Sui Ning and Ji Yunyu were an incredibly efficient duo on the internation server. In just one afternoon and one day, they hadn’t lost a single match — their climb to Diamond rank could only be described as light-speed.
Both of their hidden MMRs were frighteningly high, often matching them against players several tiers above — even Masters and Grandmasters. Threads about the two had already begun popping up on the international forums. Some live streamers who specialized in observing (OB) high-ranked international matches had also noticed the IDs [Wind] and [Cloud4].
One of those live streamers was Xiao Le. Not only did he enjoy watching high-level international matches, but he also loved streaming foreigners’ forum meltdowns for his viewers.
“Found something good today, gotta share it with everyone.”
With a sly grin, Xiao Le opened one of his bookmarked pages.
It was a post from an overseas forum titled [Who’s so bored they made a smurf just to stomp noobs?] (Posted from: KR, auto-translated). The original poster complained about being brutally beaten by a mid-jungle duo while playing on a smurf account.
Original Post: I’m sad. Was in a bad mood, wanted to relax by playing on my Diamond smurf. Then this enemy mid-laner — absolutely rabid dog behavior. If you’re going to smurf, fine, but could you at least pretend to follow the basic rules? Kills me at level one, buys a kill book after? Am I supposed to have no dignity?
Attached Image: A screenshot showing player Wind’s inventory, featuring the infamous [Melina’s Soulstealer Grimoire] — nicknamed “the kill book.”
Each assist or kill increases the item’s stats, up to 20 stacks. At the 12-minute mark, Wind’s book was already fully stacked.
Comments: LOL, the OP was also smurfing to stomp noobs, just got reverse-smurfed ^^
Comments: That ID looks familiar — pretty sure I’ve seen it before. Not Korean though, supporting OP’s revenge.
Comments: Who even knows who anyone is on the international server? Everyone’s typing English through translators kkk
Comments: Old news, I’ve been getting stomped like this since Platinum~!
After a while, the stream chat got bored — they couldn’t see what was so “special” about the post.
[KR Diamond crying post? Boring!]
[Next one, next one! First day seeing a kill book? Every duo smurf buys that!]
[Xiao Le’s run out of fresh content lol]
“Wait, wait, none of you noticed the main point?” Xiao Le protested. “Look closely at their IDs!”
[English IDs, wow, so creative. Even my three-year-old nephew could make those.]
[‘Wind’ and ‘Cloud’? What’s next, ‘Storm’? lol]
[Must be Western players. Beating a few KR Diamonds doesn’t count as news.]
[Wait… that jungler… no way, is it who I think it is?\
[I know Cloud0123 — is this Cloud4 guy related??]
Finally, someone caught on. Xiao Le exhaled dramatically and switched scenes to the game screen with mock mystery: “Phew, I thought you guys were actually that slow. Don’t go around telling people you’re fans of Detective Xiao Le if you missed this.”
[??? Spit it out already!]
[Keyword: that pig who’s been ‘stealing cabbage’ lately.]
[Holy— PNG?!]
[Wait, what, this is Cloud?!]
[Why is that the one clue everyone instantly gets? How bad is my team’s public image now…]
[Doesn’t add up though — I just checked Cloud4’s match history, the hero pool doesn’t match Cloud’s at all.]
[Yeah, this 4 guy keeps playing Fanlei, and our Cloud never does.]
Xiao Le said, “I just found out myself. Cloud4’s hero choices are a little weird, but it’s possible he’s practicing. Everything else lines up too well.”
“We can find out soon enough — someone just queued into their game.”
He scrolled through his friend list like the Grim Reaper pointing names, selected a Korean pro player, and clicked “Spectate.” “Here we go~! Our old friend — Tio team’s top-laner, Yuim.”
As the game loaded, Xiao Le added a “Star Match” banner to the top-right corner of his stream overlay. “Oh ho, just noticed — the enemy marksman’s no random either.”
Star Match Lineup:
Red side: Top – Tio_Yuim, Marksman – Huf_libap
Blue side: Jungle – Cloud4, Mid – Wind
[That’s ridiculous… never heard of those blue side players. Probably foreign wannabes pretending to be gods.]
[Agreed. Not even Chinese pros — what’s the point watching this? Let’s see Yuim slaughter them.]
[Yuim’s even matched with HUF’s sub marksman — two pros! Total stomp incoming.]
