Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Li Leyang quickly regained his energy and asked Ning Zhu: “Do you know what a Star God Card is?”
Ning Zhu: “……”
Li Leyang took it as her knowing nothing and enthusiastically explained: “The Star God Card is the strongest card in history—no exceptions, no competition!”
Ning Zhu thought for a moment and felt it wouldn’t hurt to learn more, so she said: “Is it stronger than Zodiac Cards?”
“You’re seriously comparing things that shouldn’t be compared, classmate!” Li Leyang lowered his voice. “Do you know how Zodiac Cards came about?”
Ning Zhu blinked: “How?”
Li Leyang said: “The previous Star God Card Master—who has to be said was truly a peerless genius—after comprehending the Star God Card, created an entire system of extremely powerful Zodiac Cards.”
“Ah?” Ning Zhu glanced at Bai Ze, who was lying on a soft sofa chair.
Bai Ze actually had its eyes closed, not looking at Ning Zhu.
Li Leyang continued: “We call him the Star Demon… hey, have you seen Harry Potter?”
Ning Zhu: “……I have.”
Li Leyang said: “He’s even more ruthless than Voldemort.”
Ning Zhu: “???”
Li Leyang said: “Voldemort just wanted pure-blood wizards to rule the world, but the Star Demon wanted to exterminate all humanity!”
Ning Zhu: “Why?”
Li Leyang sighed emotionally: “There are many versions, but I think none of them are the truth. Of course, that’s all in the past—he died over a hundred years ago and there’s no chance of revival… I personally think, if he really came back… damn, I’m talking nonsense! Total nonsense!”
With his sweet-looking face and duck-voice tone cursing himself, the scene became extremely strange.
It attracted curious stares from people nearby.
Ning Zhu pulled the topic back: “Can you tell me about Zodiac Cards?”
Li Leyang said: “What’s so interesting about that compared to Star God Cards? But fine, understanding Zodiac Cards helps you realize how insane Star God Cards are.”
Ning Zhu had already encountered two Zodiac Card Masters—Li Jin, the senior who saved her life, and Yang Huai Zhou, the principal of the Spirit Card Academy.
They were Libra Card Master and Aries Card Master respectively.
And she had received admission notices for both the Aries and Libra departments.
Li Leyang asked her: “Right, which department did you get admitted to?”
Ning Zhu said: “Aries…”
She didn’t finish saying “and Libra,” when Li Leyang shook his head and said proudly: “As expected, Aries. I’m Aries too. I really want to go to Libra, ahhh.”
Ning Zhu caught the implication in his words.
So he only received the Aries department notice?
So not everyone receives two department offers?
Ning Zhu said calmly: “Aries is pretty good though. Our principal is an Aries Card Master.”
Li Leyang sighed: “Aries is super strong. Our department’s combat power is undeniable—even the lowest sequence little lamb can shoot fireballs… but Libra is cool! And Senior Li Jin inherited the Libra Card Master title, which means what? It means the Libra department is about to rise massively, with limitless future prospects!”
Ning Zhu caught the key point and asked: “Lowest sequence little lamb?”
She remembered the cute little spirits in the admission notice.
Because Li Leyang was depressed about not getting into Libra, his voice was weak: “You’ll learn this after enrollment—it’s all required courses… I’ll briefly explain. Each department has sequences. Using Aries as an example, the highest is Sequence 1, which is the Aries Constellation Card. Below that are seven more sequences—the higher the number, the more people there are, but the weaker the enhancement to cards.”
“Enhancement to cards?”
“Of course!” Li Leyang perked up again. “The strongest part of Zodiac Cards is that they enhance related card effects! For example, Aries specializes in fire elements, so it enhances all fire-type skill cards.”
“The lower the sequence number, the stronger the enhancement. For the same Fireball Card, the effect when I use it and when the principal uses it is completely on different levels.”
