“What… a fan club?” 

Su Liqian looked completely confused. 

“Yeah! A fan club! You might not know this, but you’re already super famous at our school! It’s not just me. Pretty much our whole class is your fan. And with more people joining every day, of course we need an official fan club. Don’t worry, I used to work with the student council, so I’ve got some experience running things like this!”

The few people standing behind Qi Xi eagerly nodded along in agreement. 

But everything she said just left Su Liqian even more lost. Qi Xi didn’t act like a composed upperclassman at all. 

“Hahaha, thanks, but I don’t want to trouble you,” Su Liqian replied politely. 

Su Liqian glanced at the growing crowd around her, then checked the time. All she could think about was how to get out of there fast—being late to class was the last thing she wanted. 

Thankfully, Qi Xi wasn’t clueless. Noticing Su Liqian’s distracted expression, she didn’t push any further. 

“Oh no, it’s fine! You’re not troubling me at all. If you ever want to start the club, just come find me anytime. Look at me—I got so excited I totally lost track of time. Hurry and get to class! If you’re late because of us, I’ll feel super guilty!” 

In the end, they exchanged contact info before Su Liqian quickly rushed to the classroom. 

Sure enough, the moment she stepped through the door, the once noisy room fell completely silent. A bunch of students were openly or sneakily sneaking glances at her. 

That silence only lasted a few seconds before the room erupted into cheers and clapping. 

“Su Liqian!” 

“Boss! Idol!” 

Almost everyone in the class had seen the match that day—and many of them had even gone to watch it live. As a student of Lanxi, there had never been a prouder moment! 

Even the teachers had been chatting about it in the office, congratulating Teacher Qi Feng on discovering such a promising talent. 

Lanxi might actually have a real shot this year! 

Now that Su Liqian had become one of the school’s top-priority students, she didn’t feel any obvious special treatment, but she could definitely tell the teachers were giving her a little extra attention. 

She had never experienced this before—going from an average, invisible student to someone fully in the spotlight. 

Along with that attention came pressure from all directions. 

Luckily, this week’s schedule was fairly light, and the school was putting most of its focus on her and the other card tournament participants. The day before the match, they even set up a special training session just for them. 

Normally, Friday would be a regular school day. But now, the small training field was filled with competitors from all different grades. 

Most of them were currently ranked high enough in the tournament to qualify for the next round—these were the top contenders who had the best shot at reaching the Star District Finals. 

Out of the few dozen students there, most were third-years. Su Liqian and Ye Zilan really stood out among the crowd. 

Especially Su Liqian—at this point, almost everyone in the school knew who she was. As soon as she walked up, people started greeting her one after another. 

After all the practice this week, Su Liqian had pretty much been forced into becoming an extrovert. 

“Morning,” Ye Zilan greeted her with a smile. 

“Morning,” Su Liqian replied, then found a spot to stand next to him. 

Ye Zilan’s current record was two wins and two losses, putting him dangerously close to elimination. But thanks to his strong performance in the last two rounds, the school still had high hopes for him. 

His position in the rankings was way more uncertain than Su Liqian’s, but until the last challenge was over, no one could say for sure who would make it to the Star District Finals. 

The students here represented Lanxi’s strongest competitors. The best record anyone had was three wins and one loss—and that included Su Liqian. 

She felt a little awkward with so many people staring at her with curiosity or admiration. 

It looks like she’d need to get used to being famous.

Once almost everyone had arrived, the special training began on schedule. 

Their special training instructor was none other than Qi Feng, the homeroom teacher of the Special Class. Standing next to him was a tall male teacher—Xi Wen. 

Though it was called “special training,” it wasn’t all that different from their regular combat practice classes, except this time both teachers were personally guiding them, and the opponents they were matched with were particularly strong. 

Xi Wen was a special instructor at Lanxi and had even placed in the interstellar finals of the card tournament before. He had tons of experience and a solid teaching style. 

Su Liqian was paired up against a third-year student. He wasn’t very tall, a little chubby, and honestly pretty easy to overlook at first glance. But the moment the match started, everyone’s attention shifted right to him. 

“Unlock.” 

Li Ya quickly played three cards—some of which Su Liqian had never even heard of. 

Things like Gourmet Club and Go Go Lollipop… all incredibly obscure Illusion World cards. 

Not knowing what your opponent’s cards do makes it almost impossible to control the match. 

Su Liqian pushed down the nervousness bubbling inside her. 

Those weapons in Li Ya’s hands might seem silly, but there’s no way they were as harmless as they looked. 

After all, he was one of the few players with a record of three wins and one loss. Reaching this stage already proved that he wasn’t weak. 