[First day watching international server streams? There are always like ten pros per game lol]
[No one noticed ranks? Those two on blue are only Diamond. Yuim’s account is Grandmaster at least. How did they even get queued together?]
Tio was a mid-tier Korean pro team, and Yuim — their flashy, fighter-specialist top-laner — had a modest but solid fanbase. Regardless of who won, Xiao Le’s stream would draw attention. In short, he couldn’t lose.
He didn’t actually know if Cloud4 was really Ji Yunyu, but seeing the chat hype spiral, he was happy to ride the wave.
——
Meanwhile, Sui Ning and Ji Yunyu, focused solely on climbing ranks, had rejected all friend requests — completely unaware that their match was being broadcast live.
Seeing the familiar top-lane ID on the enemy team, Ji Yunyu raised a brow. “Same as before? I’ll pick first?”
Sui Ning softly replied, “Mm.”
From second pick, Ji Yunyu locked in a hero he rarely used: [Shadowbane – Fanlei].
Suining followed up with [Ghostshade – Fan’en], sighing a little. “I’m still not smooth with shadow placement early game.”
Ji Yunyu said, “My spacing’s off too.”
After a pause, he added, “We can use their top-laner to practice. Easy target — he never wards early.”
Sui Ning blinked, only then realizing there were two pro players on the other team. “That fast? We’re already matching with pros?”
Yuim and libap — both foreign names. Sui Ning frowned. He wasn’t too familiar with mid-tier foreign players and didn’t know much about their playstyles.
But the thought didn’t linger — what occupied his mind most was perfecting his mechanics with Fan’en.
In both lore and gameplay, Fan’en and Fanlei were tightly linked — twin brothers with powerful synergy. Each could summon shadow entities to fight, but their combat styles differed subtly.
Fan’en, one of the War of Glory’s greatest dark summoners, fought in a monk’s robe, summoning multiple “Children of the Void” to assist and teleporting between them.
Fanlei, the masked agile fighter, had trained his shadow into a sentient companion — each strike accompanied by a phantom’s echo.
Individually, the brothers were mid-to-high-tier heroes with exploitable weaknesses. But together, their skills gained buffs, even allowing them to share shadows within range.
When Sui Ning first read that passive description, he’d already envisioned several devastating dual-attack combos — the potential was absurd.
“It just takes a ton of practice,” Sui Ning said thoughtfully. “Both technique and mindset need to sync perfectly.” He pursed his lips before adding, “Still, I’d recommend this combo.”
To his surprise, Ji Yunyu was more eager than he was. “No problem!”
Sui Ning: “...Huh?”
The younger man rubbed his neck a little sheepishly. “I actually used to really like playing Fanlei… just stopped after a few nerfs. Without Fan’en, he’s too weak now. But together — they’re strong.”
Sui Ning asked curiously, “You never practiced it with a teammate before?”
“...Ghost doesn’t really like forced coordination.” Ji Yunyu pulled a face. “Makes sense though — that [Shared Shadows] passive only works if we stick together the whole time.”
“That’s what I’m worried about too,” Sui Ning added. “But we can at least practice and see how it goes. The coach agreed as well.”
Chen Chen had also analyzed the pros and cons of the Fan’en–Fanlei brother combo with Sui Ning.
It was essentially a trade-off. The combo was undeniably powerful, but the price was sacrificing part of their individual combat strength — in solo laning, jungle skirmishes, or cross-map rotations. Gains and losses were inevitable; which side benefited more depended entirely on execution.
The two had already played over twenty matches together, mostly winning through sheer personal skill. But as their rank rose higher, the tiniest imperfections began to magnify. Both could feel just how demanding the brother duo was in terms of coordination.
Meanwhile, the streamer Xiao Le, still observing their match, tried explaining to his viewers why this pair was so strong. “These two’s abilities aren’t just plain buffs — it’s more like small added effects. Their power really depends on how well the players control them. They’re not like White Bird and Shadow Hawk — those two just get straight stat boosts or longer casting ranges, simple and brutal.”
“But, but!” Xiao Le’s tone rose in excitement. “The real key is the [Shared Shadows] passive — it’s absolutely busted. Fanlei’s an assassin with insane burst — one combo and the screen goes gray. Now he can swap places with his brother’s shadow. And how many shadows can his brother summon, huh? Think about how many repositioning tools that is!”
“Meanwhile his brother, a supposedly safe poke-and-kite mage — now that he can control his brother’s shadow to trigger burst combos — what kind of monster-level buff is that supposed to be?”
