Edited by: Ciel
Qin Mo and Xiao Han went back to the hotel for a nap, returning to the competition venue at 2:30pm.
Groups E and F’s matches were scheduled for the afternoon, with group G’s matches afterwards at 3:30pm. Shen He was arranged in group G, and so would compete at this time. To show their support, Qin Mo and Xiao Han acquired seats in the VIP section of the audience to watch the matches. In order to give Mojue some face, the director focused the camera on the both of them, only to discover both Qin Mo and Xiao Han leaning close and whispering in each other’s ears.
Seeing this scene, Liang Ru could not help but to smile. “Over here, we can see Mojue’s captain and vice-captain sitting in the audience stands. It seems like they are very much looking forward to Shen He’s performance, and so personally came to watch the match.”
“Are our two honoured people going to keep whispering, and not greet our audience?” Ye Chao joked.
Qin Mo immediately ceased all whispers and sat up straight upon hearing this. On the other hand, Xiao Han smiled and waved to the audience, which was broadcasted on the big screen, successfully attracting screams from fans in the audience.
The director then switched the camera back to the commentary platform, and Liang Ru smiled. "Group G is also a group with many experts. Inside this group is Nie Yuzhu, Without Fire’s team captain, He Yue, Frost Moon’s vice captain, Cheng Yuqing, National Grace’s member, and Shen He, a newcomer from Mojue. It is said that Nie Yuzhu is the apprentice of the first captain of the Bronze Sparrow club, Shao Zehang, while He Yue is the apprentice of Seven Star Grass club’s captain, Xue Ke. Together with Shen He, who is the apprentice of Mojue’s captain, Qin Mo… there really are many apprentices in this group!”
“The director only found Shen He's master on scene,” Ye Chao added. “However, the other masters may be watching the live broadcast at home. All the apprentices must perform well.”
Liang Ru introduced the match lineups for today, which were shown on the big screen. “The first match in group G today will be Nie Yuzhu VS Cheng Yuqing, while the second game will be He Yue VS Shen He. Please wait patiently, the first match is about to begin!”
As soon as the commentary ended, exciting music began to play. Nie Yuzhu and Cheng Yuqing went to the player booths in the middle of the stage, logged into their accounts and put on soundproof headphones, beginning to prepare for the competition.
Xiao Han leaned close and whispered in Qin Mo's ear. "I’ve met this Cheng Yuqing before during the all-sects challenge arena, her ID is Clear Skies After Rain."
“En.” Qin Mo murmured. “What do you think of her skills?”
“Her foundation is good, but her consciousness is far worse than Nie Yuzhu’s,” Xiao Han appraised. “There should be no surprises from this individual match.”
Xiao Han's judgment was not wrong. Captain Nie was very experienced, while Cheng Yuqing, while a member of National Grace, was still a newcomer. In the end, Nie Yuzhu won the match with a score of 2:0.
The second match was between Shen He and He Yue.
He Yue was the little apprentice of Xue Ke, the second generation captain of the Seven Star Grass team. Qin Mo still remembered the duel between her and her senior brother Chen Jiang in the all-sec challenge arena of Xuanbing Palace. The female player was calm and decisive in fighting, without any trace of sloppiness. Her weapon was called ‘Ice Soul’, which was a white whip. The additional attribute on the weapon was ‘normal attack has a 30% probability to trigger the freezing effect.’ She was a rare player who could fight with general attack. Qin Mo specially explained to Shen He after he got the match arrangement. He must have a good grasp of the general attack distance with He Yue, otherwise, once frozen by her weapon, he would be in a quite passive situation.
***
At 3:50pm, Shen He and He Yue took their seats on the stage.
After the commentators analyzed the data of both players for the audience, the competition could begin.
He Yue rolled a high number, and was given the priority to choose the map first. The map she chose was ‘Dark Swamp’, a mysterious forbidden place in southern Xinjiang. The murky waters were full of an unpleasant miasma, and players would be poisoned if they fell in.
"He Yue’s idea of choosing this map is very clear," explained Liang Ru. "Her whip can throw people out, and her field control ability is very strong. She can use the map to pit Shen He."
