Universe Infinite Canteen

As soon as Yuan Mei played his Heart Method Card, Ma Lu realized that he indeed had a trick up his sleeve.

Old Yuan had previously disclosed his Martial Arts capabilities, mentioning only that his moves carried a sense of drunkenness, but he didn't reveal that his mental method also had the same feature.

Moreover, it was quite fierce. The two Golden Goblet Techniques he threw not only provided him with 20 points of True Qi but also stacked his drunkenness to the 6th Level.

Ma Lu glanced at the text description of the Golden Goblet Technique, which provided 10 points of True Qi and one level of drunkenness; if no active attacks had been launched in the current round, the drunkenness would increase to three levels.

Afterward, Yuan Mei played a Slow Drink card, which was the second form of the Eight Immortals Fan of the Drinking.

Normally, the person who goes first cannot make a move in the first round, but a more accurate way of putting it would be that the person going first cannot deal damage to the opponent in the first round.

Since most moves usually inflict damage, over time, most people have assumed that the first strike in the first round is not allowed.

But Yuan Mei's Slow Drink card was different; it dealt 28 points of damage, which would be settled in the next turn, and most crucially, the move came with a bonus of three levels of drunkenness, bringing Yuan Mei's total drunkenness to 9 levels.

As a result, in the next turn, he would trigger an additional, powerful follow-up attack that dealt 37 points of damage and ignored defense.

It had to be said that Old Yuan was indeed going all out to take down Ma Lu within three rounds, and afterward, he threw a Body Protection Card, adding 15 points to his parry, thus ending his turn.

Compared to his series of fierce attacks, this parry seemed a bit underwhelming.@@novelbin@@

However, this was normal. His Martial Arts focused on a pursuit system centered around drunkenness, clearly emphasizing offense over defense.

Under circumstances where he couldn't attack first, Yuan Mei unleashed a delayed damage of 65 points in one breath, of which 37 points ignored parry.

Although its single-round power couldn't match the Beggars' Sect's Divine Technique of the Innate Pure Yang Palm, it could already surpass most Martial Studies in the world.

After completing his explosive set, Yuan Mei was full of vigor, hefted his gourd, and took another hearty drink. Then, with drunken eyes, he even started to recite a poem.

"Pour this drink to forget my troubles, comfort my worldly bones; young man, having witnessed this set of the Eight Immortals Fan of the Drinking, your journey has not been in vain."

Ma Lu couldn't be bothered to deal with him, and instead drew two cards. He didn't get what he wanted, but that wasn't a big deal. Next, he methodically played a Heart Method Card—the Nine Yin Skill.

This name was coined by him; the original name of this skill was actually the Ice Skin Jade Body Technique, the Divine Technique of the Jade Maiden Palace, which Ma Lu had found on the body of Ripples Fairy Shen Mei.

This Heart Method Card, in addition to providing 9 points of True Qi, also gave an additional turn of Ice Skin State.

Ice Skin State cannot be stacked; under this state, the True Qi needed to activate card effects could be reduced.

Shen Mei's Ice Skin Jade Body Technique had reached the Fifth Layer, so with the Ice Skin State activated, Ma Lu's True Qi consumption for playing cards this turn was greatly relieved, as each card required 3 points less True Qi to play.

He then played Delicate Clouds Trickery, discarding a hand card without spending any True Qi, thus activating the effect of Delicate Clouds Trickery.

Two more cards flew from his deck into his hand.

Ma Lu glanced at them and immediately played one, replacing spear with sword, thrusting at Yuan Mei!

This sword carried gusts of chilling wind, making the previously composed Yuan Mei squint his eyes, not daring to underestimate the might it contained.

This was the Third Form of Xu Sheng's Soul Severing Spear—Ghostly Wail. It normally required 10 points of True Qi to activate, but in the Ice Skin State, Ma Lu activated it with just 7 points of True Qi.

