A duelist never gives up!

There was another loud bang, and huge lava eroded the Gai Card on the Red Lotus Field and sent it to the cemetery.

"Reflector? That makes sense." Seventeen glanced at the destroyed face-up card and continued, "Because my Salamangreat Armadillo was sent to the Graveyard, I activated the effect of Salamangreat Gazelle from my hand to Special Summon it, and then activated Gazelle's effect to send a Salamangreat card from my Deck to the Graveyard."

"I choose to send Salamangreat Falcon to the Graveyard. Then, I activate Falcon's effect. While Falcon is sent to the Graveyard, I can target 1 "Salamangreat" Spell/Trap Card in your Graveyard. Set that card on your side of the field."

"So, I can use the wrath of Salamangreat that I just used back."

"Even the traps can be recovered?" Honglian couldn't help but clench her palms and said, if nothing unexpected happened, she would lose this duel.

However, even if you are going to lose, you can't just surrender like this. Come on, let me see what the "Salamangreat" in your hand can do!

Seventeen didn't notice Honglian's focused gaze. Of course, even if he had, he wouldn't have cared. He continued, "Next, I'll activate the effect of Salamangreat Armadillo from the Graveyard again, Special Summoning this monster from the Graveyard to the field."

"Three-star monsters... there are two of them." The little girl behind Honglian murmured, "Is it coming again? Xyz Summon?!"

"I stack the Gazelle and Armadillo on the field, creating a Gyro Network of these two monsters. I Gyro Summon—Salamangreat Mirage-Torpedo!"

The black horse once again appeared in front of Honglian with its iron hooves, neighing loudly.

"I activate Salamangreat Mirage Stallion's effect once again, removing an Xyz Material and Special Summoning Salamangreat Fox from my Deck!"

"Next, I will use the Salamangreat Flame Lynx from Link 3 and the Salamangreat Mirage Stallion from R as Link Materials, and Link Summon—Salamangreat Solar Wolf."

"Activate the effect of Mirage Horse to return the Crimson Beast on your field to your hand."

"..."Honglian silently took the Honglian monster on the field back to his hand.

"Next, I will use the Sunlight Wolf as a Link Material and Link Summon the Sunlight Wolf."

"Activate the effect of Sunlight Wolf and add Salamangreat's Flame Formation from the Graveyard to your hand."

The repetitive actions once again appeared in Seventeen's hands. Perhaps in the eyes of his opponents, such operations were boring and uninteresting, but in Seventeen's heart, there was no better duel style than "stable".

"I then activate the effect of Salamangreat Lantern Jaguar in the Graveyard, returning a Salamangreat Lantern Lynx from the Graveyard to the Deck, and Special Summoning it from the Graveyard to the Sunlight Wolf."

"Then, I added the Gray Flowing Beauty from the cemetery to my hand."

"...Gray Liuli? Can't the Sunlight Wolf only recover its own family?" Honglian couldn't help but ask.

"No, the effect of Sunlight Wolf is: This card can only be activated if a monster is Summoned or Special Summoned in the zone it is linked to. Select 1 Fire monster from your Graveyard and add it to your hand."

"Gray Liuli has the fire attribute." As if worried that Honglian couldn't see clearly, Seventeen even stretched out his hand and waved it.

"...You continue." Honglian said through gritted teeth.

"Then I'll go straight into the battle phase." Seventeen held out his hand. "I'll use the Daylight Wolf, Fox, and Lightning Jaguar to attack directly."

"Well!"

A huge impact came towards Honglian, but fortunately Honglian had done sufficient training in his daily life, and he stood firmly in place without taking a step back.

Red Lotus LP: 8000→3400.

Fortunately, it was 8000lp. If it was 4000lp, the duel would have been over at that moment.

"I cover a card, and that's the end of the round. It's your turn."

"It's my turn, draw a card!" Honglian looked at the card he had drawn, his eyes dimmed, and then he sighed, "That's all."

"I enter the Main Phase and activate Pot of Lust and Gold." I banish six cards from Red Lotus and don't bother to explain the subsequent effects, because...

"Chain, Gray Flowing Beauty." Seventeen sent the Gray Flowing Beauty in his hand to the cemetery and said, "Negative the effect of your Pot of Desire and Gold."

