Fantasy Westward Journey: Return to 2005

Chapter 2124 Super Boom Boom Dragon, Undefeated and Advances!

Just when more and more fans had basically accepted Chiaki's retirement.

But he suddenly appeared at the final game of this year's All-Star qualifying tournament!

In fact, when a long-established veteran suddenly appears in a trivial but symbolic match, it is not always a good thing.

This could very well mean that their position within the team has been completely marginalized.

The reason for bringing him on at this time is often simply to trigger a wave of nostalgia.

The timing of Qianqiu's debut coincides perfectly with that of the legendary team mascot.

Bianliang City has achieved four consecutive victories in the first four rounds of the qualifying tournament, with the total time of the four games not even exceeding one hour.

This win rate combined with this efficiency.

Although it hasn't been officially announced, everyone knows it.

Even if they collectively tank in the last round and give points to their opponents.

With their huge advantage from the previous matches, they have secured a spot in the offline tournament!

That's why everyone was so surprised just now.

It's a done deal that Bianliang City will qualify for the offline finals.

At this point, it would be considered professional of them not to give away points to the other side, but they actually brought out Qianqiu, the legendary number one dragon in the game!

Although Chiaki's sudden appearance surprised many longtime viewers.

But after the initial surprise...

As they gradually calmed down, they soon realized that something was amiss—

Making Qianqiu appear in a final battle where the team's advancement had already been secured seems like he's being used as a mascot to force a boost in his popularity.

The more they thought about it, the more something seemed off, and more and more players couldn't help but start typing in the chat of the All-Star official live stream—

"Let's just say, even if Qiu Ge and the whole team just conceded from the start, Bianliang City would basically still qualify for the offline finals, right?"

"That's right, Qiu Ge's performance this time is off, very off!"

"Could this be Qiu-ge's final dance before officially bidding farewell to the Martial God Altar? Please, we can't let this happen!"

"The moment Qiu Ge announced his retirement, he instantly became the number one hater in Bianliang City!"

"Seriously, buddy? What kind of person wants to retire but can't be allowed to?"

"There's no such thing as not allowing refunds; you can get a refund anytime you want. It's just a matter of issuing an announcement. But what's with this whole mess? Are they forcing Brother Qiu out to harvest some nostalgia and then discarding him after he's done his work?"

"I remember the Qiancheng family was quite harmonious internally, so it's unlikely they would resort to such tactics?"

"It's hard to say. It seems like only Brother Cheng from the entire Qiancheng family has ever shown his face. The others are all like shadows. Over the years, they haven't even had a picture of their backs, let alone made a public appearance..."

I increasingly feel that this might be a farewell battle for the ages.

Many of Qianqiu's longtime fans in the live stream couldn't sit still, and even Qiancheng, the clan leader, was dragged out and criticized in various ways.

Meanwhile, the public opinion outside the venue was intensifying.

But then the 30-second countdown at the top of the screen ended.

The final match of the qualifying rounds, which had garnered much attention due to Chiaki's sudden appearance, has finally officially begun!
Ten minutes later.

"Destroyed...destroyed?!"

"Holy crap, the opponent is Chunqiu Tower, who won all four matches in the qualifying rounds! How did they get speedrun by Bianliang City like bots?!"

"That's outrageous! That's way too outrageous!"

"Brother Qiu is unbelievable! That tornado was like a blood-sucking pump. Once it hit, Chunqiu Tower was like a typhoon had passed through, with everyone falling over and crashing. It's too outrageous!"

"Based on his performance in this match, who the hell dares to say that Brother Qiu can't wield a knife anymore?!"

"What a terrifying Dragon Palace! It feels like it's on a completely different level from other Dragon Palaces..."

"Beast was fierce in the first four rounds, but as soon as Qiu Ge came on, he immediately turned back into a kitten doing nothing. It's so funny, hahaha!"

"I feel like... Qiu Ge's appearance this time didn't seem like a farewell, but rather like he was intimidating the teams that had a chance to advance to the offline finals?"

"Hey, you know what, you really do know, I feel the same way!..."

The formidable Chunqiu Tower was wiped out in 10 minutes by Bianliang City, led by Qianqiu, in the final match of the qualifying rounds.

The audience outside the stadium was completely stunned.

Damn, a tornado that deals 1800+ or ​​even 2000+ area damage every time, who can withstand that?!

Under the endless tornadoes that seemed to burn like fire for millennia.

Especially when paired with the Beastmaster and the precise point-killing of the front row's durable attackers.

The Spring and Autumn Pavilion, which couldn't even activate the Arhat skill throughout the entire process, was like a weak little grass in a storm, whipped around by the wind and rain until it was completely disoriented!

