From Now On, I Will Not Return to the City Until Death

Blind Pick.

Simply put, it was a free-for-all matchup.

No heroes were banned, and there was no pick order.

Players could choose any hero they wanted.

And they couldn’t see the enemy’s selections either.

Lu Ze’s proposal was undoubtedly an enticing option.

“What about his Yasuo?”

“Who cares? That last match, we just lacked a reliable assassin for damage!”

“Good point… If we swap Syndra for Zed, there’s no way he can dodge both the ultimate and auto-attacks!”

“I’ll pick Pantheon too! Let’s see him dodge my stun!!”

……

The five of them debated heatedly.

Among the rogue cultivators they had recruited, only three were ranked within the top thirty of the celestial ladder.

One played Zed, one played Aatrox, and one played Kog’Maw.

These three heroes were permanently stuck on the ban list, never seeing the light of day.

Rather than picking weaker-tier heroes and being toyed with until they had no chance to fight back…

They might as well go all out!

By selecting their strongest heroes, they might still have a sliver of hope!

That one-trick Zed specialist was a top-tier expert, ranked fourth on the celestial ladder!

If they secured Zed, they might not have to fear Bai Mu after all.

In the end, they decided to accept the opponent’s proposal.

……

On the Lingxiao Sect’s side…

“Brother Bai, let me explain the heroes the enemy might pick…”

Zhong Yi spoke gravely as he analyzed the opponent’s hero pool for Bai Mu.

The other four made their selections quickly.

Mu Yawen’s Sett, Zhou Yue’s Lee Sin, Li Moran’s Vayne, Zhou Qiaoling’s Lulu…

All were their most proficient heroes.

Only Lu Ze remained undecided.

“Their Zed is extremely skilled! His playstyle is almost identical to that of True Lord Yuelun, ranked fourth on the celestial ladder!”

Despite Zhong Yi’s warning, Lu Ze remained completely unfazed.

“Zed, huh? Interesting…”

Lu Ze murmured with a faint smile.

“I still think Yasuo is the way to go. Brother Bai’s Yasuo is practically divine…”

“What about Talon? An assassin duel!”

“A bruiser might work too—how about Riven?”

……

Amid the flurry of suggestions, Lu Ze’s hero selection finally lit up.

Amid roaring flames, a shadow-cloaked figure emerged, his voice hoarse and dripping with killing intent.

“The unseen blade…”

“Is the deadliest.”

The other five widened their eyes in unison.

Picking the enemy’s one-trick against them?

This was outright disrespect!!

As the heroes were locked in, both sides revealed their picks.

When Guo Tianyin saw the fifth-pick Zed, his lungs nearly exploded in fury.

“Damn it… How dare this lowlife look down on me like this!?”

“Just you wait… Once I obtain the ancient relic, I’ll hunt down your true body!”

“I’ll strip your flesh and seize your soul!!”

……

When it came to laning, Lu Ze was simply on another level compared to players of this era.

His understanding of wave management and spacing was that of a top-tier professional.

As a certain high-level player once said:

“The moment the enemy steps up to auto-attack a minion, the lane is already over.”

That was the kind of game sense that transcended the understanding of the masses.

And this was exactly the situation Guo Tianyin—or rather, the rogue cultivator he was controlling, the player known as True Lord Yuelun—found himself in.

Pressure.

Crushing, suffocating pressure surged toward him from all directions.

Every tiny movement Bai Mu made sent his nerves into overdrive.

At level one, he missed two shurikens and ate every one of Bai Mu’s in return. From that moment, he had already lost the right to lane.

At level three, the classic shadow-swap play led to a tower dive and first blood. After that, the mid-lane deficit became irreversible.

He couldn’t even breathe without Bai Mu’s permission.

Was it despair?

Well, aside from the kills at levels three and six, Bai Mu never went for the kill again.

A 0-2 scoreline didn’t seem too terrible.

But was it not despair?

