Chapter 11: Trash at the Game
At exactly eight o’clock, Chi Zhen started streaming on time.
The moment the stream went live, more than five hundred viewers flooded in. The chat scrolled wildly, all asking where he had gone, while others said they’d heard he’d gone on a killing spree outside the city gates.
Without saying a word, Chi Zhen directly opened the game recording.
Back at five o’clock, after ending the stream, Chi Zhen had immediately sent Qingzhou Yiguo back to the respawn point, summoned the green horse again, and continued toward the quest area.
Just when the viewers thought Qingzhou Yiguo was about to deliver himself for a third death, he suddenly stopped while still some distance away from the quest area, dismissed the green horse, and continued on foot instead.
Alone, he quietly circled into the forest. Using the trees as cover, he calmly approached the quest area without drawing attention.
He didn’t return to the place where he’d been killed. Instead, he stopped one or two hundred meters away, then leapt onto the branch of a large tree, concealing himself among the leaves and branches.
At that moment, the gray-green uniform of Eclipse Shadow Pool blended perfectly into the foliage. Even if someone walked right beneath the tree, they would have a hard time noticing someone hidden above unless they looked carefully.
Qingzhou Yiguo was extremely patient. Motionless, he crouched in the tree for more than ten minutes before a red name finally appeared in the distance.
A red name.
In the game, red names only appeared under a few circumstances: monsters, bosses, enemy players on battlefields, or players added to your kill-on-sight list.
Of course, from the other player’s perspective, Qingzhou Yiguo was also a red name.
So he carefully hid among the dense leaves, and sure enough, the other player failed to notice him.
When the red name got closer, the viewers realized it was Chan Xue—the Ghost Cultivator from Netherworld Hall who had mocked Wujin Shi earlier.
[Wait, how did you know you’d run into that guy here? And alone too?]
[Normally, if people are waiting to ambush you, shouldn’t there be a whole group?]
Watching the recording together with the viewers, Chi Zhen explained, “The reason they ganged up on me here earlier was because someone happened to be doing quests here and spotted me, then tipped the others off. I guessed he probably hadn’t had time to finish his quests because he was busy watching me. The map’s huge, and there’s more than one monster spawn point. To keep tabs on me, they’d split up and wander around everywhere. They’d only leave after confirming I was gone.”
Sure enough, Qingzhou Yiguo had waited for Chan Xue.
No matter the class, ambushing a Ghost Cultivator was never a good idea. Ambushes were a Ghost Cultivator’s specialty, and if you weren’t careful, they could easily reverse the situation and ambush you instead.
But Chan Xue never noticed there was a red name nearby—right above his head.
He even seemed a little excited, stopping every now and then, probably chatting and typing to someone.
Then, in a split second, everything changed.
Qingzhou Yiguo swallowed a small attack-boosting pill and descended from the sky with Jade Dew Swift Wind, catching Chan Xue completely off guard and instantly shaving off a chunk of his HP bar. Immediately afterward came Wind and Rain Halt, immobilizing him in place while Qingzhou Yiguo unleashed a burst of attacks that cut his HP in half. The moment Chan Xue broke free from the immobilization, Qingzhou Yiguo followed with Cold Qi Condensation, triggering Weakness. After several exchanges back and forth, Chan Xue's HP bottomed out, while Qingzhou Yiguo easily dodged several incoming attacks, losing barely one-fifth of his own health.
At that moment, two more red names arrived.
Chan Xue had been too busy fighting to type, so he’d called for help through voice chat.
The two nearest players hurried over. The instant they entered attack range, Qingzhou Yiguo unleashed his AoE ultimate—Falling Shadows with the Wind—sending all three enemies flying at once. Chan Xue’s HP bar emptied completely, his name turned gray, and he lay on the ground cursing furiously.
Using the force of the knockback, Qingzhou Yiguo charged straight at one of the other red names. He first cast Spring Shadows in Empty Green on himself, boosting his defense, then tanked the attacks of both opponents while focusing on one of the squishier targets. Before long, he killed that player too. But by then, more than half his HP was gone, putting him in serious danger.