They knew Qianqiu was very strong, but after all, the Dragon Palace sect was no longer keeping up with the current version.

Before the start of the game, Chunqiu Tower generally believed that even if Bianliang City was defeated in this round, it would still be a formidable opponent.

However, as long as they can activate the Arhat skill and maintain it consistently, Qianqiu, who lacks high burst damage and cannot exert pressure, may instead become a burden to the team.

But as it turns out, they were wrong, terribly wrong.

Qianqiu's Dragon Palace is completely different from the Dragon Palace of other teams.

His tornado not only hurts terribly when it hits, but it also has a debuff effect!

Although the Dragon Palace sect does not have any spell critical strike bonus, the upper limit is not actually very high if you just rely on equipment.

But the problem is, you can't compete with the sheer number of units he can count in seconds!

It's hard for him to unleash a spell debuff by instantly killing one unit, but what if he instantly kills seven units at once?
Chunqiu Tower became a victim of this bloody experiment.

With its inherently high spiritual power and the newly updated magic-critical equipment, Qianqiu's combat performance is astonishing.

Even with top-tier magic critical strike gear, his spell critical strike chance is still less than 10%.

But if that 10% chance is spread across seven units, the effect is completely different.

From the audience's perspective.

Almost every time Qianqiu makes a move, there's bound to be an unlucky person from Chunqiu Tower who gets hit.

And because the base damage dealt by Qianqiu is already extremely high.

This means that once a critical hit is triggered, any squishy opponent can be instantly killed!

In each round, one person will be either severely injured or instantly defeated by Qianqiu.

In this situation, no matter which team it is, they can only close their eyes and wait for death.

That's why.

After this final match, the audience, who were initially debating whether it was Chiaki's retirement match, immediately changed their tune.

Before the competition, everyone thought that Qianqiu was being used as a mascot to capitalize on nostalgia.

But after he blew up the Spring and Autumn Pavilion with just a few tornadoes.

People couldn't help but start to suspect that this didn't seem like he was going to retire at all; rather, it seemed more like he wanted to use this battle to announce his strong comeback.
It's worth noting that although the new version has been online for a year, players are getting more and more of the new affixes on level 160 equipment.

But before Qianqiu's debut, there had never been a Dragon Palace player on the Martial God Altar who truly stacked up magic explosions.

The Demon King faction does have this, since this sect inherently has a magic critical strike bonus, and now, combined with the magic critical strike stat on the new version's level 160 equipment, stacking a bunch of these stats will have a significant effect.

However, since the Dragon Palace has no way to boost its power, forcibly stacking bonuses would not only be more costly, but also far less effective than the Demon King.

Furthermore, there are very few level 160 equipment pieces that possess both excellent stats and critical strike chance.

For the Dragon Palace, which has already lost its chance to reach the Martial God Altar, piling up these things is utterly meaningless.

But to my utter surprise...

All other Dragon Palace players have defaulted to abandoning the option of stacking spell crit.

As a result, Qianqiu not only picked it up, but even piled it up in a way that created a beautiful effect!
Although the specific hardware specifications are still a mystery.

But one thing is certain: his necklace is an absolute artifact among artifacts, and he also has at least five pieces of equipment with the spell critical strike attribute!

Only by possessing both of these factors could he have achieved such a crushing victory in the previous match.

To achieve this effect, the investment required is so enormous that no one can even imagine!

Then another problem arises.

If Chiaki is really planning to retire after this match.

So, is it really necessary for him to spend a huge amount of money to upgrade himself to such a super magic damage build?
It's true that the players in the Qiancheng family are all top-tier experts.

But even the biggest spenders, no matter how wealthy, would never invest so much money in an account they don't plan to continue playing.

So once you think about it this way, you'll understand.

It's very likely that Qianqiu never intended to back down, regardless of all the previous arguments.

In retrospect, it was all just wishful thinking.

Fortunately.

Although they realized that the previous argument was pointless, no one felt embarrassed by being proven wrong; instead, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

A good Chihō is one that never retires.

In particular, Qianqiu has not become weaker due to being a substitute for a long time. Instead, with the support of the new 160 magic crit equipment, it has become a super crit dragon.

Many viewers are already looking forward to it.

When the offline competition stage arrived.

When Chiaki began to frequently appear on the field as a starting player.

What a hell those teams will be plunged into!
"Brother Cheng, isn't your Dragon Palace a bit too powerful? I haven't even used my full strength yet, and Qianqiu has already taken them all down by himself, is that alright?"

