Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Set walked to the altar, looked at Aknadi above, and said seriously, "Do you remember that today the Pharaoh ordered me and Shada to be in charge of the security of the royal city?"

Aknadi put down what he was doing, turned to face Seth, and said, "Of course I remember. Seth, the Pharaoh did not do anything wrong in handling this matter. He had his own considerations. You should not hold a grudge against the Pharaoh because of this."

Akhenate was well aware of Set's temperament and, fearing that Set might be angry with Pharaoh for not supporting his ideas today, he specifically advised him against it.

Upon hearing this, Set nodded calmly: "Please rest assured, Lord Aknadi, I know the Pharaoh's intention is nothing more than to ease the conflict between me and that guy Kalim. I have long since stopped caring about that guy. What I want to talk about is something else."

Looking at Aknadi, Set took a deep breath and said the words he had spoken to Shada during the day.

Upon hearing Set's explanation of how the power of the Millennium Key could be used to uncover and utilize the hidden elven power within the hearts of the people, Aknadi's expression changed drastically. Looking at the calm Set, he hurriedly asked, "Set, you didn't use your position to hunt elven spirits among the people today, did you?!"

"That kind of thing is undoubtedly wrong!"

Aknadi was very anxious, thinking that Seth had not consulted him beforehand and had carried out the elf hunt without his consent, taking advantage of his position to put the idea into practice.

“Stopping now isn’t the end of the story. If you’ve already arrested someone, release them immediately. The power of the Millennium Artifact is meant to protect the people and uphold justice; it must never be used to harm innocent people!” Aknadi earnestly advised. “Actions that make you feel guilty will leave a flaw in your heart, and the fear that arises from that flaw will one day lure you into an endless hell and darkness…”

As he spoke, Aknadi kept clutching his chest.

Seeing Aknadi's actions, Set assumed it was because Aknadi's injuries hadn't fully healed. Hearing even Aknadi disagree with his earlier idea, Set let out a sigh of relief before saying to Aknadi, "No, you're overthinking it, Lord Aknadi. I haven't put this immature idea into action. Actually—"

Set told Aknadi about the events that had occurred during the day:

"Do you think I only spaced out for about five or six seconds?"

Hayato was clearly confident of victory and was about to defeat the guy who had his own face and called himself "Pharaoh." Knowing the other party's identity, the duel was abruptly interrupted because he was shaken awake by Seto, which made Hayato very unhappy.

He had felt this way twice before: once when he almost used his current form to OTK everyone during the Duel City semi-finals, but his duel was stopped by Noa Kaiba; and again in Duel Kingdom, when his first duel with Kaiba was stopped because of Keibei's cries for help after being kidnapped.

Thinking about it this way, the fact that Kaiba was present three times in a row made it even more infuriating. Hayato thought angrily, looking at Seth in front of him.

Seth had no idea what Hayato had been thinking; he just wanted to know what was going on with Hayato. It wasn't the first time he'd seen Shada use the Millennium Key, and he'd encountered sinners with particularly powerful inner demons before, but this was the first time he'd seen Hayato in this situation.

The spirit within him, which should have appeared with the unlocking of the Heart Lock, did not materialize. Instead, Hayato found himself lost in a daze.

If the power of the Millennium Key hadn't actually activated right next to him, even triggering the power of his Millennium Scepter, Seth would have almost suspected that Shada was completely out of control, not only losing all her hair but also rendering the Millennium Key useless.

"That's pretty much it, and the Millennium Key, unusually, doesn't reflect what the elf in your heart looks like." Xia Da, unaware that her close friend Seth was inwardly complaining about her poor health, looked at the Millennium Key in her hand and said, "And it's not like the situation with the thief Bakura before."

"If Bakura the thief's heart is utterly dark, unable to be illuminated by any light, then in contrast, Hayato Kobayashi's heart itself possesses a dazzling light as bright as the sun, which even the light of the Millennium Key cannot make brighter, hence the result of being unable to awaken the spirit."

After a pause, Xia Da seemed amused by her own words, "But it's obviously impossible. How could a mortal's body contain the dazzling sun? You know, even the Pharaoh, who far surpasses us mortals, could only become a being on par with the gods in the afterlife."

Upon hearing Xia Da's conclusion, Seth completely ignored what he didn't care about, focusing only on the fact that their attempts had yielded no results: "Hmph, so in the end, it was still a failure. Even you, who command a spirit with power close to that of a god, couldn't awaken a spirit with the power we need..."

Although Seth was somewhat stubborn and difficult to persuade, Hayato had already analyzed the feasibility and efficiency of the plan, and Seth was somewhat convinced. However, one thing was still missing to make him give up the idea of ​​using the Millennium Key on the people.

