Bestowing Death Upon You with Thunder

"Success!?"

Seeing this, Cliff blurted out in astonishment.

Li Shuo had not used it before, and Cliff had assumed the experiment had failed. He had not expected the other party to have been concealing his strength.

The demon researcher’s tone gradually grew excited. "I never thought this project could actually succeed!"

"After this, we should be able to ask the department for more funding."

As he spoke, he could not help casting a sympathetic glance at the youth by the distant shore. He had originally thought Li Shuo’s defeat was certain.

But now, that was hard to say.

Retracting his gaze, Cliff hurriedly recorded the information before vanishing from where he stood.

To him, it no longer mattered who won or lost the battle by the shore. The crucial experimental data was already in hand, and he needed to return to the Demon Army as quickly as possible to submit it.

On the other side, Lu Su’s pupils shrank at the sight before him. "How is this possible?!"

He had fought Li Shuo several times before, so he could naturally tell that this was Dangun’s knockoff Army of the King.

What shocked the youth, however, was that Dangun was nowhere to be seen on the battlefield!

Li Shuo had activated this ability himself!

"No wonder."

Lu Su finally understood why the other party had abandoned his identity as a Card Master, and he also understood what Little Spider’s appraisal meant by, "My spirit will no longer be my shackles."

Li Shuo was now clearly a hybrid of demon and Card Master. No, a hybrid of demon and cards.

"He can actually achieve something like this?"

Lu Su had never heard of such a method.

Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and continued observing the battle.

What relieved the youth was that although Jade Grade Li Shuo had directly activated the knockoff Army of the King, compared to the one Dangun had used before, only the number had increased. Their quality had not improved much.

That made sense. Army of the King was originally a skill for clearing fodder. It would be absurd if the strength of those summoned also increased according to the strength of the ability’s user.

But since Li Shuo could use the knockoff Army of the King, that meant he could use other card abilities as well.

Under Lu Su’s watchful gaze, Ulquiorra’s black Cero struck the massive dragon body without causing even the slightest damage. Instead, many of the summoned card phantoms nearby suddenly vanished.

"Damage Transfer."

"Where did this knockoff Blood River come from?"

The corner of the youth’s eye twitched. The abilities Li Shuo had displayed so far were all very fitting for someone from Goryeo.

In the air, Ulquiorra blocked the sweeping dragon tail with his left hand. The air currents kicked up by the tail scattered his white hair, but he merely expressionlessly extended the spirit-energy spear in his right hand. "I didn’t expect you to have such methods."

"However, killing you is Lord Lu Su’s mission, so please die."

Li Shuo let out a roar. "Arrogance!"

Then, a layer of golden yellow radiance suddenly covered the dragon body.

The next moment, the red dragon became like a miniature sun, continuously firing golden yellow beams of light in all directions.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The moment the golden yellow beams touched the seawater, vast stretches of it evaporated.

Fortunately, the battle was taking place in the sea far from Donglai. Otherwise, this attack alone would likely have erased a small section of the city from the world.

Seeing this, Ulquiorra instantly moved away from Li Shuo, but one golden yellow beam still grazed his legs.

Glancing at his legs rapidly recovering through Super Regeneration, he decided to change his combat strategy.

Not far from the shore, Lu Yan and the other two were rushing toward the battlefield. They had already more or less arranged the aftermath within the city.

However, when they saw the miniature sun in the distant sky radiating endless brilliance, all three wore grim expressions.

"Jade Grade."

"The President really…"

After taking a deep breath, they continued toward the shore.

But the moment they reached the coast, Lu Su appeared and stopped them. "What are you doing here?"

"Run."

As he spoke, he took the three of them away from the shore.

Lu Yan and the others were completely baffled and could not help asking, "President?"

"Is your card unable to hold on much longer?"

"So you want us to return to Donglai City first and evacuate the residents?"

This was the most reasonable explanation they could think of. After all, the young man beside them had only just advanced to Jade Grade. No matter what, fighting a demon that was clearly emitting a Jade Grade aura was still rather difficult.

The fact that he had held on for so long had already surprised them.

That was right. The three of them did not know that the red dragon was Li Shuo. They merely thought it was an ordinary demon.

Mm, an utterly ordinary Jade Grade Demon.

Yet Lu Su spoke in a strange tone upon hearing this. "No. It’s because I’m not sure how large the range of this next attack will be."

Lu Yan and the other two looked utterly bewildered. "Huh?"

But the violent fluctuations coming from behind them immediately made their mouths fall open.

Above the sea, although the golden yellow beams scattered by the red dragon in the distance had caused Ulquiorra immense trouble, he still said calmly, "I was originally wondering how to keep you from moving from that spot."

