I Want to Take It Easy

"Five Confounding Dust Cards. Let's see what surprises they bring me."

Lin Qi tapped his fingertips lightly on the table. Five Confounding Dust Cards, glowing faintly grayish white, lay neatly arranged before him, though the hazy gray mist pattern on their faces looked rather cheap.

He took a deep breath and quietly attached his mental power to them.

"Fuse!"

The Fusion Card turned into a vortex, and a current of air swept the cards rapidly downward. In the blink of an eye, darkness swallowed them.

The next second, a blinding white light burst from the heart of the vortex, and a new card slowly appeared in midair.

Magic Card: Mist

Star rating: one star

Quality: white

Card description: creates a small area of dense smoke that envelops allied units.

"What the hell? How did five one-star cards fuse into another one-star card?"

Lin Qi stared blankly at the card in his hand, his mind in turmoil.

Ever since he had started fusing cards, every time he fused five white one-star cards, he had received a green two-star card. He had come to take it for granted.

But this time, that assumption had been shattered.

"Why? Shouldn't five white cards fuse into a green card?"

Refusing to believe it, Lin Qi fused another five Confounding Dust Cards.

The vortex appeared again, swallowed the cards, flashed, and dropped the resulting card. Every step was exactly the same.

Yet the white card lying quietly on the table still bore a pale gray smoke pattern: the Magic Card Mist.

"Could it be because of the card type?"

Lin Qi raked a hand through his hair in frustration and glanced over the scattered piles of cards. He grabbed three Small Fireball cards bearing flame patterns, then added two Thorn Cards with spike patterns.

"Fuse!"

The vortex sucked in the three Small Fireball cards and two Thorn Cards, and soon a white two-star Burning Trap appeared before him.

"Nothing wrong there. Even five junk cards can fuse into a two-star Burning Trap, so why can't five white one-star cards fuse into a green card?"

He turned and rushed to his desk, pulling out a leather notebook buried at the bottom. It contained his experimental records on the rules of fusion.

"The core rule of card fusion: five cards are required as the base materials.

Fusing cards of the same type can advance their quality, but it will not trigger an attribute change; it only strengthens their existing characteristics.

Example: five Iron Sword Cards fuse into a Mercenary's Saber, improving only its sharpness, with no additional effects.

Special advancement case: after Dad's Wind-Breaking Saber fused with Fire Crystal Ore, it advanced into the Blazing Wind Saber, transforming through an attribute-branch evolution.

Conjecture: fusing five Wind-Breaking Sabers as the sole materials should produce an enhanced card of the same type that inherits the Wind-Breaking Saber's core attributes..."

His pen tip stopped at the word "enhanced," and Lin Qi's eyes suddenly lit up.

He tapped the table, and a hypothesis gradually took shape in his mind.

"The Burning Trap is the product of fusing junk cards. Because of the cards' quality, it can only advance to white and can't reach green quality, but its power is great enough to give it a two-star rating.

"So, conversely, does the fact that these five Confounding Dust Cards can only fuse into a one-star Mist Card mean that both their quality and energy are too poor to meet the standard?"

Once the thought surfaced, it rapidly wound around his mind like a vine.

The more Lin Qi thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. He immediately searched through the card box again and used Confounding Dust Cards to fuse four more Mist Cards.

"All right, then I'll try fusing five Mist Cards. Surely it won't be white again this time!"

The vortex swallowed the five Mist Cards, and Lin Qi stared fixedly into it.

Soon, amid the flashing white light, a glimmer of green finally appeared inside the vortex.

Magic Card: Hazy Smokescreen

Star rating: two stars

Quality: green

Card description: creates a small area of dense smoke that envelops allied units. Allies within the smokescreen gain concealment and a slight increase to their evasion rate.

"Just as I thought."

Lin Qi gripped the green-glowing card, and a relieved smile finally appeared on his face.

"One Hazy Smokescreen takes 125 junk cards. I just don't know how many it'll take to advance a green card to blue."

