93: Red cards?!

Inside a luxuriously decorated bedroom in the Zhou Family manor.

"Bang! Clang! Crash!"

Antique vases, jade ornaments... all were now shattered fragments strewn across the floor.

Zhou Wanxiong's eyes were bloodshot, veins throbbing on his forehead, as he smashed every item within reach in the room!

His right arm, broken by the rebound force of the Raging Waves Sea Soul, hung limply at his side. Having endured the entire competition, he could finally vent!

"Ah ah ah ah—Lu Yuan!!"

"Brat! If this old man doesn't kill you, I swear I'm not human!!!"

The immense humiliation he suffered today at the Dome of the Heavens was more unbearable than death!

He, the dignified President of the Canglan Province Card Master Association, a powerful Fifth Rank mid-stage Card Master, was actually forced into such a pathetic state by a Second Rank junior in front of everyone in the entire Province!

Not only did his son suffer a crushing defeat and lose all face, but he himself intervened and even had his arm broken by the opponent's beast taming card!

What an irony! What a disgrace!

"Pant... pant..."

Only after smashing the entire room into a mess, with nothing left for him to vent on, did he finally pause slightly, intending to treat his broken arm.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

As a Fifth Rank Card Master, controlling one's mental state was fundamental, but today's events truly broke him.

He took out several gold cards glowing with a soft green light from his card slot.

Advanced Healing!

Bone Regeneration!

Source Power Activation!

Several green lights lit up consecutively, transforming into warm energy flows that enveloped his broken right arm.

At the same time, he mobilized his own Source Power, carefully cooperating with the healing gold card's effects, guiding the broken bones to slowly return to their position and reconnect.

"Click... clack..."

"Roar roar..."

"Ah—"

Subtle sounds of bone friction and resetting echoed, accompanied by waves of even more intense pain.

Zhou Wanxiong gritted his teeth, large beads of sweat seeping from his forehead. He regretted not getting an equipment gold card as his original. Otherwise, his body wouldn't be so fragile.

It took more than half an hour. After he consumed several precious green healing gold cards and supplemented them with his own Source Power therapy, the broken arm bone finally managed to reconnect and heal.

Although it still required a period of rest to fully recover, at least it was no longer in that tragic, limply hanging state.

However, while the arm injury could be healed, the anger and humiliation in his heart did not diminish, but rather intensified!

"Lu Yuan... Heavenly Thunder Light Falcon... Raging Waves Sea Soul..."

Zhou Wanxiong sat on the edge of a relatively intact sofa, replaying every detail of today's battle over and over again.

The Heavenly Thunder Light Falcon's speed and lightning attacks were indeed sharp, but their power was ultimately limited.

What truly made him feel a lingering fear and incomprehension was that giant dragon-turtle named Raging Waves Sea Soul!

"Such defense... such weight..."

Zhou Wanxiong muttered to himself.

"My Fifth Rank mid-stage enraged strike, although my Myriad Lion Gryphon didn't use its strongest attack, the force of that punch would absolutely not be withstood by an ordinary Fourth Rank Peak defensive beast taming card, and would at least suffer heavy damage!"

"But that giant turtle merely swayed?"

"It even... directly broke my arm!"

This result left him utterly bewildered, even feeling a hint of inexplicable fear.

"That is absolutely not the defense that an ordinary gold card can possess!"

Zhou Wanxiong suddenly stood up, a glint flashing in his eyes.

"My Myriad Lion Gryphon is a Fifth Rank seven-star orange gold card. Its full power strike might be able to break through the defense of some defense-specialized gold cards, but to be able to withstand it almost unscathed like that giant turtle, and even reflect damage... that would likely be difficult to achieve!"

Unless... a bold thought flashed through his mind, making his heart skip a beat!

He immediately walked quickly to the study, opened a light screen, and rapidly tapped on it with his fingers.

As the President of the Canglan Province Card Master Association, he possessed extremely high authority, allowing him to access numerous top-secret gold card data within the Province and even the Alliance.

"Authorization granted!"

"Database connection successful!"

A cold electronic prompt sounded.

Zhou Wanxiong began to search carefully.

"Keywords: giant, dragon-turtle, defense specialized, gold quality or above, super-standard weight..."

He entered all the characteristic terms he could think of related to the Raging Waves Sea Soul, one by one.

On the screen, countless pieces of information flashed by rapidly.

All the data on giant defensive beast taming cards that met the conditions, which had appeared in the history of Canglan Province and even the entire Card Master Alliance, were listed one by one.

Heavy Armored Turtle, Deep Sea Dragon Ao, Mountain Giant Rock Turtle... information on famous gold and red gold cards with astonishing defensive power scrolled before his eyes.

Zhou Wanxiong scanned ten lines at a glance, carefully sifting and comparing.

These gold cards were all top performers in the defense field, some even possessing ultimate defensive power comparable to Seventh Rank Transcendent beings!

But... "No!"

"The size is wrong! The Raging Waves Sea Soul's size is much larger than any gold dragon-turtle beast taming card recorded in these documents!"

"The sense of weight is also completely different! That terrifying weight, which could make the entire arena tremble just by its presence, is absolutely incomparable to these gold cards!"

Zhou Wanxiong's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

Time passed by, minute by minute. After several hours of filtering and comparing, he had almost reviewed all known gold quality defensive beast taming card data.

The result left him disappointed and even more confused.

Among all known gold cards, there was not a single one that could perfectly match the extraordinary size, sense of weight, and the outrageously abnormal defensive power exhibited by the Raging Waves Sea Soul!

"Could it be... some kind of new mutated gold card that has never been recorded?"

This thought arose in Zhou Wanxiong's mind, but he quickly dismissed it himself.

While gambling for mutated gold cards was common, their basic attributes and rankupper limit usually did not deviate too much from their original template.

Everything the Raging Waves Sea Soul displayed had already far exceeded the scope of what a gold card should be!

Just as he was about to give up, an ancient record, marked by the system as "highly suspicious, pending verification" and with its source labeled "rubbing of ancient external book fragments," suddenly caught his eye.

This record was very brief, and even somewhat vague:

...It is rumored that in ancient times, there were divine beasts that reached the heavens and earth, wielding the essence of elements. Their gold card forms were the supreme red myths...

...However, the Dao of Heaven is unpredictable, and even divine beasts have times of decline and fall. If their essence suffers heavy damage, or due to a special seal, their gold card rank may fall, from red to gold, from gold to orange... Although the rank is diminished, one or two tenths of their core power may be retained...

...These regressed gold cards may have a form similar to their original rank, but the difficulty of control is greatly reduced, and even low-rank Card Masters may have the opportunity to control them. However, their essence remains unchanged, and once an opportunity is found, they may regain their glory and return to their peak...

Zhou Wanxiong read this ancient record word by word, his breathing gradually becoming rapid!

This, this, this... "Red quality legendary gold card... rank decline... degenerating into gold quality..."

"Core characteristics... super-standard size... original power pressure... still retained?!"

...