Otaku Battles Magical Indians

Ye Zhou’s funeral was held as scheduled.

On this day, all the people of Great Ming stayed home to watch the grand funeral broadcast nationwide.

For some elderly people, this was not their first time witnessing a state funeral. But for some young people, this was their first time seeing the funeral of someone above Master Grade.

A solemn atmosphere blanketed all of Great Ming as everyone waited for the grand funeral to begin.

At last, Ye Zhou’s body appeared on the television screen.

The Hall of Fame Card Master who had devoted everything to Great Ming now lay quietly within a dark crimson coffin.

Compared to his pale appearance at the moment of death, Ye Zhou’s complexion looked much better now. Anyone unaware of the truth would have thought he was merely asleep.

He was indeed asleep—only, it was an eternal sleep.

As the camera gradually pulled back, four Master Card Masters led by Lu Su appeared on-screen, with envoys from various nations standing behind them.

Given Ye Zhou’s status, he was naturally buried in the imperial mausoleum of North Capital, which had originally been used to bury the emperors of the Zhu family.

However, with the emergence of Card Masters and the emperor gradually becoming little more than a mascot, emperors had lost the right to receive large-scale funeral rites long before the Imperial Court was overthrown.

Thus, though it was called an imperial mausoleum, the overwhelming majority of those buried there were now Card Masters of Master Grade and above from throughout history.

Of course, not every Card Master above Master Grade had a body that could be preserved. For those whose corpses could not even be found, all that could be erected was a cenotaph.

As Great Ming’s current representative, Lu Su stepped forward, preparing to close Ye Zhou’s coffin.

At that moment, Motiān, who stood at the front of the foreign envoys, suddenly spoke. "Wait."

Hearing his voice, Lu Su could not help sighing inwardly. He had been afraid Motiān would cause trouble at Ye Zhou’s funeral.

Unfortunately, the other man was a Hall of Fame Card Master. So long as they had not completely fallen out, Great Ming obviously could not bar him from attending Ye Zhou’s funeral.

At that moment, everyone present turned their eyes toward Motiān.

Some were worried, some indifferent, and some took pleasure in the misfortune.

Everyone waited for Motiān’s next words.

Bai Yueming, meanwhile, glanced at Zhu Zhongjing beside him, asking with his eyes whether he knew what Motiān was planning.

Noticing the old man’s gaze, Zhu Zhongjing gave a slight shake of his head, indicating that he did not know what the other man intended to do either.

Although Zhu Zhongjing had indeed been the one receiving Motiān these past few days, he had generally only accompanied him for drinks and conversation.

Before the coffin, Lu Su turned around upon hearing Motiān’s words. Looking at him, he asked calmly, "Does Lord Motiān have some objection?"

At that, Motiān grinned. "Wouldn’t a simple funeral be a waste of Great Ming’s kind invitation for us to attend?"

"I would like…"

"To offer Ye Zhou a small token of my respect."

"How about it?"

After speaking, the handsome man swept his gaze over the envoys of the various nations, seemingly hoping for their agreement.

But how could they possibly dare involve themselves in the conflict between Mughal and Great Ming at a time like this? They all turned their heads away, not daring to meet Motiān’s eyes.

Though Motiān made it sound pleasant, this was Ye Zhou’s funeral.

His actions were undoubtedly a provocation.

Great Ming therefore could not possibly yield. Who knew what Motiān might do?

Meanwhile, the people of Great Ming watching from before their televisions did not know what had happened at the scene, because the live broadcast had already been cut off.

The broadcast had a delay precisely to prevent such sudden incidents.

Before the dark crimson coffin, Lu Su stared at Motiān with a grim expression and said coldly, "Sir, this is Great Ming. It would be best if you did not behave too presumptuously."

Upon hearing that, Motiān was first taken aback, then burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Presumptuously?"

"Even if I truly did act presumptuously, what would you use to stop me?"

"That dead man behind you?"

As he spoke, he pointed toward Ye Zhou’s body.

Upon hearing those words, the Great Ming Card Masters present all darkened. Those words were undoubtedly an insult to Ye Zhou, and an insult to Great Ming as well.

The envoys from the other nations also could not help frowning slightly.

Motiān had gone too far. But due to his status as a Hall of Fame Card Master, no one from the other nations present dared point it out.

Then, a crisp voice rang out across the scene.

