Chapter 49 Empty Forest

Kongzhi Forest, this tranquil woodland only occasionally visited by questing players, had become the final resting place for thirty-two corpses.

Of course, the corpses were no longer there. Everyone had chosen to return to the city to revive, except for Gu Yin, the last to fall. He wasn't in a hurry to revive, because this battle wasn't over yet.

At this moment, a large number of guild players were rushing towards Kongzhi Forest, but unfortunately, all thirty-two of them had been wiped out in this place. Right now, no one could pinpoint the exact location of Lord Grim and his group. Gu Yin wasn't in a hurry to revive because he wanted to see where these people were headed.

Gu Yin hovered like a soul in the air, looking down at his corpse, looking down at the seven people in the forest.

Unfortunately, he couldn't hear what the seven people were saying.

"Hahaha, I killed one. You lost!" Steamed Bun Invasion roared with laughter, then said with utmost seriousness to Mo Guang. He spoke while admiring the system's recorded log.

"Huh?" Steamed Bun Invasion let out a sound of surprise, his gaze falling on the corpse on the ground.

Gu Yin was particularly tragic; he was the one Steamed Bun Invasion had ultimately snatched the kill from. Although he was now just a corpse, the system wasn't stingy in labeling the corpse with Gu Yin's name. Corpses need names; they can be useful in certain situations.

"Why isn't this guy reviving? Is he not completely dead yet?" Steamed Bun Invasion started acting like a noob again, saying with confusion as his character stepped on Gu Yin's corpse and jumped on it a couple of times.

Of course, Gu Yin didn't know what Steamed Bun Invasion was saying, but the act of stepping on his corpse nearly made Gu Yin spit blood.

"Too much!" Gu Yin fiercely remembered Steamed Bun Invasion's name.

Just then, Gu Yin suddenly saw Lord Grim raise his head.

Characters in the game certainly have the action of looking up. When a player moves the character's perspective upwards, to other players, it appears as if the character is looking up.

Gu Yin knew very well that at this moment, the system was only giving him a perspective, and in reality, there wasn't a soul floating in the air. However, seeing Lord Grim raise his head and those unwavering eyes, Gu Yin suddenly felt like he was being seen.

The character was dead, but the player behind the character was alive.

At this moment, Gu Yin had the feeling of making eye contact with the player behind Lord Grim.

"He knows I'm here..." Gu Yin had this feeling in his heart, although he himself couldn't describe what this "here" referred to.

Then he saw Lord Grim and his seven companions walk away, heading in one direction and quickly leaving his field of vision.

The floating God's perspective after death is centered on one's own corpse, and players can no longer adjust it. The seven people walking out of Gu Yin's field of vision was originally what he wanted to see; he wanted to use this to determine their destination.

But now, Lord Grim's looking up had left him at a loss.

Lord Grim knew he was watching, knew his intentions. Could this departure really be their true destination?

Gu Yin maintained this gloomy perspective for a long time, but he never saw the seven people appear again.

Of course, the seven people had left, and they had left quickly.

"Follow me," Ye Xiu's Lord Grim walked at the front.

"Where are we going?" Su Mucheng asked.

"There will definitely be more people coming from the other side. At first, they didn't know where you were going, but from the moment you appeared here, those who were chasing you from Flowing Land, the main city, and Had Village will all head towards Kongzhi Forest," Ye Xiu said.

"The route we're taking now avoids the direction of those coming from those places," Mo Guang actually added from behind.

"Yeah, that's right," Ye Xiu replied.

"Why hide? Let's give them a head-on attack," Tang Rou said.

"Against the same number of people as before, we are indeed at an advantage," Ye Xiu smiled. "However, this kind of entanglement won't lead to any results. Even if we kill them again and again, in the end, they will be the ones to achieve their goal."

"Why? What exactly do they want to do?" Tang Rou asked.

"They want to hinder our leveling and slow down our leveling speed. Right now, it seems that the elite experts from the major guilds are all chasing us. But I'm sure that each guild has at least two or three elite teams continuing to clear dungeons to level up. And what about us? In the process of exhausting ourselves against these people, even though we defeat them, our time is completely wasted. For these big guilds, they're not afraid even if these characters are ruined; they have plenty of manpower and plenty of accounts. They're not afraid to use these accounts as throwaways. But we can't afford to waste our resources," Ye Xiu explained clearly. He knew that Tang Rou, as a newbie to the game, wasn't very clear about the stakes in online games.

"Then what should we do now?" Tang Rou asked.

"Dungeons, still dungeons. What they fear most is us clearing dungeon records that they can't achieve, so we must clear them for them to see. Only by doing this can we truly break their plan," Ye Xiu said.

"Understood," Tang Rou said.

"Hey, hey, hey, why another dungeon! Didn't we agree to spar? This captain of yours has pretty good skills! This ghost swordsman little brother, whom I haven't seen before, is also quite powerful. Let's go, let's go, let's spar," Huang Shaotian called out.

