The game was three and a half minutes in.
Bad news came from mid lane. Daji and Zhang Fei on Su Hang's team were ambushed by the enemy Sun Wukong. The two could originally have made their escape, but the enemy Sikong Zhen teleported down and used his ultimate to finish them off.
In an instant!
A slight advantage turned into a major disadvantage.
"Damn! Did Sang Jie trade years off his life for those monkey crits? He knocked my full-health Zhang Fei down to a sliver in three whacks."
"Their coordination was too good. Ting An's Sikong Zhen used his ultimate the moment he landed. My Daji didn't even get a chance to use Flash. Sorry, guys, I was careless there."
But the bad news didn't end there. With Su Hang's mid laner and support dead, the enemy used their numbers advantage to invade Dian Wei's red jungle, all five of them: top, mid, jungle, marksman, and support.
"Holy shit, holy shit! The jungle's a war zone!"
Dian Wei, who was rushing from the blue jungle to the red jungle, was like an ant on a hot pan, frantic with anxiety. Once the enemy took control of his red jungle, he could forget about getting another red buff for the rest of the match, or farming passive stacks off the three Peppas.
Round it up, and he was as good as finished.
"Arthur, hurry and teleport to mid."
Dian Wei immediately called for help. "Boss Exalted Emperor, can you come help me defend my jungle?"
Su Hang knew full well how serious losing the red jungle would be, so after clearing his lane, he rushed over without stopping and lingered beside the red buff pit.
Meanwhile, Arthur teleported from top lane to mid and hurried over, shield raised.
Soon, all five enemies appeared in the red jungle and immediately started attacking the three Peppas.
Su Hang quickly used voice-to-text. "Don't rush into a team fight with them yet. Keep your distance and kite them."
But!
"You can kill me, but don't touch my pigs!"
Seeing them attack his precious Peppas, Dian Wei's veins bulged. He lost his reason and went completely mad, leaping into the enemy group with his ultimate and bringing his axe down on Sikong Zhen's face.
"Holy sword, do you see that enemy?"
Seeing Dian Wei go in,
Arthur stopped standing by. He activated his second skill, then locked onto Lady Sun and Jiang Ziya, who were close together, and smashed down with his ultimate, Holy Sword Judgment.
"EX Curry Stick!"
The two attacked one after the other, but instead of dealing the enemy a heavy blow, they found themselves deep in the enemy ranks, putting themselves in danger.
Without his passive fully stacked, Dian Wei was like a dog with a broken back, able only to bark furiously as the enemy focused him down.
Arthur fared no better. His burst combo could have killed the half-health Lady Sun, but Taiyi Zhenren was beside him and used his ultimate to revive him on the spot.
Instead, Arthur was finished off by the enemy Jiang Ziya.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. From the moment the two charged in to their deaths, less than five seconds passed.
"Your mama's kiss, what kind of damage was that? I died before I could even hit my crowd-control cleanse!" Dian Wei's eyes widened.
"Why did you go in, Dian Wei? It'd be one thing if you'd only gotten yourself killed, but you dragged Arthur down too."
"We're screwed. We lost both the lady and the soldiers. That cost us all the way to Grandma's house. Look at what you've done, Dian Wei."
Having calmed down, Dian Wei was deeply regretful. "My bad, my bad, guys. I couldn't hold back and got reckless."
"Ah, unless something unexpected happens, we're going to lose this one."
His teammates' mournful sighs came through the voice channel.
Suddenly.
A domineering voice roared out.
"With thunder! Shatter the darkness!"
Sikong Zhen's figure rose into the air above the red jungle, his ultimate activated.
Dian Wei, Arthur, and the others froze. They were just about to question how the enemy Sikong Zhen's ultimate had come off cooldown so quickly when they noticed something was wrong. Sikong Zhen was pitch-black, and a puppet string was attached to his back.
This wasn't the enemy Sikong Zhen.
It was Yuan Ge's puppet, transformed into Sikong Zhen using his first skill!
