translator: Oyen
The next afternoon, Chu Yan accompanied Zhu Qingyue to the airport and sent him all the way to Dragon Song club after arriving in Changsha.
Every time Zhu Qingyue had a fever, it would take a week to get better. However, his illness was usually very serious at the beginning, and he had a low fever in the next few days. It was not convenient for Chu Yan to stay in Dragon Song to take care of him, and he didn’t want the minor illness to trouble his master. After returning to the dormitory to settle down, he took the initiative to tell Chu Yan. “Master, you go and do your business, don’t worry about me.”
Today’s Qingyue was not like when he was 15 that he would clung to his master when he was sick. Chu Yan reached out and touched his forehead. When he found that his body temperature had dropped, he relieved and patted Zhu Qingyue’s shoulder and replied. “Then I’ll go first, take care of yourself.”
Zhu Qingyue nodded. “En, I’m not a child anymore.”
Chu Yan gave a meaningful smile, leaned to his ear. “You’re not a ‘child’ anymore.”
Zhu Qingyue’s face suddenly turned red and didn’t speak any more. He turned to open the door and asked Chu Yan to leave.
There were still many things to deal with in the company. Chu Yan reluctantly hugged Qingyue and turned to walk out of the door.
Upon leaving, he happened to meet Qin Mo, and Chu Yan asked. “Qingyue may have some low fever in the next few days. He isn’t in charge of next week’s game, right?”
“Of course.” Qin Mo nodded. “I will keep an eye on his condition, and if he is not feeling well, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t play next week.”
Only then did Chu Yan turn to leave at ease.
After Chu Yan left, Qin Mo organised the team members to have a meeting. Zhu Qingyue also came to the conference room. He looked good, but looked away sheepishly when he met Qin Mo’s gaze. Maybe he also guessed that Qin Mo and Xiao Han already knew about his relationship with Chu Yan.
Qin Mo didn’t want to interfere with the personal affairs of the players. He didn’t mention anything about Qingyue and Chu Yan. He simply went to the main topic. “Next week, we will play against Without Fire team at home in Changsha, and I will take charge of this game and command the game.” He immediately released a PPT introducing Without Fire team, analysed the characteristics of this team in detail, and then continued. “My idea is that we use escort mode at home and prepare two sets of lineups. One, it is the defensive lineup commonly used before, Xiao He, Qingyue, Muran, plus me and Xiao Han; the other is a field-control and consumable lineup, Xiao He and Muran guarantee the survival of the escorts, Shen He and Pei Yu can control from long distance, I am responsible for melee interference. We will practice on both lineups for the next week.”
In the past, Qin Mo usually only had one set of lineups in the escort mode at home court—— the iron triangle defensive array of Xiao He, Muran and Qingyue.
Today he proposed two sets of alternative lineups, obviously worried about Zhu Qingyue’s condition, in case Qingyue’s body was not good before the game, although the low fever was not a serious illness, it would affect the reaction at critical moments, and Qingyue’s role in this iron triangle defense lineup was quite important. The timing of his various arrays must be matched with He Beiguang and Li Muran’ skills, otherwise it was easy to be caught by the opponent. Therefore, Qingyue must not play in illness.
To be on the safe side, Qin Mo still arranged a set of alternative lineup, if Qingyue was not in a good condition by the time, he would send the second lineup.
***
A week passed quickly. What puzzled Qin Mo was that Zhu Qingyue was still having a low fever before the game, as if to fulfill his premonition.
On the day of the game, Qingyue’s low fever still did not go down, and Zhu Qingyue himself felt that his response had become slow, so Qin Mo had to send a second lineup.
The lineup sent by Qin Mo in escort mode at home game surprised the fans at the scene—— Xiao Han, Zhu Qingyue and Liu Hong did not play, but Qin Mo took four newcomers alone.
This was the first time that He Beiguang, Li Muran, Shen He and Pei Yu were fighting in the league at the same time.
Fans could not help guessing Qin Mo’s intention of sending four newcomers, and even Ye Chao was suspicious. “Is it possible that Qin Mo dared to train newcomers at this time? Although Mojue’s current points ranked second, there are still three games to go, which is not a stable position to get into the playoff, isn’t it too risky?”
Liang Ru replied. “Today, as long as they do not lose to Without Fire 0:2, Mojue will be relatively stable in the top four. Is he taking advantage of this last opportunity to train newcomers?”
Fans and commentators guessed Qin Mo’s intention for a long time, but Chu Yan, who watched the game in front of the computer, immediately understood—— Qingyue’s fever had not gone down, Qin Mo did not dare to risk him, and did not want Qingyue to make a mistake when playing the game. Although this lineup didn’t have Xiao Han and Liu Hong, it was a better arrangement for melee teams like Without Fire. Whether Pei Yu and Shen He could control the scene was the key to the outcome of the game. Under great pressure, the two teenagers also took advantage of the opportunity to hone their cooperation.