"Then, I Normal Summon Crimson Beast," Crimson continued. "Since there are 16 cards in the Banished Zone, Crimson Beast's attack power is..."

"chain."

Seventeen calmly opened the cover card he had prepared long ago: "Salamangreat's Fury, destroy the Crimson Beast on your field."

"..."

There is no way, it’s already the limit.

Honglian's clenched hands loosened, and he whispered, "I'll end this round like this."

"Well, it's my turn, draw a card."

Seventeen didn't even bother to check what card he had drawn and said, "I enter the battle phase. Daylight Wolf, Fox, and Lightning Jaguar attack directly once again."

"Peng!"

Red Lotus lp3400→0

win: Seventeen!

"It seems our duel ends here." Seventeen said lightly.

With the victory of the duel, the mechanical hand bound on his wrist was automatically untied. Seventeen glanced at the crumbling Honglian, sighed lightly, turned and left.

"Sister Honglian!" the little girl hurriedly supported Honglian.

"I'm fine." Honglian took a deep breath and slowly began to recover. She lowered her head and asked the little girl, "But, can you tell me again? Where did you see that guy from?"

"..."

"LINK?" Yuan Qi's pupils shrank subconsciously when he heard the word, but he quickly said, "I don't know."

"That's right." Shi Yu sighed, "Next to the body of the deceased investigator, we found a suicide note written in blood. It was LINK. I thought you might know some clues, but it seems I was overthinking it."

Having said that, Shi Yu stood up and said to Yuan Qi: "Have fun today, I have other things to do, so I'll leave first."

At this moment, Ai also happened to float back. She looked at Shi Yu waving at Yuan Qi, and her originally angry mood suddenly burned even more fiercely:

"Ah Qi! I haven't seen you for a while, why are you hooking up with someone again?!"

"what?"

Chapter 47: Someone released the power of LINK behind my back

At night, in Yuan Qi's room, Yuan Qi, who had been busy all day, was sitting quietly on the soft bed, and opposite him, Ai was also sitting cross-legged.

"LINK? Are you sure she said this word?" Ai asked again.

"I'm sure. If you don't believe me, you can ask the two "bodyguards" outside the door." Yuan Qi lowered his voice and pointed outside the door. Outside the door, there stood the two "bodyguards" assigned to Yuan Qi by Shi Yu.

No matter how loud Ai's voice was, no one else could hear it. But it was different for her. Julie had reminded her last time that walls have ears, so she had to speak as quietly as possible.

"Look at you." Ai looked at Yuan Qi's cautious expression and couldn't help but sneer, "What's there to worry about?"

As he spoke, Ai snapped his fingers lightly, and then a pink bubble appeared between Yuan Qi and Ai. Before Yuan Qi could react, the bubble began to grow bigger and bigger, covering the two of them and even the entire room.

"What is this?" Yuan Qi asked puzzledly.

"Just think of it as a kind of domain." Ai waved his hand. "As long as you're inside this bubble, no matter what you do, people outside won't hear or see it."

"Is it so magical?" Yuan Qi asked doubtfully.

"You don't believe it, right?" Ai raised his eyebrows, sneered, stretched out his somewhat cold little hand, and attacked Yuan Qi's neck with lightning speed.

"...What are you doing?" Yuan Qi asked in confusion.

"Aren't you supposed to laugh because you're tickled?" Ai said in shock.

"No, I'm probably not that sensitive." Yuan Qi pushed Ai's hand back. "You're not trying to prove the functionality of your bubble by making me laugh loudly while people outside don't react, are you?"

"Yes." Ai nodded.

"Don't bother. Isn't it enough for me to believe it?" Yuan Qi said helplessly. "Since you have this ability, you should have other abilities, right?"

"Hmm? For example? What do you mean?" Ai asked, tilting his head.

"Teleportation?" Yuan Qi asked.

"Okay." Ai nodded and grabbed Yuan Qi's hand. Before Yuan Qi could react, he felt a "swish". The dusk light in the room was replaced by brightly lit streets, like fireflies flickering in the dark night. When Yuan Qi raised his head, he saw an endless starry sky.

"Where is this place?" Yuan Qi asked.

"The roof of the palace." Ai said lightly.

"Why did you bring me here?" Yuan Qi was a little confused.

"Didn't you ask me if I could teleport?" Ai said unconvincedly, "If I don't prove it to you, you'll definitely doubt me again."

