Su Liqian’s special training ended when she ran out of spiritual strength. The teachers had her go back early to rest and prepare for the next morning’s match, and even got her a bottle of spiritual energy drink. 

But whether she won or lost the training match didn’t really affect her sleep. 

On the contrary, because of how exhausted her body was, Su Liqian slept especially soundly that night. 

The next morning, she was woken up by Bai Yao’s voice. 

She had already gone over the details of her opponent for this match. The person had one win and two losses—not exactly tough competition. 

Compared to the intense fights she’d had before, this one felt way too easy. 

Su Liqian wrapped it up quickly, and with that, the regular rounds of the District Semifinals came to a temporary close. 

But the real battles were just about to begin. 

Choosing your opponent wasn’t something you could do lightly. Su Liqian had been going over player data for days and had already narrowed her choices down to a few candidates. 

She only had two “challenge invitations” in her hand, so she had to pick carefully. 

On Monday, the challenge matches officially kicked off. Su Liqian logged into the tournament website and immediately saw she had several challenge invites waiting for her. 

The people who challenged her mainly fell into two groups: those on the verge of advancing, trying to risk it all for high points, and high-ranking contestants who wanted a safe match to secure their position. Some of them were undefeated top players. 

But Su Liqian already knew who she wanted to challenge. She typed in a name, clicked on the person’s profile, and without hesitation, sent out one of her challenge invites. 

Not long after, her communicator buzzed. 

Ji Yanxi: Little junior? Didn’t expect you to challenge me. 

Su Liqian: Challenging you is also a way of challenging myself. 

Ji Yanxi: I really do want to fight you again, but now’s not the time. 

Ji Yanxi: Give yourself more time to grow. 

Ji Yanxi: There will definitely be a real match between us someday. I’m looking forward to it. 

Ji Yanxi declined her challenge. 

Su Liqian had already thought it through. 

She chose Ji Yanxi partly because their last match had always stuck with her—she wanted to overcome that seemingly impossible hurdle someday. 

The other reason was that, now that she was pretty much guaranteed to move on, she wanted to test her limits. 

She loved card battles. She loved the thrill of competing. Fighting strong opponents always pushed her to grow faster. Every intense, hard-fought battle left her buzzing with excitement. 

Out of all the people she had considered, Ji Yanxi was easily the strongest at this stage. She wanted to take on the best, even if it seemed like she was overreaching. 

Still, even in making a bold choice, Su Liqian remained rational. 

To make sure she advanced, she needed to win at least one challenge match against a player with a 3-1 record. 

After many days of reviewing data, she had already locked onto a few potential candidates. 

Since one of her challenge invitations was now wasted, she had to be even more cautious with the second one. 

Before sending out challenge invitations, contestants would intentionally keep their choices secret. Since the rules didn’t allow backdoor deals or prearranged matchups, there wasn’t much communication ahead of time. 

And because the opponent-matching system had a degree of randomness, Su Liqian couldn’t even be sure who she’d get in the end. 

Eventually, she chose a contestant with a 3–1 record—someone she had already studied—and sent the second challenge invitation. After that, all she could do was wait. 

Having used up one of her invitations meant that for her next match, she’d have to pick from the challenge invitations sent to her. 

By noon, Su Liqian had received over 50 challenge invitations. 

Thanks to her growing reputation, she got way more invites than most, and picking the right one wasn’t easy. 

At 6 PM, the opponent selection system would close. If she didn’t make her choice by then, the system would randomly assign someone. 

So, time was running out. She quickly skimmed the list of names and looked each one up on the official site. 

She immediately filtered out anyone with fewer than three wins. After that, she had around 20 candidates left. 

She didn’t have time to study everyone’s match videos, so she settled for a general understanding of each person’s profile and battle style. Then, she narrowed it down further to ten candidates for a final decision. 

As she swiped through the screen, her eyes landed on a male player and a name that felt oddly familiar. 

That guy had reached his 3-1 record purely through his solid combat skills and deep card collection. 

As an opponent, he was actually a solid choice—strong enough to be a challenge, but not so strong that Su Liqian had no chance of winning. At the same time, he wasn’t weak enough to make the fight feel meaningless. 

But… 

Su Liqian’s gaze lingered on another name for a while. 

Ding Tong… 

She remembered that name. 

The last time she watched Ding Tong compete was during her match against Ye Zilan. 