"He Yue’s idea behind choosing this map is very clear," explained Liang Ru. "Her whip is able to displace her opponents, and her ability to control the field is very strong. She can use the map dig pits for Shen He."
“However, Shen He also has this ability,” Ye Chao added. “He can push people with his mechanical chariots. So, the outcome of the battle will depend on who seizes the opportunity first.”
As soon as the commentators finished speaking, Shen He and He Yue refreshed on the map simultaneously, one at the lower left corner and the other in the upper right corner respectively.
The stones in the middle of the swamp pool were arranged in a disorderly manner, but Shen He had trained on all the maps before the competition. He had familiarised himself with the terrain of this map long ago, and soon controlled his little summoner to jump to the middle of the map. At this time, What Year Is It Today also arrived, with the distance between them maintained at about 20 meters.
This was a carefully-planned distance. The farthest attack range of Xuanbing Palace’s long whip flow was 18 meters, while the summoner's pet summon range was 20 meters. Obviously, Shen He had a longer attacking range.
Shen He immediately seized the opportunity to summon a chariot behind her, trying to control the chariot to push her into the swamp.
However, He Yue’s reactions were very quick. After ascertaining the distance between them, she immediately realised what Shen He would do next. With the qinggong skill ‘Frosted River’, she stepped on the frost flowers and jumped directly to the stones beside Shen He. The snow-white whip in her hand rolled across Shen He’s waist like a serpent—— the most basic skill of Xuanbing Palace, Gale Whip.
Like its name, Gale Whip was as fast as the wind, lashing out left and right like lightning. In an instant, Shen He’s blood volume had been lowered by 15%.
Liang Ru sighed. "He Yue does have a super-fast hand speed!"
“She’s only tested a series of combos,” Ye Chao added, “Her big move has yet to come...”
As soon as he said this, He Yue flexibly rolled the whip in her hand, accurately circling Drunken River’s waist. This was the most powerful field control skill of Xuanbing Palace's long whip flow—— Cloud-Destroying Wind!
After successfully tangling up her opponent, she flung her whip into the distance, and the poor shota summoner was directly tossed into the swamp!
Drunken River was inflicted with a poisoned status from the miasma. Fortunately, Shen He’s response was also quick, immediately using his qinggong skill to escape the swamp, landing firmly in the distance.
He had known for a long time that He Yue was very strong. However, in today’s match, he realised that Frost Moon’s vice captain not only had first-class consciousness, but also a very quick response. Shen He was beaten by her in this first exchange, and his blood volume went down to 70%.
Taking a deep breath, Shen He began to increase his hand speed and summon pets!
First, he used a mechanical blood cow to block a wave of damage, then used the mechanical rats to bite the opponent and inflict the weakness status...
However, He Yue was very experienced. After being bitten by the mechanical rats, she immediately turned around and pulled away, not giving Shen He a chance to counter. When the weakened status ended after three seconds, she returned and killed Shen He's blood cow with a few sharp lashes.
Shen He then summoned a mechanical snake as a follow-up attempt at control, and even brought out the big move of the mechanical hawk in an attempt to even out the differences in their blood volume.
However, He Yue was not willing to allow him to recover the gap. Taking advantage of Shen He’s pet summon cooldown, she launched a combo of a wide-area skill ‘Snowfall Whip’ and the single-target skill ‘Shadowless Whip’, causing Shen He's blood volume to fall below 50% in one breath.
The whip flashed by at the speed of light. Shen He was simply not a match for He Yue.
After exchanging this wave of skills, Shen He’s blood volume was 15% lower than He Yue’s.
Once Shen He hit residual blood, He Yue repeated her moves again, using ‘Cloud-Destroying Wind’ to toss Shen He into the swamp, causing Drunken River to be poisoned to death.
——What Year Is It Today has killed Drunken River!
With the pop-up of the system prompt, the first match ended in Shen He’s defeat.
