"You-"

"h.e.l.lo, Blue Rain, Yu Wenzhou."

Huang Shaotian was prepared to unleash some verbal ridicule, but Yu Wenzhou had already extended his right hand to the other person. The players in two different rows shook hands.

"Don't you think that this sort of immediate, complete reversal was possible only because of Ye Qiu's skill and One Autumn Leaf's strength?" Yu Wenzhou followed up immediately.

"Of course it was for those reasons," said w.a.n.g Jiexi.

"f.u.c.k, then what're you so c.o.c.ky for?" said Huang Shaotian. w.a.n.g Jiexi's initial tone made it sound like he himself could pull off what Ye Qiu had done.

"Because I'm not too familiar with the capabilities of a Battle Mage," answered w.a.n.g Jiexi.

"Oh? Then your cla.s.s is?" Yu Wenzhou asked.

"Witch," w.a.n.g Jiexi answered.

Witch… At that, Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian couldn't help but glance at each other. They'd never heard of this player's name before, but Tiny Herb's core was the famed and powerful Witch Vaccaria. To play the cla.s.s of the team's core – that usually meant something important!

"A Witch? In that case…" Yu Wenzhou turned back to look at the stage. Didn't Hundred Blossoms have a Witch of their own? But One Autumn Leaf had landed right in the middle of them from above, and then Excellent Era's counterattack had smothered them ruthlessly.

"If I were him…?" w.a.n.g Jiexi made a gesture, and Yu Wenzhou handed over his notebook and pen.

"I'd get to here, (58, 70), and then from there, cut through!" With deft strokes, w.a.n.g Jiexi quickly sketched a diagram on a blank page of the notebook.

"What?" Huang Shaotian couldn't quite follow Yu Wenzhou's notes, nor w.a.n.g Jiexi's plan.

But Yu Wenzhou was paying close attention. "Attack from this position? Here?" He pointed to a spot to verify.

"Yes," w.a.n.g Jiexi nodded.

"This… how is that possible?" Yu Wenzhou wasn't one to openly challenge others; for him to say this, w.a.n.g Jiexi's proposed plan must have really been quite ambitious.

"And then what would you do?" But despite any doubts, Yu Wenzhou still wanted to listen to w.a.n.g Jiexi's train of thought.

"Disperse Powder, Frost Powder, Broom Tornado." w.a.n.g Jiexi simply named these three skills.

Disperse Powder to lower the opponents' speed.

Frost Powder to give his weapon ice elemental damage and the chance to freeze.

Broom Tornado to break apart the enemies.

Yu Wenzhou grasped the reasoning behind these three skills. But to cast all of them in those conditions? w.a.n.g Jiexi's plan of seizing that position and cutting through would put him right between the back-to-back Blossoming Chaos and One Autumn Leaf. How would he be able to quickly pull off those three skills from that position?

"You're bragging!" Huang Shaotian finally understood, and immediately expressed his disdain without holding back.

"Next season, you'll see." w.a.n.g Jiexi didn't try to explain more; there was a limit to what could be shown with pen and paper.

"Hmph." Huang Shaotian, still feeling somewhat disdainful toward this player, refused to let him have the last word. "It's not like Blossoming Chaos couldn't have stopped One Autumn Leaf's attack on his own. He could have forcibly cancelled his Earth-Shattering Slash and turned in midair with a Falling Light Blade."

w.a.n.g Jiexi glanced at him and smiled. "Oh? Was there such an opportunity?" There was often a gap between theory and reality.

"Of course!" said Huang Shaotian, unusually certain. It looked like these weren't empty words.

The screens were currently replaying the scenes showing One Autumn Leaf's pivotal kill. 

"Right now!" Huang Shaotian suddenly shouted, but the moment had already flashed by.

Yu Wenzhou and w.a.n.g Jiexi glanced at each other, then back to the screens. Fortunately, it was replayed several times, and now they knew when the moment would appear. When the screens slowed down the replay, everything became even clearer.

w.a.n.g Jiexi looked at Huang Shaotian in a new light. It looked like this chatterbox wasn't just some talkative guy – he knew his stuff, even discovering something that w.a.n.g Jiexi himself hadn't noticed.

Had there been an opportunity?

In theory, yes. In that instant, if the actions Huang Shaotian had named were executed, then there was indeed a chance to break One Autumn Leaf's attack.