Inside the Cloud Club.

After finishing his duel with Chunqiu Tower and finally completing all the matches in this year's All-Star qualifying tournament, Beast breathed a sigh of relief and then habitually started complaining to Fang Yun.

This All-Star online tournament was probably the most enjoyable one for Beast in the past two years.

There was no interference from thousands of people, but there was top-notch logistics from thousands of people.

With the assistance of Su Jiu's sister-in-law and others.

In the first four rounds of the qualifying rounds, Beast was like a tiger with wings, wielding a big sword that sent his opponents sprawling and falling.

He would never have dared to dream of such treatment before, but now it has become a reality.

Just when he thought he would sweep through the entire qualifying rounds.

However, Fang Yun brought out Qianqiu in the final battle.

Others may not know Qianqiu's strength, but how could Beast Master not know?
And it was precisely because he knew the account "Qianqiu" so well.

So from the moment he entered the battle, he knew that he would most likely be relegated to a mere bystander again.

And as it turned out, Beast's premonition was very accurate.

The battle lasted only 10 minutes.

His Lion Camel, aside from coordinating with the front-line tanks to secure a kill at the start of the game, also...

At other times, it's just slacking off, slacking off some more, and I no longer have that sense of mission that I had in the first four rounds, which could determine the outcome of the entire game.

"Your own Lion Camel has had four great runs after upgrading its hardware, so why can't you handle it after my Dragon Palace has also upgraded its hardware and only had one great run?"

Hearing Beast Master's complaint, Fang Yun rolled his eyes at him and said irritably.

As he said.

The reason why Bianliang City has been so strong since the qualifying rounds is that this year's Bianliang City has been so dominant.

One of the biggest reasons is that everyone, including Su Jiu's healer, has collectively replaced their equipment with the new 160-level gear.

Many players who are not short of money can afford to get level 160 equipment.

However, if you want to get a complete set of level 160 equipment that meets the standards for competitive play, at least in the current era...

There are very few teams with this kind of strength in the entire Martial God Altar.

Bianliang City was one of them.

With the support of the new level 160 equipment, the already formidable Beastmaster has taken off completely.

The problem is that he wasn't the only major contributor in Bianliang City's expedition roster this time.

There were five matches in the qualifying rounds, and Beast himself enjoyed four of them.

It's perfectly reasonable to let Qianqiu test the strength of the new hardware in the final round.

"Tch, don't think I don't know!"

Normally, Beast should have shut up by now, but this time, instead of shutting up, he scoffed and said, "I did have a blast in the first four games, but I know even better that each of those four games is one less I can have. Once we get to the offline tournament, I'll have absolutely no chance!"

"It's not as exaggerated as you say..."

Upon hearing what Beast Master said, Fang Yun immediately raised an eyebrow and chimed in, "Didn't we say before that we had to adjust our lineups flexibly depending on the opponent's lineup, whether it was the online qualifying rounds or the offline finals? How come it's become that we have no chance at all when it comes to you?"

"Keep bluffing, keep bluffing."

If someone who didn't know Fang Yun had heard him say that, they might have actually believed him.

But clearly, Beast Master, who knew him quite well, didn't believe a single word of it. "Anyway, that's the situation. Don't try to act with me anymore. I was mentally prepared!"

After saying that, he casually logged off his Lion Camel account, stretched, and went to play with A-Bai and the others.

"That son of a bitch..."

Watching Beast Master run off to chat with Ah Bai.

Fang Yun wanted to say something, but in the end she just smiled and shook her head.

Although I don't want to admit it, Beast Master is actually right.

Once the offline tournament starts, unless something unexpected happens, it's highly likely that Beast's Lion Camel won't make an appearance again.

Again.

Each team has a total of 10 All-Star slots, including starters and substitutes.

As a result, only 6 players made it to the finals after five rounds of qualifying matches in Bianliang City.

This means they still have 4 players who haven't appeared yet.

Anyone with a sound mind should know this.

If a team starts hiding cards from the play-in stage.

That can only prove one thing—

They still have plenty of trump cards in their hands, just waiting to unleash their full power in the offline competition!

In fact, it's not just Bianliang City; it's also Abai's 2008, Pineapple's Lanting Preface, and even the Forbidden City led by Meditation—everyone is like this.

Given the strength of these top teams, no one will really reveal all their cards in the qualifying rounds.

This is why tickets for offline tournaments are sold at such high prices every year.

The real top-level showdowns can only happen in the most important offline tournaments.

Although you can watch the game online via live stream.

But in terms of both atmosphere and experience, watching the game offline is far more exciting than watching it online!