Chapter 126: Three-Person Team

Liang Yan chose this jungle opening route; first, he wanted to test Lao Zhang's Nal's pressure tolerance, since Nal is usually picked as a free‑farm pick, and insufficient skill makes high‑intensity games prone to mistakes—coincidentally the enemy had a very strong early‑game Lan Bo, so Liang Yan went along with it; second, to prepare for controlling the refresh spot of Qian Jue's second mark; finally, because the top lane early levels are destined to lack lane priority and Nal early lacks damage and control, making it hard to combo with the spider for ganks, Liang Yan didn't want to waste too much time in the upper half.

In this game, the enemy Qian Jue had good luck; Liang Yan's F4 wasn't finished yet, and Qian Jue's first mark spawned in the upper river.

Seeing that, Liang Yan pinged the enemy's blue buff jungle.

"Push the bottom lane as fast as you can."

"No problem."

Frost Bu Long pushed the lane against Ezreal and Thresh with no pressure, the two quickly shoved the lane forward, then started moving toward the river.

Zven hid in the river mouth brush as a bodyguard, while Mithy's Bu Long came over to meet Liang Yan's spider, and together they entered SPY's jungle.

Liang Yan first placed a ward at the five‑way intersection, then together with Mithy he invaded the enemy blue buff.

After the fourth bottom‑lane wave reached the red side's lower tower, Mithy helped finish the enemy blue buff and hurried back to lane, while Liang Yan continued to invade the Magic Swamp Frog.

Then he retreated to eat the Magic Swamp Frog, finally returning to his own jungle to take the red buff.

"Wow, a spider opened with three buffs!"

"Firrrrrre cleared insanely fast, though Trashy also smoothly got his first mark—this opening is acceptable for SPY."

Liang Yan jungled while watching the top lane matchup.

Around four minutes in, Nal grew once more; just before the growth he caught Lan Bo as he entered the red buff timing and Q‑A‑A'd to unleash three rings—Lan Bo didn't dare turn, popped his E and fled—Lao Zhang didn't over‑commit on damage, turned and unleashed a full Nal ability to clear the wave.

Thus he managed to push the minion wave backward.

Moreover, he hadn't recalled yet and his health was nearly full.

Liang Yan was a bit surprised and praised:

"You're doing well in lane, Lao Zhang."

Lao Zhang gave an embarrassed hehe laugh twice and said:

"This Lan Bo isn't skilled enough—he doesn't even dare to pressure me, feels pretty weak."

Liang Yan smiled and said nothing.

Actually it has little to do with Lan Bo's proficiency; the enemy simply picked this lane composition—taking Lan Bo top is to protect Qian Jue's development, and their jungle‑top fight power is actually weak, so unless Nal over‑extends and gets flanked, before Lan Bo hits level six this combo can't possibly catch Nal.

Qian Jue can't catch anyone, his own tempo is off so he can't invade the spider's jungle—what's the point of Lan Bo pressuring the lane? It only raises his own risk of being caught; better not to press at all.

So the enemy's choice of such a conservative lane approach is understandable, but then Lan Bo being picked is useless unless Qian Jue carries; if he can't carry, he's just wasted.

With the top lane matchup no longer needing Liang Yan's worry, mid and bottom lanes were likewise pushing, but lacking hard‑engage to dive towers made the risk too high, so Liang Yan actually had nothing to do; after clearing the Stone Armor Beetle he pinged the enemy's three wolves.

While walking there he also pinged his own three wolves.

"Lu Ka, go take a look—you might find a surprise."

Liang Yan signaled while communicating with mid lane.

AP cleared his lane and immediately ran to his own upper jungle, hugging the wall all the way to the rear of the three‑wolf camp, where he indeed saw Qian Jue stealing his wolves; he rushed in without hesitation, the big and small wolves already low on HP, AP pulled off a one‑stone‑two‑birds play: 【Stone Scatter Formation】 sealed the path, 【Rock Thrust】 lunged at Qian Jue, while 【Stone Pierce】 went to finish off the wounded wolves.

