A Card In Hand

Chapter 73: Void Traveler Fish

Li Ao skipped the rest and first checked his bloodline.

He discovered that his bloodline power had been awakened and transformed into the Ironclad Bloodline.

**Ironclad Bloodline (Giant Bloodline)**: An awakened bloodline, already on the glorious path to returning to the infinite might of the ancient Titan giants. At each stage of the Energy Giant transformation, one can use different degrees of giant power.

**Energy Giant Transformation**: Steel Giant, Silver Giant, Gold Giant (unawakened).

“Is this the ancestral bloodline of the Iron Clan?”

Li Ao was slightly surprised; this pure ancestral bloodline was unimaginably powerful.

In his previous life, Li Ao had also awakened his bloodline power.

But it was not a pure ancestral bloodline.

Instead, he had formed a pact with a Steel Dragon.

Through the Steel Dragon.

He successfully awakened the Steel Dragon Ironclad fusion bloodline, meaning he merged the two together during the awakening, without tracing back to the original bloodline of ancient times.

Of course, back then, he was constantly pursued, and without elder guidance, he relied entirely on his own efforts.

It was a tremendous fortune to have accidentally made a pact with a gravely injured Steel Dragon at death’s door; he could not have hoped for more.

And though the Steel Dragon Ironclad Bloodline did not return to the infinite might of the Titans like the ancestral bloodline, it was, after all, one of the dragon bloodlines.

With the Steel Dragon Ironclad Bloodline, Li Ao was powerfully formidable, akin to a humanoid dragon.

He developed a series of dragon combat skills with it.

Had it not been for his father awakening the ancestral bloodline of the Iron Clan, without this giant bloodline awakening, Li Ao had considered finding another dragon and forming a new pact to awaken another dragon bloodline.

In his past life, the Steel Dragon was quite effective in the Lower Realms, but struggled a bit in the Celestial Realm, so he decided to switch to a more powerful dragon pact.

Li Ao’s original plan was to pact with a Platinum Dragon, far more powerful than the Steel Dragon.

Now with the giant bloodline.

In the future.

Li Ao was eager to see what kind of bloodline power would evolve after the fusion of the giant bloodline with the Platinum Dragon bloodline.

Indomitable Divine Fire, Hourglass of Time, these he momentarily skipped, as their changes were clear within Li Ao’s soul, without needing to check via the Pillar of Life.

Now that he had seen the giant bloodline, what he most wanted to know was how much his combat power had actually increased.

Combat Power Rating: 7200.

And his rank: High-tier Champion Summoner.

Compared to his previous combat power of 4950, this was a significant increase, even though he was still some way off from the minimum standard of 10,000 for King-level, but such a great increase from one bloodline awakening was beyond Li Ao’s greatest expectations.

If there was a slight regret, it was that he had entered the Space Cottage by repelling a Black Hole Toad with divine fire rather than truly reaching the minimum requirement of 10,000 combat power.

His body’s tolerance was still insufficient.

Otherwise.

He could have awakened and solidified the third stage of the Energy Giant transformation: the Gold Giant.

“With a combat power of 7200, I still fall short of challenging Lei Bao. Before the graduation performance, I need to continue pushing upward,” Li Ao meticulously sensed the surging giant power within him, estimating that he could withstand Lei Bao’s attacks undefeated if he exerted his full strength.

But that was not the result he wanted.

Li Ao refused to settle for a draw.

He was determined to win.

After emerging from the space of his native card, Li Ao found that the Space Cottage had vanished, replaced by a brand-new spatial passage pointing towards the next trial ground.

“If we calculate based on a tenfold combat power ratio, then the monsters in the next trial ground range from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 100,000 in combat power,” Li Ao speculated.

To verify his hypothesis, he peered into the second trial ground and indeed, the weakest monsters there were of the Black Hole Toad level—massive enough to make Li Ao shake his head.

Not that they would attack proactively.

Even without attacking.

Even without defending.

Just being there was enough to make them indigestible targets for the current Li Ao.

Distorted tube worms, speckled marvelous shrimps, sky-borne minnows, and devouring sky whales… These were merely the weakest; the real guardian monster was hidden somewhere, not showing itself. Li Ao dared not look any longer and quickly retreated.

He returned to the first trial ground.

Here, the spatial monsters already knew that Li Ao possessed Indomitable Divine Fire, and none dared to provoke him.

As long as Li Ao didn’t initiate an attack, they couldn’t be bothered to deal with this odd human who, despite not having high combat power, was protected by divine fire.

“Space-type war beasts are extremely rare; I need to get one!” Li Ao knew how valuable a space-type war beast was and decided to capture one in the first trial ground.

The Power of Time.

It was his trump card, unbeatable in all situations.

But it would be truly perfect if combined with the spatial field abilities of a space-type war beast.

That was the plan.

However, what made Li Ao particularly frustrated next was that the spatial monsters in the first trial ground no longer attacked him. When he charged at them, they didn’t fight back; instead, they fled in panic.

As spatial monsters.

Their speed was not something Li Ao could match even with his flying ability.

Li Ao was nearly exhausted to death.

Fortunately, millennia-old monsters have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.

He set up several Celestial Formations in the first trial ground and then desperately drove the spatial monsters to scatter and flee.

Using a wait-and-see strategy, he finally captured two Void Fish.

These two Void Fish were still juveniles, only as wide as two fingers and less than half a meter long.

During the escape, one accidentally rushed into one of the Celestial Formations Li Ao had arranged and could not escape.

Seeing this, the other one gave up running.

It swam over on its own.

And surrendered to Li Ao.

**Void Fish**: Space type, fantastical special war beast, intelligent being, twin juveniles, Silver-grade lower tier, spatial source energy body, combat power 2500.