"What's your name?" w.a.n.g Jiexi asked him.

"Huang Shaotian." He inclined his head.

"You're correct, there was such an opportunity," w.a.n.g Jiexi acknowledged. "But would you be able to seize it?"

Seeing an opportunity was one matter. Being able to take advantage of it was the real test.

But Huang Shaotian simply threw w.a.n.g Jiexi's own words back at him. "Next season, you'll see."

w.a.n.g Jiexi nodded. "Then, next season, we'll meet onstage?"

"We'll meet onstage!"

"What about you?" asked w.a.n.g Jiexi, turning toward Yu Wenzhou.

Huang Shaotian suddenly felt bad. This outsider had no clue about Yu Wenzhou's hand speed weakness. If he knew the truth, would he still antic.i.p.ate Yu Wenzhou's onstage appearance?

Yu Wenzhou, however, remained as calm as ever. 

"You two, aren't you forgetting something?" he said.

This time, it was Huang Shaotian and w.a.n.g Jiexi's turn to exchange a glance.

"What?" they asked together.

"Ye Qiu is a living person, with the ability to adjust as the situation demands. Not to mention that Excellent Era is composed of more members than just him. Are you sure that your response would be enough to suppress Ye Qiu and overturn this situation?" Yu Wenzhou said.

That silenced both of them.

Their response could potentially break the situation, but only if it rendered Ye Qiu helpless.

Could they make that happen?

Suddenly, the two of them weren't so confident.

"Thus," concluded Yu Wenzhou, shutting his notebook, "I believe that I am not yet ready." 

Onstage, Excellent Era pulled off the reversal and crushed Hundred Blossoms. Charging at the front was the king of the Alliance last season – the Battle G.o.d, One Autumn Leaf.

Hundred Blossoms suffered a brutal defeat.

The attention-grabbing Blood and Blossoms playstyle, after going undefeated for half a season, finally met their Waterloo. And the one to defeat them was Ye Qiu, was Excellent Era.

The Hundred Blossoms players had been filled with hope and antic.i.p.ation as they walked onstage, but as they now made the return trip through the player pa.s.sageway, they did so in dejected spirits.

No one had anything to say. Sun Zheping didn't, Zhang Jiale didn't either.

They returned to their preparation room in silence, but when they arrived at the door, the door to the opposing preparation room opened, and someone walked out. Someone who they hadn't seen when they'd walked onstage with Excellent Era earlier.

"Ye Qiu!" Sun Zheping immediately shouted.

"Ah?" That person looked at Team Hundred Blossoms gathered before him.

This was Ye Qiu, the person whom they had been looking forward to meet for a long time. But now, they were the losers; the battle had drained their earlier antic.i.p.ation and fighting spirit. And Ye Qiu, the person who had vanquished them, chose this moment to appear, making them feel somewhat awkward.

But even so, Sun Zheping didn't lower his head – he would never lower his head. Ye Qiu was indeed very strong, stronger than he had seen while watching from the sidelines. This would only spur his improvement.

"Next time we'll win for sure!" said Sun Zheping.

Ye Qiu smiled. "It won't be that easy."

"For sure!" Zhang Jiale stepped forward, supporting his partner.

"Don't be so worked up." Ye Qiu was still smiling. His hand had been rummaging through his pocket his whole time, and he finally withdrew it, holding half a pack of cigarettes.

"Do you smoke?" he offered to the two of them, seemingly ignoring their combative att.i.tude toward him.

"Huh? Don't know how…" The two of them had been strengthening their resolve to defeat him – faced with this unexpected question, they didn't really know how to respond.

"No smoking in the pa.s.sageways!!" The voice came from some unknown place – loud and clear, it seemed as though it were prepared for this moment.

"I'm going to smoke." Ye Qiu waved at the Hundred Blossoms crowd, then headed toward the pa.s.sageway exit.

Hundred Blossoms stared after him, stunned. This was the strongest in the Alliance, the person who had just defeated him. They found no trace of a victor's arrogance on him, but at the same time, in the face of their challenge and their aggressive promise to win next time, he wasn't particularly humble or polite.

It won't be that easy.

That's how he responded.

This sentence was straightforward, was honest.

Indeed, it would not be that easy! They knew this from the beginning, and now, they knew it even more clearly.