The King's Return Chapter 117

translator: Oyen  editor: Ciel

The first round of the finals for Xuanbing Palace's double ring flow ended quickly. Liu Hong's 'Three Waterdrop' defeated 'Endless' to make it into the finals, as did 'Deep In The Bamboo Grove'. This ID was from the Without Fire guild on the Telecom district 3.

So far, two contestants from guild had made it into the championship battle. In addition to Xuanbing Palace's 'Deep In The Bamboo Grove', there was also the Kuangdao Gate player, 'Beautiful Country'. From this, it was clear that this guild had as many masters as there were clouds, which indicated that their origins could not be simple. Qin Mo couldn't recognise them, however, and so set the matter aside for the time being. He could investigate after the competition.

Next was the knockout round for Fangcao Hall. Among its top contenders included Lin Yao, whom Qin Mo had promoted from the Wind Colour training camp, and eventually moved to Huaxia.

Lin Yao's strength was outstanding, and he definitely had a chance of winning the championship. To Qin Mo's surprise, however, Lin Yao actually lost in the knockout stage with a score of 1 : 2, to a female player with the ID 'High Tower Lock'. This player was from National Grace, and had a calm and delicate style. At a critical moment, Lin Yao was careless, resulting in his being trapped and directly killed by her. Curious, Qin Mo went to question Liu Hong—— this person was likely to be National Grace's captain in the new district. The other match was won by An Ling, with her ID 'Old Dreams Of Jinling', which meant that the two players from National Grace would meet in the finals. With so many poison master experts, it was clear that National Grace was going for a poison attack as their core tactic.

Meanwhile, in Yongye City's dagger flow knockout rounds, Xiao Han met another player from National Grace, with the ID 'Clear Skies After Rain'. From her slightly immature playing style, it was clear that she had not participated in a competition before. As such, Xiao Han defeated her 2 : 0 very easily.

The knockout round of the Hanhua Sword sect was left to the end, after the other seven sects had finished their battles.

The first competition at 4:30pm in the afternoon was from the shortsword flow. Using a short sword gave players the advantage of consecutive strikes in close combat, as well as explosive attacks that dealt heavy damage. As a close combat group attack occupation, it required players to have extremely fast reflexes and hand speed. Due to the lack of control and displacement skills in this class,the four players fought each other at close range fiercely, making for a very exciting battle. In the end, 'Unparalleled Gentleman' from the Sword Song guild and 'Sword Without Shadow' from the Whisper guild in Telecom district 2 entered the final round.

The matches for the longsword flow finally began at 5:00pm, with the first battle being Ink Mark VS River Of No Return.

Knowing Ink Mark's identity made Song Changdong a little nervous. Qin Mo had been nothing but kind to him, by sending him to the Sword Song team and giving him the best chance to grow. Still, he would now be fighting Qin Mo in the knockout round, and Song Changdong simply couldn't be calm. Even though he was just sitting in front the computer, his palms were already sweating.

Seeing the young man's nervousness, Lin Shuangcheng smiled. "Don't think too much," he encouraged. "Just play well in this match. Win or lose, at least let him see how much you have grown in this period of time. Otherwise, Qin Mo might think that I ignored you, and didn't give you an opportunity to train well."

Song Changdong hurriedly rushed to explain. "I don't mean that, Captain Lin is very good to me…"

Lin Shuangcheng patted him on the shoulder. "Then isn't that fine? I've taught you many things during this period of time, so just treat this as an ordinary qualifying match and play at your full strength. If you win, I'll treat you to a big meal; if you lose, you'll make me radish meatballs."

Song Changdong thought to himself, maybe he would be making meatballs again tonight…

It would be very difficult for him to beat Qin Mo, but even if he lost, he couldn't lose too much face. How else could he be worthy of Qin Mo's painstaking efforts in giving him a better opportunity?

Thinking of this, Song Changdong calmed down and took a deep breath, logging into the competition room and pressing the preparation button.

In the room, after the referee read the rules of the game, both players were asked to roll the dice. Qin Mo was certain that he would go second after only rolling five points, but as it turned out, Song Changdong rolled a measly two points…

"Xiao Song's luck is so poor!" He Beiguang spat out. "Captain Qin gets to choose the map first; if he loses the first match, it might be more difficult to play in the second game…"

Xiao Han raised an eyebrow. "Do you actually think that Song Changdong could beat our god Mo if he chose the map first?"

Everyone: “…”

God Han had become more adept at flattery!

Still, Qin Mo's expression did not change. He was highly focused on the match, and did not pay attention to what the rest of the team was saying. In order not to distract him, Xiao Han stared at the newcomers, who consciously quietened down.

