Chapter 1625: Not Perfect, But the Best

 Nomyummi  Editor: Nomyummi

Ghost boundaries wouldn’t last forever. A smart Phantom Demon would plan out when and where to place down their ghost boundaries to maintain an uninterrupted flow of crowd control on the battlefield.

But right now, Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash was placing down ghost boundaries one after the other. Dark Boundary, Ice Boundary, Silence Boundary. All of these were ghost boundaries with powerful crowd control. Usually, these boundaries would be linked together such that the opponent would always be under the effects of one of them. However, Qiao Yifan had set all three down on top of each other to completely seal off Sun Xiang and Jiang Botao. One Inch Ash was even in the midst of casting a fourth ghost boundary.

This sort of set up was often only seen during critical moments, but today, because of One Inch Ash’s abrupt arrival, the Dark Boundary had caught Samsara completely off guard. Sun Xiang and Jiang Botao were robbed of their sight temporarily as a result. His Dark Boundary was extremely effective. Adding an Ice Boundary and a Silence Boundary on top of it didn’t seem to be necessary.

“Was Qiao Yifan a bit too hasty?” Seeing that a fourth ghost boundary was about to be placed down, Pan Lin couldn’t help but ask.

“It was a dangerous situation. With this being his first time on the grand stage, it’s hard not to be a bit nervous.” Li Yibo was quite understanding. But he was also implying that he agreed with Pan Lin’s viewpoint.

“Li Xuan, what do you think?” Before Qiao Yifan even finished setting down the three ghost boundaries on top of each other, the pro players were already discussing the issue. In the end, everyone pushed the question onto Li Xuan, who was considered the number one Phantom Demon.

“If it were me, just one Dark Boundary would be more than enough,” Li Xuan spoke his thoughts. At first, it sounded pretty much the same as Pan Lin’s and Li Yibo’s viewpoint, disagreeing with Qiao Yifan’s excessiveness. However, the other pro players could hear the difference.

Because he said, if it were me…

Not long after finishing the sentence, Li Xuan looked to be a bit hesitant. After saying “um” for a bit, he added: “And Xinjie.”

And Xinjie?

Xinjie was, of course, referring to Zhang Xinjie. Why’d he mention him?

The pro players quickly caught on.

Li Xuan meant switching An Wenyi with Zhang Xinjie.

In other words, if it were Ye Xiu and him, and Xinjie too, he would be confident that just one Dark Boundary would be enough.

“Tch!!” Everyone clicked their tongues in disdain at Li Xuan.

Ye Xiu, Li Xuan, and Zhang Xinjie. That was a lineup even grander than Sun Xiang, Jiang Botao, and Sun Xiang. Zhang Xinjie was a Cleric too. Their class composition would be superior to Samsara’s too. Li Xuan was basically saying that under these circumstances, one Dark Boundary was enough to take control of the battle.

The two on the field were Qiao Yifan and An Wenyi, who weren’t as experienced or as skillful as Li Xuan and Zhang Xinjie. Just relying on the two of them as support, Ye Xiu might not be able to hold off the three from Samsara.

This was why Qiao Yifan didn’t hold back and try to be as efficient as possible. He quickly placed down one ghost boundary after another to ensure that Sun Xiang and Jiang Botao would be completely imprisoned.

He wasn’t looking to control the battle for a long period of time, but rather for a quick burst.

Was this because he was lacking confidence? Of course not! Even the number one Phantom Demon, Li Xuan, couldn’t guarantee that he could do it with just one Dark Boundary. He even needed to add in Zhang Xinjie to it.

This wasn’t a lack of confidence. It was a careful consideration of the situation, a decision based on a clear recognition of his own limits.

While everyone was still in discussion, the densely layered ghost boundaries suddenly burst open. The ghost souls danced about, creating foul wind and bloody rain, stealing away Empty Waves’ and One Autumn Leaf’s life.

After Qiao Yifan placed down the fifth ghost boundary, he had One Inch Ash activate Ghost Feast right before his first Dark Boundary disappeared.

Nervous?

Not at all. The placement of the fifth ghost boundary and the perfect Ghost Feast was the biggest proof. Anyone who thought that he had been placing down ghost boundaries out of panic was completely wrong.

The pro players couldn’t help but applaud Qiao Yifan’s performance.

His play wasn’t perfect. Perfect would be slowly placing down ghost boundaries at the right time to take complete control of the battle until the battle was over.

But it was the pinnacle of what was possible given the circumstances. In this situation, he had made the best possible decision and executed it brilliantly. It wasn’t possible to have done it any better.

Beautiful! Very beautiful!

His outstanding situational awareness allowed him to clearly examine the problem from an overall perspective. He had taken into consideration that he and An Wenyi were relatively weak. He had also taken into consideration that Ye Xiu was exhausted after a long battle against three of Samsara’s players. Then, he made his decision based on all of these factors, a decision that was making everyone gasp in amazement.

