-tier player. She had never even seen or heard of this person before.
"My ability… I can't control its effects. If you find it unbearable, you can signal your surrender," Mu Anqi's heart softened somewhat towards the fellow female player after all. She offered a polite reminder, "I'll apologize in advance. So, shall we begin the match?"
"Save your breath. Let me see what skills you actually have." The female player frowned, already on high alert. Unfortunately, having never heard of Money Tree's notorious reputation, she never imagined that some abilities simply can't be avoided just by being vigilant or defensive.
The match began.
"Congratulations on your wealth, may all your wishes come true." The instant the match started, Mu Anqi rapidly uttered two sets of blessing phrases. She raised her hand, summoning [Ghost Slayer] and drawing an arc in the air with it, then pushed off the ground, darting forward. She obviously noticed the female player wasn't controlled. Remembering the items from the shop, she understood and quietly uttered a few more blessings: "Wish you smooth sailing, and peace year after year."
The moment the words "smooth sailing" left her lips, the pendant on the female player's chest instantly turned to dust. From the start of the match until now, barely a second had passed. In that brief second, her mind had been flooded with three consecutive notifications of "Control Immunity Count consumed," and just like that, she had lost an item?! Facing Mu Anqi's rapid charge, she instinctively wanted to use a skill to resist. A massive wall of flame surged before her, but the skill was interrupted the moment it started. The fire wall didn't disappear, but her own reaction and movements were forcibly halted. She could only watch helplessly as her body stiffly lay down flat on the arena in a spread-eagle "大" shape, then performed a kip-up and stood straight again.
To anyone else, it looked like she had suddenly had a spasm and decided to show off with a pointless "kip-up."
Mu Anqi had originally intended to simply slash the female player with her blade, sparing her the social embarrassment. However, the wall of flame blocked her path. Mu Anqi could only sigh, sheathe her demon blade, and utter another blessing: "Have a smooth journey."
Pulling out an ordinary craftsmanships hand grenade she hadn't used in a long time, she gently rolled it to the other side of the fire wall. The moment the explosion sounded, Mu Anqi smiled faintly—
"Money Tree wins!"
Mu Anqi's smile froze for an instant. Everything was fine, except the name of her faction really lacked class. Especially since "Money Tree" referred to her personally. Watching from the sidelines was fine, not embarrassing at all. But when she was actually the one on stage competing…
Mu Anqi barely maintained her composed expression and descended from the arena with utmost poise.
This opponent posed no challenge at all.
[Zhao Gu Gu]: Where's the dance performance we wanted? @Mu Anqi
[Fang Xun Jiu]: Yeah! Back when we ran that dungeon together, you even used it on me! How come you didn't make this opponent spin and dance?
[Fang Yun Jiu]: When can we get the Magical Girl transformation?
[Mu Anqi]: Next time, definitely next time.
After giving the classic response, Mu Anqi was already looking forward to the next round.
He Guxia shifted her gaze away from the screen. To be honest, even she wasn't particularly eager to face Mu Anqi. Of course, she could instantly eliminate Mu Anqi before she could utter a word, but Mu Anqi seemed to have bought quite a few protective items from the Nirvana Space. As long as those items could sustain her long enough to say one or two blessing phrases… He Guxia felt she would also have a major headache.
Naturally, she wasn't the only one with this thought.
Little Xia Fenghua had personally paid the price for her spur-of-the-moment humor and experienced Mu Anqi's "blessings" firsthand. As for the three deputy commanders, while they hadn't experienced it themselves, they were well-acquainted with Mu Anqi's "notorious reputation." After watching this match, they naturally had their own calculations.
Mu Anqi didn't return to the private box. She just communicated mentally with Ji Huaichu: "I'm going to check on Xia Fenghua first. I'll go directly on stage for the next match later. I'll have dinner with you afterwards."
—"As long as you're having fun."
That was Ji Huaichu's reply.
Mu Anqi smiled. Wasn't this just playing around? When she arrived at the rest room for drawing match cards, she saw Little Xia Fenghua lying across three seats by herself, staring blankly at the ceiling. The rest room was very spacious. With long intervals between rounds now, many teams just came to draw immediately after their round ended and didn't station anyone here permanently.
