Magic Card Era: Infinite Deck Enhancement — Chapter 85

Chapter 85: A Familiar Pressure

“No,” Chairman Yu said, shaking his head with a faint, knowing smile. “I can only say that Luke hasn’t shown his true strength yet.”

Unlike the other officials in the viewing room, Chairman Yu possessed a much clearer picture of Luke’s actual ceiling. Even when he had delivered his report to Shangguan Hong earlier, he had deliberately held back. He had only revealed the existence of the Dark Magician Girl. He kept the two true trump cards hidden close to his chest: the Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon and the Eye of Timaeus.

It was true that a Battle General Realm Magic Card Master was physically limited to summoning two Magic Card Elves onto the field at once. It was also true that Luke had yet to break through to the Commander Realm. But with a dual Dragon-type magic card setup waiting in the wings, the boy still held a terrifying advantage.

Forget the dual setup—even just bringing out the Red-Eyes Black Dragon by sacrificing the Red-Eyes Meteor Dragon would be more than enough firepower to completely incinerate Shangguan Wan’er’s Plant-type combination.

Chairman Yu’s only real concerns were Luke’s mana consumption and the lingering possibility that Shangguan Wan’er might be hiding a Seven-Star Magic Card beneath her sleeve. That was the only variable that could force an unexpected twist. After all, she was Shangguan Hong’s descendant; underestimating her pedigree would be foolish.

“Having confidence is a good thing, but you need to open your eyes to reality,” Xi Donghui snapped, her voice cutting through the room’s quiet murmurs. She crossed her arms, glaring at the screens. She naturally didn’t want to believe that a student from a lower-tier city could match Shangguan Wan’er. “Chairman Yu, aren’t you being a bit too arrogant?”

Her hostility wasn’t unearned. After her own city’s prodigy, Zhang Liaoxing, had been unceremoniously eliminated, Chairman Yu’s smug commentary had left a bitter taste in her mouth.

The other chairmen in the room, including Song Yongzhang and Mo Yingtian, frowned in unison.

They were in the final stage of the Youth Training Competition. For Chairman Yu to casually claim that Luke hadn’t even shown his true strength yet implied that none of their own elite students had been worthy of making the boy take a fight seriously.

“Better than some who were completely wiped out,” Chairman Yu shot back, his temper finally flaring. He had no intention of coddling Xi Donghui’s bruised ego. Their working relationship had been strained long before Zhang Liaoxing’s humiliating exit.

“You—!” Xi Donghui’s gaze darkened. While Cangming City wasn’t the only faction to suffer a total wipeout, Chairman Yu was clearly twisting the knife specifically for her.

“Want to put your money where your mouth is?” Chairman Yu tilted his head, his eyes gleaming with a gambler’s provocation. “Let’s bet on who takes the final victory. Luke, or Shangguan Wan’er.”

“Fine!” Xi Donghui agreed without a second thought.

In her eyes, Shangguan Wan’er held an absolute, impossible advantage. Three Six-Star Magic Card Elves backed by a synergistic Plant Domain—even if Xi Donghui herself were dropped into that arena at their age, she would likely be forced to retreat. She simply refused to believe that Cangling City, a faction that had consistently ranked at the bottom of the middle tier, could produce the champion of this tournament.

Chairman Yu was just trying to save face.

“I’ll wager a Light Sword and a Holy Spirit Ring,” Xi Donghui declared, slamming her stakes onto the metaphorical table. “You know exactly how valuable those two materials are. They are more than enough.”

Material betting was the lifeblood of high-level Magic Card Masters. One could never have too many high-grade synthesis components.

“A Raging Thunder Wolf Core and a Fiery Demon Heart,” Chairman Yu replied instantly, not missing a beat.

The room fell dead silent. In terms of raw market value, the Wolf Core and Demon Heart were noticeably higher than Xi Donghui’s offering. Chairman Yu wasn’t just matching her; he was crushing her stake to prove a point. His absolute faith in Luke was staggering.

“Alas,” Song Yongzhang sighed, rubbing his temples. As Yu’s friend, he had been annoyed by the earlier arrogance, but now the trap was sprung. There was no stopping the wager.

The rest of the room settled into a comfortable spectator’s silence. It wasn’t their money on the line. Most of them secretly hoped to watch Chairman Yu make a fool of himself. Cangling City had already overstepped its bounds by outperforming them all; seeing their chairman lose a fortune would be a comforting consolation prize.

Deep within the mist-choked core of the relic, the air had turned thick and humid.

“Three Six-Star Magic Card Elves, and a Plant Domain covering the entire battlefield. You really think highly of me,” Luke said, raising an eyebrow as he watched the emerald vines and glowing flora rapidly consume the stone ruins around them.

Looking at the aggressively expanding Plant Domain, Luke’s mind briefly wandered to Digimon. He pictured Rosemon, the absolute queen of plant-types, and Rafflesimon, the miraculous evolution born from the DNA Digivolution of Rosemon and Lotusmon.

If those two were standing here, they wouldn’t just summon a Plant Domain. They would manifest a Plant Kingdom, or perhaps an entire Plant World, suffocating the arena in an inescapable paradise of thorns.

‘Too bad I haven’t even taken the first step to creating Rosemon or Rafflesimon,’Luke thought, his eyes tracking the shifting vines.’But then again… if I successfully create the next Digimon Magic Card, and if it can push past Angewomon’s evolution chain, it’s not entirely out of the question.’

“For this final battle, I don’t want any mistakes,” Shangguan Wan’er said. She offered a faint, polite smile, but deep within her eyes, a storm of confusion and intense focus brewed.

Even while facing down her ultimate formation—the Silver Crown Mandala Queen, the Eternal Crystal Orchid, and the Dragon Girl—she couldn’t sense a single drop of tension from Luke. His posture was relaxed. His breathing was steady. He looked at her three Six-Star monsters as if they were nothing more than a mild inconvenience.

How was that possible? If she were in his shoes, staring down this exact combination, she wouldn’t be able to calculate a single path to victory.

The only way to break a perfect cooperation was with overwhelming, absolute power. And in this Youth Training Competition, three Six-Star Magic Cards were the ceiling of absolute power.

But Shangguan Wan’er was about to learn a harsh lesson: what she considered the absolute limit was merely the boundary of her own sheltered perception. Luke was about to shatter it.

“I agree. I don’t want any mistakes either,” Luke said, his voice smooth and unbothered. A card materialized between his index and middle fingers, glowing with a dangerous, heavy light. “Mana, are you ready?”

“Understood, Master!”

The Dark Magician Girl floated just behind his shoulder, her staff gripped tightly in both hands. A fierce, electric excitement danced in her emerald eyes.

“Then let’s clear the board,” Luke said.

He flicked his wrist, activating the Magic Card.

Shangguan Wan’er’s polite smile vanished instantly. Her face drained of color.

A boundless, suffocating pressure slammed down onto the Mist Relic, heavy enough to crack the stone beneath their feet. It was the exact same apocalyptic weight that had once terrorized the Demon Spirit Home.

Miles away, the remaining participants scattered throughout the outer edges of the relic froze in their tracks. A primal, icy tremor shot up their spines. Their Magic Card Elves shrieked in their minds, feeding back waves of pure, unadulterated terror—the biological panic of prey realizing a true apex predator had just entered the hunting grounds.

Weapons were drawn. Spells were prepped. Every surviving competitor stared into the impenetrable fog, completely paralyzed by the anomaly. They were too far from the core to see the source of the nightmare, but the message carried on the wind was crystal clear:

Something ancient had just woken up.