Xiao Le took a dramatic breath and enunciated, “I’ve only got two words for it — unbeatable.”
[66666, god-tier understanding.]
[Unbeatable my ass — that duo’s been around forever. How come nobody uses it? It’s only shown up in a few pro games, and it got stomped every time.]
[Theory gods, practice peasants. Shadow mechanics are flashy, but the restrictions are huge — mid and jungle have to be conjoined twins, otherwise they’re just two useless bodies.]
[Try it bot lane instead. Maybe marksman-support conjoined style will open new possibilities.]
[Already been tried, bro. Two melee short-range brothers against 575-600 range marksmen — they got auto-attacked into oblivion.]
[Looks beautiful on paper, impossible in execution.]
Hearing all that, Xiao Le silently opened Sui Ning and Ji Yunyu’s match history and grinned.
[Wind]: Hero Record — [Ghostshade – Fan’en] : Matches: 21, Win Rate: 100% (Gold/Silver medals: 20/1), Overall Rating: 115.6
[Cloud4]: Hero Record — [Shadowbane – Fanlei] : Matches: 21, Win Rate: 100% (Gold/Silver medals: 18/3), Overall Rating: 114.3
Because of their heroes’ differing roles, the system used slightly different scoring criteria, but both results were absurdly high.
[????? Okay I’m starting to believe.]
[Holy crap — power levels off the charts!]
[Everyone move, I’m here to worship the big bros.]
[Two god-tier smurfs, insane.]
Xiao Le looked pleased. “So yeah, I’m saying it’s not unreasonable to think this guy might be Cloud. The IDs fit his usual naming style, and the stats are gorgeous.”
After a pause, he added, “But I’ve got no clue who the mid-laner is. If any of you little detectives have leads, share them!”
[Has ‘Wind’ in the name? A pro? Someone close to Cloud?]
[Rule out Emperor Ghost.]
[Can’t think of anyone that artsy. Maybe it’s just a random English name?]
[Couple ID, maybe?]
[Wow, ‘Wind and Cloud’ — we’re shipping that now?]
The chat argued endlessly, spamming memes and jokes but producing zero real information — proof enough of how little anyone knew about this mysterious rising mid-laner.
Xiao Le smirked and focused back on the match. “Alright, let’s watch this round. Maybe we’ll recognize him mid-fight.”
“Blue side’s Wind just hit level six and unlocked his ultimate. He’s moving toward top — is this the first roam?”
Xiao Le frowned. “That’s a tough gank. Red mid-laner, the Illusionist, is really alert — keeps pinging teammates — but her lane’s overextended, she’ll arrive a bit late! By the way, is it just me or are there way more people playing Fran lately?”
[CCCCCCCCC]
[MSI — my beautiful Fran!]
[Ah, those were the days.]
[People die when they’re killed. Don’t draw your sword carelessly, I’m fragile.]
“Uh…” Realizing he’d run his mouth again, Xiao Le coughed awkwardly and changed topics. “Anyway, this Fran’s a high-rank solo player — currently Grandmaster I, two games off Challenger. Honestly, two Diamond boys queueing into this kind of opponent is kinda ridiculous.”
Muttering under his breath, he zoomed the spectator camera onto Sui Ning. “As expected — Wind’s waiting in top-side brush.”
Draped in an ivory monk’s robe, Fan’en paused. The golden rims of his glasses caught the light, swaying slightly as he moved.
Though a dark summoner who toyed with shadows, his appearance radiated something almost divine — a cascade of silver-white hair, a faint serene smile, holy in its calm.
If not for the intricate blood-red sigil carved into his brow, one might have mistaken him for a devout priest.
Fran noticed his disappearance first, pinging frantically while hurrying up the river.
Lalamor signaled that they were on their way.
Lalamor: They’re coming for you!
Veteran top-laner Yuim snorted when he saw the message, pushing forward with his hero, Thunderfury – Bery, a massive lightning-charged bear.
He was already level 7, dominating lane entirely — two levels up. The blue top-laner Verdant Treant – Mioen cowered under pressure, retreating as Yuim’s strikes shredded away his bark, revealing the glowing green sap beneath.
[Tio_Yuim]: They can’t kill me.
Xiao Le caught it too. “Wind’s timing’s good, but blue top’s low HP. Yuim saw the warning — he’s not backing off! What’s he planning? Is he actually fighting? But Cloud’s on his way too!”
