Chapter 147 – Limited skin: Swallow Clouds Eighteen Riders


Zhuge Liannu is a kind of crossbow invented by Prime Minister Zhuge during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty.

It was originally called “Yuanrongnu”, and later became known as “Zhuge Liannu”.

Once loaded, it can shoot ten arrows at once, or some say fifty.

Its firepower is so fierce that it can be called the “Gatling Gun of the Eastern Han Dynasty”.

However, it is bulky and heavy, and cannot be used by a single soldier. Most of the time, it can only be used to defend the city.

Later, for various reasons, it gradually disappeared into the long river of history.

“My Yin Soldier squad is based on the ‘Yuanxi Ghost Soldier Camp’. It’s strong, but lacks ‘firepower’.”

“The whole squad has gathered all the long-range weapons, which are just a few bows and a few pots of arrows, making it difficult to effectively attack enemies from a distance.”

“If someone flies a kite, the cavalry can’t catch up, and the outcome is unpredictable.”

Chronicle thought to himself as he lightly touched the exquisite and glossy “Evil Repair Arm Bone Crossbow” in a row.

According to the book, the “Zhuge Liannu” is indeed not suitable for single use.

But it also depends on what kind of single user it is.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, soldiers who couldn’t eat enough and were emaciated were single soldiers, and the several Yin soldiers under his command, each over two meters tall and comparable in size to Thanos, were also single soldiers.

What the former couldn’t handle alone, in the hands of the latter, was at best a toy to enhance long-range attack power.

Basically, it could be used as soon as it was brought over, without any problems of being unwieldy or unmanageable.

“Then let’s start with this.”

Chronicle said to himself as he took down several bone crossbows from the shelf and casually put them into the nearby storage box.

It is worth mentioning that the items in this warehouse can be directly strengthened and modified through “Information Addition”.

They already possess transcendent power, but it’s just the “mythical” or “legendary” nature borrowed from the “Zhuge Liannu”.

Just like how he transformed the “Unicorn Snow Lion Dog” into the “Year Beast”, it’s the same principle, just without such high individual value.

“Let’s pick a few more.”

These crossbows are only worth tens of thousands, and he still has a choice of over four hundred thousand.

“Now that the long-range attack weakness of my Yin Soldier squad has been filled, it’s time to enhance their combat power in the ‘desert’ environment.”

Chronicle stroked his chin, pondering and saying to himself.

“Using the things here directly to give the ‘Yin Soldiers’ a name is definitely not enough.”

“The potential of this legion card is almost infinite, and it cannot be matched with something so rudimentary.”

“But if I were to equip them with weapons suitable for desert warfare, like I did with the ‘Zhuge Liannu’, it just feels a bit lacking…”

Chronicle paced around the vast warehouse, pondering for a while, but still came up empty.

So he took out “The Friend of Dual-Use Talent Cards” that Uncle Dong had given him from the bag he carried with him and started flipping through it in front of the bald referee.

The profession of a card craftsman has a history of several hundred years.

During this long period, there were always people encountering various problems and finding ways to solve them.

Some with good intentions would record these experiences and knowledge in books, passing them down from generation to generation.

Until today, in theory, the vast majority of problems related to card crafting can be solved by methods found in this tool book known as the “Card Craftsman Dictionary”.

Sure enough, over the past few hundred years, he was not the only one to encounter this kind of situation, and the solutions he thought of were all quite elaborate.

And what Chronicle was most interested in was the “Skinning Method” developed by a certain Ma family card craftsman two hundred years ago, also known as the “Pseudo-Naming Method”.

The so-called “skinning” is to use a core story of a legion, select a large number of materials of a similar style, and create a special equipment card called the “Skin Card”.

This kind of card is a bit like the “hero accessories” used by some game manufacturers to make money before Chronicle crossed over.

But compared to those that only enhance the handling or have a meager ten-point attribute, this type of card, in addition to the literal meaning of “skin”, can also add some new skill characteristics to the legion.

Although it is not as strong as directly giving a name, it also has its uses.

Most importantly, it can preserve the potential of the legion until the card craftsman finds the most suitable true name.

And looking at the descriptions in the seams, the inspiration of this Ma family card craftsman is quite interesting:

He himself is actually half a “Lu Bu”.

The reason why it’s said to be half is because he doesn’t possess the world-conquering martial arts of the Marquis of Wen, only a special trait called “Three Servants of the Family”.

In saying so, it’s actually a bit unfair to him.

—In his life, he had changed his identity several times under different aliases.

“Great Jiuzhou”, “Fusion School”, “Paradise”, “Overlord”, “Three Missing Gates”, and the then still embryonic “Card Craftsman Alliance”…

He had been involved in all the major card craftsman organizations active in that era, and could be called a walking “Hundred Family Surnames”.

To say “Three Servants” is indeed a bit insulting.

It is worth mentioning that he had reached a high position in these organizations, and had also held very important positions, naturally achieving considerable results.

But he would leave after only a few years, taking his belongings and leaving.

No one knew his purpose.

Even these legendary experiences as the “leader of the 25s” were only heard by a certain high-ranking member of the “Three Missing Gates” when he was old and unable to run around, boasting to the younger generation in a retirement village.

The book says that at first, the high-ranking member didn’t take it seriously, thinking it was just an old man with rich experience boasting to the younger generation, but as he listened more, it became more and more unsettling:

What the other person said about his experiences in the Three Missing Gates was clearly the heroic “sacrifice” of a good senior who bravely protected himself in his youth.

And then… there was no “and then”.

Although that high-ranking member’s worldview was shattered, and he couldn’t believe that the former senior he had felt guilty about for many years and revered as a guiding light was such a person, after a few breaths, he fell from two spiritual realms.

But in the end, out of consideration for their past friendship, he only passed this matter back to the Three Missing Gates, and then angrily left.

And as everyone knows, the actions of the 25s will not appear or disappear out of thin air. When an old 25s retires from the arena, a new person will take his place.

So, this matter spread everywhere with the transfer of a certain “new star of the 25s” camp.At that time, the centenarian Old Ma, upon learning of the situation, decided to throw caution to the wind and started selling his memoirs.

In the book, he wrote: “I hold every place I’ve been to close to my heart, but some birds cannot be caged. Their feathers shimmer with the light of freedom, and I am such a bird.”

These shameless remarks angered many.

Yet, he didn’t care at all and even used his own story as a template, with minor modifications, to create a legion card named “Hundred Birds Army.”

Days later, he developed the “Skin Card.”

Today he’d wear clothes from Da Jiuzhou, tomorrow from Pinru, utterly oblivious to what shame was.

Eventually, he was strangled to death from afar by an exasperated Card Craftsman using an equipment card named “Sangmen Tower’s Soul Binding Silk,” thus ending his “legendary” life.

“This guy was really wasting his talent as a Card Craftsman. If he were alive today, he’d probably scam even more money from the ‘Pinnacle of Card Craftsmen,’” Chronicle mused, putting the book away.

Now that he had found a solution, he could proceed to think further.

Throughout Chinese history, there have been numerous formidable armies that roamed the deserts:

The mysterious Yan Yun Eighteen Riders, the loyal Tang Anxi troops with their city full of white-haired defenders, the Han Dynasty’s Feathered Forest Army that followed Huo Qubing to sweep across the deserts… all met the criteria.

However, considering that he currently only had a small contingent of shadow soldiers and couldn’t form an “army,” he had to choose the “Yan Yun Eighteen Riders,” known for their strong individual fighters and small numbers, as his crafting target.


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