Before long, a cube about the size of a fist appeared in Cheng Ming’s hand. 

It was a Rubik’s cube, glowing and floating with dazzling, shifting colors. 

Made up of countless tiny cubes forming a larger one, it morphed fluidly in Cheng Ming’s palm—twisting into a spiral one moment, reshaping into a pyramid the next, and finally returning to its original cube shape, quietly resting in his hand. 

The Phantom Cube! 

Sen Ya recognized it instantly—it was a rare A-level weapon card from Star Sea Odyssey, one of the most lethal among all A-level weapons. 

This was bad… 

He hadn’t used this in any of the previous matches, and now he was pulling it out against her? 

Sen Ya instinctively tightened her grip on her own weapon, forcing herself to calm her racing heart. 

Whoosh!

The next moment, right in front of her eyes, the cube transformed into a long, sharp spike and launched toward her at lightning speed. 

The spike shimmered and then vanished, blending into the air like it had disappeared. 

Sen Ya’s instincts screamed in alarm, her eyes widening in shock. 

But the Phantom Cube gave her no time to react. In the blink of an eye, the spike pierced her right shoulder. 

Ahh! 

A jolt of pain exploded through her, shooting straight to her brain. Her right arm went limp instantly, and the Blue Lightning Whip in her hand fell to the ground, crackling loudly. 

When her body finally registered what had happened, the pain had already overwhelmed her senses. 

She instinctively reached for the wound, and the sight of bright red blood blurred her vision with a memory of yesterday. 

So this… is how much it hurts? 

Her knees wobbled, and she stumbled back a few steps. 

She couldn’t even see the Phantom Cube, let alone defend against it. 

How was she supposed to win? 

She wasn’t like Su Liqian—she couldn’t just whip out a new card on the spot. And she wasn’t like Zhang Shu either—she didn’t have that kind of resolve. She didn’t think she could hang on any longer… 

It hurt so much. 

The blood flowed freely from her shoulder, and her vision blurred with the pain. 

She couldn’t help but wonder: how did Zhang Shu manage to stand back up and keep fighting after getting stabbed yesterday? 

She could barely stay on her feet. 

Cheng Ming didn’t attack again. The girl across from him had clearly lost the ability to fight and looked like she might collapse at any moment. 

He considered himself a gentleman, after all. He had no intention of “rubbing salt in the wound.” 

He was just waiting for her to fall. 

One second… two… three… 

But to his surprise, Sen Ya steadied herself. She stood firm, and her eyes met his. 

And for some reason, a flicker of fear rose up in him—but the feeling passed as quickly as it came. 

If she still refused to give up, then she had only herself to blame for what came next. 

The Phantom Cube sprang to life again, just like before, shifting back into a spike and vanishing into thin air. 

Sen Ya knew she couldn’t take another hit. 

She knew it. 

Everything about this moment felt familiar—like yesterday’s match, only now, she was in Zhang Shu’s place. 

Zhang Shu had won. Could she do the same? 

Alright then. Let’s treat this like the final battle. 

A sudden surge of determination welled up inside her. Her drained spiritual strength sparked back to life. 

From the time the spike formed to when it struck, she had two seconds. And in those two seconds, no one noticed when a Mu Xixi series transparent card appeared in her hand and began to glow. 

Everyone held their breath, trying to see which card it was. 

“It’s the A-level Illusion gear card from Iron Knight—The Dark Ink Knight’s armor!” 

The commentator was the first to recognize it. 

When the light faded, Sen Ya was clad in deep ink-colored armor that hugged her form, outlining her graceful figure. 

Even though it was knight’s gear, it didn’t look bulky or heavy on her—it looked fast, powerful, and almost elegant. 

Iron Knight—one of Sen Ya’s favorite stories as a child. She had loved the tall, noble knights and dreamed of being the princess they fought to protect. 

As she grew up, she’d tried to craft cards from that world, but no matter how well she knew the story, she couldn’t craft anything stronger than a C-level. 

Eventually, as she grew up, her tastes changed, and she gradually forgot about that story buried deep in her memories. 

Yet in this life-or-death moment on the battlefield, she remembered Iron Knight again.  

And she realized—she had misunderstood the story all along. 

She had been wrong before. 

The main character of Iron Knight wasn’t the beautiful princess. It was every knight with a heart of steel. 

Only by understanding their unyielding spirit, their refusal to back down, could one truly understand the story’s meaning. 

Before becoming a princess, you had to become a knight—with unshakable will. 

Only by protecting yourself could you truly shine. 

Sen Ya finally understood. 

And in the very next second, the spike flew toward her shoulder once again. 

