Chapter 157: Hiding One's Brilliance! The Ghost Whip in the Minion Pile! A Forced Abduction

Just as a tragedy had just occurred in the jungle, the laning phase in the mid lane had also begun in silence.

Neither player touched the minions; the Emperor didn't even summon a sand soldier.

Not until the first three melee minions were about to fall in the natural crossfire did Sylas, who had been leaning behind the minion wave, dash forward with Abduct to kill the three melee minions.

At the same time, the Emperor finally set up his first sand soldier, positioning it just right to diagonally stab two minions while simultaneously piercing through Sylas.

At this moment, news from the jungle arrived.

The Emperor, who had just been about to raise his hand to issue another command, stopped in an instant!

It was this tiny action that gave Ye Bo a more concrete concept of his opponent's laning ability.

He had watched plenty of the opponent's replays, but even from a first-person perspective, it could never compare to the feeling of facing them in person.

Laning is not something with a standard template.

It could be said that for no one is there ever a "completely identical" laning scenario; at most, there are only the directions in which each player is most exceptionally skilled.

Just like Ye Bo.

His most extreme strengths are the {hero skill accuracy} honed through "thousands of trials" in matches, the {in-the-moment response ability} that has become nearly instinctive muscle memory, the {opportunity-finding ability} brought by rich match experience, and the creative {thought breakthroughs} during extreme moments.

So, what about Chovy?

Ye Bo had derived several labels from his replay analysis.

One of them: sensitive and accurate {minion wave control}, which was being displayed in this very wave.

Because neither side had used basic attacks to touch the minions, the natural death of the first three minions coincided exactly with the time Graves reached the wall outside the Blue Buff to Smite it.

And the moment he saw his own jungle being invaded—Chovy's mind didn't spend even a fraction of a second thinking about how to "assist" or "rescue."

The first thing he thought of was the state of his own minion wave.

The Emperor is easily ganked at level two, and Sylas just happens to be a hero with strong dash capabilities who pairs easily with ganks.

Once the Emperor used his sand soldier to harass multiple backline minions, even if the damage wasn't high, it would be enough to change the state of the wave—causing the third wave, which allows for a level three power spike, to push toward the opponent.

At that point, due to the lack of vision in his own jungle, the Emperor would be forced into an extremely passive position!

He might even end up missing minions just to avoid a gank!

That was why Chovy chose to hold back, only letting the sand soldier poke for last hits at a single angle when the ranged minions were about to die.

In this way, the wave wouldn't be affected, the Emperor would have no pressure from ganks, and he could still suppress Sylas, using the frozen wave to force him to choose between losing health or missing farm!

Ye Bo saw through the opponent's intent.

And the choice he made was to stand behind the backline minions, actively giving up space, seemingly having no intention to contest.

Seeing Sylas miss two last hits because of this, Chovy was satisfied.

The second wave of minions arrived.

Because the Emperor was extremely precise in only taking the last hits on minions with the lowest health, although it was inevitable that the wave would push slightly, overall he still maintained the wave near the center line.

The Emperor reached level two first.

But out of consideration for his earlier minion wave control, Chovy didn't rush to level up his Q skill to harass, continuing only to take last hits.

At this moment, Ye Bo was watching two low-health minions.

One was an opponent's melee minion that had walked out independently.

One was his own backline minion with low health.

Just as the health bars of the two were about to cross, the Emperor moved forward as usual to command his sand soldier to attack the backline minion—but Sylas suddenly dashed forward with E!

A single Abduct AE, killing the minion to reach level two.

He struck forward!

Chovy was actually watching those two minions as well.

It was just that what he was looking at was one of his own melee minions in front of his feet, and one of his own melee minions in front of Sylas.

There were two full minions blocking the space between them; if the Emperor took a step back, he could retreat directly into the minion pile, and even if Sylas killed the minion with EA, he still had...

But at this moment, he realized.

His melee minion had "run off" just a moment before, almost simultaneously!

{The target-seeking mechanism of melee minions causes them to immediately run toward a new target once they lose their close-range target.

This trick had played a crucial role in the match where Ye Bo faced Rookie, and it could be considered one of Ye Bo's signature laning techniques: cleverly using minion aggro and attack intervals to find the perfect moment to strike.