"Eh? What are you doing here?" Xia Fenghua sat up immediately when she saw Mu Anqi. "You already had your match?" So fast! She thought it would take until at least tomorrow for Mu Anqi to go torment some unfortunate competitor.
"Mhm, but the opponent wasn't very strong." Although the player seemed to have consumable control-immunity items, Mu Anqi's current speed at uttering blessings was simply too fast. That player also seemed completely unaware of her abilities and was stunned for a moment by the item consumption, failing to seize the chance to attack her.
Xia Fenghua really wanted to say that even if the opponent had world-ending power, as long as they lacked control immunity, wouldn't they just end up 'making a spectacle of themselves' before you? "Why aren't you going back?"
"I told Ji Huaichu I'd finish my matches for the afternoon and go back for dinner," Mu Anqi said. "Besides, didn't I come to see you?" Wouldn't the kid be bored here all alone? Mu Anqi proficiently took out her candy cane and started producing candies.
"If you really felt sorry for me, you should hand the game development work to someone else and give me a few more days off," Xia Fenghua said, rather displeased. "Even your creepy doll thinks I'm a minor!"
"That's based on your age before death. Your age in the Broken Mirror Continent is several times mine," Mu Anqi wasn't buying it at all. "But I could give you that doll. You could even make a cameo in the game…"
"No, no! I'm just borrowing it for now," Xia Fenghua quickly shook her head to cut her off. She crunched a hard candy, wondering if Mu Anqi had spent too much time with General Ji, as assigning her extra work seemed to come so naturally. "It's almost time. I need to go draw the order! Please rest here for a while. You'll have to go back on stage when it's your turn later."
Mu Anqi: "…"
…
"Blue: Leap Rainbow vs. Money Tree"
The moment the match-up was announced, a long silence fell over the Leap Rainbow faction.
"Which son of a turtle went to draw the number just now?"
After the complaints, the Leap Rainbow faction began an emergency discussion: "Who will Money Tree field for this match?"
You have to understand, since Xia Fenghua's elimination, Money Tree had been changing participants every single match, making it impossible to formulate a strategy.
"I have a Silence Field. Should I go for this one?" asked a male ghost. In his previous life, he had detested loud noises the most—whether it was construction noise from upstairs or downstairs, people having loud parties at home at night, those playing media at full volume on the subway, or people shouting on speakerphone… there were just too many. This accumulated resentment led him to awaken a Silence Field after arriving here and cultivating. The field was very simple: within a ten-meter radius centered on him, no living being could make a single sound.
It had no offensive power, nor any other effects. It was a pure, literal Silence Field.
"But what if they send another ghost?"
The Silence Ghost retorted, "Can we even beat the other subordinates under General Ji's command then?"
Amidst the silence, the Leap Rainbow boss suspected this ghost had secretly activated his Silence Field.
With no other choice, the Silence Ghost straightened his collar, puffed out his chest, and strode onto the arena.
When he saw Mu Anqi standing opposite him again, he broke into an extremely delighted smile! If he could defeat Ji Huaichu's Money Tree here, he would become truly famous throughout Taiyin!
Mu Anqi: "…" She suspected this opponent of hers had a few screws loose.
Were these ghost factions really this desperate? Sending a fool ghost up to lose face?
The match began!
The "Fool" Ghost's eyes sharpened. He instantly activated his Silence Field, then conjured a spear with a wave of his hand. With a flick of the spear tip, he charged straight forward. He was already imagining the shocked cheers from the audience when he eliminated Mu Anqi right at the start!
"…?!" Unable to utter her opening blessings, Mu Anqi instantly realized the "silence" effect. The daily free protection from her Spirit Pendant hadn't been consumed, so she didn't waste a one-time shield. Watching the male ghost charging at her with his spear, she stepped forward to meet him, her demon blade flashing out instantly to clash with the long spear—
Smooth, fluid. It cleanly sliced off a section of the spear, the spear tip flying off the arena.
"!!?" In the moment the male ghost was stunned, Mu Anqi flipped out a small dagger from her storage ring with her left hand and sent it flying straight into the male ghost's head, piercing between his eyebrows.
Are you kidding me!? So what if she was silenced? Did she train all this time for nothing? She was no longer the weak and helpless Money Tree from back in the day.