translator: Ciel
The matches of group A and group B had all ended. For the time being, Mojue had no matches scheduled, and could return to the hotel early. However, Qin Mo decided to stay in the backstage lounge to watch the remainder of the morning’s matches with everyone, and learn about their opponents’ strength and styles along the way.
The pairs qualifying from group C were Interlude’s guqin and flute ensemble of Su Cheng and Xie Changming, as well as Whisper’s Lu black umbrella twins. From group D, Without Fire’s double melee combination of Nie Yuzhu and Jing Yang managed to qualify, as did Dynasty’s long-range poison master and melee assassin combination of Lin Yao and Wen Hua.
The strength of these players was not weak, and the groups that qualified for the top 16 fell within Qin Mo’s calculations.
They returned to the hotel at lunch. Qin Mo lay down on the bed and was about to take a nap, when Xiao Han suddenly sprawled out over him. “Every time you finish a match, you have to call a newcomer to the meeting room alone,” he whispered in an aggrieved manner. “Having Xiao He as a diehard fan isn’t enough, and today, Pei Yu also became your number one fan. After being scolded, he was so happy that he couldn’t stop smiling the entire morning.”
“Get off,” Qin Mo replied sullenly. “You’re too heavy.”
Xiao Han spread out his limbs, clinging to Qin Mo like an octopus with a case of separation anxiety. Qin Mo was crushed to the point where he almost forgot to breathe—— Xiao Han wasn’t fat, but he was still a young man with a height of 1.85 metres. Having a weight of 150 jin pressed on the body was not a joking matter.
Looking at Qin Mo’s stern expression, Xiao Han deliberately leaned in. “Kiss me, then I’ll get up.”
Qin Mo didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “Can you not be so childish?”
“It is said that the IQ of people in love will drop,” Xiao Han replied seriously. “When I’m with you, my IQ will immediately fall into the negative digits.”
Qin Mo: “…”
Xiao Han continued to make a fuss. “I want a kiss from god Mo before I get up.”
Helpless, Qin Mo could only tilt his head up, gently touching his lips to Xiao Han’s.
As a result, Xiao Han didn’t keep to his word. Not only did he not get up, he pushed Qin Mo down further to deepen the kiss.
Qin Mo was kissed until he ran out of air. Only when he forcibly pushed Xiao Han away did the other man retreat in contentment, smiling. “You’re mine alone.”
Qin Mo frowned. “Did you suddenly become crazy?”
“Xiao Pei and Xiao He all like you very much,” Xiao Han pouted. “You’re going to become the idol of everyone in Mojue soon.”
“Their ‘like’ is very pure, unlike you,” Qin Mo replied icily.
“Is my liking for you not pure?” Xiao Han questioned.
Qin Mo: “…”
Xiao Han smiled. “Well, it’s not really innocent. I can kiss and hug you casually, but they definitely won’t dare to think about it.”
Qin Mo: “…”
Looking at Qin Mo’s purpling expression, as if he was going to punch someone, Xiao Han wisely let go of him and obediently returned to his own bed.
No matter how many people liked captain Qin, the only person who could get close to Qin Mo was him, and the only person who could fight alongside Qin Mo as a partner was also him. Those little guys like Pei Yu and Shen He could only stand in the back as Qin Mo’s fans.
Content, Xiao Han shut his eyes—— just now, he had suddenly felt a sense of crisis, worrying that if Qin Mo was too popular, it would affect his place in Qin Mo’s heart. But in truth, his position was not something that anyone else could take, and this worry was simply superfluous.
The silence was suddenly broken when Qin Mo spoke. “You have many fans too. You’re the male god in many people’s hearts, and the number of people who want to marry you could fill up an entire street.”
Opening his eyes, Xiao Han realised that Qin Mo’s expression was calm. Still, he reached over to hold Qin Mo’s hand gently. “Forget it, it’s better if we don’t test each other. You should know that I only have you in my heart.”
Lowering his gaze, Qin Mo asked quietly, “Do you not understand me?”
