The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns Chapter 279: Bing Xue's Strategy

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Bing Xue glanced at her Life Points.

[LIFE POINTS: 34.500]

And then at her positioned cards.

…

[Volcanic Dragon (Tier 5): Defense Position]

[LIFE POINTS: 20.000 (-5.000)]

[ATTACK POINTS: 10.000 (-5.000)]

[SPECIAL EFFECT: VOLCANIC TERRAIN]

[CURSE: SLENDER JOE’S LAST LAUGH: 3 TURNS]

…

[Aberrant Mutant of the Sewers (Tier 2): Defense Position]

[LIFE POINTS: 5.000]

[ATTACK POINTS: 2.000]

[SPECIAL EFFECT: SLUDGE BOMB]

…

[Serpentine White Dragon (Tier 2): Attack Position]

[LIFE POINTS: 4.000]

[ATTACK POINTS: 3.000]

[SPECIAL EFFECT: STATUS EFFECT IMMUNITY]

…

[Greenwood Forest Archer (Tier 2): Defense Position]

[LIFE POINTS: 3.000]

[ATTACK POINTS: 5.000] (+2.000)

[EQUIPMENT: [Life Draining Knife: Tier 3]

[SPECIAL EFFECT: ARROW RAIN, LIFE DRAIN]

…

Despite how low her Life Points had gone, she was in a pretty good position right now. She had four powerful beasts defending her, and if Belphegor doesn’t pull out any bullshit again, she should be able to hold her own for several turns.

The problem was…

“He’s definitely pulling some bullshit again.”

Bing Xue knew too well these types of people, or, well, demons in Belphegor’s case.

Expecting them to play fairly and decently just for the fun of it was never an option.

The only thing they cared about when playing a game was winning, no matter what.

And quite honestly, it wasn’t like Bing Xue could disagree with them.

She also loved winning.

It is just that the methods differed a little.

Belphegor… It was quite clear he loved winning by using everything he could to cheat his way through.

He decided on their decks right away so Bing Xue could get the lamest one, while he got a lot of powerful monsters and trap cards right away.

However, he was still surprised more than one time because he had not taken into consideration that Bing Xue would learn, adapt, and use whatever was given to her in such effective ways.

She played more like an experienced player than a newbie, even though she had never played this game before at all.

Why was that the case?

Belphegor couldn’t really tell… And he didn’t really care either.

Maybe she was old; eleven thousand years old was a lot.

But so what?

Belphegor was billions of years old; he saw the multiverse being born.

Nobody could fool him; he was a demon that liked fooling others.

“You’ll regret having offered your soul, foolish woman… No matter what tricks you attempt to do, that deck of yours is the absolute worst! I made sure that only the trashiest cards were inside! That Volcanic Dragon has a terrible side effect; you’re about to find out pretty soon, hahaha!”

As Belphegor smiled while giggling to himself, Bing Xue took five cards from her deck and into her hand.

“Hmmm…”

As she read them carefully, Belphegor and the rest of the demons couldn’t help but laugh, unable to hold their laughter.

“Gyahahaha!”

“I bet she got trash again!”

“Look at her stupid face!”

“She’s trying to remain calm so desperately!”

“Heh…”

Belphegor said nothing, only smirking beneath his mask.

However, Bing Xue was actually pretty calm right now.

In fact, she smiled while giving a gentle nod.

“Hmm! These cards are pretty good. To be honest, there’s no bad card in this game; every single one serves a purpose and helps you. I have played more ruthless games usually, where choosing something could hurt you badly. But this game… is very straightforward; I suppose it’s mostly for children, right?”

“W-WHAT…?!”

Belphegor gritted his sharp teeth angrily as he heard her saying such a thing!

But he remained calm and in silence.

Bing Xue looked at her cards one by one.

[Rejuvenation Elixir: Tier 3]

[Saint’s Sacrifice: Tier 2]

[Unknown Shade: Tier 1]

[Poisonous Oil Swamp: Tier 1]

[Spiritual Hand: Tier 2]

Anybody would think these cards were pretty shitty; even Belze, right by Bing Xue’s side, could tell that this wasn’t looking good at all.

“Bing Xue, aside from the elixir, these are all crap!” Belze said. “W-What the hell are you talking about?!”

“Crap? How? They’re perfect… I can already see it; if I use this and that… incredible,” Bing Xue’s eyes shone brightly.

