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Chapter 1129: Many Monks But Not Much Gruel

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

Glory equipment was separated every 5 levels. Characters weren’t though, so lowering the equipment required level didn’t necessarily have to be by 5. From the effect bonuses on current equipment, lowering the equipment required level between 1 to 5 levels was possible.

But Guan Rongfei was upgrading the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. Apart from lowering the equipment required level by 5, any other effect was useless. It meant that this upgrade was a failure.

“What exactly went wrong?” Guan Rongfei muttered to himself. He had checked all of the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s forms. Every single form had this effect, and all of them lowered the equipment required level by 4.

At this moment, Chen Guo and the others had gathered here, asking what had happened.

Ye Xiu explained. No one cared about the experiment’s failure. All of them were shocked. Level 75 was the level cap, but Guan Rongfei had wanted to produce a Level 80 equipment. What sort of imagination did this guy have?

“Look at my Death’s Hand!” This was the first thing Wei Chen said after recovering from his shock.

“No. Apart from the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, it isn’t possible.” Guan Rongfei shook his head. He didn’t seem to care about the discussion that everyone else was having. He had already buried his head back into research again.

Ye Xiu and everyone else quietly left the room. After regaining their composure, they began expressing their regret towards this failed experiment.

“The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella isn’t ruined, is it?” Chen Guo asked.

“No.” Ye Xiu said. It could be considered as a fortune among misfortune. The experiment failed, but the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s intrinsic functions hadn’t been ruined. There was just an extra useless effect.

“How reckless! Why’d you directly start with the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella? Experiment with other equipment first before trying to do something like lower the required level!” Chen Guo said.

“That step had been completed long ago. The current focus is to get all of the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s forms to have this stat. This step has been completed too actually. It’s just that a problem occurred with the stat effect itself.” Ye Xiu said.

“Then it’ll definitely be possible at Level 80?” Chen Guo said.

“This… before we can ascertain that we can get this stat bonus, it’s not convenient to test. If not, if we get it to Level 80 but there was only a reduction of 4 levels, how am I supposed to use it?” Ye Xiu said.

The experiment had failed.

When Ye Xiu and Guan Rongfei saw that the equipment required level had only been lowered by 5, they also felt grieved and frustrated. But the two quickly regained their calm. After all, there were many positives gained from this failure.

They couldn’t help with this matter, so they quickly shifted the topic to the Qi Master.

“Wu Xuefeng? We haven’t stayed in touch after he retired. I don’t know!” Ye Xiu dispelled Chen Guo’s guess. Sure enough, he had no intentions of looking for this old general to return.

“Then after we get Boundless Sea, who are we going to find to use it?” Chen Guo asked.

“We have to choose very carefully. Do you guys have any suggestions?” Ye Xiu asked.

Chen Guo coughed blood: “Don’t you already have an idea?”

“Did I say that?” Ye Xiu was puzzled.

“…”

“Don’t make things up!” Ye Xiu said to Chen Guo.

“I…”

“Let’s analyze the current Qi Masters in the pro scene.” Ye Xiu said.

Chen Guo understood. This transfer would be a transfer starting from scratch, from character to player.

“We have to get Boundless Sea first though.” Ye Xiu said.

“What if we get Boundless Sea but can’t find anyone?” Chen Guo couldn’t help but ask.

“That shouldn’t happen.” Ye Xiu said, “An All Star character should be very attractive to pro players. Seeing the current circumstances in the pro scene, I don’t think it will be too difficult to snatch an outstanding Qi Master player.”

“What do you mean by circumstances?” Chen Guo didn’t understand.

“Many monks but not much gruel.” Ye Xiu said.

Chen Guo stared blankly. She didn’t continue asking about it. She was also trying to consciously train herself to be a better boss.

Many monks but not much gruel?

Chen Guo pondered over this phrase. Soon, she started to understand what Ye Xiu meant.

Among last season’s top eight teams, there were only two Qi Masters. What’s more, Team Wind Howl’s Guo Yang wasn’t in an important position on the team either. In the playoffs, the only active Qi Master was Team Blue Rain’s Song Xiao.

Getting into the playoffs and fighting for the championship title was the dream of every pro player. But for Qi Masters, the current circumstances weren’t good for them. Including the retiring All Star, Zhao Yang, the Qi Masters were on weak teams without any hopes for the playoffs. And in the powerhouses, none of them had any open positions for Qi Masters.

Zhao Yang had been fighting with Seaside for seven years. Admittedly, a part of that was because of his stubbornness, but a part of that was also because he didn’t have many good choices.

This was the current situation for all Qi Masters. Even if they were outstanding players, they were being held back by weak teams. They may want to join a top team, but the top teams didn’t have Qi Masters, so there was no opening for them.

