translator: Oyen editor: Ciel
After Saturday’s matches had ended, the officials released the schedule for Sunday’s matches on the website. The two winners from the top four would compete with each other to decide the champion and the runner-up, while the two losers would compete to decide the third and fourth placements respectively. Four people from Mojue looked at the schedule—— Shen He would compete with Qiu Zongping for the mechanism flow championship. Xiao Han’s opponent was ‘Gentle Kill’ from the Huaxia club, while Liu Hong and Qin Mo would face ‘Deep In The Bamboo Grove’ and ‘Scorching Sun’, both from the Without Fire guild.
The netizens on the forum were very lively, and many placed bets on the winners of tomorrow’s championship matches. A lot of people felt that Ink Mark had a high chance of winning the championship, so much that a post had appeared on the forum of the Hanhua Sword sect, titled: “Discuss the playing methods of the longsword flow, shortsword flow, and the Ink Mark flow”. Many gamers rushed to comment, with statements of “I still haven’t managed to learn Ink Mark’s air penetration move!” “I’ve already fallen to death ten times while practicing at the cliff; I really doubt life now!” “Ink Mark is the real swordsman, the rest of us are fakes!”
Many Hanhua Sword sect players clamoured for Ink Mark’s Weibo or other contact information, but nothing could be found. His origins were too mysterious; unlike Lin Shuangcheng from the shortsword flow, whom everyone knew to be a former esport anchor with hundreds and thousands of fans on Weibo, Ink Mark did not seem to have a Weibo?
Since it was still early, Qin Mo logged into his account in Telecom district 1. As soon as he went online, the guild channel was immediately spammed with messages. “Good luck, guild leader!” “Our boss is the greatest!” “Ink Mark is the founder of our Mojue guild; as a member of the Hanhua Sword sect, I feel very proud!” “Boss will definitely win the championship tomorrow!”
Everyone was enthusiastic, and showered Qin Mo with congratulatory and encouraging messages. Qin Mo replied with a polite “thank you” on the guild channel, and went to open a private message with the guild management, Little Medicine Fairy and Mirage.
Most of the messages on the live broadcast platform were sent by cheering groups from Mojue. Before the start of the competition, Little Medicine Fairy had organised thousands of cheering groups, as well as a special Mojue fan group. With the guild management being both serious and responsible, Qin Mo had no worries at all. He was very grateful for the support, but was also not very good at expressing himself, so he simply sent a few messages to the various teams: “You have all worked hard”, or a “Thank you”.
Little Medicine Fairy sent him a row of smiley emoticons. “You’re welcome, god Mo! Mirage and I have already discussed it; we will arrange for guild members who live nearby to go to the venue and cheer for you after the competition starts!”
Qin Mo replied simply, “I will be troubling you both. Next time, if you are both free, I will invite you to Changsha to play.”
At the same time, a line of small characters appeared in the private chat window in the lower left corner. River Of No Return had sent a message. “Hello, god Mo!”
Seeing this familiar ID, Qin Mo smiled. “Xiao Song, you have made great progress.”
Embarrassed, Song Changdong replied, “I’m still very far away from god Mo; your air penetration movement was really handsome. How did you find this trick?”
“I just tried it when I got bored of ordinary air combat,” Qin Mo replied honestly.
Song Changdong really admired him. Not only did real experts learn from other people, but they were also capable of creating and developing a new style of play. Qin Mo was a serious and talented player; the fact that he was able to reach this level today, was because of all his hard work.
“Good luck,” Qin Mo said. “I believe that you will also become a first-class swordsman.”
Filled with emotion, Song Changdong could only say, “Thank you, God Mo! I’ll go to the supermarket to buy stuffing first.”
“Are you making meatballs again?”
“En! Didn’t you ask god Han to tell me that you liked meatballs very much the last time? I’ll make more this time, and send you two more boxes.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Song Changdong was very happy. “You’re welcome! The meatballs I make aren’t as good as those sold outside, but as long as god Mo likes it, it’s okay!”
Switching off the computer, Song Changdong turned to Lin Shuangcheng. “Captain Lin, I’ll go buy the meat stuffing now?”