The Abduct chain pierced through the obstruction of the minion wave, rushing forward through the thick of the army, heading straight for the Emperor's head!

But at this moment.

The Emperor suddenly became as light as a swallow, his body "floating" in place, and a fleeting {shield} flashed on his body.

Remember that after the Emperor hit level two earlier, he hadn't rushed to use Q to harass.

Chovy hadn't leveled a skill at level two; in the instant the chain was flying through the air, seeing that he couldn't dodge because his own minions had "moved" away—he performed the split-second operation of Ctrl+E+E to instantly level up the skill!

The Emperor's E skill, 【Shifting Sands】, not only deals the exact same {damage} as the Q skill when hitting an opponent.

It also grants the Emperor an additional, not-so-thin shield.

It was precisely this shield.

Originally, Sylas's instant level-two E-into-E-AA-Electrocute combo would have been a guaranteed winning trade, but after the Emperor used his W to force a retreat with a sand soldier poke, the trade was leveled out to a draw.

This was Ye Bo's second impression of Chovy: "high-value" base ability.

Simply put, it was talent.

The reason he called it talent was because when Ye Bo watched some of the opponent's ranked replays, he discovered that the opponent could display the same response ability even when practicing new heroes; this clearly wasn't a reaction achieved only through proficiency with a specific hero.

However, Ye Bo had still achieved his goal.

If the Emperor had learned the Q skill, this E hit would have resulted in a health advantage for Sylas in the mid lane, and the opponent wouldn't have dared to move afterward.

And although the Emperor managed to trade health to a draw by instantly learning E, the cooldown of a level one E is a full 22 seconds!

This would also cause the Emperor to not dare to easily leave the protection of the minion wave for the next 22 seconds.

"Chovy's reaction is so fast, as expected of him!" roared the "Super Fan" Emperor on the LCK commentary desk.

"The two sides in the mid lane have had a trade, and Peanut is also heading to his own bottom jungle to farm, choosing to take the F6s first to reach level two."

"Hey, what is Graves doing!"

It could be seen on the mini-map.

Graves, having cleared two jungle camps at level one and grabbing the Gromp on the way to reach level three, had no intention of ganking mid or top.

Instead, Graves continued to push deeper into the jungle until he was near the back of the mid lane's first turret.

Then, he walked directly through the enemy defensive towers!

At the junction between the inner and outer mid turrets, he used Quickdraw to dash, crossing that forbidden zone without taking a single turret shot, and charged into the enemy's other half of the jungle to hunt down Sejuani.

"Wow, wow, wow! We've seen this scene before!" Wawa exclaimed, pounding his chest in excitement.

"It's you again! Little Peanut!"

Miller couldn't hide the smile on his lips: "This is really too similar. Remember, just in this year's LCK, Canyon's Nidalee killed Little Peanut's Hecarim exactly like this!"

"It's just that that match was more about showcasing the jungle dominance and suppression of the Nidalee hero, while this match is more about the level one design and mid lane priority!"

"You can see Sylas has already moved first, while the Emperor hasn't moved at all; Little Peanut seems to be forced to give up this red buff area!"

When Peanut saw the position of that Graves, his mind immediately recalled that painful memory from the first half of the year.

Although the outcome of that match was that they completed a comeback despite being ten thousand gold behind.

But what couldn't be denied was that in that jungle, he was truly outclassed by Canyon, and his right to breathe in the jungle was stripped away.

Under normal circumstances, Graves versus Sejuani in the jungle is just a fifty-fifty matchup.

And in this match, Gen. had already banned the key top-lane Renekton, and EDG's top and mid didn't actually have "absolute priority," which was a completely different approach from that DK game.

The problem was that when Peanut sent a request for support to his teammates.

The top lane gave a timely response, but the mid lane replied with "I can't come!"

From Chovy's perspective, he wasn't wrong.

The Emperor didn't even have the Q skill to command sand soldiers; if he went to support in the jungle, he could only place a W sand soldier there to stand guard sluggishly!

Not to mention the E skill still had over ten seconds left.

Once he was forcibly engaged and caught on the way, it was very likely that the Emperor would become the target instead!

