Chapter 1345: That Was Only the Past
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
In Round 30 of the League matches, Happy played a home game, welcoming the currently last-place Team Seaside. Seaside was in low spirits, as they were essentially already relegated. The players were all worried about their future prospects, and very few fans had come along with the team.
As usual, Ye Xiu was the first in the individual round, earning a clean victory. And then Luo Ji came up, finally winning the first victory of his professional career. The audience was a sea of cheers, congratulating Luo Ji.
And then, Wei Chen.
The stadium burst into excitement again. This especially down-to-earth old player had been absent for while. No one even remembered the last time he had come onstage, but now he was pulled onto the stage once again.
Wei Chen boldly and grandly waved toward the audience, and the audience gave him an enthusiastic answer, but the end result wasn’t what people expected.
Wei Chen, Happy’s representative in the third individual battle, lost.
Seaside already had no prospects, but some of the individual players were still considering their own futures and putting their full effort into performance to try and attract more attention. Wei Chen met one such player, resulting in a long battle that ended with a slight mistake he made causing his loss.
Real battle was still a whole different matter from daily practice. Regularly training and sparring with teammates couldn’t replace the rhythm of one professional match a week.
“Old Wei, can you even keep up anymore!” When Wei Chen came offstage, Xiaoshan Stadium came alive with many hollers from the audience.
It wasn’t mockery, it was just the lighthearted joking from the fans that knew him well. Even though these words hit a sore spot, the shameless Wei Chen could always stand up to these kind of jokes.
“The hell do you guys know, this is tactics,” Wei Chen yelled. But his voice had no way of competing with the noise of so many audience members talking at once, and it couldn’t carry. Wei Chen could only hear everyone continuing to mock him as he helplessly walked back to the player area.
“Can’t keep up, huh, Old Wei!” Fang Rui was following along with the audience.
“The hell do you know? This is called tactics.” Finally, Wei Chen could make his retort heard.
“What tactics? Please, do enlighten us,” Fang Rui said.
“Stop messing around,” Ye Xiu interjected. “Old Wei is very upset after losing that match. Don’t provoke him, or else he might cry.”
“Pah!” Wei Chen spat in contempt.
“How are you?” Ye Xiu sat next to him, his tone becoming more serious.
“Even you’re still doing fine, would I be any worse?” Wei Chen gave him a sideways glance.
“I have 29 consecutive victories,” Ye Xiu said.
“Soon I’ll be kicking ass, just you watch,” Wei Chen said.
“Of course, we found you just for that purpose,” said Ye Xiu.
“Well, I have to say, you found the right person.”
“Good luck.”
“I’ll get into condition quickly.”
The joking tone had finally vanished with those last two sentences.
“Now it’s our turn!” Ever since becoming the the anchor of the group arena, he often had this grand air of a general. The group arena roster of him, Tang Rou, and Su Mucheng wasn’t something that Seaside could defend against. Just two of the Happy players were enough to defeat and destroy Seaside. Seaside didn’t even have the chance to see in individual battle that character which had once been their core, Boundless Sea.
In the intermission, Happy actively prepared for the team competition. Seaside’s players, however, just sat scattered around the player area, each lost in their own thoughts. There was no communication at all.
This was a team that had already completely splintered apart. Just last season, they hadn’t been doing so poorly, but this season had been a nonstop plummet. After Zhao Yang retired, the team said they sold Boundless Sea so they could set down a burden and travel light. But now, there was a big discrepancy between expectation and reality.
What they set down wasn’t just the burden of economic investment and resources. At the same time, they had set down what had always been this team’s soul and conviction.
To Team Seaside, Boundless Sea was more than just a contribution to their strength. He was the support on which the team’s spirit rested. Zhao Yang’s retirement was already a huge blow to the team. By selling the character Boundless Sea immediately after, this two-hit combo completely destroyed this team’s courage and belief to continue fighting.
Tear down and rebuild. But Seaside had torn down too much, until there was nothing left of their team. This team, perhaps, had collapsed the moment that Boundless Sea was sold off.
And at the same time, the most attention-grabbing match of this round, the match chosen for television broadcast, had also entered the most exciting part of the group arena.
Blue Rain vs Hundred Blossoms.
Huang Shaotian vs Yu Feng.
Former teammates, now the core players of their respective teams.
And now, it was finally time for them to stand opposite each other with their swords drawn, fighting to the death in this battle to decide the group arena.
Troubling Rain still had 96% health remaining, while Blossoming Chaos was at 100%. With such a slight difference, the two characters were essentially beginning this match at the same starting line.
“Let the match begin!” When commentator Pan Lin made this announcement, the two characters had already finished loading onto the map. But, shockingly, the chat wasn’t instantly flooded with a huge amount of text.
