The world of Slaying Gods. The Gloomwind Plains.
This was where feeble monsters below Level 15 roamed, most of them mild in temperament — a leveling ground for beginner players who had just stepped out of the novice village. But by now the average player level had already climbed past 70, and players had all but vanished from the area.
Ye Tianxie stood clad head to toe in strange, gleaming white gear, a bizarrely shaped bow of glittering gold in his hand, a pale cloak drawn up over his head so that no one could make out his features. When he appeared here, the person he’d arranged to meet had, unexpectedly, failed to arrive before him.
A dozen-odd seconds passed; the second hand swept to the top, and the time struck ten in the morning exactly. Ye Tianxie took one last look at this world, then logged out in a burst of white light.
Climbing out of the gaming pod, he pressed his hand lightly against its front, and a dull cracking sound came at once — the core of the pod had shattered completely. Having decided he would never again enter Slaying Gods, he would not step back in for any reason whatsoever. And so his final arranged meeting with that other person ended just like that. It was only right for others to wait a day and a night for him, but he would never wait so much as one extra second for anyone else. If they failed to appear at the appointed time, he would turn and leave without hesitation, no matter who they were. This was the pride that belonged to him.
“Bloodfiend Moon, I’ll see you in Fate. You’d have been the first to know my new name — but what a pity. You’ve let your chance slip away.”
In the world of Slaying Gods, three seconds after Ye Tianxie left, a jet-black figure came rushing in from the distance like a bolt of black lightning — flying low, no less. This was a person radiating a cold, sinister air from head to toe, and unmistakably a woman. She was bound tightly in plain, unadorned black clothing, her face covered by a black mask that left only the area above her nose exposed. Even so, that intensely alluring snow-white skin and full figure left no doubt that her face was as lovely as jade and flowers.
She halted at the spot where Ye Tianxie had stood, glanced around with a complicated look in her eyes, and at last let out a faint sigh. She knew she was late — late by a few seconds — and that proud man would never, ever wait even a few seconds extra for a single soul. Standing still in the gentle wind, her extraordinary grace was now on full display; the close-fitting black clothing set off an exceptionally taut waist, her proud bust and hips all but bursting into view, and cinched below by her fitted lower garments, her lovely form was laid bare in a flawless S-curve that no one could tear their eyes from without a surge of dazzled admiration.
Beneath the black gauze veiling her face, a pair of cool, beautiful eyes glimmered faintly. Her jade-smooth, slender hand gripped a short blade that was transparent through and through, its tip like freshly formed ice, untouched by any speck of dust or trace of blood.
Just then, two people some distance off began drawing near. They had clearly spotted her, and their pace quickened. She raised her right hand holding the transparent short blade, closed her eyes, and hurled that blade — the one that could drive every Assassin player in the world of Slaying Gods wild — far into the distance, then vanished from where she stood in a burst of white light.
The two in the distance drew closer, a matching pair of nicknames floating above their heads: Doraemon A and Doraemon B.
The player topped by “Doraemon A” hurried a few steps over and scooped up the discarded short blade. The instant it landed in his grip, he gave a violent shudder, and once he made out its stats, his pupils shrank and he cried out in a trembling voice: “Blood… Bloodseal Ice Fang! This… this is Bloodfiend Moon’s weapon! Am I dreaming…?”
That player from a moment ago, all in black and obviously a woman… could she actually have been Bloodfiend Moon?!
Doraemon B walked up in front of him and eyed the short blade curiously. “Bloodfiend Moon? Is that some really strong player?”
Doraemon A shot him a look of contempt and shook his head. “You total bookworm. I’d bet the only people on the whole planet who don’t know Bloodfiend Moon are one-of-a-kind specimens like you.”
“Uh…” Doraemon B gave an awkward little laugh, wearing the look of someone waiting for an answer.
Doraemon A tilted his head halfway up, the hand holding Bloodseal Ice Fang still trembling faintly. “In our Huaxia virtual gaming scene, there’s always been a ranking of the very strongest experts, and the top ten are known as Huaxia’s Ten Great Experts. The names on that list shift around from time to time — but the top three have never once changed. These three are called by the world the Three Great Legends of Huaxia. And the ‘City-Toppling Asura,’ Bloodfiend Moon, is one of those Three Great Legends. Her renown was cemented two years ago in the game called Skyholder, and she’s struck terror through the gaming world ever since.”
“City-Toppling Asura? That’s her title?”
Doraemon A explained slowly, “That’s right. She’s an aloof, proud lone wolf who never travels with anyone — yet she’s killed far more people than you’d imagine, so many that she was crowned with the name ‘Asura.’ She’s not only powerful and aloof but incomparably mysterious. Apart from knowing she’s called Bloodfiend Moon, no one has ever seen what she looks like, and no one knows who she is in the real world. At the same time, she’s an exquisitely beautiful woman — and that’s where the ‘City-Toppling’ in her name comes from.”
“Oh? Hold on — didn’t you just say no one’s ever seen what this Bloodfiend Moon looks like? So how can you say she’s got ‘city-toppling’ looks?” Doraemon B cut in.
Doraemon A explained, “Two years ago, in that game world called Skyholder, there was this beloved beautiful-women ranking. The system compiled it based on female players’ overall charm index, so it was extremely fair — and back then Bloodfiend Moon ranked first. So in her case the fame for beauty came first, and the fame for savagery came after. Everyone who harbored designs on her got cold-bloodedly cut down.”
Recalling that coldly gorgeous figure standing at the very summit, Doraemon A wore a look of deep longing on his face. Pity — someone at his level could only ever crane his neck up to gaze at her and covet from afar.
“Everyone? Then… don’t tell me she’s the head of these Three Great Legends? That no one can beat her?” Doraemon B marveled. If the number-one figure in the gaming world turned out to be a woman, what a stunning, astonishing fact that would be.
“No, that’s not it!” Doraemon A shook his head firmly, his gaze filling by degrees with a longing Doraemon B couldn’t comprehend — nothing so simple as the ordinary adoration of a hero or a star. Worship, trembling, dread… even, faintly, threads of reverence. It was more like the posture of one gazing up at a god. “That person is called Tian Moxie — the insurmountable peak legend of Huaxia’s gaming world, whose acknowledged title is: the Undefeated Evil Emperor!”
“The Undefeated Evil Emperor… Tian Moxie?” Doraemon B murmured the name a few times, trying meanwhile to sketch in his mind the towering image of the man it belonged to. A title of “Undefeated”… and acknowledged undefeated at that. How many people in the whole world could truly live up to those two short, simple words?
The Undefeated Evil Emperor, Tian Moxie. In this present age where the gaming world had become humanity’s second world, those who didn’t know that name were already precious few.
“Tian Moxie — though his name says ‘Moxie,’ he’s a man whose ways are steeped through and through with wickedness. Rumor has it he roams the gaming world alone, just like Bloodfiend Moon. Those powerful alliances and factions with tens or even hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of players under them — every one of them tried to win him over, and every one, without exception, was refused. And whoever provoked him, whoever they were, met with his terrible retribution. He was never afraid of any faction, never afraid of offending anyone — there was, in fact, nothing in the gaming world he ever didn’t dare to do. In the end, no faction tried to recruit him anymore, and not one dared provoke him first.” Doraemon A spoke with a sigh of that peak legend standing at the very apex of the gaming world. This “legend” was by no means a merely symbolic title; the countless sensations and shocks he had set off made him more than worthy of those two words.
(End of Chapter 4)