"Peanut is being driven out of his own jungle... although he was very meticulous in quickly using Smite to kill the F6s to reach level two, Graves is already level three!" The Roaring Emperor couldn't hide his heartache.

"Sylas has also disappeared from the mid lane, the deterrence is maxed out; he can only give up his bottom jungle!"

"And Jiejie is being very excessive! He isn't even going to take the red buff; he just wants to follow Sejuani. This doesn't even give him a chance to swap jungles! He wants to wipe him out!"

The Roaring Emperor turned his head to look at a mature man wearing a baseball jacket sitting beside him.

He was also today's LCK guest commentator, the S7 champion jungler Ambition.

"Ambition, what do you think should be done in this jungle?"

Although the current Gen. didn't actually have much to do with Samsung, even the team itself still hung Samsung's honors on the base wall, signifying a legacy.

And as a Samsung legend, Ambition naturally had deep ties with Gen. , and often filmed variety documentaries together, which was why he was invited to commentate on this semi-final.

"Actually, this mid lane situation is a bit..."

As a jungler himself, Ambition certainly felt more empathy for the jungle position, and he hesitated.

But he soon said with a calm face: "It's not a big problem; Wanghu has a lot of experience with this situation."

A remark that was hard to tell if it was praise or mockery, but it really hit the nail on the head.

Peanut really did have a lot of experience.

If this were before the S10 season, after this happened, he could basically go find the referee to borrow a phone to play with.

Back then, however much jungle you missed, you would be behind in experience for the rest of the game; unless you went to steal your teammates' lane farm, you would never make up for that gap!

Unfortunately, ever since the "Jungle Experience Compensation" mechanism was added in the S11 mid-season, the rewards for counter-jungling had dropped sharply.

And Peanut's response is—don't rush to farm the jungle!

Yes, not only is he not going to desperately try to swap jungle quadrants.

But he is simply not farming the jungle at all for now!

Because "Jungle Experience Compensation" only grants extra experience compensation when you reach 2 levels behind, and for every additional level you are suppressed, you get an extra 50%.

Waiting until Graves reaches level 4 before he starts farming means that for every 1 camp he clears, it's equivalent to clearing 1. camps.

Only this can maximize the catch-up speed!

Practice makes perfect; this is all experience gained from getting his head bashed in!

3 minutes and 20 seconds.

Graves is level 4, Sejuani is level 2.

24 CS to 4 CS!

The good news is that Sejuani has looped back to her own top-side jungle, killed the top river scuttle to reach 8 CS, and even harassed the top lane.

Although it is obvious that a level 2 Sejuani has no ability to gank Gnar, and didn't even touch Gnar's backside—she did successfully leech a bit of top lane minion experience.

She leveled up to three directly!

This is the power of the damn "experience compensation."

As for why Sejuani didn't gank mid or invade the opponent's red quadrant, the reason is also simple.

Because he doesn't know Graves's location right now, and Sylas just left the lane, so he can't be sure where the opponent's vision is placed.

Once Sejuani enters the enemy jungle and gets spotted, if the enemy Graves comes to surround her, she might just end up as pork filling on the spot!

Fortunately, this trend won't last too long.

After all, EDG doesn't have absolute lane priority in the mid lane this game.

The reason they could support early before level three was only because the key chain hit at level two drained health, and at the same time, Graves was watching over the back jungle, making Azir afraid to push the wave quickly.

But after level three, Azir's laning advantage over Sylas will gradually emerge, and he will slowly regain lane priority by relying on his range advantage.

Once there is lane priority in the mid lane, it will be Sylas's turn to farm under the tower.

With one more person in the jungle, they can naturally guard it.

Peanut is very savvy; the only ward he has on him wasn't placed at the jungle entrance to protect himself.

Instead, it was placed directly in the river on both sides near the mid lane to escort the mid lane's suppression—because only if Azir maintains the advantage can he possibly defend the jungle!

If both mid laners come together, they will undoubtedly lose the fight!

"The mid lane has already exerted a suppressive effect; Sylas is now pinned under the tower and unable to move. This is his dominance!" the Roaring Emperor clenches his fists.

"This game really depends on you, Chovy!"