Talent Space Vortex: The Void Fish can create spatial vortices in any space, allowing them to traverse any area without being hindered by obstacles or distance constraints on the same plane. The master of the contract with the Void Fish can consume a certain amount of spatial source energy to freely shuttle through the spatial vortex. However, if they exceed the maximum range of the spatial vortex, another vortex is required as an exit.

Compared to these two juvenile fish, which only possess early-stage Silver-level combat abilities and face many restrictions in space traversal, Li Ao was more eager to capture another high-level Silver-ranked Dark Void Spider.

However, the escape speed of the Dark Void Spider was extremely fast. With his current abilities, catching it was simply not feasible. Li Ao decided to put this plan on hold for the future.

“Time is getting late; I should head back,” Li Ao thought, not wanting Aunt Shui Niu to discover an empty house the next day, as she would surely worry excessively.

Using the Broken Sword, he once again passed through the space door, smoothly returning to the rock cave he had previously created underground.

He then stored away the Demonic Rock Giant and returned to his room using the Shadow Path of the Shadow Wolf.

By this time, the sky in the east was faintly brightening.

Dawn was approaching.

Li Ao hurried to set up a Celestial Formation for surveillance.

After finishing, he discreetly connected various sensing points of the formation to Aunt Shui Niu and Uncle Yellow Ox.

Under normal circumstances, this Celestial Formation would not be triggered unless they faced danger.

Li Ao also had the Void Fish set up a spatial vortex a hundred meters above the rooftop.

With this fixed spatial vortex in place, Li Ao could swiftly return from anywhere in the Tianfeng Continent whenever necessary.

While this might render a single spatial vortex somewhat redundant, he was determined to avoid the regrets of his past life in this one.

The rock bear, having seen its master busily completing all tasks, lay down on the bed and fell sound asleep, finally relaxing completely.

It lay in front of the bed, watching its master and then the Void Fish swimming silently and merrily around the room.

Feeling a heightened sense of crisis—there were now two more abnormally strong little fish—it decided it must double its efforts to gain its master’s special attention, though it could not think of a good way to do so.

Eventually, it succumbed to the fatigue of staying vigilant all night.

Its head tilted, and it fell into a deep sleep.

When Li Ao woke up, it was already nine in the morning.

Aunt Shui Niu had prepared a table full of food, piled high.

The nieces and nephews were drooling over it, but since Li Ao had not yet gotten up, Aunt Shui Niu wouldn’t allow them to start eating.

The children could only wait eagerly.

They were all swallowing their saliva, one after another.

In their hearts, they wanted to eat but feared being hit, their pitiful little expressions were truly heart-wrenching.

“Eat, why wait for me? Don’t wait, everyone eat!”

Li Ao hurriedly grabbed for them.

As soon as Li Ao reached out his hand, the little ones were liberated, reaching out one after another, not afraid of the heat, and stuffing food directly into their mouths.

“Have you never been full in your lives?”

Aunt Shui Niu scolded with a laugh, and gave a slap on the head of a grandson who was eating so fast that he choked and his eyes rolled back: “Who’s competing with you? What if you choke? Luckily there are no outsiders here, otherwise, people would laugh at us for having no manners! Come on, Li Ao, you eat too, are you hungry? I made your favorite sticky rice dumplings!”

“Where are Uncle Yellow Bull and my big and second brothers?”

Li Ao asked.

“They went to patrol the estate, no need to wait, they’ve already eaten,” Aunt Shui Niu waved her hand dismissively.

“Look!”

Li Ao took out a small purse from his native card space and quietly handed it to Aunt Shui Niu.

“I told you not to save up like this, right? We still have money at home!”

Aunt Shui Niu thought at first that this was Li Ao’s savings, but when she eagerly opened it to find it filled with glittering gold shields, her eyes widened in shock: “What’s going on?”

“It’s prize money!”

Li Ao said mysteriously: “I did exceptionally well, and the teacher rewarded me!”

“So much?”

Aunt Shui Niu was a bit frightened.

She had never seen so many gold shields in her life.

These were gold shields.

Common families didn’t have such things.

“Aunt Shui Niu, hurry and put it away! No need, I still have more. I was awarded a hundred, I only gave you thirty, I still have seventy! It’s not much, besides you and Uncle Yellow Bull, my plan is to give some to big brother, second brother, and the sisters-in-law and little ones, everyone gets some! This money is nothing, in the future, I will have even more money. Aunt Shui Niu, keep calm, this is just the beginning. I’ll tell you, Tie Zheng, the future family head of the main house, he appreciates me a lot and even invited me to the capital. In a few days, I’ll go with Lord Fuxi, and the main house will definitely award me another sum of money! This little bit really isn’t much, summoners don’t lack money. If you don’t believe me, tell me, is there any summoner in Silverlight City who is penniless? There isn’t, right? Summoners use platinum dragons, even gold shields are small change to them!”

Li Ao finally persuaded Aunt Shui Niu.

“Li Ao, you said you still have seventy shields, let me see them and then I’ll believe you!”

Aunt Shui Niu was no fool.

After coming to her senses and fearing that Li Ao was deceiving her, she insisted that Li Ao show her the other seventy shields, or else she would return the thirty gold shields to him.

“Do you still not believe me?”

Just as Li Ao was taking out the other seventy gold shields, Aunt Shui Niu hurriedly gestured for him to put them away.

“Quick, put them away, I believe you, isn’t that enough?”

Aunt Shui Niu was both shocked and delighted.

“Aunt Shui Niu, I’m telling you, that’s not all, there are even better things!”

“Better things?”

“Yes.”

“Wait a moment, let me close the door first!”

“Ha ha, don’t rush, when Uncle Niu Huang and the others come back, I’ll bring it out, I’ve prepared one for everyone…”