F.A Test Run

The guards of the Li family secretly escorted the three Zhang clan members out from their estate. Upon sensing that no one had seen them, Zhang Wu Zhi motioned for them that it was safe.

As William began to exit, Li Hou Jun, who had brought them to the read end of the Li clan estate, suddenly piped up.

"Before you leave, Zhang Chun Wu, I wanted to ask you a question about your Prime Artifact."

Hearing his words, William stopped.

"What do you want to know, elder Jun?" William asked inquisitively. He hadn't expected the old man to suddenly pose a question after the other two elders had already left.

"When I reported back to the other elders, I mentioned that your Prime Artifact was a summoning Artifact." Li Hou Jun began. "However, I neglected to mention that you somehow managed to disable my Nephew's Prime Artifact near the end of the duel yesterday."

"Could you explain how you managed to do that?"

Seeing his concerned face, William realized why he had waited for the other elders to leave before asking his question."

"If it's about your Nephew's Prime Artifact, you don't have to worry, my Artifact isn't designed to counter Wind Types." He explained.

"My Artifact just happens to be really good at dealing with absolutes."

Leaving those words, William exited the Li family estate.

About an hour later, the three members of the Zhang clan silently entered through the back entrance of the Red Jade Pavilion. Turning around, the now returned Zhang Chun Wu spoke.

"No one saw us on our way back, yes?"

The third elder turned to him and smiled gently." Third Young Lord, I'm quite confident in my detection skills. No one below the Earth Revolution Stage should have seen us."

He then paused for a moment before adding, "of course, if a high rank Earth Revolution Cultivator adept in concealment were stalking us, I wouldn't be able to find out either. However, most of the higher-rank cultivators should be at the capital at the moment, so we have nothing specific to worry about." He concluded flatly.

Upon hearing Zhang Wu Dao's answer, Zhang Chun Wu sighed in relief.

A moment later, two people he recognized appeared from within the Red Jade Pavilion.

"I assume everything went well?" The first head elder asked.

Zhang Chun Wu bowed in response.

"First Elder, the Zhang and Li clan are now temporarily allied." Hearing his response, Zhang Wen Ming nodded as he stroked his greying beard.

"I didn't expect it was possible, but it appears that you've managed to do it. Excellent work, Chun Wu."

Seeing that the three had managed to accomplish their goal, the elder turned around, looking at the girl that had walked in with him.

"Looks like we won't need those formation flags after all." Zhang Xia Yun spoke.

While the two elders and Zhang Chun Wu had gone to play diplomat, Zhang Xia Yun had set off with the Head elder to prepare for… unexpected situations. However, since everything had gone as Zhang Chun Wu had predicted, there would of course be no need to prepare for a war.

"Since everything is well, I shall excuse myself first."

Zhang Chun Wu turned around to leave, when suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Hey, little Chun, don't leave so soon. You still haven't told me what your Prime Artifact does!" Zhang Chun Wu froze. It seemed his older sister still had her mind on the powers that he had demonstrated the previous day.

Smiling bitterly, he turned back around to face his sister, who had furrowed her eyebrows in an attempt to look angry.

At this moment, Zhang Wen Ming also piped up.

"I see that Xia Yun is interested in Chun Wu's Prime Artifact's abilities. Coincidentally, I too would like to take a look at the artifact's abilities. I recall that your artifact was quite unusual amongst Prime Artifacts in their sealed state, so I'm wondering what it's active state is like."

Seeing that he wouldn't be getting out of this, Zhang Chun Wu sent William a mental message.

<~>

A large screen was staring at William as he made several sweeping motions with his hands. Sometimes he moved faster, while other times his arms paused, as if they were thinking.

He was currently adjusting some cards that he was hoping to make tests on to verify their effects, and had condensed several questionable spell and trap cards he owned into a new deck.

As he turned to save his progress, he heard a voice.

"William, it appears that we have a problem."

Wondering if someone had discovered them on their way back from the Li estate, William's consciousness focused on what was happening through Zhang Chun Wu's vision.

"...quite unusual amongst Prime Artifacts in their sealed state, so I'm wondering what it's active state is like."

Hearing the latter end of the question, William responded to Zhang Chun Wu's notification.

"They want to know about the Duel Disk?"

"Yes, and you still haven't explained how it works to me." He heard the reply.

Nodding, William glanced back at the Deck Building Interface.

"Alright, it's time to teach you guys some Yu-Gi-Oh".

<~>

William stood in a large room. A few meters away, Zhang Xia Yun stared at him, along with the three head elders of the Zhang Clan.

"Alright, now that we're here, let's see what your Artifact does."

Zhang Xia Yun impatiently asked. She had been waiting for more than a day now, the curiosity slowly eating away at her sanity. She could not understand what had triggered the awakening of her brother's Prime Artifact, since the two had tried nearly everything they could imagine in an attempt to activate it.

In response to her probing, William activated his Duel Disk.

[Initiating Practice Duel against target Ally: Zhang Xia Yun. Designating Non-Lethal Mode.]

"As you are all aware by now, my Prime Artifact allows me to summon different creatures. So let's start from that." William begun.

Then, he drew five cards from the deck of cards that had materialized out of thin air."