The pro players exclaimed in admiration. At the same time, they couldn’t help but glance at Team Tiny Herb. They had let go of such an incredible player. They must be regretting it, right? Especially since Tiny Herb had a Ghostblade player!

Zhou Yebai.

Tiny Herb’s Ghostblade player was also a Phantom Demon. Right now, he was already regretting coming to watch this match. Everyone else was staring at him, their gazes cutting into him like a dagger.

Qiao Yifan used to be a nobody in their team, and now, he had actually grown to such an extent? He just had to change classes to a Ghostblade and choose to be a Phantom Demon too. Everyone was constantly glancing at him, openly showing pity that Tiny Herb had let go of Qiao Yifan and treated him as the real nobody in Tiny Herb.

Zhou Yebai felt extremely uneasy. He really didn’t want to admit that he was worse than Qiao Yifan, but he also knew that if he was confident, he wouldn’t be feeling uneasy. He was afraid that his teammates would also compare him to Qiao Yifan. He was afraid that they would look down on him and then cast him away just like how they cast away Qiao Yifan before…

“Focus on the match.”

A voice suddenly interrupted Zhou Yebai’s thoughts. He turned his head to look at who said it and saw the serious expression on his captain’s face.

Zhou Yebai relaxed, and stopped feeling afraid. Because he could tell that his captain, Wang Jiexi, wasn’t affected by the other pro players’ views. Wang Jiexi was only unhappy with him because of how he was letting it get to his head.

He wasn’t here just for fun, sitting there and enjoying the lively finals match. He was here to watch the teams play and learn from them.

He had been thinking too much.

Qiao Yifan was playing incredibly well, but he wasn’t the best. Li Xuan was better. The only difference was that Qiao Yifan had once been a part of Tiny Herb, but who cared? What was important was that he worked hard to better himself and do what needed to be done. Competition was everywhere in the pro scene. Qiao Yifan was just one of the many competitors. He was used to this sort of competition. Why should he be afraid now? He should be working hard so that one day he would win praise from everyone else just like Qiao Yifan had done.

He’s really making me a bit jealous! How annoying!

Zhou Yebai no longer felt nervous because of Qiao Yifan, but rather became more motivated. If even a nobody could come this far, then why couldn’t he?

After collecting his thoughts, he calmed down and focused on the match again.

Triggering Ghost Feast also meant sacrificing the crowd control on Samsara. While the two Samsara players were being devastated by Ghost Feast, Qiao Yifan had One Inch Ash retreat.

Shadow Clone Technique!

Seeing One Inch Ash’s retreat, Ye Xiu immediately followed. Lord Grim completed the hand seals for Shadow Clone Technique while in combat against Zhou Zekai. His real body teleported away, and he ran away together with An Wenyi’s Little Cold Hands.

Cloud Piercer chased after them furiously, but Lord Grim lay the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella on his shoulders, protecting his back, preventing any interference from his pursuer.

Sharpshooters had powerful attacks, but their crowd control was rather weak. They controlled the pace of the battle through attacks. But because Lord Grim was holding his shield up, none of his attacks were landing. In the blink of an eye, Lord Grim and Little Cold Hands made a turn at a trash pile and disappeared from Cloud Piercer’s sight.

Zhou Zekai didn’t stop his pursuit though. The Ghost Feast was ending, and Jiang Botao and Sun Xiang would quickly be back to normal. It was their time to regroup and counterattack. They couldn’t give Happy a chance to rest. The spectating pro players thought the same. Zhou Zekai had a clear understanding of their situation. Qiao Yifan had burst them down because he wasn’t confident that they could win in a prolonged fight. Samsara knew this as well. Zhou Zekai wasn’t going to let his opponents leave so easily.

Cloud Piercer rushed to the edge of the trash pile and jumped. Using Aerial Gun, he glided through the air and made the turn. Lord Grim and Little Cold Hands were once again within his sights. Zhou Zekai didn’t have Cloud Piercer jump down from the trash pile. As a Sharpshooter, the tall trash pile was an advantageous position for him to shoot from.

Bang bang bang bang…

As soon as he landed on top of a new trash pile, Cloud Piercer’s dual guns began firing furiously towards Lord Grim and Little Cold Hands. On the other end, Jiang Botao and Sun Xiang had gotten away from the Ghost Feast. Their characters rushed out with traces of the ghostly power still lingering on them. They saw Cloud Piercer shooting, pointing them in the right direction. They gnashed their teeth in anger as they hurried over.

Rising Dragon Soars the Sky!

Seeing Cloud Piercer’s shooting trajectory, Sun Xiang immediately deduced where Happy’s characters were located. One Autumn Leaf swung his Evil Annihilation and used a Rising Dragon Soars the Sky at that trash pile.

v3, we’re not afraid! Sun Xiang and Jiang Botao were quite determined.

But the viewers really wanted to tell them: 3v3? Not for much longer… Su Mucheng and Fang Rui were almost there.