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.
Nie Yuzhu was not stupid. Although he didn’t know that Zhu Qingyue was ill, he understood Qin Mo’s idea of taking ‘long-distance control flow’ to fight a war of attrition, and he quickly made a response—— by sending four melee outputs with an auxiliary lineup. When banning secret books, he banned all the three secret books with the strongest group control, and first snatched the release control secret book ‘Clear Heart Mantra’.
Coafg atf rajga bo atf ujwf, atf lwqjma ogbw Qlatbea Mlgf afjw lc atf ogbca gbk kjr jirb delaf olfgmf. Ktf 16-sfjg-biv Alcu Tjcu qijsfv fzmfqalbcjiis abvjs. Kjxlcu jvnjcajuf bo atf mbbivbkc bo Lf Dfluejcu’r rtlfiv, tf gertfv ab atf yjmx gbk ja j nfgs ojra rqffv ab lcafggeqa Ufl Te jcv Vtfc Lf’r rxliir, lcafggeqalcu Zbpef’r mbcagbi gtsatw.
After two consecutive waves of fierce team battles in the first round, Without fire team finally broke out with the help of the invincible array and four melee outputs, forcibly killed chief escort close to the finish line.
Mojue lost a game in Changsha home court, the fans were a little sad, and there were many voices on the Internet questioning Qin Mo’s command.
Fortunately, in the second round, Mojue sent out the pure output lineup that he had used before. Xiao Han, Liu Hong and Qin Mo all played in close combat, and they took Xiao Pei and Xiao He to fight with the Without Fire’s melee lineup in the distance. Without Fire’s front was directly blown out, and Mojue pulled back to a tie score of 1:1.
Although it was not the most ideal result, it was acceptable to tie 1:1 with a strong team like Without Fire.
After this game, Mojue and Without Fire’s points did not change, and the ranking of the league’s total score list did not change much—— Mojue was still second, and Without Fire continued to be third.
After the game, the reporter questioned why Qin Mo sent that lineup in the first round, Qin Mo did not explain much, only replied simply. “Captain Nie must have specially studied our defensive team, I want to try a different idea.” He concealed Qingyue’s illness so that the reporter would not harass Qingyue again.
***
The next step was to prepare for the game with the Dynasty team. Qingyue’s fever had finally gone down completely. Mojue team members concentrated on preparing for the battle, and set off again for Beijing a week later.
However, even if Zhu Qingyue came on stage this time, Mojue still tied 1:1 with Dynasty, and this result was also expected by Qin Mo.
Dynasty’s lineup was equally comprehensive and all around, and had excellent tactical command Sang Jun, and also had many top players. It was normal for them to tie with Dynasty in their home court in the regular season. Fans were looking forward to the battle between both teams in the playoffs. Many people even predicted that the finals of the team competition was likely to be the PK between Dynasty and Mojue.
Mojue didn’t get points at 1:1 for two weeks in a row, but these two weeks’ opponents were all the top four teams in the scoreboard, and the result at 1:1 would not affect the ranking, which also made the teams who could enter the playoffs became more clear at the end of this week’s game.
Dynasty was currently in first place, and their opponent in the last week was Whisper. With Dynasty’s current point advantage, even if they lost this game, they would be able to get into the top four and get tickets to the playoffs. Not to mention Sang Jun’s IQ had always existed, the overall strength of Dynasty was far higher than Whisper, it was impossible to lose at 0:2.
None of the other teams were absolutely sure. During the last week of the regular season, the players of all the major teams were a little nervous. They all worked hard to prepare for the last game, and some of them even stayed up late to practice.
***
Shanghai, Wind Colour club’s dormitory.
When Qiu Zongping went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, he found a warm light coming out from the crack of the door in the bedroom next door. He went to knock on the door, but there was no reply. When he gently pushed the door, he saw Yuan Xi asleep at his desk. In the laptop in front of him, there was the video of Mojue’s game with Dynasty.
Qiu Zongping went over and patted Yuan Xi’s shoulder and whispered. “Xiao Yuan, why are you sleeping here?”
Yuan Xi heard a familiar voice in a daze and thought he was dreaming. He gently grabbed Qiu Zongping’s hand, narrowed his eyes and whispered. “Captain Qiu, why did I dream of you again?”
Qiu Zongping’s back was slightly stiff——Yuan Xi obviously said that he would let go of this relationship, but this sentence revealed too much information.
Did he often dream about him?
Seeing him sleepy and calling his name, Qiu Zongping suddenly had mixed feelings in his heart, and he didn’t know how to convince this fool, so he had to pretend to know nothing, shook Yuan Xi’s shoulder and said. “Go to bed and don’t catch a cold.”