Right as he spoke, Ji Yunyu arrived from the blue jungle.
“I’m almost there. Can you wait?”
“Can’t. They’re going in—” Sui Ning’s voice was tight.
Before he could finish, Bery roared, lightning bursting from his fur as he lunged forward, claws flashing white. He tore through the treant’s bark, exposing the shimmering green life within.
The Verdant Treant screamed, HP dropping below 21%, flashing away in panic.
“Yuim’s going full aggro — not backing off at all! He’s in! Q-auto combo start!” Xiao Le exclaimed.
Seeing Mioen’s health bar, he gaped. “Holy—what is that damage?! Half-HP treant almost one-shot!”
Barely escaping under his tower, Mioen gasped for breath — but Yuim wasn’t done. Determined to finish, he flashed forward.
He knew exactly what he was doing. The enemy mid was surely hiding in the river brush, so if he wanted the kill, it had to be fast — clean and lethal. If he hesitated, he’d be pincered and die for nothing.
A one-for-one was already a win in his book.
[Tio_Yuim (Bery) has slain jnfb (Mioen)!]
“Flash follow — E-bite into auto reset, beautiful chain! That was so smooth — classic old bear mechanics!”
Xiao Le gasped in awe. “But the real question — does he run, or fight? Some chatters are saying he’s feeding the tower… nah, look at his HP bar, still healthy, ult up, reinforcements on the way. If he wants to brawl with Wind, it’s doable!”
And indeed, after watching Yuim secure the solo kill so cleanly, Sui Ning frowned. “That’s… troublesome.”
Their top-laner had died without even forcing out the enemy’s ultimate — slightly worse than expected. Right now wasn’t Fan’en’s power spike. Against a tanky, hard-hitting fighter like Bery, a soft mage like him couldn’t 1v1 effectively at all.
...Should he fight?
The young man hesitated for a moment, and just then Ji Yunyu’s voice came through: “I’m here. We can fight—I can keep up.”
Hearing that, Sui Ning’s pupils contracted sharply. He made the decision at once.
Seeing that Yuim had just retreated into his skill range, he didn’t even have time to reply “okay” before directly activating his ultimate.
[R – Shadows Upon Shadows]: Creates three Children of the Void at three positions—his own, the nearest enemy hero’s, and the cursor’s—lasting 7/9/11 seconds. The shadows automatically attack and move toward nearby enemies. If they stray too far, they automatically cast [Abyssal Path].
During the skill’s duration, Fan’en can swap positions with any shadow. Each shadow inherits 20% of his max HP and 40/60/80% of his attack power. They cannot be controlled, and their movement ignores terrain.
Synergy Enhancement [Twin Shadows]: When Fanlei is nearby, Fan’en can also allow Fanlei to swap positions with the shadows. Each swap lets Fan’en reposition one Children of the Void.
[Q – Abyssal Path]: Releases dark magic in a chosen direction, leaving a trail that damages and slows enemies it hits. If it strikes an enemy hero, that target leaves behind an Abyssal Path for 2 seconds while moving. Fan’en ignores terrain while traveling on the path.
Synergy Enhancement [Twin Shadows]: When Fanlei is nearby, he too can move along the path. If an enemy hero dies while standing in an active Abyssal Path, Fan’en summons an additional Childern of the Void at that spot.
After casting the ultimate, the summoned shadows automatically moved toward enemies and attacked—but Fan’en was, after all, a mage. His basic attacks dealt pitiful damage.
So traditional Fan’en players would keep swapping places with shadows during the ultimate, maintaining distance from enemies to repeatedly trigger multiple Qs for damage—essentially death by a thousand cuts with E and W.
But when paired with his brother Fanlei, the ultimate became more of a launching pad for the assassin—resetting positions multiple times to ensure both brothers’ safety.
The instant Sui Ning pressed R, the ground spread open into a pool of ominous black ink. Out of it crawled shadowy figures, faces indistinct.
Xiao Le, the streamer, exclaimed, “Damn! I thought the baby bear was already aggressive, but this Wind guy’s even crazier—opening with an ult right off the bat! But this damage…”
The Childern of the Void screeched, purple-black magic flaring between their hands.
Just before the spells landed on Bery, the Bear King, Yuim reacted fast—his fur hardened into armor as lightning coursed through it.
“The bear popped his ult! His resistances are through the roof! This Fan’en’s damage is way too pathetic!”
