After the competition, Chen Xiao calmly accepted interviews from reporters.

When he lost to Tang Muzhou in the fifth season, it was still the audition stage of the individual competition. All the reporters surrounded Tang Muzhou, who had won 50 consecutive games, and no one paid any attention to him who left sadly. But today, his performance was obviously recognized by most of the reporters, and the interview room was full of people.

A reporter asked directly: "After losing the match with Tang Muzhou today, do you feel disappointed? You failed to beat Tang Muzhou five years ago, and you still can't beat him five years later. Does this prove that you are indeed not as good as him?"

Facing this harsh question, Chen Xiao was not angry, but smiled and said: "Tang Muzhou's personal strength is there, and losing to him is a normal result. I have been away from the alliance for five years, and I am very satisfied to have such a duel with him after returning. As for strength, I admit that I am indeed not as good as him now, but I will work hard to improve, and I may not lose to him in the future."

I didn't expect Chen Xiao to be so calm and confident during the interview, which finally put the fans who saw the interview at ease.

A female reporter asked: "I heard that you and Tang Muzhou are good friends in private, right?"

Chen Xiao nodded: "Yes. So, I am very happy for him that he can make it to the finals."

The reporter said, "There is still the finals to come. Three days later, Tang Muzhou will compete with Ling Jingtang for the individual championship, and you and Shan Lan will also have a match to decide the third place. Are you confident against Shan Lan?"

Chen Xiao said calmly: "Shanlan was the champion last season. I am not sure I can win against them, but I will try my best."

——There is no certainty of winning, but I will try my best. This is Chen Xiao’s attitude.

The reporters at the scene applauded him.

This was sincere applause, containing expectations and encouragement for him.

Chen Qianlin saw his brother being interviewed calmly and composedly in the backstage, and a smile appeared on his lips.

The little boy in his memory has grown up and become a responsible man, and as a brother, he is very pleased. Let the past be completely forgotten. As long as Chen Xiao comes out of the shadows, he believes that his brother will become stronger and stronger.

***

When Chen Xiao returned to the backstage, Xie Mingzhe, Yu Ke and Qin Xuan all took the initiative to hug him and compliment him on his good play. Chen Qianlin did not say anything, so Chen Xiao shamelessly walked over to hug his brother, put his chin on his shoulder, and said with a smile: "Brother, I tried my best. I am really sorry that I did not make it to the finals."

Chen Qianlin patted his brother's shoulder and said gently, "It's okay, we'll talk about it when we get back."

Although Chen Xiao really wanted to hug his brother for a while longer, he was embarrassed to do so for too long as there were so many people watching. He let go of his brother without saying a word and followed everyone back to the club.

After returning home, Chen Qianlin reviewed today's game as usual. He replayed it from the beginning and patiently explained the details. After the review, he asked, "How confident are you in the next game against Shanlan?"

Chen Xiao thought about it carefully and said, "About 40%."

Xie Mingzhe interrupted and said, "Xiao Lan was the champion of last season, and this season they beat Nie Shen in the quarterfinals. I think Shan Lan is now as strong as Nie Yuandao, but Nie Shen has been playing for a long time and became famous very early, so he has always been more popular than Shan Lan, right?"

"Yes, you are right." Chen Qianlin nodded. "Old Nie has been competing for ten years. After the age of 30, his condition is indeed not as good as his peak. In addition, Shanlan himself is very talented. Old Nie has taught him everything he knows. It is only a matter of time before he surpasses his master."

Yu Ke scratched his head and said, "It seems that defeating Shan Lan is also very difficult!"

Qin Xuan said calmly: "Shanlan and Nie Shen have similar styles, but Nie Shen's style is very violent, while Shanlan is more technical. The Air Raid Bird card is indeed difficult to deal with."

Chen Xiao smiled and said, "Anyway, I'll give it my all. If I win, I'll bring back a bronze medal. If I lose, I'll be fourth place."

