“Shhh—”

The colossal figure that dominated a corner of the world emitted a sound akin to the leakage of gas once again.

A grey-white mist instantly diffused, surging like a tumultuous sea.

A master who had rushed over from the neighboring Wuyuan Province’s Huoyun City saw this and raised a skill card in his hand.

A wall of fiery crimson flames instantly erected, colliding thunderously with the overwhelming white fog.

Boom! Crack! Bang!

Amidst the thick white smoke, a series of crackling sounds could be heard.

Countless grey specks fell from the sky, wriggling as they struggled.

The newcomers of the Zhenyuan Army, witnessing such a scene for the first time, were startled and felt an itch all over their bodies.

It turned out that what they saw was not mere fog, but a terrifying swarm of dense insects.

They entwined with each other, wreaking havoc between heaven and earth.

The tent that Chronicle and the others had been living in just ten minutes ago was devoured in the blink of an eye.

From afar, the teeth-grinding sound of insects gnawing could be heard.

“Chronicle, can we still make it back alive?”

A girl from another city, who had barely spoken before, clutched the corner of Chronicle’s clothes and asked with a trembling voice.

Having grown up in Qingshan, a major province of the underworld, they feared neither mountain spirits nor wild ghosts, nor dreaded the fierce beasts and demons.

Each of them, if placed in a supernatural film set, would be the “savior” who kicks the foolish teammates aside and single-handedly holds up the sky.

But this did not mean they were devoid of the emotion called “fear.”

They feared “gods.”

Born on the Blue Star, where myths were severed and history fragmented, everyone was taught from childhood to “chase the shadows of gods when they grow up.”

But in these hundreds of years, few had seen a real “god.”

And if there were any, they were the gods of the Scenic Order, not the gods of Blue Star.

These so-called supreme beings feasted on the offerings of demons.

Majestic and sacred yet cunning and sinister, invincible yet fond of devouring “humans.”

The so-called realm of gods was a place of skeletal ridges, forests of bones, mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and an unbearable stench.

Even for the high-ranking members of the Zhenyuan Army who had once slain “gods,” it was hard to discern what emotions they harbored in their bulging eyes and heavy breathing at the moment of victory.

Anger? Fear? Excitement? Or all of the above? They themselves couldn’t tell.

In short, the people of Blue Star both yearned for and feared “gods.”

They worshiped their mighty power, yet worried that this power might take away their vitality.

So, when the students in the same vehicle sought a sense of security from Chronicle, what he thought was: “Why are you asking me, I’m panicking too.”

Although there were Chinese gods to protect them, as of now, Seven Brothers, Eight Brothers, and General Zeng were only Blue Star four-star, and the other card spirits were only three or four stars.

To pin their hopes on the illusory “sudden surge” or “bloodline suppression” was simply unrealistic.

If that “Nine-faced God” truly approached them, with his current strength, Chronicle would simply die on the spot.

With good luck, he might traverse again; with bad luck, Seven Brothers and Eight Brothers were both present, ready to drag him away directly.

“Master, floor the gas pedal!”

Chronicle patted the steel partition and shouted.

“I’m already driving as fast as I can!”

The driver’s voice trembled as he shouted back.

The steel behemoth, over ten meters long, charged wildly on the overgrown path.

Stones and obstacles littered the way, causing a bumpy ride.

It was clear that the driver understood the principle of “you don’t have to outrun the lion, just outrun your companion,” as he zigzagged and took the lead.

The two drivers behind cursed loudly and sped up.

The three large vehicles chased each other towards the entrance.

When encountering small ghosts and monsters on the road, the vehicle bodies made of special steel and the energy card-driven cannons on the driver’s cabin were more than sufficient.

Halfway through the journey, Wang Yan, with her hair disheveled, caught up riding a droopy-eyed old donkey.

Accompanying her were two others.

One was a pompadour-haired ghostly youth riding a maglev motorcycle, with dazzling and brilliant lights on his bass cannon.

The other was a “working-class” individual riding a green-painted shared bicycle, his size 43 shoes in leather clacking back and forth.

Despite their bizarre vehicles, the trio’s speed was not lacking.

Even after being pulled over ten kilometers away, they managed to catch up with the convoy in a short time, looking extremely relaxed.

They even had the energy to put away the “donkey rod” baited with carrots, adjust the DJ dance music on the bass cannon, and frantically press the horn on the bicycle handle.

When the three drivers noticed their presence, they slowed down slightly.

