Chapter 149 Another Invasion of the Blue Zone

Meanwhile, the Eastern Emperor and Golden Cicada were hurrying nonstop toward the blue buff jungle on Lin Hao's side.

Xishi and the Taurus Demon arrived shortly after, only to see the opposing Mirror already walking straight into the blue buff area.

"Your blue buff is probably gone," Xinran gently reminded him.

Though she couldn't see it, Lin Hao shrugged with a helpless expression. "Luna is just like that in the early game. If you guys had picked something like Chang'e at the start, you might have been able to defend it, but there's nothing Xishi can do."

"Oh, my! You're blaming this on me?" Xinran teased. "I was first-pick, you know."

Lin Hao and Xinran's other three teammates felt utterly bewildered during the normal laning phase.

The enemy had invaded to this extent, and he could still laugh about it?

However, both side lanes were currently focusing intently on their respective matchups. With good execution from Gongsun Li and the Old Master early on, they might be able to suppress Di Renjie and Charlotte to a certain extent.

Lin Hao turned off his microphone and began explaining to the audience: "When playing Luna against an aggressive jungler, you must never fall into the opponent's rhythm. If they invade, judge the strength of your teammates in the early game. If you can fight, take the fight. If you completely can't fight in the early game like this match, then just let it go. Starting with a single buff isn't the end of the world."

At last, Lin Hao added, "Soak up a few waves of mid-lane minion gold, and your economy will bounce right back."

...

On Weiliang's end, when he walked into Lin Hao's jungle, the Luna he imagined would be taking the blue buff was nowhere to be seen.

Just giving up the blue side like that?

Weiliang actually harbored a bit of competitive drive in his heart.

As it turned out, whenever he played jungle, he usually focused on farming gold and scaling. Even when playing a hero like Mirror, he rarely initiated early invasions.

This match was mostly because his own support, the Eastern Emperor, was brimming with enthusiasm and communicated an invasion strategy right from the start.

Coupled with the fact that Weiliang had previously crossed paths with Lin Hao and gotten outplayed, he now desperately wanted to use his signature Mirror to turn the tables.

Yet, failing to find Lin Hao's Luna in the jungle felt just like throwing a punch at a clump of cotton.

Pinging the blue buff for his team's AD carry, Di Renjie, to check if Luna was stealing it, Weiliang immediately started clearing the blue buff himself.

From this position, the Taurus Demon didn't dare to charge straight in, and Xishi's burst damage simply wasn't enough.

Weiliang held onto his Smite tightly and ultimately succeeded in securing the blue buff, after which he immediately retreated toward his own red buff.

A three-buff start—although he had been poked down by nearly half his health by Xishi and the blue buff across the wall, retreating to farm his own jungle would allow him to sustain himself.

After clearing his red side jungle, Lin Hao arrived in the mid lane.

"Even though our blue buff is gone this wave, the enemy jungler's health isn't great either, and he needs to rush back to clear his jungle to avoid delaying his second respawn timer. So, this river crab belongs to us. Of course, the wave of minions in the mid lane is something we'll be sharing a bit of as well."

After consuming this wave of resources, he headed to the blue jungle to pick up a small neutral camp.

All things considered, apart from missing a buff's passive and having slightly insufficient mana, he didn't fall behind much in terms of economy.

Next, after finishing his entire jungle camp, Lin Hao went to the mid lane again to soak minion experience and gold.

This minion wave was entirely given to Lin Hao, while Xishi went to the top lane to gank Charlotte. Teaming up with the Old Master, they forced Charlotte to burn a Flash and escape in a panic.

The time arrived for the second blue buff spawn.

At this moment, the enemy once again cleared the mid-lane minion waves with priority, preparing to group up at Lin Hao's blue buff.

"Let's take a fight in the blue jungle."

"Coming, coming! I've got my ultimate ready for this wave."

Lin Hao and Xinran communicated with each other.

The Old Master was also moving closer to Lin Hao's blue buff.

However, the Taurus Demon had gone to cover Gongsun Li, so he definitely wouldn't be able to rotate over in a short time.

As for the opposing team, once the blue buff respawned, Mirror, the Golden Cicada, and the Eastern Emperor could all be seen arriving.

The Eastern Emperor walked at the very front, and Xishi immediately threw out her first skill, precisely hitting the Eastern Emperor.

"Pull him over, pull him over!"

Lin Hao hurriedly shouted.

In his vision, the enemy formation had already developed a fracture; the Eastern Emperor was caught in front being pulled, while Mirror was still lingering near the river. As for the Golden Cicada, he was separated from the blue buff by a wall.

Xinran hesitated for a moment. Pulling him here was only meant to poke the Eastern Emperor, but since their marksman hadn't arrived yet, there was certainly nothing they could realistically do to the Eastern Emperor.

Still, Xinran followed Lin Hao's instructions.

The Eastern Emperor was forced toward Luna. The moment he laid eyes on Luna, his eyes lit up; upon breaking free from the control effect, he immediately used his ultimate to suppress Luna.

However, at this point, Mirror and the Golden Cicada were still quite a distance away from the Eastern Emperor.

Weiliang frowned slightly. Suppressing Luna right now was a bit too early.

Since the suppression had landed, though, Weiliang instantly chained his first and third skills. Mirror closed the distance in a fraction of a second, unleashing a full combo of burst damage onto Lin Hao's Luna!

Meanwhile, the Golden Cicada flashed across the wall, his first skill landing accurately on the bound Luna, followed immediately by his second skill.

Golden radiance flashed everywhere as a flurry of abilities converged on Luna, plunging his health bar down to just one-third in an instant.

Lin Hao merely smiled faintly.

Just like that?

Afterwards, as the Eastern Emperor's suppression ended, Lin Hao activated his second skill, pulling Mirror and the Eastern Emperor close to him.

With a sweep of his third skill, Lin Hao began to take flight—though he was flying right inside the Golden Cicada's restriction circle.

Seeing Lin Hao's health plummet in the blink of an eye, the audience originally thought this team fight was already lost.

Yet, it seemed it wasn't over yet?

Two more seconds passed, and the Golden Cicada's restriction curse finally ended, allowing Lin Hao to begin his execution.

Having intentionally adjusted his positioning earlier, his first skill had marked the nearby blue buff. With a single graceful glide, Lin Hao zipped over to the vicinity of the blue buff, instantly breaking away from the focus fire.

Weiliang reacted swiftly as well, executing a position swap the moment Lin Hao flew toward the blue buff.

He had rushed in from the narrow jungle entrance, deploying his mirror domain horizontally. After swapping, he followed up with a basic attack to reset his first skill, charging straight at Luna!

However, Lin Hao landed a third basic attack to apply a mark to the blue buff, and vaulted right back out over the wall!

That fatal first skill failed to connect entirely!

"Anger value from Weiliang +200!"

The feeling of being anticipated and predicted truly felt awful.

That was the sole thought running through Weiliang's mind at that moment.

Just then, at the entrance of the blue jungle, the Old Master on Lin Hao's side came lumbering over.

The moment Weiliang caught sight of the Old Master, his fingers twitched slightly, and he began executing his mechanics.

At the same time, inside the pit beside the blue buff, those two small lizards had respawned—the ones Weiliang and his teammates had cleared out during their initial invasion, which naturally respawned right after the blue buff.

Following a brief pause, Weiliang's Mirror began darting and flying between the blue buff and the lizards!

Although the crowd control immunity during Mirror's flight had been removed, moving at such blistering speeds made it exceedingly difficult for the Old Master to accurately gauge the movement trajectory and land a Flash-ultimate bind!