The King's ReturnCh120 - The Last Battle

translator: Oyen  editor: Ciel

After the dagger flow finals were the championship matches for the iron claw flow. WSk 0p

Both cultivation routes from Yongye City followed the path of the assassin. Between them, the dagger flow allowed for greater mobility, while the iron claw flow was violent, bloody, and focused on close-combat. Being fixed on the players’ hands, the iron claws could not be thrown to hit the enemy from a distance. As such, the most commonly used skill of the iron claw flow, ‘Golden Rainbow Iron Claw’, required the player to attack the enemy’s weak points at close range, unlike the dagger flow’s ‘Rainbow Through The Sun’. Because of this, the iron claw flow had a style of play that more closely resembled the traditional melee assassin. In the end, Sang Jun from the Huaxia club, ID Hero At The Horizon, successfully won the championship for the iron claw flow.

The grand finals were the championship matches from the longsword and shortsword flows of the Hanhua Sword sect.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

As expected, Lin Shuangcheng won the championship for the shortsword flow. In the longsword flow championship match, Qin Mo encountered ‘Scorching Sun’ from the Without Fire guild in Telecom district 3.

As speculated by Liu Hong, Scorching Sun ought to be Zhou Yanbing, an excellent player from the Bronze Sparrow club; Qin Mo felt that she was likely not wrong. According to her, this person was good at melee control. In Peerless Jianghu, the strongest profession for long-distance control was the mechanism flow summoner, while the strongest profession for melee control was the Hanhua Sword sect’s swordsman. As a player, Qin Mo also specialised in controlling the field; it seemed that the showdown with Scorching Sun would depend heavily on their consciousness and reaction speeds. fjboSX

Soon, both players logged into the competition room, and were asked to roll a dice. Ink Mark drew 95 points, giving him priority in choosing a map.

Qin Mo chose a very common map—— Bamboo Forest Trail.

The bamboo stalks were too thin for players to hide behind, and the forest floor contained no traps. This sort of plain terrain couldn’t be made use of by the players to play tricks or traps, forcing them to fight with their actual strength.

Two white-clothed swordsmen refreshed in the green bamboo forest. With the god’s perspective of the live broadcast platform, the audience immediately felt that a martial arts movie was about to be staged.

In the martial arts world, speed defined the winner!

This was especially so for the civil war of Hanhua Sect’s longsword flow. In this battle, whomever controlled the other side first would have a higher chance of winning.

Both players were aware of this, and started with the same actions. The two swordsmen rose at the same time, soaring through the forest like fluttering white cranes, quickly passing through the bamboo forest to meet each other.

——Sword Horizon, Sword Rain Remnant! sX0Pr3

Even their actions were exactly the same. The long sword in their hands first drew beautiful arc-shaped sword flowers, before stabbing straight out, causing fan-shaped white lights to appear before their eyes. Both players had unexpectedly silenced each other at the same time!

Qin Mo was surprised; he had been quite careful just now, and did not expect the other side to actually predict his position. Similarly, Zhou Yanbing was also surprised that they had silenced each other simultaneously. Clearly, their ideas had been the same at that moment.

Since it was a match between experts of a similar level, one needed to win through consciousness.

Walking quickly, Zhou Yanbing waited for the silence effect to end, all the while observing the other side’s moving route. ZC2ni9

However, Qin Mo did not retreat after being silenced. Instead, he stepped forward, stabbing his sword towards Scorching Sun’s chest several times in succession.

They couldn’t use skills while in a silenced state, but normal attacks were still permitted. While it dealt relatively low amounts of damage, the slowdown effect of Qin Mo’s weapon was triggered!

Seeing this, Xiao You sighed. “Ink Mark’s weapon, Broken Ice, really matches his fighting style. Once inflicted, Broken Ice’s 30% slowdown effect can help him connect consecutive moves perfectly!”

“Actually, Scorching Sun’s weapon isn’t bad,” A-Nan added. “Let’s take a look at his weapon data. His sword is ‘Purple Sun’, which adds to the hit attribute, as well as… an additional one second control time?!” u41OE0

Xiao You had never seen a swordsman with this attribute. “This attribute is truly disastrous!” she exclaimed loudly, “The longsword flow profession is strongest in controlling the field. A control time bonus on the weapon means that every skill of his will have its duration extended by a single second. He can accomplish many things with this extra time, which will play an even more critical role in a team battle.”

The idea behind this weapon was similar to Zhu Qingyue’s umbrella, which has an additional two second time bonus to all its arrays. Weapons for the Hanhua Sword sect required an attribute to be additional hit points because the power of the fan-shaped group attack was just too low, but that still left an additional slot. Zhou Yanbing chose to add one second of control time, which indicated that he was the main player for controlling the field in the Without Fire team.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Qin Mo had already checked his opponent’s equipment before the match, which was why he boldly went forward to attack the enemy immediately after being silenced. Because the other side’s silence time was a second longer than his own, if he did not take the initiative to attack, then this extra second of silence would be exploited by the other side.