Xiao Han was stunned. Qin Mo was someone who found it difficult to express his feelings in words. Xiao Han’s likes could be said aloud bluntly, but Qin Mo could not. This sentence was clearly a response to Xiao Han’s statement “I only have you in my heart”, and its meaning was “You should understand me, my heart only has you also”.
Xiao Han had just wanted to tease Qin Mo a little, take the opportunity to kiss him, and maybe see him blush. He didn’t think that Qin Mo would take it seriously.
Hearing this confession, Xiao Han’s heart was warm, and he couldn’t help but squeeze Qin Mo’s hand just a little more tightly. “I know, Xiao Mo,” he whispered gently.
—— They only had each other in their hearts; nothing and no one from the outside world could affect their feelings for each other.
Qin Mo said nothing, holding Xiao Han’s hand quietly. Xiao Han was also quiet, creating an ambiguous atmosphere in the room.
Their hands, wound around each other, expressed their mutual trust.
After a while, Qin Mo gradually fell asleep. Looking at his soft profile, Xiao Han felt a sense of peace in his heart.
***
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.
When they arrived at the arena in the afternoon, the players all realised that god Han, who liked to pretend that he was cool and mysterious, was as lively as the spring breeze, seemingly in a very good mood.
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In terms of overall strength in this partner competition, Shen He’s group E was in fact a high-levelled group. In this group were Dynasty’s double melee combination of Chu Jianxin and Sang Jun, as well as Sky’s milk god and assassin combination of Zhou Xuewei and Li Dongqing. The final pair was Graceful Beauty’s summoner and assassin combination of Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi.
On the first day, Li Muran and Shen He lost to Chu Jianxin and Sang Jun, while Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi lost to Zhou Xuewei and Li Dongqing; On the second day, Li Muran and Shen He lost to Zhou Li, while Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi lost to Chu Sang. As of today’s game, Zhou Li and Chu Sang both had a two-win record, ensuring their qualification for the next round. Today’s match would determine the first and second place in the group.
However, Shen He and Li Muran, as well as Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi, have both lost two games. As players who could no longer qualify for the next round, their match did not hold much meaning.
Still, Li Muran followed Qin Mo’s instructions, earnestly preparing for the match.
The next match started right on time at 2:30pm in the afternoon. Up first was the ranking battle between Chu Jianxin + Sang Jun and Zhou Xuewei + Li Dongqing. The ranking was especially important as it determined their opponents in the top 16. According to the rules of the upper and lower brackets, the first ranked from group E would face the second ranked from group A, Luo Yuan and Wei Guanghua. On the other hand, the second ranked from group E would face the first ranked from group A, Chen Jiang and He Yue, a pair of martial siblings with the ability to seize the championship—— no one wanted to meet Chen Jiang in the knockout rounds, making this match extremely critical.
Chu Jianxin and Sang Jun were both first-class players who had debuted for more than two years. Although Zhou Xuewei was on the level of a milk god, Li Dongqing’s personal strength could not compare to either of Dynasty’s gods. Sky team gradually fell into a disadvantage, losing two games consecutively and ending up with a score of 0:2. Thus, the list of qualifying pairs from group E was finalised; in first place were the two melee gods from Dynasty, and in second place was the combination of Zhou Xuewei and Li Dongqing.
Up next was the battle between Li Muran and Shen He against Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi. As neither pair were able to qualify, this match had no impact on the results. Many members of the audience took the opportunity to go to the bathroom, while those who stayed happily lowered their heads to stare at their mobile phones. Only a few fans of Mojue were seriously paying attention to the match.
When Shen He walked on stage, a few scattered cheers could be heard from the audience. “Good luck, Monkey God!”
Hearing this sound, Shen He smiled, waving to the audience from where he stood. He didn’t mind the sluggish atmosphere from the audience; even if no one was watching, he would still play this game seriously.
On the first day, they lost 0:2 because his thoughts were too chaotic and messy, and was soundly beaten by Dynasty’s gods. On the second day, they lost 1:2. Although Muran was responsible for arranging the tactics, Shen He himself was also responsible for the loss, because he failed to dispose of the opposing output in a short time. His explosive power was still too poor compared to the might of the Twin Stars.