Su Liqian didn’t dare let her guard down. She immediately took out her A-level gear card and the Bone Magician’s Staff to counter. 

Whoo.

Li Ya suddenly pulled out a waffle cone the size of his palm. He blew into it, and almost instantly, little flakes—like crushed candy—began floating out of it, more and more by the second. 

Tiny shards flew straight toward Su Liqian, and even the slightest contact with anything triggered small explosions. 

She quickly swung her wand, casting a wind spell that blew the fragments right back at her opponent. 

Li Ya, completely unfazed, responded by calmly popping what looked like a “wafer cannon” straight into his mouth. 

…Wait, what? 

Did he eat it? 

What even is this? 

Su Liqian felt like her whole understanding of card battles had just been flipped upside down. She stared at her opponent, now more confused than ever. 

Was someone like this really from Lanxi? 

Before she could fully recover from the shock, Li Ya used a summoning card. Out stepped a creature with rainbow-colored wavy hair and a lower body made entirely of cake—a dessert spirit. 

The sweet little thing was about half as tall as a person. It had big round eyes and looked totally harmless, all covered in delicious-looking desserts. 

Li Ya then pulled out a lollipop almost as big as his face and handed it to the cake spirit, who took a dainty lick. 

Immediately, the spirit began to grow—larger and larger—until it was about the same height as Su Liqian. 

Heave-ho. Heave-ho.

The dessert spirit rolled up its imaginary sleeves, locked eyes on Su Liqian, and yanked a chocolate stick from its body like it was a weapon. Then it charged forward, ready to fight. 

Su Liqian had never seen anything like this before. 

This was already beyond her understanding of card battles! 

Looking at this opponent still smelling like cake, she genuinely had no idea how to fight it. 

Wasn’t this more like a cooking show? 

But there was no time to think. The dessert spirit had already charged in. 

Su Liqian braced herself, expecting some weird trick, but instead, the attack was a straight-up, solid hit. No extra moves—just raw power. And once they started fighting, she realized something else: this little spirit was strong. 

Every time Su Liqian landed a hit, it just sank into the soft cake body and disappeared without a trace—completely ineffective. 

“Unlock.” 

Su Liqian finally managed to create some distance and quickly pulled out her Mixed Heaven Silk, hoping the red silk could shred the dessert spirit apart. 

It worked—for a moment. 

The cake body was sliced clean in half… only to immediately regenerate like some kind of dessert-shaped healing machine. It didn’t even flinch. Normal attacks clearly weren’t going to cut it. 

Su Liqian frowned, retreating once again, trying to buy more time to think. 

Her eyes fell on Li Ya—and suddenly, inspiration struck. 

Wait a second. 

It’s cake… That means it can be eaten. 

Su Liqian closed her eyes and dove deep into her memory, reaching into that brilliant, fantastical inner world of hers. In the endless starlit sea of her mind, she locked onto one brilliant star. 

Yes—you’re the one! 

The next second, Su Liqian snapped her eyes open, filled with determination and confidence. 

A transparent card spun rapidly in the air—and all her spiritual strength was drained in an instant! 

Something felt off… 

She had never felt this before. 

The card had only half its color infused, and the brushstroke for the upper part of the word Essence had suddenly stopped mid-stroke. 

The spinning slowed. Su Liqian’s body was aching all over, and her spiritual strength was completely gone. 

No. This isn’t right… 

The card wasn’t even finished, but she could clearly see huge streaks of gold on its back. 

That was the mark of an S-level card! 

But Su Liqian’s current spiritual strength wasn’t nearly enough to support the creation of an S-level card, so it had stalled halfway through. 

The teachers watching from the sidelines were caught off guard too. They immediately paused the match and rushed in to catch Su Liqian, who was about to collapse. 

Technically, the match was Li Ya’s win. 

But all anyone could talk about was Su Liqian. 

Everyone saw it clearly—the half-finished card with the golden back was definitely S-level! 

It was mind-blowing. 

She had barely started learning how to craft cards, and yet she had already touched the threshold of S-level. Most professionals who qualify for the Star Realm Tournament can’t even create one on the spot. And for many, their innate spiritual strength capacity means they’ll never be able to reach that level—ever. 

But Su Liqian? She was the real deal. 

Even though the card wasn’t completed, nobody doubted its power. 

Had she completed the card just now, no matter how many strange cards Li Ya had up his sleeve, the outcome of the match would’ve been obvious. 

S-level wasn’t just a ranking. It was the peak of what a human could achieve. The golden ticket to the path of greatness. 

And Su Liqian had already placed one foot into that unknown, limitless future. 

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