The King's Avatar

“900? Impossible!!” Sun Zheping blurted out.

He might not know that much about playing piano, but he had fought against Ye Xiu in game before. Ye Xiu’s hand speed was indeed very fast, and right now, the three on Samsara had forced him to an average hand speed of 500. 900? What did that mean? It was a hand speed nearly twice as fast as his current one, and that wasn’t a peak, but an average over 48 seconds.

“It’s true though…” Lou Guaning said. He could understand Sun Zheping’s reaction. They had the same reaction as him when they saw it. In the beginning, they just felt like Ye Xiu was playing really fast. They had no concept of the exact numbers up until Lou Guanning calculated it. The number had nearly shattered their eyes.

900!

Lou Guanning and the others might not be as experienced as Sun Zheping, but they could imagine how terrifying such a hand speed was. Later, they looked through a bunch of Ye Xiu’s matches, but they never saw him come close to such a high hand speed in any of them.

Playing piano was different from playing Glory. The left and right hand did completely different things for one…

The five of them could only explain it with this reasoning, but they truly had a hard time convincing themselves. After all, 900 was a terrifying number. Pro players averaged around 300. When a more complicated or chaotic event happened in the team competition, their hand speed might go up. For example, Ye Xiu was playing 1v3 against Samsara and had been forced to a hand speed of 500. Even so, 500 was a huge difference from 900!

Maybe it was because piano and Glory were different that Ye Xiu couldn’t reach a hand speed of 900 in Glory. But there were plenty of numbers lower than 900. Even if you subtracted 200 or 300, it was still a hand speed of 600 or 700; 500 shouldn’t be his limit, right?

That was their opinion at least. After Sun Zheping accepted that Ye Xiu had reached an APM of 900 when playing piano, his view was no different from theirs.

“That guy’s… still holding back?” Sun Zheping thought about it for a moment, but immediately shook his head.

This was the finals. Playing 120% wouldn’t even feel like it was enough. Hold back? What a joke!

Maybe it is because you can’t actually get to an APM of 900 in Glory?

Sun Zheping couldn’t think of any other reasoning, but even if was using this reasoning to convince himself, from this moment on, he began to look forward to what might happen next. Who cares if there’s a difference between piano and Glory? From this moment on, to Sun Zheping, Ye Xiu’s highest average hand speed was 900!

How terrifying! In that case, did his true maximum break past 1000?

Sun Zheping was thinking of it from a Glory perspective. He didn’t know that on that day, when Ye Xiu had played piano, he had just been playing it for the sake of playing fast. There were no changes in rhythm like there were in Glory.

So what is the answer? Hurry up and let us see it!

While the other pro players felt like Ye Xiu couldn’t hang on for much longer, Sun Zheping and the five on Heavenly Swords had different thoughts.

While their conversation had gone on, Ye Xiu’s situation worsened. Under the siege from Samsara, Lord Grim was forced into a corner, an actual corner in the trash room. There was no place for him to hide any longer.

Victory is in sight!

The Samsara fans had started getting excited. Even though they had lost a player first, if they could take down Lord Grim, the trade would be worth it. Similar to how Su Mucheng and Fang Rui had dispatched Du Ming without taking much damage, it would be the same for the three on Samsara. They hadn’t taken much damage in their fight against Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim. Now, it just depended on how troublesome Ye Xiu’s final struggle would be.

“Careful!”

Jiang Botao warned in Samsara’s chat. They had to keep cautious to not give Ye Xiu any chance to deal damage to them. They didn’t immediately attack. Instead, they waited until every one of them was in the perfect position, so there wouldn’t be any openings when they started their attack.

“It’s over!” Sun Xiang declared.

He had always longed to beat Ye Xiu. He wanted to surpass him. Unfortunately, they were currently in a 3v1 situation. It probably wouldn’t be considered a win in his eyes, but it wasn’t important. It was true that Sun Xiang wanted to surpass Ye Xiu, but he wouldn’t bicker too hard over it. In the end, his ultimate priority was to win the match. If they didn’t win, even if he beat Ye Xiu on his own, it wouldn’t have any meaning.

Dragon Breaks the Ranks!

One Autumn Leaf charged forward with the powerful momentum of a Battle Mage to seal off Ye Xiu’s final hopes.

Surpassing you will have to wait. Today, the most important thing is to win this match!

Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf charged forward, carrying this conviction. Suddenly, his screen turned dark.

What’s going on?

Sun Xiang nearly leapt out of his seat. Had his computer malfunctioned?

That was his first thought, but he soon discovered that it wasn’t that his computer had crashed. It was because there was an indicator showing on the screen that his character couldn’t see.

Blind?

Where did it come from?

He had been carefully observing each and every movement from Lord Grim. When had he used a skill that inflicted Blind?