Yuan Xi’s consciousness finally cleared up, rubbed his eyes and looked at the man who appeared in front of him. His face was a little embarrassed. “Cough, am I, am I asleep?”
Qiu Zongping whispered. “You are too tired these days. Just try your best in the last game, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.” He looked down at his watch and frowned. “It’s already three o’clock. Have a rest. Come back to the training room at 10am in the morning, it doesn’t matter to sleep more.”
Yuan Xi nodded, turned off the computer and replied. “En, captain Qiu, go to bed, too.”
Qiu Zongping looked at him, patted his shoulder, and then turned away.
Yuan Xi went back to sleep, but he was not sleepy at all. He stared at the ceiling and suddenly remembered that after vice captain Qin and captain Yan had left, Qiu Zongping took over the heavy burden of Wind Colour team and stayed up late into the night every day. At that time, he still had a knot in his heart. He always felt that Qiu Zongping had stolen the captain position, so he was naively angry with Qiu Zongping and never cared about how well captain Qiu slept.
By contrast, Qiu Zongping was more elegant.
Even if both of them had some unpleasantness, Qiu Zongping would still care about him, although it was only from the standpoint of the captain and his concern for the team members.
He had said to let go, what was he looking forward to?
Yuan Xi took a deep breath. He was a little annoyed with himself for being so self-conscious, so he simply pulled up the quilt and covered his head, drove away the chaotic thoughts in his head, and then closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Although Qiu Zongping asked him to sleep until 10am before going to the training room, Yuan Xi still gathered there punctually at 08:30.
In order to deal with Mojue, Sky team entered a devil-like training state this week and practiced several games over and over again. Even so, everyone was still not sure. After all, there was god Mo on the opposite side—— which was Ling Xuefeng’s personal apprentice, he was also Qiu Zongping, Yuan Xi and Zhou Xuewei’s talent scout.
Seeing the fear in newcomers’ hearts, Qiu Zongping encouraged everyone before the game. “Don’t care too much about Qin Mo as Mojue’s commander. He has been away from the esports circle for three years, and his understanding of me, Yuan Xi and Xuewei is not as thorough as it was then. We have been making progress in recent years. Moreover, now that everyone has changed the game, we can’t use the set of theories in the Miracle of that year. Therefore, we don’t have to give ourselves psychological pressure because the other party has Qin Mo, treat Qin Mo as an ordinary opponent and play our own level. It is the most important thing.”
Captain Qiu’s words let the players of Sky team feel relaxed a lot, Zhou Xuewei also said. “We are fifth rank now, whether we can enter the playoffs or not depends on the situation of the last round of the game. Let’s be prepared to fight back. No matter what the result is, just try your best.”
Yuan Xi said nothing. He was not the captain now and there was no need to encourage the team members. As long as he did what he had to do, it was enough to play well with Qiu Zongping.
***
On Friday, Qiu Zongping came to Changsha with all his team members.
In the last week of the regular season, the match between Mojue and Sky was scheduled for the last game, but Qiu Zongping led the team in advance to familiarize themselves with the environment.
On Saturday afternoon, the match between Dynasty and Whisper team took the lead. Dynasty fought an away game in Luoyang. Although Whisper sent their specialty umbrella array, Sang Jun had learned from Zhu Qingyue’s game. With two assassins, he joined hands with Wen Hua to break Whisper’s umbrella array. They won 2:0 and scored 5 points. With their total score as the first place, they advanced into the playoffs.
Saturday night’s game was Without Fire VS Sword Song, the same melee team competition, the two rounds of the game were quite hot-blooded. The overall strength of Without Fire team was much stronger than Sword Song. The melee trio of Nie Yuzhu, Zhou Yanbing and Jing Yang beat the swordsmen led by Lin Shuangcheng at 2:0, scored five points and locked a seat in the playoffs.
Both Dynasty and Without Fire would qualify, and the remaining two places would be decided by the results of Sunday’s match.
On Sunday morning, National Grace and Graceful Beauty faced each other. Both sides currently ranked sixth and 10th respectively. Nation Grace won Graceful Beauty at 2:0, but National Grace’s early points were not enough. Even if they got five points today, they still could not get into the top four. Li Junru looked very calm about the result. “It doesn’t matter, come back next year,” said Li Junru in an interview with the reporter.
In the afternoon, the match between Frost Moon and Interlude began in Yangzhou.
To the audience’s surprise, Interlude once again tied with Frost Moon!
Su Cheng tied against Mojue and Dynasty at home in Yangzhou Interlude was considered to be the strongest dark horse non-governmental team in this session. The most important thing was Su Cheng. He inherited the unpredictable command strategy of his master. The major teams were caught off guard, and the game with Mojue in the mass grave was also selected as one of the example games of the season.
