<h4>Chapter 1591: Establishing Dominance</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nomyummi <strong>Editor: </strong>Nomyummi


    Lose? Win?


    Samsara’s fans were in a daze. Happy’s fans were in a daze. Unlike the pro yers, they hadn’t fully grasped what had just happened. Their judgement had been very simple: whoever had more health was winning.


    Of course, this sort of judgement wasn’t wrong. Yes, whoever had more health was winning. The end oue of the battle could be considered a reversal from Ye Xiu. It was just that the reversal had been too quick. In the previous second, the two characters seemed to be evenly matched. Suddenly, Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer was pinned to a stgmite, seemingly powerless. Then, just when he was finally able to escape, a silver de went in and a red de came out, marking the end of the battle.


    How could it be?


    How could it be?


    Samsara’s fans were at a loss. Happy’s fans were also at a loss. They had thought that they would lose this fight. Getting Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer down to such a low amount of health was still an eptable result though.


    This sort of thought was just themforting themselves. Whether it was the confrontation between the current and former number one, or Ye Xiu’s legendary 1v1 win streak, none of Happy’s fans wanted to see Ye Xiu lose. As for whether it was good or bad for the group arena as a whole, this sort of rational reasoning wasn’t something that fans gave consideration to.


    But contrary to their expectations, they had won.


    Just like they had hoped, Ye Xiu had won. Just before, they had been constructing mental barriers,ing up with a reason tofort themselves. All of a sudden, everything was flipped on top of their heads. Everyone was in a daze for a long time, all the way until Zhou Zekai left the yer booth. Reality finally sunk in. The fans gathered at the away team seats began to cheer.


    How did he win?


    They didn’t know, but it wasn’t important. Ye Xiu had won, so let’s celebrate first! They could always go back and slowly analyze it at ater time.


    The audience could take on this mentality, but thementators, Pan Lin and Li Yibo, couldn’t. There was noter in a live broadcast. The two had to discuss the sudden reversal from Ye Xiu.


    As a result, the Myriad Manifestations Umbre during that reversal became the focus of the discussion.


    “The Dragon Tooth had closed the distance beforehand, so when Colliding Stab was used, it came out at point nk range.”


    “The greatsword form of the Myriad Manifestations Umbre is truly gigantic. The area covered by Colliding Stab is quiterge, making it quite difficult to dodge!”


    “Look, the moment Colliding Stab came out, Lord Grim pulled out the tachi from his umbre’s handle. This small movement misled Zhou Zekai into misjudging the attack.


    “Yes, yes. What an borate scheme!”


    The two spoke back and forth, not at all stingy with their praise. The two were even thinking of the future. Whenever Ye Xiu was in a 1v1, they should just immediately start out by dering Ye Xiu’s victory. Then, wouldn’t anything they said after that be untouchable?


    Through this evaluation, the two were able to move past the reversal. But for the pro yers, while this feint was very important, it wasn’t as simple as that.


    Ye Xiu. Zhou Zekai. The two yers with the title of number one were very simr to each other in many ways. Just take how they yed. Compared to normal yers who cared strongly about hand speed, the deepest impression that these two yers gave wasn’t speed but precision.


    The two were exceptionally precise. Because of this precision, the two frequently made ys with little room for error. Zhou Zekai was able to perform such an impressive disy of Gun Fu because of this precision. Ye Xiu dared to rush down Zhou Zekai despite only having 5% of his health remaining because of this precision.


    Apart from precision, their decision-making and intuition were simr. When either of them took control, it was extremely difficult for the opponent to find an opening to counterattack.


    At the end of the battle, Lord Grim had pinned Cloud Piercer against a stgmite and fought at closebat. Was there no such opportunity before? No!


    He had intentionally saved this move for the very end at the deciding moment. Everyone was shocked at his decision to rush down Zhou Zekai with only 5% health remaining on Lord Grim. But in reality, Ye Xiu hadn’t been looking at his own health, but rather Cloud Piercer’s 14%. As they traded blows, he knew that Zhou Zekai was waiting for an opportunity to finish him off in onebo. He was the same.


    But his Lord Grim could also heal. The three instant cast heals could be added onto his Myriad Manifestations Umbre. However, during this entire battle, he had never used any of them. It was hard to not be suspicious. The spectating pro yers had been certain that he was saving these heals for a final explosive burst. They thought that he had chosen not to use these heals before because he had been waiting for the right opportunity. When their health dropped low enough, he would heal, and Zhou Zekai wouldn’t be able to react in time.


    The pro yers had been partially correct. Ye Xiu had been waiting for the right opportunity. However, he wasn’t waiting for an opportunity to heal. Instead, he had been waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, waiting until Cloud Piercer’s health was low enough for him to kill him in onebo. He had also been waiting for Zhou Zekai to rush him down.


