A Card In Hand

Chapter 11: The Game Has Just Begun!

Li Ao couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Young man.”

“You are rather naive!”

“Don’t mention that you’re as weak as a chicken now; even if you were at the peak of your powers, the idea of counterattacking with just a high-ranking Bronze-grade Flaming Gold Lion, a Silver-grade but not fully mature Light-Feathered Golden Eagle, and a Rock Sand Beast with initial Silver-grade combat power that you can’t fully control, is nothing but a daydream!”

“Of course.”

“Since you’re dreaming, I’ll play along and let you experience the gap between fantasy and reality…”

The attack from the Light-Feathered Golden Eagle was the fastest.

Its wings spread.

Immediately, a barrage of thousands of light arrows rained down.

Li Ao stood in place, swinging a giant halberd formed from his Shadow Halberd with one hand, weaving it left and right, precisely deflecting each light arrow.

The high-speed light arrows.

Dense like rain.

The scattered remnants of the arrows created a spectacular display of fireworks and silver blossoms.

The surrounding rock walls impacted by the refracted light arrows boomed, and rubble fell.

The Flaming Gold Lion, having gathered its strength, finally unleashed its ultimate move.

A fire energy ball formed in its gaping maw.

The fireball was highly compressed.

Solid as a sphere.

Roar!

The Flaming Gold Lion furiously spewed the fire energy ball from its mouth at Li Ao.

This was its most powerful attack, capable of incinerating any enemy directly hit by this scorching fire energy ball into ash.

Li Ao had suffered at its hands in his past life.

Once, he had been nearly killed by it.

His whole body was as charred as charcoal.

Had it not been for the divine talent of Tempered Steel supporting him, he would have died a hundred times over.

Of course.

Now, Li Ao was no longer the inexperienced rookie that everyone used to bully in his past life.

Li Ao smiled, holding a sickle in one hand and stretching out the other, his fingers spread wide to catch…

A high-temperature, terrifying fire energy ball did not explode when it hit Li Ao’s left hand, but instead began to spin bizarrely in his palm, furiously rotating and then peeling away layer by layer.

The peeled-off fire energy did not dissipate, but floated elegantly behind Li Ao.

As the fire energy ball grew smaller.

More and more energy was peeled off.

Gradually, a Celestial Formation based on high-heat fire energy began to form.

At this moment.

The Rock Sand Beast, which had originally summoned it with a rather arrogant attitude, was also beginning to panic.

The enemy in front of it was clearly not the simple kind that could be easily crushed as before.

Moreover, from within the Celestial Formation, it faintly felt a powerful force that made its soul tremble.

Danger!

It had to join the battle itself.

Otherwise, a total annihilation was highly possible!

Fearful and angry, the Rock Sand Beast opened its mouth, not knowing when the rocks in front of it had been turned into sand by its powers.

Under its furious will, it rapidly transformed into a ten-meter-tall sand beast’s mouth, with sand as its lips and mudstones as its tongue, densely packed sharp rock columns for teeth, emerging from the ground.

As the mouth of the sand beast rose thunderously, it viciously snapped at Li Ao.

Li Ao stood still.

Only at the moment when the mouth of the sand beast engulfed him, did he use Shadow Jumps to move to the other side of the battlefield.

The broken-legged Steel Golem was still entangled with the Stone Giant, repeating the mechanical actions of struggling to rise and then being dragged back into the vortex of rocks.

Standing before it, Li Ao gestured with his giant halberd, drawing the attention of the Steel Golem.

The Steel Golem lifted its head, its twin demonic eyes glowing intensely.

The next moment, two lethal beams of blazing red light were supposed to shoot towards the enemy in front of it… but Li Ao was no longer the inexperienced novice of his past life.

Li Ao raised his left hand high towards the face of the Steel Golem.

The Celestial Formation shone with a dazzling brilliance.

The reconsolidated and empowered fire energy ball rapidly transformed into an unstoppable Flaming Lion, pouncing directly at the Steel Golem.

The Steel Golem had just lifted its head when it was struck by this solidified energy ball.

Boom!

In an instant, the earth shattered and the mountains trembled.

The terrifying explosion of Source Energy directly blasted a hole through a mountainside, millions of rock fragments spiraling at high speed in the chaotic storm.

The shockwaves carrying them spread out in waves, bouncing back and forth in the cave until they found an outlet and rushed out eagerly.

Within a kilometer of Cliff of the Crimson-Eyed Flying Dragon, all demonic beasts, large and small, fled in terror at the sound, like a tide.