***
The break time allocated to the individual competition was short, and players were not allowed to leave the stage. Despite being his master, Qin Mo could not go on stage to guide him, and Shen He could only rely on his own understanding to think things through.
Xiao Han was a little worried. "Xiao He cares too much about speed, but it is unwise to fight He Yue based on this. I don't know if he can figure it out."
Qin Mo raised his head to look at the teenager sitting on the stage. Although he had just lost, Shen He didn’t seem frustrated. Instead, he was scratching his head, thinking seriously about the earlier match.
Shen He's mentality was really good. The previous defeat in this match did not affect his confidence, causing Qin Mo to feel somewhat relieved. "He is smart, he will definitely figure it out."
——The main reason Shen He lost the match just now was because He Yue had controlled the pace of the game. In fact, he shouldn't compete with He Yue’s speed.
To use a skill, a summoner needed to press the key at least twice- once to summon, and another time to release the skill. On the other hand, He Yue only needed to press the key once to release a skill. In a competition between experts with the same hand speed, the summoner had no way to compete based on terms of pure speed. Shen He's hand speed was about 350 apm, and He Yue was about the same. Under such a premise, it was not wise to compete based on speed between the mechanism flow and the long whip flow. To win, cleverly using the skills available was needed.
He Yue had completely controlled the competition just now, and Shen He was unconsciously brought into her pace. This was also because He Yue was very experienced in competitions, and knew how to deal with summoner experts.
During this period, Shen He had been studying the videos of his grandmasters’ matches. Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng won most of their games with agility, however, Shen He forgot that Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng had talented fast hands, whose speeds could rank among the top 10 when compared to esports players worldwide. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that there would only be one or two such people in a century. Shen He's top hand speed was far less than that of the two grandmasters, so while their operation could be imitated, the tactics of playing fast couldn’t be blindly copied.
Qin Mo only hoped that Shen He could figure this out as soon as possible. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for him to reverse the situation in the second match.
***
Once the break was over, the second match officially began.
In this match, it was Shen He’s turn to choose a map. Surprisingly, he chose the air combat map used in the all-sect challenge arena—— Sword Altar!
The unpredictability factor of this map was very high. Even first-class players might lose the match if they were accidentally knocked off the pumice by their opponent.
In the match before, the swamp’s poisonous miasma would inflict a poisoned state on the players, but they could rescue themselves by jumping out. However, in an air combat map, falling meant an instant death.
The moment the match began, the stones rapidly moved in the air, closing the gap between the two players.
Shen He silently calculated the distance in his heart. When the distance had closed to 20 meters, he immediately summoned two mechanical chariots to surround He Yue. As long as the chariots hit, He Yue would be knocked off of the pumice.
However, He Yue wouldn’t simply sit still and wait for death. She had also been paying attention to the distance between both of them, and as soon as the 20-meter distance arrived, she pressed the qinggong skill key in advance, jumping up lightly the moment Shen He summoned the chariots. She jumped to another pumice exactly, cutting off the chariot’s impact perfectly!
“Beautiful!” Ye Chao couldn’t help praising. “He Yue is very calm in the arena, and has obviously predicted her opponent's operation in advance.”
"Her senior brother’s playstyle is more aggressive, but her operations are more meticulous." Liang Ru commented.
Ye Chao nodded in agreement. “He Yue is indeed more careful. This time she successfully predicted Shen He’s attack, and used her qinggong skill to avoid the first wave of chariots. She doesn’t need to worry too much after this, because the summoner’s only pet with a displacement effect is the chariot, and the other pets have no such effect. Now that the chariot has been used, she no longer needs to be afraid, and can slowly pester Shen He. Her own displacement skills can also throw Shen He off the pumice.”
"This kind of air combat map is exciting, because even a simple skill can determine the outcome of the game." Liang Ru sighed.
On the field, Shen He and He Yue kept a distance from each other. As Shen He's chariot pet was in cooldown, whenever He Yue got close to the attack range of 18 meters, Shen He immediately jumped away with his qinggong skill. He Yue would chase, Shen He would run, and because the sect qinggong skills of both sides were about the same speed, He Yue had no way to catch up with him.
