Quadruple split.

Chapter 2718 Interlude: Ominous Signs
In short, with their 'tacit understanding', Wang Badan thus endured everything.

Congratulations! Congratulations!
To be honest, from an emotional point of view, Mo Tan didn't really want to shift the blame onto Wang Badan. After all, objectively speaking, this embarrassing incident had little to do with him, but even less to do with Wang Badan. However, considering that Ji Xiaoge had already 'punished' the child, if he continued to be stubborn, it would seem like he was just looking for trouble.

It's like there are two criminal suspects, and law enforcement has already shot one of them. They ask the other survivor, "Who do you think I should kill?" If Mo Tan isn't stupid, he would know what to choose right now.

I'm sorry, I owe you this once. I'll try to go easy on you next time I discipline you.

Mo Tan stared at the turtle, whose eyes had rolled back and which was now lying on the ground blowing smoke rings, and silently apologized in his heart.

[Brother, you're a real beast...]

Although he looked half-dead, Wang Badan still managed to reply with this through the blood pact connection.

For saying that, I should have taught you a lesson, but I've chosen to forgive you now, so let's call it even.

Noticing that the turtle looked pitiful but was actually not seriously injured, Mo Tan remained expressionless, silently dispelling the other party's wishful thinking that they could commit crimes with impunity next time.

[That's ruthless, as expected of my eldest brother. You go and comfort your older sister, I'll die for a while first.]

After leaving those words, Wang Badan tilted his head and completely lost consciousness. Clearly, the damage from the egg was not as insignificant as it seemed.

"cough……"

Mo Tan coughed lightly, looked at his online girlfriend who was still somewhat unhappy but clearly had no intention of continuing to unleash her killing intent, and said with a forced smile, "I just unlocked the achievement of three consecutive losses. How's your progress?"

"Progress is encouraging!"

The winged beauty smiled and then took Mo Tan's left arm (her right arm was being held by Ya Ya), and said cheerfully, "Many hands make light work. With the help of the sisters from the studio and the club, the efficiency of the initial organization work has almost tripled. Although I still can't get away much these days, it's not as tiring as I expected."

Mo Tan nodded slightly and smiled, "Are you confident that you can complete the mission within the allotted time?"

"It's hard to say. At the current work efficiency, it's probably not enough. But I just contacted Sister Jiuzhong. The club and the studio will keep sending more people. If everything goes smoothly, we can increase our number of people tenfold within a week. We'll see then."

Ji Xiaoge scratched her head. Although her tone was somewhat hesitant, looking at her bright eyes, Mo Tan suddenly felt for no reason that the other party's mission would definitely proceed smoothly.

From a purely idealistic perspective, Mo Tan hopes and believes that her online boyfriend will definitely get everything she wants.

Materialistically speaking, Ji Xiaoge is never alone. On her adventures, she has a group of trustworthy people (turtles) around her, including Mo Tan, Ya Ya, Jadka, Gu Xiaole, Anthony Dabus, and Wang Badan. On her scientific research path, she has Lu Wei Fitzgerald, a top-notch engineer whose professional skills are beyond the norm, as well as a studio and club that are destined to invest a lot of manpower and resources in this world mission.

To be honest, given the level of enthusiasm among those professional gamers, it's not hard to imagine how much resources those investors would allocate. Mo Tan felt there was no reason why this couldn't be accomplished.

In conclusion, what he is more concerned about is—

"Don't work too hard."

With a slight smile, Mo Tan gave the winged beauty who was clinging to his arm a word of advice that, while sounding cliché and meaningless, was nonetheless incredibly sincere.

"Hehe, it's been a bit tiring, so you see, I came out to get some fresh air and relax a bit."

Ji Xiaoge shook her wings, then pinched Mo Tan's hand hard: "Although I saw someone being entangled by a long-legged beauty right from the start."

Mo Tan gave an innocent, wry smile, offering no argument, and simply said with lowered eyes, "I'm sorry, I didn't expect that Miss Xiao He to want to play another round with me."

"Well, it's not your fault that you're popular."

Ji Xiaoge wrinkled her nose, then suddenly raised the corners of her mouth slightly, and muttered in a voice that only Mo Tan could hear, "Doesn't this also show that I have good taste?"

Mo Tan chuckled, tilting her head to look at the other person's pretty face, which still occasionally made her lose herself in thought and space out, and said with a smile, "If that's the case, then my taste is even better, isn't it?"