After inflicting the slow down effect, Qin Mo did not continue to fight, instead turning to leave. Although Zhou Yanbing wanted to chase him, he was powerless to do so, thanks to the slowdown effect. In the blink of an eye, Ink Mark was more than 10 meters away from Scorching Sun. The three-second silence on Scorching Sun was lifted, allowing him to use his skills to attack his opponent, but unfortunately… he was too far away, and could not hit Ink Mark. dzPcd

If he wanted to attack his opponent, he needed to either use qinggong, or teleport using a sword skill. However, the usage of qinggong was limited; if he used too much now, he might run out of power to use the qinggong skill later. However, he had a rare opportunity right now, and it couldn’t be given up on. Thinking of this, Zhou Yanbing did not hesitate to open ‘Flicker’, directly flying to Ink Mark and breaking out a set of skills neatly—— Sword Horizon, Sword Spirit Heart, Unrivalled Sword!

The three skills connected one after another. Ink Mark’s blood volume plummeted, reaching 65% in one breath, and he was also trapped in place!

At first glance, Ink Mark seemed to have fallen into a disadvantage, but Zhou Yanbing was clear about this person’s first-class consciousness. Even now, Ink Mark was undoubtedly looking for an opportunity to fight back, which made it all the more important that Zhou Yanbing used this time to create a huge advantage for himself. If he didn’t, he would likely be pressured by Ink Mark, who would then use a chain of skills to close the gap. Because of this, Zhou Yanbing decided to use his big move—— Skyward Sword!

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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Knowing this, Zhou Yanbing turned to run away with his qinggong skill. Qin Mo had long since expected that he would run, however, and immediately opened Drifting Sword!

In his previous match, Qin Mo used Drifting Sword to pass through the snow-covered cliff, causing the netizens to name his method the ‘Ink Mark flow’. Today, he once again used the ‘Ink Mark flow’; moving ten metres into the air at an angle of 45 degrees, Ink Mark stabbed Scorching Sun in the back, just as the other leapt into the air! r6Mhgx

Looking at this scene, it was almost as if Scorching Sun flew up to intentionally serve as a target…

The audience was full of praise for him.

Qin Mo followed Drifting Sword with a combo—— Sword Horizon, Riverbound Sword!

Scorching Sun was slammed downwards at a 45 degree angle, and directly crashed into the forest floor! dUBvHa

The image of Scorching Sun falling to the ground was quite comedic, causing many viewers to laugh, but Zhou Yanbing could not be amused. Due to the first-person field of vision, he could only see the bamboo leaves on the ground!

He responded extremely quickly, immediately adjusting the camera to look into the air, only to see a white-clothed swordsman and a soft sword light flying towards him.

—— Not good!

—— As expected, it was the fixed body control of ‘Sword Spirit Heart’! mwObVo

Ink Mark’s longsword was thrown out, and the targeting skill ‘Unrivalled Sword’ directly smashed into Scorching Sun, who was tied up on the ground!

From the air penetration movement of Drifting Sword, to the Sword Horizon-Riverbound Sword flying strike combo, then using Sword Spirit Heart to fix the opponent in place and following up with a sudden Unrivalled Sword…

Chrysanthemum Garden.

This set of fine and delicate operations was very smooth, not dissimilar to drifting clouds and flowing waters, and could definitely be rated among the top martial arts movies!

The audience worshipped the creator of the air penetration ‘Ink Mark flow’, as well as expressed their deep sympathy for Scorching Sun, who was being beaten up while paralysed on the ground. 6QdOfH

At this time, Ink Mark only had 35% blood volume left. However, his perfect counterattack had also reduced Scorching Sun’s blood volume to 35%, instantly closing the gap.

By this time, Zhou Yanbing’s silence skill ‘Sword Rain Remnant’ had finished cooling down, and was now available for use.

The moment his immobilisation state ended, he leapt up from the ground, immediately pointing his sword at Ink Mark, ready to launch a combo of Sword Horizon and Sword Rain Remnant.

As long as the skills hit, Ink Mark would be unable to fight for four seconds. Not only would this buy him enough time for the rest of his skill cooldowns to finish, but also give him ample time to kill Ink Mark. 8u1Tdp

Zhou Yanbing had a very accurate aim, and the skill coverage of the Heaven Sun combo was very wide; as long as this move was not interrupted, it would certainly hit Ink Mark. However, he failed to predict that Ink Mark would unexpectedly use qinggong to leap behind him, almost as if the control had been predicted, completely wasting his skill on empty air!