The competition was about to start. Qin Mo selected 'Stone Forest' from the map database; this map had a high appearance rate in competition finals, simply because the challenge arena only had so many maps available for selection. With its many obstacles, Stone Forest could be used to test a player's operation and movement skills. In fact, players could easily be pitted on this map by their opponents, if they did not understand the map well enough.

Of course, Song Changdong had carefully studied all the maps before the competition. Thus, he would not be too panicked regardless of whatever map his opponent chose.

As usual, before the beginning of the competition, commentator Xiao You analysed the players' equipment for the viewers. "I believe that everyone already knows about Ink Mark's weapon. His sword, 'Broken Ice', adds 10 points to the hit stat, and has a 30% slowdown. On the whole, his equipment stats are very well balanced, with both attack and defence. On the other hand, 'River Of No Return' has the weapon 'Galaxy Sword', which also adds 10 points to hit. However, the second attribute is an additional 1 meter to the attack range. This… I don't quite understand. The longsword flow is both a melee and a field control profession, so why has he selected attack distance? Does he intend on using a melee profession to fight long-range?"

"This Galaxy Sword may be related to the team configuration of Sword Song," Nan explained. "There are many swordsmen in the Sword Song team. If he increases his attack distance, he can better accommodate his teammates by shifting between the front and back rows. As I understand it, the longsword flow in the back controls the field, while the output is from the shortsword flow in front."

"It does make sense," Xiao You suddenly realised. "Ink Mark did not increase his attack distance in order to better suit his partnership with Thousand Miles Ice's output in the front row. However, River Of No Return's increased distance allows him to stagger positions with Unparalleled Gentleman. It seems as though both sides are already preparing for next year's professional league, especially since building weapons requires giving priority to the entire team's tactical lineup."

As the two commentators continued chatting, the game map successfully loaded.

Ink Mark refreshed in the lower left corner of the map, while River Of No Return refreshed in the upper right corner. Both of them quickly flew through the Stone Forest in order to find each other's position.

Qin Mo had just walked to the middle of the map when, out from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a white-clothed figure drifting out from behind a pillar. Without hesitation, he opened the skill 'Drifting Sword', blinking across at lightning speeds and penetrating through the stone pillar to reach River Of No Return, the sword in his hand piercing the other side with incomparable precision!

Song Changdong was shocked. He had moved very carefully, but had still been caught by Qin Mo's surprise attack.

Drifting Sword dealt enough damage to remove 15% of the blood volume. As such, Qin Mo followed it up with a series of attacks—— Sword Horizon, Sword Rain Remnant!

It was the fan-shaped group silence control, the Heaven Sun combo!

Song Changdong, who had been attacked and silenced, was hit by Qin Mo several times, and his blood volume fell to 60% in one breath!

Seeing that the silence control was coming to an end, Song Changdong placed his hand on the keyboard in advance. Knowing Qin Mo's character, the great god would definitely choose the follow-up immobilisation and slowdown effect, and so Song Changdong stared at the status icon on the screen. As soon as the negative control effect ended, he immediately used the sect's qinggong skill 'Flicker' to vanish from Qin Mo's sight.

Qin Mo found that Xiao Song had cleverly ran away with qinggong. His lips curving upwards in a small smile, he controlled Ink Mark to chase after the other player.

Song Changdong flew past several stone pillars in succession, keeping an eye out while shuttling back and forth. Finally, he caught sight of a white-clothed figure in the gap between two pillars. Ink Mark was a little far away, but his weapon's added attack distance, he could just manage to reach his opponent. Pleased, Song Changdong immediately ran in the direction of the stone pillar, releasing a combo of his own—— Sword Horizon, Riverbound Sword!

This combo would cause the target to fly backwards for 10 metres. At this time, however, Ink Mark happened to be right in front of a large stone pillar, allowing Song Changdong to directly nail him to the pillar with this move.

Making use of this clever opportunity to hit Ink Mark while the other player was unable to reach him, Song Changdong directly launched a set of combos, reducing Ink Mark's blood volume to 60%!

The blood volume was even, which gave Song Changdong great confidence.

Seeing that Ink Mark was about to chase him, Song Changdong turned to run. Qin Mo soon found that the young man was playing hide-and-seek in the stone forest, attempting to start a protracted war, which was indeed a smart idea. When one was weaker than the opponent, it was always a good choice to look for opportunities in guerrilla warfare. Moreover, Song Changdong's weapon added distance to his attack range, which could be used to interfere with Qin Mo from afar with the hindrance of the stone pillars.

However, Qin Mo also had a way to resolve this. Dashing in the direction of Song Changdong's escape, he suddenly activated the ultimate move 'Skyward Sword'!

