98: Overt Conspiracy

“Jump~!”

The light from the hand card infused the Tiao Tiao, and it immediately bounced to the empty card slot on the right.

“What?!”

Fang Jinghai was utterly dumbfounded.

He truly hadn't expected the opponent to possess and play such a hand card!

Movement-type actions belong to T3 priority.

After using it, actions like a character card's Defense, Stasis, and Attack can be terminated.

However, positive or negative effect release actions that have already taken effect at T1 or T2 priority are not affected by this.

Therefore, Shi Li playing Movement would not hinder the effect of Taunt.

Moreover, it's important to know that the Taunt effect has a characteristic: it does not give the opponent's attack a tracking effect.

For example, if the Stone Demon is in front and the Jumping Guard is behind, the Taunt target's attack will land on the Stone Demon, not the Jumping Guard.

Another example: if the Jumping Guard releases Taunt and is simultaneously exiled, then the Taunt target's attack will not hit the Jumping Guard, but will instead be passed to the card behind the Jumping Guard.

So, Movement is the same; the Taunt target's attack will not track to the position after Movement, but will still attack the position where the Jumping Guard was when it issued Taunt.

“Take my palm!”

“I’ll split you into a dead man!”

At this moment, the Yuanshan Deputy Sect Leader and the Barbarian Warrior both attacked the position where the Jumping Guard originally was.

The attack passed from the first row to the second row, and as a result, the card face in the second row was directly flipped over.

Shi Li also hadn't placed a card in this position; it was an empty card slot!

With no target to take damage in the second row, the attack naturally continued to pass to the last row.

The last row… was also an empty card slot!

“This wave isn’t a loss.”

Fang Jinghai had already anticipated that his attack would miss.

Although this wave not only caused no damage to Shi Li's cards, but also resulted in the Barbarian Warrior wasting 20 skill points by releasing a skill without triggering Lifesteal.

However, he revealed two empty card slots in the opponent's second and last rows.

This meant the opponent would be unable to reveal cards in these two slots later.

Because if it's an empty card slot and not a face-down card, how can you reveal it?

Coupled with the empty card slot in the first row, it meant that three of Shi Li's two columns of regular card slots were now empty.

This implied that the opponent could only use a 3+1 deck to counter his 4+1 deck.

So, this wave truly wasn't a loss.

However, just as Fang Jinghai thought this attack had concluded, an unexpected situation continued to unfold.

“Instant Reveal”

When the attack passed to Shi Li's ace row, these two words popped up.

“What?!”

Fang Jinghai had never expected the opponent to place their ace in this column.

Under normal circumstances, there are two conditions for an ace to be revealed:

1. A face-down ace in an invincible state, upon taking one enemy damage, will be revealed in the next reveal phase.

2. All of one's regular cards are destroyed, and the ace will be revealed in the next reveal phase.

The current situation met the first condition above.

Fang Jinghai completely failed to understand what Shi Li meant by this.

Moving the Jumping Guard to prevent it from taking damage was understandable.

But knowing the attack would pass through, why place the ace in this column?

Wouldn't that expose the ace to attack in the next round?

Was protecting the Jumping Guard more important than exposing the ace?

However, at this moment, in the VIP box upstairs, the experienced principals had already seen the clues.

“This kid Shi Li… is quite interesting.”

“He did it on purpose; this round's Taunt + Movement is a complete open scheme.”

“No matter what choice the opponent makes, they cannot escape the fate of helping him reveal his ace.”

Many showed expressions of appreciation.

“While revealing the ace early exposes its position and greatly increases the risk of the king being captured first, it has one tangible benefit.

That is, it allows the high-attack ace, with an additional 30 attack points, to join the battle early.”

“Don't look at him revealing one less card this round; he hasn't taken any health loss.

Next round, he will reveal two cards, including his ace and a regular card, while Fang Jinghai can only reveal one regular card.

It's as if their duel officially begins with a 3V3.”

“Moreover, Shi Li clearly came prepared; I feel he still has Movement in his hand.

He could completely Movement the ace to the right column, hiding behind the human wall formed by regular cards.

Or he could Movement the Jumping Guard back to the left column to take damage.”

As the principals analyzed, Principal Su's expression finally eased.

Shi Li's unexpected Movement gave him hope of winning.

Soon, the reveal phase of the second round arrived.

“No matter what tricks you plan to play, they are meaningless in the face of absolute strength disparity.”

Fang Jinghai did not swap cards during the replacement phase and revealed his already prepared second-row face-down card.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

The sound of hard objects striking echoed, and a large crab with an armor-like shell emerged.

Its two claws were quite special; they were not pincers, but rather a hammer on the left and a fork on the right.

Western Crab

Breaker type, 30 points, Three-star

Attack 30, 100/100, 0/40

Fork Claw - Passive: If Western Crab only attacks once within a round, it recovers an additional 2.5 energy.

Hammer Claw - Passive: If Western Crab attacks one target twice within a round, it triggers the Stun effect (T2).

Double Strike - 30 Energy: Western Crab attacks the target an additional time.

(Stun: Cannot act this round.)

This card was a three-star card he had just acquired this morning.

“It's here! Fang Jinghai's new three-star card!”

“This card combines hard crowd control, output, and energy charging functions!”

“As long as it attacks once for four consecutive rounds, it can recover an additional 10 energy!”

“You know, one of the most needed elements for Breaker cards is to speed up their warm-up!”

“With the help of Fork Claw, the Western Crab can consecutively cast skills for two rounds in a cycle!”

As soon as this card was revealed, the host immediately gave it high praise.

“It’s your turn.”

Fang Jinghai wanted to see what kind of ace Shi Li would prepare.

It's important to know that before Instant Reveal, a face-down ace could be swapped.

But after Instant Reveal, the face-down ace is determined; whichever card was Instant Revealed must be revealed.

However, Shi Li seemed to deliberately keep them in suspense, first revealing the regular card behind the Jumping Guard.

“Yo Yo~”

The Thunderhorn Deer, with lightning flashing on its horns, appeared.

As a Breaker card with armor-piercing capabilities, it was a very useful counter card for breaking through damage-absorbing cards.

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