That is, Hayato, the one who raised this dissenting opinion, can really awaken a spirit as he himself said, and the spirit's power doesn't have to be too strong, but at least it has to be strong enough to catch Set's eye.

According to the knowledge that priests like Seth and Shada have acquired over the years, the demons within a person's heart are born from the convergence of resentment, despair, and other malices. The more evil a heart is, the more powerful the demons it can generate. By this reasoning, the more powerful the demons within a person's heart, the more evil they are, and the more likely they are to commit crimes and evil deeds than ordinary people.

Based on this theory, although the demons that exist in the hearts of ordinary people are not very powerful, as long as the power of demons is concentrated in a large number and the evil in the hearts of their hosts is amplified, the power of the demons will naturally grow stronger, just like raising poisonous insects. This cruel act can eventually reclaim demons that are so powerful that they almost surpass the power of gods.

However, Hayato, who comes from the modern era, has a different understanding of this. The core of his theory can be said to be quite different from the knowledge of Seth and others.

The so-called "monsters" are actually the later "spirits." Hayato acknowledges that malice can give birth to spirits. Although he himself has not been able to do it, both Raferu and Ameruda created cards representing their inner darkness under the power of the "Orichalcos Barrier," which can uncover the darkness in people's hearts, back in Doma.

However, spirits cannot only be born in a malicious way. The best proof is that Hayato, as a duelist, has witnessed it more than once: the divine card draws of duelists who placed their trust in their cards and devoted all their passion to them.

Even Hayato himself has printed cards more than once. For example, the new avatars that [Gaia] has created are among the few decks that Hayato did not exchange for from the system, but rather awakened (printed) little by little through the bond between himself and [Gaia].

Not to mention the Red Father, born from the bond between Hayato and Yugi and Jonouchi during Hayato's defection to Doma. A monster born of malice? Malice can't create a spirit of Red Father's strength. In fact, malice can easily destroy you in front of Red Father.

That's why Hayato so strongly disagreed with Seth's approach of finding elven power among innocent civilians and then gathering them to cultivate powerful monsters. It wasn't that he thought it was inhumane, but rather that he felt it was too inefficient, and that if the monsters cultivated were too powerful to control, it would be a waste of time and a net loss.

If Hayato can prove that he can awaken even one spirit without malicious intervention, Seth will be able to convince himself to change his mind.

Looking at his empty hands, Hayato felt a sudden jolt, as if sensing something, and his expression became slightly strange.

"Um, Set, Shada?" Hayato called out to the two somewhat disappointed people, cracking his knuckles to get their attention, and continued, "Although I don't think I actually managed to discover any spirits using the power of the Millennium Key, I think I accidentally developed something amazing."

Seth and Shada followed Hayato's movements and saw that while Hayato's fingers were indeed moving freely according to his will, at the same time as his five fingers and palms moved, they could also see an illusory arm overlapping with the position of Hayato's arm, constantly overlapping and separating with Hayato's movements.

No, it's not just the arms!

Seeing Hayato take a step back and the illusory humanoid figure remain rooted to the spot, Seth and Shada were dumbfounded, wondering what they were seeing: "Is this... your soul? Hayato Kobayashi, you've separated your soul from your body?!"

"If the soul has already left the body, then who am I who is still inside the body?" Hayato thought to himself, and a card was taken out of the system's inventory and placed in his hand.

The card depicts a soul drifting away from the body. This card was one of several powerful cards Hayato had stolen from Bakura back in Duel Kingdom, and it had helped Hayato several times since. Well, a dozen times, maybe dozens.

The card's name is [Psychic Exophysis].

Although it was just a subconscious feeling, Hayato's intuition told him that the spirit card he had awakened after the power of the Millennium Key unlocked the lock on his heart was this one, the [Spirit Exophysis]!?

This is so strange! Although there is indeed a saying that "no matter how strong or weak, all cards have a spirit within them and a spirit residing in them", as far as Hayato knows, all the duelists who have awakened the spirits of their cards are awakened monster cards!

Even Ryuzaki's dinosaur egg should have been a monster card, so why did I get "Summoning Exophysis," a magic card with a positive effect, which is an awakened spirit?!

Subconsciously, Hayato completely forgot one thing—

Although most people know that the first card spirits to appear beside Hayato were the three brothers, [Disruption Yellow], [Disruption Green], and [Disruption Black], those who know more, like Yugi and Jonouchi, clearly remember that Hayato's first spirit card was actually the trap card [Disruption Trio].

"Isn't it the soul?"

Seth glanced at the phantom that remained in place and looked remarkably similar to Hayato. He reached out and found that he couldn't touch it at all. On the contrary, under Hayato's deliberate manipulation, the phantom-like being could touch him when it raised its hand. This one-sided invincibility made Seth very excited.

