Universe Infinite Canteen

Gu Qingyi said every word that Ma Lu understood, but when put together it always felt odd.

"Young man, have you never physically fought anyone before?" the middle-aged woman asked curiously.

"Ah? Fight? Well, of course, I have fought before," Ma Lu said.

Although he had been a commander for a while in the second plane, in the first plane, he was truly a main force in team battles.

"Oh, stop fussing, you'll understand once you fight," Gu Qingyi said as she already swung a palm towards Ma Lu's chest.

Ma Lu couldn't dodge in time and was struck squarely.

The next moment, something miraculous happened. He wasn't injured, but rather, an invisible force pulled him back two steps, standing opposite Gu Qingyi.

Then, he assumed a boxing stance and involuntarily started to hop left and right.

Meanwhile, Gu Qingyi drew the longsword from her waist, twirled it around, then stood on her right leg, lifting her left leg and held her sword above her head.

"Ah?" Before Ma Lu could complain about this embarrassing pose, something even more bizarre happened; dozens of cards flew out from both him and Gu Qingyi.

These cards, emitting a faint glow, circled in the air and then each settled in the card deck area to their left.

Subsequently, the top three cards flew into Ma Lu's hands.

Ma Lu took a closer look and saw that the three cards were Basic Boxing, Basic Boxing, and Basic Block.

Each card featured a silhouette, with the Basic Boxing silhouettes throwing punches, and the Basic Block silhouette holding up its arms in a block.

Although they were only silhouettes, they were vividly done, and upon closer inspection, one could see that the silhouette's figure was almost identical to Ma Lu's. Continue your adventure with My Virtual Library Empire

Besides the excellent artwork, there was also a lot of information on the cards.

Using Basic Boxing as an example:

The card had a "1st Level" in the top left corner, which was fairly self-explanatory; it likely meant that Ma Lu's Basic Boxing was only at the 1st Level, which he guessed was the lowest level possible.

And in the top right corner was a big "0", along with a description at the bottom of the card.

—— Swing your fist with force, power 1.

Besides the cards, Ma Lu had a translucent figure on each side; the left figure was red, with arms raised and a "12" above its head.

The blue figure on the right side sat cross-legged, its body channels dim, and it also had a number above its head — 0.

Gu Qingyi across from him was in a similar situation with three cards in hand and figures on either side, but Ma Lu couldn't see what her cards were.

Gu Qingyi then spoke, "I initiated this attack, so I get to choose the battle mode. I've decided to set it to a 'sparring' mode so neither you nor I will get hurt.

"Also, I'm currently investigating a case covertly and can't afford to show off my skills publicly, so I've set this fight's spectating mode to 'private.' This way, our fight won't be seen by others."

Ma Lu turned to glance at He Qisheng and the people from Xingtong Escort Agency and noticed they had indeed all looked away.

He couldn't help but ask, "Can they not see us now?"

"No, we haven't disappeared, we've just entered a final battle state. In this state, a dense fog seals off a radius of three zhang around us, preventing outsiders from entering and protecting us from any form of harm," he explained.

"Eh... who set these rules?"

"Who set them?" Gu Qingyi looked strangely at Ma Lu, "Your question is quite odd. These rules have been in place for thousands of years. If I must attribute them to someone, I'd say they were set by the heavens, much like life and death, with no clear reason why."

"Is that so."

Ma Lu probably understood the situation of this plane now. Here, the concept of a normal brawl was completely replaced by card games, and even the masters of martial arts circles were no exception; their cultivated Martial Arts had all become card decks.

This had turned them into card game masters.

Of course, from a philosophical perspective, one might also say that the Earth's normal concept of card games was being replaced by brawling, but that wasn't important.

What was significant was 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'

Ma Lu perked up. He had visited many planes, and now he accepted new settings quicker than others. Moreover, when it came to playing cards, he was far from sleepy.

While he was no super expert, he considered himself a seasoned card addict.

He had played numerous card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Shadowverse, Hearthstone... He had dabbled in them all, feeling quite talented in this area.

After getting a grasp of the basic rules, he confidently told Gu Qingyi, "You deal the cards first."

"Sure." Gu Qingyi didn't waste words, with a wave of her hand, two faint lights flew from the card deck area into her hands.

Then, Gu Qingyi played one of the cards.

— Hold Yuan Secret.

"This is my... erm, a Heart Method type card from Iron Clothes Sect. I've only cultivated it to the 2nd Level. Its effect is to increase True Qi by 4 points, increase parry value by 4 points. Any unused True Qi, as long as it remains under the limit, can be accumulated and carry over to the next round, whereas parry only takes effect in the current round."

After Gu Qingyi finished speaking, the transparent blue figure at her right hand side showed a 0 that then changed to 4.

Afterward, Gu Qingyi played another card — Iron Chain Crossing the River.

"This is a body protection type card from Iron Cloth Technique, the fourth form—Iron Chain Crossing the River. I've cultivated to the 4rd Level. Its effect is to add 4 points of parry, plus I chose to expend 1 point of True Qi to activate this card's additional effect, increasing its parry value to 10 points.

"Together with the previous 4 points of parry from Hold Yuan Secret, my total parry value now stands at 14 points."

As Gu Qingyi finished speaking, the red figure on her left side changed, a +14 appeared behind the health number 63, but this +14 kept flickering,

indicating that it was a temporary effect for one round. Moreover, the number above the transparent blue figure at her right also changed, dropping from 4 to 3.

Her personal demonstration allowed Ma Lu to better understand the functions of these two transparent red and blue figures; simply put, one indicated health, and the other True Qi.

If the health bar depleted, it naturally indicated defeat, while the True Qi bar could be used to unleash more powerful moves or activate additional effects, much like the cost in card games—easy to comprehend.

Like with Iron Chain Crossing the River, Gu Qingyi used 1 point of True Qi to increase its parry effect from the original 4 points to 10 points.

Ma Lu then glanced at the basic boxing in his hand. Well, its power was only 1 point, meaning he would need at least 14 cards to break through Gu Qingyi's parry.

And looking at Gu Qingyi's 63 points of health, Ma Lu discovered another clever point.