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The front of the card showed a beautiful woman in a long dress. Her features were delicate, her figure slender, and her frail appearance was enough to make anyone worry. She held a few pale pink petals in her hand and scattered them over the ground. Tears shimmered in her moist eyes; she looked so pitiful that she seemed on the verge of crying.

What an unusually captivating beauty! Many casual players' eyes lit up. The artwork on this character card was highly distinctive, and if the price was right, they could buy this pretty girl home as a collectible. But after admiring the beauty on the card, most players who loved competitive play still focused on its attributes and skills.

Lin Daiyu (Wood)

Card Level: Level 1

Evolution Stars: ★

Available Uses: 1/1

Base Attributes: Health 100, Attack 0, Defense 15, Agility 15, Critical Hit Rate 0%

Additional Skill: *Daiyu Burying Flowers* (Deals devastating damage to flower-type cards, with a 30% chance to trigger an Instant Death effect)

Daiyu Burying Flowers? The audience was briefly stunned and stared at the card—its skill only affected "flower-type cards," so it could only be useful in the Arena and was useless for dungeon runs. An Instant Death effect? They had never seen a skill description like that before.

However, the card experts dispatched to the Auction House by the major guilds immediately reacted as if they had been injected with adrenaline. They quickly sent voice messages to their guild leaders in private chat. "Boss, boss, a god-tier card has appeared at the Auction House! An instant-death effect targeting flower types!" "Guild Leader, someone's selling an Instant-Death Card that targets flowers!" "Holy shit, is the seller Tang Muzhou's enemy or something?" "Boss, what do we do? Someone's selling an Instant-Death Card specifically for flower-type cards!"

Tang Muzhou: "..."

Fat Uncle, that really wasn't very friendly of you. Not only did you ignore our emails, you even put the Daiyu Card up for public auction?

The news quickly spread from the guild leaders to the professional players.

Star Card Alliance Pro Player Chat Group—

Zheng Feng: "Hahaha, let me laugh for a while. Tang God came up with instant-death checks, but someone actually made an instant-death card for flower types specifically to counter him!"

Qiao Xi: "Tang God is so pitiful. Should we go to the Auction House and fight for this card?"

Ling Jingtang: "At this moment, I can only use [smile] to express how I feel."

Ye Zhu: "Hahahahahaha, I can't stop laughing!"

Shen An: "Don't laugh at my master! Be careful, or karma might come for you and you'll get countered too!"

***

At the auction venue, the host announced, "The starting price for this card is—3,000 gold!"

Many audience members inwardly complained when they heard that. "Has this guy gone crazy for money? Aren't One-Star Cards usually listed from 500?" "A One-Star Card costs this much? Is he not considering the cost of raising it to seven stars?" "Is this card creator a little too confident?"

But many players who understood cards said nothing. They nervously placed their fingers over the bid button, ready to snatch up the card.

The moment the host called out "Begin," the auction price on the big screen surged wildly—

3,500... 3,800... 4,000...

Within one minute, the price rose to 5,000 gold.

Five thousand gold was a threshold. Those who frequently watched the Auction House knew that most low-level cards sold at that price were fairly good cards, because buying a low-level card also meant considering the cost of feeding it up to seven stars. Raising a One-Star Card to seven stars consumed a huge amount of materials. Truly wealthy players preferred buying seven-star cards outright. Meanwhile, the game's middle-class players would first weigh whether their deck really needed a particular card before buying a low-level one.

It didn't seem like they needed it that badly? Once they thought about it that way, the players who had planned to bid all stopped.

The host said, "5,000 gold, going once. 5,000 gold, going twice..."

Xie Mingzhe sat calmly amid the crowd and waited. The Daiyu Card was definitely worth more than this. Didn't arena players want an Instant-Death Card? Or was this the first time such a check had appeared, and many people still hadn't figured it out?

The host said, "5,000 gold, going three—"

Before he could finish, a number suddenly appeared on everyone's screens.

—10,000.

Ten thousand! It had doubled in a single jump!

Many audience members froze. Could some rich player have accidentally hit the bid button?

The host's AI reacted swiftly and immediately continued according to its preset program. "The bid has risen to 10,000 gold. Are there any higher bids?"

—20,000.

Someone had doubled the bid again!

Only then did the casual players who did not understand battle cards realize that this might truly be an excellent card. But the players who understood cards knew—the card experts sent to the Auction House by the major guilds had finally made their move!

Sure enough, the price entered another brutal round of bidding!

—30,000!

—40,000!

—50,000!

—60,000!

—100,000!

The bidding paused at 100,000.

In all the years Star Card Storm had been running, the only level-one, One-Star Card ever sold for as much as 100,000 gold had been Tang Muzhou's Vine Card five years ago. Before Tang Muzhou, plant decks had contained no vine-type cards. He had pioneered the entirely new Vine Combat Style, and the person who bought Tang Muzhou's Vine Card at that auction later became his mentor—an oft-told story cherished by many fans.

Of course, prices five years ago could not be compared to current prices. That 100,000 gold back then was equivalent to more than 300,000 today.

But before Tang Muzhou put the Vine Card up for auction, he had already made a name for himself on the Black Market and had countless fans. Meanwhile, this person called Yueban was an unknown nobody who had never shown his face. On his first visit to an auction, he had created an Instant-Death Card—a slender beauty with the skill Daiyu Burying Flowers—and it had actually sold for 100,000 gold? Could another card-making genius be about to emerge out of nowhere?

The audience widened their eyes, settled into position to watch the drama unfold, and stared intently at the screen.

The buyers from the major guilds were losing their minds. They immediately used private voice chat to contact their guild leaders. "I don't know how many people are competing for it, but a level-one card has already reached 100,000!" "Is Fenghua Guild at the venue? Are they desperately bidding because they're afraid this card will be bad for Tang God?" "Are we fighting for it to the end?" "Guild Leader, please give us instructions! Should we keep bidding?"