He Hanwenqing's answer surprised the reporters. These two long-time rivals, who never yielded on the field, had an off-field relationship that wasn't quite what the reporters had imagined.

Mutual respect between heroes? The reporters didn't sense that strongly. But after Hanwenqing said that Ye Xiu's performance in the Challenger League was something to be proud of, the reporters thought about it and realized it was indeed true. Leading a group of people he'd gathered from who-knows-where to form a temporary team, he'd ultimately defeated the powerhouse Excellent Era and emerged victorious from the Challenger League. Why wouldn't such a miraculous record be something to be proud of?

If that was the experience, perhaps it was perfectly reasonable to consider it a rich experience?

As the reporters thought, they suddenly felt that Ye Xiu and Hanwenqing seemed to have something in common. Could it be simply because they were both down-to-earth people?

Down-to-earth?

The reporter shivered when that word popped into their head. Hanwenqing was one thing, but Ye Xiu being a down-to-earth person? The reporter didn't want to think about it too much; they simply refused to accept that idea.

The All-Star Weekend was held in Tyranny's home stadium, but during the final All-Star Team Competition on the last day, Tyranny's two players weren't highlighted as much. Zhang Xinjie, a Cleric, was sent to fight in the擂台 (lei tai, a stage for one-on-one battles) , and Hanwenqing was the second to be eliminated in the team competition. The Tyranny fans at the scene were a little unhappy about this. The All-Star Weekend was generally a stage where everyone would give some face to the home team's players, allowing them to perform more spectacularly and maybe even win the MVP award. But this time, the All-Star MVP was taken by Wang Jiexi. His recreation of the Magician playstyle in the match, defeating two great gods, Tang Hao and Sun Xiang, in quick succession, was undoubtedly the biggest highlight and climax of the day.

And his brilliant performance highlighted Tang Hao's disappointment. This All-Star Weekend didn't exactly end with everyone happy, but it finally came to a close.

Each team rested, returned home, and the media extensively reported on the various dazzling moments of the three days. But for the pro players, these three days weren't worth cherishing much, because they had nothing to do with their true goal.

Each returned to their own home, and each team immediately began adjusting in preparation for the eighteenth round of matches.

The eighteenth round had quite a few heavyweight clashes.

Tiny Herb at home against Misty Rain, Blue Rain at home against Void, Tyranny at home against Hundred Blossoms, Samsara at home against Thunderclap, and, of course, Happy at home against Wind Howl.

Such a round was a source of entanglement and suffering for the broadcasters. After much deliberation, they chose the Samsara home game against Thunderclap.

Thunderclap's team tactics had been widely praised this season, but what about Samsara? Their overwhelming strength had made everyone numbly overlook their power. Samsara's team had a perfect 17-0 record, even better than Thunderclap's.

Thunderclap's team winning streak, unfortunately, was ended by Happy in the sixteenth round. But people obviously hadn't lost faith in Thunderclap because of this. When this team, which relied on precise tactical execution, met Samsara's All-Star quartet, what kind of battle would it be? This match was chosen for live television broadcast, obviously to attract enough eyeballs.

While the players were actively preparing, and the TV station was choosing which match to broadcast, the management of each team was also collecting opinions within their teams, weighing whether or not they needed to make some adjustments to the team during this winter transfer window. And the Alliance? After these All-Star Weekend events, they launched a new list: the Weapon Rankings.

Whether in the online game or the pro scene, the most eye-catching piece of equipment on a character was, of course, their weapon. And now, the Alliance had singled out all the weapons of the pro scene characters and allowed players to vote to determine this so-called Weapon Rankings.

Insiders could see that this was probably a questionnaire before creating merchandise, but regardless, the players' enthusiasm seemed to be quite high. As soon as the list was released, the votes kept refreshing. The Alliance then supplemented the rules, stating that the Weapon Rankings would be updated monthly, and at the end of the year, a total ranking would be compiled based on the monthly rankings.

After a few days, the Weapon Rankings began to take shape. The number one weapon was Happy's Lord Grim's Myriad Manifestations Umbrella.

The silver lettering highlighted that this was also a self-made weapon, but its Level 70 was extremely jarring on the list. Glory had been updated for a year, and weapons had always been the top priority in equipment research, holding a privileged position. By now, there were very few silver weapons that hadn't reached Level 70, let alone one that was ranked number one on the Weapon Rankings.

But there was no way around it. The novelty of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was too eye-catching. In the All-Star voting, Ye Xiu couldn't compare to Zhou Zekai, but in this Weapon Rankings, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was several streets ahead of Cloud Piercer's Wildfire and Shattered Frost.

This result annoyed many people.

As the insider pointed out, this popularity ranking could be regarded as a survey of players' interest in merchandise. But now, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's popularity far surpassed other weapons, which made merchandise production very troublesome.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella... it wasn't as simple as making an umbrella. The biggest feature of this thing was its transformation. Without transformation, where would this weapon get such high popularity?

