“Was our previous assessment entirely off the mark?” Zhao Chengyuan stared blankly at the holographic projection.
The sheer destructive yield of the Dark Burning Attack had left the gathered officials reeling.
They couldn’t help but suspect that Dark Magician Girl wasn’t a Six-Star Magic Card at all.
Could she secretly be a Seven-Star?
Otherwise, how could a massive, heavily armored beast like the Storm Cloud Sparrow simply be erased from existence in a single flash of light?
It defied all conventional logic.
“To be perfectly honest, I almost wish she was a Seven-Star Magic Card.
It would make this much easier to digest,” Cang Fenghua said, rubbing his temples as the headache of trying to categorize this anomaly caught up to him.
“But if she truly possessed a Seven-Star core, the raw combat power she just displayed would have been vastly higher.” “Although she has demonstrated an incredible array of abilities,” he continued, “most of those lean heavily into utility and field control.
Her absolute destructive output hasn’t quite breached the true Seven-Star threshold.” “Which leaves only one rational explanation.” Da Baiman drew in a sharp breath, her chest rising and falling as she tried to steady her trembling voice.
“That devastating strike just now…
it carried an execution effect.” An execution effect.
Even if the base attack intensity fell short of the Seven-Star realm, a finishing blow modifier was a terrifying asset—especially in the hands of a rookie Magic Card Master.
A Spirit possessing an execution skill could instantly flip a losing battle the moment its trigger conditions were met.
Dead silence descended upon the grand hall of the City Lord’s Mansion.
“Innate magic suppression, sustained flight, and now a confirmed execution skill.” Cang Fenghua exhaled a long, cloudy plume.
At some point during the sheer shock of the broadcast, he had unconsciously lit a magic smoke.
The slender, glowing stick trembled ever so slightly between his fingers.
“Luke’s Dark Magician Girl is, without question, the most versatile and lethal Six-Star Magic Card Spirit I have ever witnessed.” Under normal circumstances, a man of his station would strictly relegate smoking to the privacy of his own office.
He would never indulge in such a crude habit in front of his peers.
But the sheer absurdity of Dark Magician Girl’s performance had shattered his ironclad composure.
Trembling hands, a racing heart—this unified exam had delivered far too many cardiac-inducing surprises.
Across the room, Zhao Chengyuan and Da Baiman exchanged a loaded glance.
The bitter taste of envy gnawed at them as they looked toward Principal Gu.
Why did Third High School—a notoriously mediocre institution—manage to cultivate a monstrous anomaly like Luke this year?
What if they could somehow bring that boy into their own halls?
Through a silent, telepathic exchange of looks, the two rival principals arrived at the exact same thought.
The official college entrance exam was still a ways off.
There was no explicit law forbidding a student from transferring academies at the eleventh hour.
With the right incentives, it wasn’t entirely impossible to orchestrate.
But the fantasy died as quickly as it bloomed.
If they had approached Luke before this unified exam, before he had broadcasted his heaven-defying talent to the entire city, First and Second High School might have stood a chance.
Now?
If they even breathed a word of poaching, Principal Gu would absolutely declare a blood feud and fight them to the bitter end.
They couldn’t even blame him; they would do the exact same thing in his position.
The heavy silence was suddenly broken by a sharp chime from Cang Fenghua’s personal terminal.
As the City Lord of Cangling City and a Sovereign Realm Magic Card Master, countless individuals vied for his direct contact information.
However, the few who actually possessed it were exclusively figures of immense authority and special status.
Cang Fenghua glanced at the glowing screen, his brow furrowing into a deep scowl.
“That crazy woman from Cang Yue City?” Hearing that title, the expressions of Principal Gu and the others immediately soured.
Cang Yue City, much like their own Cangling City, was one of the twelve satellite cities orbiting the massive Cang Capital.
But the similarities ended there.
While Cangling sat comfortably in the middle tier of the twelve, Cang Yue City was an absolute powerhouse, consistently ranking among the top three.
Its current City Lord, Lin Heling, was infamous across the region.
She was a notorious battle maniac, earning her the moniker of the ‘Crazy Woman’ among the elite circles of Cang Capital.