Caught up in his excitement, Lin Qi plunged into a frenzy of card fusion.

Confounding Dust Cards were junk cards bought by weight to begin with. At ten for one Ka'en, the cost was low enough to ignore. If he could use them to fuse a blue three-star card, it would be an enormous profit.

He turned junk cards into Confounding Dust Cards, then fused those into Mist Cards. Only after fusing five hundred junk cards and producing four more Mist Cards did Lin Qi stop.

It wasn't that he didn't want to continue, but his body couldn't take it anymore.

Even though he had broken through to Three-Star Card Master, his Source Power was nearly exhausted after that frenzy of fusion.

"Dad, give me a Source Crystal."

Lin Qi shouted downstairs, his voice slightly hoarse from exhaustion.

Soon, rapid footsteps came pounding up the stairs, and Lin Feng pushed the door open.

"Son, is one enough? How about I give you a couple more?"

Lin Feng pulled out nine Source Crystals with a sheepish smile.

His personal stash had held ten Source Crystals, and he had used one to advance the Wind-Breaking Saber. At a Five-Star Card Master's rate of absorbing Source Power, he should have absorbed one in half a day, even at his slowest.

Yet the nine Source Crystals still looked exactly as they had before. Lin Qi was certain that Lin Feng had been slacking off.

Frowning, he took one Source Crystal from Lin Feng's palm and sighed inwardly.

After living in this little town for so long, maybe becoming a Grand Card Master is as far as Dad thinks he can go. Now that his Natal Card has advanced to blue, he has what it takes to become a Grand Card Master, but it's also made him complacent...

He had to give him some motivation.

Lin Qi looked up at Lin Feng, his tone calm but weighty.

"Dad, I've broken through to Three-Star Card Master."

"What?"

Lin Feng's mouth fell open. He rubbed his ears, thinking he had misheard.

"Say that again? Three-Star... Card Master?"

Instead of repeating himself, Lin Qi gripped the Source Crystal and began absorbing its Source Power.

As the Source Power inside Lin Qi fluctuated, Lin Feng sensed it. He was indeed a Three-Star Card Master, without a doubt.

"My son... my son truly is a heaven-sent genius!"

Seeing how excited he was, Lin Qi quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like that worked.

But what Lin Feng said the next second nearly made him cough up a mouthful of blood in anger.

Lin Feng excitedly seized Lin Qi's hand and shook it. "Son, does that mean your dad can take it easy now? From now on, I'll leave the family's affairs to you!"

"You..."

Lin Qi's face darkened instantly. He nearly couldn't catch his breath, and his vision went black.

He clenched his fists and repeated frantically to himself, He's my real dad, my real dad. Beating my dad would be unfilial. I can't hit him...

A full minute passed before Lin Qi finally managed to calm himself down.

"Dad."

He turned and stared at Lin Feng, utterly serious.

"I'm giving you only seven days to cultivate. During that time, I'll get you another ten Source Crystals. In seven days, whether or not you break through to Grand Card Master, I'm going to settle things with Lei De.

"And then there are the bandits on Stone Iron Mountain. Those scourges robbed me of my goods twice, and after taking my money, they still wouldn't give me any information. I remember all of it. I'm going up the mountain to wipe them out!"

Seeing the unquestionable ruthlessness in his son's eyes, Lin Feng's playful grin vanished in an instant.

He knew Lin Qi's character. He always did what he said.

In seven days, the boy really would go and risk his life.

Lei De was one thing, but more than a hundred bandits were holed up on Stone Iron Mountain. Even as a Five-Star Card Master with several blue cards, Lin Feng wasn't confident he could make it out unscathed.

He patted Lin Qi on the shoulder, casting aside all his carefree manner.

"That's the spirit. I also think it's time to wipe out the bandits on Stone Iron Mountain and rid the people of that scourge."

He took a deep breath, fighting spirit reigniting in his eyes. "Don't worry. Within seven days, I'll definitely break through to Grand Card Master. When the time comes, I'll go with you and raze Stone Iron Mountain!"