Today was the third day, and the final match. If he still lost, then he could really kick himself out his master’s doors.
Clenching his hands into fists, Shen He glanced at Li Muran. “Let’s work hard, brother Ran. We’ll win this game together!”
Li Muran nodded his head calmly. “En.”
Although this match had no meaning, as professional players, treating every game seriously and trying their hardest was something they ought to do.
Both sides went to the soundproof booths to prepare. Simultaneously, Ye Chao offered the audience an introduction. “On one side is a summoner with a healer, and on the other is a summoner with an assassin. From the perspective of class and professions, Xu Sizhe has an advantage. His summoner can function as remote control, while the close-range interference from the assassin will pressure the opponent greatly. As long as they can kill just one person from the other side, victory will be theirs.”
“However, Li Muran is not very good to kill, and Shen He himself is not so easily killed,” Liang Ru pointed out.
Ye Chao nodded in acknowledgement. “Thus, the key is whether or not they can control Li Muran.”
The game started not long after. For the first round, Li Muran selected a pure water-based map, seeking stability for a home game.
As for the secret books, he brought the purification secret book ‘Clear Heart Mantra’, while Shen He brought the group attack secret book ‘Eight Golden Locked Doors’.
The opposing side had no healer. As long as they fought slowly and steadily, Shen He could slowly chip away at the other party’s blood volume, and the lost blood could not be added back. Eventually, they would be smothered to death by Shen He. Li Muran just had to ensure that neither himself nor Shen He would be killed by the opponent’s fire.
After the map was refreshed, both parties were loaded in different corners of the water. There were no footholds on this pure water map, and the players could only swim in the water. This greatly slowed down everyone’s movement, and the speed of skill release would also be slowed accordingly.
Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi fought fiercely from the get-go, working together to suppress Shen He’s blood volume to 50%. Xu Sizhe followed up by summoning the mechanical horse and using its fear control skill, intending on preventing Li Muran from adding blood to Shen He.
However, the instant the mechanical horse was summoned, Shen He summoned his mechanical puppet, quickly teleporting far away from the battle!
Because Li Muran had given Shen He some blue moments before, Xu Sizhe did not realise that his opponent’s blue had changed, and that Shen He had summoned a mechanical puppet.
Under the effects of the fear control, the lifelike mechanical puppet was unable to move. Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi immediately joined hands to speedily kill “Drunken River”.
However, no kill prompt appeared on the screen. Surprised, Xu Sizhe immediately scanned his surroundings, only to realise that Drunken River had long since teleported away, and was even hiding behind his own family’s healer.
—— actually daring to hide behind the healer, is this how you behave as an output?
The audience could no longer resist, immediately looking up at the live broadcast, but Shen He was still happily swimming in the water. The 3-second fear control on Li Muran had ended, so he threw out a blood buff. Shen He joyfully swam an entire circle, coming back… full of blood.
A fully-healed Shen He came swimming back, starting the next wave of attacks with an air attack from his mechanical hawk!
The mechanical hawk dropped a rain of weapons from the skies, lowering Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi’s blood volume to 75%. Shen He immediately followed up with his secret book ‘Eight Golden Locked Doors’, causing countless arrows to be shot towards the center of the mechanical array from eight different directions. With this, Xu and Tan’s blood volume was reduced to 50%.
Xu Sizhe wanted to cough up a mouthful of blood.
He decisively used a secret book skill to control Li Muran and abolish his healing, before joining Tan Xi once more to kill Shen He. The joint output of the two was quite impressive, causing Shen He to lose more than half his blood in an instant. However, Shen He immediately summoned his mechanical blood cow to take the damage in his stead, once again hiding behind Li Muran before swimming away.
The little monkey was very flexible in the water, giving Tan Xi no chance to catch up to him. This sort of hit-and-run tactics also made Xu Sizhe very uncomfortable, so he immediately used qinggong to catch up with Shen He, using two mechanical snakes to surround him from the left and the right.
