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--Tuberose was safely inside the shield and had not died.

Xie Mingzhe quickly realized. "Did the Banyan Tree's protection skill block Daiyu's Instant-Death Judgment?"

"That's right." Seeing that he understood at once, Tang Muzhou inwardly praised him, and his tone became much gentler. "Sacred Tree's Blessing makes allies within range immune to all control effects and damage for five seconds. My Banyan Tree also has 100 Agility, so it can use skills alongside your Daiyu, but the arena has a specific skill resolution order."

Tang Muzhou pulled up the battle log and explained, "Look. Defensive and healing skills resolve first, followed by control and instant-death skills, while attack skills resolve last. Your Daiyu Burying Flowers was blocked by the Banyan Tree's protection skill, so it lost its effect."

"Also, in the second round, you were able to instantly kill Tuberose because I deliberately gave you a 0.3-second head start. Otherwise, even if you raised your Daiyu Card to 100 Agility and dueled me, you might not have been able to instantly kill my flower cards. My predictive awareness is stronger than yours, and I would act faster. In a match, speed and timing are crucial. You don't know how to fight in the arena, and you still haven't mastered that rhythm."

"..." Xie Mingzhe had truly learned something new. So there were so many arena rules he did not understand. Although his head was now filled with countless novel card-making ideas, his understanding of this card world was still only the tip of the iceberg.

"Instant-death cards are not invincible. As long as an expert predicts when you'll make your move, they simply won't give you the chance to cast an instant-death skill. These cards aren't meant to be used directly. They are tactical cards, used at crucial moments to exploit gaps in the opponent's skills and kill them unexpectedly." Tang Muzhou explained gently. "I'm telling you this because I want you to understand that a truly outstanding card designer needs more than novel ideas. You must also clearly understand all kinds of arena rules, so that the cards you create will be more useful."

"I understand. Thank you, Tang God!!" Xie Mingzhe's thanks came straight from the heart.

His opponent had personally brought him to the arena today and helped him understand many things. He truly had countless wild ideas, but the cards he made were not necessarily useful. If he wanted to create high-quality cards, he had to become an arena expert himself.

--Only someone who understood cards could make good cards!

"Let's go. We can talk back there." Tang Muzhou brought him back to Thousand Woods Restaurant and continued their conversation.

"Is a card's Agility attribute basically like the casting speed of skills in online games? At 100 Agility, a skill is cast instantly, while lower Agility means it takes longer to use a skill. Is that right?" Xie Mingzhe asked.

"That's right." Tang Muzhou smiled. "An Instant-Death Card's skill must be instant-cast, so its starting Agility must reach 30 and its maximum level must reach 100. Only then is it a truly qualified Instant-Death Card. Otherwise, your card would be completely useless against experts. Your Instant-Death Cards are currently being fought over by various guilds because there are too few of them. Once they circulate widely later on, they'll only be tactical cards, and their prices will definitely plummet. You can make some Instant-Death Cards first, learn more card-making techniques, try allocating a card's base stats, and push Agility as high as possible. Later, you can try building a complete deck."

"Mm-hmm." Xie Mingzhe nodded seriously.

This expert's guidance had completely overturned his understanding of card value.

He had always believed that cards with high Health, Defense, and Attack were good cards. Now, however, it seemed that for functional cards like Daiyu, Health and Defense did not matter at all. There were only two crucial points: first, Agility; second, additional skills.

By the same logic, if control cards wanted to end a battle quickly, they also needed to stack Agility and use powerful control first. If they wanted to fight an attrition battle or defend and counterattack, then they needed to stack Health. Attack cards naturally needed to stack damage output, while their other attributes did not need to be too high, because attack cards generally acted under the protection of defensive cards. Protection cards, of course, needed thick Health bars, serving as the tanks of the deck.

Protection cards, control cards, healing cards, damage cards, and some special functional cards and tactical cards...

An outstanding deck needed balanced stats in every aspect.

Instant-Death Cards were merely tactical cards in the arena, meant to catch opponents by surprise.

He still had a long, long way to go before he could assemble a complete deck, and he needed to keep learning.

Xie Mingzhe was deeply grateful for the experts he had met these past few days--God Nie and Lan God had frankly explained the purpose of Instant-Death Cards to him. If not for that, he would not have realized his own talent and potential so quickly. And today, this expert with a numerical ID had personally taken him to the arena, helping him understand the importance of Agility and the concepts behind deck design.

He was so excited that he wished he could immediately return to his personal space and make more cards.

Seeing Fat Uncle lower his head in careful thought, Tang Muzhou could not help asking, "What have you decided about becoming my disciple? We've talked for so long, and I even personally brought you to the arena for a demonstration. My skill level should qualify me to be your master, right?"

Xie Mingzhe came back to his senses and scratched his head. "Tang God, you're joking. How could I dare take you as my master?"

Tang Muzhou: "..."

Having his identity exposed right to his face--

His

--was truly an awful feeling!

Tang Muzhou fell silent for a moment, then asked in confusion, "How did you figure it out?"

Xie Mingzhe said, "The system's generic face, the garbled numerical ID, the restaurant's decor filled with vines and green plants, your deep expertise in plant-type cards, and your terrifying arena awareness... the only person I could think of was Tang Muzhou, the strongest wood-element player."

A few days ago, he had just seen the numerical-ID alternate accounts of the two experts, Nie Yuandao and Shan Lan. Today, he had met this wealthy player, 7456789. At the time, Xie Mingzhe had suspected that this might also be an alternate account belonging to some professional expert.

After interacting with him for this long, he finally dared to confirm the other man's identity--mastery of plants, a numerical ID, top-tier skill, constant attention toward him, and having bought all of his Daiyu Cards. On top of that, he had a Tuberose Card in his hand. Who else could he be but Tang Muzhou?

Xie Mingzhe stated it bluntly, and to his surprise, the other man admitted it just as frankly.