Chapter 586: The Price of Battle (4k, seeking monthly tickets)

"Zhanhua?"

"A series I've never seen before—"

Many students became curious, and even Hikari Tenjou couldn't help but sit up straight.

It was actually the Zhanhua series.

"As long as this card exists on the field, once per turn, I can Special Summon one 'Zhanhua' monster from my hand. As a cost, I must pay damage equal to that monster's level x 100."

"I want to Special Summon this card—Level 6, Zhanhua of Violence - Dong Ying."

"Dong... Ying?"

"Eh!"

Some students sensitive to names had already realized the type of this series, and accompanied by Professor Mengjiang's action, a fierce warrior with a thick beard, wearing ox armor and golden mail, holding a huge long sword, appeared on the field.

Zhanhua of Violence - Dong Ying, Level 6, Dark Attribute, Beast-Warrior Type, ATK 2200.

Mengjiang LP: 4000 -> 3400.

"Wow—it's really Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhongying!"

"It's exactly him, the same attire as in the historical drama!"

Jūdai was also exceptionally excited: "Is it a deck themed after 'Records of the Three Kingdoms'? So cool, Professor!"

"Hahaha, is this cool already—there's even cooler stuff! Dong Ying's effect, activate." He laughed, "When Dong Ying is successfully Summoned/Special Summoned, I can directly add 1 Level 7 or higher 'Zhanhua' monster or 1 'Zhanhua' Continuous Spell/Trap card from my deck to my hand."

He casually raised his left hand to the deck on his Duel Disk, and a card automatically jumped out: "The card I want to add to my hand is this—"

He flipped over the card he searched, held the cigarette in his mouth, and laughed: "You should all know it—"

"Crowned as the best in the three armies, the number one fierce general of the Three Kingdoms..."

"Special Summon, Zhanhua of Rebellion - Lü Feng!"

Wearing a golden crown with pheasant tails, a hundred-flower battle robe, Tang Ni armor, a lion-patterned treasure belt, and holding the Fangtian Huaji.

Riding the Red Hare horse, known as Lü Bu among men!

A peerlessly fierce monster, even with two cockroach-like antennae, looked domineering, riding a warhorse, and stepped onto the field with a boom.

Zhanhua of Rebellion - Lü Feng, Level 8, Dark Attribute, Beast-Warrior Type, ATK 2800.

"Wow, Lü Bu! So cool!"

"The number one fierce general of the Three Kingdoms!"

"ATK is 2800!"

"And it was Special Summoned directly?"

Jūdai blinked, excited but also surprised: "Why was it Special Summoned directly?"

"When the monster with the highest ATK among 'Zhanhua' monsters on the field exists on my side of the field, Lü Feng can be Special Summoned once per turn." Mengjiang rubbed his chin and said casually.

"A non-chaining Special Summon, huh." Wan Zhangmu muttered.

Hikari Tenjou, watching from below, also felt it was quite something.

Regardless of what the prototypes of these two monsters were like, they were indeed fierce and domineering.

So this Professor Mengjiang was a fellow countryman.

"Set one card, turn end."

Simple, direct, and brutal. Professor Mengjiang had no fancy moves; he activated the spell, Special Summoned the monster, and then ended his turn.

"ATK 2200 and 2800, that's quite high." Johan didn't know much about the Three Kingdoms, so seeing these monsters, he wasn't as excited as the other students and analyzed calmly, "If I don't use Linglong, my family members can hardly reach this level of ATK directly."

"Jūdai's heroes, most of the lower-level ones also can't surpass this ATK."

Jūdai naturally knew this too, but Jūdai's current deck was no longer what it used to be—

He was super strong now!

"My turn, draw—activate Spell Card, Evil HERO Assault, discard one card from my hand, I can directly from the deck..." "Gwah—"

Before Jūdai could finish, from nowhere, a dark arrow suddenly flew out and pierced his body directly.

He stumbled back half a step, clutching his chest; the pain of the dark arrow made him unable to adapt.

This pain, which felt like reality, made him unable to continue his duel for a moment.

Jūdai Yuki, LP: 4000 -> 3600.

"What, what's going on?"

Voices of discussion arose in the classroom.

The students didn't understand at all what had just happened.

On the other side, Professor Mengjiang took a drag of his cigarette and said casually to Jūdai: "Jūdai, this is the 【Price】."

"Pri... Price?"

"As long as Dong Ying is on the field, and I have a Level 7 or higher Zhanhua monster on my field, the opponent cannot activate card effects unless they pay 400 Life Points." Then, he pointed to Jūdai's graveyard, "In addition, when the opponent sends a monster to the graveyard, Dong Zhuo can target one card in the opponent's graveyard, banish that card, and draw 1 card."