She could see it all.

The heart of the cards, resonating with her!

There was no bad card.

Only bad players.

“H-Huh? But… Wait…” Belze looked at the Volcanic Dragon, and then back at the cards. “You… don’t tell me… Wait, is that play even possible?!”

“We better find out,” Bing Xue smiled; her heart was beating faster and faster with excitement. “Let’s do this!”

“HOH? FINALLY DOING SOMETHING? I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR AGES.”

Belphegor yawned while a little imp-like demon made of flames served him a cocktail he drank in a single gulp.

“First, I begin by using Saint’s Sacrifice.”

She revealed a card showing a blonde female being sacrificed in the middle of a red circle, while black-cloaked men raised their hands as satanic forces engulfed her.

“And I sacrifice my Serpentine White Dragon.”

“ROOAAR!”

The White Dragon roared as he saw a red magic circle beneath it, which quickly engulfed it in enormous quantities of flames until it disappeared.

FLUOSH!

As it disappeared, the effects of the cards manifested.

“With the Sacrifice of a Saint, I can choose between healing all my monsters for the equal amount of life the sacrificed monster had or dealing direct damage to you.”

“So?”

“I choose to deal damage to my Volcanic Dragon instead.”

“What?!”

RUMBLE!

A bright white beam of light descended from the skies, impacting the Volcanic Dragon!

BOOMMMM!!!

The white light, carrying sanctifying power, dealt a whopping 4000 points of damage to her Volcanic Dragon!

However…

The darkness encompassing the dragon also disappeared.

FLUOSH!

“T-That’s… possible?!”

Belphegor, the creator of the game, was completely unaware that Holy Damage could also destroy curses.

The thing was, it didn’t work on foes, but it did work on allies.

But who on their right mind would damage their own monster?

“As you can see now, the curse you’ve placed on my precious volcanic dragon is gone.”

“H-Hah… Well played! I honestly didn’t think you were this insane… But now your dragon is so weak, any of my monsters will defeat it once my turn comes!”

“Yes, I am aware of that. That’s why…”

 “GRRRHHH…!”

The Volcanic Dragon, whose health points reached a threshold, suddenly activated a hidden ability.

RUMBLE!

The ground around it cracked open, as a small volcanic eruption was generated!

Lava flowed out of small volcanoes surrounding the Volcanic Dragon.

“That’s the Volcanic Dragon’s terrible hidden ability in the works, ladies and demons! Whenever it reaches Health Points below fifty percent, the Volcanic Dragon manifests a Volcanic Domain! The thing is? It can also damage allied monsters nearby!”

FLUOSH!

Flames covered the Mutant and the Elf Archer, their health points quickly reached half; they looked tired while burning.

“HAHAHAHA! AND YOU THOUGHT THAT DRAGON WAS GOOD?! GET SCREWED OVER!”

“Yes, this is perfect.”

“Huh?”

Somehow, Bing Xue knew about this hidden ability, which wasn’t even specified in the card at all!

“You’re calm… Wait… you devised a strategy around this?! But you didn’t know!”

“I had the hunch there was some sort of “trap”, there’s no way you would give my deck such an amazingly strong monster, right?”

“T-That’s…”

“After all, demons don’t play fairly. Right?”

As Bing Xue said that, she quickly took out another of her cards, the Unknown Shade.

“Now I use Unknown Shade in Attack Position!”

FLUOSH!

A shadow-like monster manifested in front of her.

“I activate the Shadow’s Ability, Shadow Snatch, on my Volcanic Dragon.”

The shadow quickly went to the Volcanic Dragon, stealing its shadow and replacing it.

“Oh! This is the Unknown Shadow’s only ability! With a pitiful one thousand life points and attack power, the only thing it can do is snatch a soul from a foe… well, usually foes! It will only be a die when the foe dies! But… what’s this? Why is Bing Xue using it on her own monster?”

The referee was constantly commenting on what was happening, beginning to annoy Belphegor, who was one of the ideas to bring him over to begin with…

“Bing Xue, why are you doing that? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until Belphegor summons a monster to snatch its shadow and deal passive damage every turn? It’s not that bad of a card, but…” Belze was confused once more.

“There’s something I want to test out,” Bing Xue smiled. “Now… I will use the Field Card, Poisonous Oil Swamp. I place it on the tiles surrounding my Volcanic Dragon.”

FLAAASH!

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