Mysterious Sea

[Who was that person who just spoke? They seemed arrogant and looked down on the students of Mingxin Academy.]

[The person above is Luo Qi, a young elite from the Yinyue Guild, and also the captain of their representative team.]

[A young elite? He doesn't look very young.]

Is there some kind of grudge between the guild and the academy? They seem to have a strained relationship.

The relationship between the academy and the guild is complex and cannot be simply summarized as a feud.

When the domain first descended, humanity was completely unprepared, and there were no academies to teach card skills. The main force resisting the domain at that time was the guilds. Lacking experience and cards, they entered the domain, risking their lives, and brought back a wealth of information about the domain and the cards.

[However, after human society stabilized, people began to explore realms in an organized and planned manner, training card masters. It was during this time that academies rose to prominence. The academies opposed the guilds' practice of placing low-level card masters into realms to subject them to real combat, considering it a disregard for human life. With government support, they gradually encroached on the guilds' niche, squeezing their living space. Therefore, the guilds have always resented the academies.]

It seems a major battle is brewing.

...

The ships that the contestants sailed were not actually ships, but rather a special kind of card-based artifact.

It has a rudder, but it's useless. To control the direction, the card master has to step in. Yu Xiangyin, as a support-type card master, thought she was a perfect fit for the job and took on the task of steering the ship.

Upon realizing something was wrong, he immediately called his teammates.

"Someone is approaching us."

He unfolded a yellowed nautical chart. Although it looked like an ordinary item, it was actually a technological artifact provided by the competition organizers, which allowed him to view the current sea level, the return route, and the ships of other teams in the vicinity.

“This ship has been sailing towards us,” Yu Xiangyin said. “We can see them, and they can see us too. They are deliberately getting close to us.”

Ning Xi asked, "Are we the only ship around here?"

"More than that. You suspect we were carefully selected? But how do they know our specific details—"

"Just send a summoned creature."

Nariren interrupted him, summoning a flaming javelin. The javelin was thrown, striking a seemingly ordinary seabird.

"Is that a summoned creature?"

The bird cried out pitifully, but it was neither burned nor turned into material. It swayed, then turned into a distorted mass of energy and vanished.

It's obvious that it's a summoned item from a card.

Ning Xi lowered her head.

She felt she should be responsible for reconnaissance. However, she had been busy creating cards and hadn't used her mental energy, so she hadn't noticed the summoned creature. Fortunately, Nariren had amazing intuition and discovered it beforehand.

The competition is very long, and she can't keep using her mental energy to sense her surroundings all the time, so she also needs an automatic reconnaissance card.

"Tch, looks like they're still just a bunch of fledglings." With the summoned creature killed, Luo Qi also lost sight of the other ship. However, he wasn't surprised; instead, he showed a slight hint of disdain.

A team so lacking in counter-reconnaissance capabilities likely has little combat experience and consists of people who have spent their time studying in an ivory tower.

This time, let them see how powerful the guild is.

"They're coming!"

Yu Xiangyin stared ahead, quickly noticing the sails moving in the distance. Beside him, Naliren held a flaming longsword, her fighting spirit palpable. She had been fully enhanced.

"Ice Domain!"

The ship came hurtling towards them, giving them no time to react. An ice slab forcibly connected the two ships, and the other ship's crew rushed onto the slab and launched a surprise attack.

Nariren greeted them, with Wang Rengui following closely behind.

Luo Qi appears to be tall, but his weapon is a thin blade. His strikes are unpredictable yet deadly, making him impossible to defend against.

Wang Rengui found it difficult to intercept his attacks, so he used "The Knight's White Glove" on him, forcing him to turn and attack him instead. Luo Qi, however, revealed a disdainful smile. He used a summoning card to summon a shadow similar in shape to himself, which took the brunt of "The Knight's White Glove" in his place.

Wang Rengui brandished his greatsword, cleaving through the shadow, his expression turning solemn.

That's unbelievable.

Luo Qi took in the expressions of the group, and seeing their reaction, he became even more disdainful: They actually thought a single control card could take him down? What naive and foolish students…

Today, he's going to teach them a lesson.

A blood moon rose behind him, and Luo Qi's eyes were bloodshot, as if dyed red by the moon. He let out a roar, and his strength and speed increased to a new level. Naliren, who was fighting him, was at a disadvantage.

Yu Xiangyin frowned. He realized that ever since that blood moon rose, his interference skills had become less effective against him.

So he turned his attention to someone else.

The musical notes transformed into streaks of light, deflecting the opponent's attack; everything seemed to be going so smoothly. But Yu Xiangyin felt no joy whatsoever.

Are there only two people left on the other side?

When did this happen?