The sharp sword in his hand pointed skyward, gathering a whirlpool of sword qi. Barely a second later, this sword intent spread across the screen, blocking the players' vision, with only the sound effects from the attacks audible to the ears. When the storm cleared, not only had this ultimate move caused River Of No Return to lose 30% of his blood volume, but also directly smashed the surrounding stone pillars!

This effect was really comparable to a □□ explosion…

To say that his team members were shocked would be an understatement. God Mo didn't usually use such a big move, but the moment he did, the effect produced was almost as if destroying both the heavens and the earth!

This was much more shocking than the image of Shen He smashing a wall with a mechanical chariot.

As a result of this skill, Song Changdong, who had been hiding behind a stone pillar, was immediately revealed. He was stunned for a moment, but hurriedly turned back to use a 'Heaven Sun combo' in order to control Qin Mo. Still, with Qin Mo's awareness, he wouldn't allow himself to be caught by a group control skill head-on. Like a swallow, the white-clothed swordsman flew away with qinggong, causing Song Changdong's combo to hit empty space.

Qin Mo's fullscreen attack consumed a lot of blue, and the remainder of it had to be saved. Therefore, he flew behind Song Changdong, and chose to use a series of normal attacks to consume his health.

The 30% slowdown effect from his sword, Broken Ice, was immediately triggered from this series of fast normal attacks. Song Changdong could no longer play using guerrilla warfare after being slowed down, and was thus forced to turn back and fight head-to-head with Qin Mo.

Although Song Changdong only had 30% blood left at this time, he had kept all his big move.

Skyward Sword required a one second chant, and could be interrupted by the opponent if used in close combat, so Song Changdong used an instant skill—— 'Unrivalled Sword'!

This targeted skill enabled the thrown 'Galaxy Sword' to accurately stab Ink Mark in the chest, dropping his blood volume to 35%, once again narrowing the gap. Song Changdong followed closely with another combo, Sword Horizon and Riverbound Sword, in order to increase the distance between them, once again planning to use his distance advantage to kill his opponent!

Seeing through Song Changdong's idea, Qin Mo turned back to silence him with an incomparably accurate 'Sword Rain Remnant', following up with the immobilising skill 'Sword Spirit Heart', which stunned River Of No Return in place.

Three seconds of control time, but the other side still had 30% blood!

Using his qinggong skill, Qin Mo rushed behind Song Changdong, using a series of normal attacks to take away 25% of his blood volume, before using his remaining blue on the skill 'Unrivalled Sword'!

The sword flew out, striking River Of No Return through the heart, and immediately emptying the remainder of his blood.

——Ink Mark has killed River Of No Return!

Scratching his head, Song Changdong looked at the grey screen, regretting that he hadn't been able to seize the opportunity.

Lin Shuangcheng smiled, patting the teenager on the shoulder. "It was a good game. You'll get to choose the next game, so good luck."

Nodded, Song Changdong pressed the preparation button.

Song Changdong had the right to select the map for the second game. Lin Shuangcheng carefully considered it, before letting him select 'Kunlun Mountain Peak'.

This map was filled with heavy snowfall and many pine trees, being a snowy mountain scene. However, the key point of this map was not the pine forest, but the cliff beside it. Lin Shuangcheng wanted Song Changdong and Qin Mo to fight in the pine forest. Song Changdong would then pretend to be unable to escape, leading Qin Mo to the edge of the cliff, before shooting him down with the skill 'Riverbound Sword' to give them the best chance of winning.

Song Changdong was a simple and honest teenager, and definitely not as scheming as Lin Shuangcheng. At first, he was quite unwilling when Lin Shuangcheng taught him how to pit his opponents using the map, thinking that it was not good to deceive Qin Mo. In fact, it wasn't until this morning that he finally felt relieved, after seeing 'Drunken River' push 'Green Jadeite Bowl' off the floating stones with his mechanical chariots.

Since it was a competition, tactics such as luring the enemy in and giving them a taste of their own medicine couldn't be regarded as despicable.

After the map was loaded, Song Changdong played a few moves with Ink Mark in the pine forest. With the exchange of various skills, the surrounding snow was stirred up, causing the players' vision to become a little blur.

The branches of the pine trees were not as thick as banyan trees, and provided no cover for their characters. Qin Mo used a series of moves to hit Song Changdong to below half blood, causing Song Changdong to use his qinggong to flee.

He obviously wanted to take advantage of his superior range to kite Qin Mo. Qin Mo would not simply wait to die; calculating the distance, he used a qinggong skill to dodge, before using Unrivalled Sword. This targeted skill directly lowered Song Changdong's blood volume to 35%!

Song Changdong only ran faster, forcing Qin Mo to chase after him. The two people soon reached the edge of the cliff.