Trashy reacted fairly quickly—he didn't recklessly use a displacement inside the 【Stone Scatter Formation】's area, turned to dodge the 【Rock Thrust】 and kept running; only after leaving the formation's range did he cast 【Dance of Arrows】 to blink over the wall into the blue buff camp and escape.

"All right, no need to chase."

Liang Yan watched the scene, worried AP might go berserk and chase with his ultimate, so he instantly pinged a retreat and gave a verbal reminder over the mic.

He doesn't like pulling that "machine‑gun‑nest shift ten centimeters" micro on teammates, but after months of playing together Liang Yan has genuinely been spooked by AP—this guy can suddenly go berserk at the most unexpected moments and pull off outrageous plays that leave you speechless.

Having taken a set of three wolves, AP was satisfied, sounded the recall and returned to lane.

For Perkz, eating a set of Liang Yan's jungle monsters is happier than pressuring the enemy for ten last hits.

On the other side, Liang Yan entered the red half‑jungle alone, noticed the enemy's three wolves hadn't spawned yet, so he placed a ward at the entrance of the three‑wolf camp, then retreated to counter‑jungle the Magic Swamp Frog; after finishing, as he was about to leave, his peripheral vision caught Qian Jue appearing in the sight of the ward he'd just dropped at the jungle entrance on the minimap.

At the same time, the small icon indicating the three wolves had respawned appeared on the minimap.

"Ding‑ding!"

Liang Yan instantly pinged an attack and communicated with bottom lane.

The duo immediately coordinated to push the lane toward the tower, feigning a jungle‑assist dive, then "accidentally" took a tower hit.

The tower‑dive plan fizzled; the pair fell back, Zven stayed alone in lane while Mithy's Bu Long sneaked up from the river to crouch with Liang Yan at the corner of the wall opposite the Magic Swamp Frog, simultaneously planting a fake ward through the wall.

Having run through this play‑by‑play routine, the longtime bottom‑jungle trio had it down pat.

"Oh, you see it—Trashy walked over after clearing his three wolves with zero guard, looking like he wanted to gank G2's bottom lane, unaware he'd already become the hunted prey; just after passing the five‑way intersection, G2's jungle‑support engaged, but their coordination seemed to have a slight hiccup!"

"Mithy couldn't wait and fired a 【Winter's Bite】 that hit straight on!"

"But Trashy had already prepared for Firrrrrre's 【Cocoon】, so he couldn't follow up—instead he turned into a spider, launched himself sky‑ward and came crashing down to bite in pursuit!"

"Mithy chased two steps with 【Leap Forward】 and jumped onto his teammate!"

"Just as Bu Long's passive was about to proc, Trashy could only flash to create distance, but Mithy's 【Weakness】 had already been applied!"

"Trashy's movement speed plummeted—he felt like he was going to die!"

"Firrrrrre lunged again!"

"A! A! A!"

"First Blood!!"

"Firrrrrre successfully snagged the first kill!!!"

"But the camera cut to mid lane—apparently Perkz, eager to come over for an assist, got caught by Sencux's Viktor while trying to close in, and Sencux unleashed his ultimate 【Chaos Storm】!"

"Perkz, after taking that combo, was low on health and quickly used 【Ghost Step】 to create distance!"

"Uh…… he had to go home, the good news is the minion wave had already been pushed past, so he wouldn't miss too many last hits, but then the jungle kill looked less… wait! Perkz suddenly turned and unleashed his ultimate!"

"Turns out Firrrrrre had arrived!"

"The Spider Queen of Qian Jue, having just been caught, cut through the jungle via a shortcut and raced over!"

"Sencux couldn't retreat under tower, so he used 【Ghost Step】 to flee down another path!"

"Firrrrrre played extremely aggressively, flashing and unleashing 【Cocoon】—but it missed; he had predicted where Sencux would flash, yet Sencux didn't flash at all."

"Uh……"