And at the right moment, the three of them exerted their strength, each picking a vehicle and nimbly diving into the cargo bed.

The uncontrolled vehicles transformed into streaks of light and flew back into their hands.

“Thanks.”

Wang Yan, who almost fell, was supported by Eight Brothers, who had been sitting at the mouth of the cargo bed, and settled down next to Chronicle.

“Nice card spirit,” he said seriously, then repeated, “Really nice.”

“I’m quite satisfied myself,” Chronicle smiled and then asked, “How’s the situation at the camp?”

“Not so good.”

Wang Yan communicated telepathically with her psychic power:

“Who knows how much material the Scenic Order has piled up, but this god is at least seven or eight stars in level.”

“If it were just that, our Qingshan masters could barely cope with the help from other provinces.”

“But the problem is, god cards have ‘uniqueness’ and possess special bonuses like divine nature, priesthood, and divinity.”

“In a real fight, they are invincible at the same level.”

“Moreover, this is the Scenic Order’s land, and cards crafted with the core of Scenic Order’s mythological stories will explode with several times or even dozens of times their power here.”

“This battle, under normal circumstances, is actually very difficult to fight.”

Wang Yan shook her head, her gaze slightly heavy.

“But now it’s not a big problem.” She turned her head, lightly patted Chronicle’s shoulder with a smile, but her eyes were complex: “Our reinforcements have arrived.”

“Reinforcements?”

At Wang Yan’s gesture, Chronicle pulled aside a tarp and looked out.

He saw a group of people in various attire approaching on different vehicles.

There was a beggar lying on a broken stick, floating across the air;

A “mechanic” with pushed-up glasses, one hand behind his back, an elegant demeanor, riding a mechanical python;

A “scholar” in a long robe and elegant, wearing a crown and a beard, sitting in a mahogany mechanical wheelchair;

A “Buddhist researcher” with a layer of stubble, muscles bulging, sitting cross-legged on a red and yellow cloth mat;

A “Taoist researcher” with white hair, a face full of wrinkles, wearing a dark blue robe full of patches, and an old and tired spirit deer beneath him…

A group of more than a dozen people, each displaying their magical powers, surrounded by a halo of red and gold.

The leading “old Taoist” had a point of rainbow light flashing between his eyebrows.

As if sensing Chronicle’s peering, he slowly turned his head, his face as old and weathered as if covered by a layer of mist that could isolate consciousness.

You could clearly see all his facial features, yet you couldn’t form a complete face in your mind.

“It smells like Old Dog Ma.”

The old beggar next to him chuckled, scratched himself, and flipped out a red card, then casually flicked it.

In an instant, ten thousand Qingshan mountains sprouted countless dark green bitter bamboos, sharp as spears, crisscrossing and binding the “Nine-faced God” tightly.

“This kid is really interesting. At first glance, he seems to have nothing to boast about except for his good looks.”

“But in fact, there’s a spiritual light in his brow, as if he’s opened his mind after birth, with psychic power cultivation and main battle cards better than his peers.”

The “scholar” in the wheelchair smiled elegantly, then lightly patted the armrest.

With the sound of gears meshing and grinding, two metal tubes quickly popped out from the bottom of the wheelchair, spewing out blue flames and accelerating even faster.

Then he slowly bent over and turned a wheel under the seat.

Immediately after, seven breaking sounds rang out in succession.

Everyone instinctively looked up, only to see seven giant steel swords tearing through the sky with intense fire and black smoke, falling towards the location of the “Nine-faced God.”

In that overwhelming blaze, the “Nine States Breaking Scenery Sword” forged from the “Underground Palace Secret Realm” shattered in mid-air, breaking apart piece by piece.

Some fragments melted into liquid, sticking the scattered pieces together, forming a dazzling silver net that covered the sky and pressed down heavily.

The Scenic God, with nine faces on his shoulders and legs, roared, unleashing a powerful skill unique to gods.

A domain of dark purple rapidly expanded, enveloping the “safe domain” of several kilometers designated by the alliance in the blink of an eye.

That was the domain of a god, with purple-black thunder, dark green flames, deep blue water, and grey-white swarms of insects, spreading out in an instant.

Colliding with the net formed by the seven “Nine States Breaking Scenery Swords.”

With a “boom,” the smoke cleared, and the faces on its left shoulder and right leg closed their eyes.

“This child is indeed good, Old Dog Ma still knows how to pick people.”