In fact, the terrain here was very similar to the surrounding area, and the number of pine trees did not significantly change. If a player was not familiar with the map, they might not even realise that they were approaching the cliff as they moved. Seeing that god Mo was only about 10 metres away from the cliff edge, Song Changdong was very happy. Immediately using a qinggong skill to dart behind Ink Mark, he burst out the combo skill—— Sword Horizon, Riverbound Sword!

The snow-white sword suddenly struck Ink Mark, causing him to be knocked off the cliff!

Song Changdong was extremely excited. As long as a player fell off a cliff on a high-altitude map, they would definitely die.

So, why wasn't there a prompt announcing his victor?

Song Changdong had some doubts. At this time, the white-clothed swordsman who had fallen off the cliff suddenly flew up, like a large hawk spreading its wings!

——How was this possible?!

Peerless Jianghu had a particular judgement order for its skills. For example, the Zhuge Family's mechanical chariot bash, as well as the Hanhua Sword sect's repelling strike would be judged first. Under the effect of the repelling strike, qinggong skills couldn't be used to fly again when falling from a high altitude. Otherwise, wouldn't the repelling strikes of the Hanhua Sword sect be abandoned?

So, how did Ink Mark just fly up the cliff?!

Song Changdong still didn't understand, but he didn't have time to think. Using a qinggong skill, Ink Mark flew behind River of No Return, using a combination of skills—— Sword Horizon, Riverbound Sword!

The same repelling strike skills, on the contrary, directly kicked Song Changdong off the cliff!

——Ink Mark has killed River Of No Return!

Everyone: “…”

Not only did he fail at kicking others off the cliff, he was instead kicked off the cliff by the other side. Song Changdong's mood instantly plummeted down.

Song Changdong stared at the grey computer screen in a daze, before eventually turning to Lin Shuangcheng. "Captain Lin, isn't the repel effect enforced by the system? Qinggong skills shouldn't be usable, right?"

Lin Shuangcheng sighed, pressing his fingers to his temple. "He didn't use qinggong to scale the cliff. You'll see; just wait for the official explanation."

The live broadcast was delayed by ten seconds, but eventually showed the scene where Ink Mark flew back up the cliff to kill River of No Return.

Countless players were spamming the screen with comments. "What's happening, how could he come back up after falling off the cliff?" "You must be joking with me by saying that Ink Mark doesn't use plugins! He got attacked and could still fly back up; is he playing a different Peerless Jianghu game from the rest of us?!" "I must have played a fake swordsman; mine can't resist if kicked off the cliff!" "In fact, the Hanhua Sword sect had three major cultivation routes, namely: the longsword flow, the shortsword flow, and the Ink Mark flow!"

A huge wave of spam filled the live broadcast screen.

As the commentator, Xiao You also felt quite awkward. "This cannot be a map bug. Could the director please play back the scene from Ink Mark's perspective in slow motion for us?"

The director immediately switched the video feed, showing the first person perspective of Ink Mark. On screen, Ink Mark first saw River Of No Return's back, and was about to make a move, only for River Of No Return to fly behind him and launch an attack, causing him to fall off the cliff edge. At this very moment, Ink Mark responded quickly; adjusting the angle of view to the cliff edge, he activated the skill 'Drifting Sword'!

Drifting Sword allowed the player to teleport 10 metres through all obstacles. Ink Mark hadn't used a qinggong skill after falling off the cliff, but teleported straight upward through the cliff edge, returning to solid ground. Then he followed up with a qinggong skill, flying behind River Of No Return to kick him off the cliff with one stroke.

Audience: “………………”

All this happened too quickly. From Song Changdong's perspective, the audience could only see Ink Mark flying up, and mistakenly assumed him to have used a qinggong skill.

In fact, before using the qinggong skill, he had used the characteristics of 'Drifting Sword' to teleport and pass through objects, returning to the snow-covered ground.

Nan was shocked. "This… I don't know what to say about this. If it were me, the moment my character fell off the cliff, I would only think that this match would be a loss for sure…"

"Me too," Xiao You sighed. "I usually don't resist if I fall off a cliff. However, Ink Mark's reaction was as fast as lightning. He opened Drifting Sword the moment he was shot down, showing his understanding of the situation. Our viewers have said that we play a different version of Hanhua Sword sect from the great god Ink Mark, and I think this is very true! Unexpectedly, Drifting Sword can be used to move through the air when falling from a height, allowing oneself to return to the ground; this is something I've just learnt today! Great god Ink Mark has really taught everyone a good lesson!"

Hearing this, Song Changdong finally understood what had happened in the match just now. His heart filled with admiration—— this was captain Qin's real ability.

Having a strong consciousness, fast responses to emergencies in critical moments, as well as a thorough understanding of the game's major professions; with how much effort Qin Mo had put in to get to this point, how many people could compare?

Chapter end