Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Shangguan Waner: I Have a Bold Idea

From the exact moment Sistermon Ciel launched her assault to the second both the Wind Demon Tiger and the Ice-Flame Magic Lion collapsed in defeat, the entire exchange had been terrifyingly brief. It happened in such a blinding flash of steel that Chang Hongyi was only just now managing to process the devastation.

“How is this even possible?!” he gasped.

Having witnessed his prized Ice-Flame Magic Lion and Wind Demon Tiger being cleanly and decisively slaughtered by Sistermon Ciel, Chang Hongyi stood completely dumbfounded. These weren’t some disposable, trash-tier Magic Card Elves; they were peak intermediate summons, genuine Six-Star entities! Yet, they had been carved up as effortlessly as a chef dicing vegetables. How could this possibly be reasonable?

The sheer absurdity of the scene delivered a tremendous psychological blow. He had never encountered such an overwhelming disparity in strength, not even during the grueling college entrance examinations of the Western Regions.

Could it be… is she a Seven-Star Magic Card Elf?

The thought suddenly flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning, fundamentally shifting the way he looked at the gun-toting nun. Only a Seven-Star entity could explain why his elite monsters had been swatted aside so easily.

But arriving at that logical conclusion only made him feel infinitely worse. Damn it! Why would anyone let a Seven-Star Magic Card Elf roam completely out of their sight? Shouldn’t a powerhouse like that be held back as a final, decisive trump card?!

Chang Hongyi wasn’t entirely surprised that a Magic Card Master among the new students recruited by Tianfu Academy had managed to create a Seven-Star Magic Card. Such elite Magic Card Masters existed in the Western Regions as well.

However, freshmen of that caliber were incredibly rare. Across the Three Capitals of the Western Regions, only three new students had successfully forged Seven-Star Magic Cards this year—averaging out to just one peerless genius per capital city. Those three had swept the top ranks of the Western Regions’ entrance exams, their strengths nearly identical.

He just hadn’t expected his own luck to be this rotten, getting targeted by an expert of that monstrous caliber right at the very start of the second round.

“Get out of the way.”

A chilling, emotionless voice pierced his thoughts, immediately followed by the sharp, biting aura of a naked blade. After dispatching the beasts, Sistermon Ciel hadn’t bothered to sheathe her weapon. Instead, she leveled the blood-stained edge directly at Chang Hongyi.

Feeling the undisguised, icy killing intent washing over him, he felt as though he had been plunged into a freezing abyss. Instinctively, he stumbled a step backward.

A second later, his face flushed a deep, humiliating crimson. He, a proud Magic Card Master, had actually been frightened into retreating by a mere summon.

Unfortunately, his wounded pride wasn’t enough to help him regain his composure. Even ignoring the high probability that Sistermon Ciel was a Seven-Star Magic Card Elf, he knew he couldn’t defeat her even if he threw his life on the line.

More, every survival instinct screaming in his brain warned him: if he dared to make a single sudden movement, this nun’s blade would cleave him in two without a shred of hesitation. The murderous intent radiating from her was absolutely not a bluff.

The rules of the Trial Road never explicitly stated that candidates could snatch Trial Crystals from one another, but they also never explicitly forbade attacking a fellow Magic Card Master. Since it wasn’t strictly prohibited, it meant such ruthless tactics were entirely within the boundaries of the rules!

While Chang Hongyi reasoned that this was just an assessment and the academy wouldn’t actually allow him to be murdered, severe physical trauma was definitely on the table. It wasn’t entirely impossible that he could end up permanently crippled.

Damn it all! This is just an entrance trial! I haven’t even officially stepped foot into Tianfu Academy yet! Is it really necessary to be this ruthless? His lips trembled, a wave of utter misery washing over him. Are all the Magic Card Masters in the Eastern Regions this psychotic?

What drove him to true despair, however, was the realization that he still didn’t know the true name of the Magic Card Elf standing before him, nor did he have any clue who her master was. He didn’t even know the identity of his assailant, making any future thoughts of revenge a complete joke. Just the sheer, suffocating disparity in strength alone left him entirely speechless, forcing him to swallow his grievances.

Sistermon Ciel, of course, couldn’t care less about his internal crisis. Seeing Chang Hongyi thoroughly intimidated, she strode past him with casual arrogance. With a deft flick of her blade, she knocked the Trial Crystal loose and caught it neatly in her free hand.

Without sparing the trembling freshman a single backward glance, she walked straight out of the trial area to hunt down her next target. She clearly wasn’t the least bit worried about him attempting an ambush. Or rather, if he actually dared to try, she possessed the absolute confidence to carve him into pieces.

It wasn’t until the terrifying nun had completely vanished from sight that Chang Hongyi’s rigid muscles finally relaxed. He slumped, staring blankly at his now-empty stronghold, wanting to weep but finding he had no tears left to shed.

If he had known it would end like this, he would have played dumb and just let her take the Trial Crystal in peace. At least then, he could have preserved the lives of his Ice-Flame Magic Lion and Wind Demon Tiger.

The second round had only just begun. Even if he lost his crystal, as long as he wasn’t eliminated, he could have emulated that monster’s master and started hunting down other people’s crystals.

But now, both of his ace Magic Card Elves were dead. Forget about robbing others; it was highly debatable whether he could even survive staying safely inside his own stronghold. The mimetic fierce beasts slated for the upcoming waves would only grow stronger, and his fate, now stripped of his primary combat power, was grimly self-evident.

His grand plans for the trial had been aborted before they even truly began.

“Ciel’s personality is certainly much more decisive than Noir and Blanc’s. Still, entrusting these kinds of tasks to her really puts my mind at ease.” Luke, who had been observing Sistermon Ciel’s flawless suppression of Chang Hongyi through their mental link, nodded in deep satisfaction.

Elsewhere on the Trial Road, Liu Yanran exhaled a heavy sigh of relief as she watched her defeated opponent fade away into particles of light.

“The opponents in this round are significantly stronger than before. None of the remaining candidates can be underestimated.” The mounting pressure of the trial was beginning to weigh heavily on her shoulders. “I wonder just how much the gap between us has widened during this entrance trial, Luke…”

Amidst her quiet murmurs, she was enveloped by a teleportation light and whisked out of the combat space.

She wasn’t the only one feeling the strain. Su Xueyi maintained her usual frosty demeanor, but the subtle, gradual relaxing of her tense posture betrayed her exhaustion. Clearly, the forced battle she had just endured had been no walk in the park.

“Speaking of which, did that guy’s mind seem a bit… abnormal just now?”

On another battlefield, Shangguan Wan’er had dispatched her opponent with far more ease than the other two girls, but the defeated freshman’s erratic behavior had left her slightly concerned.

“During the battle, he seemed to be constantly muttering about Trial Crystals,” her Magic Card Elf, the elegant, umbrella-wielding Eternal Crystal Orchid, noted softly, politely covering her mouth with her free hand.

“Trial Crystals?” Hearing Eternal Crystal Orchid’s observation, Wan’er realized her suspicions were correct, though she still didn’t understand why the boy had been so fanatically obsessed with the glowing stones. “Could it be that these Trial Crystals have some hidden property?”

Driven by curiosity, Wan’er reached out and tapped the floating Trial Crystal. The next moment, the crystal yielded to the physical force, gently drifting a few inches to the side.

Seeing this, Wan’er froze. Her eyes widened as the gears in her head began to turn. Combining this newfound physical interactivity with the manic obsession of the student she had just eliminated… Shangguan Wan’er suddenly had a very bold idea.