Chapter 28: A Narrow Escape, Successfully Promoting to Master Rank

Not only was his talent superior, but his raw strength also far outstripped his own.

A-Shui had once believed that Lu Zi'ang would be a mountain he could never climb in his lifetime. It wasn't until just moments ago, when he hoisted that S8 championship trophy—the symbol of the highest honor—on behalf of the LPL and Team IG, that the frustrations he had once suffered at Lu Zi'ang's hands vanished into thin air.

But when he opened Lu Zi'ang's livestream and saw the guy streaming as if nothing had happened, A-Shui felt genuine anger. He checked his chat app; the friend request he had sent was still pending.

A-Shui gritted his teeth and decided to send one last request, swearing a solemn oath: "This is the last time! This is the absolute last time I'm adding you!"

In the message box of the request, he carefully typed out: "Lu Zi'ang, I’m a champion ADC now. Surely I’m qualified to be on your friend list? That's right, you did beat me into the ground back in the day, but that’s all in my past. Have you ever heard the saying, 'The gravel of yesterday is the mountain of today'? I used to be the gravel, and now I am the mountain. Do you understand?"

After checking for typos, A-Shui clicked send with a fierce expression. He couldn't help but think to himself, *Surely you’ll accept it instantly this time, right?*

"Notification: The content of your request exceeds the character limit. Please edit and try again."

??

After several attempts, A-Shui could only manage to type: "I, Yu Wenbo, am the S8 World Championship winning ADC!"

Sent successfully.

Seeing this, A-Shui put his phone away with a satisfied heart and returned to his interview. He felt that there shouldn't be any problems this time, right?

"Ding!"

The classic Penguin notification sound rang out. Lu Zi'ang quickly tabbed out of the game, took a glance, and saw that "Bobo" had sent him another friend request.

"Damn it. What is this guy's obsession? Will adding me as a friend make him stronger or something?"

Lu Zi'ang felt speechless. He had very few friends on Penguin; in the two years he spent at RNG, he hadn't added a single soul.

He simply replied, "I don't add men," and then immediately added the guy to his blacklist.

At this moment, the ranked game was still ongoing, reaching the 27-minute mark. The blue team began to pressure Baron, intending to force a team fight.

The red team definitely couldn't take a team fight; Lu Zi'ang couldn't pin his hopes on their useless Mordekaiser jungler. The guy had been sleepwalking the entire match, watching from the sidelines as if he were just racking up steps, failing to gank and getting out-farmed by the enemy Xin Zhao. Even if they tried to contest the Baron, it would likely end in disaster, only adding more uncertainty to this ranked match.

"They're forcing Baron. What do you think?" Guodong sent a message.

"Wait and see. Let them take it if they want. Come to the bottom lane, let's push the lane together. I have a significant item lead. The three of us pushing towers is equivalent to their five. Even though Sion isn't well-farmed, he still has some wave-clear capability." Lu Zi'ang's typing speed was absurdly fast; he sent his thoughts almost instantly.

After receiving the message, Guodong immediately responded and headed to the bottom lane, where the three of them grouped up. By now, the inhibitor tower had fallen, and they quickly destroyed the inhibitor, beginning their assault on the nexus turrets.

Lu Zi'ang's experience and items were leading the entire match—even the blue team's Tryndamere couldn't keep up. His tower-hitting speed was terrifying!

On the blue side, seeing the health of their nexus turrets dropping at a visible rate, the team panicked.

Xin Zhao: "Damn! How is this Caitlyn hitting towers so fast? This is ridiculous!!"

Ezreal: "Look at his items. He's almost full-build. Isn't this because of you feeding at 15 minutes?"

Xin Zhao: "I fed him? You guys in the bot lane fed six kills combined, and you say I fed him?? You got out-farmed by so much, I really don't know how you reached Challenger. You must have bought your account; you're trash."

Syndra: "Stop arguing, you two. Send two people back to defend, or we're going to lose."

Tryndamere: "Xin Zhao and I will keep hitting Baron. You three go back, hurry!"

The blue team's Baron speed wasn't particularly fast; after all, their ADC was an Ezreal who relied purely on skills for output, while Xin Zhao was building half-tank. Although Tryndamere had a significant advantage, he didn't have items as terrifying as Lu Zi'ang's.

By the time they appeared at the fountain, one nexus turret had already been destroyed, and the remaining one was only at half health. The three blue team members were completely outclassed by the Caitlyn and Ahri in terms of items and levels. As for the Soraka, she was just an accessory, responsible for healing and the occasional lucky silence.

How could they fight?

Especially the blue team's bot lane duo, who had been traumatized by Lu Zi'ang’s Caitlyn. Ezreal swore that in his two seasons of being Challenger, he had never played such a suffocating match!

Yet, despite his extreme caution and tension, he still got solo-killed by Lu Zi'ang. This was a total crushing defeat in terms of mechanics, game sense, and fundamentals.

The mid-lane Syndra attempted to clear the wave and control the three opponents, while Ezreal even fired his ultimate from the fountain to clear minions. However, because the bottom lane duo had been missing for so long, the minion wave had stacked up to a terrifying size, with more reinforcements on the way.

Seeing this, the three blue team members felt a sense of despair, realizing that the three of them had no way to deal with the three opponents.

"Come back, don't fight Baron. We can't defend this. If you don't come back, we can't play a 3v3. Their mid and ADC are too strong!!"

The support typed frantically in the chat, filled with anxiety.

At this moment, the Baron's health was down to 1/3, leaving Xin Zhao and Tryndamere hesitant. It would be such a pity to give it up now!

Just then, the second nexus turret fell. Now, only the naked nexus remained; victory for the red team was within reach.

"Back!"

Tryndamere gritted his teeth and finally decided to abandon the Baron to return for the final team fight. However, without the Baron buff, it took at least eight seconds to recall! In this situation, every second counted; even being one second late could lead to a total defeat.

Tryndamere already had a strong, ominous premonition. Just then, as he was recalling and it was more than halfway done, Baron Nashor spat on him!

"????" Tryndamere felt depressed. Looking at the situation at the base, his three teammates couldn't stop the red team's onslaught at all.

Right now, Ahri and Caitlyn seemed to have eyes only for the nexus. The blue team didn't have much crowd control, and Soraka's Q and ultimate fell one after another!!

In the end, with his health bar barely visible, Lu Zi'ang successfully shattered the enemy nexus, winning his Master tier promotion match.