Xie Mingzhe put his arm around his shoulders and encouraged him, "Brother Chen, don't feel pressured. There are so many powerful players in the league. It's not easy for you to make it to the semifinals. Look, great players like Gui Sirui, Fang Yu, and Pei Jingshan all failed to make it to the semifinals this season!"

Chen Xiao said: "This is also my good luck."

Chen Qianlin looked at his brother and said, "It's great that you can maintain this mentality. Don't worry about winning or losing the next game. Treat the match with Shan Lan as an opportunity to challenge a master. The most important thing is to accumulate more experience."

Chen Xiao nodded seriously: "Don't worry, brother, I know what to do."

Chen Qianlin never wanted to put pressure on his brother. He knew that Chen Xiao had had a hard time these years. In addition, Xie Mingzhe gave up his rights in the individual competition, so the burden of Nirvana fell entirely on Chen Xiao's shoulders... Before the match with Tang Muzhou, he was very worried that Chen Xiao would have psychological problems and be mentally crushed. Unexpectedly, Chen Xiao was more resilient than he thought, and at one point pushed Tang Muzhou to a 2:2 score.

There was only one individual game left, and he hoped his brother would let go of all the pressure and enjoy the game.

***

Three days, time is running out, Xie Mingzhe and Chen Qianlin help Chen Xiao with tactics.

Shanlan's bird cards are difficult to deal with, mainly because they move very fast in the air and are difficult to hit with single skills.

Xie Mingzhe originally wanted to help Brother Chen choose some complex maps, but maps that require a lot of movement, such as Granny Liu Enters the Grand View Garden and Flame Mountain, are more beneficial to bird cards that are flexible in aerial movement. As for other maps with many negative states, Shanlan has bird cards with strong healing and auxiliary abilities, such as Green Peacock and Lark, so it is not afraid of dragging you down to the later stage.

Therefore, after repeated discussions, the three decided to bring more large-scale group attack cards and play a violent wave attack instead of dragging the pace with Shanlan.

This is also the style that Chen Xiao is best at.

The deadly card Wang Zhaojun can be brought according to the situation, and can be used to kill the birds that Shanlan has difficulty dealing with.

With the help of Xie Mingzhe and Chen Qianlin, Chen Xiao's deck was quickly finalized. In the following days, he and his teammates practiced together. What was rare was that Tang Muzhou took the initiative to send a message to Chen Xiao, "Do you need me to practice with you? It's free."

Chen Xiao laughed and scolded: "You want me to be your sparring partner, right?"

Tang Muzhou said very straightforwardly: "Anyway, I will play Ling Jing Tang in the next game, and you will play Shan Lan. We can practice the decks with each other and make sure they are not leaked. It is also mutually beneficial, right?"

Chen Xiao was puzzled: "Can't Xu Changfeng, Zhen Man and Shen An from your team help you train?"

Tang Muzhou said helplessly: "I am too familiar with them. I can guess when they will use what skills even with my eyes closed. It is more effective to practice with you. Can we also call Master to help us with the consultation?"

Since the other party took the initiative to offer it to him, Chen Xiao certainly would not refuse it and told Chen Qianlin and Xie Mingzhe the news.

Xie Mingzhe didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "He obviously wants you to be his sparring partner for free, and he can also find out your plant card pool by the way."

Chen Xiao said: "Tang Muzhou's reasons are always irresistible. Let's practice. It won't do any harm to either of us to practice against him."

Chen Qianlin built a competition room for Tang Muzhou and Chen Xiao to practice their decks, while he and Xie Mingzhe watched. Occasionally, Xie Mingzhe would also come down to play a few games with the two.

Three days passed quickly, and the final of the 11th season individual competition finally arrived.

On the evening of September 30, the top four contestants gathered again. Today’s competition will determine the final ranking of this season. Not only were tickets in person hard to come by, but the ratings of the live broadcast on the Internet also set a record high for this season!

Backstage, Shan Lan smiled and slid his fingers quickly across his laptop - he was participating in the pre-match guessing game.

Nie Yuandao asked in a low voice: "Do you guess that I will win, or do you guess that Chen Xiao will win?"