The clouds in the sky were also pushed by the storm.

Wave after wave dispersed.

Clearing a large swath of the sky near the summit of Cliff of the Crimson-Eyed Flying Dragon.

It was unknown how much time had passed.

The dust settled.

Occasionally, pieces of rock fell.

At this moment, the Steel Golem still maintained its head-held-high pose.

However, more than half of its skull had vanished without a trace, leaving behind a part that was charred and smoking, with sparks continuously jumping and flickering.

Screech~

The Light-Feathered Golden Eagle did not wait for Prince Jinxi, who was clutching his head and howling wildly, to react.

It directly pecked a very special white card from its brocade pouch.

It grabbed Prince Jinxi, and from its mouth, a gentle ball of light was emitted, striking lightly on the white card that depicted the Return Formation.

As soon as the white card was activated.

It took immediate effect.

The Return Formation within it began to shimmer brightly.

“Ah, you’re actually this clever? Even after your master has become useless, you still know how to use the return card to rescue him from danger?”

Li Ao watched with a twinge of jealousy stirring in his heart.

Having a powerful supporter does have its perks.

Despite not being any super genius, as a prince, such a smart and powerful war beast had been assigned to him since childhood.

Unlike someone like himself, from a lesser branch of the family and a minor relative, who couldn’t even secure a Black Iron war beast, it was no wonder that Prince Jinxi could beat him so thoroughly in their past life…

The opponent wanted to escape!

Kill?

Or not kill?

It would be very simple to kill Prince Jinxi, just swing a sickle at him before the return card takes effect.

The problem is that killing him now doesn’t bring much revenge satisfaction.

It’s more enjoyable to keep him alive and slowly torture him.

Letting him go back, and then, on the stage of the new disciple trial, in front of everyone, return all the blows from his previous life… After thinking about it, Li Ao decided to let Prince Jinxi escape, after all, there is no rush to kill Prince Jinxi anytime.

Cats need to play a little with their prey before eating it!

No rush!

The Light-Feathered Golden Eagle immediately gave up on the Steel Golem whose head was severely damaged.

Shadow Leopard, entangled by two Shadow Giant Wolves and unable to break free, also gave up.

Besides the Flaming Gold Lion, which had always faithfully protected its master, even the Rock Sand Beast, which had been self-preserving since its summoning, was completely abandoned by it.

It grabbed Prince Jinxi with one claw and the tail of the Flaming Gold Lion with the other.

Its beak pecked at the Return Card, transforming the white card into a burst of light.

The formation rose.

A light portal quickly appeared.

The Light-Feathered Golden Eagle, forcefully dragging Prince Jinxi and the cooperating Flaming Gold Lion, rushed into the return light portal.

Li Ao pretended to chase after them, his giant halberd arriving too late, sweeping down.

That extremely clever Light-Feathered Golden Eagle even knew to look back and spit out a spear of light, blocking Li Ao’s halberd.

“Interesting!”

Li Ao smashed the light spear with his halberd, and the chaotic fluctuations of source energy from the explosion of the light spear instantly destroyed the return light portal.

As the master fled from the battlefield, the Rock Sand Beast immediately rebelled.

It quickly burrowed down.

Attempting to escape.

Li Ao’s lips curled up with a mocking smile: “Trying to run? The game has just begun!”

A silvery moonlight swept across, and the Shadow Leopard, just freeing itself from the bite of two Shadow Giant Wolves, was instantly decapitated.

The Stone Giant emerged from the ground.

It grasped tightly with its arms around the Rock Sand Beast, which had burrowed most of its body into the ground.

The Rock Sand Beast was enraged, raising its claw to strike the Stone Giant, causing a loud “thump!”

Half of the Stone Giant’s body crumbled from the blow.

Yet, the Stone Giant, seemingly indifferent, grabbed the beast with its remaining right arm.

Go die!

“You are nothing more than food in front of me!”

Enraged, the Rock Sand Beast opened its massive maw and clamped down on the Stone Giant’s head, ready to forcefully devour it.

The ability to transform into sand erupted.

Within a radius of several tens of meters, all rocks transformed into flowing sand, continuously merging into the body of the Rock Sand Beast.

The Stone Giant’s body crumbled continuously, gradually being devoured and assimilated by the Rock Sand Beast.

Thud, thud, thud…

The Rock Sand Beast felt someone tapping lightly on its head.

Unable to curb its curiosity, it looked up only to see that strange figure draped in a silver cloak, holding aloft an immensely large Celestial Formation, pressing it down directly.