Xiao Le winced. “Man, it’s like scratching an itch! Three Qs and only a quarter of his HP gone? That’s your ultimate! Devs, get over here—look at this ‘glorious balance’ you’ve made!”
[Tragic, tragic, tragic!]
[Baby Bear: You didn’t eat breakfast or what?!\
[That’s how it is early game—level 6 Vane versus level 7 Yuim with an item lead.]
[Stop using that tickle damage hero, it hurts to watch.]
But the player himself wasn’t surprised by the low damage.
Sui Ning raised an eyebrow. “Ult’s on—You—”
“I’m here.”
At 1.75 seconds into the ultimate, Ji Yunyu appeared with his “cool little bro” Fanlei.
He had just finished jungling, so his HP wasn’t full.
Normally, the assassin had to find a risky flash angle over one or two walls, but with his brother’s help, he simply dashed across the terrain along Fan’en’s Abyssal Path.
The moment he entered the ultimate’s radius, the younger brother raised his cold, gleaming dagger—and swapped places with the Children of the Void closest to Yuim.
Yuim’s heart sank. He couldn’t avoid the strike. He just mentally estimated how much damage that dagger would do.
He still had his ult on—extra resistances, more HP. It shouldn’t hurt too bad. Maybe… 25%? Yuim swallowed hard.
But the Bear King didn’t just sit there. Close combat was his domain—he opened his bloody maw and lunged at Fanlei.
The next moment, before his golden eyes, the ornate dagger plunged straight into one of them.
[Q – Omen of Death]: Deals 230/270/300% physical damage to a locked target, causing bleeding.
Synergy Enhancement [Twin Shadows]: When Fan’en is nearby, casting this skill makes all of Fan’en’s Children of Void instantly use [Abyssal Path] or [Omen of Death], ignoring 35% of the target’s defenses. Whenever a Children of Void dies or expires, 50% of this skill’s cooldown is refunded.
“Holy—THAT STRIKE!!” Xiao Le slammed the table. “Straight through the artery!!”
“The bear bit back—vicious and adorable at the same time! Shitshitshit—”
The Bear King’s jaws clamped into the Children of the Void’s body.
Sui Ning instantly swapped Ji Yunyu and another shadow’s positions via his ultimate.
Xiao Le was dumbfounded. “What the—what reaction speed is that?! What kind of synergy?? Fan’en just swapped his brother with a shadow?! Honestly, that bear’s empowered Q hits like a truck—with bleed and paralysis from the ult! If he hadn’t swapped, they might’ve both died!”
[Holy shit holy shit holy shit——!!!]
[They swapped AGAIN—I can’t even see what’s happening!]
[That coordination is insane! Yuim could’ve counterkilled if that QEW landed fully!]
[How did they time that?? If the swap’s even half a second off, it cancels the brother’s skill—this was frame-perfect!]
[Is it possible… one guy’s playing both accounts??]
“Beautifully done, Feng-bao!” Ji Yunyu laughed, childish and delighted. “I didn’t even have to call it!”
Dodging Yuim’s final counter, they secured the kill cleanly.
[Wind (Fan’en) has slain Tio_Yuim (Bery)!]
Sui Ning sighed helplessly. “You’re calling me that too now…”
But soon, he couldn’t help smiling at their perfect sync.
“I’ve been watching you the whole time.”
Ji Yunyu shot him a glance, the corners of his lips curling up uncontrollably.
In competitive play, communication between teammates had to be fast, short, and clear—conveying the maximum info in the minimum time. But for a duo like Fan’en and Fanlei, even the fastest speech couldn’t match their rhythm; these microsecond exchanges required trust and wordless understanding.
Meanwhile, Xiao Le wasn’t so pleased. “Guys, I’m pretty sure now—this isn’t God Cloud.”
“I’ve never seen God Cloud go all the way across the map for a gank and give the kill away. Never seen him use conjoined heroes, either—and definitely not this kind of combo with a mid laner.”
His tone grew serious. “This coordination’s too perfect. Definitely not God Cloud.”
[Yeah, our Cloud only plays Kobe style.]
[Can’t think of any mid–jungle pair that works this smoothly with him.]
[It’s over, guys… this one’s probably a foreigner.]
[Can’t be Korean—KR players greet Yuim in chat.]
[Europe or NA got someone this cracked??]
[We still have strong duos domestically! Manifesting that it’s a Chinese player!]
[Wishful Chinese.]
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