"Okay..." Yuan Qi reluctantly accepted this reason, "Then let's go back. The night wind feels a bit cold."

"Cold?" Ai chuckled, and with another crisp snap of his fingers, a bright and warm flame appeared between the two of them. "Now what?"

It’s definitely not cold now.

But Yuan Qi still didn't want to stay here. He had been running around with Xuefeng all day today. Now he was so tired that he just wanted to discuss the LINK issue with Ai and then lie down on the bed to sleep.

But when he saw Ai's deep, nervous, and expectant ice-blue eyes looking at him, he swallowed the words he was about to say.

He changed his words and said, "It's indeed not cold now."

"That's good." Ai said with a smile, "In fact, not only can I teleport, I can also pick up objects from the air without any problem."

"Really? Then let me see." Yuan Qi chuckled.

"Hehe, then just wait and see." Ai stretched out his right hand and opened his palm towards the sky full of stars, his ice-blue eyes emitting a faint light.

"Hey, you're not trying to pull the stars down, are you?!" Yuan Qi couldn't help but said in surprise.

"Don't worry, you won't have anywhere to put something that big if I pull it down." Ai said, and squeezed it hard with his right hand, as if he had grabbed something.

"Hehe, look!" Ai spread out his palm towards Yuan Qi as if to ask for credit. A strange-shaped stone was lying quietly in the center of Ai's white and tender palm.

"Hiss... It doesn't look very pretty. Wait a minute." Ai said, and colorful light began to appear in the palm of his hand. After a while, the originally strange-shaped stone turned into a silver-gray card. On the card was engraved a little girl with long hair reaching her hips, and the little girl was surrounded by flowers and birds, just like a princess in a fairy tale.

"Anyway...this is for you." Ai pretended to be nonchalant and threw it to Yuan Qidao.

"oh oh……"

Yuan Qi was obviously seeing this kind of thing for the first time, and he was a little slow to react, but he still put the cards away carefully.

"Well, let's continue talking about LINK." Seeing Yuan Qi put away the cards, Ai nodded contentedly.

"We're suddenly back to the topic, and do we want to continue chatting here?" To be honest, Yuan Qi was still a little uncomfortable sitting on someone else's roof.

Especially since this is the roof of the palace.

It would be very troublesome if someone saw it.

"Don't worry, no one will disturb us." Ai continued.

"Okay then, what do you think the investigator meant by LINK at the end?" asked Yuan Qi.

"What else could it be? Of course it's a Link Summon." Ai narrowed his eyes and said, "It seems someone has unleashed the power of the Link behind my back."

"Carrying you on his back?" Yuan Qi asked doubtfully.

"As the God of Duels, I originally had the authority to manage these summoning methods, as well as the restrictions and bans on certain cards," Ai explained. "However, these are all based on a fixed process and cannot be done arbitrarily. Therefore, according to the process, Link Summoning will not be released until at least twenty years later."

"In other words, those guys have already mastered link summoning, and even mastered some of the power of the link?" Yuan Qi frowned.

"It's very likely." Ai nodded. "The link power has already been leaked. No matter how hard I try to plug the gap, I'm afraid it will be useless. So... we can only choose another method."

"What?" Yuan Qi asked.

"I'm opening the power of the link to you now," Ai said calmly, "This way, link summoning won't be their advantage!"

"Wait, wait, wait... Why are you talking as if I will definitely face them? Logically speaking, if the Duelist Alliance is tracking them, there is no need for me to take this risk." Yuan Qi asked curiously.

"You can't?" Ai raised the corners of his mouth slightly, revealing a sly smile.

Yuan Qi was slightly stunned and said helplessly:

"Okay, I will."

Chapter 48: I've been a fan for ten years

The next day, under the scorching sun, the National College Competition continued.

"Different from the previous matches! In the upcoming matches of quarter-finals, quarter-finals, and even the finals, in order to highlight the academy's overall training of students, we will adopt a five-on-five head-to-head match system. The side that wins three games first will win! And in order to prevent deliberate targeting that leads to deck restraint, after each round of competition, staff will go to the team's player rest area to get the player information for the next round. We will start the game after both sides are in place." The commentator explained passionately at the commentary desk.

"In this case... isn't it completely random?" Xuefeng couldn't help but ask curiously while sitting on a chair in the rest area.