Unable to see his opponent, Sun Xiang couldn’t control his Dragon Breaks the Ranks. He heard a gunshot. Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer had started firing. However, those bullets didn’t seem to be going towards where he was going? Lord Grim had already run over there?

Sun Xiang was utterly confused. The crowd had exploded too. Through their spectator view, when One Autumn Leaf charged forward, a hazy pitch-black light quietly descended. The area covered by the dark light was surrounded by faint magical symbols in a giant circle. Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf had entered this zone. Jiang Botao’s Empty Waves was at the edge of it too. As a result, their screens instantly turned black. The two of them had been Blinded.

This is…

Ghostblade’s Dark Boundary?

But with how carefully they had been watching over Ye Xiu, there was no way they wouldn’t notice him casting a Ghostblade boundary, let alone letting him finish casting it. What’s going on?

Most of the crowd was just as confused, up until Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer started firing, not towards Lord Grim, but towards a corner of the trash pile. When he moved laterally to get a better view, their confusion was cleared up.

One Inch Ash!

Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash had appeared here.

The crowd went wild. Practically no one had noticed. On one side was the battle between Fang Rui, Su Mucheng, Du Ming, and Lu Boyuan. On the other side was Ye Xiu, Zhou Zekai, Jiang Botao, and Sun Xiang. It was already difficult enough deciding which of the two battles they should watch. How could they bother paying attention to someone who wasn’t a part of either battle?

When did Qiao Yifan get there? How did he get there without anyone noticing him?

Many of the viewers blanked. Their last impression of One Inch Ash was him splitting up with Fang Rui and Su Mucheng to search for the two on Samsara. After that, he had been forgotten.

And now, his sudden appearance had rescued Ye Xiu from what had seemed to be certain death.

The three on Samsara had made a mistake. Their highly focused attention had turned into their weakness. They had only been following Ye Xiu’s every move.

“A beautiful stall,” Wang Jiexi sighed.

His explosive 510 hand speed wasn’t just to hold on against the combined assault from Samsara. He had responded back strongly to capture the complete attention of the three from Samsara, so they would make this mistake.

Qiao Yifan’s One Inch Ash came to the trash room and got into this position without any of the players on Samsara noticing.

This was a mistake, but no one could blame Samsara for it. The viewers, who could see everything if they chose to, had been absorbed by the intense fighting. They hadn’t noticed Qiao Yifan either. How could they expect the three on Samsara to, when they themselves couldn’t?

Sun Xiang and Jiang Botao had been blinded. For a moment, they didn’t know what had happened.

With the two of them blinded, Ye Xiu was able to easily make his way past them. As for Zhou Zekai, who hadn’t been affected by the Dark Boundary, he could only shift his attention to One Inch Ash.

The control capabilities of a Phantom Demon were too powerful. Right now, it was just a Dark Boundary. If Qiao Yifan was left alone to do as he pleased, an Ice Boundary, Ash Boundary, Silence, and so on would come one after the other. If that happened, they would be the ones in trouble.

Qiao Yifan!

He had once been a nobody in Tiny Herb, and now, in the finals, he was the one who Glory’s number one, Zhou Zekai, was personally taking care of. The people, who had taken note of Qiao Yifan’s arduous path to his current state, felt deeply moved.

The spectating pro players couldn’t help but glance at Tiny Herb for their reactions. Qiao Yifan had been given up on by Tiny Herb, and now he had reached the finals ahead of them. What were the Tiny Herb players thinking right now?

You can do it, Yifan!

Gao Yingjie didn’t say anything, but he was quietly cheering for his best friend. Many of the pro players had also overlooked Qiao Yifan due to the two separate battles taking place, but Gao Yingjie wasn’t one of them. No matter what else was going on in the match, he would always be mindful of Qiao Yifan.

When Fang Rui sent the message asking for help, Su Mucheng and Qiao Yifan had both turned around. He had originally thought that Qiao Yifan would be heading towards Fang Rui to help him, but to his surprise, Qiao Yifan had gone towards the trash room.

“A brilliant decision.”

“What outstanding situational awareness.”

Gao Yingjie heard the praise pouring out from his seniors beside him. He was happy for Qiao Yifan, and proud.

During their time together in Tiny Herb, the two of them were often compared to each other. Gao Yingjie shined with his fame as a prodigy. On the other hand, Qiao Yifan was completely overshadowed by him. From the start, it seemed like Qiao Yifan would never reach the same heights as Gao Yingjie.

But now, Qiao Yifan had gone ahead to the finals before him, and he had made an outstanding play on stage.

Now, I’m the one chasing after you. I hope that we’ll be able to meet in the finals someday, Gao Yingjie thought to himself.