Lin Shuangcheng liked the meatballs made by Xiao Song very much. It was made of lean meat and contained radish inside, oily but not greasy, which made it light and refreshing. Moreover, he felt that this honest young man was really quite cute, carefully squeezing meatballs while wearing an apron. Thinking of this, Lin Shuangcheng stood up, smiling. “I’ll go with you, we can buy more.”
***
After returning to the dormitory at night, Qin Mo asked Xiao Han about Xiao Song’s meatballs. “Yes, I used your name to ask Xiao Song for meatballs,” Xiao Han admitted, “The meatballs were really delicious…”
“Now, you borrow my name for meatballs,” Qin Mo reprimanded, “Will there come a day when you sell me for delicious food?”
Xiao Han immediately waved a hand. “Absolutely not. I would rather not eat than to sell you. How could I be willing? To me, you are the most important.”
Qin Mo: “…”
This guy was really too provocative; his words were almost like a confession of love.
His ears burning in embarrassment, Qin Mo turned his head away and took a sip of water, before changing the topic. “Have you noticed anything off about Telecom district 3’s Without Fire guild?”
Seeing Qin Mo switch to a serious topic, Xiao Han looked away from those wet lips and replied earnestly, “Of course. I found that the guild kept a very low profile, only for three contestants to enter the championship battle. Your opponent ‘Scorching Sun’, A-Hong’s opponent ‘Deep In The Bamboo Grove’ are both from Without Fire guild, along with a double-sword player ‘Beautiful Country’. These three experts all play close combat professions, but with different cultivation routes, and don’t follow Sword Song’s core formation of multiple swordsmen. With the emergence of so many experts, they are likely not an unofficial team, but rather a formal team under a club.”
Hearing this, Qin Mo thought for a few moments. Which teams had a pure close combat style? Suddenly, it hit him. “Could it be the Flying Feathers team?”
Xiao Han shook his head. “Likely not. As far as I’m aware, the swordsmen experts of the Flying Feathers team have never taken on any apprentices. Moreover, Flying Feathers didn’t enter Peerless Jianghu. I think that Without Fire should not be a team from Miracle, but rather Wulin; maybe we can ask A-Hong tomorrow.”
***
On Sunday morning, everyone gathered in the training room after breakfast. Qin Mo took this opportunity to ask Liu Hong about the Without Fire guild. “I was thinking about this last night,” Liu Hong coughed out, before taking a drink of water. “There are many close combat experts in Without Fire. If they are indeed from Wulin, then I can only think of one team—— Guangzhou Bronze Sparrow.”
Qin Mo and Xiao Han exchanged surprised looks. “Bronze Sparrow club?”
Nodding, Liu Hong explained. “The first generation captain of Bronze Sparrow, Shao Zehang, was the first god player of the Wulin league at that time, and used double swords as his weapon. Vice captain Lu Xiang was a rare genius and used a long staff. With the two of them, Bronze Sparrow used violent close combat as their tactical core in the league for many years. This Without Fire team has double rings, double swords and a longsword in their lineup, which are all melee professions. Moreover, the ID of Xuanbing Palace’s player is “Deep In The Bamboo Grove’. Wulin has an expert named Nie Yuzhu, who has the ID of ‘Bamboo Forest Trail’. I fought against him while I was still National Beauty’s vice-captain, and I think that Nie Yuzhu is likely to be Deep In The Bamboo Grove.”
Xiao Han wasn’t aware of the situation in Wulin, and straightforwardly asked, “What are Nie Yuzhu’s origins?”
“He is Shao Zehang’s apprentice,” Liu Hone revealed. “The first generation captain handed the Bronze Sparrow team to him after retiring. Nie Yuzhu played with the Bronze Sparrow team for three years, and it was said that his condition was declining towards the end of last season. Many people speculated that he would retire, but there was no official announcement. I’m guessing that he isn’t retiring, but instead leading the team into Peerless Jianghu.”
