Chapter 128: Serious Mode, Activated!

After the 6.11 version update, Thousand Edged's mark refresh mechanism became more regular; the first mark always spawns on the river crab, and when Thousand Edged has no more than two layers of marks on it, the next mark will randomly refresh on either the river crab or the enemy F4.

Strong calculators can use this pattern to predict where the next mark will spawn; conversely, opponents can likewise adjust their jungle clearing order based on this pattern to control where Thousand Edged's marks refresh.

Liang Yan has been deliberately adjusting his jungle route, always ensuring that when Thousand Edged's marks refresh, his side has a full F4.

Although this control attempt failed and the mark spawned on the upper river crab, Liang Yan had a backup plan; after killing Lan Bo in the top lane, he cleared the river crab.

Thousand Edged still failed to obtain its second mark.

Actually, for Liang Yan, playing this kind of game doesn't require such high-end tactics; he does this to get himself accustomed to this pace.

First, to prepare for the S tournament.

Second, to avoid being assimilated by the region.

The environment of this region is too intimidating; even someone as strong as Liang Yan, who cheats, almost lost his mind while playing, but he snapped to in time and wasn't really dragged into the mud by EU.

But from now on, he needs to be careful.

With the S tournament approaching, Liang Yan doesn't want to make a mistake at this time.

Therefore he put away his carelessness and decided to treat every match with 120% vigilance until the S tournament ends.

And once he gets serious, someone is bound to suffer.

After eating the river crab, Liang Yan went to the lower half of the map, first clearing his own three jungle camps, then went openly to the bottom lane to help push the line, then brought his duo into the enemy's lower jungle to do a sweep of vision before retreating, leaving one on the left and one on the right to guard the exit of the blue buff jungle area.

Not long after, Thousand Edged's mark refreshed again, this time on the lower river crab.

At the same time, Trashy's Thousand Edged appeared in the jungle's ward vision, but the opponent's vigilance was good; after sweeping and revealing two wards, they likely guessed they had fallen into a trap and thus did not rashly come over to look at the river crab.

Seeing the situation, Liang Yan knew there was no chance, so after clearing the river crab he turned and left, then returned with his duo to the bottom lane to push a wave, then brought Mithy's Bu Long into the enemy jungle to clear the vision Thousand Edged had just left, finally taking a side path through the jungle to the rear of mid lane and using one 【Cocoon】 to force out Sencux's Flash.

Meanwhile, Zven's Frost Archer was caught by the enemy duo hiding on the high ground beside the river while he was on his way to assist mid lane.

Mikyx's Thresh landed a hook from behind the wall, Zven failed to react and got caught, then Kobbe's Ezreal unleashed his ultimate followed by Thresh's lantern pulling him in for a sticky fight.

Zven knew his chance of survival was slim, so he only used a heal to struggle a bit; after taking two Ezreal Qs in a row, he realized he had no chance whatsoever, so he obediently stood still awaiting death, and finally Ezreal took his kill.

Liang Yan said nothing, merely looking thoughtful after watching Zven's death replay; a moment later he spoke to Zven:

"Zven, your movement habits have been read by the opposition; next time when moving to dodge skills, don't always click right—occasionally go left as well."

""

Zven didn't speak, but his heart jumped.

No wonder—just now he felt the enemy Ezreal's Q was eerily accurate.

Turns out his own movement habits had been caught; that kid on the other side really does have something.

But having said that, their own jungler only needed to glance at the fight once to notice this detail; from a certain angle, it's actually pretty scary…

Liang Yan went home again, crafted a tier‑3 jungle knife, then headed out to clear the monsters in the upper half of the map; the third blue buff had already respawned, but AP had already built Guinsoo's Rageblade and still had two Doran's Rings on him, so he wasn't lacking mana, and thus he gave this blue buff to Liang Yan.

After clearing the jungle, Liang Yan went to the top lane and crouched in the side brush behind Lao Zhang.

Just now Lan Bo had placed a control ward in the Triangular Grass and removed the one Lao Zhang had put there; at the same time, Thousand Edged's mark refreshed again on the river crab in the upper river, while Victor on mid lane had absolutely no lane control. Taking all factors into account, the chance that Thousand Edged would come up to gank and, relying on Lan Bo's support, take the river crab's mark is extremely high.

With a map awareness as high as 99 points, it's certainly not for show—fact proves Liang Yan's judgment was completely correct.

Thousand Edged soon appeared from the river.

"Jeez! He caught me camping—Trashy really showed up!"

"But SPY had no idea whatsoever—Wunder directly used his ultimate to seal Island's escape route, then flashed forward with his W! Trashy also jumped in to deal damage!"

"The timing was pretty good—Nautilus, having just grown large, can't gain fury for a short while! But there's someone in the grass!!"

"Firrrrrre made his move! A 【Cocoon】 landed straight on Trashy's face, then he unleashed 【Explosive Spider】 and turned into a spider that lunged forward!"

Trashy saw the spider emerge from the grass, and his expression instantly changed.

Running is impossible now; he can only try to force a trade, otherwise he'll lose even more.

However, this Nautilus had already built a Spectre's Cowl early on, plus a Ruby and a Doran's Blade, giving him three health‑boosting items; thus, although he isn't in his giant Nautilus form, his tankiness at this moment is actually not low!

Lan Bo, due to his average development and not having returned to base for a while, only has a Vampiric Scepter to boost his damage, while the 【Ruby】 that provides health and a little cooldown reduction is practically useless here, because G2's two‑man focus fire is targeting the far more fragile Thousand Edged, who is only level 8.

Nautilus is still quite agile—Lan Bo's ultimate didn't deal any damage before Nautilus jumped away, and Thousand Edged, who still only has one mark and hasn't even crafted a tier‑3 jungle knife, can't really contribute any damage either!

This makes their combined focus fire look so feeble!

After taking the combo from those two, Nautilus still had nearly half a bar of health left!

Meanwhile, Trashy's Thousand Edged, which started at full health, after taking Nautilus's three‑item combo and the spider's combo, was straight‑up reduced to low health!

"Kill the spider first!"

Trashy saw the situation turning bad and called his top‑lane brother to shift the focus fire.

Wunder actually could see that this exchange was doomed to be a disaster, but the situation had already reached the point of no return; hearing the command, he silently took control of the Lan Bo whose second heat gauge was ready and charged him toward the spider.

On site, the entire Taolong Tiyuguan was noisy like a boiling pot of water; even with headphones on, one could faintly hear the clamor surging like sea waves.