At this moment, the pumice began to merge.
If the pumice merged, Shen He would no longer have anywhere to run. He Yue stared closely at his standing position, and immediately threw out the whip in her hand the moment the pumice merged.
She planned to use the most powerful displacement control skill of Xuanbing Palace, which could tangle and throw the target to a designated position. As long as Shen He was thrown off the pumice, victory was hers for the taking.
With her right hand, He Yue suddenly swung the mouse. ‘Drunken River’ was caught by her whip and thrown off of the pumice!
However, to He Yue's surprise, there was no prompt of Drunken River being killed on the screen.
What’s happening?
——Not good!
She reacted quickly, but it was obviously too late!
Shen He's body, the mechanical chariot that finished its cooldown, and the mechanical horse appeared on He Yue’s left!
The inflicted fear effect from the mechanical horse prevented He Yue from releasing any skills, and the violent impact of four mechanical chariots knocked her off the pumice in one breath!
Only a loud ‘bang’ was heard. Both the chariots and He Yue fell to the thorn-riddled ground, and a prompt popped up on the screen——
[Drunken River] has killed [What Year Is It Today]!
The reversal happened so fast that the audience blanked out for a moment. After finally realising what was going on, they immediately began to applaud in excitement!
“Unexpectedly, Shen He's operation is also very meticulous!” Liang Ru was also very excited. “The moment the pumice merged, he summoned a puppet in his place and quietly hid behind He Yue!”
“Although Shen He is a newcomer who has never played in a competition, he has a very strong ability to adapt to the circumstances.” Ye Chao praised him without hesitation.
“That’s right.” Liang Ru chimed in. “I thought he would be hit hard after losing the first match, and wouldn’t play well in the second. I didn't expect him to adjust so quickly."
“First, he patiently kept his distance and delayed the time,” Ye Chao analysed. “At the moment the distance closed, he immediately seized the opportunity, released the mechanical puppet to confuse his opponent, and at the same time summoned the mechanical horse and mechanical chariot combination, pushing his opponent off the pumice in an instant!"
Liang Ru sighed. "He is worthy of being god Mo’s apprentice, this little guy is really clever."
Both of the commentators praised Shen He, causing Xiao Han to feel very relieved. "Xiao He is indeed very clever."
Qin Mo also showed a rare smile—— sure enough, he was right about this little apprentice. Shen He's strongest talent was not imitating others, but his rare intelligence.
Although some players had a good foundation and a good consciousness, their way of thinking was rigid, and they were unable to adapt to the different circumstances during competition. However, Shen He's playing style had never been monotonous. He could adjust his play at any time, and occasionally, strange ideas came out of his mind for no reason, allowing him to confuse his opponent at a critical moment. Such a clever little apprentice really made Qin Mo feel very happy as his master.
***
Despite being at full health, He Yue was pushed off the pumice to her death. This could be considered the exciting point of an air combat map.
Many viewers felt that the battle ended too quickly, and many complaints flooded the screen: "Shen He took advantage of the terrain, this win is a disgrace!"
"There are too many unexpected factors in the air combat map. Sister He Yue was pitted by Shen He's puppet!"
"Shen He is only opportunistic. He definitely can't beat He Yue in direct combat!"
Seeing these comments, Ye Chao snorted, retaliating with his poisonous tongue. “Isn’t it interesting for the newcomer to defeat the expert? The main draw of the competition lies in its uncertain ending. Otherwise, the league would just rank players by strength and send out trophies. Why host a competition otherwise?”
The audience sent a row of ellipses.
Liang Ru was forced to mediate. “Everyone has a point. He Yue has played for several years, and she is Frost Moon’s vice captain. With her rich experience, He Yue is indeed stronger than the newcomer Shen He, but in a competition, the expert may lose, and the weak may rely on skills to win. This is the highlight of competitive events. Anything can happen in the arena.”
“Well said,” Ye Chao agreed. “To all you male otakus out there, don't scold Shen He any more. Even if you send ten thousand angry comments, goddess He Yue won’t notice you.”