But this kind of thing that could transform, disassemble, and reassemble could have some scientifically illogical aspects in the game. But to actually make merchandise that completely replicated its changing characteristics, how precise would the design have to be? How complex would the production line be? How long would the production time be? And finally, how high would the cost be?

High costs meant high selling prices. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella would inevitably have an exorbitant price that blew away all other merchandise, so exorbitant that even professionals who understood the merchandise market thought it was crazy.

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella couldn't be completely replicated; but if it wasn't completely replicated, sales would inevitably be affected. This was truly regrettable.

Why was Ye Xiu so annoying? He hadn't let Excellent Era get much commercial sponsorship from him in the past, and now that he'd finally created a popular weapon, it was impossible to replicate again. This guy was deliberately making things difficult for their commercial operations, wasn't he? Some industry insiders who knew Ye Xiu's past complained deeply. But no matter what, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was too popular. Even if they only made two or three forms, it was worth a try. So the weapon merchandise operation took the lead and contacted Happy to discuss cooperation.

These matters were now entirely handled by Chen Guo in Happy. After half a year of getting familiar with the team's operations, she had managed to let Ye Xiu focus solely on the competition and not worry too much about other things. In addition to these collaborations, the opening of the winter transfer window would also bring many things to the team.

Happy's approach to this transfer window was simple: no buying, no selling. That meant not participating. But not buying could avoid trouble, while not selling couldn't stop other teams from inquiring about prices.

With such achievements, the value of Happy's players had naturally increased greatly. In addition, they were just a grassroots team that had just entered the Alliance. After half a year of contact, everyone knew that Happy's financial resources weren't great and their conditions were difficult. Therefore, in the eyes of many, Happy was like a poor child holding a gold brick. They couldn't snatch it, but they could always spend a little money to chip off a corner, right?

Qiao Yifan, Steamed Bun, Mo Fan, and even Ye Xiu were targets for people to make inquiries about. But in the end, they all ran into a wall. Chen Guo didn't show the slightest sign of loosening her grip, making it impossible for anyone to see any hope of negotiating.

Soon, January 10th, the eighteenth round of matches, was approaching. Ten days of the transfer period had passed, and some teams had completed some transactions. But the winter transfer window had always been for minor surgeries. A major transfer like Excellent Era acquiring Sun Xiang, a core player, in the eighth season was extremely rare.

This season, some teams had stable results, while others had twists and turns. But it seemed that no team's core lineup had conflicts so great that they needed to be resolved through trades in the winter transfer window. The teams with more trade rumors were Misty Rain and Wind Howl. Misty Rain's new tactics this season had not yet opened up the situation for them. They currently had 86 points, ranking tenth on the leaderboard, which was their worst result in recent years. With a set of tactics that hadn't produced results after half a season, everyone speculated that Misty Rain should make some adjustments.

As for Wind Howl, they currently had 112 points, ranking sixth. This seemed okay, but it was far from their own expectations. They were a team aiming to win the championship, but they had repeatedly failed to defeat strong teams this season, which had caused them to question themselves.

With Fang Rui leaving, the person who currently took over the second-in-command position in the team was Liu Hao, who had transferred freely. This disrupted Wind Howl's original core structure. They had persisted with the Brawler and Thief crime duo for many years. When Fang Rui left, they didn't give up on the Thief. In the end, they spent money to bring in Thief player Lin Feng from Blue Rain, handing him the All-Star-level Thief account Ghost Haunt.

As a result, Liu Hao's Spellblade rose to prominence, even snatching an All-Star spot, showing his presence in the team. And Lin Feng? Holding an All-Star account, he ended up far from the rankings. Considering that Zhou Yuan could rely solely on fans' attachment to the account to send him and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms to the All-Star Weekend, it was clear that Lin Feng's performance wasn't outstanding. Although Ghost Haunt's status was still inferior to Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

Would Wind Howl make any adjustments? Everyone speculated, and some fans even called for Fang Rui to return. But this idea was really just the wishful thinking of brain-dead fans. Fang Rui had gone to Happy, even at the cost of changing his class. He was currently achieving results, and Happy was even stepping on Wind Howl's foot on the leaderboard. Now, expecting him to return to Wind Howl to put out the fire and switch back to Thief? The only thing they could hope for was Fang Rui's unwavering love for Wind Howl...

Would something like that happen?

A reporter actually managed to interview Fang Rui online.

"I'll go back," Fang Rui replied.

The interviewing reporter was stunned, followed by ecstasy. This was too explosive! Fang Rui was willing to return to Wind Howl?

"January 10th, I'll go back," Fang Rui even added a specific time.

But when the reporter looked at it, they immediately understood. Fang Rui would return, but as an enemy. Except...

"Fang Rui, January 10th is Happy's home game!" the reporter reminded him.

"Is that so? Crap, what a waste of my exquisite lines! I played the All-Star Weekend for a week and miscounted!" Fang Rui exclaimed.