Click!

【Huh? Why did I say that? It's clearly...】

Just as Ji Xiaoge lowered her head shyly and gently pinched Mo Tan's hand a second time, the latter suddenly froze, startled by the words she had just blurted out.

However, Ji Xiaoge didn't give him much time to react. After briefly suppressing her shyness, she gently poked Mo Tan's cheek and pouted, saying, "No way! It was clearly him who took the initiative. What does it have to do with your taste?"

Mo Tan paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "That's true?"

"What do you mean 'right'? You have great taste!"

As soon as Ji Xiaoge heard this, she poked him a second time and said smugly, "You have such good taste!"

Faced with her crush's straightforward advances, Mo Tan embarrassingly fell into a mental blank for about half a second, while simultaneously feeling grateful that everyone was there.

He had to admit that if it were just him and Ji Xiaoge at this moment, although the consequences wouldn't be as dire as they were now, the willpower he would need to exert would be at least three times what it was now.

"anyway……"

Jadka then interjected at just the right moment, asking the winged beauty whose ears were still burning, "Little Pigeon, how did you know that Mo had a match to play right now? I remember he deliberately didn't contact you so as not to keep you busy."

Ya Ya twitched her ears and asked curiously, "Does Sister Wang Ge miss Wang?"

"Of course I want to see Ya Ya! Here, this is garlic pork ribs that Miss Yintian made. She brought it especially for you."

Ji Xiaoge first took out two large bones wrapped in oil paper from her bag and handed them to Ya Ya and Jadka respectively. Then she flapped her wings and laughed, "I didn't know that Mo had a competition right now. Although I do know that he would definitely be in the Grand Arena if he was online, meeting you guys here was an accident. I came to watch Sister Xiaole's competition."

Mo Tan stared wide-eyed in surprise, and asked in astonishment, "Sister Xiao Le? She's also competing in the Grand Arena?"

"That's right. After all, Sister Xiaole doesn't have much of an engineering background, so she can't be of much help even at the Ascension Fortress. That's why she came to the arena in the First Outer Mountain to play."

The winged beauty, Little Dove, who was very close to Gu Xiaole, nodded vigorously like a pecking rice, and said happily, "I heard her say that although you are all in the same group in this level three arena, you have never been matched together."

[Is Sister Xiaole here too?]

Having not seen Gu Xiaole much lately, Mo Tan, who had assumed she was busy with Ji Xiaoge at the [Ascension Fortress], paused for a moment and asked curiously, "So, it was Sister Xiaole who asked you to come?"

Ji Xiaoge nodded slightly and raised an eyebrow, saying, "That's right. As soon as I brought Little Turtle over, I saw someone chatting enthusiastically with a long-legged girl."

"Wang?"

Tooth, glistening with oil from gnawing on a bone, tilted its head, then looked down at its own legs and nodded with satisfaction, saying, "Woof legs, definitely woof legs!" "..."

Although her figure was well-proportioned, if we only consider the proportion of her legs, they were indeed not as exaggerated as those of Ya Ya and that horse girl. Ji Xiaoge bit her lower lip lightly, and the wings on her back fluttered somewhat uneasily.

"Hey--"

Finally, Jadka broke the somewhat eerie atmosphere, cheerfully pointing to several enormous rune crystal panels in the distance that claimed to be enchanted with the [Viewing Spell]: "Is that Xiao Le?"

When Mo Tan and the others looked up, the slender figure on the screen, dressed in black and white hunting robes, holding a five-bone bat fan, and wearing wooden clogs, was none other than their own Great Yin-Yang Master, Gu Xiaole. The enemy standing opposite her was a middle-aged swordsman who looked weathered and had a reserved demeanor.

Just by looking at him, you get the feeling that he's ruthless and doesn't talk much.

In fact, in Mo Tan and Jadka's eyes, regardless of how talkative this person was, he was definitely ruthless enough.

"This is difficult."

Jadka narrowed his eyes, scrutinized the man for a few seconds, then turned to Mo Tan: "What do you think?"

"Although I can't guarantee it..."

Mo Tan stared at the man on the big screen with a serious expression. The man had a profound aura, deep eyes, and was holding a broken sword. He said solemnly, "He should be a half-step epic."

Ji Xiaoge's eyes widened immediately, and she exclaimed, "Half-step Epic? Is Sister Xiaole's opponent this strong?"

