The Five Elements Gambit (The Card Strategist) Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two: The Mechanism, Beacon Fire, and Moon by the Spring

Wu Hui pocketed the card. If this were a game for playwrights, he might have taken the time to analyze the story behind it. But for a card game, the character backgrounds were mere decoration—no need to dwell on them.

Much like many German-style board games that lean heavily on strategy, the game might give you an identity or some setting, but in essence, those details could be ignored. At its core, it was all about numbers and rules.

Having obtained a five-star card, not long after, a system prompt sounded in his ear, informing him that there were only two hours left to complete the exploration.

It seemed the opposing game had also reached its conclusion, with one enemy eliminated.

The opponent had dragged the battle out, inevitably consuming more cards than Wu Hui. Meanwhile, in his search for cards, he had seized the initiative.

This meant the likelihood of his subsequent cards being of higher quality than the opponent’s was greater. He could consider adopting a more aggressive strategy.

Wu Hui mentally drafted several approaches to playing cards based on different scenarios. After a nod of approval, he resumed his quest for puzzles within the ancient battlefield.

There were granaries, barracks, and an armory.

The armory housed a section dedicated to traps. This battlefield wasn’t purely ancient melee weaponry; it also featured some black technologies akin to Mozi’s mechanical arts.

The warehouse’s main door itself was a puzzle, reminiscent of a sliding block puzzle. After maneuvering several wooden blocks into the correct positions, the door unlocked.

Wood. Mechanism Path

Level: Four-Star

Type: Defense

Effect: Creates a mechanical path nearby to block enemies.

Defense cards typically provided moderate benefits in the game. Playing one might allow a player to infer what type of attack cards the opponent would use, as they’d have to counter your defense card. This could then be used to devise a counter-counter strategy.

But such thinking risked an infinite regress of counterplay—a nested doll of counters. Thus, it became somewhat redundant.

Engaging in such a back-and-forth was meaningless, like being on the seventh floor while the opponent was on the ninth in some endless loop. Such deductions could only rely on familiarity and an instant intuition. Timing was key.

Here, defense could rely entirely on one’s own ability. Offense had only one method: the five elements cards. Therefore, Wu Hui preferred cards with summoning or attack effects. Control cards would do as well.

Support cards that enhanced attack capabilities were acceptable. Defense cards weren’t useless but paled compared to the others.

No — looking on the bright side, before a high-level defense card was broken, you could use low-level cards to drain the opponent’s high-level cards.

So while endurance battles had merit, Wu Hui hoped to defeat his opponent quickly.

The game's key point had been repeatedly emphasized: from the initial timed escape from the secret room, to the timing of finding five elements cards, to the various solar corona, seasons, and zodiac puzzles—all were time-related.

Swift victory granted advantages, and some documents found within the ancient battlefield revealed that their reinforcements had been delayed, costing them precious time.

Time was the crux of this game, the deciding factor in victory or defeat. If there was anything to do after defeating the last enemy, it related to the clearance rating. The victor’s rewards were tied to this evaluation.

Two hours. Not a single minute could be wasted.

Wu Hui adjusted his glasses and entered the mechanism warehouse. Here he dismantled a Kongming lock, there he solved a Nine Linked Rings puzzle, and then tackled a Nine Palace Grid. He obtained a handful of wood attribute cards. Reflecting on the gold attribute cards he’d found earlier in the barracks, he pondered.

In this ancient battlefield, did cards of the same attribute cluster together?

Unraveling seven mechanisms in the warehouse took Wu Hui half an hour, yielding four three-star cards, one two-star card, and two four-star cards. He also uncovered the final mechanism.

Eight Trigrams Eight Gates.

Open Gate, Rest Gate, Life Gate, Injury Gate, Blocking Gate, View Gate, Death Gate, Fright Gate.

The trap array had, at some point, ensnared Wu Hui. Standing within, he contemplated briefly before moving. The Qimen Dunjia Eight Gates Array was labyrinthine to navigate. It took considerable time before Wu Hui emerged, rewarded with a five-star card.

Wood. Gate of Wei Wood

Level: Five-Star

Type: Control

Effect: Creates a wooden Eight Gates Array around the enemy.

Forty-three minutes remained.

Time could not be squandered. Wu Hui proceeded to the next location—the beacon towers.

There were ten beacon towers, each with a small puzzle. But to acquire the five-star card here, the beacons had to be lit in the correct sequence.

Fortunately, Wu Hui had previously found a scrambled list of the Heavenly Stems: Jia, Kui, Ding, Ji, Yi, Bing, Geng, Wu, Xin, Ren.

By following this order, he could solve the beacon puzzles accordingly.

The only drawback was the time consumption; after completing all, only ten minutes remained.

Fire. Ignite Beacon

Level: Five-Star

Type: Attack

Effect: Sets fire to the enemy, causing massive damage.

Next, should he tackle the earth puzzles or water puzzles? With the remaining time, solving both final puzzles was impossible. He decided to gather some three- and four-star water attribute cards instead.

So far, the highest level cards discovered in this game were five-star.

Wu Hui had not found any six-star puzzles, nor any clues hinting at them.

The battlefield was not near a river, making it difficult to find water-related terrain. Eventually, Wu Hui discovered an area where blood and sewage had pooled, and fished out several singing water ghosts.

After a relatively easy battle, the water ghosts perished, yielding a three-star summoning card.

Nine minutes remained.

Wu Hui adjusted his glasses and searched for high-level puzzles nearby, hoping to challenge his limits and crack one within the short time.

Nine minutes—if he could find a puzzle, the time would suffice.

“Five Tones?” At the edge of the sewage and blood, he found instruments and several glass bottles.

There were exactly five glass bottles. By filling them to varying levels, they could produce different musical notes, corresponding to Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu—the five tones.

In ancient East Asia, the four phases, four seasons, and four directions, plus a central point, corresponded with the five elements and the five tones.

Wu Hui arranged the glass bottles into five notes, properly oriented by direction. Without time to seek hints, he relied on his vast knowledge and enhanced associative abilities to skip stages.

He was a formidable figure.

Just arranging the bottles wasn’t enough—they had to sound. Did he need a musical score?

Three minutes left.

Wu Hui tapped his glasses, recalling the song the water ghost had sung before dying.

He began playing music using the scattered glass bottles. Casting an Ice Finger, he struck them, producing crisp, clear tones. Though not melodious, the music carried a solemn, grave atmosphere.

Water. Springside Melody

Level: Five-Star

Type: Attack

Effect: Launches a sonic attack formed from spring water upon enemies.

Thirty seconds remained. Wu Hui solved a minor puzzle, obtained a three-star card, and a hint related to water bottles—but it was already too late to use.

P.S. This is the third update today. Writing puzzles is quite enjoyable. I plan to release it at a more opportune time.