He then looked depressed again: “Still, nothing compares to the Star God Card. It enhances all cards.”
Ning Zhu: “……”
Li Leyang repeated: “All of them!”
Ning Zhu coughed lightly and said: “Impressive.”
Li Leyang assumed she was too “pure” to understand the terrifying implications and continued: “Zodiac Card Masters also have their own exclusive skills… I can only say they’re very, very strong.”
Ning Zhu thought of Li Jin’s 【Judgment】 and 【Justice】.
They were indeed extremely powerful.
“However!” Li Leyang changed tone. “In front of ‘divine skills’, all of that is nothing!”
“Divine skills?”
“This is exactly the terrifying part of the Star God Card! It’s truly godlike! 【Foreseeing the Future】, 【Fate Exchange】, 【Space Folding】… just listen—aren’t these completely on a different dimension from things like 【Fireball Card】, 【Freeze Card】, 【Armor Card】?!”
Ning Zhu: “……”
Bai Ze lifted its eyelids and said: “What a shame. Someone can use 【Foreseeing the Future】 but doesn’t know how to use a 【Fireball Card】.”
Ning Zhu, under the cover of the table, quietly pinched it, then said to Li Leyang: “Sounds amazing.”
“Just amazing? That’s divine power!”
“But Fireball Technique is pretty divine too.”
“Let me put it this way—‘pure humans’ also have flamethrowers, but can they predict the future?!”
“…No.”
“That’s what makes them ‘divine skills’!”
Seeing that Ning Zhu understood, Li Leyang continued: “Let me tell you, the Twelve Zodiac Cards need pairs to activate such divine skills. For example, in our school, only when the Aries Card Master and the Libra Card Master appear together can they trigger 【Fate Conversion】…”
He paused deliberately, heightening the suspense: “But the Star God Card Master can activate six divine skills alone!”
“Six?”
“Awesome, right!”
“……”
Ning Zhu glanced at Bai Ze.
Bai Ze rolled its eyes and said: “You’re only a kid. If you can trigger two, be satisfied.”
Ning Zhu roughly understood and summarized: “So the Twelve Zodiac Cards originate from the Star God Card, the Star God Card has six divine skills, and Zodiac Cards need pairs to activate one of them.”
Li Leyang: “Exactly!”
He added: “Got it now? The Star God Card is seriously insane!”
Ning Zhu: “……”
But the Star God Card Master wasn’t necessarily that amazing.
If Li Jin hadn’t arrived in time, she would already have been dead.
Li Leyang said: “Sigh, the Star God Card Master is still too far away from you. It’s normal if you can’t understand yet. Take it slow. Once you go to school and study properly, you’ll understand how big the gap between people really is.”
Ning Zhu, still curious, asked: “Does our academy only have two departments?”
Li Leyang said: “Every academy only has two departments.”
“But there are twelve zodiac signs…”
“The other six zodiac signs are evil cards!”
“Evil cards?”
“That… can’t really be explained here. You’ll understand after you go to school!”
“…Alright.”
Ning Zhu and Li Leyang got along very well, and the two of them chatted in the restaurant until 1:30 in the afternoon.
Li Leyang’s card ring suddenly emitted a sharp ringing sound. He shot up and said: “I’ve got to go home! I still need to help my mom organize new books this afternoon… oh heavens, oh earth, I’m going to be a Zodiac Card Master in the future, why am I currently an unpaid assistant to a library manager every day…”
Li Leyang hurriedly said goodbye to Ning Zhu: “You’ve already bought everything you need, go home quickly too. See you at school.”
Ning Zhu nodded and said: “Mm! See you at school!”
Just like that, they parted ways. However, even until they separated…
Li Leyang still didn’t know Ning Zhu’s name.
Ning Zhu also didn’t know Li Leyang’s real appearance.
Yet even so, they had spent an extremely pleasant day together.
—
Li Jin was trapped.