Not far away, a growing crowd of red names was beginning to close in.
Qingzhou Yiguo turned to flee, and as expected, the enemy took the bait and chased after him.
Suddenly, Qingzhou Yiguo spun around and lashed out with a wooden branch strike, making the other player rage helplessly over voice chat. In one-on-one combat, none of them could match Qingzhou Yiguo. Their hand speed and reactions were inferior, many of their attacks were effortlessly dodged, while they themselves were beaten down to slivers of HP.
But within moments, the others had already surrounded him.
Qingzhou Yiguo could no longer afford to drag things out. He abandoned the fight and turned to run.
[Nearby] Wen Gu: You little b****, if you’ve got guts then stop running—
Qingzhou Yiguo abruptly turned around and threw a Firebomb Talisman. Wen Gu, who had been busy typing insults, was caught completely off guard, collapsed to the ground, and his name turned gray.
Firebomb Talismans were hidden weapons crafted only by Talisman Cultivators. They were also one of the few hidden weapons usable by all classes, though they could only be used in open-world maps—battlefields and dungeons prohibited them.
The viewers’ jaws dropped. Frugal Xiao Chi had actually been willing to throw away a Firebomb Talisman.
After all, a single Firebomb Talisman sold for no small amount—sixty thousand spirit stones. Yet the damage wasn’t especially high; a healer could restore it with one heal. So most players normally didn’t bother carrying them around.
But after fighting three opponents in succession, Qingzhou Yiguo had already emptied his mana bar. Wen Gu had noticed that and boldly stopped to type insults.
Who could’ve guessed that Qingzhou Yiguo would suddenly turn around and send him straight back to the graveyard?
The viewers all shouted that the sixty thousand had been absolutely worth it!
After all, fighting in a game wasn’t like fighting in real life. In real life, one punch hurt. In a game, no matter how many hits you landed, as long as the opponent’s HP bar wasn’t empty, it didn’t really count as pain.
There was a world of difference between Wen Gu lying dead with a gray name and Qingzhou Yiguo escaping with a sliver of HP left.
Wen Gu was probably so furious his face had turned green. The screen filled with censored curse words.
Qingzhou Yiguo fled at top speed and teleported directly back to the main city.
Leaving behind a group of red-named players staring at each other in shock—and the single word Qingzhou Yiguo left behind in Nearby Chat.
[Nearby] Qingzhou Yiguo: Trash.
The stream exploded.
But it still wasn’t over. After returning to the main city and meditating back to full health, Qingzhou Yiguo repeated the same tactic.
This time, however, he didn’t go into the wilderness map. Instead, he hid atop the walls of Guangling City.
Because he was still inside the main city, enemy players did not appear as red names in his field of vision. But players who walked out through the city gates had technically left the main city, so in Qingzhou Yiguo’s eyes, they appeared as either red or green names.
The moment a red-named Way of Heaven player appeared, Qingzhou Yiguoonce again launched a combo attack from above, instantly killing one person, then killing another who rushed over as backup before escaping back into Guangling City with only a sliver of HP left.
While Way of Heaven players cursed outside Guangling City’s gates, Qingzhou Yiguo teleported to the gates of Luojing and repeated the trick again, killing three more Way of Heaven players.
At that point, the entire World Channel was flooded with Way of Heaven players cursing at Qingzhou Yiguo, calling him a sneak attacker and shamelessly despicable.
Not a single one of them mentioned how over a dozen of them had ganged up and killed Qingzhou Yiguo twice first, prompting his retaliation.
[World] Chan Xue: Qingzhou Yiguo, trash.
[World] Han Bing Zi Yu: Qingzhou Yiguo, are you trying to make an enemy out of all of Way of Heaven?
[World] Wen Gu: Qingzhou Yiguo, I’ll **** you! If you’ve got guts, see us on the battlefields! What the **** is with the sneak attacks?!
[World] Qingzhou Yiguo: Trash.
The word “trash” wasn’t especially damaging, but it was unbelievably humiliating—especially considering that Qingzhou Yiguo had single-handedly killed eight Way of Heaven players within two hours.