Male otakus: “...” This explanation was really annoying. Why did he have to say it so bluntly?
Liang Ru smiled and changed the topic. "Today's match might only be the first group match between Shen He and He Yue, but it could very well determine the group qualifying list. After all, this group also has Nie Yuzhu, a high-level BOSS. The winner of this match will qualify if they win another match. If they lose this match, even if they beat Cheng Yuqing, a loss against Nie Yuzhu means being unable to get into the top two, so they still can’t qualify."
“Yes,” Ye Chao agreed, “the third match will be very important. I hope both players can play at their own level. Let's continue to watch the game.”
***
The third match would begin shortly. Because the score was tied at 1:1, the map for the third game would be randomly chosen by the system.
All the maps available in the competition began to scroll rapidly across the big screen. After the referee called for a stop, the chosen map was displayed to everyone—— Bamboo Forest Trail.
The moment the map appeared, Qin Mo felt a little relieved, and couldn’t help but lean over to whisper in Xiao Han’s ear. “This map is advantageous for Xiao He.”
Xiao Han nodded in agreement. "Xuanbing Palace’s whip can't roll over obstacles, so He Yue's ‘Cloud-Destroying Wind’ skill will be ineffective on this map."
The skill Cloud-Destroying Wind involved throwing the long whip out, tangling up the target and throwing them to a designated position. The map Bamboo Forest Trail was filled with many bamboo trees, however, the long whip couldn’t penetrate the bamboo, preventing the target from being thrown. Thus, the random map chosen by the system could be regarded as a map that disabled He Yue’s skill.
But in fact, as long as it was not a swamp map, an air combat map, a water combat map or some other terrain that seriously impacted the results, He Yue didn’t need to roll people with her whip, and could still deal high damage with other skills.
The third game began shortly. Both players were loaded onto the map, each in their own corner of the bamboo forest.
Shen He summoned a mechanical blood cow at the beginning of the game to run with him, wanting to let the blood cow block a wave of injury. Moreover, he was smart enough to make the blood cow trot after him. This way, if she met him head on, He Yue might not be able to see the pet hidden behind his summoner.
Seeing this scene, the audience could not help but to send many laughing comments. "This Q version of Xiao He’s blood cow is so good, hahaha!"
"The pet summoned by little shota is also a smaller version of the regular summoner’s pet!"
"This is the mini version of the cow! He also has a mini version of a rat, a snake and a pony!"
Neither commentator could bear to look at the calf obediently following behind its master... This Shen He was simply here to make people laugh.
The laughter stopped soon enough. Shen He and He Yue began to fight fiercely the moment they met in the middle of the bamboo forest. The white whip in He Yue’s hand was immediately thrown out in a straight line, hitting Drunken River’s throat with all the force of an arrow, triggering the ‘Ice Soul’ freezing effect that only had a 30% probability of activation!
The summoner was frozen in place, unable to move for a single second.
He Yue immediately detoured to the side, waving the whip in her hand continuously—— Gale Whip, Shadowless Whip!
This set of combo skills killed the summoner’s blood cow directly!
The freezing effect on Drunken River ended, and Shen He immediately controlled his summoner to jump away quickly with qinggong!
Sure enough, the whip in the hands of What Year Is It Today was decisively swung again, flying straight forward like a snake spirit aimed for the summoner’s back. Just as the audience thought Shen He would be frozen again, a chariot suddenly appeared behind him, causing the whip to hit the mechanical chariot!
As a result, the chariot withstood this wave of freezing for its master, buying Shen He time to run away.
“Beautiful!” Ye Chao praised. “Using a pet to dodge the opponent's directional control skills was god Mo’s most frequently used operation back then! Shen He has learned 80% of his master's skills!”
Liang Ru was also very excited. "It's really quite smart to sacrifice a mechanical chariot and get rid of the freezing passive control of his opponent's general attack."
He Yue was also surprised, not expecting this little guy to react so quickly.