Shan Lan said without hesitation: "Of course I guess I will win. I'm going to put all 400,000 betting coins in this time. For the sake of betting coins, I have to win too."

Nie Yuandao thought, then you better try your best and don't lose everything. Your master only has these betting coins, and he gave them all to you.

Of course, in order to avoid his crow-mouthed nature from acting out, Nie Yuandao did not say this.

The first match, Chen Xiao vs Shan Lan, the battle for third place!

The third place is much better than the fourth place, and there is a special trophy to be won. The fourth place has no trophy, only prize money. Of course, the prize money is nothing to Shan Lan. He won the championship last season, so there is no difference between third and fourth place today, so he looks quite relaxed.

The audience thought that Chen Xiao would be under more pressure, but unexpectedly, Chen Xiao looked quite relaxed when he walked onto the big stage.

The two met in the middle of the stage, and Chen Xiao smiled and said, "God Lan, please give me your guidance."

Shan Lan smiled and said, "Don't call me that. To be honest, I debuted later than you, Brother Chen."

He debuted in the seventh season and Chen Xiao in the fifth season. If we really rank them by seniority, Chen Xiao indeed debuted earlier than him.

Chen Xiao readily extended his hand: "Okay, Xiaolan, let me see your bird card."

Shan Lan nodded: "Well, I have been looking forward to fighting against the dark plant card for a long time!"

The two walked back to the swivel chairs and sat down. Su Yang looked at their expressions and said, "Both of you are very relaxed. Shan Lan has won the championship and runner-up in the individual competition, so he is not very eager for the third place trophy. Chen Xiao seems to have completely let go of the pressure. He has already completed his mission by reaching the semi-finals. He is playing in a relaxed state. Today's match should be very exciting."

The final round of the 11th season individual competition, the battle for third place, Chen Xiao vs. Shan Lan, has officially begun.

In the first game at Shanlan’s home court, the map he chose surprised the audience—Top of the Clouds!

The first scene is an air combat kill map!

Don't be fooled by their relaxed expressions; when the real competition starts, neither of them will be polite.

Shanlan's air combat kill map is also a major feature of the alliance. In the map located above the clouds, all cards need to stand on the floating clouds to fight. Once you step on empty air and fall from the clouds, you will die.

This type of kill map has many unexpected factors. After all, if a card is hit by skills such as confusion, displacement and control, it is very likely that the full-health card will fall directly from the clouds and die, so players must always be vigilant.

When Chen Xiao saw the opponent's map, he immediately changed to the deck he had arranged long ago - during the pre-match analysis phase, Chen Qianlin guessed that Shanlan's home map would most likely be a kill map, so Chen Xiao also made corresponding preparations.

He brought the "Bat Flower" that controls displacement, which can pull the opponent in the air and directly pull the opponent's cards down from the clouds. While he fell, he pulled three or four cards down with him, which was not a loss at all.

However, Shanlan was experienced in air combat maps after all. When Chen Xiao summoned Bat Flower to pull him by force, he suddenly summoned White Peacock - the peacock spread its feathers, and the pure white feathers emitted a soft light that enveloped the surroundings, making the entire group immune to control and damage!

Immediately following Shan Lan's summoning of the golden eagle, accompanied by the golden eagle's sharp cry, Chen Xiao's bat flower was thrown directly off the clouds and killed instantly!

The audience screamed, and Shanlan’s fans excitedly filled the live broadcast room with comments: “Lanlan 66666!” “My Shanlan is unmatched in aerial combat, I love his aerial combat style!” “Lanlan has a gentle smile, but is very violent in competitions!”

In the first game, Chen Xiao lost.

There was nothing shameful about losing to Shan Lan in the air combat map, and Chen Xiao quickly calmed down and entered the second game.

In the second round, the map chosen by Chen Xiao made the audience laugh out loud - Yihongyuan!

The battle in Yihongyuan was taking place indoors. No matter how powerful your Shanlan's flying bird card is, it can't fly out of the house, right?

