Alice's Rare Moment of Calm

Alice sent Harley out to draw Rhine's attention, then rushed without pause toward Pa Yin Jia Lake.

According to Oshana's intelligence, the Sinful Festival that the thugs who captured Anna were set to attend would take place in a month and a half. Those thugs intended to sacrifice the girls' souls to the Sin God Flores at the festival, and until then, they had to keep the maidens pure.

But that didn't mean Anna was safe. Alice had to hurry.

Perhaps because her best friend's life hung in the balance, Alice didn't cause trouble for Shen Sui over the next three days—she only burned down five bandit hideouts, eight wilderness black shops, and thirteen castles belonging to low-level nobles who oppressed the people.

Yes, compared to Alice's usual stunts that could easily cost her own life, these weed-whacking, righteous acts no longer counted as trouble in Shen Sui's eyes.

And over those three days, Alice contributed three spell cards to Shen Sui—truly well-behaved by her standards.

The most unbelievable part was that, with Alice's practiced arson spree, her spell card [Arson] actually ranked up.

On the Dawn Continent, magic had fixed star ranks. Even Shen Sui's max-level account using Fireball Spell was only a 1-star spell. But [Arson] wasn't magic—it was a behavior-type spell card born from Alice's actions, not a manifested skill.

Like how some protagonists in novels did inhumane things—you couldn't call it a skill, but those actions still brought the protagonist plenty of benefits and helped them defeat many strong enemies.

After several days of research, Shen Sui had roughly grasped the rules for obtaining cards from the Soul Card World. Combined with the experience passed down by predecessors, he now had a general idea of how to get more cards from it.

He had to study this carefully, because selling cards was a very profitable business.

Invincibility in the Soul Card World was an illusion—only real-world wealth was real!

The cards obtained from the Soul Card World could be roughly divided into several categories.

The first category was origin-type spell cards—skills or equipment that inherently existed in the Soul Card World's power system. These spell cards appeared when a Soul Card Follower learned or equipped them. However, in practice, Shen Sui discovered that as a Soul Card Master, using skills or equipment on his Soul Card Followers could also yield similar cards—for example, skills like [Revival] that he used. This wasn't taught in textbooks, since most Soul Card Masters didn't have native identities in the Soul Card World; they all had to set up characters first.

The second category was behavior-type spell cards—spell cards that materialized from a Soul Card Follower's specific actions in the Soul Card World, like Alice's [Arson] and [Crushing Blow Targeting the Groin]. But the Duel Instrument's judgment on behavior-type spell cards was strange—sometimes they appeared, sometimes they didn't. Some said that the actions giving birth to behavior-type spell cards were those that could have a major impact on the future. Shen Sui was curious—what kind of impact would [Crushing Blow Targeting the Groin] have on the future?

The third category was event-type spell cards. When a Soul Card Follower participated in a major event, they would obtain event-type spell cards at the event's conclusion. Event-type spell cards were often permanent spell cards, similar to continuous magic cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!—as long as the opponent didn't destroy them, they could remain on the field and output effects. Therefore, these spell cards were very powerful, but also very hard to farm. Shen Sui planned to see if he could trigger an event-type spell card when he went to Modena City this time.

Spell cards were roughly these three types. Follower cards had much simpler rules—when a Soul Card Follower gained followers, or when someone's affinity with the Soul Card Follower reached a certain level, a Follower Card would be born.

For Soul Card Masters unlucky enough to draw bottom-tier characters, Follower Cards were the most torturous to farm:

Poor bottom-tier losers had no followers, nor were they worthy of love or friendship.

Therefore, these Soul Card Masters usually bought Follower Cards externally to get through their rookie period. They were also the ones most panicked about the Duel Exam, often grinding spell cards desperately to strengthen themselves.

But a behavior-type spell card like [Arson] ranking up—Shen Sui was learning about this for the first time.

With Alice's nonstop arson spree, his [Arson] had reached 12 stars.

A 2-star Soul Card had actually produced a 12-star spell card—it was hard not to question her mental state.

But for Shen Sui, this wasn't a bad thing. As [Arson]'s star rank increased, so did his ability to modify the spell card. After Alice's antics these past few days, he finally had a true field-clear spell card.

******

Card Name: [Arson]

Type: Spell Card

Star Rank: 12 Stars

Effect: During your Main Phase, you can reveal and discard the top card of your deck, then destroy all Soul Cards on your opponent's field whose star rank is lower than that card's star rank.

******

Alice was still a few days' journey from Pa Yin Jia Lake. Shen Sui calculated the time and figured he should set out soon himself.

Counting it up, he had just enough Soul Cards to meet the Duel Exam's requirements. And once Alice reached Pa Yin Jia Lake and opened her Storage Box, he was confident another batch of Soul Cards would fall into his hands.

Considering that Alice might encounter some events along the way, Shen Sui didn't sell any cards for now, deciding to wait until after the Duel Exam.

"You actually gathered twenty Soul Cards this fast?" When Shen Sui came to say goodbye, Lin Ke'er, who was writing lesson plans, said in disbelief.

As the teacher of the "Soul Card Cognition Basics" course and a first-rank professional Soul Card Master, Lin Ke'er had taken the Duel Exam herself back in the day. She had a very intuitive understanding of how hard it was to obtain Soul Cards from the Soul Card World. Checking the time—the day after tomorrow was June 6th—completing the Soul Card collection two days early was absolutely incredible.

She knew that many Duel Exam candidates barely made the deadline for collecting their Soul Cards.

Lin Ke'er had been one of them back then—her Soul Card had only obtained its final piece the second before the examiner inspected her deck, barely passing verification.

"Is your Soul Card really a Magic Apprentice?" Although Lin Ke'er was happy for Shen Sui's success, she still found it hard to believe. "This efficiency in obtaining Soul Cards is stronger than some seventh- or eighth-rank experts."

"She's a bit special." Shen Sui felt awkward—he couldn't exactly say it was a pyromaniac brat, could he? And one who was especially prone to running into bad situations.

Lin Ke'er didn't press further. A Soul Card's information was a Soul Card Master's most confidential intelligence.

"Then I'll wait here for your good news," Lin Ke'er said with a smile.

Shen Sui: "Actually, if possible, I'd like to duel you once, Teacher Lin, to test my deck. Aren't you a first-rank professional Soul Card Master?"

"Ah, I'm no longer a professional Soul Card Master. I'll never play cards again." Lin Ke'er said regretfully.

"Retired? Why?" Shen Sui asked instinctively, but immediately felt he was being tactless—this kind of thing was someone else's secret.

"Teacher will teach you one last lesson, Shen Sui." Lin Ke'er looked at him very seriously and slowly spoke, "In the professional arena, there's only one champion. Some people will betray everyone for that championship. Don't reveal any information about your Soul Card Follower to anyone."

There were thirty-three Soul Card Worlds in total. Many Soul Card Masters' Soul Cards were in the same world. If an opponent from the same Soul Card World learned about your Soul Card's information, they might use underhanded tactics.

There weren't many Soul Card Masters who chose the Dawn Continent, but they weren't completely absent. At the same time, most who chose the Dawn Continent were desperate gamblers, making them even more likely to resort to such extreme measures.