On Professor Mengjiang's field, Dong Ying opened its mouth, revealing a brutal smile, its scarlet eyes staring at Jūdai.

"Wha... what?" Jūdai was stunned on the spot.

"Activating one card effect costs 400 points..." someone raised their finger to calculate, "There are only 4000 Life Points in total!"

"In other words, at most 10 cards, and the Life Points will hit zero?"

"This, this is too strong, right?"

Jūdai slowly stood up, looked at the activated card, gritted his teeth, and continued: "Based on the effect of Evil HERO Assault, I Special Summon Evil HERO Infernal Gainer from my deck."

Debris like fresh blood flowed down from the sky, and a prism-like demon slowly emerged from it.

Evil HERO Infernal Gainer, Level 4, Light Attribute, Rock Type, ATK 1700.

"Evil HERO?" Edo beside him became slightly interested.

He had thought Jūdai was still that idiot; he hadn't expected him to use the brand-new "Evil" series of heroes.

Then, he shook his head again.

No—

This idiot, who had clearly accepted that "as long as justice can be achieved, evil power doesn't matter," was still struggling with the matter of invading spirits.

Still a big idiot.

However...

Sure enough, even now, he still couldn't like Jūdai Yuki at all.

Jūdai looked at the cards in his graveyard, unable to help but feel conflicted.

How was he supposed to duel like this?

A moment later, he gritted his teeth; not activating it would be an even bigger loss, he absolutely couldn't waste it—

"The effect of Shadow Mist in the graveyard. Activate when this card is sent to the graveyard. Add 1 HERO monster other than Shadow Mist from the deck to the hand."

A muffled sound.

Jūdai's body was pierced again. At the same time, Professor Mengjiang banished Jūdai's Shadow Mist and drew a card.

Jūdai Yuki, LP: 3600 -> 3200.

He rummaged through his deck and took a Sparkman into his hand. He looked at the Monster Reborn in his hand and gritted his teeth. He could have used Mask Change...

"Jūdai is very nervous." Johan said from the side.

"After all, one card costs 400 Life Points." Wan Zhangmu rubbed his forehead, "And this is completely different from the situation Hikari encountered before. Even if Hikari Fusion Summoned D/D/D Oracle King d'Arc, there was no way to block this effect."

"Because this effect is 'paying' Life Points, which is a cost... this is an effect that cannot be blocked at all." Everyone nodded silently.

This kind of effect was completely uncounterable; one had to calculate precisely to continue the duel. A slight mistake could be dangerous.

Jūdai added Sparkman to his hand, looked at the monsters on the field, and couldn't help but furrow his brows.

Every time he used an effect, he lost 400 Life Points, which really made him feel tied up.

He had to get rid of Dong Ying quickly, otherwise, his Life Points would only get lower and lower.

"Activate the effect of Infernal Gainer, once per turn, send 1 HERO monster from the deck to the graveyard. This turn, when a HERO Fusion Monster is Fusion Summoned, this face-up card can be used as a substitute for one of the fusion materials with the same name as that Fusion Monster."

"I send Elemental HERO Neos from the deck to the graveyard."

Swish—

Pfft.

Jūdai was hit by an arrow again.

Jūdai Yuki, LP: 3200 -> 2800.

"Spell Card, Dark Fusion, fuse Infernal Gainer on the field and Sparkman in my hand!"

Jūdai Yuki, LP: 2800 -> 2400.

"Fusion Summon!"

"Evil HERO Lightning Golem!"

Zzzzt—

The Thunder Giant changed its skin and descended from the sky.

Evil HERO Lightning Golem, Level 6, Light Attribute, Fiend Type, ATK 2400.

"Lightning Golem can target 1 monster on the field once per turn. Destroy that monster!" Jūdai pointed at Dong Ying, "I choose Dong Ying."

The demon raised its hands, a black thunder orb gathered in the air, and then fell with a boom.

Boom!

However, accompanied by the roar of thunder, the last cold arrow also took the opportunity to pierce Jūdai's throat.

"Guh..."

Jūdai Yuki, LP: 2400 -> 2000.

"Two thousand left..." Several students from the Fusion Department watched Jūdai being pierced by dark arrows one after another and couldn't help but cover their faces, unable to bear it.

"But, with this, Dong Ying is also destroyed!"

"Yeah, with this, Jūdai can make a move."

"But is this really good?" Jim couldn't help but raise a question, "Wouldn't it be better to use Lightning Golem's effect to destroy Lü Feng, and then use Lightning Golem to attack Dong Ying?"

Using an effect to destroy the higher-ATK Lü Bu and using an attack to destroy Dong Zhuo—this line of thinking clearly had more "profit."

