"Congratulations to Team Blue Rain for defeating Team Tiny Herb and winning the championship of the Sixth Season!
This marks the first title in Blue Rain's history — and the end of Tiny Herb's dream of a two-time championship!"
With that announcement, the Sixth Season of the Glory Professional Alliance came to a perfect close.
In that season, Blue Rain achieved its own rebirth — the duo known as "Sword and Curse" became famous across the Alliance, and of course, there was also Huang Shaotian's endlessly chattering mouth.
A grand celebration was held in G City, Blue Rain's home ground.
But none of that had anything to do with Team Samsara.
Like Blue Rain, Samsara was one of the older, established teams in the Alliance. Yet, for the first four seasons, they had always been a mid-to-lower-tier team — a perennial underdog.
Everything changed at the end of the Fourth Season, when Fang Minghua strongly recommended a young player named Zhou Zekai to the team. Zhou's arrival replaced the original captain, Zhang Yiwei, and Zhou did not disappoint.
In the Fifth Season, Zhou Zekai debuted with his sharpshooter account One Autumn Leaf—
(No! Wait, correction: His account is "Cloud Piercer")
— and burst into the scene like Wang Jiexi once did, taking the title of Best Rookie of the Season. Under his lead, the long-struggling Samsara made it to the playoffs for the very first time in team history.
Unfortunately, they were stopped short in the quarterfinals.
Still, for a team that had spent years in the lower ranks, that alone was something to be proud of. Yet their weakness was obvious: although Zhou Zekai's individual skill was exceptional, his quiet and introverted personality made it difficult for teammates to read his intentions during team battles. They couldn't keep up with his rhythm.
That was why, even though Samsara broke into the playoffs in the Fifth Season, they couldn't go any further. They only had Zhou Zekai.
Because of his overwhelming strength and the contrast with his weaker teammates, the public even gave Samsara a nickname — "The One-Man Team."
Then came the Sixth Season.
On the advice of their cleric Fang Minghua, Samsara scouted a newcomer from Team Hundred Blossoms' training camp — Jiang Botao. After bringing him in, Samsara slowly began to change.
Because Jiang Botao and Zhou Zekai formed an incredible chemical reaction.
Jiang could understand Zhou's thoughts and rhythm, allowing Samsara to begin a vibrant and promising period of growth in the Sixth Season.
By the end of that season, the team was clearly improving.
However, one critical issue remained: they lacked firepower.
To beat Samsara, opponents only needed to focus on neutralizing Zhou Zekai — once he was contained, no one else on the team could withstand the pressure on the front lines.
Thus, Samsara's biggest challenge was clear:
They needed someone who could share the offensive burden with Zhou Zekai's Cloud Piercer, someone who could stand beside him in direct combat.
And that person was waiting — right in Samsara's youth training camp.
It was the start of the Seventh Season. Inside Samsara's training camp, a young player was locked in an intense battle.
"Your openings are full of flaws."
On the screen, two Battle Mages were dueling — but the match was entirely one-sided.
"Boring."
"Vice-captain Jiang, what do you think of this young trainee of ours?"
Outside the training room, the team manager and Vice-Captain Jiang Botao were observing.
As mentioned earlier, Jiang Botao was the newcomer Samsara had recruited from Team Hundred Blossoms during the Sixth Season.
Since joining, his synergy with Zhou Zekai had been remarkable — earning him nicknames like "The Glue," "All-Rounder," "Fixer," and "Timely Rain."
"Not bad," Jiang said with a smile. "His grasp of the Battle Mage's mechanics and his combat awareness are already at a professional level — though still a bit raw."
"I think we should move him to the main roster soon. Only by playing real matches can he grow further. The youth camp can't push him anymore — promoting him would also help with our future strategic planning."
Jiang looked at the boy in the training room and smiled.
"He'll be the final piece of Samsara's championship puzzle."
So, who was this young player?
His name was Zhou Yichen — a recruit who had joined Samsara's youth training camp just last year.
He specialized in the Battle Mage class — but interestingly, when he first entered the camp, that wasn't his original class.
His connection to the Battle Mage class was a story in itself.
At the urging of a friend, he had watched the Third Season Grand Finals online — the match where Ye Qiu's One Autumn Leaf used the spear "Evil Annihilation" to crush the Double Blossoms duo.
That battle shocked Zhou Yichen to his core. From that moment on, he fell in love with the Battle Mage class. He even asked the camp coach to let him change classes, abandoning his old main entirely.
Despite repeated persuasion from the coach to reconsider, Zhou refused to give up — and was finally allowed to try.
That one decision opened the door to a brand new world for him.
"Xiao Zhou, come here for a moment," the manager called.
"This is our team's vice-captain, Jiang Botao. Vice-captain, this is Zhou Yichen, the genius Battle Mage who joined our youth camp at the end of last year," the manager introduced.
"Nice to meet you, Vice-captain! I'm Zhou Yichen. My idol is One Autumn Leaf, and my goal is to become the number one Battle Mage in the entire Alliance!" Zhou said confidently as he shook Jiang's hand, eyes shining with determination.
"Haha, nice to meet you, Xiao Zhou. You can just call me Jiang Botao — I'm a Magic Swordsman," Jiang replied with a grin.
"Since you admire Ye Qiu and One Autumn Leaf so much, why didn't you join Excellent Era's youth camp instead of coming to Samsara?" Jiang asked curiously.
"Because the Excellent Era didn't invite me! Uh— no, that's not what I meant."
He scratched his head and laughed.
"It's true I like Ye Qiu and One Autumn Leaf, but isn't it more exciting to defeat your idol than to just follow them? I'm going to be the strongest Battle Mage in the entire Alliance!"
"Haha, interested in sparring with me?" Jiang asked.
"Of course, Vice-captain! Don't underestimate me — I'm really strong!" Zhou puffed out his chest proudly.
With that, the two headed to the dueling room.
"Ready?"
"Always. I've been looking forward to this — a real match against a member of the main team!"
"I've been in the youth camp for so long, and honestly, no one here is a real challenge for me. My playstyle's aggressive — I usually end up grinding my opponents into the floor," Zhou said, grinning confidently.
AUTHORS NOTE : Just something I wrote for fun. After reading so many fanfictions, I realized there aren't many about Samsara, so I got the urge to write one myself. I'm a total amateur, so please go easy on me. If I make any mistakes, feel free to point them out — I'll fix them right away!