If he hadn't avoided her attack just now, she would have continued with the general attack playstyle, continuously freezing and grinding him to death. However, Shen He sacrificed his chariot to block What Year Is It Today’s whip attack. He escaped, and as a by-product, also interrupted What Year Is It Today’s series of moves. Now that Shen He was on guard, it would no longer be easy to freeze him again.
Taking a deep breath, He Yue quickly chased after him with her qinggong skill.
She had assumed that Shen He flew away quickly to avoid her pursuit, but didn't expect that as soon as she ran forward a few meters, a large wave of mechanical rats came running towards her!
Shen He himself ran forward, but his pets were summoned behind him. The mechanical rats were frantically running everywhere, causing the audience to laugh at the scene.
He Yue didn’t expect to meet a summoner who constantly summoned rats behind his butt in today’s game. Caught off guard by the rats, she was directly inflicted with three layers of weakness!
Seizing the opportunity, Shen He immediately turned around to start the fight——
Taking advantage of the weakness state, both the mechanical hawk’s air attack and the mechanical snake’s winding attack dealt a large amount of damage. Unexpectedly, What Year Is It Today’s blood volume was smashed to below 50% in one breath!
After the weakness effect was over, Shen He continued to run. Naturally, He Yue wouldn't give him this chance. Catching up with her qinggong skill, she used her whip’s combo moves to lower his blood to 60%.
Thankfully, Shen He’s blood cow was no longer in cooldown. He immediately summoned the little blood cow to resist this wave of damage, quickly fleeing to save his life.
He both fought and retreated, summoning mechanical rats one moment, but summoning a mechanical puppet in another to stand in his place, while he moved in the opposite direction...
Summoning pets behind his butt was something that resembled the methods of a novice in the online game, but it was exactly this ‘not playing according to common sense’ method that completely disrupted He Yue’s rhythm.
Shen He was very good at seizing opportunities. After thoroughly disturbing He Yue’s rhythm, he immediately summoned four mechanical chariots in succession, using the most classic summoner ‘cross encirclement’ operation to trap He Yue in the middle.
After the crashing sound effects of the chariot explosion, a prompt finally popped up on the big screen.
—— [Drunken River] has killed [What Year Is It Today]!
This result surprised many people. On the forum, the ratio of those supporting Shen He to those supporting He Yue was 2:8. Those who bet on He Yue's victory had lost all their money. Frost Moon team’s fans were unable to believe their eyes; how could their vice-captain lose at the hands of a lively newcomer?
Shen He was obviously very happy, laughing while scratching his head. Stepping off the stage, he immediately jumped into Qin Mo’s arms. “Master, I won!”
This ‘not playing according to common sense’ method to deal with an expert was indeed quite effective. Qin Mo guessed that He Yue had been somewhat confused in the third match.
Faced with his apprentice’s sparkling eyes, Qin Mo smiled and rubbed his head. “En, it was a good fight.”
Beside them, Xiao Han coughed. “Shen He, how old are you? Why are you always throwing yourself into your master's arms?!”
Only then did Shen He let go of Qin Mo, walking around his master while scratching his head. "I'm so excited. Only by holding my master can I express my excitement! I won, I actually won against He Yue! He Yue, Frost Moon’s beauty, I actually won against a vice captain!”
Stepping off the stage, throwing himself into his master's arms, before scratching his head and walking around, not knowing what he was saying, laughing foolishly—— Shen He's series of actions happened to be shown on the live broadcast screen by the director, causing the audience to laugh.
Liang Ru smiled, resisting the urge to laugh along. "Shen He is really lively and can't be idle for even a moment...I guess his nickname should be Little Monkey."
“This nickname is very interesting,” Ye Chao snorted. “If he becomes a great god in the future, will people call him ‘Monkey God’?”
The audience immediately sent a barrage of comments. “Hello, Monkey God!”
“Monkey God, I want to give you a little monkey! I suddenly realised that this sentence is actually rather pleasant!”
“Monkey God is so good, he’s worthy of being Momo’s apprentice!”
Li Muran, who watched the match in Mojue’s training room, couldn’t help but smile faintly after seeing the various comments about the ‘Monkey God’.
Monkey God, this name was very suitable!
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