—— I won’t be fooled a second time.

Ink Mark’s actions seemed to be declaring this.

Zhou Yanbing felt uneasy, and immediately used qinggong to leap ten metres into the air, causing Qin Mo’s silencing skill to also hit empty air. bYHjmZ

Viewers watching the match were very impressed. The fact that they could play until this point showed that the two experts really were equal. Both started off with a silence control skill, and at the same time, avoided the opponent’s silence with qinggong at a critical moment. Watching first-class experts play a game was indeed more wonderful than watching some vegetable abusing game.

Unfortunately, Qin Mo wasn’t willing to give up on this rare opportunity. It was fine if the silence didn’t land; he still had a big move!

—— Skyward Sword!

The power of this skill was comparable to a full screen bomb. Naturally, it couldn’t be avoided, and the other side was immediately hit into 5% residual blood state! rsRX5t

However, Zhou Yanbing’s ‘Unrivalled Sword’ cooldown had just finished. Turning back, he threw his sword straight into Ink Mark’s chest, reducing his blood volume to 15%!

Zhou Yanbing felt that he still had a chance, and quickly used qinggong to run. However, Ink Mark’s movement skills were not worse than his, allowing Ink Mark to quickly catch up and hit him with a few normal attacks.

Slowdown effect again!

The benefits of Broken Ice’s annoying slowdown effect became more obvious as they approached the endgame. Qin Mo used this weapon with superb skill, afflicting the slowdown status to close the gaps between skills, forming a seamless transition. In fact, the most easily overlooked slowdown effect was often the key to his victory. KOcnoG

Zhou Yanbing, who had his movement speed reduced, simply could not escape. Qin Mo emptied the last 5% of his blood decisively with a neat ‘Sword Horizon’ skill.

—— Ink Mark has killed Scorching Sun!

Chrysanthemum Garden.

This game had a map chosen by Ink Mark, but Zhou Yanbing was very clear about the truth. In fact, this map was very fair to both sides, because no tricks or traps could be played on the map. Both of them fought head to head, and in the end, Ink Mark was just slightly better.

This person’s consciousness was quite terrible. He had to make proper use of the opportunities in the next game. gYnhvC

Frowning, Zhou Yanbing pressed the button to indicate that he was ready.

***

After a one-minute break, the second game began. Scorching Sun would select the map for this round.

The other side submitted the choice of map relatively quickly—— Sword Altar. CJ03vF

Air combat maps were the most unpredictable maps. Even if you were full of blood, the moment your residual blood opponent knocked you off the floating platforms, you would be instantly killed by the spikes on the ground. On this kind of map, the action of hitting the opponent to consume blood became unnecessary; the goal was to use forced displacement skills to shoot your opponent off the platform.

The moment the competition started, the floating stones began to move.

Zhou Yanbing made several consecutive jumps to quickly approach Ink Mark. The distance between the two was about ten metres when floating pumices paused.

—— Unrivalled Sword! vH8E13

Scorching Sun’s sword, Purple Sun, was thrown in a straight line. The long-distance targeted skill made contact with Ink Mark, cutting his blood volume down to 80%. In order to close the blood gap, Ink Mark retaliated with the same skill immediately.

Jumping across the floating stones, the two players exchanged skills. Zhou Yanbing had learnt from the previous match, and chose not to fight head-on. Instead, he jumped behind Ink Mark to open a Heaven Sun combo! With the bonus attribute on Purple Sun, it would inflict four seconds of silence, in which Ink Mark wouldn’t be able to use any skills, including qinggong. As long as Zhou Yanbing managed to shoot Ink Mark off the floating platform at this time, Ink Mark would surely die.

Unfortunately, Zhou Yanbing didn’t expect that Ink Mark would suddenly jump into the air with qinggong, almost as if he had eyes in the back of his head!

Because Ink Mark preemptively dodged, Zhou Yanbing’s silence control once again hit empty air. WdyVfU

As Ink Mark landed on the floating platform, he made a move, and sent out a silencing skill. Zhou Yanbing wasn’t about to let himself get caught, and immediately dodged with qinggong, jumping to another floating stone.

Both of them were very clear- on this kind of air combat map, whomever managed to silence their opponent first, banning their qinggong, would immediately gain a winning advantage. However, they were both first-class players in their own right, and would not let themselves be caught by each other’s silencing skill so easily.

The floating platforms in the air began to move again. The stones on which the two players stood moved in opposite directions, to the east and west respectively, quickly lengthening the distance between them.

—— The opportunity had come. 0N9nE

Delighted, Zhou Yanbing immediately skipped over three floating stones in a row with qinggong, coming to a stop at about ten metres distance’ from Ink Mark.