The Ghostly Wail struck Yuan Mei, instantly wiping out his 15 points of parry, then he lost 18 points of health, and was afflicted with a negative status called Intestines Cut.

Intestines Cut would last for two rounds; under the Intestines Cut status, whenever Yuan Mei played a Body Protection Card, he would automatically lose half of his parry.

Seeing the negative effects of Intestines Cut, Yuan Mei snorted coldly, "Kid, you don't concentrate on how to improve your defensive parry and survive three rounds, but rather use your precious True Qi to attack, thinking you can actually compete with me?"

"Divine Constable Yuan, don't rush, I am about to experience your masterful moves."

After Ma Lu spoke, he played another Heart Method Card. This Heart Method Card was fixedly drawn through the effect of Delicate Clouds Trickery, but it was not the Ice Skin Jade Bone Technique, but rather the unique Inner Strength of the Great Hero of Jiangzhou, Chu Jingtian, known as Fire Toad Strength.

Chu Jingtian wasn't born into a Martial Family Clan and yet had the heaven-defying luck akin to a protagonist of a martial arts novel. When he was young, he went out to gather herbs, fell into a valley but didn't die; instead, he accidently consumed an extraordinary secret medicine that had grown in the valley for nearly ten thousand years.

He acquired a vigorous Inner Strength, but at that time, he was just an ordinary person who had never cultivated any Internal Cultivation Methods and thus couldn't control the terrifying True Qi in his meridians.

In a critical moment, when he was about to burst and die, Chu Jingtian bumped into a giant fire toad with a dark red body, which was absorbing moonlight on a cliff wall, opening and closing its mouth.

The moonlight was being sucked into its belly.

Chu Jingtian imitated its breathing and circulation, and felt the pain in his body lighten by a degree, which greatly delighted him. Thus, he redoubled his efforts and eventually harnessed all of his Inner Strength, creating Fire Toad Strength.

Ma Lu unleashed the Fire Toad Strength, and Yuan Mei watched as the number on the top of the blue little figure's head under his right foot suddenly jumped from 3 to 16; his eyes widened, devoid of the earlier composure and nonchalance.

"Wait, wasn't your Inner Strength the Nine Yin before? How did another Nine Yang come out, and you even cultivated it to the Eighth Level?"

Yuan Mei doubted his own eyes had misread, but before he could look at the Heart Method Card's text again, Ma Lu had already played two more cards.

One was a Body Protection Card, and the other was a Lightfoot Card.

Among them, the Body Protection Card came from the Jade-Faced Divine Fist, Duan Erlang. Ma Lu felt some regret for not having found the distinctive Wind and Cloud Fist from his Eagle Sect, but thankfully, Duan Erlang's defensive martial arts—the Flowing Cloud Sleeve—were also excellent.

The Flowing Cloud Sleeve could create additional parry value based on the true qi present on one's body. With 16 points of True Qi, Ma Lu activated the effect of Flowing Cloud Sleeve without consuming any True Qi; thus, he gained a total of 30 parry points, adding up to 14+16.

As Yuan Mei saw his opponent amass twice his parry value with just one card, he also felt a secret alarm, but fortunately, his strong follow-up attack from the triggered Ninth Level drunken state in the last round ignored parry.

As Yuan Mei comforted himself with this thought, Ma Lu played yet another card—Moon Overhead. Since this was his last card in hand, the additional effect was triggered, and he drew three cards in one go.

This time Ma Lu finally drew a countermeasure card that he had previously inserted. Without hesitation, he immediately slapped the card in front of Yuan Mei.

It was a move from the Shadowless Ghost Hand that he had found on the body of the late Elder Han from the Beggars' Sect.

Ma Lu had thought this martial arts move... was rather special.

What he played now was the Fourth Form of the Shadowless Ghost Hand.

This move only had a mere 7 points of power, but it carried an effect named Star-picking.

—Star-picking allowed him to choose an effect that was currently active on the opponent and transfer it to himself.

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And the effect Ma Lu chose was the Drunk state.