Chapter 739: Do you even know what a movie emperor is?

The top and middle lanes were laning steadily; only the bottom lane that focused on contesting the second turret might erupt into a fight, so the director locked the camera onto Xia Lu.

Jinx switched to her mini-gun and fiercely attacked the minions.

"Whoa, you really want to push?"

Xiao Duan instantly grasped WE duo's intention upon seeing Jinx's move.

"Lord Duan, hurry up! Want to show some color and still think you can open a dye shop? Really." Gangzi shouted, yet he himself stood still, merely speeding up his minion auto-attacks.

Xiao Duan choked a bit, thinking "Brother, I was just talking..." but his hands operated Nautilus, walking out of the brush, moving forward to use the support item's passive to help finish off low-health minions.

This was naturally to keep the total health of both minion waves at a slight disadvantage for the enemy, aiming to make them push slowly.

As long as the WE duo cannot retain an advantage of three or more ranged minions before the second wave arrives, VG Xia Lu's lane control plan counts as success.

But the WE duo's laning fundamentals were equally solid; when Xiao Duan shifted his weight, Ben guessed his intent and naturally didn't want his plan to succeed, so Ben kept auto-attacking while charging forward, trying to drive away Xiao Duan's Nautilus and prevent him from auto-attacking.

Xiao Duan refused to leave, stubbornly enduring Lulu's harassment until he exhausted the support item's passive, then turned and retreated. Gangzi followed suit in retreating.

Xiao Duan lost a little over half of his health bar.

Ben's Lulu took two rounds of focused fire from the blue side's ranged minions, losing some health, but from a health-trade perspective, WE clearly came out ahead this wave.

The director kept the camera locked on Xia Lu; after watching Xiao Duan's this-wave health-selling process, the commentators were somewhat puzzled as to why the VG duo played like that.

"This..."

Wawa's tone was hesitant,

"Was Xiao Duan's play a mistake this wave? He lost a bit too much health—can't we still contend with WE? Xia Lu is at a disadvantage."

"Hmm, but the current minion wave situation seems favorable to him, and Nautilus has health regeneration; it'll bounce back soon."

Before the second wave arrived at the frontline, the two remaining red-side minions happened to be intercepted at a spot roughly two thousand yards before the blue side's lower turret.

It's easy to see that, without jungle interference, the bottom lane's clash point will remain fixed here for a long time, because the WE duo can no longer threaten the VG duo, whose position is already within the defense turret's range.

As for wave-clear ability, after reaching level two Varus with an AOE skill is obviously far stronger than Jinx with only a single-target skill, and the gap in wave-clear efficiency will widen further after level three, since Varus upgrading his W skill also boosts wave-clear speed, whereas Jinx upgrading her claw provides no help to wave-clear.

Even counting the support, after Nautilus points into his second skill he gains a means to aggressively engage, and it's a reliable lockdown; his threat rises linearly, while Lulu merely gains a shield at levels two and three, and at level three she gains a control skill—Lulu's W, when used as a buff, has an extremely short duration, so nobody would give it to an AD to boost wave-clear efficiency—comparatively, VG still holds the advantage.

In short, the WE duo's plan to pin enemies under the tower and bully them has fallen through; at this minion-wave clash point, the VG duo has absolute initiative.

And the jungler Condi, seeing this, couldn't possibly come over either, because this spot is too awkward—you can't gank head-on, and if you try from behind they aren't even under the tower, plus you can always counter‑push the wave; if the wave never gets into the tower, how would you dive?

Mystic was a bit unwilling, but he didn't take any extreme action.

Although the minion‑wave position is awkward, the WE duo won't suffer any real loss; just farm steadily, because VG's jungler is in Shang Ban Qu and can't threaten them.

As for VG, which started with a jungle swap, having Xia Lu play out like this is naturally the best outcome.

"Nice play, Xiao Duan." Liang Yan didn't hold back praise, laughing as he complimented Xiao Duan in the team voice chat, making Xiao Duan just chuckle happily.

Gangzi objected: "What about me? Am I playing badly?"

Liang Yan: "Good, good, good, very good!"

Gangzi, tsundere: "Tch, not sincere at all."

Liang Yan didn't continue chatting with Xia Lu, cleared the enemy's three jungle camps, headed to his own jungle, glanced at the minimap, and issued the next command: "Luxuanjun, find a chance to trade a wave of health with him, time it right to push the lane in, and set him up for a counter‑push."

"Sure, when?"

"Around four minutes, the wave should push out."

"No problem."

Fu Lan Duo readily agreed; he already had the lane advantage, and Liang Yan was jungling in the red side's upper half, which implicitly put even more pressure on the WE top laner, forcing 957 to play cautiously, trying to avoid losing too much health to Fu Lan Duo, lest he risk being dove by Annie paired with Jayce under tower.

In avoiding health trades with Jayce, 957 has done very well; his health remains very healthy, but the cost is not small—before the third wave is fully cleared, counting the remaining minions, 957 has already missed six last hits, equivalent to losing an entire wave's gold, though his experience should be intact.

Liang Yan saw that 957 wasn't giving openings, so he abandoned the idea of diving him, but that didn't mean he was giving up early aggression, and the top lane remained a usable point.

Liang Yan's arrangements were very detailed; after assigning the top lane, he gave tasks to Xia Lu:

"Also push the bottom lane, but don't push too fast—just don't let them retreat under turret before five minutes."

"Hehe~ understood!"

Having cooperated with Liang Yan for two seasons, upon hearing this set of commands Gangzi immediately knew the big thigh would move to Xia Lu, and he couldn't help but look forward to it.

Easyhoon, unwilling to be lonely: "What should I do to help out?"

To Easyhoon's disappointment, Liang Yan directly said it wasn't needed, but he also understood that a lone airplane early on really struggles to join the fight's rhythm.

As for the airplane champion, normally before fifteen minutes you just focus on your own development and avoid messing up teammates—that's its biggest contribution to the team; if you can also snag lane priority to give your jungler some implicit support, that's practically perfect.

Liang Yan's command was extremely meticulous, and the execution on both lanes was flawless.

Xia Lu pushed the lane slowly, making it look like I know where your jungler is and I have wards all around my bottom lane, unafraid of your approach; for now I'm just inching the lane forward, ready to speed‑push a wave when the chance arises, then go back to buy items.

But as for acting chops, the blame falls on Fu Lan Duo; this guy performed especially vividly, in the process of trading health with Jayce and Shen he vividly acted out the feeling of really wanting to lower your HP but daring not to hit too hard, lest you notice I'm trying to call for help to catch you.

Liang Yan thought this guy's heart was really dirty; in his past life he was probably a genuine movie emperor.