At this critical moment, Li Muran used ‘Clear Heart Mantra’ to resolve the control, throwing the big heal ‘Suspended Silk Diagnosis’ on Shen He, before exploding his hand speed to stack five layers of the blood buff ‘Divine Moxibustion Needle’, following up with ‘Meridian Penetration’ to add even more blood back to the half-dead summoner. This series of dazzling operations unexpectedly filled up Shen He’s blood volume bar in one breath!
—— only now did everyone realise the strength of Li Muran’s agility-based healer. His ability to administer first-aid in emergency situations was not inferior to the milk god Zhou Xuewei, especially during his rapid stacking of blood buffs, because triggered criticals would also add blood to the target. With this sort of healer, the amount of blood that could be returned was enough to make his opponents despair.
After fighting for half a day, Shen He was once again full of blood. Xu Sizhe had the sudden urge to throw away his keyboard!
In addition, Shen He’s style of running away after he attacks was perfectly in sync with Li Muran’s rhythm of adding blood. Once Li Muran was controlled by silence or dizziness, Shen He would immediately flee to prevent himself from being killed, waiting for the control to be resolved. Once Li Muran was free, Shen He would swim back to the milk dad’s healing range, allowing Muran to heal him once more.
The two shared a tacit understanding, and was very clear about both distance and time. Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi were played with like fools; after fighting for a few minutes, Shen He was once again fully healed by Li Muran.
The audience: “…”
Everyone sympathised with Xu Sizhe. Surely he was in despair right about now?
Sure enough, the longer he attacked, the more chaotic Xu Sizhe’s rhythm got. Shen He had been attacking from the early stages to lower the blood volume of the other two, and the instant Xu Sizhe made a mistake, Shen He summoned four mechanical chariots to lay seige to the opponents, instantly killing Xu Sizhe in a large explosion and earning Mojue a victory.
***
Qin Mo was calmly watching the game in the backstage lounge. “It really is the suppression of IQ.”
Xiao Han touched his chin, pondering. “Muran should have grasped the other party’s intention to kill Shen He with all his strength. Once Shen He is close to residual blood, he immediately uses a few big moves to return Shen He’s blood. As an agility-based healer, Muran’s style adds to cooldown reduction, and his instant skills have a short cooldown time. Xu Sizhe’s output speed cannot be compared to the speed at which Li Muran adds blood.”
“Xiao He is also very clever,” Zhu Qingyue praised. “He should have spent time specially training for water warfare. His movement speed in the water is quite quick.”
“Of course,” Xiao Han proclaimed. “That’s because he’s Xiao Yu’s cousin.”
No one said anything. Helpless, Xiao Han spoke up. “Whenever I tell a joke, no one laughs; I’ll feel really awkward like this.”
“With your level of chinese, wanting to tell a joke that can make people laugh is really quite difficult.” was Qin Mo’s bland reply.
Xiao Han: “…”
Having been scolded by teacher Qin, Xiao Han did not dare voice an objection. “Then, how about I tell you a joke in english?”
Qin Mo glanced at his watch. “Ten minutes of silence.”
Almost immediately, Xiao Han mimed the action of zipping up his mouth. Beside them, Zhu Qingyue laughed merrily, feeling that god Han’s deflated appearance was particularly interesting. As expected, only Qin Mo could control him.
***
The second match was Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi’s home game.
Graceful Beauty’s pair selected an air combat map for a quick battle, and the intention of knocking one of them off the pumice could not be any plainer to see. Li Muran skipped over the control type secret books, instead selecting the defensive ‘Immovable Mountain’. This secret book had the effect of providing 3 seconds of immunity to all damage and control effects, including displacement control.
After the game began, Xu Sizhe cooperated with Tan Xi to consume Shen He’s blood, putting forth the appearance of wanting to kill Shen He and creating pressure on Li Muran. However, the moment the pumice moved, Tan Xi immediately used a control skill on Li Muran, silencing him, while Xu Sizhe immediately summoned four mechanical chariots to surround Li Muran——
A resounding blast echoed in their ears. Li Muran…
Stood in his original position, completely unharmed, incidentally finding an opportunity to heal Shen He with ‘Suspended Silk Diagnosis’.