Most pro players might not look too highly upon a new team like Team Happy, who lacked resources. However, Qi Masters didn’t have any better choices. And perhaps Happy might truly have a bright future.

Thinking of all of this, Chen Guo felt like she had improved greatly. She at least understood that transfers weren’t like buying vegetables at the supermarket. It was a lot more complex than that.

Three days later, while everyone was still focused on Fang Rui, the All Star character Boundless Sea was bought by Team Happy for 5.5 million. Everyone was shocked.

They weren’t surprised that Happy could take out this sum of money. After all, winning the Challenger League earned them a good amount of money. A price of 5.5 million was relatively cheap for an All Star character, but when considering the current circumstances for Qi Masters as well as Team Seaside’s current situation, it was a reasonable price.

After Zhao Yang retired, news related to Team Seaside quickly came out.

Fans would always be proud because of their All Star player or character in their team, but they would never think that sometimes their All Stars would be the burden of their team.

Team Seaside was in this situation. They were a small team. Whether it was a contract for an All Star player or creating an All Star character, it was a huge investment for them. And ever since their start in season three, they had always been doing their utmost to keep up this investment.

They had once been proud because of their All Star player and character, but they gradually realized that as they maintained this pride, the growth of the team became more and more unbalanced. A single skilled player and character wasn’t enough to help them win more. When they tried improving their other players and characters, they discovered that because of Zhao Yang and Boundless Sea, they no longer had the resources to invest in anything else.

In a nutshell, Team Seaside was a small team with a big team’s mindset. They had insisted on this unsuitable management style for seven years. They had hesitated and paced back and forth. It wasn’t until this summer, when a new manager took office in Team Seaside, was a decision finally made. Seaside had decided to free themselves of this burden and take the path that a small team should be taking.

Zhao Yang had been let go, so he decisively chose to retire.

Boundless Sea had been sold. Seaside had invested too much into this character, and they didn’t plan on continuing. If they weren’t going to continue investing into Boundless Sea, there wasn’t much point in keeping it. It would be better to sell it to strengthen the rest of the team.

Zhao Yang’s retirement, Boundless Sea’s sale. Behind those were changes to Team Seaside’s management. Ye Xiu didn’t know about all of this, but he had at least gotten a general sense of Seaside’s position from Zhao Yang’s retirement. As a result, he immediately acted and happily took in Boundless Sea.

Seaside obviously wanted to sell Boundless Sea for the highest price possible. However, the top teams in the Alliance weren’t interested in a Qi Master, and the small teams were uncertain. The unwavering Happy suddenly stood above the crowd. After some negotiation, an agreement was quickly reached.

Boundless Sea transferred to Happy!

As soon as Happy acted, they grabbed an All Star character. For fans, it was very exciting news. But soon afterwards, doubts about Happy’s management style sprouted up, questioning whether Happy would become the next Seaside.

Two All Stars and a bunch of characters to upgrade. Happy was a grassroots team. Their burden had been very heavy to begin with. Even so, in this situation, Happy actually bought an All Star character. Did they have the resources to maintain such a top-tier character? Would Team Happy become like Team Seaside? Would they become a grassroots team that walked the path of a powerhouse until their demise?

However, the day after Boundless Sea joined Happy, Happy announced that Boundless Sea’s Silver weapon, Mirror Moon, had been upgraded to Level 75.

Everyone was once again shocked!

Team Seaside hadn’t been able to do it after half a season, yet Happy had done it in just a single day.

The people doubting Happy clearly hadn’t done a thorough investigation. For example, the club guild leaders definitely wouldn’t have given such naive evaluations because no one knew better than them that even though Happy’s resources as a whole were certainly lacking, in terms of high-end resources like materials, Happy was quite rich. Ever since the Level 75 update, Happy had obtained the most wild bosses among the guilds.

Happy’s situation was completely different from Seaside’s. It could even be said that taking this path to the peak was the most suitable for them. Boundless Sea allowed Happy to avoid the initial stages of character creation, which was exactly where their deficiencies lay. On the other hand, directly upgrading a good character to the top was exactly where their resources lay.

However, upgrading a Level 70 Silver weapon to Level 75 in a single day wasn’t just an issue of ample resources. It seemed like Team Happy had someone very capable at creating Silver equipment.

Was it Ye Xiu?

Just when everyone made this guess, another report came out. Excellent Era’s R&D God had been taken in by Happy after Excellent Era disbanded.

Everything was clear now.

Excellent Era’s R&D team was obviously very proficient with Qi Master equipment. Qi Masters had been a part of their main roster. At Happy, Boundless Sea seemed to be blessed by the heavens. The only thing the character lacked was an outstanding player. Suddenly, the entire Glory scene started helping Happy look for a Qi Master.