Chapter 151 - Qin Mo VS Lin Yao

translator: Oyen editor: Ciel

Mingzhou Arena was a round drum with a diameter of about 50 meters and a height of about 5 meters. If either player accidentally fell down, they could choose to fly up the sides with a qinggong skill or climb back up by using the ladder.

The two players refreshed at the bottom of the arena at the same time. Almost as if by tacit agreement, they immediately climbed onto the arena using the ladder.

Qin Mo didn’t rush to make a move, instead circling around to look for opportunities. Lin Yao chose to do the same, causing them both to move around the arena. When the distance between them was exactly 20 metres, Lin Yao burst into action, seizing the opportunity to throw a poisonous powder forward. The group attack skill ‘Heartbroken Grass’ from Fangcao Hall had the farthest attack range, and was also the poison master’s most basic attack skill. While it didn’t deal much damage, it could be used to quickly stack many layers of poison on the opponent.

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Lin Yao’s hand speed was very fast. In the blink of an eye, three layers of poison had been stacked on Ink Mark, causing him to lose some health. The audience assumed that Qin Mo would now widen the distance and search for another opportunity, but unexpectedly, Qin Mo rushed forward with his qinggong skill——

Sword Horizon, Sword Rain Remnant!

The incomparably precise silence control directly interrupted Lin Yao’s poison attack, making it impossible for him to continue stacking poison layers.

Taking the advantage of the silence control, Qin Mo launched Sword Horizon multiple times, pushing his opponent’s blood volume to 75%, which was exactly the same as his own blood volume.

Lin Yao immediately ran away with Fangcao Hall’s qinggong skill after the end of the 3-second silence control. Taking advantage of the poison master’s superior attack distance, he threw more attacks at Ink Mark while crossing the map with qinggong—— Heartbroken Grass, Red Crane’s Crown, Thunder Duke Vine!

Multicolored poison powders were flung all over the arena, afflicting Ink Mark with the poisoning state once again. This time, Lin Yao relied on his skillful operation to stack the five layers of poisoning in one go!

“Beautiful!” Ye Chao couldn’t help but to praise Lin Yao’s gameplay. “Is he going for the big move and exploding poison for the damage?”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

One of the ways to play the poison master flow was to use basic attacks, stacking the opponent with five layers of poison, before following up with a single-target attack skill of ‘Arsenic Frost’, which would compound the poison damage done to the opponent. Seeing that Lin Yao had managed to stack five layers of poison on him, Qin Mo immediately guessed that this might be Lin Yao’s plan. Leaping to Lin Yao’s side, he struck with a ‘Riverbound Sword’ combo, flinging the poison master ten metres back!

As a result, Lin Yao’s ‘Arsenic Frost’ skill failed to connect, and the poison layers on Ink Mark didn’t explode.

Warm applause broke out among the audience.

“God Mo has obviously guessed it,” Liang Ru smiled. “Dodging this big move is the most crucial point. If it isn’t dodged in time, the poison will cause him to lose half his blood in one breath!”

“Lin Yao’s performance today is also very good,” Ye Chao praised. “He dares to rush up and fight directly with god Mo. It’s a pity that this big move of his was dodged. However, the five layers of poison can still cause god Mo to lose blood as the battle goes on.”

At the end of this exchange, Ink Mark’s blood volume had fallen to 60%, while Flower Blooming Like Red Clouds’s blood volume was still at 80%.

Just when the audience thought Ink Mark had suffered a loss, Qin Mo decisively opened the targeted skill ‘Unrivalled Sword’, accurately throwing the icy Broken Sword and stabbing Flower Blooming Like Red Clouds in the chest!

With the sound of a sword piercing through flesh and blood, the blood volume of Flower Blooming Like Red Clouds dropped to 60%.

Ye Chao joked good-naturedly, “Qin Mo really refuses to eat even a little bit of loss in the slightest.”

“Once again, both players have the same blood volume, and the battle is still a stalemate,” Liang Ru announced. “Is god Mo not opening his big move yet?”

Obviously, both commentators were very clear about the situation. As soon as this sentence was said, both Qin Mo and Lin Yao launched their big move at the same time——

Skyward Sword! Ten Thousand Heart Devouring Poisons!

To see the swordsman and poison master’s big move competing against each other was extremely shocking!

After both the big moves were launched, their blood volume dropped to a dangerous state of 30% at the same time!

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Lin Yao immediately followed up with control skills—— Red Crane’s Crown, Mandala Petals!