Peerless Jianghu was really the gathering place of the various apprentices. Not only was the apprentice of Seven Star Grass’ captain here, but the apprentice of Bronze Sparrow’s captain had come over as well…
As Li Cangyu’s and Ling Xuefeng’s apprentices, the Twin Stars naturally couldn’t disgrace their masters in this battle of apprentices and martial nephews.
Thinking of this, Qin Mo could not help but glance at Xiao Han, only to realise that Xiao Han had done the same. Smiling at Qin Mo, Xiao Han slung an arm over his shoulder. “It seems as though both yours and A-Hong’s opponents today have extraordinary origins?”
“It doesn’t matter, we just need to play seriously.” Pausing, Qin Mo looked at Liu Hong. “A-Hong, are you not feeling well?” She had coughed several times in the middle of her explanation, and her voice was a little hoarse. Qin Mo was very observant, and soon realised that her condition wasn’t quite right.
“Last night, we talked about the Without Fire guild and slept late,” Liu Xiang explained. “When we woke up this morning, we realised that we forgot to close the window, so it was very cold.”
Sister Xiang’s voice was also hoarse; apparently, both sisters caught a cold. “Why don’t you take some medicine first?” Qin Mo suggested. “I have some in my room, I’ll get it for you…”
As he was turning to leave, Liu Hong immediately stopped him. “There’s no need for medicine, this cold isn’t serious, and will be over in two days.”
“Don’t be stubborn,” Qin Mo counselled. “After the finals, you both should go back to the dormitory to get some rest.” Returning to fetch the medicine box, Qin Mo opened it to reveal some cough, fever, and cold medicines, as well as medicines for other common ailments such as diarrhea and headache. Xiao Han could only sigh. “Xiao Mo, you really are attentive, you have so many kinds of medicine in stock.”
After he found the cold medicine, Qin Mo handed it to Liu Hong and Liu Xiang. “Go back to the dormitory after after the match and take two tablets, then have a good rest.”
Both Liu Xiang and Liu Hong were touched. The two sisters shared a glance, before saying in unison, “Thank you, captain Qin.”
Xiao Han also felt that Qin Mo was very warm. Despite his expression being cold and aloof, he was clearly very good to the Mojue team members.
At 10:00am in the morning, the finals officially began.
The first battle was from Zhuge Family’s mechanism flow, to decide the third and fourth place. Yuan Xi’s Dead Soul and Xu Sizhe’s Green Jadeite Bowl were oriented for violent suppression methods. However, Yuan Xi was much more experienced, killing Xu Sizhe twice in a head-on battle to take third place.
Shen He and Qiu Zongping’s championship battle followed. Shen He’s playstyle resembled an ancient spirit’s, making use of his character’s short stature to dash around like a little monkey, which greatly pleased the audience. In comparison, Qiu Zongping was much calmer, always summoning his pets in an orderly manner; no matter how much Shen He interfered with him, Qiu Zongping’s rhythm was unchanged. In the end, the final results followed Qin Mo’s expectations. The little monkey couldn’t play as steadily as captain Qiu, and came in second.
However, Shen He did not lose heart, and was instead very happy. “That captain Qiu is very good. He’s been a summoner for much longer than I have, so this championship really should be won by him. Still, things may not necessarily be the same next time; I’ll definitely bring a win back!”
Looking at Shen He’s lively appearance, Qin Mo knew that the little monkey was in a good state. Since Shen He didn’t need comforting, Qin Mo also chose not to say anything more.
For Xuanbing Palace’s double ring flow, Liu Hong’s ‘Three Waterdrop’ competed against ‘Deep In The Bamboo Grove’ from the Without Fire guild.
Liu Hong won the right to select the map first, and used the trap blasting trick as well as her flexible movement skills to control the field, winning the first game. In the second game, her opponent chose the map, and stuck very close to Liu Hong to pressure her. Liu Hong fought hard, but still lost in the end, making the score 1 : 1. In the final game, the randomly selected map was Qingcheng Mountain Forest. Both players fought fiercely under the cover of the large banyan trees, unable to pull their blood volume gap further than 5%. In the end, Deep In the Bamboo Grove used the moves ‘Snake Bead Sparrow Ring’ and ‘Cold Moon Flower Spirit’ to seckill Three Waterdrop, winning the championship.