"In terms you can understand better, he's a half-step Epic level expert who could officially advance at any moment. He has completely completed his swordsmanship and path, and now, as long as he thoroughly solidifies his sword heart, he can completely open the door to the so-called 'Epic' realm."

Just then, Jianpo's clear and calm voice suddenly rang in Mo Tan's mind. Given that this older sister usually spoke very little, it took Mo Tan a full two seconds to realize who was talking to her.

What conditions are needed to solidify one's swordsmanship?

Mo Tan, who subconsciously began to worry about Gu Xiaole, frowned slightly and asked in his heart.

'Strengthening one's sword heart doesn't require any special conditions, but it does require confronting one's own inner self. In most cases, inner demons and sudden enlightenment are excellent opportunities, but they are rare and hard to come by. Apart from these, to achieve a true sword heart, one must undergo countless trials and tribulations, eliminating all confusion.'

Perhaps because the [Dawn - Ruthless Sword] has been upgraded from 'ruined' to 'normal' quality, the high-ping Warrior Sword Soul, which originally had a latency of at least 23000ms, seems to have had its bandwidth significantly optimized, resulting in a much faster response time of around 5000ms.

In other words, although it's still laggy, it's not as laggy as before.

[I see. So this swordsman is still in a bottleneck period and it won't be so easy for him to break through...]

For some reason, Mo Tan breathed a sigh of relief for Gu Xiaole and smiled slightly, his previously uneasy expression gradually relaxing.

however--

"That's not the case. That girl with the secret arts seems to have many attack methods primarily based on 'spiritual awareness,' and such techniques can easily create...inner demons."

Sword Soul 'pointed' at this in her usual clear and calm voice.

Upon hearing this, Mo Tan tensed up again and muttered under her breath, "This is bad."

"not good?"

Ji Xiaoge immediately turned to look at Mo Tan and said nervously, "What's wrong?"

"Sword Soul and I exchanged a few words just now."

Mo Tan didn't hide anything, but directly told her companions who were surrounding her, "According to her observation, Sister Xiao Le's opponent is not just a half-step epic, to be precise, the opponent should be at the critical point of breaking through to epic at any time."

Remembering that her own Grand Yin-Yang Master was also a half-step Epic level expert, Ji Xiaoge nodded and continued to ask, "So? You mean Sister Xiaole is very likely to lose?"

"Losing isn't the point. After all, Mo has lost three times already, and it hasn't been a big deal."

Jadka, standing beside him, stroked his beard and said in a deep voice, "The problem is, if Xiao Le's opponent breaks through to the Epic Realm in this match, it could lead to very bad consequences."

Although she was considered one of Tianzhu Mountain's "own people," her activities mainly took place in the Seventh Outer Mountain. The winged beauty, who didn't know much about the First Outer Mountain Grand Arena, blinked and asked, "What do you mean?"

“I spoke with Mr. Noyce about the Grand Arena before.”

While keeping a close eye on Gu Xiaole and the middle-aged swordsman who had begun to exchange greetings on the screen, Jadka explained seriously, "He told me that the protective measures in the Grand Arena are divided into two levels. The first level is applied to arenas from the lowest to the highest level, ensuring that power below the Epic rank will not leak out. It can also take automatic control measures before an accident occurs to ensure that no one is seriously injured."

Ji Xiaoge immediately realized the problem and exclaimed, "But if that person breaks through to the Epic rank in this competition, wouldn't that mean..."

"It will exceed the limit of the automatic control measures in the Tier 3 Arena."

Mo Tan stared at Gu Xiaole, who was still smiling on the screen, and his dark eyes unconsciously turned into purple vertical pupils: "In this way, if the opponent can really achieve a breakthrough in this competition, Sister Xiaole is very likely to be seriously injured. After all, the gap between half-step epic and epic is too big."

"Then... what should we do? Should we stop the match?"

"It's too late. Don't be too nervous, everyone. The chances of the opponent seriously injuring Miss Xiao Le are very low, as they advanced to a higher level at the last minute."

"Even if you say that, Lao Jia..."

“I’m going to see Mr. Noyce.”

"silent?"

"Even if the probability is small, it's not zero, so I'm not at ease."

"Okay! Then I'll keep you company..."

"It's alright, everyone. Master is well aware of the current situation. What you're worried about won't happen."

"Sister Xiaole! What are you doing here? Wait, you're... Origami?"

"Hmm~"

Chapter 2709: The End