    When performing a rush, attacking the opponent would be the priority, while defense would be secondary. Ye Xiu had been watching Cloud Piercer’s health carefully. He seized the moment Zhou Zekai decided to rush at him and counter-rushed him.


    The two were fighting at close-range, and a Sharpshooter couldn’tpare to an unspecialized in closebat. And this time, Ye Xiu wasn’t going to give him any opportunity to trade. He would wipe out that 14% in one go.


    Everyone saw what happened afterwards. Lord Grimpletely suppressed Cloud Piercer. Apart from taking some damage when forcing the Colliding Stab, Cloud Piercer was unable to do anything. An opening had appeared because Lord Grim wasn’t able to continue hisbo, but Ye Xiu had been ready. Cloud Piercer was only hit away from death. With a teleport, Lord Grim gave the final fatal strike.


    What the pro yers saw wasn’t just technical prowess, but their control over the pace of the fight.


    Ye Xiu had won, a very close win, but if you considered how he had taken such a massive amount of damage from the Thunder Snipe at the start and then made aeback from a disadvantageous position, he had been the one with a stronger grasp over the pace of the fight.


    Of course, Lord Grim’s ss as an unspecialized and his transforming Myriad Manifestations Umbre contributed greatly towards this achievement. If he wasn’t an unspecialized, without the possibility of healing, Zhou Zekai wouldn’t have waited until Lord Grim only had 5% health before trying to rush him down. If Lord Grim couldn’t heal, Zhou Zekai would have likely rushed him down to decide the fight when Lord Grim had over 10% of his health left.


    In the online game, in PvP, if the winner relied on a ss advantage or an equipment advantage to win, the loser would often spite the winner for having an unfair advantage.


    But on the pro stage, everyone would exploit the slightest of advantages to win. Ye Xiu was no different. His unspecialized and his Myriad Manifestations Umbre gave other pro yers a huge headache. They really wanted to be like the in-game yers: if you didn’t have that stupid umbre or if you weren’t ying a broken ss, I would have won.


    But then again, when Ye Xiu had been using a Battle Mage, hadn’t they been getting pped left and right as well?


    The pro yers apuded. It had been a spectacr fight. The winner showed terrifying skill, but the loser did as well. When watching a match, they often pretended as if they were the ones ying. Their expressions were grave. Clearly, none of them dared to say that it might have gone differently if they had been the ones ying.


    Game two of the finals. The first round of the group arena had ended. In Samsara’s home stadium, Happy had won the first round. Ye Xiu continued his legendary win streak, and this time, he had defeated Zhou Zekai, the number one yer. With this win, he shut up the haters, who argued that his win streak was because he was avoiding those ace yers in the group arena.


    Even Zhou Zekai had lost against him. If that wasn’t enough to legitimize his win streak, did he need to y 1v2s?


    The Samsara fans in the crowd were silent. Their ace, the god in their eyes, had lost? He hade out specifically to y against Ye Xiu,ing out full force, yet he had lost?


    Samsara’s fans weren’t used to this. For a moment, they were having trouble epting reality to the point of even forgetting to give a constion apuse to the loser. In their eyes, there were only cheers and praise for Zhou Zekai. Consoling him as the loser didn’t feel right...


    “Then, it’s my turn.” At Samsara’s bench, Jiang Botao got up and went to wee Zhou Zekai back.


    “Mm.” Zhou Zekai nodded his head. He was always quiet, so it was hard to tell what he was feeling.


    “4% health, huh. He’s probably going to heal now...” Jiang Botao muttered as he walked towards the stage.


    The atmosphere in the stadium was heavy. Samsara had forgotten to console Zhou Zekai, who had lost. They had also forgotten to cheer to give their Jiang Botao encouragement. They were still trying to take in the fact that Zhou Zekai had lost.


    But Jiang Botao didn’t appear to be concerned.


    4%.


    Lord Grim only had a few drops of health left. From the perspective of the group arena as a whole, Zhou Zekai’s loss wasn’t bad. It was just that because of how important the fight had been to the audience, because Zhou Zekai had gone first to y against Ye Xiu, because it was a challenge that Zhou Zekai had taken the initiative to put out.


    In the end, he lost.


    It made Samsara’s fans feel embarrassed and ashamed...


    Zhou Zekai had never given them these feelings before. There were even a few girls out in the audience who burst out into tears.


    But Zhou Zekai’s teammate, Samsara’s vice-captain Jiang Botao, wasn’t affected by the atmosphere. He walked calmly onto the stage and into the yer booth.


    The characters loaded. The map loaded. The match began.


    “Hello, senior! I’ming!” Zhou Zekai had been silent, but as soon as Jiang Botao went onto the stage, he greeted Ye Xiu enthusiastically.


    “Coming to surrender?” Ye Xiu replied.


    “No way,” said Jiang Botao, “I’m here to experience how fearsome you seniors are.”