To actually be praised by Huang Shao as being amazing, Qiao Yifan was truly extremely excited in his heart. It seemed that he had played this ghost swordsman correctly, better showcasing his abilities, which allowed Huang Shao to praise him upon first meeting. Qiao Yifan believed that their captain, Wang Jiexi's, judgment wouldn't be too far off either; it must be that an unsuitable class had restricted his strength, which was why he had never been valued.

Qiao Yifan was praised by a god, and full of joy, he undoubtedly established a lot of confidence. However, at this moment, his thoughts were somewhat over the top.

Huang Shaotian praised him only because this was in the online game, and he was treating him as an ordinary player. Of course, an ordinary player being able to put on such a performance was completely worthy of a "厉害 (lìhai - amazing/skilled)." If Huang Shaotian had known that he was also a professional player, then his view of him would have been very different. Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng had also shown some brilliant performances in the previous battle, but Huang Shaotian hadn't praised them at all, precisely because the standard by which he judged them was different.

Qiao Yifan had only officially started playing as a ghost swordsman for a few days! To immediately become a character whom even god-level figures had to view differently was not so quick...

"Thank you for the praise, senior," Qiao Yifan said with joy in his tone. This was a misunderstanding, but a very good one. What Qiao Yifan lacked was confidence, and this beautiful misunderstanding had greatly boosted his confidence.

"Senior? What senior? Who are you calling senior? Just who are you?" Huang Shaotian suddenly began to be surprised.

"My name is... Qiao Yifan..." Qiao Yifan was also startled and answered hesitantly.

"Qiao Yifan? You are..." Huang Shaotian was originally a meticulous person. The title "senior" alone had allowed him to guess Qiao Yifan's identity. The title "senior" was of course only used by people in the professional circle. People in the online game wouldn't be so polite as to say "senior." Even if someone was so polite, Huang Shaotian had only just met this person, and seeing his level of skill, he couldn't be a rookie. How could he be so sure that he was a "senior" rather than a "junior"?

This guy is from the professional circle, and he guessed who I am! But who is he? Which team is he from? He's calling me senior, so he's a rookie?

Huang Shaotian's judgment was truly quite powerful. He had already deduced seven or eight parts of the truth.

"Ah..." Qiao Yifan heard that Huang Shaotian's tone was off, and he didn't know how to speak.

"Who are you calling senior? Me? Hahahaha, how did I become a senior? Is this how people call others now? Is this a wuxia film?" Huang Shaotian chuckled while sending messages to Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng: "I'm screwed I'm screwed I'm screwed, what do I do if my identity is exposed? Who is this person? Who is this person? Damn it, I actually ran over to play an online game. How am I going to face anyone if this gets out? Help me cover, help me cover!"

"Cough!" Su Mucheng coughed on her side. "Yifan, who do you think he is?"

"Huang... Huang..." Qiao Yifan said "Huang" twice, but he didn't know how to address him. Directly calling him "Huang Shaotian" wouldn't show his respect; "Huang Shao"? That was only something that familiar people would call him to his face; "Senior Huang Shaotian"? This should have been the most appropriate, but the word "senior" seemed to have touched some taboo, making the god very unhappy?

"Huang Shaotian?" Su Mucheng simply said it for him.

"Su Mucheng, you damn it!" Huang Shaotian used only half a second to complete the output and sending of this message. After he finished, he quickly explained himself: "Little brother, you really have an imagination. How could I possibly be Huang Shaotian?"

"He's not?" Qiao Yifan was stunned.

"Yeah, he's not." Su Mucheng actually took over, "How could he be Huang Shaotian? Huang Shaotian is a super noisy guy, buzzing like a fly. You can't even stay by his side for a second. This Flowing Tree classmate does have a bit of Huang Shaotian's style, but his level of noisiness is still less than one-ten-thousandth of Huang Shaotian! Isn't that right, Flowing Tree?"

"Hehe... hehe..." Huang Shaotian chuckled while frantically sending messages to Su Mucheng: "You damn it you damn it you damn it you damn it..." As a result, he received a smug little expression from Su Mucheng wearing sunglasses. Huang Shaotian burst into tears and forwarded the message to Ye Xiu: "Is there any man who can manage her?"

Before Ye Xiu could speak, Qiao Yifan had already expressed his stance. He wasn't a fool. From Su Mucheng's exaggerated description and Flowing Tree's strange reactions, he was now completely sure that this person was really Huang Shaotian. However, it was clear that the god was unwilling to admit his identity and even more unwilling to be recognized. He finally understood this. So he quickly said, "Oh, oh, is that so? Then I must have been mistaken."

Huang Shaotian didn't treat people as fools, and he naturally knew that after all this, Qiao Yifan had confirmed his identity. However, listening to the meaning in his words, it was clear that he was willing to pretend not to know, so his identity was still considered to be protected. Huang Shaotian breathed a sigh of relief.

As a result, he heard Steamed Bun Invasion and Mo Guang muttering on the side: "Huang Shaotian? What's that? Sounds a bit familiar."
Hu Die Lan