Chapter 59: The Strongest Duelist (Conclusion)

The howling gale whipped the black-robed woman's long cloak into a violent frenzy.

"An Epic card?!" Li Guanqi was driven back several steps. He stared wide-eyed at the card, his heart hammering violently against his ribs.

The woman's gaze burned like a torch, her deep voice echoing through the night sky.

"If the path ahead is an endless night,"

"Then follow the Dragon of Light and paint over the darkness!"

"Quick-Play Magic—"

Gathering boundless energy in her palm, she slammed the card down hard onto her Duel Disk.

"—[The Ultimate Creature of Destruction]!"

"Special summon up to three [Blue-Eyes White Dragon] from your deck!"

As her voice fell, a ferocious tempest kicked up, so blinding that it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.

"Toughness!"

She shouted aloud, her voice reverberating across the empty arena.

The pitch-black night sky suddenly split open. Within the fissure, a colossal, azure eye slowly opened, gazing down with majestic dominion over all beneath it.

"Invincible!"

She cried out again, her voice rising with an even more passionate intensity.

Another fracture appeared in the heavens, and a second azure eye snapped open.

"Ultimate!"

She used every ounce of her strength to voice the final word.

*Crack, crack, crack—*

A third fissure tore open in response, and three gigantic azure eyes manifested simultaneously.

"Roar—!"

A deafening dragon's cry rent the air, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass echoing through the firmament.

Three Blue-Eyes White Dragons soared out from the rifts, their massive bodies blotting out the sky. They circled gracefully around the black-robed woman, hovering like guardian deities protecting their master.

"This is..." Li Guanqi was left utterly dumbfounded. "...an Epic card."

A crushing, suffocating pressure saturated the atmosphere, making it difficult to draw breath.

"By the effect of [Maxx "C"], I draw one card!"

Steadying his breathing, his fingertips brushed the top of his deck, though he felt a sudden sense of hypoxia and his vision blurred. "Draw—card!"

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away.

A masterless fountain pen glided smoothly across a sheet of white paper, leaving behind two striking lines of pitch-black ink.

"The demon draws a card of despair."

"The king of righteousness triumphs once more."

"Entering the Battle Phase!" the woman in black said in a low, resonant voice. "[Blue-Eyes White Dragon], direct attack!"

"Burst Stream of Destruction!"

"Roar—!"

The Blue-Eyes White Dragon raised its head and roared to the heavens. Its massive wings whipped up a hurricane as it unhinged its jaws, a blinding white radiance igniting deep within its throat.

Gazing at the approaching beam of absolute annihilation, Li Guanqi's pupils trembled violently. He hurriedly thrust forward the card he had just drawn: "Activate—"

Before he could finish, his voice cut off abruptly. His gaze went blank, and the hand holding the card quivered softly.

Words the black-robed woman had spoken earlier battered against his mind like a tolling bell, echoing with deafening force.

"Quick-Play Magic..."

"...[Crossout Designator]..."

"I declare..."

*Clatter.*

The card slipped from the Duel Disk, tumbling down into the pool of water below and kicking up a few ripples as it came to rest upon the surface.

The cold moonlight spilled downward, piercing the clear water and illuminating the gloomy card artwork floating beneath.

"[Yubel's Spirit]."

*Clang—*

A suspended golden blade sliced through Li Guanqi's vacant gaze, piercing straight through the phantom of [Yubel's Spirit] suspended in mid-air and nailing it firmly to a vacant throne of nothingness.

"A sword from the past."

"Nails the demon."

"To the throne."

*Boom—*

The light of destruction descended from the heavens. Li Guanqi stood frozen in place, as if paralyzed. The roar of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon thundered in his ears, and the searing beam of light incinerated everything in its path.

*Beep—*

Red Player Life Points: 8000 → 5000 → 2000 → 0.

The intelligent referee chimed with an icy announcement.

*The winner is:*

*Blue Player.*

*Duel Over.*

The chime signaling the end of the duel rang out beside his ear.

"Is this... the world's absolute peak..."

Li Guanqi slowly pulled himself out of the intense, hyper-focused state of the duel. He lowered his gaze to the water's surface, where the waterlogged [Yubel's Spirit] drifted in silence.

The surrounding waters grew still once more. A gentle breeze swept past, and the moonlight cast a shimmering, rippled reflection across the pool.

He had lost. He had actually lost.

Had he ever lost before?