It turned out that he had already noticed Xu Sizhe’s plan. Although Xu Sizhe and Tan Xi had been attacking Shen He, the moment the pumice moved, both people had adjusted their line of sight to face him. In that moment, he knew that the opponent would seize the opportunity to toss him off the pumice; after all, the moment he died, Shen He would have no chance of winning a 1V2 confrontation.
Li Muran reacted extremely quickly, using the secret book ‘Immovable Mountain’, which coincidentally resolved the opponent’s control.
Shen He’s reaction was also very fast. Dashing forward with qinggong, he immediately summoned his mechanical chariots to block Tan Xi’s path of retreat, before starting a siege with the rest of his pets.
With that, the game once again fell into the same rhythm that made Xu Sizhe crazy in the last game—— even after joining hands with Tan Xi, the speed of their output could not match Li Muran’s emergency healing. Furthermore, the restless monkey Shen He jumped around everywhere, and his messy positioning completely disrupted the cooperation between Tan Xi and Xu Sizhe.
However, people with a discerning eye immediately saw that regardless of how messy Shen He’s positioning was, he had constantly maintained a distance of about 15 meters from Li Muran, allowing the healer to add blood to him at any time. This was their tacit understanding born from their long-term cooperation.
Xu Sizhe and Tanxi were quickly defeated, and the combination of Muran and Shen He easily won the second game.
When they were interviewed, Shen He was in an extremely good mood. “On the first day, our score was 0:2. On the second day, it was 1:2, and today, it’s 2:0. This is proof that we are constantly improving!”
The reporter coughed. “Don’t you mean to say that your opponents are getting weaker?”
“But we are also getting stronger,” Shen He confidently replied.
Unable to refute, the reporter handed the microphone to Li Muran, who offered a calm reply. “We will continue to work hard for future competitions.”
***
After the two returned to the backstage lounge, Qin Mo took the initiative to offer them praise, which was a rare sight. “You did well, Muran.”
Nodding calmly, Li Muran took a seat beside him—— captain Qin had mentioned before that winning a home game could not be considered a big deal because of the map advantage. Conversely, winning an away game was the only way to prove one’s strength. In a home game, one had to take the initiative to set a layout, while in an away game, one had to break out of the opponent’s layout.
In today’s game, Li Muran selected a water map for the first round, and winning was normal. The key to today’s win was the second round, where he deduced the opponent’s intentions and made a plan to counterattack, abolishing the other side’s tactics and took control of the battle with his own hands.
This two-streak win had successfully verified Li Muran’s tactics. Of course, as a future tactician personally taught by Qin Mo, he had only taken a small step down a very long road. There would be more successes and failures waiting for him in the future, and he needed to constantly accumulate experience and enrich his knowledge.
Up next was group F. Twin Stars, who had already won two matches, would face their last opponent in the group, two newcomers from the National Grace team
Ling Xuefeng and Li Cangyu had become National Grace club’s bosses. However, Li Junru was still in charge of the National Grace team in Peerless Jianghu. The two owners, Ling and Cat, had no intention to intervene. So, Xiao Han and Qin Mo faced no pressure in playing against them.
Moreover, even if they didn’t talk about personal relationships, it was still impossible for them to not put in effort just because they were up against young girls. Such an act was extremely disrespectful towards the opponent.
The pace of both games were extremely fast—— to be more precise, all of Twin Stars’ matches in the group stage were extremely fast.
Qin Mo and Xiao Han rushed in side by side. At present, not not many players in the Peerless Jianghu professional league were capable of stopping them. Lin Shuangcheng and Song Changdong, the other strongest pair in group F, were defeated with a score of 0:2; the healer + output combination from National Grace would not end up any different.
Qin Mo’s task was to control and interfere with the healer, and the role of the main output was given to Xiao Han.
