CHAPTER 16: CHAPTER 16: THE XINYUAN FAMILY’S AMBITION

"Number one Soul Card World?" In the office, the staff handling the admission procedures looked somewhat surprised at the content Shen Sui filled out on the information form.

The thirty-three Soul Card Worlds each have their own numbers. As one of the earliest Soul Card Worlds to appear, the Dawn Continent topped the ranks with its unparalleled high difficulty, earning the number one spot.

"Yes." Shen Sui nodded in response.

After defeating Xu Tianzhi and passing the duel examination, he followed the process to come here and register for admission.

"Young people these days are truly impressive." The staff sighed and then kindly reminded, "Tianyi Academy divides its youth training classes according to the Soul Card World, and the coach assigned to you will also be a professional Life Card Master from the same Soul Card World. However, for the Dawn Continent... to be honest, there aren’t many Life Card Masters using it as their Soul Card World, so you need to be prepared to be assigned to another training group."

Shen Sui was already mentally prepared for this.

"Alright. The registration is complete." After uploading Shen Sui’s information, the staff pulled out a card with beautiful gold edges from the card reader — this was Shen Sui’s student card. "You can officially move in once you bring your luggage over."

"No need."

"Hmm?" The staff’s expression immediately turned vigilant. Students who passed the duel exam could be poached by other Duel Academies willing to accept them—something they were keen on doing, hence their alertness.

Have other Duel Academies acted so quickly?

"I mean, there’s no need to go home." Shen Sui pointed to the large suitcase at the door and said, "I’ve already brought my daily necessities and clothes over."

"...." The staff was a bit speechless and said, "Did you already know you would pass the duel exam? Even after knowing the examiners’ ranks."

"In fact, I didn’t know." Shen Sui glanced down at the Dueling Device. After the exam was over, he finally had the chance to check on Alice’s status. "But I thought I could win."

The staff instinctively felt this teenager was somewhat arrogant but immediately retracted the thought upon realizing this guy had just decisively defeated a rank five Life Card Master. "Alright then, I’ll call someone to take you to the dormitory."

Shen Sui nodded, but his eyes didn’t leave the Dueling Device:

[Alice has successfully reached Lake Paiyiga.]

[The fulfilling experience made her very happy.]

Fulfilling... your experience was truly fulfilling; I almost couldn’t handle it.

Shen Sui internally grumbled.

"Are you checking on your Soul Card Follower?" The staff glanced at Shen Sui and asked.

Shen Sui nodded, and the staff laughed, "The time flow difference between reality and the Soul Card World is really a headache; many newbies get tortured quite a bit by their Soul Card Followers initially."

"And without any warning," Shen Sui complained.

This was indeed the most troublesome part. Shen Sui was now both afraid of Alice dying unexpectedly and losing his Soul Card, and wondering if Alice behaved, he might not accumulate as many Life Cards.

"I heard the Life Card Association launched a new technology recently." The staff started chatting with Shen Sui as no one else was currently handling admissions and the called person had not arrived yet. "When you acquire a new Life Card in the Soul Card World, your Dueling Device will sound an alert."

Aren’t notifications supposed to be a basic function?

Shen Sui had long wanted to complain; isn’t there usually a prompt when you get new items in games? You just have "ding!" with no sound or prompt, what’s up with that?

And when Alice encounters major events or makes big moves, there’s a high chance she might acquire new Life Cards. If there was a notification, Shen Sui wouldn’t have to be so on edge every day.

"Oh?" But better late than never. Shen Sui asked with interest, "Can I use it?"

"Yes, you can update your Dueling Device software at the Life Card Store. It’s a subscription service, ten thousand a month." The staff gestured.

"Forget it!" When Shen Sui heard the price, he immediately lost interest.

Ten thousand a month for a feature that’s shut off elsewhere; how dare you?

Shen Sui, coming from a financially struggling background, couldn’t afford such a high fee, so he would have to monitor manually, regardless of the extra effort.

******

In Jing City, Xinyuan Yingxue exhaled and closed the laptop in front of her.