—— Skyward Sword!

Chrysanthemum Garden.

This ultimate move had a cast time of one second, but produced a fullscreen explosive attack!

The resultant explosion from this skill was extremely destructive, and could even affect the environment. Previously, Ink Mark used this skill to great effect on the Stone Forest map, cracking all the stone pillars and denying his opponent a place to hide. Now, on this Sword Altar map, the floating platforms would definitely be crushed into pieces by this skill. ToFe1c

Zhou Yanbing had been waiting for this moment, when the floating stones began moving around randomly. As long as this skill was used to smash the floating stones around his opponent, Ink Mark would have nowhere to run, and would definitely fall to the ground.

Sure enough, as soon as the skill was activated, a flood of purple sword qi gathered around Purple Sun. With a loud ‘boom’, all the floating stones around Zhou Yanbing were immediately reduced to powder.

Everyone watching the game was certain that this would be Ink Mark’s first loss, only for Ink Mark to suddenly launch a combo while in mid-air—— Sword Horizon, Riverbound Sword!

His reaction was extremely fast, his hand speed was also quick, and the repelling effect of Riverbound Sword forced Scorching Sun off his stone platform! n9pfPa

In the end, both Scorching Sun and Ink Mark fell from the floating stones, which was basically equivalent to dying together!

However, the repelling effect of Riverbound Sword pushed the opponent ten metres away in an instant, while falling through the air was a freefall. The speed of being repelled was faster than that of a freefall, and so Scorching Sun hit the ground one second before Ink Mark.

—— Scorching Sun has died!

—— Ink Mark has died! wrc6yh

The two system messages popped up one after another. According to the rules of the game, the player who died first would lose.

So, Scorching Sun had lost?

The audience was speechless upon seeing this scene!

“Ink Mark’s consciousness really is great.” Pausing for a moment, Xiao You smiled. “He obviously predicted his opponent’s moves from the cast, so he prepared himself in advance and pulled Scorching Sun to share his fate before he fell!” lP5bW3

“Indeed, this is the Ink Mark flow!” A-Nan joked. “Air penetration, striking in mid-air; few people are capable of managing this from such a perspective and angle!”

Xiao You: “Congratulations to the great god, Ink Mark, for winning the longsword flow champion of the Hanhua Sword sect!”

……

In the Mojue training room, everyone was filled with admiration after watching Qin Mo shoot his opponent off the floating stone by counterattacking at a critical moment. If it were them, they wouldn’t be able to react as fast as he did. In addition to his good foundation from when he was an esports player, there was another reason why Qin Mo was able to reach the level he was at today—— because he was willing to work hard. hEdID8

Naturally, Xiao Han knew this best. In the beginning, while he was still upgrading at the novice stages, before he recognised that Ink Mark was Qin Mo, they had a friendly discussion about the new skills they had both just gotten on top of Qingcheng Mountain. At that time, they sat side by side, chatting atop the mountain to discuss the characteristics of the game. Ink Mark had told him about the differences between the visual scope of VR games and traditional online games, and Xiao Han had learnt much about distance and vision from him.

At that time, Ink Mark was only at a mere level 30.

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

Qin Mo had been studying the game seriously since the novice stages. Coupled with the fact that he was very smart, and had a foundation in competitive gaming for many years, he was able to discover things that others had not.

In today’s sect civil war, he used the repelling effect of Riverbound Sword to countattack, and at a critical moment, knocked his opponent into the ground, killing Scorching Sun just before he himself died. The championship was thus won in this thrilling manner. 5KHnfv

——At last, his efforts had been rewarded.

Seeing Qin Mo take off his headphones to stand from his seat, Xiao Han smiled, and reached over to hug him. “Xiao Mo, congratulations on winning.”

Qin Mo’s expression was calm as he pat Xiao Han’s shoulder. “Prepare to book plane tickets; it seems as if we can’t hide any longer. We’ll need to go to the official headquarters in Beijing.”

“I already booked the tickets at noon,” Xiao Han replied. “Because I believed that you would definitely win the championship.” sC8FHB

Hearing this sentence, Qin Mo glanced at Xiao Han. Meeting the other’s trusting gaze, Qin Mo couldn’t help but to smile.

To Qin Mo, winning the longsword flow championship of the Hanhua Sword sect in this national competition was a good start.

What he wanted most, was for Mojue to win next year’s league championship.

And he knew very well that they still had a long way to go. MIE3xF

Fortunately, he was not alone in walking this road. Not only did he have so many excellent teammates, he also had Xiao Han, who supported him wholeheartedly. No matter how many strong enemies he would face in the future, with them by his side, Qin Mo would be fearless.