38: Chapter 38 Eighth-Order Forbidden Card?

The entire venue erupted.

It was not a figure of speech; it was a literal eruption—in the external spectator stands, at least three family representatives crushed their teacups simultaneously.

Over in the teacher's section, Deputy Commander Zhou Mu swayed twice before being steadied by a colleague beside him.

Vice President Wu Molin's voice cracked.

"Her Excellency Qingyue—this, this must not happen! Your true form is so noble, how could you—how could you personally test such a—"

"Who said I was going to use my true form for the test?"

Li Qingyue didn't even lift her eyelids.

She raised her right hand.

Her slender fingers emerged from her deep blue cuffs, holding not the legendary-grade universal balance, but a different card between them.

The edges of the dark red card were covered in dense sealing runes, each flickering at an extremely slow pace, as if suppressing something.

A-grade red light, Eighth-Order!

Li Qingyue flicked the card lightly.

Boom—!!!

It wasn't the conventional light effect of magic activation; it was a nearly tangible baleful aura gushing out from the card, like a ferocious beast imprisoned for a thousand years that had finally caught the scent of a crack in its cage.

The dark red magic condensed into a shape in the air.

It was a woman.

She was about the same height and build as Li Qingyue, and even her facial features were identical, but their temperaments were worlds apart.

Li Qingyue was cold—a coldness that was condescending, uninterested after seeing through everything.

But this person—was insane.

She stood in the center of the testing area, her eyes hollow and lifeless, but the killing intent radiating from her body was so thick that the surrounding air trembled.

The magic monitor's reading instantly spiked to the red warning line.

The students closest to her were forced back several steps by that baleful aura.

Zhao Dahai's teeth were chattering.

"Wh-what the hell is this thing? Her face looks just like Master Li, but how does she feel completely different!?"

Lin Xiao's Mental Power was stronger than Zhao Dahai's, and her perception was clearer.

Her face turned deathly pale.

"That's not a clone; it's a refined soul."

"What?"

"The soul of an Eighth-Order peak powerhouse. Li Qingyue wiped away its self-consciousness and refined it into a puppet card."

Lin Xiao's voice trembled, "That is—[Blood Abyss Prisoner]. An Eighth-Order A-grade Forbidden Card. Rumor has it that she was the strongest mortal enemy Li Qingyue defeated when she was young. No one knows her specific identity. All that is known is that after that battle, that enemy vanished from the world. Everyone thought she was dead."

She swallowed hard.

"I never expected… that she would be refined into a card."

Su Bai's mouth twitched.

Good grief.

Refining a mortal enemy's soul into a puppet—this Li Qingyue looks like a harmless little girl, but she is truly ruthless.

In the external spectator stands, the high-level members of various major families had all stood up.

An Eighth-Order Forbidden Card!

A card of this level was worth the price of admission just to lay eyes on.

And yet, Li Qingyue had actually brought out such a trump card just to test a second-year student's ragdoll.

The comments section went completely wild.

[Eighth-Order! An Eighth-Order Forbidden Card!!]

[Is that thing alive? Is that thing alive??]

[It's not alive! It's a puppet!! The refined soul has no self-consciousness!!]

[Her Excellency Qingyue is so cool!! Using an Eighth-Order puppet to test a First-Order card!! What a show of status!!]

[Wait, if she uses a puppet for the test, even if a contract is signed, it won't hurt her true form... I see!!]

Li Qingyue ignored all reactions.

She closed her eyes slightly, and her Ninth-Order Mental Power turned into an invisible thread, directly connecting to the puppet's core consciousness.

Actually, the puppet could move on its own without this; it was essentially a higher-level clone, another manifestation of her own consciousness, but this operation allowed Li Qingyue to perceive things more deeply.

The next second, the puppet, suffused with baleful aura, moved.

She took a step.

One step.

Two steps.

She walked toward Kyubey.

Every step carried the instinctive pressure remaining from an Eighth-Order peak powerhouse.

The ground of the testing area cracked slightly beneath her feet.

The entire venue held its breath.