"Thunder crashes with the force of ten thousand, breaking through all!"
The instant he landed among the enemies, the blackened Sikong Zhen threw a punch and immediately followed it with a ball of black lightning, instantly killing the low-health Lady Sun. He then turned and drove his elbow into the nearby Jiang Ziya.
Jiang Ziya had neither Flash nor his ultimate, and there was nowhere to run. He took two punches head-on and dropped dead.
Watching both of his team's carries die before his eyes, the support Taiyi flew into a rage. He immediately stuck out his evil tongue and licked the blackened Sikong Zhen, locking him down!
"Come at me together, all who oppose me!"
The blackened Sikong Zhen's health instantly fell to half, but his fighting spirit reached its peak. At the last possible moment, he stepped back to dodge the monkey's overhead strike, then finished him off with two thunderous punches.
The enemy Sikong Zhen, who was low on health and attacking the red buff, saw his teammates fall one after another and hurried through the wall to help. Facing the blackened Sikong Zhen, he unleashed his righteous thunderous fist.
But he had forgotten one thing: he wasn't facing himself, but a blackened Sikong Zhen with his ultimate active.
"Yin and yang draw upon each other, thunder shakes a thousand li!"
The blackened Sikong Zhen fired a lightning ball to lock him down, then followed up with two heavy punches. As he electrocuted the orthodox Sikong Zhen to death, he canceled his transformation.
With his teammates dead one after another, Taiyi decided to go for broke. He charged his first skill and rushed at Yuan Ge's real body, attempting to blow up the culprit.
But just as he was about to hit Yuan Ge's real body with the explosion,
Yuan Ge's real body abruptly vanished, replaced by the puppet that had shed its disguise.
The puppet spun around and locked down the half-health Taiyi.
Yuan Ge's real body blinked forward, flicking two strings from his fingertips. Their crossing point closed around Taiyi Zhenren's throat.
"A death as vivid as life!"
Taiyi Zhenren died on the spot.
The Rift's announcement rang out, shaking everyone to the core.
"Yuan Ge defeated Lady Sun."
"Yuan Ge defeated Jiang Ziya."
"Double kill!"
"Triple kill!"
"Quadra kill!"
"Pentakill!"
The grand, imposing team-wipe announcement rang out.
In his team's red jungle, Yuan Ge recalled his puppet. Corpses littered the ground around him, red as a painting. A recall beam descended as he said, as though admiring his own masterpiece, "Insignificant in life, magnificent in death."
The team voice channel fell deathly silent.
A moment later, excited roars and shouts erupted.
"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Awesome, Yuan Ge!"
"Pentakill! Oh my god, a pentakill! Absolutely badass."
"666, he took out all five of them by himself!"
"Boss Exalted Emperor, you're my god!"
Su Hang smiled calmly, then typed, "Basic moves, no need for 666."
Sang Jie's livestream.
Comments covered the screen, blotting out the sky and sun.
"Your grandma's triangular basket, Yuan Ge got a pentakill? Are you kidding me?"
"The puppet transformed into Sikong Zhen and elbowed his way to four kills, then the puppet and a cross slash finished Taiyi. I'm not dreaming, am I?"
"Is Yuan Ge supposed to be this strong? Am I playing the same game as this Yuan Ge?"
"Turning good makes you thirty percent weaker, turning evil makes you seventy percent stronger. Alas, I'm uncultured, so 'holy shit' will have to carry me through the world!"
"Even so, Yuan Ge was elegant as hell! So damn cool."
Sang Jie, Ting An, and Gu Shi were like Michelangelo's statues, completely petrified on the spot.
None of them had imagined that the enemy Yuan Ge called Exalted Emperor could defy the heavens to such an extent.
"I doubted what Gu Shi said before. I thought he was deliberately hyping Yuan Ge up because he'd been solo killed." Ting An's shoulders trembled, and his eyes were filled with terror. "But after that play, I completely understand."
"This Exalted Emperor is Gui!"
"He's crushing us from a whole other dimension!"