Yes, countless times.

Ever since he discovered Yu-Gi-Oh! at the age of fourteen, transitioning from standalone video games to online simulators and physical paper cards, he must have played at least twenty thousand matches.

Even assuming a modest sixty-five percent win rate, he had tasted defeat at least seven thousand times.

Seven thousand losses. Some meant missing out on offline tournament qualifications, others cost him prize money, and a few even stemmed from "Shadow Games" played against online friends where the penalty for losing was having to cross-dress.

He had seen plenty of high-tier decks and suffered through his fair share of blowouts.

By all logic, win or loss should have been water under the bridge by now.

So why was this scorching restlessness burning inside him?

In his duel against her, he hadn't wagered a single thing.

He had lost nothing tangible at all.

Yet he had lost everything.

Every single last thing was gone.

He couldn't even muster a single piece of trash talk.

Why did this frustration claw at him so bitterly? He desperately wanted a rematch, yet the words refused to pass his lips.

He simply didn't have the qualification.

She had still held a [Tearlaments Sulliek] and a [Triple Tactics Talent] in reserve; if she had wanted to, she probably could have navigated another entire interaction chain. To put it bluntly, his final board hadn't even forced her to play at her full potential.

The gap between them was too vast.

A thousand miles away, the masterless fountain pen slowly scrolled across the white paper: "Incredible strength. Truly worthy of the King's Sword."

The pen faithfully recorded the entire sequence of the duel just concluded.

A machine scanned the contents from the paper and uploaded them directly to a computer. Instead of being routed straight into the main text of *Duel Fairy Tales*, however, the file was deposited into an adjacent folder labeled *[Class-A Material]* to await compilation.

The King's Sword was ferocious indeed, but the demon cast as her opponent simply lacked sufficient power.

This duel was not yet worthy of being chronicled in *Duel Fairy Tales*.

"Did you know I was going to play [Yubel]?" Li Guanqi raised his head slowly, unable to hold back the question.

The woman in black gave a faint, indifferent hum. "You think I main [Yubel's Spirit] just to counter you?"

As she spoke, she casually drew five cards from her deck:

[Battle Fader]

[Swift Scarecrow]

[Dimensional Barrier]

[Photon Kuriboh]

[Skull Servant]

Li Guanqi stared in blank shock, frozen in place as his dignity utterly collapsed.

As if she had built her deck to counter him!

Main-decking a full suite of defensive hand traps and Dimensional Barrier as a first-turn strategy—while simultaneously providing viable targets to banish off Crossout Designator—was just standard, sound deck-building logic. There was no personal targeting involved.

As for whether those cards could brick?

If he dared to voice that question aloud, he would be the absolute clown of the entire planet.

Li Guanqi had never looked down upon himself so thoroughly. It was just a single loss; was it really that hard to accept?

Why was he so desperate to claw his way back to a victory?

He desperately wanted to use magic cards—to use high-spirit magic cards forged with his own two hands—and duel her all over again.

Wagering nothing else.

Just wagering his pride!

"We will meet again." The black-robed woman turned away with icy indifference, striding off into the boundless night.

An orange cat glanced back at Li Guanqi, catching the lingering aura of the demon clinging to him. Without even a meow, it hurried along to keep pace with its master.

"My deck..." Li Guanqi reached out for his black storage case, but she had already vanished into the distance.

The dueling arena returned to serenity, dead silent beneath the moonlight.

"Viantana... just what kind of world is this?"

Li Guanqi stood alone in the stillness, a profound sense of awe washing over him.

Suddenly, an emotionless, synthetic voice rang out from the high heavens.

*[The Danger! Chronicles are currently rating this duel:]*

*[Burden: Pride — D]*

*[Emotion: Humiliation — F]*

*[Impact: Silence — E]*

*[Achievement: Facing the Epic — B]*

*[Irreplicability: The King's Sword — SSS]*

*[Overall Rating: A]*

The judgment echoed across the skies, sounding like the peal of a great bronze bell, exceptionally clear in the quiet night.

Li Guanqi blinked, stunned, and swept his gaze around the vicinity.

The withered ancient tree standing beside the arena was suddenly suffused with a surge of vitality, bright green shoots bursting forth from its gnarled branches, eagerly drinking in the air like a desperate traveler in a desert suddenly stumbling upon a crystal-clear spring.

Did this ancient tree... actually feed upon duels?