Chapter 16

After the initial exploratory stage of the season, the matches were indeed full of twists and turns.

Strong teams like Lan Yu, Hu Xiao, Yan Yu, and Xu Kong all suffered setbacks to varying degrees. In contrast, the Ba Tu team, which had a disappointing start, became increasingly resilient in this smoky, all-out battlefield.

In the first eight rounds, Ba Tu scored only 47 points, tied with Bai Hua for seventh and eighth place, on the edge of the playoffs. However, in the following seven rounds, the Ba Tu team gained 58 points, showing improvement instead of decline.

Of course, this was also due to the fact that Ba Tu's opponents in these seven rounds were not very strong. But against these non-strong opponents, Ba Tu harvested a lot of 10-point and 9-point victories, getting all the points they should, demonstrating that kind of quality. Their ranking on the leaderboard also quietly rose to third place after fifteen rounds.

Ahead of them was the Wei Cao team, with 106 points. They also had the same stability as Ba Tu, rarely dropping points against weaker teams. But Wei Cao's record against strong teams was quite embarrassing. Reincarnation, Lan Yu, Ba Tu, and Thunder, these were the top five teams on the leaderboard, Wei Cao’s direct competitors, potentially clashing in the regular season, the playoffs, or even the finals.

But in these fifteen rounds, Wei Cao's encounters with these four teams ended in complete defeat, both home and away.

To say that Wei Cao's strength was not top-notch, people would notice after paying attention that the final scores of these four matches were always 4 to 6, Wei Cao 4, opponents 6.

This meant that Wei Cao always lost the big points in the team competition after winning two individual matches and the team arena. Once the team competition was won, Wei Cao would have a strong score of 9 to 1 against these four teams.

Team competition…

Wei Cao's problem seemed obvious: they were encountering some obstacles in the team competition, seemingly unable to deal with strong teams. And in the process of statistical analysis, people discovered another fact: the Wei Cao team had a perfect record in the team arena so far, even in the match where they lost 2 to 8 to the Xu Kong team, they relied on the team competition to get those 2 points.

Apart from them, even the most formidable Reincarnation team had not achieved this.

The strengths and weaknesses of each team seemed to have been exposed quite a bit by now. While people talked about them with relish, they could not ignore the phenomenal existence of Team Xing Xin.

Reincarnation had an undefeated team competition, Wei Cao had an undefeated team arena, what about Xing Xin? They had an undefeated individual!

Ye Xiu, retired, returned, changed profession, his performance on the field was still highly watched. After being swept 10 to 0 by Reincarnation in the first round, Ye Xiu began to play in the individual competition, and from then on, he became Xing Xin's pillar of strength. From then on, no matter how they lost, that 1 point never left Xing Xin's pocket again. And Ye Xiu, who had always been mysterious and never appeared in person during his professional career, although he couldn't be said to be particularly cooperative with the media after his comeback, at least, he didn't completely avoid them like before. It was just that it was hard to say whether the reporters felt happy about this.

Another week passed quickly, and on December 20th, the 16th round of the Glory Professional League began. The most watched match of this round was undoubtedly the collision between Xing Xin and Thunder, the two most surprising teams this season, and unsurprisingly, it was selected for television broadcast.

On the leaderboard, Thunder was fourth with 104 points, and Xing Xin was sixth with 98 points, a difference of 6 points between the two sides. This round was Xing Xin's home game, and if they won beautifully, it was entirely possible to surpass them in one round. But to win beautifully, it was necessary to conquer Thunder's team. So far, Thunder's team competition had only lost in the match against Huang Feng, and in other occasions, even in situations where they were 0 to 5 behind, they could tenaciously win, and the team that was caught up in this way was the Lan Yu team, which had another tactical master, Yu Wenzhou.

What was the mystery behind Thunder's team tactics? This was, of course, a question that many people were curious about, concerned about, and even studying. Currently, opinions differed, and there were many different views, but when Xiao Shiqin faced relevant interviews, he simply smiled and answered with four words: "Believe in yourself."

What was that supposed to mean? Subjectivism? Spiritual victory method?

The answer of the person concerned was not recognized by everyone, so everyone continued to speculate on the tactical secrets of Thunder, and confronting teams with tactical masters was always the best research material. This round brought another such match. Ye Xiu of Xing Xin, now had the halo of the single combat king with 14 consecutive wins, but no one would forget that this veteran was also one of the four tactical masters.

"Good performance!"

"You too."

This battle began amidst such greetings between the two sides. As the two most surprising teams, both sides had a sense of mutual appreciation. And Lei Ting's captain, Xiao Shiqin, could be regarded as a professional player who Xing Xin had been deeply impressed with before the professional league. He had visited Xing Xin and had a very tragic fight in the Challenger League, especially the one-on-three in the team arena at that time, which almost cooled Xing Xin's heart. But in the end, Xing Xin had the last laugh. Jia Shi was defeated in the Challenger League, and Xiao Shiqin, who did not hesitate to lower his status and run to play in the Challenger League just to get a good future in Jia Shi, seemed to be a joke and bore no small amount of criticism.