At the card ring shop, he had sharply detected the figure of the person who stole the Seven-Star Card Ring.
The Seven-Star Card Ring was the exclusive ring of the Star God Card Master.
He had accompanied Ning Zhu to Spirit Rhyme Land precisely to retrieve this ring belonging to her.
This was a mission assigned by the principal.
The card ring had been stolen—he naturally had to chase after it. But just as he reached the outer perimeter of Spirit Rhyme Land, he was caught in a 【Maze Card】.
A diversion tactic!
Trapped inside the 【Maze Card】, Li Jin immediately understood what had happened.
Steal the card ring, draw him away—then what?
Were people from the Yellow Zodiac Society really infiltrating Spirit Rhyme Land?
Impossible!
Li Jin’s mind worked rapidly, and he quickly understood their intention.
They wanted Ning Zhu to leave Spirit Rhyme Land on her own, so they could ambush and attack her.
Before leaving, Li Jin had instructed Ning Zhu to stay inside Spirit Rhyme Land for the time being.
One hour, two hours… even three or four hours—Ning Zhu might still wait for him.
But ten hours? Twenty hours?
Ning Zhu would not keep waiting inside Spirit Rhyme Land forever.
The level of the 【Maze Card】 was very high.
They had gone all out just to trap him.
Li Jin quickly calmed down and began searching for a way out of the maze.
The 【Maze Card】 was a type of 【Scene Card】.
And 【Scene Cards】 were undoubtedly the largest-scale and most costly type among all card categories.
Spirit Rhyme Land itself was supported by multiple 【Scene Cards】.
From the outside, “pure humans” could not see Spirit Rhyme Land at all. Even when they entered, they would only arrive at the superficial Wanxiang City. Only card masters using special methods could enter the interior of a 【Scene Card】.
Li Jin closed his eyes slightly. He was very familiar with the structure of a 【Maze Card】.
What is seen may not be true.
What is felt may not be real.
He needed to rely more on intuition—and for Li Jin, that was the hardest part.
He was not someone who trusted intuition easily.
One hour…
Two hours…
Six hours…
At 7 p.m., Li Jin chose to forcibly destroy the 【Maze Card】.
His right wrist ring flickered faintly as he injected all his spiritual energy cards into the 【Libra Card】.
This was dangerous.
Li Jin had only recently obtained the 【Libra Card】, and its state was still unstable. Such large-scale activation could very easily spiral out of control.
But there was no time left.
He could not contact the outside world.
Nor could he notify others to protect the Star God Card Master.
Under normal circumstances, it would take him at least two days to break out of the maze.
Would Ning Zhu wait for him in Spirit Rhyme Land for two days?
Impossible.
Li Jin even suspected she had already left.
—
Night fell, and Ning Zhu was also tired from wandering around.
Bai Ze yawned and said: “Let’s go, time to head home.”
Ning Zhu said: “I promised Senior Li Jin I’d stay in Spirit Rhyme Land.”
Bai Ze: “What time is it already?”
Ning Zhu: “Only eight o’clock.”
Bai Ze: “He probably already forgot about you.”
Ning Zhu: “……”
She was also a bit uncertain. If Senior Li Jin had caught the thief and then gone off to handle other matters, he really might have forgotten about her.
But…
Ning Zhu lay on the table, fiddling with the card-making materials in her hands: “Let’s wait a little longer.”
Li Jin broke out of the 【Maze Card】. Ice-blue threads were rampaging through his body, and every nerve was in excruciating pain.
Using his remaining spiritual energy, he activated a 【Speed Card】 and rushed toward Spirit Rhyme Land.
Outside the Huaxia Card Ring Shop, at a casually placed wooden table, a girl rested her chin in her hand, lazily playing with the sticky slime-like secretion of a Goo Monster on the table.
As if sensing his gaze, she looked up. Her pitch-black eyes were filled with joy.
“Senior Li Jin, you’re back!”