While netizens were still unsure if the account from last night was really Cang Yu’s, Shen Huai’s forum account gained ten thousand followers overnight, showing just how much everyone was looking forward to the new Assassin playstyle.
At 8 PM that night, the live stream had over 2 million concurrent viewers, and when Shen Huai entered the stream, it was a bit laggy.
As soon as he entered the room, the fans who had been waiting all day eagerly flooded the chat with flowers.
[OMG! Feather God is really here! I’m not dreaming! The person who replied to my post last night was really Feather God!]
[It was worth it to stay up all night with my pad! If Cang Yu’s stream is only three and a half minutes again, I’ll send you a knife!]
Seeing everyone’s messages, Shen Huai felt a bit comforted.
The Assassin was the first character he created in “City of Despair” and his favorite. Although the official nerfs to the Assassin seemed quite harsh, seeing so many people still believing in this class like he did reignited his fighting spirit.
He typed a message on the public screen.
—The Assassin build from yesterday might not suit everyone, so today I’ve refined it.
As soon as he said this, the live stream exploded with comments like “Hurry up!” and “Cang Yu, the Assassin’s real parent!”
Shen Huai generously shared the new skill and talent build for the Assassin in the live stream, even pausing for a few seconds to let everyone take screenshots. Then he opened a pre-written document that detailed the strategy for this build.
The core of this playstyle was the Bloodthirsty Twin Blades, a basic passive skill in the Assassin branch. Since the Assassin’s combos could trigger any skill within a set time, Shen Huai abandoned the ultimate skill Death’s Dance and opted for the smaller ultimate in the Ninjutsu branch—Secret Technique: Shadow Clone.
—This playstyle is more flexible and has a higher tolerance for mistakes.
Shen Huai started a training session to demonstrate the combo.
The Ninjutsu branch’s Secret Technique: Shadow Clone retained the Assassin’s combo characteristics. When the skill is activated, a free clone appears, and as long as combos are triggered within the next minute, more clones can be created. The clones inherit the owner’s attack power and can mimic their actions, but only deal normal attack damage.
Shen Huai created two clones, and the dumb AI in the training session couldn’t tell which was the real one, attacking the closest clone instead.
The screen was filled with “666,” and having shadow clones indeed increased the margin for error, making it more suitable for players with slower hand speed.
[This playstyle looks much simpler than yesterday’s! With two clones and the real body, let’s see which one they hit, hahaha!]
[I feel hope! It’s been so long! My Ninjutsu Assassin!]
Although the Ninjutsu Assassin had a flashy Shadow Clone skill, the other basic skills weren’t high quality. Even when Assassins were popular, players rarely invested in the Ninjutsu branch’s ultimate.
After demonstrating in the training session, Shen Huai started a 1V1 arena match, still favoring attack speed and movement speed in his equipment choices. These attributes allowed him to quickly execute more combos and perform complex, high-difficulty maneuvers.
Unlike yesterday, Shen Huai matched against another Assassin this time.
Currently, the number of Assassins encountered in the arena was far fewer than other classes, especially in high-rank matches.
Shen Huai silently noted the opponent’s ID: Ba Shen.
In contrast to Shen Huai’s calmness, the live stream viewers went wild.
[OMG, it’s the Male God!]
[6666 Epic showdown, Cang Yu VS Male God!]
[Is this the Male God’s smurf account…?]
After watching for a while, Shen Huai understood that this “Ba Shen” Assassin was actually the ace player Xiao Zhang from the War God Team.
The War God Team’s IDs all ended with “God,” from the captain down to Goddess, Male God, Ghost God, Wind God, and so on. Yes, the War God Team’s captain was a woman.
Xiao Zhang’s professional ID was Male God, primarily playing Qi Master, and he was known as the top Qi Master in the national server, ranking high in the world Qi Master rankings. However, the War God Team had strict rules, and official players weren’t allowed to stream using their main class outside of official team streams, so he likely practiced this Assassin smurf in the non-professional area.
Since the opponent was a skilled professional player, Shen Huai became serious.
He didn’t jump onto the stage directly but instead dove underwater, moving around the edge of the stage to hide behind a pillar.
[All][Ba Shen]: Boosted account?
Clearly, the opponent knew his ID and thought he was a boosted account.
Shen Huai didn’t respond because, as he saw this message, a black-clad Assassin with a sharp blade emerged from stealth, and a green-glowing dagger suddenly attacked from behind.
Deadly Poison! Life Steal! Blood Lotus!
The Male God attacked swiftly, executing three skills in an instant. The damage bonus from attacking from behind caused Shen Huai to lose 10% of his health in the blink of an eye.
This was the most common playstyle for a Poison Assassin, but the combo speed was anything but ordinary.
The Poison Assassin playstyle was also pioneered by Shen Huai, so he was very familiar with it. This branch’s Assassin skills and normal attacks had poison damage, which was magic damage. The combo effect was poison stacking, and completing a four-skill combo would put the enemy in a bleeding state, which could be continuously stacked.