"What kind of tile is this?"

Hayato retrieved the [Summoning Exophysis] card, his expression serious, and said with great earnestness, "It seems that under the stimulation of external forces, my Stand has finally awakened. That's right, this is my Stand!"

Completely ignoring Hayato's nonsense, Xia Da nodded knowingly: "I see. There are actually spirits in this form? This kind of spirit that cannot be touched even when attacking is like saying that the host is practicing a double standard of only allowing himself to kill and set fires but not allowing others to go against him."

Upon hearing this, Hayato glared at Xia Da, but the latter was completely oblivious and continued speaking to herself: "But no matter what, such a spirit is very strong, much stronger than the monsters that can be found in most ordinary people!"

"Hayato Kobayashi's theory is correct. In this way, even without using the power of the Millennium Key on the people, we can still obtain a powerful force to protect the Pharaoh and safeguard the country!"

Those who haven't cultivated enough can't even see the face of an elf. This is one of the important reasons why the previous pharaohs were able to command elves to protect the country with their priests. Therefore, although Hayato, Shada, and Seth were all Hayato's stand-ins, I mean, [psychic exosomes], they were amazed. But in the eyes of the soldiers and passersby, the bigwigs above were just raving about thin air.

However, in the market, a traveler unexpectedly saw the [psychic phallus] that others could not see, and smiled with great interest.

Chapter 742 I, Bakula, am invincible under heaven!

"jingle……"

A crisp metallic clanging sound rang out outside the city gate, attracting the attention of a soldier standing at the city's entrance. He couldn't resist leaning over the wall to see what was happening below.

However, he saw nothing.

"You're probably just overreacting. Did you hear Lord Set say that if something like what happened a few days ago happened again and he, who is in charge of city security, lost face, he would be ruthless towards us? Are you scared?"

His partner, who was on night duty with him, joked and teased him. The guard, who was starting to doubt his own hearing, laughed and scolded his partner, thinking that perhaps he was just too nervous and had misheard and hadn't taken the noise he had just heard to heart.

Bakula, completely invisible from beside the two guards, climbed up the wall by following the gaps between the bricks. He glanced at the two guards beside him, but instead of killing them, he walked around them and headed into the city.

However, he walked with a slight limp.

"That bastard Mahad actually unleashed such immense power at the end, leaving me with a lot of trouble." Although he had changed into a new robe, Bakura revealed half of his body covered in unhealed burns. "This is completely different from what I experienced three thousand years ago. Is it because this is the world of the Pharaoh's memories that that guy became stronger because of the Pharaoh's perception?"

"However, it's also thanks to Mahad getting stronger. Although he caused me more trouble, it also made the rewards for defeating him even more abundant and tempting."

Stroking the [Millennium Wisdom Wheel] on his chest, which emitted a faint golden light, Bakula twitched his lips into a ferocious smile. The metallic sound that the soldier had just noticed came from the [Millennium Wisdom Wheel].

The ultimate dark game, in essence, is still a dark game, and must adhere to the most basic principle of "fairness." This doesn't mean forcing the strong to become weak or anything like that, but rather giving each party a considerable advantage.

The advantage of the Dark Game lies in the fact that he started as himself three thousand years ago, the "Nameless Pharaoh," thus gaining the support of an entire nation. As one of the "participants" in this ultimate Dark Game, Bakura, or rather, Bakura who is currently controlling a pawn called "Thief Bakura" to infiltrate the royal city again, has the advantage of detailed memories of three thousand years ago.

To draw an analogy, it's like a reborn person who starts with nothing but memories, versus a rich second-generation who starts at the peak of someone else's life.

However, in reality, each of their "advantages" has its own drawbacks. While Yami Yugi's identity as the Pharaoh brings him convenience, his priests also have their own ideas and are not pawns that he can completely control. Furthermore, the memories that Bakura has gained are different from those from three thousand years ago.

In the actual history at least three thousand years ago, Bakula was not outmaneuvered by Mahad to the point of being seriously injured.

It was this memory discrepancy that prompted Bakura to control Bakura and return to the royal city. Continuing to act alone was too dangerous; he had no safeguards or backup plans. He needed to increase the number of pieces he could control, so that even if he lost Bakura, he wouldn't lose this dark game.

Bakula walked through the quiet, deserted streets at night in complete transparency, ignoring the guards patrolling the roadside, a smug look on his face.

"Thanks to Mahad's [Shadow Ghoul], my [Diabund] gained the power of transparency. After Mahad's death, was it that Seth who was in charge of the city's defense? What a pity about his arrangements; no matter how strict the defenses are, they are useless to me."

"Although launching an attack will remove this state and make me vulnerable to attack, which is a very annoying drawback, my goal isn't to kill people anyway. If I'm not mistaken, that's the direction I'm heading, right?"