"However, the jungle is about to be invaded again; Graves will definitely come this time," the arms-crossed PawN says coldly: "Whether they can defend this wave is critical."

It's almost 4 minutes, the time for the second wave of jungle camps to respawn.

It's not just those with a god's-eye view who know this; Peanut on the field knows it even better.

He had to scavenge everywhere and eat from a hundred families just to reach level three.

But Graves is already level four, and he holds both buffs, having recalled to buy items, creating an equipment gap.

If this is an even 1v1 or 2v2 in the jungle, it's still hard to have a winning chance.

The only way is to have one more person on their side.

But Ornn in the top lane clearly has no reason to push Gnar's wave, and Flandre isn't in a rush to push either; as long as the wave is kept near the center, it's enough.

Then, it can only depend on the mid lane.

"Hey, Ji-hoon, can you push this wave in?" Peanut says toward the mid lane.

"I can't give up this top-side jungle anymore, otherwise when Graves hits level six, I might only be level four, and I might not even hit six by 8 minutes."

Chovy gives a very confident "Mm."

Both side bushes have vision detection, so he isn't worried at all that Graves will come to gank him, and he can suppress without restraint.

As long as there is wave pressure, Sylas cannot stand within the minion wave, so the only way he can approach Azir is by landing a long-range E, but that is clearly no easy task.

Chovy also once again demonstrated his understanding of minion wave control.

Through "Extreme Health Last-Hitting" and "Killing Ranged Minions First," he forcibly delayed the wave that should have pushed into the tower long ago, waiting for the second wave to arrive, and then created a large hoard of minions to crash into the tower together.

{The more extreme the health when last-hitting, the smaller the theoretical impact on the wave.

{Ranged minions have twice the attack power of melee minions; killing them first allows your own melee minions to die slower, resulting in more minions remaining when crashing into the tower.

"Jiejie, be careful with this invade, I might not be able to move," Ye Bo says, reminding him as he watches the incoming wave.

"OK, then I'll just go harass a bit; if it doesn't work, I'll farm our own quadrant!"

For Graves, it wasn't strictly necessary to invade Sejuani again this time; he had already gained enough.

Anyway, his own two jungle quadrants were still waiting to be farmed, and there were plenty of camps to clear; this was just a choice of whether to "finish them off."

But just at this moment.

Ye Bo notices that the opponent doesn't seem to be leaving directly.

He sees that although Azir has already pushed the wave into the tower and could leave now to support the jungle, he hasn't.

From a god's-eye view, one could guess that Chovy feels Graves wouldn't dare to invade again after seeing the wave, and since Sylas can't clear this wave quickly, he would still have time to support once he sees the person.

But Chovy himself doesn't actually think that way.

What he sees is that because Sylas used his body to draw minion aggro, the wave clashed with the opponent's second wave before entering the tower, failing to fully enter and transfer aggro to the defense tower.

Simply put, this will cause Azir to miss half a wave of minions.

This is Ye Bo's slight displacement compensation for the opponent wanting to roam and support, which can also be considered a relatively standard {laning technique}.

But this really does make Chovy feel a bit of heartache!

Anyway, Sylas can't push this wave no matter what... it'll be fine to go once I see Graves, right?

Thinking this, Azir decisively sets up an unrestricted Sand Soldier outside the edge of the tower, stabbing fiercely at the melee minions inside the tower from 325 yards away.

He kills the three minions that were supposed to be missed first, then last-hits the cannon minion as well.

Chovy then looks at Sylas, who is "rushing" and messy while farming under the tower, having even missed a few minions.

He just feels completely refreshed!

"Come quickly, Ji-hoon! Graves is inside!" The control ward placed at the jungle entrance detects Graves, and Peanut immediately calls for help.

"Coming, coming."

Chovy says this, but Azir's body still hasn't moved immediately.

He wants to wait 2 more seconds.

Because right in front of Sylas is a cannon minion about to be killed by the tower, and it's obvious Sylas is going to last-hit this cannon.

Azir had previously deliberately placed the Sand Soldier near the cannon minion.

If Sylas dares to use Q or his passive to last-hit the cannon now, the AOE damage splash will directly disrupt the tower-farming health, causing him to miss at least four or five minions!