The effect of this combo skill from the poison attack flow was particularly powerful. The combined effect of the two kinds of poison powder would not only cause a lot of damage, but also cause all the opponents within the attacking range to be inflicted with a blindness state!

Both of these skills had a wide range of attack, and were very difficult to dodge if one failed to anticipate and dodg them in advance.

Sure enough, Qin Mo was blinded by poison, and his blood volume dropped to 15%.

Seizing this opportunity, Lin Yao followed up with another skill, ‘Antiaris Toxicaria’!

——Flower Blooming Like Red Clouds has killed Ink Mark.

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Intentionally or unintentionally, the director turned the camera to the audience, aiming it at Xiao Han, only to discover that his expression was very calm. Seeing the camera, Xiao Han smiled graciously, mouthing ‘he hasn’t woken up yet’ towards the audience.

Liang Ru chucked. “God Han is helping Qin Mo, saying that god Mo isn’t awake yet.”

“It’s already 9:40am now. If he hasn’t woken up yet, what time does he usually sleep?” Ye Chao snarked.

Hearing this, fans watching the live broadcast immediately flooded the screen with their comments: “Momo, wake up quickly!”

“Qin Xiaomo, aren’t you ashamed to lose the first match? Quickly regain your spirit!”

“It’s a shame to lose to Lin Yao. Momo, if you lose again, we’ll turn black!”

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“He really didn’t keep up in the first match. I think it was his finger. From the footage just now, his hands seemed to be a little stiff.”

“Is it still early in the morning when your hands can’t move?”

The director turned the camera to Qin Mo’s seat. Qin Mo was unperturbed, his expression calm as he rubbed his fingers.

Liang Ru commented. “Qin Mo looks calm. Losing the first match seems to have little effect on him. Is it really because his fingers aren’t moving well? They felt a little stiff in the first match just now.”

“I feel that with God Mo’s consciousness, he should not have lost out on an opportunity. Perhaps he has not yet adjusted. After all, it’s still early in the morning, and his fingers should need to adapt to the pace of the game.” Ye Chao agreed.

Liang Ru replied. “I hope god Mo can adjust as soon as possible. Lin Yao has already won the first match, and the second match will be Lin Yao’s home map selection. If he loses another match, it will be more difficult for him to qualify for the next round from the group.”

***

The map selected by Lin Yao in the second match was Western Regions Labyrinth, which was a large labyrinth located in the desert towards the West.

This kind of labyrinth map was very difficult for players with a poor sense of direction. The fact that Lin Yao dared choose this map showed that he was obviously very familiar with the terrain.

The circumstances did in fact prove this, as Lin Yao made a detour in the beginning of the game to sneak attack from behind. He immediately turned to run away after stacking three layers of poisoning on Ink Mark. Fighting with poison masters in the labyrinth was something that caused players endless headaches. Furthermore, Qin Mo did not have much time to spare, because the poisoned state on Ink Mark would continuously cause him to lose health.

Fortunately, Qin Mo’s grasp of the terrain was also very strong. Using the object penetrating ability of ‘Drifting Sword’ to fight back, he managed to prevent the blood volume of both characters from being pulled apart.

In the end, it was Lin Yao who relied on the advantage of his superior attack range and his familiarity with the match to continuously detour and ambush Qin Mo, poisoning Ink Mark to death.

The audience couldn’t accept the result at all. Both commentators also stared at each other silently. Even Lin Yao couldn’t believe it, and typed a line on the public screen to ask: “Is god Mo feeling unwell?”

Qin Mo replied: “No, you played very well today.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

He walked out of the players’ booth calmly. Feeling awkward, the audience didn’t know whether to applaud or not.

Xiao Han stood up on his own initiative and gave Qin Mo a comforting hug, asking softly in his ear, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, you go and play first.” Qin Mo whispered.

Since group B’s match was next, Qin Mo didn’t explain much, so Xiao Han obediently entered the stage.

Xiao Han’s first match was against Song Changdong. In this period of time, Xiao Song had made great progress, but his skills were still lacking when compared to Xiao Han. Xiao Han won the match 2-0 cleanly before returning to the lounge.

As the other players were playing matches of their own, there were no outsiders in the lounge.

Sitting down beside Qin Mo, Xiao Han took out his mobile phone and scrolled through Weibo. Sure enough, the black fans had jumped out, sneering at Qin Mo’s defeat in the first game.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“After winning a championship in the all-sect challenge arena, the result was that he screwed up in the official competition. So in the end, the legendary god Mo is only worth that much!”