"Lord Motiān, isn’t this behavior rather inappropriate?"

It was Petrovna. She had finally been unable to hold herself back and stepped forward.

Unfortunately, she might have felt satisfied, but the Tsardom of Russia officials beside her were practically in tears. They had not expected their young mistress to suddenly jump out like this.

Seeing that someone actually dared criticize him, Motiān turned around curiously.

After seeing Petrovna’s appearance clearly, he curled his lip disdainfully. "It might have meant something if Catherine had said that."

"As for you…"

"How laughable."

Faced with the humiliation, Petrovna’s face instantly flushed red.

Just as the girl was about to say something more, a voice interrupted her. "That is enough, Princess Petrovna."

"Great Ming will remember this friendship from the Tsardom of Russia."

It was Lu Su.

After offering Petrovna a slight reassurance, he turned toward Motiān. "No matter what you intend to do, Great Ming will not agree to it."

"Now, please leave first, sir."

The instant those words were spoken, the scene fell into an eerie silence.

No one had expected Lu Su to be so resolute as to directly expel a Hall of Fame Card Master—not even Motiān.

The handsome man was first stunned, then raised his brows and said in an exaggerated tone, "I never expected this. I truly never expected this…"

"You really are as interesting as I saw."

As he spoke, Motiān raised his index finger. "How about this? You and I will spar once more. So long as you can last one minute against me, then regardless of the final result, I will not continue today."

"What do you say?"

"Of course, you may refuse. But the price…"

As he spoke, Motiān pointed his index finger toward Ye Zhou’s body. The meaning of his threat could not have been clearer.

Seeing this, Lu Su knew he was not confident he could protect Ye Zhou’s body if he fought the other man.

Thus, after a brief silence, he gave a slight nod and accepted Motiān’s challenge.

Seeing Lu Su agree, Motiān revealed a satisfied smile. He withdrew his finger, crossed his legs, and floated into the air. "In that case, I shall choose the location."

As soon as his words fell, a flash of golden light appeared, and he and Lu Su vanished from everyone’s sight.

Seeing this, the expressions of Bai Yueming and the other two grew even gloomier. They all regretted sending Mughal an invitation.

But they could not truly be blamed. Though Great Ming and Mughal had experienced some friction in the past, it had never involved their survival. They had never imagined that Motiān, a Hall of Fame Card Master, would use his status to bully someone weaker.

Moreover, even if Mughal successfully incorporated Great Ming into its territory, it would not have enough manpower to garrison this vast land.

Unless Lu Su and the rest of Great Ming’s upper ranks surrendered outright.

But that was clearly unrealistic.

Thus, it could be said that Great Ming and Mughal had no fundamental conflict of interests.

Unfortunately, it was too late to say anything now. All they could do was pray that Lu Su would return safely.

On the other side, Petrovna was surrounded by several Tsardom of Russia envoys. With expressions as though they were about to cry, they urged, "Your Highness, please reconsider. There is absolutely no need to alarm His Majesty over such a small matter."

That was right. The girl was preparing to notify her mother, Catherine, the Empress of the Tsardom of Russia.

For once, she wore a serious expression, her voice like permafrost that would never thaw. "Be quiet."

"The Empire is not as weak as he thinks."

"And Mother will understand."

With that, Petrovna took out the communication card her mother had given her, composed a message, and sent it.

Her motives for doing this were actually complicated. Part of it was concern for Lu Su, and part of it was anger at Motiān for humiliating the Empire.

Of course, another part was due to sunk costs. Great Ming and the Tsardom of Russia had already exchanged considerable benefits. If something happened to Great Ming, the Empire’s investments would most likely go down the drain.

Seeing that the die had been cast, the Tsardom of Russia envoys waited in despair for the final outcome.

The girl, meanwhile, looked toward where Lu Su had disappeared and murmured, "Be careful."

"Lord Lu."

Within a sea of chaos.

Lu Su looked around at this space he had never seen before.

At that moment, a voice that seemed alternately left and right, near and far, caught his attention. "Boy, welcome to my world."

As the words fell, Motiān appeared in Lu Su’s field of vision.

Seeing Lu Su look at him, Motiān reclined halfway against the void and said, "As you can see, this space was formed by my card ability."

"Here, even time is under my control."

"One minute outside can be one second here."

"Or ten thousand years."

Whether because of the gap in their strength or simply his personality, Motiān actually took the initiative to reveal his card ability.

