A Card In Hand

Chapter 44: Come At Me All Together!

Li Ao slowly opened his eyes, a divine light flickering briefly in the depths before disappearing.

The fierce aura emanating from his body suddenly softened.

The fluctuations ceased.

All returned to calm.

A harmless smile spread across his lips.

Li Ao raised his hands to his chest and performed a summoner’s salute to all the new trainees, his demeanor courteous as if he hadn’t just used an energy beam to blast a hole through the small world’s heavens. Then, he slowly extended his right hand, his expression utterly composed yet arrogantly beckoning with his finger: “To save time, all of you come at me together!”

The assistant referees couldn’t help but want to applaud him.

They were compelled to give a thumbs up in approval.

This Li Ao was truly impressive.

His earlier speech, filled with youthful declaration, could serve as the perfect promotional example, influencing every new generation of trainees.

It could even be recorded and shown to new members of his family, to demonstrate what young people’s ideals and pursuits should be.

This youthful declaration was destined to be remembered through the ages!

Along with the unprecedented feat of challenging all his fellow new trainees alone, this trial would become the brightest moment in the history of new trainee trials!

Of course, they didn’t know that this was exactly Li Ao’s ultimate goal as a millennia-old trickster.

Otherwise, why would he shamelessly spout such emotionally stirring, juvenile rhetoric?

He had lived nearly two thousand years.

Though shameless,

he wouldn’t speak such embarrassing words without a purpose.

Wasn’t it all to make future generations of new trainees his followers and devout believers?

By providing a strong backing for future new trainees, in return, they would offer him the power of their faith, securing his path to divine ascension.

Was there anything more mutually beneficial than this in the world?

“Darn it!”

Shuanghan heard Li Ao say, ‘Let’s go up together.’

Furious, his hair stood on end, gradually turning silver.

A piercing cold burst from his body, freezing everything within a hundred meters.

The orange card in Shuanghan’s hand flashed momentarily, and a towering elemental figure, the Ice Guardian, stood behind him over fifteen meters tall.

It spread its arms, drawing in the icy source energy from the entire micro-world.

This source energy rapidly condensed above Shuanghan’s head into a terrifyingly fierce vortex of ice, spinning faster and faster, gradually forming a devastating storm of source energy.

Nearby, the new trainees watching the commotion hurriedly ran away.

If they didn’t escape now, their lives would be in danger.

“Kill!” Shuanghan roared.

He leaped from the Stone Isles, riding the cold currents, his fists carrying the earth-shattering storm of source energy that thundered towards Li Ao on the Obsidian Platform.

“Back off!”

Li Ao countered with a direct punch, an endless surge of stone source energy forming a massive stone arm from his right hand, over ten meters in size. His fist, like a bolt of lightning, sent Shuanghan smashing back.

The stone arm froze mid-air.

The terrifying ice power crazily spread down the stone limb.

Li Ao was also encased in the ice, until after five seconds, he shattered the fearsome ice force with a loud bang.

Shuanghan, like a falling meteor, was smashed into the Stone Isles, but he burst out of the rubble heap, gathering icy source energy to launch another attack.

On the other side of the Stone Isles, Qian Nian quickly intervened, “Shuanghan, don’t be rash. We can’t take down Li Ao with just one person’s power. Let’s set aside how we decide rankings for now. Today, we need to join forces and bring him down together!”

“Right, let’s head to the platform and attack Li Ao together to avoid injuring our allies!” Qiqu was the first to agree.

The twenty challengers.

They were qualified to fight Li Ao on the platform.

But the combat power of other new trainees varied, and if the melee continued, friendly fire was highly likely.

At the Pantheon of Myriad Realms, three elders signaled the newcomers from other Stone Isles to move to their own Stone Isle for protection.

The newcomers who had a certain level of strength, but were not on the challenge list, hesitated slightly.

After all, they too wanted a chance to showcase their talents in the arena.

Those with lower combat abilities, like Fuxi, were overjoyed.

They were only spectators in this battle, and now they were offered protection by three powerful seniors, which was more than welcome.

“Challenge Li Ao? I better not dream that big; did you not see how Shuanghan from the top of the challenge list got punched by Li Ao and smashed half a Stone Isle? Shuanghan could withstand that punch, but could I? It’s best for me to just watch quietly,” thought those who were content just being classmates with Li Ao, regardless of how he dominated the battlefield.

“Li Ao, keep it up, I support you!”

Fuxi, no longer worried about his safety, shouted out his encouragement loudly.

“Do you have a death wish?”

Cang Yue immediately gave him a deadly glare with her gold and silver eyes.

“And you too, keep it up!”

Fuxi, fearless of everything except this daunting figure, added quickly.