“He can’t even defeat the junior player he raised himself. Isn’t he embarrassed to be called ‘god Mo’?”

“Mojue’s captaincy should be given to Xiao Han!”

“God Mo lost beautifully [applause]”

These hateful remarks that only served to fan the flames made Xiao Han angry. However, Qin Mo stopped him from posting a Weibo. “Why do you care about the anonymous netizens?”

Xiao Han frowned. “I just don’t like those people scolding you!”

“Quarreling with netizens is the most unwise thing to do. Is it necessary for you to lower your IQ to quarrel with those people?” Qin Mo replied quietly.

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Xiao Han was stunned, but realised that Qin Mo’s unexpectedly poisonous tongue had actually hit the proverbial nail on the head. It was really undignified for him to lower his IQ and quarrel with netizens who opened smurf accounts to stir up trouble. Those people were just clowns, if Qin Mo himself didn’t mind, Xiao Han also didn’t need to pay attention to them. This group of nonsense-sprayers had a particular characteristic; that was, the more face you gave them, the more excited they got. Therefore, if there wasn’t a reply, they would eventually get bored.

Thinking of this, Xiao Han kept his mobile phone and asked, “What happened just now?”

Qin Mo looked back at him. “Do you want the truth?”

“Of course.” Xiao Han nodded.

Qin Mo smiled gently. “In fact, I forgot to wear gloves this morning, and my hands were frozen from the cold air. They didn’t manage to relax before the match, so my reactions became a little slow.”

In fact, Xiao Han was already aware that it was impossible to lose to Lin Yao at Qin Mo’s level. Since it was unlikely that Qin Mo was sleepy, Xiao Han guessed that something had to have been wrong for him to play like this—— unexpectedly, it was his fingers.

Hearing his words, Xiao Han was heartbroken. “It’s my fault,” he whispered guiltily, “it’s so cold in February and your hands have been injured. We play at 9:00am in the morning. I should have realised it when we went out…”

Looking at Xiao Han’s expression of self-reproach, Qin Mo softened, gently holding Xiao Han’s hand in his own. “How can I blame you? I forgot to bring my gloves when I went out, which is my own fault. I’ll just be more careful next time.”

Qin Mo looked calm, but the calmer he was, the more Xiao Han was distressed.

Holding Qin Mo’s hand gently, Xiao Han lowered his head and kissed his slightly cold fingers, trying to share some warmth with him this way.

The gentle touch tickled Qin Mo’s fingers, and he immediately withdrew his hands, ignoring the way his cheeks heated up. “Xiao Han, don’t be like this, I’m really fine.”

Xiao Han stretched out his arms to hug Qin Mo, and whispered. “I will pay more attention to this when we go out in the future. This kind of thing will not happen again.”

Although he lost the match, Qin Mo was not sad at all. On the one hand, Lin Yao was the junior he personally raised, and to see Lin Yao’s excellent performance today pleased him greatly. On the other hand, the victory of a single group match would not have a great impact on him. In addition, Xiao Han’s consideration for his comfort made him feel more at ease.

Qin Mo patted Xiao Han’s back lightly. “Losing a group match is no big deal. The next matches will be against Qiu Zongping and Xu Sizhe, who are both summoners. You should be very clear about my knowledge of summoners. I will definitely win against them both. Even if I lose one match, I am still very confident in qualifying from the group.”

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Hearing this, Xiao Han felt relieved.

Qin Mo did have a better chance of winning against Qiu Zongping and Xu Sizhe. After all, he was once a first-class summoner, and knew the summoner’s skills very well.

At this moment, a Wechat message from Ling Xuefeng popped up on Qin Mo’s mobile phone. “It was an ugly loss. You need to win beautifully in tomorrow’s match.”

Qin Mo was stunned. After the spring festival, his master and Cat God went abroad to look for more delicious fish. Unexpectedly, his master had watched his competition while abroad. This show of concern made Qin Mo feel touched, and he immediately replied: “I understand, master. I will be sure to make each win more and more beautiful [smiles]”

Ling Xuefeng replied: “That Ye Chao is right. You are a human being, not a god. It’s normal to lose one or two games when in a bad state. Don’t go online and check Weibo for now, there’s no need to pay attention to the black fans’ comments.”

“I understand, master.” Qin Mo took the advice to heart.

Another message popped up on the screen: “Xiao Mo, fighting! I am Old Cat. By the way, tell Xiao Han good luck from me.”