Shen He losing to Qiu Zongping was within everyone’s expectations, but several newcomers were unable to accept the fact that sister Hong had actually lost to Deep In the Bamboo Grove.
Pei Yu took the initiative to break the ice. “Sister Hong isn’t feeling well today, maybe it affected her during the competition…”
Unexpectedly, Liu Hong did not agree. “Losing is losing, there’s no need to make any excuses,” she stated firmly. “Something as minor as a cold will not affect the competition. I tried my hardest in the match just now, which proves that this person is very strong.”
Her factual statement caused Pei Yu to feel ashamed. Sister Hong was a female warrior; to make excuses for her was to underestimate her strength.
“A-Hong, this man’s playstyle is very different from yours,” Qin Mo noted. “You prefer fighting mid-range using the fast movements of the trap control field, but he is better at close range suppression. He doesn’t switch his weapon frequently, but his ability in grasping opportunities is first class; once the initiative is his, the opponent may be directly killed by a set of explosions. Is this style like the player you mentioned earlier? Nie Yuzhu?”
Liu Hong nodded, certain in her answer. “That’s right, it was Nie Yuzhu. Shao Zehang’s apprentice is a very conscious player. If my guess is correct, the Scorching Sun that you will face should be Zhou Yanbing, Nie Yuzhu’s old partner. His ID in the Wulin league is Ice And Fire, and he played swordsman. In the year I debuted, he won the Best Newcomer Award, and his popularity is very high.”
Qin Mo nodded. “I understand, You’d better go back to the dormitory and rest. We will save the videos of all the matches; it will be the same if we watch it later.”
Actually, Liu Hong’s cold was not serious, but her throat was a little dry, causing her to cough a few times. Since it wasn’t a problem, she had originally wanted to stay in the training room to watch the game, but she was also worried that her occasional coughs might affect Han and Mo’s performances. Liu Hong decisively returned to the dormitory… then turned on her laptop to watch the live broadcast.
The morning matches featured the Zhuge Family, Xuanbing Palace, Fangcao Hall, and Kuangdao Gate.
The winner of the Zhuge Family bone fan flow was ‘Yellow River Flows Seawards’ from Telecom district 3’s Frost Moon guild. On the other hand, the martial brother and sister pair from Frost Moon met in the Xuanbing Palace’s long whip flow, only for the younger sister, He Yue, to lose to her senior brother once again. In the end, it was Chen Jiang’s account “Three Thousand Miles of River” that won the championship.
The National Grace club fought a civil war in the Fangcao Hall’s poison master flow. The eventual winner was ‘High Tower Lock’—— Liu Hong couldn’t guess the identity of this player at the moment. She didn’t even know who manager Xu Lin would send to lead the team, for her decisions were always unexpected. Moreover, the poison masters in Peerless Jianghu were a long-distance profession, and there were too many long-distance players in the National Grace club.
Of the two cultivation routes in the Kuangdao Gate, ‘Merging Sky And Sea’ of Huaxia’s Dynasty guild won the broadsword flow championship, while ‘Beautiful Country’ from the Without Fire guild won the offensive dual sword flow.
Frost Moon and Without Fire both had rich harvests in the morning, each winning two championships, whereas Shen He and Liu Hong both failed to reach first place.
However, the competitions in the afternoon would be Mojue’s turning point—— because Xiao Han and Qin Mo, Mojue’s trump cards, would play their championship matches in the afternoon.
Liu Hong firmly believed that no one could stop their Twin Stars from winning the championship.
I’m glad at least that top 3 summoners are all God Qin’s apprentices! And it’s time for Qin Mo to make his amazing comeback!!!
His comeback will be the most dazzling with a very luxurious team lineup on his side 😆
Thank you for the chapter!
… was really quite cute, carefully squeezing meatballs while wearing an apron. 😏
Lamenting my lost innocence…😌
… was really quite cute, carefully squeezing meatballs while wearing an apron. 😏
Lamenting my lost innocence…😌