And if Sylas just walks up to last-hit, he will have to be poked for free by Azir's AQAA!

Not to mention his health dropping, if Sylas uses his E to pull away while holding his passive, he will still fall into the dilemma of AOE disrupting the tower farm, unable to attack and forced to miss minions.

The data of Chovy averaging 18. more CS than his opponents during the laning phase is exactly how he achieves it through these detailed confrontations.

However, he clearly doesn't know his opponent this game well enough.

Because not everyone is like him—viewing CS as the only "victory indicator" of laning.

Seeing Sylas step up to auto-attack, Azir immediately drives the Sand Soldier to strike.

But just at this moment, Sylas switches to a short Q to last-hit the cannon while damaging the back-line minions!

The E dash forward to break the enemy's forbidden arts, combined with the AOE of the Q, although it disrupts the tower-farming health, also instantly tears a gap through the wall of Azir's soldiers!

Another Abduct chain passes through the minion wave.

Azir has just finished lifting his hand to drive the Sand Soldier, and it is exactly the backswing of his attack interval!

Fortunately, Chovy reacts with lightning speed, instinctively pulling back one step toward his own minions on the left to try and block it.

However.

That chain from Sylas is clearly a bit "crooked."

Following that, the chain that visually seemed to brush past the right shoulder—acts as if it "extended" sideways to forcibly bind Azir!

This is the "End-point Compensation" mechanism of Sylas's E.

"It's this ghost whip in the middle of the minion wave again!" Guan Zeyuan shouts with wide eyes.

"Ye's Sylas is running Electrocute this game, the burst damage is quite terrifying! A full combo of E-A-W-A-A-A drops Azir to half health instantly!"

"But Chovy can't accept being hit for free; he drives the Sand Soldier to counter with QA, also dropping Sylas to half health."

"Looking at the health trade, it's still a wash, because Sylas is tanking the minion wave after all, but Azir... it seems he can't support the jungle anymore!?"

Although Chovy's counter-attack was decisive, looking at the health trade, this wave still isn't much of a gain.

But Azir is only at half health now; how can he go to the jungle?

A level four Graves with two long swords might just stand his ground against this Sejuani and blow you up!

Even if it just forces out a Flash, it would make Azir's subsequent laning extremely uncomfortable!

"Jiejie, he didn't go, you invade!" Ye Bo quickly conveys the information.

"Flandre, keep an eye out for support!"

Receiving the signal, Graves carries his big barrel and aggressively charges into the jungle.

The level one Graves snuck around, but now Graves is starting the Wolves right in front of Sejuani!

Peanut can only stand above and watch him farm.

And when he turns to look at the mini-map, he discovers that the mid-laner Azir hasn't come over at all.

"Hey! Ji-hoon?"

"Uh, I can come over," Chovy muttered.

The Emperor of the Sands could have originally flanked directly from the entrance, two-on-one surrounding the incoming Graves and even forcing a Flash.

But at this moment, because he was only at half health, he couldn't risk "showing his face" to block Graves, so he had to slowly take the long way around, circling from the entrance in front of his own middle tier-two tower into the jungle.

Still due to his health, the Emperor of the Sands only dared to poke forward with W-Q, trying to threaten Graves as much as possible from maximum range.

Ornn in the top lane did get up to rush over, but Gnar followed closely behind; with his wall-hopping dash, his arrival speed might even be faster.

"Should we fight? Gnar has his Rage," Doran called out to warn them.

"Axi... forget it, Sylas seems to be coming over too."

Peanut bit his teeth hard, but still made the correct decision.

It comes back to that same point: with the fighting advantage Graves and Sylas had at this moment, they had absolutely no chance of winning a small-scale skirmish with equal numbers!

If you can't beat them, then start running and avoid the fight.

It wasn't the first time they'd run, anyway.

"Peanut has been chased out of the jungle again!?" the Roaring Emperor raised his voice: "Wait, this wave... Chovy should have come directly, right?"

An-zhangmen was not so polite, his voice low and his gaze sharp: "Coming directly would have certainly defended this jungle. He dragged it out too long in the middle lane; Sylas had almost finished clearing the minion wave by the time he arrived."