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Xiao Han was speechless. “Sure enough, I’m not his real apprentice, even his encouragement was just mentioned in passing!”

Qin Mo smiled. “That’s because your master has faith in you, and knows that you can win without luck.”

Lin Yao happened to walk in while the both of them were chatting.

After his transfer from Wind Colour to Huaxia, Lin Yao stayed in the club for almost a year before he earned a starting position. Huaxia club had as many experts as there were clouds, and his long-range playstyle was not particularly unique, so his development wasn’t very good. This time, he followed Chu Jianxin to Peerless Jianghu, which was to give himself a new opportunity.

Lin Yao had tried his best in the arena against Qin Mo just now, trying to finish with a score of 1:2 so as to not lose too badly, only for Qin Mo to be in a poor condition today, unexpectedly allowing him to win 2:0!

Seeing both of them sitting in the lounge, Lin Yao looked a little embarrassed and scratched his head. “God Mo, during that game just now… Are you not in good shape? “

Qin Mo replied. “You don’t need to investigate the reason, you played well, a win is a win.”

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Lin Yao was still unconvinced. “But at normal levels, I shouldn’t defeat you with 2:0?”

Standing up, Qin Mo patted his shoulder. “Lin Yao, I know you have had a hard time in the past few years. In fact, among the five players I found in the training camp, you are the most talented. However, you are indecisive, and often think too much. In fact, you played very well today, and were able to seize the opportunity to kill your opponent quickly. Have more confidence in yourself, and continue to be in the same state as you were in today for the rest of the competition.”

Lin Yao’s eyes felt hot. Qin Mo’s words had touched his heart.

His strength was not bad, but he was indecisive, and sometimes he was not straightforward enough in the arena, resulting in missed opportunities.

In today’s match with Qin Mo, with the idea that he was sure to lose, he did not have much pressure and gave his all in the fight. He made a decisive move, and unexpectedly won.

Although he didn’t know why Qin Mo was not in good condition, this unexpected victory had given Lin Yao a much-needed boost in self-confidence.

Lin Yao nodded vigorously. “Thank you, god Mo.”

Just then, Chu Jianxin called him for lunch.Offering Qin Mo his goodbyes, Lin Yao walked away with his captain.

Looking at his back, Qin Mo responded. “Xiao Lin lacks confidence, I hope he can be more self-assured after today’s match.”

“We may meet reporters when we go out. What are you going to say?” Xiao Han asked.

Qin Mo replied. “Just say that I’m not in a good state today. I don’t want to let too many people know about my hands.”

Sure enough, they met various reporters after they walked out of the lounge. A female reporter immediately ran over and asked. “God Mo, can you tell us the reason for your unexpected loss in the first group match today?”

Before Qin Mo could open his mouth to speak, Xiao Han took the initiative to answer. “Xiao Mo is not in a good state today. Lin Yao’s level is also very high, and it’s normal to lose a match. No one will win all the time. If Xiao Mo loses this game, it only shows that he is not an almighty god, and that he isn’t using any plug-ins. Naturally, there will be ups and downs.”

The reporter was stunned for a moment. However, Xiao Han’s answer was very reasonable, and could not be refuted. They could only change the topic and ask, “What are your goals for this individual competition?”

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“To win the championship.” Qin Mo replied calmly.

Xiao Han chuckled. “I want to win the championship too.”

Qin Mo turned around to glance at him. “But there can only be one champion.”

“I hope we can both make it to the finals,” Xiao Han replied, smiling. “We can duel then. I’ve been looking forward to it for the longest time.”

“Do you both usually not PK during team practice?” The reporters asked doubtfully.

“That’s different,” Xiao Han explained. “When we PK in private, the goal is to try out all kinds of skills and uses for the secret books. I won’t fight my hardest. In fact, I want to play against Xiao Mo in the arena.” As he said this, Xiao Han smiled at Qin Mo, his gaze gentle. “Back when Qin Mo left, I told him, I hoped for him to one day return and beat me with his own hands.”

Qin Mo’s original answer had been: There will no longer be such a day.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Because at that time, he didn’t know if he could return to the esports circle.

But today, Qin Mo wanted to tell him: I also hope that there will be such a day.

He hoped that he could meet Xiao Han in the finals of this individual competition. No matter who won or lost, he had promised Xiao Han this match back when they were young, and had owed it for three whole years.

Looking at each other, both of them smiled in tacit agreement.

They had to work hard to reach the finals. Qin Mo had already lost once in a group match, so he couldn’t lose any more.