Bang!

But instead of piercing her flesh like before, the spike collided with her armor and bounced off. 

Sen Ya stood tall in her armor, holding a long spear. Her eyes were resolute—she looked more and more like a warrior. 

Cheng Ming was slightly stunned. He hadn’t expected her to push back so suddenly at such a critical moment. 

What he thought would be an easy win was now turning into something much more complicated. A sense of unease began to grow in his heart. 

The Dark Ink Knight’s armor was exceptionally tough. The Phantom Cube’s regular forms could no longer hurt her. 

But Cheng Ming wasn’t worried. 

Sen Ya was already at her limit. 

With that shoulder injury and her drained spiritual strength, she could collapse at any moment. Meanwhile, Cheng Ming was almost completely unscathed. Even if she had turned the tables for a moment, it didn’t seem like she could change the outcome of this match. 

But Sen Ya no longer thought about any of that. She simply gripped her spear and swung it forward, continuously attacking Cheng Ming’s weak points. 

The Phantom Cube alternated between turning into a shield to block attacks and transforming into various forms to counterattack Sen Ya. 

Clashing metal rang out nonstop. But after that intense back-and-forth, Sen Ya was clearly starting to slow down. 

Sensing an opening, the Phantom Cube flew toward her. In midair, it scattered into countless tiny cubes, surrounding her like a dense cloud. 

The little cubes latched onto her armor, glowing with a dark, metallic sheen. 

As the gaps between the cubes shrank, her armor creaked under the pressure. 

Sen Ya was struggling to breathe — and trying to pull the cubes off was useless. They clung to her like magnets. 

Wait. Magnets? 

Just when Cheng Ming thought this time his victory was guaranteed, Sen Ya appeared before him once again—completely unharmed. 

He looked up and saw a magnetic field device floating above her — and in that moment, it clicked. 

She’d countered his attack effortlessly with just a regular B-level card. 

Cheng Ming quickly pulled himself together, trying to stay calm and find another opening. 

But this time, Sen Ya didn’t give him the chance. 

BOOM!

A massive explosion shook the arena. Cheng Ming had already spotted the bomb and used an acceleration card to dodge just in time. 

That’s it? 

The second he let his guard down, a silver spear shot out from the smoke — aimed straight at his chest with no mercy. 

CLANG!

Amid the swirling smoke, the audience saw a long spear flung away, nearly flying out of the arena. 

So… did Cheng Ming win? 

In that moment of confusion, Su Liqian was the first to notice something unusual in the mist. Her tense expression suddenly relaxed. 

“She won.” 

“She did?” Ye Zilan turned to look. 

As the smoke cleared, three figures slowly came into view. 

The tall figure of the judge stood between Cheng Ming and Sen Ya, facing Sen Ya, holding a lightsaber in his hand. 

Sen Ya was breathing heavily, her heart pounding in her chest. 

The judge had stepped in—stopping her attack. 

Which meant… that last strike would’ve finished Cheng Ming. 

She’d won! 

“No way! Judge, I don’t accept this! If you hadn’t stepped in, who knows what would’ve happened!” Cheng Ming protested, his voice rising. 

It took him a couple of seconds to process what just happened, but he couldn’t accept it. 

If the judge hadn’t interfered, maybe that hit wouldn’t have done anything. He still had so many cards left—how could he lose like this? 

Why didn’t the judge stop him when he was about to strike Sen Ya earlier? This was so unfair! 

But the judge just gave him a look. “If you disagree, you can file for a review.” 

The judge process would include examining live footage and using big data simulations to predict what would’ve happened if the judge hadn’t stepped in. The system was pretty reliable — errors were rare. 

Cheng Ming knew the truth: reviews almost never overturned the original verdict. There had only been a handful of controversial matches in card battle history where that happened. 

And this particular judge was an experienced professional—not someone to be questioned easily. 

Still, he was unwilling to accept it. He clung to that sliver of hope. 

But no one cared about his complaints. The crowd was already cheering for the winner. 

And Cheng Ming? He had no choice but to swallow his pride and walk off the stage, defeated. 

Sen Ya won. 

It took her a while to accept it. 

She’d beaten an opponent that once seemed impossible to defeat—something she wouldn’t have even dared to dream about before. 

But she’d done it. 

Sen Ya didn’t know how to describe how she felt. She’d won plenty of matches before, but none of them had ever given her such a deep sense of achievement. 

She had to admit it; she was falling in love with this feeling.

As she saw her two friends walking toward her, Sen Ya smiled from the bottom of her heart. 

She wanted to keep fighting. 

For them.

And for herself. 

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