Guided by the Wheel of Wisdom, Bakula was not heading towards the palace, but towards a stone shrine outside the palace.

"While not absolute, the prophetic memories can still serve as a reference; the most powerful of the Millennium Items, the Millennium Wisdom Wheel; and the infinitely evolving spirit beast, Diaband—I, Bakura, am invincible!"

"So that's how it is. Hayato Kobayashi awakened such a powerful spirit..."

Inside the temple, Aknad nodded upon hearing Set's description. Before Hayato's [Spiritual Exophysis], there were indeed monsters capable of rendering their bodies untouchable. The late Mahad possessed a monster called [Shadow Ghoul], which could not only make its body invisible but also pass through walls or bypass powerful monsters to directly attack its enemies.

However, the monster's weaknesses are also obvious. Although its invisibility ability is almost invincible, it will be forcibly canceled when it needs to launch an attack. A quick-reacting enemy can even seize the opportunity to counterattack at that moment, such as by pressing a dumpling on the opponent's head. In addition, the invisibility state can only be maintained for a maximum of five minutes before it must be canceled to catch its breath.

What, "Kamui"? I've never heard of such a thing, and it definitely doesn't resemble it at all, hmm.

Even so, the power of the Shadow Ghoul is still quite formidable. Even relatively weaker priests like Shada, Kalim, and Isis couldn't force Mahad's Illusionary Mage to use it. The Shadow Ghoul alone was an existence they couldn't handle.

Although it is indeed inferior to Hayato's [Dragon's Ghoul - Heavenly Dragon Meteor = QUA] in terms of raw power, and can almost go toe-to-toe with a god, the functionality of [Shadow Ghoul] is irreplaceable even by a god. Even Seth, who pursues power, is willing to accept this kind of monster with special power.

Hayato's [Summoning Exophysis] is even more overpowered. Although it lacks the invisibility power of [Shadow Ghoul], it has the ability to launch an attack without breaking the invisibility state. Although I don't quite understand what Hayato means by "only a Stand can defeat a Stand", that's not important. Knowing that Hayato's plan can indeed create powerful monsters is enough for Seth.

Aknadi breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that Seth's inhumane plan had been stopped by Hayato before it could be implemented. After all, he really didn't want to see Seth step into the abyss, especially since he himself had already stepped into the abyss.

Aknadi's thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the past fifteen years ago.

The kingdom was in the midst of war at that time. As a court alchemist, he painstakingly studied and finally discovered a way to obtain great power from an ancient book. However, he also learned how heavy the price to pay was to obtain that power.

But the young Aknadi had ideas very similar to those of Set.

What exactly constitutes a crisis for the kingdom and its people?

The most terrifying thing, of course, is the horrific crisis of the collapse of royal power. The overthrow of a dynasty is more frightening than war, famine, and everything else. If no sacrifices are made, the war will continue, which will continue to take the lives of innocent people.

Rather than letting these innocent lives be sacrificed in vain during the war, it would be better to use them in a more valuable way to gain the power to protect the kingdom and prevent the war from happening again.

With such self-righteous thoughts, Aknadi concealed the truth from everyone and, in the name of righteousness, ultimately did something irreversible. Although he did achieve his initial goal in the end, giving the kingdom the power to end the war, protecting the kingdom and its people from the ravages of war, and continuing the dynasty.

However, the guilt and remorse for committing that unforgivable act still lingered in his heart to this day. Knowing the inevitable downfall of such stubbornness and self-righteousness, Akhenaten did not want to see Seth follow in his footsteps.

'It's so good that Seth didn't do something irreversible. Thank goodness for Kobayashi Hayato; he stopped Seth.' Aknadi thought to herself with heartfelt gratitude, 'Kobayashi Hayato, you're so kind, truly the kindest person on earth.'

Seth, unaware of what Aknadi was thinking, continued, "Hayato Kobayashi's success proves what he said: it's not only the sinner's heart that breeds evil demons; we priests who have undergone training may also be able to develop spirits with unique powers."

"However, Priest Xia Da suggested to me that we could conduct the experiment on him first, to avoid the possibility that Kobayashi Hayato's case was an isolated incident, which would increase the persuasiveness."

After a pause, Set looked at Aknadi and said, "But Lord Aknadi, as you know, although Priest Shada has been diligently practicing the use of the Millennium Key, using it on others and using it on oneself are two different things. In addition, the Millennium Artifacts that can see through the demons in other people's hearts are not limited to the Millennium Key."

"So, you're thinking of asking me for help to use the power of the [Millennium Eye] to unlock the lock on Xia Da's heart and awaken the spirit?" Aknadi understood why Seth had come to him; it turned out he wanted his help.