Ding Tong was definitely a talented and well-supported Card Master, but back then, her performance wasn’t all that impressive. 

Still, it was surprising how much she’d improved in such a short time—she’d done pretty well in the semifinals. 

Sure, a bit of luck probably played a part in her win record, but after watching her recent matches, Su Liqian knew better than to underestimate her. 

Why would she pick me as her opponent, though? If it was about revenge from that previous match, wouldn’t she go after Ye Zilan instead? 

Su Liqian didn’t even consider the fact that she, representing Lanxi, had once defeated Chenya’s in a pretty heroic match. Now, any student from Chenya with even a hint of school pride was eager to beat Su Liqian on the battlefield and reclaim some dignity. 

Coincidentally, Su Liqian’s ranking lined up perfectly with Ding Tong’s target range. So, cheered on by her classmates, Ding Tong sent out a challenge invitation without hesitation. 

After thinking it through, Su Liqian eventually decided to accept Ding Tong’s challenge. 

With that, the choice was made. The rest was up to fate. 

And as luck—or fate—would have it, Su Liqian hit the 1-in-6 chance and was officially matched against Ding Tong. 

But her luck didn’t hold out for the second draw. 

This time, she wasn’t paired with someone she’d hoped for, but with a seriously tough competitor—someone she’d rather not face if she could help it. Her heart sank a little as she realized the challenge ahead. 

Thanks to advanced computing systems, all match pairings were done quickly, and the battle schedule was released shortly after. 

Su Liqian skimmed through it. 

Just her luck—both of her matches were scheduled for the same day. First up was the powerful opponent named “Ling Xiang,” followed shortly by the match against Ding Tong. 

After handling everything she needed to, the day quietly came to an end. 

Because her spiritual strength had been drained earlier from working with that half-formed card, Su Liqian—even after taking an energy drink—was advised to avoid making new cards for the next couple of days. 

Wanting to stay in top condition for her two big upcoming matches, Su Liqian wasn’t about to take any risks. She gave herself two days off, only occasionally practicing with a simulation sphere, and spent the rest of her time reading and brushing up on her interstellar knowledge. 

Even with the competition heating up, Su Liqian kept up her normal routine—attending classes and living pretty much the same as usual. 

By Thursday, she figured her spiritual strength had recovered enough. Her fingers were itching to start making cards again, so once she got back to the dorm, she pulled out a transparent card from her drawer and began. 

She was still working on cards from Illustrated World Notes. 

Just like before, she carefully extracted her spiritual strength and poured it into the card. But this time, something felt different. Her spiritual strength flowed smoothly into it.

The most obvious feeling was that the thin spiritual strength that had once been there was now thick and dense, and even after she poured it out, she didn’t feel like she’d lost any of it. 

What was going on? 

Could it be due to the spiritual energy drink? 

That shouldn’t be possible. 

Although the spiritual energy drink was precious, it was never said to expand or refine spiritual strength. 

Maybe this was a rebound effect after having been completely drained? 

Su Liqian wasn’t an expert, so she couldn’t be sure. She decided to ask Ning Yishi later and maybe get another check-up while she was at it. 

It might even be connected to that strange spiritual strength fluctuation she’d experienced.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. She brought her focus back to the card in front of her. 

This time, the card crafting felt smoother than ever. Her spiritual strength flows steadily into the card, and when she saw the silver gleam on the back of it, her eyes lit up. 

It looked like an A-level card! 

This was her first time crafting an A-level card from Illustrated World Notes! 

Her heart pounded as she watched the spinning card gradually lose its transparency, revealing its true form. 

A red glow surrounded the card, signaling its type—it was a weapon card. 

The paint palette on the front didn’t look anything like a weapon, but that big silver “A” told Su Liqian it was definitely no ordinary palette. 

Unfortunately, her room wasn’t a safe place to test a potentially dangerous card. If this thing had real destructive power, it wasn’t worth the risk. 

After safely storing the card in her Star Moon Stone belt, Su Liqian wasn’t feeling sleepy, so she logged into her long-neglected Star Art account. 

To her surprise, there were a ton of unread private messages. She didn’t pay much attention at first—until she saw her name trending on the local hot topic list. 

#DingTongChallengesSuLiqian
#FatedShowdownBetweenChenyaAndLanxi 

She clicked on the tag with her name, and right at the top was Ding Tong’s public challenge announcement: 

Ding Tong: @SuLiqian This time, I’ll win it back for Chenya. 

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