"And he even let Sylas trade away so much of his health."

This key turning point, where Sejuani had finally managed to claw back a little bit of level difference using experience compensation, was immediately widened again!

Sejuani could only go to the bottom half to eat the Scuttle Crabs; it was entirely thanks to those two Scuttle Crabs that she reached a CS of 12.

But Graves's CS had already reached 32.

【An-zhangmen, stop pretending, hurry up and take out the baseball bat from under the table!】

【Peanut? Pea-nut! What kind of stuff is this jungler playing?】

【How can you blame the jungler for this? Isn't this wave purely the mid-laner's fault? If I were the jungler, I wouldn't even want to play. You come only after the fight is over! Here to lick up the scraps, are you?】

【Chovy: The minions seduced me!】

【This can't be blamed on our Chovy. I said it just now, this Gen. coach loves to let Master Ye have Sylas, right? Just wait, this is only the beginning!】

【Doesn't matter, Gen. never had an advantage in the early game anyway, just turtle up, they'll definitely turn it around at 30 minutes!】

The Emperor of the Sands and Sylas both recalled and then TP'd back to lane.

Peanut, heading toward the bottom half, had originally wanted to go to the opponent's bottom half to try and swap jungle camps.

However, the hidden danger of lane priority manifested.

Because their own bottom lane was Varus and Tahm Kench, they certainly had no qualifications to contest lane priority in the early game.

Conversely, the opponent's Kalista and Ashe basically pushed whenever they wanted and recalled whenever they wanted, and Ashe's occasional E 【Hawkshot】 could also scout Sejuani's position, leaving them with no worries.

Once Sejuani wanted to enter the opponent's blue buff area, Kalista and Ashe would inevitably be able to arrive first!

Time reached 5 minutes.

EDG relied on their jungle advantage to start the Dragon directly, which was the only thing that traded a bit of survival resources for Sejuani.

And that extremely smooth-farming Graves reached level six at just five and a half minutes, the same as the solo laners in the middle and top!

Meanwhile, Sejuani was still only level four, only able to wander around the Summoner's Rift looking for the leftovers Graves had finished eating.

"Jiejie, after you finish counter-jungling this wave, you can come and try to gank the Emperor of the Sands, just hit your skills," Ye Bo commanded.

"OK, then I'll flank!"

Graves was currently doing whatever he pleased in the jungle, as if entering an empty land.

Sejuani couldn't possibly harbor any thoughts of resistance, fearing only that she wouldn't be able to avoid him, and this gave Graves even more room to gank.

It was just a pity that both the top and bottom lanes for Gen. were indeed combinations that were very hard to gank, and their playstyle was also incredibly steady.

Although Graves appeared behind them a few times, he didn't achieve any results, so Ye Bo ultimately commanded the jungler to focus on counter-jungling to continue consolidating his advantage.

And the middle lane was actually the same.

After Chovy reached level six, his laning became noticeably bolder.

Level six for the Emperor of the Sands counts as a small qualitative change.

Besides being a powerful life-saving skill, the "Shurima Shuffle" can often provide a decisive effect, or even a solo kill.

And if someone hadn't seen the reasons for the previous confrontations and only looked at the stats and CS, they would certainly think Chovy's laning this game was quite successful, because he really did out-CS Sylas by quite a bit.

But Chovy knew he couldn't do much; his Emperor of the Sands had never been the type of playstyle that liked to roam around everywhere using his ultimate to catch people, so he wanted to maximize his advantage in the lane.

"Graves is here! But Chovy's positioning is very careful!"

Graves slid out from the Raptors pit with a Quickdraw.

But Chovy, suppression aside, was not positioned particularly far forward; he could walk back under the tower in just a few steps.

So when he saw Graves, he felt no ripples in his heart.

He even had some ideas!

Of course, Graves and Sylas also had Flash.

And Sylas's E2, like Pyke's Q, had the potential to "pluck" the Emperor of the Sands out of the air, so the risk of performing a "Reverse Shuffle" was too high.

The way Xu Xiu was solo-killed was still fresh in his memory.

Chovy, of course, wouldn't take that kind of risk.