The instant the battle began, the television broadcast had already switched the close-up display to the chat. But there wasn’t a flood of messages?
“What’s going on?” Pan Lin exclaimed. “This is a match with Huang Shaotian! And it’s only the opening, they’re not fighting each other yet, how come there are no messages in the chat? Ah! It’s already been seven seconds and there isn’t a single message! What is this? Did something happen? Is there a problem in the player booth? Did Huang Shaotian faint? Can someone go and check?”
“I think…” To the side, Li Yibo finally opened his mouth. “Even though Huang Shaotian hasn’t sent a message yet, you sounded a lot like him just now.”
“…”
Fortunately, Pan Lin didn’t need to worry, as just at that moment, Huang Shaotian’s message finally appeared on screen.
“We meet onstage again. But after so long, we’re probably used to this feeling by now! Come on, let’s have a fierce battle. Let’s see if your greatsword is fiercer or my lightsaber is faster.”
At the same time the messages appeared, Troubling Rain was already Swift Running out, his weapon Ice Rain at his side glowing with faint blue light, leaving blurred afterimages like the marks left by raindrops freezing as they dripped down.
Just one message. For Huang Shaotian, this was truly unprecedented. Such an atypical performance seemed to indicate that he still wasn’t quite used to treating this former teammate as an opponent? Even if Yu Feng had already left Blue Rain over a year and a half ago.
“I’m sorry that I can’t continue to walk alongside everyone…”
Every time he met Yu Feng again, Huang Shaotian flashed back to what this guy had said just before he left Team Blue Rain, when he was bidding farewell to them all.
“I want to see what I can accomplish with this greatsword in my own hands,” Yu Feng said.
What he could accomplish?
These two seasons, everyone had seen his accomplishments. Under Yu Feng’s lead, Team Hundred Blossoms rebuilt its former trademark duo, the Berserker and the Spitfire. The number one Berserker, after leaving Blue Rain and joining Hundred Blossoms, was still the number one Berserker. But his simplest, most sentimental season would always belong to Blue Rain.
That was Blue Rain’s most beautiful summer.
In Season 6, Blue Rain defeated Tiny Herb in the finals, winning that year’s championship.
At that time, Yu Feng was a mere rookie in the team. He wasn’t like Lu Hanwen, who had taken up the responsibility of main attacker in his very first year. In that year, Yu Feng’s position still wavered between main roster and substitute as a rotating player.
But he played a role in Blue Rain’s championship victory. Everyone saw his talent and anticipated his growth.
As expected, he quickly became a solid, indispensable member of Blue Rain, always the one who stood at the very front of the team to meet the enemies that came at them.
But unfortunately, this situation only lasted for two seasons. In Season 9, Yu Feng voluntarily transferred, wishing to leave Blue Rain. And his reason was exactly as described above: he wished to forge an era that was his own.
“But if that’s the case, then what was Blue Rain to you?”
Only Huang Shaotian would ask such a sharp question without hesitation.
“Thank you everyone, for your care all this time…” But this was Yu Feng’s only reply, and he left just like that. And Huang Shaotian, who had wanted to go up and demand answers, was ultimately pulled to a stop by Yu Wenzhou.
A position truly as the core. A team that truly belonged to him.
Perhaps some people wouldn’t care about these sort of things, but others would care about them greatly. And Blue Rain could not give these things to Yu Feng. Even if they had once had that perfect summer, even if Yu Feng had always led Blue Rain forward like the front of a train, these were not what he most wanted.
He wanted to use the greatsword in his hand to forge an era that belonged to him!
Even when Huang Shaotian hurled that “what was Blue Rain to you” question at him, he felt no guilt or remorse. What was Blue Rain to him? Every time he faced Team Blue Rain in battle, every time he met Blue Rain’s players, he would always think of this question.
At the time, he hadn’t known, and so he hadn’t given a reply. But now, he had found his answer.
The past.
To him, Blue Rain was the past.
That place had brought him laughter and tears and sweat and emotion. But all of that was in the past. Now, his body bore the emblem of Hundred Blossoms. He was this team’s captain. He had already waved farewell to the past. Now, he was using his sword to strive for what he wanted to obtain.
And no one could block him, not even Huang Shaotian, this person who talked so much and yet could never be hated.
Even if the one blocking his way was the Sword Saint, he would knock him down for good.
Blossoming Chaos, charge forward!
Without pause, without retreat, the two characters flew toward each other at the center of the map, and without hesitation, the swordlight clashed.
AAAAAH!
Blossoming Chaos seemed to roar. In terms of power, the Berserker of course had the advantage over the Blade Master, especially since he had activated the Berserk status from the start. Blossoming Chaos’ two eyes had gone red, and blood energy roiled around him. The Silver weapon he held, Blossoms Burial, with all the strength to bury everything in its path, swung toward Troubling Rain.