Chapter 153: Reunion with the Guild Challenge

How does the saying go? A war can always be started as long as one side wants to fight.

However, if neither side wants to fight, it naturally becomes impossible for a battle to break out.

Neither side wanted to continue fighting, and Wind and Cloud Dominion never really intended to engage in a massive war with other guilds in the first place.

Initially, he hadn't even wanted to come to Heavenly Gate Pass; it was simply because Wind and Cloud Blade and Zhang Shan and the others had been blocked by West Mountain Dragon.

Wind and Cloud Dominion had only brought people over to rescue them. Otherwise, he would still be farming monsters outside Dangyang City right now.

As for Peerless Gentleman, he wanted to fight even less, primarily because he lacked the confidence to win after several rounds of skirmishes.

He felt that with a troublemaker like Zhang Shan in the Wind and Cloud Guild, once a full-scale battle broke out, unpredictable accidents were bound to happen.

It would be better to just let it go for now and settle the score later when the opportunity arose. At worst, he could always initiate a guild war.

Defeating the Wind and Cloud Guild fair and square in a guild war would yield an even better result.

"Let's settle it at that, then. We'll each pull back our forces. I'll arrange for people to come over and revive our fallen brothers later. I hope Brother Dominion won't interfere with our actions."

"Very well. We'll go farm monsters in a moment, as long as your people don't come over to make trouble again."

Wind and Cloud Dominion agreed readily, having no intention of extorting Peerless Gentleman.

However, just because Wind and Cloud Dominion didn't plan to press Peerless Gentleman didn't mean the others felt the same way.

"How can I be sure that after you revive your people, they won't come back to make trouble? What guarantee do you have?"

Wind and Cloud Blade had no intention of letting Peerless Gentleman off the hook so easily.

"Oh, does Brother Blade not trust my personal character?"

"My trust in you is useless. The real issue is whether the people you lead will actually listen to your commands. And what about the members of the West Mountain Guild? If they start making trouble later, what should we do? You aren't going to claim they aren't your people and thus not your responsibility, are you?"

Wind and Cloud Blade's words truly cornered Peerless Gentleman, as he could only control the members of the Peerless Guild.

How could he possibly control other Qi State players if they wanted to cause trouble for the Wind and Cloud Guild? Even if he could control them, he wouldn't want to.

Although they had temporarily made peace, he was still secretly hoping someone would go and give the Wind and Cloud Guild a hard time.

"Brother Blade's question puts me in a difficult spot. I can only manage the members of our own guild; I can't guarantee that others will listen to me."

"That amounts to nothing then. You revive your people, dust off your bottoms and leave, and then other Qi State players block us in—you'll be laughing in secret. How do I know those people won't be summoned by you?"

"What kind of assurance would Brother Blade like?"

"How about this? In a public map like Heavenly Gate Pass, talking about peaceful coexistence is a pipe dream. You just need to ensure that Qi State players won't come to bother us for a full day. Small groups don't count, but any large-scale harassment will be blamed on you."

"Fine, it's a deal. If there is any large-scale harassment from Qi State players against you today, just let me know, and I will step in to coordinate."

Peerless Gentleman didn't want to waste any more time; he needed to get his fallen men back on their feet first, or else too much time would pass.

All those downed players would end up automatically respawning back in the city.

"Alright, I trust Brother Gentleman's character. I hope you keep your word."

"Rest assured, this isn't our first time dealing with each other."

"Very well then, you go ahead with your business. We need to go farm monsters."

With the matter temporarily put to rest, the members of the Wind and Cloud Guild naturally prepared to resume farming monsters. Finding such an excellent grinding spot in Heavenly Gate Pass wasn't easy.

They intended to grind here long-term because it was safe and free from the threat of sneak attacks.

Even if someone secretly sneaked into the passage, it wouldn't matter; a small number of intruders posed no pressure, and if too many entered, they weren't blind and would naturally notice very quickly.

With the truce successfully negotiated, Zhang Shan and the others were just about to head back to monster grinding when Peerless Gentleman spoke to Wind and Cloud Dominion again:

"Brother Dominion, to be honest, I'm a bit unsatisfied with how this loss turned out. How about it, shall we have a formal guild war?"

Peerless Gentleman still wanted to reclaim his honor, yet a guild challenge came with too many uncertainties.

Most importantly, before the challenge was initiated, it was impossible to know what challenge mode the system would assign to them.

There were already quite a few player guilds by now, and many guild wars had been initiated.

Various challenge modes had appeared, aside from the battle flag offense and defense mode seen in the match between the Wind and Cloud Guild and the Overlord,

there had also been an all-member melee mode involving every single member of the guilds.

There had even been a five-man arena mode.

The all-member melee mode was straightforward: no registration was required, and any online guild member could participate. It best reflected a guild's overall strength.

However, the arena mode was entirely different, allowing only five people per guild to take the field.

"Oh, Brother Gentleman should think this through carefully."

"I've thought it through. I hope Brother Dominion won't mind."

"As long as you've considered it thoroughly. If you want to initiate a guild challenge, I won't stop you, nor will I mind. Guild challenges are a game feature offering every guild free choice."

System Announcement: The Peerless Guild has challenged the Wind and Cloud Guild. The challenge match is scheduled for tomorrow at 8:00 PM.

Good grief, they're actually going through with it.

These top players really refuse to admit defeat.

Let's see what kind of challenge mode it is.

Zhang Shan opened the guild panel, and a guild challenge notification appeared on the guild channel.

Checking the challenge information:

Challenging party: The Peerless Guild.

Defended party: The Wind and Cloud Guild.

Challenge mode: Five-man arena match.

Seeing the challenge mode, Zhang Shan couldn't help but chuckle. Peerless Gentleman was truly unlucky.

A five-man arena match? What on earth were they hoping to achieve with that?

Zhang Shan could handle it all by himself. This guild challenge match couldn't possibly be simpler.

It would be over in a matter of minutes.

Aside from the mode, everything else was similar to the previous guild challenge.

The challenge fee paid by the challenging party was also one million gold coins.

The rewards were identical as well: the victor would receive half a million gold coins from the challenge fee and ten percent of the opposing guild's contribution points.

The only difference was that scrolls were prohibited in the arena match, and the use of ultimate skills was restricted.

Banning scrolls went without saying; it was a standard mechanic. Otherwise, a single scroll would wipe out the opposing side, rendering the challenge completely pointless.

He hadn't expected ultimate skills to be banned as well. Although no player could cast an ultimate skill yet, someone certainly would be able to in the future.

Such large-scale ultimate abilities were actually forbidden in arena challenges.

Still, it made sense when thinking about it. Otherwise, as ultimate skills became more widespread later on, whoever struck first would automatically win the arena challenge.

That would make things a bit too trivial. Restricting ultimate ultimate moves was likely intended to make the challenges as fair as possible and enhance playability.