Under Shen Sui's encouragement, Alice began to have spiritual life forms perform self-stacking en masse.

The stacked spiritual life forms varied in quality; Shen Sui made some slight adjustments and managed to cobble together five Follower Cards from the spiritual life forms to add to his deck.

This batch of Follower Card enhancements filled the gaps in Shen Sui's deck, giving him more ways to unfold his strategy.

In an environment where most cards are forcibly limited to one per deck, assembling a smoothly running deck is actually not a simple task.

Since Shen Sui's debut, most of his opponents have been seasoned professional Life Card Masters, which is why their strategies appear so smooth.

In fact, being unable to draw the right cards is the norm for most Life Card Masters in this world.

For example, Shen Sui encountered such an opponent at the national competition.

Shen Sui watched as his opponent, going first, spent almost all of his Soul Points to summon a 10-star follower, and then ended his turn.

With the Fish King strategy in hand, Shen Sui was momentarily at a loss on how to proceed. Fortunately, after the reinforcement of the spiritual life Follower Cards, Shen Sui's moves became much smoother, successfully unleashing a burst play and summoning Star Abyss White Dragon Qishala, taking down the opponent.

"As expected of the God of Age," his opponent said with a wry smile.

Shen Sui has already gained some fame as a Life Card Master nationwide.

The national competition's schedule is very tight, with the first three rounds of the main event completed on the first day.

Shen Sui simply took a sip of water, and Xinyuan Tanchun handed over the information on his next-round opponent.

In the second round, Shen Sui went first, and then there was nothing more.

He didn't even remember his opponent's name by the time the duel was over.

If it weren't for the fact that his opponent was concerned about his academy's honor and held on without surrendering, Shen Sui could have ended the duel even faster.

When Shen Sui returned to the lounge at Tianyi Academy, their highly professional analysis team was already there playing cards—but with analytical cards.

You Wenqi was leisurely drinking tea on the side.

"I mean... aren't you guys a bit too relaxed?" Shen Sui said helplessly, looking at them. Tianyi Academy had invested a lot for this national competition, offering high wages to the support staff, including You Wenqi.

You Wenqi joked with a smile, "In God of Age's matches, do we even need to use our brains? A good night's sleep and voilà—another victory."

Shen Sui glared at You Wenqi, "You, don't jinx me, okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm not An Hai," You Wenqi replied, waving his hand dismissively.

Then he put down his teacup and his expression turned serious, "However, you shouldn't take your opponents in the national competition too lightly just because the first two rounds went smoothly. There are many students mixing in for points, but there are also real experts, like An Wei from Lingnan University and Xinyuan Yingxue from Jing City University—formidable opponents not to be underestimated."

Just as Shen Sui was about to speak, You Wenqi said, "I know, you've defeated them before, but Life Card Duel is a game full of randomness. Even against the same opponent, without changing the deck construction, just altering the order of turns or deck sequence can lead to entirely different outcomes."

You Wenqi understood well that Shen Sui's level was already high. As long as he maintained his mindset and took every opponent seriously, even if he couldn't defeat them, he wouldn't lose too badly.

The only thing You Wenqi could do for Shen Sui was to monitor Shen Sui's emotions from the perspective of a seasoned professional player, ensuring that the pressure of the competition didn't affect his mood.

He is a very worry-free player.

That was You Wenqi's evaluation of Shen Sui.

Even more worry-free than You Wenqi himself.

During duels, You Wenqi would sometimes get carried away and act irrationally, though he tried hard to control his show-off impulses in his later career, the Goddess of Fortune no longer favored him.

In his early years, You Wenqi actually had the capability to win the world championship. The difference between him and his opponent in the finals was not large, with victory hinging on the smallest factors. However, towards the end of his career, even though he continued to be the world runner-up, he clearly felt that his raw strength was somewhat inferior.

Especially since he never managed to collect all the Zodiac Gods from Soul Card World, leaving permanent flaws in his deck.

"This is your opponent for the third round." You Wenqi handed over the information on his next opponent to Shen Sui.

Shen Sui took a look.

He was a sixth-tier Life Card Master, unlike those players mixing in for points to rank up; he was a bona fide competitor already pre-signed by a major domestic club.

"Being signed by a major club likely means he has the rental rights to their Life Card library," You Wenqi, understanding the ins and outs, informed Shen Sui, "His deck must have been strengthened, as he's used Life Cards in the preliminaries and previous rounds that he had never used before, so you should be a bit cautious."

Shen Sui nodded.