Furthermore, there had been a demonstration before with that "Pyke E blocking the Emperor of the Sands," and the Emperor of the Sands' W+E had an extremely obvious wind-up; if he used it at close range, it was very likely to be interrupted by Sylas's synchronized E.

So the Emperor of the Sands didn't use any skills, just walked toward the tower.

And just at this moment.

Sylas suddenly dashed forward with E and threw out his Q skill to slow him!

Chovy was frantically moving around in place to dodge, but he actually had many thoughts in his mind.

He wasn't worried at all about the opponent stealing his ultimate to push him out; after all, he still had Flash as a backup, and if Sylas used his R, the Emperor of the Sands would definitely have time to "counter-push."

On the contrary, if the opponent gave him an opening, he might even be able to get the opponent's Flash for free, or even a kill!

Sylas acted as if he hadn't noticed the danger, still bravely moving forward through the slow.

Graves sprayed a smokescreen to continue applying the slow, but the Emperor of the Sands, who had already walked into the defensive tower, still had his fingers placed steadily on the keyboard in advance.

The Emperor of the Sands actually looked like he was no longer in danger.

Although the smokescreen could block vision, as long as someone was close to your face, you could still clearly see all the enemy's movements!

And although Sylas's E2 had a 0. 5-second crowd control.

But counting the time Sylas spent flying, it was actually almost over by the time he landed.

So, if Sylas wanted to land an E and then use R to push, due to the {delayed push} of the Emperor of the Sands' R, the Emperor of the Sands would certainly be able to counter-push with his own R—that would result in Sylas and Graves being pushed into the tower!

And the Emperor of the Sands himself would only be pushed out of the tower!

Chovy's thinking was already extremely deep, and he also believed there was no reason for the opponent to attack again.

But he didn't expect...

The next moment, a figure using 【Kingslayer】 appeared right in his face!

At the same time, the Imperial Phalanx of the Usurper had already appeared!

'He's actually going for it!?'

Chovy felt horrified for a moment, but he quickly executed the operation he had already prepared.

Facing the direction of the defensive tower, he precisely pushed out the 【Emperor's Divide】!

The Emperor of the Sands' body was the first to be tossed high into the air, flying outside the tower, quickly leaving the cover of the smokescreen... but then he instantly fell into a {Stun}, stopping in mid-air!

Immediately after, what came into view—was actually Sylas, who was still in the same spot and hadn't been pushed into the defensive tower by the counter-push!

"Crowd control cancellation!!!"

"This used Abduct to cancel the knockback!? My god, can this even be cancelled!?"

The crowd in the OB view, whose vision wasn't blocked by the smokescreen, let out sharp cries.

Just because within that vision just now.

Sylas, surprisingly, hadn't been displaced by that 【Emperor's Divide】 wall crashing toward him!

"Abduct colliding with the sand wall"!

Graves, who had already retreated to position in advance, dashed over and exploded damage with a rotating Q-A.

Seeing this, Chovy realized immediately that things were going badly; he didn't hesitate to use Flash to escape upon landing, but his health had plummeted and he still needed to recall.

And more importantly, after both mid-laners went to support the jungle in the previous wave, they had already used their TP!

Teleport in this version couldn't be used on wards before 14 minutes; in the early game, it was basically a laning skill that you "use early to get it on cooldown," with no point in deliberately saving it, especially for Chovy, who wouldn't want to lose even half a percent.

But this time, although the Emperor of the Sands didn't die.

There were at least two waves of minions pushed into the tower, plus nearly two plating stacks.

That was enough to cost him his "life"!

"Oh, Chovy," the Roaring Emperor's face looked ugly.

"But this actually can't be blamed on him; no one could have expected Sylas to be able to cancel the crowd control like that. Originally, he should have been able to force the opponent's Flash, and then the Emperor of the Sands could have just E-Q'd away easily!"

"But the good news is, these minion waves can go to the jungler..."

Sejuani, who was already searching for pig feed around the Rift, naturally came over happily, hopping along to soak up some experience.

Of course, because Graves was level six and still had his ultimate, and Sylas was also in good shape.

Sejuani didn't dare to get close to the tower in the face of these two people with terrifying burst damage... so she just stood behind the wall "sniffing" for experience.

Chovy's face was extremely ugly.