"But what if the card the professor set is an effect that can protect monsters during the Battle Phase?" Johan couldn't help but think about this question, "Assuming it's a trap that can negate the battle attack, then Jūdai would have to face Dong Ying who remains on the field—"

"Dong Ying requires a Level 7 or higher Zhanhua monster on the field to activate its effect, right?" Wan Zhangmu mentioned another thing.

"Then, what if it's a trap that revives Lü Bu? What should he do then?"

"Eh—" Several upperclassmen were discussing nearby, while Serena beside them was confused.

Wouldn't it be better to just destroy the troublesome Dong Ying directly? Why was there follow-up discussion?

And Ruri listened to their discussion with great interest.

"The key question should be what the professor's set card is." Hikari Tenjou also said, "Jūdai just made his own choice."

Everyone nodded.

Listening to the discussion of the top students in the front row, Professor Mengjiang couldn't help but laugh: "Well said, little ones."

He then held the cigarette with one hand, waving it in the air, and said to Jūdai: "Jūdai, actually, I've always liked you. Although other professors all want to teach Hikari Tenjou, the celebrity, so that their evaluation scores at the end of the semester will look better."

"But in my eyes, you are a student more worth teaching than Hikari Tenjou."

Really??

In Duel Academy, the students were discussing heatedly.

He actually said Jūdai was more worth teaching than Hikari?

Could the professor's judgment be off?

"Hehehehe, I don't mean strength, I mean what can be taught. That kid Hikari Tenjou is too shrewd and too careful; there's nothing for me to teach him." Mengjiang laughed, "Jūdai, the reason you stopped me that day, and even wanted to stop me, to the point of challenging me, is because... you remembered the Dark World demon Ren who died in front of you, right?"

Jūdai's body jolted.

"How did you know?"

"I said, that kid Hikari Tenjou is too shrewd and too careful." Mengjiang responded casually, "Since you challenged me, and I wanted to duel in class, then, isn't this a matter of course..."

"That kid Hikari Tenjou gave me the recording of you at the Threshold yesterday."

Jim, O'Brien, Sho Marufuji, and Misawa, the few people who were at the scene at the time, instantly turned to look at Hikari Tenjou.

Hikari coughed and didn't say much.

"That kid's mentality is even crazier than that bald guy Chima Lingwang; he is a genuine absolute of fusion, unaffected by any outside information. But you are clearly not like that." Professor Mengjiang waved his hand and said casually, "After watching your recording, I found that my care for you was actually still lacking."

"Professor?"

"PTSD... Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. When I was a soldier, I also heard that my colleagues had contracted this disease." Mengjiang said while smoking, "Ha, maybe, actually I have it too... it's just that it never showed."

"I heard that the demon originally wanted to honor you as their master, but in the duel, it died to protect you."

"Originally, you had absolutely no good feelings for them, but because of this, you developed pity, and after that, you always kept those Dark World demons, right?"

Jūdai nodded silently.

"It is precisely because of this reason that you are willing to believe in spirits, willing to protect spirits—but, what we are facing this time are people who, for the sake of invasion, disguised themselves as humans and tried to kill your friends!"

"This kind of enemy must never be tolerated!"

"I can understand you, because kindness is the most shining warmth in the world... what we in the peacekeeping forces strive for is precisely peace, for the sake of kindness."

He said while recalling: "I once lived in the most terrifying battlefield in the world, and I have seen young soldiers die miserably on the battlefield, seen how a moment of kindness resulted in the sacrifice of an entire company..."

"My comrade saw a child and, unable to bear it, let him go, but that child had long been wrapped in bombs by a terrorist organization and became a human bomb, then blew up my comrade on the spot... and I could only watch helplessly as his limbs scattered and fell in front of my face, splashing my helmet crimson..."

!!

Jūdai stared at him blankly. For a moment, he was silent.

"But... I actually don't dislike you, and I don't dislike kindness." He said, "I once asked a dying comrade if he regretted it, and he said he regretted it—he didn't regret the choice at the time, but regretted not doing a good job of screening."

"This is the 【Price】." The professor put the cigarette back in his mouth.

"Jūdai, the professor can understand whatever you want to do, but can you accept and understand the 【Price】?"

"In the world... nothing is free."

Price...

Jūdai looked at his hand cards with a heavy voice.

To what extent can I accept... the price?

In his mind flashed the memories of 【Lord Ba Wang】 he had accidentally seen, as well as the history of "Lord Ba Wang" that Professor Cobra had recounted in class before...

Can I accept that kind of 【Price】?

No—

Absolutely not!

Because that is imposing the 【Price】 onto other lives.

Therefore... I also cannot impose my own thoughts onto others!

He realized.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 587 =====