This kind of indoor scene greatly restricts Shanlan's birds. His birds don't fly high, so Chen Xiao's large-scale plant group attack can easily hit them. Yihong Night Banquet is also one of Chen Xiao's favorite maps. When the Night Banquet opens, the whole map explodes, which is just right for Chen Xiao to fight a wave.

Tang Muzhou had experienced how powerful Chen Xiao's violent wave-based attack was in the previous game.

A large number of group attack cards came together to directly defeat Shanlan and bring the score back!

The two players fought back and forth, which was very exciting. In the third game, Shanlan won at home, and in the fourth game, Chen Xiao tied the score at home. The score went from 1:1 to 2:2, and it was the deciding game in a blink of an eye.

One game decides the outcome!

This is where random maps are crucial.

The maps randomly selected by the system are "Weapon Chamber", "City of Eternal Night" and "Endless Ice Field".

The City of Eternal Night is a map of hell. Tang Muzhou had used it in the previous game. Chen Xiao's blind typing performance on this map impressed the entire league, so Shanlan naturally banned it without hesitation.

Chen Xiao wisely disabled the weapon rooms in the remaining two maps.

The Weapon Chamber is a mechanical map, which requires a lot of movement to avoid hidden weapons. Bird cards are faster than plants, so movement will be more advantageous. The Endless Icefield is a map from Liushuang City, and all the cards on the map are slowed down.

Plants don't need to move a lot, they just stand still and attack from a distance, so the impact of being slowed down is not that big; many bird cards have normal attack skills, and flying geese and golden eagles attack at close range, so Shanlan's rhythm will definitely be greatly affected after being slowed down.

Su Yang couldn't help but sigh when he saw this: "The system's random maps will try to ensure fairness. In principle, the final round's random map will either not show the home map of the clubs where the two players are located, or if it does, each player will get one. Today, the system randomly picked three maps that were all from other clubs, but after careful analysis, it is actually more advantageous to Chen Xiao."

Wu Yue also said: "Chen Xiao just played the Eternal Night City map three days ago and defeated Tang Muzhou. Shanlan must be disabled. In this way, Chen Xiao can choose the Endless Icefield, which is more advantageous to him, from the remaining two maps."

Liu Chen said: "But this is only beneficial in theory. The slowing effect of Endless Icefield is effective for all cards. Shanlan's bird cards have a movement speed of 500%. Even if they are slowed down, their movement speed is still much faster than that of plant cards. When both sides are slowed down, Shanlan can still play a fast attack."

The influence of the map is only relative. A strong player can defeat his opponent even when playing away from home. Shanlan has no opinion on this map. He was often slowed down when playing against Fang Yu before, so he has rich experience playing this kind of map.

However, to Shan Lan's surprise, Chen Xiao's fighting style was even more violent than he had imagined!

At the beginning of the game, Chen Xiao instantly summoned five cards, standing in different positions, surrounding the three flying cards summoned by Shan Lan. Shan Lan had no choice but to summon the White Peacock for protection.

However, the moment he summoned the white peacock, Chen Xiao asked Wang Zhaojun to play the pipa.

Go out of the border, shoot down the bird card in the air, and you will be killed!

The winged peacock naturally also belongs to the bird card. Even though it has a lot of health and a skill that protects the entire group, Chen Xiao has been waiting for it to appear. Before it can use its skills, he directly uses Wang Zhaojun to kill it instantly.

Thanks to Tang Muzhou's sparring during this period, Chen Xiao was able to master the rhythm of using instant-death cards when playing against masters.

If you wait until your opponent summons a card and then use a death card, it will be too late.

Most experts can synchronize summoning cards and using skills, so they must make predictions in advance. Before Shanlan summons the flying bird card, they should summon Wang Zhaojun first, with a time difference of about 0.3 seconds. In this way, the moment the Shanlan card appears, Chen Xiao's instant death card will have been waiting, and he can use his skills first to kill it instantly.