Bai Mu’s aggression was relentless.

Every time he stepped up, a full combo chunked him so low that even soaking experience became a struggle.

……

【Bai Mu (Zed) has slain Guo Tianyin (Zed)!】

【Bai Mu is on a killing spree!】

“Tch, slipped up.”

Lu Ze frowned.

In a moment of carelessness, he had killed Guo Tianyin again.

For Lu Ze, keeping the enemy alive while preventing them from farming properly was far harder than going 10/0 before ten minutes.

But the opponent was just too fragile.

Last game, a three-item Teemo had already made them surrender. He had to be more careful this time.

After all, the goal was to stall for time so Nangong Yuan and the others could reach their destination.

“Estimating the time… they should be close now.”

Lu Ze muttered to himself.

“Well then…”

“Killing a few more shouldn’t hurt, right?”

……

“What’s happening? Bai Mu has started slaughtering again!”

“With Bai Mu here, how dare you four even think about contesting the dragon!?”

“Bai Mu is entering the fray!”

“Death Mark engages, instantly locking onto the enemy’s most fed Kog’Maw!”

“Bai Mu shadow-swaps—Pantheon’s stun doesn’t even come close!”

“Beautiful! Triple shuriken convergence!!”

“Kog’Maw is instantly deleted!!!”

“The angle on that triple shuriken was absolutely perfect… the others are low too!”

“Woah… Zed’s shadow merges with Brother Bai!”

“Another instance of soul-hero unity! This is the third time in just three matches!!!”

“The remaining three from the Immortal Slayer team are being toyed with by the shadows…”

“Shadow swap after shadow swap!! Zed’s damage is insane—those shurikens might as well be targeted abilities!!”

“Quadra kill! QUADRA KILL!!!”

“It seems the title of the Shadow Reaper has found a new owner!!”

Amid Zhong Yi’s electrifying commentary, the audience was roaring with excitement.

The live chat exploded with messages.

【I thought Brother Bai had turned Buddhist and sworn off killing… Clearly, I underestimated him.】

【Feels like he was holding back, but not by much.】

【LMAO, maybe the Immortal Slayers didn’t pay him enough.】

【Rumor has it there’s a sect in Changdao Province that specializes in shadow techniques. Wonder what they’d think of Brother Bai’s plays.】

……

Another four kills in the bag, Lu Ze recalled to spend his gold.

At this point, with seven kills and CS far ahead of the curve, he had completed Zed’s core build in just 15 minutes:

Blade of the Ruined King, Last Whisper, and Brutalizer.

Glancing at the remaining 2000 spirit stones in his inventory, Lu Ze remembered something amusing and opted not to upgrade Brutalizer into a full item.

Instead, he bought a Quicksilver Sash.

In this patch, Quicksilver’s active could cleanse certain hero abilities.

For example, Zed’s.

In his previous life, the Great Demon King had relied on this very artifact to defy fate during his legendary battle against RYU, creating one of the most iconic moments in history.

Lu Ze didn’t believe Guo Tianyin possessed the skill to push him into such a desperate situation.

Buying the Mercury Sash was simply to pay tribute to that Great Demon King.

Just then, Lu Ze suddenly sensed the spiritual imprint he had left within Liu Mo’s soul shatter.

“Not good.”

Lu Ze’s brow furrowed.

The breaking of the imprint could only mean one thing—

Liu Mo was dead.

And rightly so.

Making deals with tigers deserved such an end.

Besides, the methods of these demonic cultivators were far more ruthless than any beast.

With Liu Mo now dead, if these demonic cultivators left their current location, tracking them down again would require considerable effort.

“I can’t let them end things prematurely…”

Lu Ze muttered to himself, regretting the severity of his earlier actions.

With that thought, he opened the public chat channel.

A striking line of text hovered over the Immortal-Demon Gorge:

[Bai Mu: From this moment on, I will not return to the city until death takes me.]