The white-haired young mechanic finally spoke, but his voice was an old and hoarse mismatch with his face.

“My ‘Bird’ tells me that he’s hiding in a mountain nearby. Shall we go see him after this?”

As he spoke, he slowly opened his mouth wide, as if there were no bones to support it, and in less than two seconds, it was wide enough to fit a basketball.

At that moment, a wooden hand full of mechanisms stretched out from his mouth, the palm open.

In the center of the curved palm, blades spun, ejecting a red card.

The next moment, countless trees from ten thousand Qingshan mountains flew out, roots still clinging to soil, cut and shaved by a flash of red light.

In an instant, they became smooth and neat, then overlapped and connected to each other.

The whole scene was a delight for anyone with a touch of OCD.

Just like that, a few seconds later, a “Wooden God” resembling the “Nine-faced God” in stature heavily crashed to the ground, sending dirt and stones flying dozens of meters into the air.

The “Nine-faced God” was momentarily stunned, as if pondering.

The next moment, it teleported in front of the Wooden God, grabbing its wooden head to face itself, and the eyes on the correct side of its face suddenly emitted purple lasers, shooting straight into the Wooden God’s eyes.

Unexpectedly, the “pseudo-god” made on the spot also burst out two green lights from its eyes, colliding with the purple lasers.

The continuous “sizzling” sound rang out, and for a moment, it was a stalemate.

“Since ancient times, the left wave always loses, this wave is tough.”

Chronicle, who was running further and further away and about to leave the secret realm by car, commented in his heart.

Sure enough, the next moment, the Wooden God lost in the wave battle and had its head pierced by the two purple lights.

But it unethically hooked its fingers and jabbed heavily at the eyes on the Nine-faced God’s face.

At that moment, the Nine-faced God had just retracted its move, with remnants of purple light and astonishing heat in its eyes.

When the Wooden God attacked, its two fingers quickly melted, but still managed to hit the target with the last segment of “bone” left.

The next moment, a “godly” scream of pain echoed between heaven and earth.

On Chronicle’s side, Seven Brothers had already covered his ears.

Compared to his gentleness, Eight Brothers seemed much more “brutal.”

He raised his wrist, flicking out several segments of the Soul Hook chains from his sleeve, wrapping them around the heads of the students and Wang Yan.

After the scream ended, he slightly loosened the chains.

At this time, the two “monk and Taoist” reinforcements also made their move together.

Two indistinct figures appeared in the air.

With their arrival, a cool breeze blew across Qingshan, and gold and rainbow lights pressed down on the dark purple domain together.

The two figures, one large and one small, one chanting with eyes downcast, the other smiling wickedly and twirling a flower.

With some means invisible to the naked eye, they directly pierced through the body of the Nine-faced God.

Several more eyes closed.

The Nine-faced God lowered its head, its grey-white “skin” growing dimmer, plummeting to the ground, creating a large “spider web.”

Countless trees fell, rocks exploded, rivers splashed, and the ground sank.

The soldiers of the Zhenyuan Army gritted their teeth and swarmed up.

As the old saying goes: ants can kill an elephant.

With enough card spirits, they could also kill a severely wounded god.

However, at this moment, the “Nine-faced God” was merely appearing in the form of a card.

With a card master remotely controlling it, it would disperse long before it completely collapsed.

The god had suffered heavy injuries in this battle, and even the card’s frame had cracks.

Even if the person behind it was a top card master rarely found in Jiuzhou, it would take a long time to resolve the backlash and restore the card.

Unable to form immediate combat power, it was no different from being slain.

“First, we need to capture the card master behind the scenes, or else once he restores the card, all our efforts this time will be in vain!”Experts from the Town Abyss Army shouted loudly, leading several teams to search the mountains.

The moment they turned around, at the spot where the Nine-Faced God had dissipated, a disc-shaped object suddenly exploded.

From it burst a dense swarm of gray bugs, which from a distance looked like a puff of “smoke,” furiously rushing in all directions.

The scale had grown so large it was out of control.

A gray mass pressed down suddenly.

Before anyone could react, they were engulfed.

The five strangers who had appeared urgently took action, burning away part of the swarm.

But still, a considerable number spread out.

Chronicle, who had already arrived at the secret realm’s exit by car, watched as the Mist pressed towards them, and in the next second, the world cleared.

Beside him, sobs broke out.