After saying that, he carefully observed Lu Su’s expression, hoping to find the look he wanted to see on the young man’s face.

But to his disappointment, Lu Su’s face showed nothing.

Motiān suddenly found it rather dull and could not help yawning. "I was just scaring you. One minute means one minute."

"I am not so low as to play tricks over something like this."

Lu Su ignored Motiān’s words and merely summoned all his cards to his side.

And to be safe, he directly summoned the Soul King.

After all, Motiān was a Hall of Fame Card Master. No amount of caution from Lu Su would be excessive.

Upon seeing the Soul King, Motiān finally shed his lazy demeanor and unconsciously sat upright. "Interesting."

"So this was what forced Adley back?"

At last, he had seen Lu Su’s trump card.

After becoming a Hall of Fame Card Master, Motiān had rarely encountered anything that could interest him. This was also why his personality had become so erratic.

After all, once someone gradually became numb to the world, there were only two paths left.

One was self-destruction.

The other was seeking the greatest possible stimulation.

Motiān was clearly the latter. Everything he had done in Great Ming so far had been for that reason.

Perhaps compared to Zhu Zhongjing, Motiān was the true lover of spectacle.

Of course, perhaps that was precisely why Motiān found Zhu Zhongjing interesting. Like attracted like, after all.

At that moment, Motiān also summoned his strongest card. An old man with four heads and four arms, seated upon a lotus throne, appeared beside him.

The moment he saw Motiān’s card, Lu Su recognized its origin: Brahma, the God of Creation and one of the Trimurti of Hinduism.

Based on the other party’s portrayal in mythology, Lu Su immediately became vigilant and did not choose to attack first.

After all, Motiān had said that lasting one minute would count as success.

Of course, some descriptions in Hinduism were simply too exaggerated, so Lu Su did not believe that the Brahma before him possessed strength as terrifying as in the myths.

At that moment, Naruto had already entered Six Paths Sage Mode. His orange-yellow figure stood out brilliantly amid the chaos.

Beside him stood the silent Soul King, along with a host of Soul Reaper and Naruto-series cards.

Seeing such a formation, Motiān sat upright within the chaos with his arms crossed. "Lu Su."

"You truly do not look like a Card Master who only recently entered Master Grade."

With his Hall of Fame Grade vision, he could naturally see that aside from the Soul King and Naruto, Lu Su’s other cards were Diamond Grade in essence.

Yet with the enhancement of their Traits, they were no weaker than genuine Master Grade cards.

It was the first time in all his long life that Motiān had seen such absurd card strength.

But unfortunately, methods useful against ordinary Master Grade Card Masters were no more than children’s tricks before him.

"How about this? I’ll lower the difficulty for you. From now on, I will use only Brahma’s card."

"If you can force me to use another card, that will count as your victory as well."

As his words fell, before Lu Su could respond, Brahma beside Motiān made the first move.

The space that had originally been nothing but chaos suddenly began to writhe. Immediately afterward, countless stars erupted from the chaos.

The next instant, a universe was born from the explosion of a singularity.

This was naturally not a real universe. Motiān, merely a Hall of Fame Card Master, could not accomplish such a thing. It was only an illusion occurring within this space under Motiān’s control.

But…

It was already enough to deal with a Master Grade Card Master.

The explosion created at the birth of the universe swallowed the place where Lu Su stood in the blink of an eye.

However, a moment later, azure Spirit Pressure surged outward in every direction from the distant explosion. Lu Su and his cards once again appeared in Motiān’s sight.

Seeing this, the handsome man merely raised a brow and calmly uttered two words.

"Ten seconds."

Those two words meant Lu Su still had to endure fifty more seconds beneath Motiān’s attacks.

But Lu Su had no intention of defending passively the entire time.

Under Motiān’s gaze, the Master Grade card that had blocked his attack a few days ago suddenly raised his right hand. Then, orange-yellow energy began coiling around the several black spheres that even Motiān could not fully understand, spinning without cease.

"Truth-Seeking Orb Rasenshuriken!"

Using Truth-Seeking Orbs as the core and combining them with Nine-Tails Chakra, Uzumaki Naruto formed the strongest Rasengan he could currently create.

And he formed six of them at once.

As the blond youth made a throwing motion, six Truth-Seeking Orb Rasenshuriken shot straight toward Motiān.