The puppet stopped in front of Kyubey.

Her hollow eyes looked down, gazing at the white, furry creature that was only thirty-five centimeters tall.

Kyubey looked up.

Its red glass eyes didn't blink.

[Oh my, oh my, what a grand display. Please state your wish.]

The clone spoke: "I desire—to sever all spatial constraints in this world."

"To glimpse the purest truth of time and space."

The moment these words fell—the sky of the miniature world trembled violently.

It wasn't because of how powerful the words were, but because they touched the underlying logic of the laws of causality.

The two golden scales of the universal balance in the sky spun wildly, and the truth runes on the central support pillar suddenly lit up.

This was a level of wish that even a legendary-grade card would tremble at.

The entire venue was deathly silent.

Then—Kyubey spoke.

[I'm sorry.]

[Your causality is sufficient to bear this wish. However, my current rank is too low to carry a wish of this level. Please choose another one.]

The entire venue was stunned.

The comments section went blank for three whole seconds—it wasn't a server crash; it was just that no one knew what to post.

[??????]

[Wait, can it really grant wishes?]

[The wish failed!]

[This wish function probably isn't very useful; it should just be an extra feature... Speaking of which, why not just summon the clothes directly? Why go through the extra trouble of making a cat? I don't understand the author's thinking.]

[Yeah, this cat is completely unnecessary. It's clearly an Armament Card, and related to Magical Girls, yet they put in a mascot. What's the point?]

[I don't understand what kind of brain circuit today's designers have. If it weren't for the Spatial Circuit, this card would barely be D-grade!]

On the external high platform, Vice President Wu Molin's pupils contracted violently.

He was no amateur; he was a Seventh-Order Card Crafting Grandmaster.

So he knew better than anyone what that scene just now meant.

"The causality judgment actually took effect."

His voice was hoarse, "It wasn't just saying that; it was truly evaluating the wisher's causality weight. And—it gave a clear rank limit. Did you feel that fluctuation just now? I have a feeling in the dark, as if something is truly being weighed, and the universal balance is measuring it too."

"This means that behind this circuit lies a complete, self-consistent, and quantifiable system of causality laws."

"This card doesn't seem simple, and it's even more peculiar than the Spatial Circuit."

His gaze toward Su Bai changed completely.

At this moment, Li Qingyue, who was in mid-air—felt a stir in her heart.

Unlike those around her who were in disbelief, she read more information from that "insufficient rank" statement than anyone else.

Material limitations.

The materials used for the Kyubey Card, such as the Phantom Demon resentment crystal, Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider, formless spirit sand, and so on, although not top-tier goods in her eyes, were already the limit for a First-Order card.

And yet, this card could actually provide a "rank insufficient" judgment, which meant its internal causality circuit was truly functioning.

It wasn't made up, nor was it copied by luck, but rather a precise law engine capable of automatically setting limits based on material grade.

Interesting.

Too interesting.

The corners of Li Qingyue's mouth curled up slightly.

Then she issued a new command.

A command that even she felt was somewhat absurd.

"Change to another wish."

Her voice was transmitted through the Mental Power thread to the puppet's core consciousness.

"Wish—'I want to possess true self-consciousness'."

Once these words were spoken, Vice President Wu Molin turned his head sharply toward her: "Her Excellency Qingyue! This—this is too dangerous! If that soul really awakens its self-consciousness—"

"That would be perfect."

Li Qingyue's gaze fell on Kyubey.

"I want to see just how much this cat can actually realize."

The puppet lowered her head.

Her hollow eyes refocused on Kyubey.

"I want to possess, true self-consciousness."

Kyubey's red glass eyes lit up.

It wasn't the conventional light from magic activation, but a strange, hair-raising—pinkish-black eerie glow that had never appeared before.

Like two cold flames burning at the bottom of an abyss, they suddenly bloomed on that cute, furry face.

[Wish—confirmed.]

That mechanical, emotionless voice exploded directly in everyone's minds.

[Causality weight judgment in progress—passed.]

[Contract established.]