If she was reaching out now, it absolutely meant trouble.
“This is a massive headache,” Cang Fenghua muttered, his expression darkening as he read the brief text.
“Lin Heling wants to arrange an ‘inter-school friendly match’ with us.” An inter-school friendly match?
Bullshit.
Weren’t they just marching over to kick their teeth in?
Zhao Chengyuan and the others froze for a second before their faces turned grim.
Cang Yue City’s overall strength was terrifying, and their academies were even more brutal.
In last year’s complete rankings for the Cang Capital college entrance exam, Cang Yue City had violently seized two of the top ten spots.
One of their prodigies had even broken into the top three, crushing countless elite candidates from the main capital itself.
“Can we just decline?” Zhao Chengyuan asked, testing the waters.
“The actual college entrance exam is right around the corner.” The gap in quality between the two satellite cities was a known fact.
He had no desire to watch his top students get utterly demoralized right before the most important test of their lives.
“Declining isn’t going to be that simple.” Cang Fenghua shook his head, extinguishing his magic smoke.
“She sent this message after she had already departed.
The only reason she gave us a two-day buffer is because her vanguard is stopping at Cangyang City first.” He offered a grim, sympathetic smile.
“Old Yan is probably suffering even worse than we are right now.” Realizing they were trapped, the three principals sighed in collective defeat.
“Fine, the exchange match is set in stone,” Cang Fenghua said, his gaze shifting back to the massive holographic screen where Luke’s figure was still displayed.
“But don’t forget…
this year is entirely different from the usual.” Catching the City Lord’s subtle implication, Principal Gu and the others immediately turned their attention back to the boy on the screen.
The sheer devastation of his recent battle was still burned into their retinas.
“Based on Luke’s performance today, and the terrifying ceiling of Dark Magician Girl’s strength, he would have easily contended for the number one spot in all of Cang Capital during last year’s exams.” Cang Fenghua’s lips curled into a faint, dangerous smile.
“So this time, perhaps we can be the ones to give that crazy woman a proper surprise.” Just as his voice faded, the heavy oak doors of the hall swung open.
An elderly man, guided by a respectful butler, stepped into the room.
Taking in the grim and plotting faces of the gathered officials, he raised a brow.
“Why do you all look like you’ve swallowed something foul?” “Old Yu, you’ve returned?” Cang Fenghua and the principals immediately dropped their guarded expressions, replacing them with genuine surprise.
Chairman Yu was the reigning president of the Cangling City branch of the Ancient Kingdom’s Magic Card Association.
Much like Cang Fenghua, he was a formidable Five-Star Sovereign Realm Magic Card Master, standing at the absolute apex of Cangling City’s hierarchy.
Every capital and satellite city maintained its own Magic Card Association.
The Association and the City Lord’s Mansion operated on two parallel tracks, jointly governing the vast population of Magic Card Masters.
Under normal circumstances, the relationship between the two factions was highly cooperative, and Cangling City was no exception.
, Cang Fenghua and Chairman Yu had known each other since their youth.
A friendship forged over several centuries of cultivation and battle wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
Recently, however, Chairman Yu and the presidents of the other twelve cities had been abruptly summoned to the main headquarters in Cang Capital, forcing him to leave Cangling City for a time.
“I just got back a moment ago,” Chairman Yu explained, offering a warm greeting to the room.
“I knew the unified exam was taking place today, so I came straight over to evaluate the situation.” He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied their lingering tension.
“But judging by your expressions…
did this year’s crop of candidates fail to meet expectations?” It was a matter of deep concern for him.
The Magic Card Association relied heavily on fresh, talented blood to maintain its influence.
If the overall quality of the new generation was severely lacking, their recruitment quotas would suffer a massive blow.
“No, quite the opposite.
This year’s candidates are exceptionally strong, and we’ve even uncovered a completely unexpected variable.” Cang Fenghua shook his head, gesturing toward the frozen image of Luke on the screen.
“We were just discussing Lin Heling.
She’s bringing her elite team over for an exchange in two days.” [Akarin’s Note: Enjoying the story?