Although Interlude now ranks seventh in points and had no chance to compete for the playoff, Su Cheng wouldn’t give up because of this. Every game, he had to play seriously, just as it was training. He was not only playing this season, but also next year and the year after next—— only when every game was taken seriously and lessons were learned could Interlude be among the top teams.
Frost Moon was beaten by Su Cheng’s unexpected tactics. Chen Jiang adjusted his tactics in time to pull back the second round, and tied at 1:1.
In this way, Interlude team had a slim chance of survival.
The current team scoreboard, Dynasty was still ranked first. After getting 5 points this week, Without Fire temporarily surpassed Mojue to become the second. Mojue was in third place, Frost Moon tied, and did not get points, so they were still in fourth place. Sky was only one point short below Frost Moon, ranking fifth, but they still had one game to play.
In other words, the final game of Mojue VS Sky would determine the ranking of Mojue, Frost Moon and Sky teams and the final list of the playoffs.
Not only Sky’ fans were nervous, but Without Fire and Mojue’s fans who were also nervous.
Knowing the result of the game in Yangzhou, Qin Mo glanced quietly at the official scoreboard in the background.
Judging from the current points, Mojue was sure to enter the playoffs and won third place.
The question was: who would be ranked fourth, was it Frost Moon or Sky.
As Frost Moon was tied and did not get a point today, there was only a one-point difference between Sky and Frost Moon. If Sky team could get points from Mojue’s hand, they could surpass Frost Moon in fourth place. If Sky tied or lost with Mojue, Sky could only be the fifth with regret.
Xiao Han looked at the scoreboard and smiled. “It doesn’t matter whether we win or lose, but it’s strange that we can decide the fate of other teams.”
Shen He smiled. “Captain Chen and captain Qiu must be very nervous, right? Whether they can make it to the playoffs depends on how well we play.”
Hearing this, Zhu Qingyue felt complicated. When he was in Pure Cleansing team, he had to be abused by a strong team every time he played, seeking to survive in the gap. But now, the fate of other teams was determined by Mojue. This kind of role change was precisely because of the change in team strength. Staying on a strong team was really different from leading a weak team.
Zhu Qingyue had also come through a rough journey, and he could really understand the feelings of Chen Jiang and Qiu Zongping at the moment—— Qiu Zongping must go all out and fight Mojue with his best shot to determine the outcome, while Chen Jiang could only stand on the sidelines and wait for the result of this game.
Compared with the nervousness of his fans, Chen Jiang looked relaxed and posted on Weibo before the start of the game. “We have won the fourth place four times, and whether we can get the fourth place in the fifth event depends on the next game. Xiao Pang went to buy a watermelon, and we also acted as onlookers and sat with everyone waiting for the result [smile].”
Qiu Zongping didn’t give a dry humour like Chen Jiang. He didn’t say anything on the public platform before the game. He just encouraged his teammates to relax and play well.
Qin Mo met Sky’s players before he came to the stage. Yuan Xi had lost a lot of weight since he saw him last time. After losing weight, his face became good looking, but made people feel distress. His legs were already healed, standing straight, his eyes were as bright as he remembered, but the faint dark circles told the truth about his recent poor sleep, it must be to prepare for the last game, right?
Seeing Qin Mo, Yuan Xi and Qiu Zongping came together to greet. “God Mo.”
Looking at both of them, Qin Mo replied. “This game will determine which one of you and Frost Moon can qualify.” Qin Mo paused, then whispered. “You need to do your best… Because, I will not release water to you.”
Qiu Zongping nodded cautiously. “I understand.”
Even if the result of this game didn’t have much influence on Mojue, Qin Mo wouldn’t release water to Sky team just because the other party was his acquaintance.
Although Chen Jiang joked on Weibo, it had not been easy for the players of Frost Moon team. If Qin Mo released water to Sky team and deliberately let Sky into the playoffs and eliminated the Frost Moon team, it would be an insult to Qiu Zongping and disrespect for players like Chen Jiang and Pang Jia.
In this game, Mojue would play with all their strength.
Whether they could enter the playoffs or not depended on the players themselves.
Seeing Qin Mo turned and left, Qiu Zongping proactively stretched out his hand and said. “Let god Mo see the results of our efforts.”
Yuan Xi also held out his hand and gently grasped Qiu Zongping’s finger, and replied seriously. “Fighting.”
Looking at each other, both of them had no distractions, because the cruel game was waiting for themselves, and at this moment, they were just a pair of tacit partners. They would do their best to win the playoff tickets for Sky team, with all their strength.
I like Qin Mo‘s attitude here~~ Sky team and Frost Moon Team have both done their best. It wouldn’t be respectful to lose purposely!
Thank you for the chapter (◍•ᴗ•◍)💜
Yes, it’s like mocking them if he purposely loses in this match 😤
You’re welcome~ 💕
Poor baby Yuan Xi T__T
I really want to hug and pat him 😭