Once in a bleeding state, Shen Huai couldn’t use his stealth skill because activating it would immediately reveal him due to the bleeding damage.
So the fourth attack was crucial.
Seeing the enemy Assassin preparing to attack, Shen Huai decisively turned around and used Soul Capture, stunning the Male God in place.
The Assassin’s skill Soul Capture was the only control skill in the Bloodthirsty Twin Blades branch, with extremely strict activation conditions—it could only be used when the opponent’s health percentage was lower than his own.
Shen Huai immediately followed up with Shadow Mark – Assassinate – Blood Blade – Heart Piercer – Dark Sword!
The initial stun effect only lasted 1 second, but Shen Huai pressed five skills in quick succession, triggering a combo under Shadow Mark. His hand speed, averaging one key press every 0.2 seconds, surpassed most professional players!
The four-skill combo under Shadow Mark successfully triggered stealth, and in an Assassin duel, the first to go stealth had the advantage!
However, Shen Huai’s talent build had almost no attack points, and the combo effect under Shadow Mark only provided stealth without attack effects, so this skill set only reduced the opponent’s health by 10%.
The Male God remained calm, knowing that the stealth state under Shadow Mark only lasted ten seconds. Within ten seconds, Shen Huai had to reveal himself, but what he didn’t expect was that when Shen Huai reappeared, his health percentage was still lower!
Both had just reduced each other’s health by 10%, but due to the Bloodthirsty Twin Blades’ self-damage when casting skills, Shen Huai’s health remained lower than the opponent’s.
As long as his health percentage was lower, he could continue using Soul Capture!
The live stream viewers now understood the brilliance of this playstyle and were in awe of Cang Yu.
But the Male God was a professional player, the ace of the War God Team. His combat instincts were sharp, and he immediately noticed this when Shen Huai broke stealth, decisively using the ultimate skill Toxic Blade Dance!
Toxic Blade Dance could paralyze the enemy, preventing them from moving or using skills, with an effect similar to a stun but lasting longer!
The poison-coated short blades emitted a faint green glow, and several daggers stabbed towards Shen Huai. The Male God not only used this opportunity to trigger a bleeding combo but also stacked three layers of bleeding on Shen Huai!
This combo reduced Shen Huai’s health by 40%, and once the control was lifted, he could only use Swift Escape to flee. His character build was all agility, and his equipment had movement speed bonuses, making him faster than the Male God.
But the Male God was smart too. Unable to catch up with Shen Huai, he used poison-damage shurikens to continuously hit Shen Huai from a distance, ensuring the bleeding state persisted.
The poison-enhanced bleeding state was terrifying, and Shen Huai’s health was visibly dropping. Combined with the self-damage from casting skills, his health plummeted like a bungee jump, losing 10% in an instant.
Shen Huai had already calculated the damage, dodging the Male God’s last few shurikens and activating the stealth skill “Lurk” when his health reached 8%!
The fans in the live stream, who had been holding their breath, finally realized that Cang Yu’s Assassin core playstyle was to keep health below 10%! He wasn’t dodging the Male God’s shurikens because he couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to!
In front of the computer, Shen Huai’s expression was calm, as if everything was within his expectations. He maneuvered Cang Yu to quickly circle behind the Male God, his fingers hovering over the Soul Capture hotkey.
His talent skill extended the control duration when his health was low, and this time the Soul Capture stunned the Male God for a full 2 seconds. Shen Huai didn’t play it safe with Shadow Mark but directly used Death Mark, ensuring the fourth combo would be a critical hit!
This was the peak of the Assassin playstyle’s burst, with a 300% bonus and a critical hit from Death Mark, instantly reducing the Male God to low health.
The Male God, just about to counterattack, suddenly saw the Assassin split into two clones. Three Assassins continued attacking him, and the real body kept creating new clones!
Secret Technique: Shadow Clone allowed more clones as long as the combo effect was triggered, making it a battle of hand speed.
Three, four, five!
In the training session, Shen Huai had deliberately slowed down to teach fans, only summoning two clones. No one expected him to create five clones when serious!
A total of six Assassins swarmed, the dense shadows dizzying to watch. Controlling the real body, Shen Huai immediately used the stun control after the cooldown, followed by Death Mark – Assassinate – Blood Blade – Heart Piercer, and finally activated the small ultimate Blade Dance of Chaos!
The dual-wielding Assassin danced with blades, dozens of blade shadows forming a graceful dance, but the blades were cold, and the dance was deadly.
The low-health Male God was instantly killed by this burst, unable to use a single skill in the latter half, falling on the stage.
The live stream was silent for ten seconds, and all the fans simultaneously placed their fingers on the number 6 key, excitedly typing a row of numbers.
The live stream’s viewership had already increased to 5 million during the match, now surpassing 6 million and approaching 7 million, and Cang Yu’s stream had been live for less than half an hour!
They had originally come to learn Cang Yu’s new Assassin skill build and watch an arena match, but no one expected to witness the epic showdown of Cang Yu VS Male God, let alone see Cang Yu standing victoriously on the stage!
The originator of the Assassin, truly deserving!