Chapter 404: The Weight of a Duel

"Mr. Hongye!"

The duel ended, and Judai was the first to rush onto the stage.

At this time, the Orichalcos barrier was shrinking, and it had already closed to shroud only Xiang Hongye within it. Judai rushed forward and shouted his name across the barrier.

Xiang Hongye, who had already knelt down and almost lost consciousness, raised his eyelids slightly and looked over here slowly.

"Judai..."

Looking at Judai's clear eyes, looking at the worry written in his eyes, he actually seemed to see his past self for a moment.

Xiang Hongye as a teenager was also so obsessed with dueling, full of enthusiasm at all times, and always moving forward.

It's just that at that time, dueling was also much purer to him than it is now.

But he felt he was lucky.

Having struggled in the professional circle for so many years, it's not that he hasn't been in a trough, and it's not that he hasn't seen the dark side of society. Many times, dueling became no longer so pure and simple.

But he felt he had kept his self, and to the very end, he was still the teenager he was at the beginning.

He didn't regret it.

The world was spinning in front of him, and all the pictures and sounds were moving away. He could vaguely see Judai and his sister shouting at him, but he could no longer hear what they were saying.

Xiang Hongye slowly pulled out the deck he had placed in his Duel Disk, the deck that condensed his blood and soul, accompanied him in battle for many years, and finally won the world championship.

He gently placed the deck in front of Judai.

"From now on... it's up to you, Judai."

He said softly in a voice he couldn't even hear himself.

"Go and become a greater duelist than me."

Then he closed his eyes and let his body fall.

The sky-high green light disappeared, and the field returned to tranquility. Xiang Hongye fell to the ground and lost consciousness, but a satisfied smile hung on the corner of his mouth.

"Hmm, I ignored it before."

The Arbiter narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Judai, who had rushed onto the stage.

"Although hidden very deeply, you seem to have something special..."

He raised his arm lightly, his right hand pointing at Judai, and a strange green light flickered at his fingertips.

"Let me take a look for a while."

"What!?"

Judai looked up at him, but the moment his vision touched the green light at his fingertips, his body stiffened as if struck by electricity. His eyes began to become hollow, and countless images suddenly rushed into his mind...

"You guy, what do you want to do?"

Kaiba took a step forward.

But before he could do anything, a blinding golden light suddenly bloomed in this enclosed space. Sacred, daring not to look directly at it, it seemed to carry a certain kingly majesty, as if opening a majestic domain, pushing back the green light of Orichalcos.

Everyone's eyes followed the light source together.

And You Xuan, the source of this golden light, was actually just as surprised as they were.

It was that "Sealing Artifact."

As if sensing the Arbiter's move, almost the moment the green light was released, this golden light suddenly erupted from You Xuan's chest. The inverted pyramid-shaped Sealing Artifact appeared out of thin air in front of his chest, as if countless golden rays of light outlined the edges, and then gradually turned into a solid object.

Then, in that radiance, a phantom of a king seemed to flash briefly, slowly raising his hand towards the Arbiter, seemingly making a gesture of stopping.

The green light receded abruptly, as if washed away by a golden tide. Judai also immediately broke free from that state of distraction and looked around somewhat blankly.

"Judai!"

Things happened in just an instant; Xiang Lu rushed forward at this time, protecting Judai behind her like a big sister, looking at the Arbiter with hostility.

Kaiba looked in the direction of the golden light, his pupils contracting involuntarily.

That kind of aura, could it be...

The Arbiter raised an arm to block the golden light in front of him and cut: "Even if you're buried in the ground, you won't stop, you evil Pharaoh..."

But it was only for that instant.

It seemed to be just a burst of automatic counter-energy triggered by sensing the Arbiter's power. The Arbiter withdrew his hand and stopped, and that energy also receded.

"Whatever."

The Arbiter put his hands behind his back and retreated from the stage calmly.

However, he paused slightly before leaving the stage and looked at You Xuan.

"The next one will be your turn, Fujiki You Xuan," he said indifferently. "Your soul will also be captured in the duel, along with that artifact that the Pharaoh's ghost won't let go of."

"I'm waiting," You Xuan said indifferently.

Xiang Hongye's duel was not without value. Before this, even You Xuan wasn't sure what deck the Arbiter, who was the incarnation of the Serpent Deity, would use.

Although the opponent seemed to have originally planned to use Elemental HEROes to pretend to be "using the opponent's way to treat the opponent," Xiang Hongye forced the opponent to reveal his original trump card at the very last moment.

Looking at it this way, the main force used by the Arbiter is likely the same as Dartz back then, which is the deck based on "Orichalcos."

"No..."

Judai picked up the deck left by Xiang Hongye, stood up, and looked firmly at the Arbiter.

"Before that, I will defeat you first."

"Oh?"

The Arbiter then moved his gaze away and looked at him.

Before this tournament started, the only opponents in the Arbiter's eyes were You Xuan and Kaiba. He had been ignoring this jellyfish-headed kid until just now when he suddenly noticed this person.

Then he realized that this teenager was also unusual.

Especially after briefly contacting Judai's memory just now—although it was interrupted immediately, he still discovered something from it.

The powerful power hidden in this teenager, carried over from a reincarnation in an unknown dimension, was just sleeping too deeply, so deep that even with the Arbiter's ability, he almost ignored it.

Not only that, in the brief contact just now, he could also feel the chaos in this teenager's memory.

The opponent himself didn't notice it at all, but his memories for many years in the past were in a chaotic state. It felt as if a crucial part of his memory had been dug away, leaving a huge vacancy. Therefore, he had to fill that vacancy by making up a lot of messy content himself.

He thought his memory was complete, but in fact, a large part of it was false fragments.

This state also made the Arbiter feel interesting.

Moreover, the quality of this soul is very likely rare in this world.

However, he just smiled lightly.

"Then you have to come to me first."

Then he didn't stay any longer and turned to leave the stage.

Indeed, no matter what, he still had to look at the matching of the semi-finals first.

Judai looked at the Arbiter's back as he left the stage, clenching his fists unconsciously, his gaze not moving away for a long time.

This might be the first time in his life that he truly and deeply felt it.

What is the weight of a duel.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 405 =====