Page 28

It was the critical period just before the new season began, and there were countless official events. Notification emails were piled up densely in his inbox. Xie Mingzhe could not be bothered to keep reading them, so he simply closed the mail list. Just then, Senior Brother Qi sent him a party invitation, and Xie Mingzhe joined his team to continue leveling on White Egret Star.

Meanwhile, at the Black Market.

"Fat Uncle still hasn't replied to you?" Setting Sun asked Shuangshuang.

"I clearly sent him an email. Maybe he isn't online?" Shuangshuang looked dejected.

Setting Sun frowned and fell silent for a moment before saying, "Tell me immediately if he replies. If you spot him at the Black Market, contact him at once. Tell him I want to buy a large number of his cards and have him come talk to me in person."

"Okay, Vice President." Shuangshuang watched the vice president leave in a hurry, guilt filling her heart. She had only been playing for a little over a month and did not know much about battle cards. The person who usually ran the Judgment Guild's Black Market stall was her master, but her master had something urgent to deal with today and asked her to fill in. She had not noticed how unusual the Wu Song Card's skill was at all. If she had given it more thought back then, she would not have let Fat Uncle go so easily.

Now, she could not contact Fat Uncle at all. Shuangshuang gritted her teeth and turned around to send him another email.

At the end of the street, Red Candle's "Beautiful Card Buyback Stall" at the Black Market still had not seen the person she was waiting for. Growing impatient, Red Candle simply summoned several guild elders for a private meeting. "Search the Black Market thoroughly over the next few days. Check the backs of every original card. The moment you find a card bearing the original 'Yueban' logo, track down the seller and find out who this person is as soon as possible!"

Everyone exchanged looks—Yueban? How had this person offended Sister Red Candle? Judging from the way she was gritting her teeth, she practically wanted to skin him alive and tear out his tendons. They could not help sweating for him.

Setting Sun brought the Wu Song Card back to the guild base and handed it to Illusory Moon, Judgment's guild president.

Illusory Moon's real identity was a card expert at the Judgment Club, and he had conducted extensive research into card data. The moment he saw the card, his eyes lit up. His first reaction was to take it straight back to his personal space, and Setting Sun naturally followed him.

The two arrived at the card operation table in the study. Illusory Moon took several sets of Experience Starstones of different grades from the display cabinet, first feeding the card enough experience to reach level 20. Then he fed it two-star fragments to evolve it to two stars, fed it experience until level 30, then evolved it to three stars...

In the blink of an eye, several million Experience Starstones and 600 evolution fragments of various grades had all been fed to Wu Song.

The newly acquired level-one One-Star Card kept spinning in the air above the operation table. The color on its back gradually changed until, at last, it gave off a pure black metallic sheen, its back covered in lavish fiery-red patterns.

Level 70, Seven-Star Black Card!

Only then did Illusory Moon pick up the card and look at the data on its face—

Wu Song (Fire)

Level: 70

Evolution Stars: ★★★★★★★

Available Uses: 7/7

Base Attributes: HP 19200, Defense 19200, Attack 19200, Agility 80, Critical Rate 90%

Additional Skill: Wu Song Fights the Tiger (Throws a punch at a tiger's head, dealing massive damage, with an 85% chance of triggering an Instant Death effect)

Looking at the data, Illusory Moon frowned and asked, "Do you have God Nie's White Tiger Card?"

Setting Sun nodded. "Yes. God Nie used this card too many times last season, so after it was damaged, he gave it to me for repairs. I only just finished fixing it."

Illusory Moon said, "Let's test its effect in the arena."

The two exchanged a glance and directly teleported from the galaxy map to the Phoenix Star Domain. They opened a private battle arena and set a password.

The match began. Setting Sun summoned the Seven-Star White Tiger. The imposing tiger leaped forward and pounced fiercely at Wu Song's phantom. Yet the instant the White Tiger closed in, Wu Song clenched his fists and cleanly smashed them into the tiger's head—the massive White Tiger was knocked straight to the ground!

One move, instant kill!

Setting Sun nervously flipped through the arena battle log.

—Wu Song Card activated skill [Wu Song Fights the Tiger], triggering Instant-Death Judgment and killing White Tiger Card.

That was the only line.

It was so simple and brutal that there was no way to comment on it.

Illusory Moon saw the battle record as well and said thoughtfully, "Instant-Death Judgment really does mean a guaranteed kill in one strike. This is the first time it has appeared in the game, isn't it?"

Setting Sun looked utterly shocked. "I've never seen such a bizarre skill as 'triggering Instant Death' either!"

After thinking for a moment, Illusory Moon said, "Do you have any other high-level cards from top players? Swap in another one and try again."

Setting Sun said, "I also have Lan God's Fire Phoenix."

The Seven-Star Fire Phoenix was summoned. Its entire body was fiery red, and its enormous spread wings nearly blotted out the sky. The Fire Phoenix suddenly spread its wings wide and let out a piercing cry. Like a blazing flame, it dove rapidly toward Wu Song on the ground!

The Wu Song Card immediately struck back, but unfortunately, its defense of less than 20,000 was far too low. It was instantly killed by the Fire Phoenix's fire-element area attack ultimate, Phoenix Dance Soars to Heaven!

Setting Sun and Illusory Moon stared at each other at the sight of Wu Song's phantom, burned to ashes on the ground.

After a moment of silence, Illusory Moon analyzed, "This Wu Song Card's skill is too niche. Instant-Death Judgment only works on tiger cards and is completely useless against other kinds of cards. Its attack and defense data can only be considered third-rate—but it would not be right to call it a useless card either. Because once it encounters Nie Yuandao, it becomes a god-tier card."

"Who would have nothing better to do than specifically target God Nie's White Tiger?" Setting Sun's expression was rather strange. "Does this person have a grudge against God Nie?"

"Who is this card's creator?"

"A level-15 newcomer named Fat Uncle."

Fat Uncle? What kind of strange name was that? Illusory Moon muttered to himself as he flipped over the card. Looking at the "Yueban" logo in the lower-right corner of the black card back, he suddenly felt uneasy. He immediately connected to the database and said, "Search and see exactly how many cards this person has made."

Searching by creator logo, the database quickly returned the result: 20 cards.

Illusory Moon jolted. "Could the remaining nineteen cards all be Wu Song Cards that he sold at the Black Market?!"