The girl who had just tried to seek a sense of security from him couldn’t hold back her tears anymore and even thought about giving up the competition.

“Don’t worry, the next three matches will be held on Blue Star, and with your level, you won’t make it to the finals anyway. There’s no need to come back to the secret realm, so don’t think about quitting the competition.”

Wang Yan knew how to comfort people.

At these words, the girl cried even harder.

In the end, it was Chronicle who, uncharacteristically, offered a few words of comfort and managed to soothe the young lady.

Then everyone got out of the car together.

Chronicle couldn’t help but take a deep breath of the air mixed with car exhaust and the scent of pancake fruit rolls, feeling every cell in his body rejoicing.

“It’s so nice,” someone remarked.

It had to be said that those who could live in the green mountains for a decade or two had to have strong hearts.

They had been terrified just moments ago, but less than two minutes after leaving the secret realm, they had mostly recovered.

Then it was back to business as usual, tidying up and preparing to return to the hotel to polish the domain cards needed for the next match.

Chronicle, however, took out a pair of multi-layered tactical gloves from his bag, put them on, and then squatted at the entrance of the secret realm, gently pinching the gray bugs that were writhing in the grass.

“These little creatures actually ran out of the secret realm? But… they seem to have grown a lot.”

For many creatures, getting bigger is nothing but good news.

It often means they can occupy a higher position in the food chain.

But not for these bugs; their greatest advantage was their small size, making them difficult to detect.

Once they could be easily observed by the human eye, they would be easily exterminated.

“It seems that they were able to form a ‘bug fog’ because they had the home field advantage. Once they come to Blue Star, they revert to their original form.”

As Chronicle spoke, he applied a bit more force and crushed the bug.

Then he spread his two fingers apart, and the tiny gray particles immediately fell rustling to the ground.

“Of course, there’s also the possibility that this is a special swarm that can gather from countless small individuals into one large entity…”

“Just unable to use the ‘dispersion’ ability on Blue Star.”

“That just makes it easier for me.”

Chronicle thought to himself, raising his hand to summon the [Eagle Falcon Patterned Black Pottery Narrow-Mouthed Jar].

Then he waved his hand, signaling Seven Brothers and Eight Brothers to come over.

He also thought that since catching bugs wouldn’t consume much spiritual power, he summoned Ying Tai, Mountain Ghost, Dai Yu, and Zongzi Brother to join in.

With one person and six card spirits, they played catching bugs at the entrance of the secret realm.

Seven Brothers, meticulous and patient, somehow found a mineral water bottle and, after filling it, would pour it into the jar each time, becoming the biggest contributor to the Ji family’s first bug-catching competition.

Eight Brothers didn’t have the patience of his brother, but the thought of secretly keeping some high-protein bugs to feed the Year Beast as a snack made him very enthusiastic.

Ying Tai, an archer by trade, valued “speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness,” and was also very efficient, though her grip was a bit too strong, crushing quite a few bugs.

Mountain Ghost was purely out for fun, squatting next to Chronicle, humming a tune, and barely catching two secret realm bugs in half a day.

However, Chronicle considered her the second greatest contributor, as she relaxed the mood of the family head.

Dai Yu, on the other hand, pulled out a burlap sack from nowhere, and wherever there were more bugs, she would shovel them up, then fill the sack with a full shovel of soil.

It was also… a good idea.

Among the entire team, aside from the trump card General Zeng who was temporarily hidden, only old Zongzi Brother had made no contribution.

“That’s not entirely true; it at least increased the difficulty of our task.”

Looking at the fallen jar, the bugs scattered on the ground, and the usually lazy Zongzi Brother who made mistakes at critical moments and then played innocent, Chronicle took a deep breath and kicked it back into the sea of consciousness with a flying foot.

With its help, what could have been done in two hours, they endured until almost dark before filling a jar.

Adding to the materials Seven Brothers had collected for him at the [Green Mountain Hunting Ground], there was enough to craft a [Gu] series card.

“It’s all fate.”

“If I followed the normal process of card making, my experience bar would be stuck at 98.9 by the finals, just short of the feedback from a good card.”

He thought to himself, looking at the jar in his hand, and couldn’t help but smile: “Here it comes.”

First, I’ll post a two-in-one long chapter. The card I’ll be making in the next chapter took me several days to polish during the summer break. I’ll need to study it a bit more, so it might come out late at night or maybe tomorrow noon. You don’t have to stay up waiting; you can read it together tomorrow, hehe.