“Be more specific.” Ethan Harris appeared very patient and pressed further. This surprised Emily Carter a little; he knew Ethan Harris well, and Ethan Harris’s attitude toward this passerby was somewhat unusual—he could already sense it.

“It’s different from King’s Canyon. In the Changping Siege, there’s only one lane for minions, but the jungle is split into upper and lower sections. There are a lot of jungle monsters—nine in the upper half, and fifteen in the lower half including the Tyrant. And they respawn faster. Some special jungle monsters respawn every 1 to 2 minutes, but there are sixteen regular jungle monsters that respawn every 35 seconds, which is only half the respawn time of regular jungle monsters in King’s Canyon,” Adam Bennett explained.

“I see.” Both Ethan Harris and Emily Carter were King rank players, and after such a clear explanation, they immediately realized how crucial the “jungle economy” would be—no further explanation was needed. Once the three finished preparing, they called out, and David Bolton on the other side was already impatient to start, so the match began immediately. The three each picked their heroes as discussed, entered the loading screen, and saw that the opposing team had chosen Yang Jian, Luna, and Sun Shangxiang.

“Luna, huh…” Adam Bennett couldn’t help but sigh when he saw the enemy lineup.

“Is there a problem?” Ethan Harris asked.

“There’s no blue buff on this map,” Adam Bennett said regretfully for the opponent.

“Looks like the Royal Team’s players aren’t very familiar with the Changping Siege!” Ethan Harris said. The blue buff’s official name in the game is the Power of the Azure Statue, which you get by killing the Azure Statue in the jungle. Its effect is to reduce a hero’s skill cooldown by 20% and provide an extra 2% mana regen per second for 70 seconds. Many heroes in the game rely heavily on the blue buff, and the Luna chosen by David Bolton is a prime example. Without the blue buff, Luna struggles with both skill combos and mana consumption. So when facing a hero like Luna, it’s common to fight over the blue buff and try to deny it to her as much as possible. But on this map, there simply isn’t any blue buff at all—it’s as if the hero was banned outright during the pick phase, clean and simple.

The match loaded quickly, and both teams’ heroes spawned at their respective fountains. This was Adam Bennett’s first time facing heroes as a summoner, and his excitement suddenly calmed down at this moment.

“We’ll handle the minion wave. You go to the upper jungle and clear monsters,” Ethan Harris said.

“Got it.” Adam Bennett nodded, a bit clumsily controlling his Huang Zhong, taking his first step in Honor of Kings.

*************************************

In the April 20th game update, Huang Zhong’s ultimate was significantly changed. The content in this part of the book was written at the beginning of the year, so it’s still the old version of Huang Zhong. This is the version update issue I mentioned in the “Author’s Note.” The game version in the novel is based on the story, not real life—just to clarify again.

Chapter 5: Changping Siege (Part 1)

The Changping Siege is a left-right assault, with the jungle split into upper and lower sections, and only a single central lane for minions. Ethan Harris and Emily Carter advanced along the lane, while Adam Bennett directed his Huang Zhong toward the upper jungle. At 20 seconds into the game, the jungle monsters spawned—10 seconds earlier than in King’s Canyon. Adam Bennett’s Huang Zhong was already in position and immediately began attacking.

On the main lane, the three Royal Team heroes didn’t split up, but advanced together with the minion wave. Even though they assumed Adam Bennett wouldn’t be a threat, David Bolton still didn’t dare to be careless. He and his two teammates each picked their best heroes: David Bolton’s Luna, Samuel Carter’s Yang Jian, and William Clark’s Sun Shangxiang—these were their signature picks.

The two sides’ heroes soon met on the main lane, but only probed each other a bit. After clearing the minion wave, they each chose to retreat—no one pressed forward.

“Huang Zhong isn’t here.” David Bolton was very attentive, and after the first encounter, immediately noticed that Adam Bennett’s Huang Zhong hadn’t shown up.

“Do we need to worry about him?” Samuel Carter said dismissively.

“Even if we don’t worry about him, we need to watch out for Ethan Harris’s strategy. Why pick Huang Zhong? Isn’t it just so the two of them can protect Huang Zhong and let him set up his cannon for brainless damage output? That way, even someone who can’t play well can still contribute,” David Bolton analyzed, showing his high level of play. Huang Zhong’s ultimate, Heavy Artillery, can’t move while active, but gives him extremely long range and explosive damage. Even if Adam Bennett isn’t skilled, as long as he develops well and has Ethan Harris and Emily Carter protecting him, this kind of cannon-setup push will be hard to deal with.

“So they’re planning to let Huang Zhong farm up?” Samuel Carter said.

“There’s only one lane on this map. If we just stay on the lane for experience and gold, we’ll fall behind. We need to farm the jungle too,” David Bolton said.

“You two go, I’ll defend the tower,” William Clark said, turning his Sun Shangxiang around and heading back to their first defense tower.

“Luna’s heading up,” Ethan Harris noticed the enemy’s movement as they retreated and gave a heads-up to Huang Zhong, who was farming in the upper jungle.