But what he didn't know was that after this wave was over, Ye Bo had started to have other ideas...

It is approaching 8 minutes.

Even for Sejuani, who has soaked up some mid-lane experience, there is still a slight distance to go before hitting level six.

Gen. decisively chooses to abandon the contest for the Rift Herald and trade resources instead.

"EDG's bot lane is playing so comfortably this game; two ranged champions suppressing the farm, devouring turret plates, and even constantly coordinating with the jungler to invade!" Wawa says this while looking at the CS gap in the bot lane.

"Actually, I feel like EDG's bot lane is still intentionally delaying the turret push; they just want to keep compressing your living space like this," Miller analyzes with a straight face.

"And this phenomenon should change after this Rift Herald!"

EDG's top, mid, and jungle take the Rift Herald but head straight to the mid lane.

"Huh? EDG wants to drop the Herald mid, not bot?" Guan Zeyuan frowns in confusion: "Although Sylas is indeed more uncomfortable in the laning phase, it's probably hard to crash into the tier-one turret like this."

"No matter what, this is still an Azir; the room for outplays under the turret is infinite!"

Peanut's Sejuani is taking advantage of the mid and jungle being away to hurry into the opponent's bottom quadrant to steal jungle camps—this is actually the core of Gen. 's "Turtle Formation."

The Turtle Formation is not simply avoiding fights; that would be called a "waiting-to-die" formation.

The core of the Turtle Formation is that if there is no 100% certainty of winning, then don't fight; use resources to trade for resources and drag out time for the carries to scale.

"Do I need to come over and help you defend?" Peanut asks after seeing the mid and jungle duo appear in the mid lane.

"No need, they should just be crashing for a plate."

Chovy's voice sounds quite confident; he does not believe there is any possibility of him dying under the turret.

The play from 2 minutes ago had many accidental factors, and he truly did not know that Sylas's E skill could also be used to cancel crowd control like that.

But he will not give the same opportunity a second time.

To put it bluntly, as long as he maintains a good distance and doesn't give Sylas a chance to get close, Sylas's E can only be used for dashing.

And as long as Sylas uses his E skill as an initiator, Azir can easily use Emperor's Divide to separate and protect himself, creating room for outplays!

However.

Just as he finished saying these words, the moment the director's focus shifted to the mid lane.

Everyone's eyes suddenly widened in shock.

Screams erupted in all directions!

It is seen that Sylas and Graves have arrived in the mid lane to push the wave normally.

But just at this moment, Sylas suddenly dashes forward with E for no reason, crossing the minion wave!

While retreating, Chovy moves left and right; it is impossible to give the same opportunity again.

However, Sylas seems to only chase for half a step, and as if feeling he cannot aim, he abandons the thought.

It looks like he casually throws the second part of his E skill toward the minion wave behind him, wanting to return.

But, at this very moment.

Killing intent surges for no reason!

Just as the chains fly out, the instant before they hit a minion—the golden light of a forward Flash and the chains "hidden" within 【Hijack】 are unleashed simultaneously!

{R Hijack can be used in the air during the E2 cast, before hitting a unit}

The terrifying "mid-air theft" of Emperor's Divide is ready in an instant; the moment he lands from the Flash, Sylas transforms into the Emperor of the Sands, raising his staff high and pushing outward from the "rearmost" starting point.

He drags the other Azir far away and out of the turret!

At the same time, Sylas's figure is also pulled out of the turret by the abduction, completing a parallel movement with the landing Azir, and he unleashes a Kingslayer thrust in mid-air!

It is like a lightning-fast "Hijack Flash," flashing suddenly in the mid-air of the mid lane!

《EE-Hidden-R-Flash-R Abduction·Emperor's Divide》!

Hijack plunders the authority of the Emperor!

The Kingslayer trajectory pulled by the abduction!

The waiting Graves quickly Quickdraws forward, using the Emperor's Divide as a "rebound wall" to instantly burst out his Q and R, unleashing the flames of death!

The squishy chicken has already been cooked into a roast chicken by gunpowder and shackles before even landing.

In his seat, Chovy's pupils dilate sharply.

The venue is being stirred into a frenzy by this magical kill!

(End of chapter)