The death of the white peacock was so unexpected, and Shan Lan did not expect Chen Xiao to be so decisive.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Xiao launched a group attack and critical hit!

First, Snapdragon was afraid of crowd control, and then Black Rose, Black Mage, Blood Rose, and Giant Amorphophallus were dispatched together. A violent combo of five cards was used to hit Shanlan's three flying cards, which were killed instantly.

Although Chen Xiao's card skills require a long cooldown period, Shan Lan can quickly counterattack with normal attack cards.

However, the advantage that Chen Xiao established at the beginning was too great. Even though Shan Lan relied on the agility of the bird card to quickly kill Chen Xiao's two output cards, he was entangled by Chen Xiao's vampire vines and was dragged to the late stage.

In the end, Chen Xiao won the victory by a narrow margin of one card!

3:2, Chen Xiao wins!

Su Yang's eyes widened in disbelief: "I never thought that Chen Xiao's violent one-wave attack would be so decisive. If there was a 0.5 second error in his operation, he would probably be killed by Shan Lan! At the critical moment, Chen Xiao still dared to fight and fight hard, and he deserves the third place!"

Wu Yue was also excited: "Before the game, 80% of the audience guessed that Shan Lan would win. After all, Shan Lan was the champion of last season. However, the result was unexpected again - Chen Xiao always brings surprises to everyone. He is really a player who can create miracles!"

Liu Chen said: "From being the least favored player in the group stage to now being the third place of this season, Chen Xiao has staged a comeback time and time again! Let us give a warm round of applause to congratulate Chen Xiao for winning the third place of the 11th season!"

After the game, Shanlan smiled helplessly.

His betting coins were all gone...

Chen Xiao took the initiative to walk over and shake hands with Shan Lan, who smiled gracefully and said, "Congratulations, Brother Chen."

Chen Xiao said: "I was lucky to beat you this time. I won't be so lucky next time."

This is not an act of modesty. Today he indeed had the best of time, location and people. The map for the deciding game was also in his favor. Even though he seemed to be inferior to his opponent, he still had the possibility of defeating him. Competitive competitions are full of unknown factors, and this is precisely the charm of the competition.

Shan Lan returned to the backstage, lowered his head and was embarrassed to look at his master: "I didn't expect to lose..."

"It doesn't matter." Nie Yuandao didn't care at all, and said calmly: "Master has asked for another million gambling coins for you. Follow Master in the next round and you can earn back the money you lose."

"..." Shan Lan was stunned: "Where did you get it from?"

Confused, he opened the professional alliance group and saw a message from Nie Yuandao: "@All members, if anyone has unused forum betting coins, please transfer them to my forum account NYD1224. Thank you."

Gui Sirui asked: "Why does Nie Shen want to compete in coin guessing?"

Ye Zhu: "You asked for it for Brother Lan, right? Haha, I know he likes playing lottery, maybe he guessed wrong and lost it all [Shut up, I think I know the truth]"

Bai Xu: "I have 100,000 yuan, which I transferred to Nie Shen."

Pei Jingshan: "150,000 has been transferred."

Zheng Feng: "There should be principles when pampering your disciples, Lao Nie. How are you going to repay the favors you owe us by asking for a coin guessing game?"

Nie Yuandao said calmly: "I'll treat you to a meal at the end of the season. You can choose the location."

Zheng Feng: "Okay, 200,000, you're welcome!"

Shan Lan: “…………”

Seeing these chat records, Shanlan's ears were burning and he felt very embarrassed. He knew that his master had always doted on him, but he didn't expect that his master would actually go to the masters to compete for coin guessing. Now the whole alliance knew that he guessed wrong and lost all his belongings. How embarrassing!

Shan Lan blushed and lowered his head, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to bury himself, until Nie Yuandao's voice interrupted his thoughts: "In the next game, Tang Muzhou will play against Ling Jingtang. You guess the opposite. Whoever guesses the home court will lose. It's a sure win."

Shan Lan: “…”

Well, he still has confidence in his master's Crow Mouth ability!