Chapter 153 Deliberate Seduction

Luna was still running, but Di Renjie, who possessed the red buff just taken from Gongsun Li, caught up and stuck to her with basic attacks.

Interrupt your ultimate, or die!

A smile had already surfaced on Weiliang's face.

In this wave, on the surface he had seemingly done nothing, but in reality, he had executed a crucial move: using Smite to keep Luna pinned down so that Di Renjie could catch up in time and stay glued to her.

Weiliang's Jing was played precisely like this. He might not be the flashiest streamer, but he knew exactly what to do at any given moment, and his control over damage dealing was nothing short of perfection.

"Ahahaha, Merry Christmas!"

Suddenly, from a blind spot in the river's vision, the figure of Old Master Zhang appeared.

Before Weiliang could even react, Old Master Zhang used a pre-prepared ultimate-flash combo to directly bind Weiliang!

Old Master Zhang delivered two consecutive hits, seamlessly weaving in a first skill to pull and reposition Weiliang.

Lin Hao's first skill finally lit up once more. He unleashed it instantly, marking all three enemies approaching him head-on with a single stroke.

Following that, Lin Hao drifted away using his ultimate, smoothly escaping Jing's attack range.

Now, only Old Master Zhang was left in the front line, pounding away.

Old Master Zhang had bound Weiliang's Jing, but the more he attacked, the closer he drifted toward Di Renjie's position, forcing Di Renjie to retreat backward.

Lin Hao flew off to the side to look for an opening. Seeing Di Renjie's positioning compromised, he eagerly stepped forward, and the moment he entered range, he activated his ultimate to fly right in!

At this point, the desperate ultimate that Di Renjie had thrown out in panic when Luna flew in during the previous skirmish became one of the decisive turning points.

Another flurry of dashes—Lin Hao's Luna was as light as a dragonfly skimming the water, lightly dishing out damage around Di Renjie before pulling back once again, this time flying all the way back under the defense tower.

The Taurus Demon had already charged to the front by now, and Old Master Zhang was growing fiercer with every strike.

The situation on the front line was looking exceptionally bright.

"Pull back, fall back first!"

Weiliang urged in a rush.

However, Weiliang's health was already low to begin with, and he was naturally the first to be beaten down and killed by Old Master Zhang.

Old Master Zhang continued his fierce advance, leaving Jin Chan and Di Renjie with their skills entirely on cooldown, forcing them to retreat.

Charlotte from the opposing team was fashionably late, only arriving at the frontline battle at this very moment.

Old Master Zhang smoothly pulled back, while Lin Hao used the remaining minions to refresh his ultimate, soaring straight back to hunt down the Eastern Emperor.

An Eastern Emperor with scraps of health who had dived the tower without a single skill left was naturally treated as an abandoned piece, easily hunted down and slain by Lin Hao.

In the end, the middle-lane defense tower retained only a third of its health, but it was successfully defended after all.

"I told you we could hold it!"

Lin Hao finally found the time to speak to Xinran.

"Impressive, truly impressive."

Xinran offered a rare word of praise over the microphone.

The viewers in the chat showered them with unending admiration as well.

"This is the art of spacing and pulling!"

"He outplayed Weiliang again, hahaha, I've gotta go check out his stream right now."

"We didn't even lose the tower in the end, that zoning and containment was gorgeous!"

Lin Hao turned off his microphone to explain to the audience: "We were able to pull off those plays mainly because Old Master Zhang rushed down from the top lane, and the Taurus Demon cooperated with me to defend the tower."

"On the surface, the enemy team looked extremely imposing, but in reality, their combat state wasn't all that great. As long as you maintain proper spacing, avoid taking too much damage from their crowd control skills and Di Renjie's basic attacks, you can outplay them."

Of course, the reason they won this exchange in the end was because the enemy team had been reduced to tatters and feared being wiped out, prompting them to play it safe and pull back conservatively.

......