The moment that “trash” appeared, half of Way of Heaven exploded. The World Channel became completely unreadable, filled with nothing but Way of Heaven players cursing nonstop.
Yet Qingzhou Yiguo didn’t continue the fight. He logged off to eat dinner and only came back online at eight o’clock when he started streaming again.
By this point, the viewers in the stream were dumbfounded.
So Chi Zhen had ended the stream because he was afraid people would discover his ambush tactics…
“You can’t use the same trick more than three times,” Chi Zhen said. “After the third time, that’s about the limit. If I tried a fourth, they’d counter-kill me.”
“Let’s check the World Channel first and see whether Way of Heaven’s still barking.”
“We’re not going to the wilderness maps tonight, brothers. Going there tonight is way too dangerous. Staying alive comes first.”
[And now you know fear?!]
[Are you still the laid-back life-skill player Xiao Chi I knew? Help!]
[Looks like real men are forged under pressure.]
[I knew the streamer had good mechanics. I didn’t know they were THIS sharp!]
[I officially declare Xiao Chi’s gameplay worthy of becoming Wujin Shi’s cultivation partner.]
[Wait, did nobody notice this?! CZ Xiao Chi, why the hell are you copying Wujin Shi’s cool-guy act of explaining nothing and only saying “trash”???]
[Because he’s soooo in love.]
[But now Xiao Chi’s genuinely become enemies with Way of Heaven. Wujin Shi’s part of Way of Heaven, you know…]
Pretending not to see the comments, Chi Zhen aimlessly clicked his mouse around the screen for a while before finally unable to resist saying, “Everyone, stop joking around. What if Way of Heaven really misunderstands and thinks Wujin Shi knows me? We really don’t know each other. Yesterday really was just a coincidence.”
[Still defending Wujin Shi even now. Seriously, he’s soooo in love.]
[So you’re actually a pure-love warrior, huh, CZ Xiao Chi.]
[Sending a Fruit Bomb.]
[Fruit Bomb +1.]
Chi Zhen looked bewildered. He hadn’t even said much, yet suddenly the chat was flooded with gifts nonstop.
The viewer count had already reached twelve hundred, and the spectacle made Chi Zhen a little nervous.
[Look at World Channel, streamer.]
[If we’re not going to wilderness maps, what are we streaming tonight?]
[If there’s nothing else to do, replay the recording again. Watching you wipe eight people was too satisfying.]
Chi Zhen opened the World Channel. Nearly an hour had passed, so it had calmed down somewhat. A few Way of Heaven players were still cursing, but most of the messages were now dungeon recruitment posts, battlefield team requests, and spectators enjoying the drama.
[World] Fan Lu: Can Way of Heaven stop spamming already? Nobody can even see dungeon recruitment messages with your guild’s nonsense flooding the screen. So annoying.
[World] Fusheng Zui Qing: Is this your house? Why are you policing everyone?
[World] Gao Shou: I read all the 818 posts on the forums. The guy already apologized, yet you’re still chasing after a small streamer. Such a huge guild—if you’re so free, maybe focus on your guild wars instead of losing to Dominating the Firmament again.
[World] Wei Yu Ning Qiu: The grudges between our guild and others are our own business. We’ll handle them ourselves.
[World] Gao Shou: Oh, spare me, you damn troublemaker.
[World] Gao Shou: And don’t bother adding me to your kill list just because I insulted your guild goddess. Unlike that little streamer, I don’t need to complete streaming-hour quotas while getting hunted down in-game. If I can’t afford to offend you guys, I’ll just switch accounts and play on another one~
Chi Zhen sucked in a sharp breath. This player called Gao Shou was seriously bold!
Just as he and the viewers were happily spectating the World Channel drama, a login notification suddenly drew everyone’s attention.
[System] Your friend [Wujin Shi] has logged on.
Immediately afterward, the stream exploded once again as everyone witnessed the storyline they most wanted to see that day.
[Friend] Wujin Shi: battlefields?
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