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The preliminary was finally over. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only 128 had clawed their way into the main competition. And what was Russell's reward for being a seeded contestant? Sitting in the stands like a glorified spectator, watching match after tedious match, day after mind-numbing day.
This is torture, Russell thought, suppressing the urge to scream. Any sane tournament would have let the seeded players return to their hotels after the opening ceremony and emerge only when the real competition began. Instead, the bureaucrats from the Daming court had decided to turn them into unwilling audience members. I could be training. I could be meditating. Hell, I could be doing literally anything more productive than this.
At least the forced observation had yielded some intelligence. Besides himself, only Nancy Whitemore from New Metro First High had survived the preliminary massacre. Not exactly shocking news. The girl had brains—she'd crafted additional Iron-level cards to cover her Three-Tailed Fox's glaring weaknesses. Russell could already see her next move: a Gold-level Six-Tailed Fox, following in her father's footsteps. He'd glimpsed her old man's card before, and it was definitely Silver-level or higher.
But damn, that evolution path was brutal. The power gap between three, six, and nine tails wasn't just large—it was astronomical. She'd have to bridge that chasm through pure genius, unless she could pull off what he'd done with Yoriichi: completely rewrite the card's story. Without her natural talent, she wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the preliminaries.
The past few days had revealed another interesting development. Hidden dragons were emerging from the preliminary rounds—Bronze-level cardmakers who had either been playing dead or had achieved last-minute breakthroughs. No wonder they'd still been forced to participate in the first round instead of getting automatic byes.
Russell's group assignment had been announced, and frankly, it was almost insulting. Five contestants total, meaning four matches for him. His only real competition was a Bronze-level cardmaker named Tiana, who had kept her true strength hidden until the preliminaries. Her card was purple quality—decent enough to obliterate Black Iron-level opponents, but nothing that would make Russell break a sweat.
In any other group, she might have had a fighting chance. Unfortunately for her, the universe had a sense of humor.
Since defeated cards needed a full day to recover, the group matches were spread across several days. Whether by divine intervention or sheer luck, Russell had drawn a free day on the opening round. Perfect. Time to study his only real opponent.
From his perch in the stands, Russell watched Tiana's match with the intensity of a hawk eyeing prey. Ghost-type, huh? The creature she'd summoned never touched the ground, floating with an otherworldly grace that screamed supernatural. Smart choice. Ghosts were absolute nightmares for low-level physical fighters—they could phase through attacks, resist most damage, and strike from impossible angles.
But they had one fatal flaw. Higher-level abilities, especially those tied to death gods or solar deities, could squash them like bugs.
If Russell only had Luffy in his arsenal, this fight would be... annoying. He'd still win—that was never in question—but he'd probably have to reveal Gear Third. At this stage, Luffy couldn't even use basic Armament Haki, let alone the advanced stuff.
Fortunately, Russell had been busy. Yoriichi Tsugikuni was no longer just a demon slayer. He was now a Soul Reaper.
Down in the arena, Tiana was putting on a clinic. Her ghost-type card demolished both opponents with embarrassing ease, leveraging its rank, quality, and supernatural advantages. The matches weren't even close. This confirmed what Russell had suspected—aside from him and Tiana, their group was filled with cannon fodder.
Several days of predictable slaughter later, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived: Russell versus Tiana. Both undefeated. Both with perfect records. Winner takes all.
The VIP section looked like a who's who of the cultivation world. Every bigshot who'd attended the opening ceremony had shown up. This wasn't just the group stage finale—this was their first real look at Russell facing another Bronze-level cardmaker. The anticipation was thick enough to cut with a knife.
On the field, Tiana studied Russell like she was trying to read his soul. She was from some backwater city in the frozen north of Riverview Province, so she knew exactly nothing about her opponent except that he was seeded and had skipped the preliminaries.
As long as his cards can't hit ghosts with energy attacks, I've got this, she thought, planning to use the same strategy that had worked against other Bronze-level cardmakers: let them underestimate her ghost's intangibility, then strike when they were confused and off-balance.
In the stands, Nancy Whitemore looked like she was about to have a heart attack. Thanks to her father's position as an Association director, she knew exactly how much of a pain ghost-types were at lower levels. She also knew that Russell's Bronze-level cards had all been physical fighters so far.
"Can Russell actually win this?" Liam Blake asked nervously. To him, Bronze-level was Bronze-level—he couldn't see why Russell would have any advantage.
Nancy bit her lip. "He'll win," she said, though her voice carried a note of worry. "But I'm afraid he'll have to show all his cards to do it." She knew Russell would never lose—his card quality was definitely Gold-level, even if he'd never confirmed it. But against a ghost's natural advantages, he might have to reveal everything. That would be a disaster for the knockout rounds.
Unless... A new thought struck her. What if he's been holding back even more than I thought? It had been over a month since Russell had reached Bronze-level. What if he'd been busy during all that time?
The referee's whistle cut through the tension like a blade.
And then Russell summoned his card.
A figure materialized in a swirl of dark energy—tall, imposing, dressed in the unmistakable black robes of a Soul Reaper. The spiritual pressure radiating from the figure made the air itself feel heavy.
Nancy's eyes went wide. Her breath caught in her throat.
She recognized that card. It was the same one Russell had used in their class ranking test months ago. But back then, Yoriichi Tsugikuni had been Black Iron-level. And more importantly, it had shown zero ability to handle ghosts—it was just really good at cutting up zombies and ghouls.
He evolved it to Bronze-level? But that wasn't the shocking part. The shocking part was the complete transformation. This wasn't just a rank upgrade—this was a fundamental change in the card's nature.
"Russell..." she whispered, unable to look away from the field. "What have you been hiding?"
The real show was about to begin.
End of Chapter 75