All twenty competitors on the challenge list stepped down from the arena.

Except for a few newcomers who had confidence in their strength but hadn’t made the list, the others hid behind the three old men of the Pantheon.

Dou Guang and Chang Chi hurried to the side of the assistant referees, just in case.

After all, they depended on two of the assistant referees to capture this historic moment on video, and missing even a fraction of the footage would be an irrevocable loss!

Li Ao slowly lowered his massive stone arm, his expression calm: “Show me your full strength, I won’t hold back! I don’t want to discourage you, but you really are too weak!”

You’re taking on twenty by yourself.

And still so arrogant?

Are we just pathetic weaklings in your eyes?

Incensed, Lie Feng’s blood boiled over, and in a heated moment, he tore his battle attire into thousands of pieces, revealing a torso covered in scars.

With a roar.

An orange card.

In his hand, it sparkled brightly.

Suddenly, an extremely majestic and awe-inspiring Windstorm Lion King was summoned from the war beast space to the Obsidian Platform.

“We fight together, tear apart the enemies before us!” Lie Feng pressed his hand against the forehead of the Windstorm Lion King, and together they released a gale shockwave that stunned the entire arena.

Amidst the hurricane.

Lie Feng and the Windstorm Lion King were simultaneously clad in storm elemental armor formed from gale winds.

The Windstorm Lion King roared angrily towards the sky, with Lie Feng roaring in response.

Their combat power complemented each other, rising sharply.

It was more than ten times stronger than before.

Li Ao yawned.

Implying he had waited too long.

An enraged Lie Feng clenched his teeth.

He gathered his maximum attack power into a Lion’s Roar Bullet, launching it unstoppably towards Li Ao.

The Lion’s Roar Bullet was a highly condensed energy sphere, spherical in shape and over three meters in diameter.

“Piece of cake!”

Li Ao stretched out his other hand.

With fingers spread, he caught the Lion’s Roar Bullet barehanded.

The Lion’s Roar Bullet, which normally would explode upon contact with any object, strangely did not explode. Instead, it began spinning rapidly in front of Li Ao’s left hand.

With each rotation, a layer of its energy was inexplicably peeled away, drifting behind Li Ao to form a new energy sphere, no longer controlled by Lie Feng’s will.

“No, impossible!” Lie Feng’s eyes were wider than a bull’s, as if he had seen a ghost.

“When the energy isn’t enough to cause destruction, playing with circular shockwaves is the dumbest!”

Li Ao swung his left fist forward, and the new energy sphere transformed into a hundred wind-attribute storm lions, rushing towards Lie Feng in various forms.

“Lion’s Roar Fist…”

Angered, Lie Feng also launched his full-strength Lion’s Roar Fist at Li Ao, determined to show that he too had mastered this move.

With the aid of the Windstorm Lion King.

Lie Feng swiftly unleashed a hundred Windstorm Lions at high speed.

Although these lions were all of the same form, the spell was successfully cast.

As the Windstorm Lions charged at each other, those unleashed by Lie Feng dissipated like light smoke, while a single lion summoned by Li Ao could devour more than ten of the opposing lions before they mutually neutralized each other, gradually fading into the chaotic field of Source Energy.

After directly breaking through Lie Feng’s full-strength Lion’s Roar Fist, more than ninety Windstorm Lions struck Lie Feng.

The King of the Windstorm Lions was the first to rush out.

He shielded his master from the majority of the impact.

Still, Lie Feng couldn’t withstand the force and was thrown backward, sliding over a hundred meters across the platform before he could stop… Autumn leaves chased after him like lightning, summoning a tornado at the edge of the Obsidian Platform, grabbing Lie Feng and plunging into the tornado to use its rotation to dissipate the residual impact on Lie Feng’s body.

“Idiot!” Huo Mei shook her head in disbelief, her hand on her forehead. When others face twenty alone, and you foolishly rush in, aren’t you just asking for trouble?

Prince Jinxi and Shuanghan had already set an example.

It was impossible for one person to fight alone.

Why the hurry?

Eager to die, but not like this!

“Get ready, I’ll strike first!”

Qian Nian had previously secretly summoned a Silver-grade Flame Beast, and fierce flames burned upon him.

He pointed upwards with his right hand, and a blazing sword nearly twenty meters in length appeared above his head.

This sword was entirely formed from the fiery Source Energy.

Its temperature was scorching hot.

Qian Nian, dressed in white as snow, wore an expression of intense focus and seriousness.

His right hand slowly descended, and the flaming sword in the sky moved in sync, inch by inch, aligning perfectly with the target indicated by his hand, pointing towards Li Ao in the central area of the Obsidian Platform…