Xiao Shiqin should hate Xing Xin, right?

This was also a topic that had been hotly discussed before this match, so from the beginning of this broadcast match, the camera always gave Xiao Shiqin close-ups, hoping to capture something. Especially when the players of both sides greeted and exchanged greetings on the stage before the match, seventy percent of the time was given to Xiao Shiqin's face, especially the moment when Xiao Shiqin shook hands with Ye Xiu, the camera was locked tightly, and the host held his breath.

Killing intent!

Bring on the killing intent!

The busybodies were all hoping for this.

As a result, all they saw was a very ordinary expression, with a warm smile.

Hidden so well!

The busybodies still refused to believe that Xiao Shiqin had no opinion on Xing Xin. Unable to find the killing intent they were expecting, they said that Xiao Shiqin was deliberately concealing it. After that, even Xiao Shiqin's gesture of adjusting his glasses would be interpreted with various different meanings, and everyone was like an expert in body language.

The individual competition in the match began, the first to play for Xing Xin…

Ye Xiu, it was Ye Xiu again.

The unchanging lineup, everyone knew that Ye Xiu was the first to play for Xing Xin, so they could make all kinds of targeted matchups.

But, was it useful?

The 14 consecutive wins were the best answer to this.

It was useless, even if you knew that Ye Xiu was the first to play for Xing Xin, even if you made what you thought was a sharp and pointed arrangement, it was useless, the winner was still Ye Xiu.

That's because the ace players of each team would guard the final round in the team arena, striving for those 2 points, who would play the individual competition?

Such voices were inevitable, and of course this was also a fact. However, the lineup arrangement was each team's freedom, since you wanted to put your own ace in the team arena to guard the final round, who could you blame if you couldn't win the 1 point in the individual competition? This kind of statement still had some sour grapes mentality in it.

What about Thunder? Who would Thunder send to play?

Thunder's team competition was excellent, but when it came to individual matches, their performance was not worth boasting about too much. Apart from Xiao Shiqin, there were no particularly eye-catching stars in their team. It seemed that they couldn't come up with someone who could particularly target Ye Xiu, right?

The electronic screen showed the subtitles, the first player from Thunder to play in the individual competition was…

Mi Xiu Yuan.

Everything was silent, just like the moment when everyone was focused on observing Xiao Shiqin's expression, and then, many people began to whisper.

Mi Xiu Yuan? Who was that?

The audience was discussing, while the reporters hurriedly searched for information in their hands. In the television broadcast, the commentator Pan Lin, after setting off for a long time who Thunder would send to face Ye Xiu, said "Ah, it's Mi Xiu Yuan" when he saw the player who appeared, and then there was no follow-up. He was also at a loss, who the hell was this?

"Mi Xiu Yuan... is a rookie from Thunder this season, right?" The guest commentator Li Yibo said, flipping through the information in his hand, very calmly, with an appearance of "Sure enough, nothing can be hidden from me."

"Ah... before, it seems..." Pan Lin was also flipping through the information, "He has never played before." He finally confirmed this point.

"Yes," Li Yibo said.

"But in this match, against Xing Xin, against the undefeated Ye Xiu in the individual competition, Thunder sent him to play!" Pan Lin began to raise his tone.

"Yes."

"Why is that? Is it a secret weapon?" Pan Lin said, and the camera was also given to this rookie on the sidelines, and then he saw Thunder captain Xiao Shiqin pull him to his side and whisper to him. The sparkling eyes of the two pointed in a certain direction. The camera cut over, and it was the figure of Ye Xiu who was already walking towards the field.

"Xiao Shiqin is giving him instructions, what kind of method has he come up with to deal with Ye Xiu? Hmm, let's see, Mi Xiu Yuan, the profession is... an assassin, ah, could it be that he wants to find a chance to directly kill him with one blow?" Pan Lin began to use his imagination.

At this time, Xiao Shiqin had finally finished giving Mi Xiu Yuan his instructions, and the young player embarked on the journey of his first match this season.

This was a rather gorgeous appearance. The broadcast camera gave him a lot of close-ups, and everyone instantly remembered the face of this Thunder rookie who was making his debut.

This was a secret weapon to deal with Ye Xiu! Everyone was thinking this, taking a deep breath, and looking forward to it.

5 minutes and 42 seconds later, in the same position, the same person, Mi Xiu Yuan was walking in the opposite direction.

Removing the 2 minutes it took to walk onto the stage from this position and enter the competition seat, and removing the 1 minute it took to walk out of the competition seat after the match, walk off the stage, and walk to this position, the accurate time of this match was 58 seconds, less than a minute.

Mi Xiu Yuan was defeated.

No killing moves were seen, no one-hit kills were seen. On the small map for individual matches that Ye Xiu had chosen, the two characters met quickly, and with a clatter, Mi Xiu Yuan's assassin was knocked down.

Secret weapon?

Special killing move?

The whole world laughed.