"This," he said, pointing towards the deck of cards, "is a deck. When I chose to fight, it gives me five of these," he said, showing the cards in his hand.

Attempting to explain the game in layman's terms, he continued.

"These types of cards are divided into three different types of powers- The first, being summons."

Placing one of the cards on the duel disk, William spoke again.

"I summon Two-Mouth Darkruler."

A moment later, a large creature, around the size of a tiger, stood between Zhang Chun Wu and the others.

The creature had a giant lizard-like head, taking up almost a third of it's body size. On top of it's head, a giant horn stood. Despite it's ridiculous head size, it only had two legs supporting it's weight. The creature looked at Zhang Xia Yun and snarled. Then, a second maw opened where it's back should have been and let out a deep bark.

The three elders looked at it curiously, sensing that it was slightly weaker than Zhang Chun Wu himself.

"Hey, what the heck is this thing? What happened to the green Mountain Ogre?"

Zhang Xia Yun asked curiously.

In response, William shook his head.

"My Prime Artifact is a bit special: it forces me to abide by certain rules," William explained. "When I begin a fight, I don't know what creatures I can summon until I get my first five cards."

William was preparing to send the creature at Zhang Xia Yun, when he heard Zhang Chun Wu's anxious voice. "That creature won't hurt her, will it?"

"Hurt her? Isn't she your older sister?" William asked, confused. He had deliberately summoned a weaker monster so he could see if someone with a slightly higher cultivation level would one-shot a monster card like in the actual game.

"Xia Yun doesn't focus on cultivation, she's always been interested in our clan's business departments, so she's only just reached Foundation Building." Zhang Chun Wu explained.

Enlightened, William decided to skip his battle phase. He then set down a card and whispered, "Turn end."

The two faced lizard creature, who looked like it was about to attack Zhang Xia Yun, suddenly stopped moving.

Seeing it's stiff body, Zhang Xia Yun became visibly confused.

"What did you do just now?" She asked.

"My artifact only lets me make one summon every once in a while, and I have to tell it when I'm ready to let it begin the countdown until the next summoning. While the system is counting down, my summons won't consciously attack enemies unless I get attacked first." Not knowing how to explain the concept of a turn to the spectators, William defaulted to speaking as basically as possible.

His explanation seemed to reach the three elders, as each of them began to nod their heads slowly.

"So you have a period where you become weaker after you use your Artifact, is that it?" Zhang Wu Dao asked tentatively. He had sensed the boy's hesitance to share his artifact's abilities with them, and had hypothesized that there was something he didn't want them to know.

"Well, not exactly." William responded. "It's true that I can't make several actions during this time, but the period of inactivity becomes greatly reduced if someone or something attacks me or my summon."

He then beckoned to Zhang Wu Zhi.

"Could you attack my monster? I'd like to try something."

Zhang Wu Zhi, seeing William's hand, was temporarily stunned. A moment later, he snapped out of it, and grabbed a sword from a nearby weapon's rack.

"Please try not to kill it, just injure it."

William asked.

Zhang Wu Zhi nodded his head, then his hand flashed. A moment later, the Two-Mouth Darkruler let out a mournful cry as the sword pierced it's leg.

The creature seemed to be mostly fine, but suddenly, it screeched yet again, and then shattered into light particles. Immediately after, William staggered backwards, puking blood.

"What was that?" Zhang Chun Wu, who had been observing from within his body, asked. The creature had seemed to be fine moments ago, but suddenly just died.

Equally surprised was Zhang Wu Zhi. He had only thrown the sword with the strength of a fourth-rank Foundation Building level. Although the creature that William had summoned was only at the first rank of Foundation Building, it had been struck in the leg, not some vital organ. Why had it suddenly disappeared?

"Little Chun, what happened?" Zhang Xia Yun was more concerned about the sudden spurt of blood that Zhang Chun Wu had spit out when the summoned creature had died. Was that some kind of backlash?

"Don't worry, I'm fine." William slowly got back on his feet. The situation was as he had feared. It appeared that his monster cards were still subject to the rule of "instantly exploding when hit with higher attack".

"Let me explain what happened just now."

Taking a moment to recover, William explained the situation to the confounded elders.

"When my summons attack or get attacked, if the enemy responds with an attack of higher power, the summoned monster will immediately be destroyed, regardless of the actual damage to it's body, and the difference between the power level of the two attacks will be inflicted upon me as extra damage." He spoke.

His words enlightened the four people in the room.

"By the way, since I was attacked by second elder, the countdown has ended, so I can begin my turn again."

Immediately, William drew another card.

"I get one card each time the countdown for my turn ends," he explained, showing the new card to the elders, before placing the card on the duel disk in a horizontal position.

"I set a monster in Defense position."

The spectators waited to see the new summon, but nothing happened.

"Where's the monster?" Zhang Xia Yun asked, looking at her brother.

William was also a bit confused at the empty hallway. Then, a thought hit him.

"When I summon a monster, I can do it in attacking position, or in a defending position. You can't see the summon right now because it's in defending position." He elucidated. It turned out that the monster and spell/trap cards that he set didn't show up as giant brown blocks like he had expected. Instead, they were invisible to both himself and his opponents.

William nodded internally.

"This trick might help in a real fight," he mused.