"But it seems I was worrying for nothing."

As he spoke, he spread his hands and condensed an emerald-green spear before him, then reached out with his right hand and gripped it tightly.

Ulquiorra then assumed a javelin-throwing stance and said blandly, "Just stay there like a good boy."

Even with Li Shuo’s muddled mind, he sensed the intense threat posed by the Lightning Spear in the Black-and-White Figure’s hand.

He forcibly halted the Sun Radiance he had been activating and immediately tried to flee.

But at the same moment he moved, Ulquiorra’s emotionless voice rang out.

"Thunder Spear."

"Whoosh!"

In the blink of an eye, the spear had reached Li Shuo.

His enormous dragon eyes widened, filled with terror and disbelief.

The next instant, emerald energy engulfed everything around it.

Although Thunder Spear was difficult to control and easily went off target, those flaws only applied when facing small targets like Horned Ichigo.

A large target like Li Shuo, however—

To Ulquiorra, he was no different from a living target.

And in exchange for those flaws came unimaginably terrifying destructive power.

Within Donglai City, nearly everyone in the areas near the coast stared blankly at the distant sky.

In the direction of the coastline, an enormous emerald beam of light stretched across heaven and earth.

Even from so far away, they could still feel a fierce gust sweep past them, stinging their faces with pain.

"That is…"

"What?"

Humanity’s most primal fear began to sprout within their hearts.

Fortunately, the Card Masters in the city had already received the message Lu Su had sent. Their fear was swiftly replaced by shock, and they began reassuring the ordinary residents around them.

After hearing that the disturbance had been caused by the President of the Donglai Card Master Association, the ordinary people still retained a trace of fear in their hearts.

It was the instinctive terror one felt in the face of an unbeatable monster. Their desire to survive drove them away from that dangerous battlefield.

This was the Jade Grade.

In a small city like Donglai, a single Jade Grade Card Master was enough to decide the life and death of the entire city.

Other than fear, all they felt was relief.

Relief that such immense power belonged to their side.

At that moment, countless children dreamed of becoming Card Masters as powerful as Lu Su.

But clearly, there was only one Lu Su in this world.

Only then did Lu Yan and the other two understand why the President had made them run.

They turned around and stared blankly at the terrifying sight in the distance.

Just then, a sudden voice sounded beside them. "Holy shit!"

The simplest profanity conveyed the most extreme emotion.

Those two short words fully expressed the newcomer’s shock.

However, Lu Su instantly went on guard, because according to his senses, the newcomer was—

Jade Grade.

Fortunately, the newcomer’s next words made him lower his guard slightly. "Don’t you guys have a Jade Grade Card Master here?! You made such a huge commotion."

"So why did you still ask for reinforcements?"

Hearing this, the four of them quickly concluded that the newcomer was a Card Master dispatched by the Qilu Card Master Association to support Donglai.

Lu Su shook his head slightly. "I only happened to break through to Jade Grade during the battle. I had already requested reinforcements before that."

"And I’m not sure whether I can deal with that… demon."

To be safe, he chose not to reveal Li Shuo’s identity for now.

The newcomer then revealed himself not far from the four of them. "I sent over my credentials, alright? One of you confirm them."

As Lu Yan lowered his head to check the other party’s identity, the newcomer turned his gaze toward Lu Su. "Breaking through during battle? That’s a pretty niche phrase."

"That sort of thing isn’t what us Card Masters do."

Then he pointed toward the coast and tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Besides, could a Jade Grade Card Master who’d just broken through really cause this much of a commotion?"

"Little brother, you’ve really got style."

At that moment, Lu Yan confirmed the newcomer’s identity and said in a low voice, "That’s right. This is Lord Cui Dazhu of the Qilu Card Master Association."

Hearing Cui Dazhu’s words, Lu Su merely smiled, with no intention of answering his doubts.

Cui Dazhu obviously understood that this involved a Card Master’s personal secrets. No matter how much he liked to talk, he couldn’t possibly pry into something like this.

"I may have to trouble Big Brother Cui with what comes next."

Lu Yan and the other two froze at those words, having no idea what Lu Su meant.

Cui Dazhu, however, thumped his chest with a loud bang. "Just leave it to me!"

With that, he and Lu Su headed toward the shore.

Lu Yan and the other two followed after them in confusion.

But once they reached the coast, they finally understood what Lu Su had meant.

The terrain had changed.

Where the sea should have been, there was now only an incomparably vast pit.

At the far edge of their vision, one towering wave after another continuously surged into the pit, rushing toward the shore.

Without a doubt, if left unchecked, Donglai City would be completely submerged by floodwaters.

This was Jade Grade.

A true walking natural disaster.