The game progressed, followed by several more small-scale team fights. Unlike the constant skirmishing in the early game, by the mid-game, neither side was initiating heavy tempo—meaning essentially no pick-offs occurred. Both teams focused on steady farming and managing minion waves.

At most, they shifted the rhythm by grouping up to push down a bottom or top lane.

A few skirmishes broke out with wins and losses on both sides, but fatalities remained low, usually serving as opportunities to chip away at enemy towers whenever opponents dropped low on health.

After several rounds of trading, the number of standing towers for both teams remained completely even, maintaining a stalemate that dragged all the way to the 18-minute mark.

Next came the neutral objective spawn point. Neither team seemed to have the cautious mindset of simply trading objectives, choosing instead to focus heavily on the bottom lane.

This was entirely normal; at this stage, the Storm Tyrant was about to spawn, and securing the Overlord was undoubtedly far more profitable than taking the Tyrant.

As long as they secured the Overlord, they could release the dragon buff in the far lane at the 20-minute mark and use the minion wave to pressure and contain the enemy.

This would raise the probability of capturing the Storm Tyrant to eighty percent.

In fact, both teams were more than eager to spark a major team fight over the Overlord.

Lin Hao was farming and pushing the bottom lane.

His teammates were still positioned around the middle lane and the red buff jungle quadrant.

Breaking the usual pattern, after the Taurus Demon cleared the vision in the middle lane bush, it met with zero resistance—not a single shadow of the enemy could be seen.

"Not a single person showing in mid?" Lin Hao pondered for a moment. "They must be coming to gank me."

Xinran reminded him over the mic: "The enemy team might have rotated down to get you, Haoran. Maybe you shouldn't push this wave anymore, pull back first."

Lin Hao didn't speak; his mind was racing at lightning speed.

Where would the enemy be right now...

About ready, probably.

Suddenly, right out in the open, Lin Hao began recalling on the spot.

Once, twice...

The other nine players in the game all focused their attention on the Luna situated right at the intersection of the bottom lane river minion waves, watching him perform a twitchy recall animation right in front of the un-cleared minion wave.

Then, he threw out a single basic attack before immediately resuming the recall.

Weiliang frowned slightly.

If he were playing Luna right now, he would be frantically clearing the wave and preparing to contest the dragon.

So what on earth was this Luna trying to accomplish with this action?

Was someone waiting in the wings?

That was the very first thought that popped into the minds of Weiliang and the others.

After all, they were all top-tier peak tournament players; they never played without using their brains.

"Are we still charging him?"

"We don't dare flank around through the river side, there's no vision."

The enemy team actually started second-guessing themselves.

Given their team composition, they could only play defensively, or wait for the Eastern Emperor to successfully trap Luna with his ultimate, before they could fully commit to the fight.

By the late game, even when grouping up, they didn't dare face-check unwarded bushes.

Just imagine: the moment the Taurus Demon hid in a bush, initiating a fight with a second-stage Earth Shatter, followed up by Xishi's crowd control, with Gongsun Li outputting damage from the flank...

The Eastern Emperor wouldn't even get the chance to cast his ultimate!

This resulted in their vision control being extremely restricted, leaving them too afraid to rashly push through the river to clear the fog of war.

If a referee had been spectating at this exact moment, they would have noticed that the positioning of Weiliang and the other four appeared somewhat hesitant.

"Charge straight in, let's smash this damn Luna to pieces first!"

"There's no way all five of them are counter-ganking, their Xishi just showed in mid a second ago!"

The five players only edged closer to Lin Hao's Luna, yet the Eastern Emperor's Wolf Roar ability remained unactivated.

In such a crucial team fight, losing it would likely mean losing the entire game right then and there. Coupled with Luna's blatantly deliberate recall baiting, the Eastern Emperor simply didn't dare take that risk.

"Charge!"

Suddenly, Weiliang's voice rang out, resolute and unwavering.