Where are their two remaining card masters?

Hahahaha.

[Keep hitting! Keep hitting! Your card maker is going to be stolen!]

Compared to guild members, these academy students have far too limited combat experience.

They're just a weak team from Mingxin Academy, and they don't represent the academy's true strength. Those who want to belittle them should think twice.

Is the Moon Drinking Guild really that strong? Admit it, the academy isn't good enough; card masters still need to train in guilds.

Ning Xi and Zhang Min did not stay with Naliren.

The ship wasn't very large, so even though she was hiding inside the cabin, she could use her mental powers to observe the battle and provide assistance to Nariren.

However, she had not anticipated that the other side would so boldly divide its forces.

Aren't they afraid of being quickly eliminated by Nariren?

She could also tell Nariren this news so that she could stop the other side.

But after thinking it over, Ning Xi decided to let the other side come over, creating an opportunity for Naliren.

She gave Zhang Min a hand gesture, and the other person understood and hid in a more secluded place, and the two parted ways.

Ning Xi infused her spiritual power into the mysterious card, preparing to unleash her power.

"It seems the other side has already spotted us."

The two men carrying out the infiltration strategy exchanged a glance; Zhang Min's movements naturally did not escape their detection.

"Hoping to buy time with this method? It's simply..."

It's utterly ridiculous.

The two did not split up; they approached Ning Xi casually, without even concealing their presence.

The power of D-rank card masters erupted, and the two, wielding a pair of curved swords, attacked in perfect unison. The arcs of light from the swords intertwined, faintly forming a blood moon.

Ning Xi summoned building blocks and quickly created shields.

The scimitar struck the transparent shield, but instead of being easily destroyed as the two had expected, it was firmly stuck inside the shield.

wrong.

The two had watched the competition video of "First in Academic Credits" and knew that Ning Xi was just a card maker.

Even if a mere card maker uses cards, their performance is far inferior to that of a well-trained card master, let alone being able to block a combined attack from two people with perfect teamwork.

"Energy-switching attack!"

When their first attack failed, the two immediately changed their strategy. Two spell cards were activated, and enormous fireballs roared in. But they only managed to break through one layer of the shield before being intercepted by another.

At this moment, Ning Xi's shield-generating rate had exceeded the frequency at which the two of them destroyed their shields. She quietly placed a shield face down behind the two of them, and then activated another card.

A transparent toxic gas began to spread.

These were custom-made cards for herself, featuring sturdy card patterns that allowed her to use them more than ten times. After taking orders throughout the summer, Ning Xi had earned a considerable amount of money, so she wasn't as reluctant to use the cards anymore.

By the time the two realized something was wrong, they had already been poisoned.

They tried using the antidote cards, but found that the cards were not very effective against the toxin.

This is also the situation that non-support card masters will encounter: as long as the negative effects are a little complicated, they will find it difficult to eliminate them.

They couldn't afford to continue attacking Ning Xi and hurriedly turned back to seek reinforcements. But the two transparent shields, like a pair of cymbals, trapped them inside, making it impossible to break through.

Now, they can only wait for their leader to defeat the enemy before coming to their aid.

Luo Qi was also complaining bitterly at this time.

The berserk state brought by the Blood Moon could only last for thirty seconds, but during those thirty seconds, the female student who used fire became more and more powerful, and he was unable to find any weakness in her.

He pinned his hopes on his support's rescue, but his support was isolated from the battlefield by the enemy's support.

Thirty seconds later, Luo Qi's momentum diminished significantly, but Naliren showed no signs of fatigue.

He cursed his two teammates in his heart.

Where are they?

Does it really take that long to deal with two card makers?

Damn it, they're going to kill him, their boss!

Taking advantage of Luo Qi's momentary lapse in concentration, Naliren thrust a musket straight into his chest, instantly killing him.

Meanwhile, the two people trapped by Ning Xi died from the poison and were taken away by the protection mechanism.

Well done!

[Guild members are seasoned veterans, while academy students are fresh out of school. Tsk tsk, how did they get so humiliated?]

To be honest, this guild's combat experience isn't that great either. Knowing that Nariren is very strong, they still dared to split their forces.

[This isn't really splitting forces to find the card makers; it's more like splitting forces altogether! Who knew their card makers were this strong? In the end, they suffered from insufficient intelligence.]

Ning Xi and her group quickly eliminated the remaining opponents. According to the rules, they would receive 50% of the opponent's points and supplies. However, the competition had only been going on for half a day, and they didn't have much to offer.

After the supplies were inventoried, the opposing team's ship flashed and transformed into a streak of light, merging into the "Top Credits" team's ship. The ship didn't look much different, but it felt... more sturdy and larger.