The third round of matches took place in the afternoon.

You Wenqi originally wanted to ask if Shen Sui needed help with ordering a lunchbox, but then he saw a beautiful silver-haired maid bringing one to Shen Sui.

Qishala's presence astonished everyone present.

Although some were not seeing Qishala for the first time, her stunning beauty was always sufficiently captivating no matter how many times they saw it.

"How's the match going?" Qishala, accustomed to such attention, smiled and inquired about Shen Sui's performance in today's matches.

"Pretty smooth," Shen Sui enjoyed Qishala's massage and asked, "Almost too smooth actually."

Although Shen Sui would always conclude his duels within a few rounds, the experience brought by different opponents in the same number of rounds was different for him.

Tan Song, for instance, was also defeated by Shen Sui in three rounds, but Shen Sui knew clearly that if he had not managed the cost limitations well in Tan Song's first turn, the duel would have become very tough.

But today's two rounds of opponents didn't give Shen Sui that kind of feeling.

Shen Sui didn't even have to make a move; they just stalled themselves out of the game, giving him no sense of victory at all, to the point where he didn't even feel the desire to play little tricks on his opponents.

"Hopefully, the next opponent will bring me some enjoyment," Shen Sui said with a yawn.

He even felt that compared to these seemingly high-ranked students, the professional players in other Class B competitions were more interesting, as even Tier 5 Life Card Masters had their unique interpretations of their decks.

"By the way, where's Freymia?" Shen Sui asked curiously.

"Seems like she's walking the giant squid," Qishala said.

"Walking… a giant squid?" Shen Sui couldn't quite connect the two words together at first.

Qishala covered her mouth, holding back laughter, and said, "She saw a video online that said pets get depressed if they're kept indoors for too long, so they need to be taken out from time to time."

"Isn't it possible," Shen Sui said speechlessly, "that the vast ocean it lives in is the outdoors?"

Freymia's thought process truly did not disappoint anyone.

While they were talking, the third round of the match was about to begin.

By the third round, there were only sixteen contestants left, the so-called "Sweet Sixteen."

The ones who made it to this stage were essentially the elite among the nationwide Duel Academy students.

Shen Sui's opponent was a student from the Duel Division of Southeast University.

A Tier 6 Life Card Master, who has won numerous Class C tournament championships and also performed well in Class B competitions.

For instance, he participated in the previous Modu Duel Tournament, but his ranking wasn't very high.

When Shen Sui arrived at the dueling venue, his opponent had already been waiting there for some time.

He was a very young lad, his whole being filled with the sharpness of youth, vastly different in temperament from Shen Sui, who had been worn down by elves and white dragons.

"God of Age!" The young man's eyes immediately flashed with admiration upon seeing Shen Sui, "I'm a fan of yours!"

"Ah... hello." Shen Sui didn't expect the third-round contestant to be a fan of his; it was a very peculiar feeling.

The young man seemed extremely happy.

"When I bet with my classmates, I even said that you would definitely win the national championship this time," the young man said as he shuffled cards.

As the conversation became lively, he drew a card from the deck, handed it to Shen Sui, and expectantly said, "If possible, could you sign this for me?"

Shen Sui smiled and reminded him, "I can, but don't use a card from your deck. A signed card can't be used in a match."

The young man blinked and then realized.

Although the Dueling Device automatically executes the effect of random searches, such actions like signing a name on a Life Card are still considered marking the card, classified as cheating, and if discovered, would lead to an immediate loss.

Similar loss rules apply to using Life Cards from the Forbidden Card List during a match.

The Dueling Device does not specially identify Life Cards on the Forbidden Card List. Manual identification is required, which is one reason for the existence of referees, and also the primary purpose of referees checking both decks before a match.

"Ah...." The young man finally realized and said, "Then after this, I'll get a card I don't use much."

He seemed a bit disappointed, as there was no way to use his idol's signed Life Card during the duel.

Soon enough, under the referee's watch, the duel began.

It was the first time Shen Sui dueled a fan, and he thought he should go easy on him somehow.

Then the young man just sat there, without even batting an eye, watching Shen Sui talk for thirteen minutes during the first turn.

Shen Sui could have talked even longer, as many card effects hadn't yet been triggered, but seeing the young man's expression that screamed, "When's it going to be my turn?" Shen Sui ultimately relented and ended his turn.

The outcome, naturally, was unsurprising.

Shen Sui defeated his fan, successfully advancing to the quarter-finals.

His quarter-final opponent was... An Yang.

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