The both of them shared a tacit understanding. From the start, Qin Mo controlled the healer with the silence effect of a Heaven Sun combo. Although the opposing healer quickly released the control to add blood to her teammate, Qin Mo kept interrupting the healer’s long casts with ten seconds of her instantaneous skill’s cooldown. On the other hand, Xiao Han’s fierce attacks at close range with the occasional attack from Qin Mo quickly lowered the female output’s blood volume. At a critical moment, Qin Mo used his secret book ‘Sword Rain Fragrance’ to control the healer for three seconds, before using ‘Unrivalled Sword’ to target the opposing output. With a ‘Rainbow Through The Sun’ from Xiao Han, the opposing output died instantly.
The healer sister pressed the surrender button in despair.
The second game was an away map, and the girls from National Grace selected a maze map in order to slow down the pace. However, Han Mo used qinggong at the same time to rush in, sharing the common understanding that one person would control the field while the other would attack without reservations. In less than two minutes, the female output once again fell under Xiao Han’s dagger.
The total time taken for the second game was a mere five minutes.
These two people simply killed whomever blocked their path, be it gods or buddhas, with a completely unstoppable momentum.
Even Ye Chao could not help offering high praise. “Even if you want to reason with the Twin Stars, there is simply nothing to say. Their six consecutive win streak in the group stage is a feat worthy of the biggest BOSS.”
Liang Ru sighed. “In general, when a pair brings along a healer, the battle would be dragged very slowly. Playing a single game for more than ten minutes is a perfectly normal occurrence. However, today the Twin Stars have shown us how to deal with a healer quickly!”
Shen He, who watched the match from the backstage lounge, was full of admiration. “That’s my master!”
“When god Mo and god Han join hands, their offensive power is extremely strong,” Pei Yu also expressed his admiration.
After this showing, Li Muran admired his captain even more. Not only was Qin Mo really strong in tactics, he was still very capable without. If he joined forces with Xiao Han, the two of them were strong enough to terrify all their opponents.
The Twin Stars who had strength and intelligence aplenty, qualified as the first in the group with a six-game winning streak, which was a very reasonable result.
On their way backstage, Xiao Han couldn’t help commenting, “I’m in a good mood today, and we played very fast.”
Qin Mo turned around. “So, you don’t play fast if you’re in a bad mood?”
“I’m always very fast.” Xiao Han grinned.
However, he wouldn’t blindly pursue speed. Back in the individual competition, he had been forced to his limits by Qin Mo, and broke out his highest hand speed to open nine shadows directly. However, in general competitions, he still maintained his usual five shadows, because he wanted to match Qin Mo’s rhythm, and five shadows could better cooperate with Qin Mo.
The feeling of fighting side by side with the person you loved was much better than charging alone.
Xiao Han thought for a few moments. “I’ll tell you another joke. Once, someone followed teacher Qin to learn chinese. After some time, that person finally learnt how to tell a joke in chinese.”
Qin Mo: “…”
Enough was enough!
Qin Mo admired Xiao Han’s persistence for continuing to tell such frosty and unappealing jokes.
While the joke wasn’t funny, thinking of Xiao Han carefully trying to construct a joke in chinese did amuse Qin Mo a little.
Seeing Qin Mo’s eyes curve, Xiao Han also smiled, draping an arm around Qin Mo’s shoulders. “Is your mood better now? I just want to make you smile; cooperate with me a little?”
“En,” Qin Mo smiled. “I have always been in a good mood.”
—— Because I have you at my side, no matter if we lose or win, my mood will always be clear and happy.
In this partner competition, Qin Mo was confident that they could win the championship, and was thinking of ways to get there.
Because, a doubles match relied on the tacit understanding between partners. The championship of this partner competition would be the best gift that he and Xiao Han could give to each other.
Ahhhhhhh
I’m stuff full of dog food
Thank you
They feed u dog food 😏
You’re welcome~ ❤
+1 haha
+2
So even Xiao Han can get anxious~
Thank you for the chapter! 😘❤️
Yes, he still can get anxious~~
You’re welcome~ 😍❤
small typo ” The pact of both games were extremely fast—” should be pace not pact.Ahh Champion of the singles matches, Champions of the doubles matches, Champions of the group matches~?
Alright, already fix it, thank you 💕
Noo, I think the only one who won the championship is Liu Chuan lol 🤣