This genius girl, praised by everyone, maintained a sophisticated and beautiful appearance even at home.

Her black, silky hair reached down to her thighs, like a waterfall.

Her exquisite and fair face carried a hint of coldness, but the slightly furrowed brows added a touch of humanity to her beauty. She seemed to still be savoring the battle she had just watched.

It was a live broadcast replay of a duel exam from Modu’s Tianyi Academy.

The examiner was a rank five Life Card Master named Xu Tianzhi, who had recently defeated a rank seven Life Card Master to win the Heaven-Choosing Cup. The Heaven-Choosing Cup is a regional small tournament, but as a class B competition, it holds some recognition.

"How was it?" asked a glamorous professional woman sitting beside Xinyuan Yingxue. Equally beautiful but with a slight charm, she bore a slight resemblance to Xinyuan Yingxue; she was Xinyuan Yingxue’s mother, Wang Chunxue.

"Very strong." Xinyuan Yingxue slowly opened her mouth to speak, "Extremely strong."

"His deck has only twenty cards," said Wang Chunxue.

Xinyuan Yingxue shook her head, "It has nothing to do with the number of cards in his deck. His deck core consists of just three cards, with the rest serving these three cards. Whether it’s twenty or forty cards, it’s the same. As long as he gathers those three cards, his means of victory is already in hand."

"Is there a way to counter it with a Life Card?"

"Didn’t you notice he had a follower on the field whose effect was never activated? That’s likely his way to counter the opponent’s effects," said Xinyuan Yingxue.

"Damn it, we had everything planned and the publicity campaign ready, yet this person emerged," Wang Chunxue complained with a frown, "A novice defeating a rank-five, only you should be capable, Xue!"

Thinking of this, Wang Chunxue suddenly remembered something and said, "What if we have someone investigate and get his cards banned?"

Xinyuan Yingxue’s brow subtly furrowed, a fleeting look of disgust appeared at the corner of her mouth but was quickly concealed.

The Forbidden Card system, intended to maintain competition balance, has a good intention but should be used with restraint. Abroad, due to the high cost of Life Cards, the compensation for banning is also very high. With insufficient funds in the Life Card Associations and the influence of capital groups selling Life Cards, card bans are cautiously reviewed, resulting in few banned cards each month.

However, domestically, the card ban system has been trending towards abuse. Domestically, the low cost of Life Cards allows all Life Card Masters to have access to buy high-star cards to strengthen their card decks, but this also significantly reduces the cost of card bans.

In domestic tournaments, the cap on banned cards each month is fifty. Huaxia often takes up more than half the banned cards, even during major events like the Dongye Youzai banning episode. Despite having half his card deck banned, it still can’t compare to Huaxia’s number of bans.

The abuse of card bans leads to a deterioration in the domestic competitive environment, with families using card bans to strike down rising rivals, maintaining their championship status. As some audience members have said, they’d rather watch foreign matches, as the potential winners of domestic A and B class matches can be predicted from the participant list, with only the C class matches being somewhat interesting because the Life Card Association still maintains some decorum without banning cards from lower-rank professional Life Card Masters.

In such an environment, both the audience and ordinary Life Card Masters anticipate a hero to emerge and pierce through this odorous environment.

However, even the strongest hero might not withstand several rounds of card ban audits.

She looked away from her mother, turning her gaze towards the Dueling Device on her desk.

A warm embrace enveloped her from behind, "Mom knows you hate such tactics, but Mom is doing it for your sake, Xue. Don’t you want to become a rank nine Life Card Master and world champion? I’m clearing the path for you."

Xinyuan Yingxue remained silent.

"Mom only has you left, Xue, you mustn’t leave Mom."

Wang Chunxue’s cold voice reached her ears as Xinyuan Yingxue closed her eyes; she seemed to see the figure of the sister who left them and ran away from home.

"Sister, sister, why did you leave?"

"She’s insulting me! I’m a Duelist! Damn it, not a puppet! If you really want to become a rank nine Life Card Master, Xue, remember not to abandon me."