At midnight.

Moonlight trickled through the gaps in the curtains into the pure white, minimalist hotel room.

Chronicle sat cross-legged, his clear and handsome face slightly whitened by the light, as a wisp of white smoke rose from his head.

“Inhale… Exhale…”

As he adjusted his breathing rhythm, it gradually reached a special cadence.

The sea of consciousness hidden within his spiritual world was like a stormy ocean, waves surging continuously.

“Just a bit more.”

After an unknown amount of time, Chronicle slowly opened his eyes.

Having received the feedback from crafting the [Golden Silkworm Gu], his spiritual power had advanced further.

It was no less significant than the gains from crafting Eight Brothers.

“The feedback from a green card is even higher than that of a three-star blue card…”

As his career as a Card Craftsman progressed, Chronicle began to grasp certain patterns.

He found that among the many summoning cards he had crafted, only four provided “excessive” feedback.

These four cards corresponded to the systems and roles of the underworld, zombies, Nine Songs, and Gu, each of different scales.

First was the most reliable member of the team, Seven Brothers.

Back when he first arrived, his “experience bar” barely reached twenty.

But Seven Brothers pushed it forward by several notches, helping him gradually close the gap with true geniuses like Echo and Yao Yuan.

Then there was the old rice dumpling, who was good for nothing but sleeping.

When it first descended, it was just a green two-star rookie, but the feedback it brought was not to be underestimated.

It not only expanded his sea of consciousness but also allowed his spiritual power to catch up in “quantity” with those “city-level” geniuses and even surpass them in “quality.”

The third was Mountain Ghost.

Her feedback wasn’t like the others, pushing forward all at once, but rather a considerable surplus that persisted over the following half month.

It successfully helped him catch up with the provincial-level geniuses in terms of spiritual power storage before the [Green Mountain Cup], and he left them far behind in physical fitness.

Lastly, the Golden Silkworm.

Logically, at his current level of cultivation, a green card, even with an initial three-star rating, would hardly provide such substantial feedback all at once.

Moreover, his intuition as a Card Craftsman told him that the benefits brought by the Golden Silkworm were far more than what they seemed.

It also enhanced his resilience, immunity, and recovery abilities.

“Let’s give it a try then.”

Chronicle thought to himself, bringing his index finger to his mouth and biting down hard.

But despite his efforts, not a drop of blood came out.

He fell silent, and after a long while, he burst out, “It’s all lies, there’s no blood at all.”

“Maybe I should try the old rice dumpling’s teeth?”

As he pondered, his consciousness plunged into the sea of consciousness.

With a “bang,” the lid of the nearby coffin popped open, and the rice dumpling brother sat up, turned his head, and looked expectant.

“…”

Without a word, Chronicle threw both the corpse and the coffin lid into the sea of consciousness, then summoned Ying Tai.

“I haven’t taken good care of you lately, and you’ve been tired from fighting. Play some games to relax.”

Chronicle said, gently patting the little girl’s head.

A good Card Craftsman knows how to empathize with the card spirits.

This is what it takes to do great things.

“Go play.”

Seeing Cat Teacher online and actively inviting Ying Tai to team up for games, Chronicle’s smile grew even brighter.

The type of card spirits a Card Craftsman has reflects their own character.

A humble and hardworking Card Craftsman will have card spirits that know how to progress.

“Okay.”

In line with the core values of the Card Craftsmen Union.

After stretching, Chronicle glanced at the newly crafted card.

“Three skills: [Insect King] N-T-R, [Gu Healer] Healing, [Gu Descend] Poisoning…”

“A typical support function card.”

“Four traits: [Clean Freak], the old Ji family’s cleaner, hmm, Ying Tai, Mountain Ghost, and Daiyu should thank you.”

“[Formless], disguise ability, very suitable for dealing with all sorts of supernatural stuff, also fits well with [Red and White Collision].”

“[Fortune], a genuinely top-tier trait, awesome!”

“[Gu Insects]… tsk, a ruthless playstyle, really bad… but if it can save resources for the union, a little misunderstanding is nothing.”

“What a great card.”

Chronicle couldn’t help but feel impressed.

“Hey, this [Advanced Task] is quite interesting.”

Chronicle suddenly noticed a “highlight”: “Advanced Task… Cause a habitat with no less than a hundred creatures to fall into ruin through the [Gu Descend] skill…”

“A hundred is nothing, with my current strength, destroying a habitat with over a thousand creatures is effortless.”

Chronicle said, chugging down a pot of warm water and then playing games with Ying Tai for a while.

Feeling it was about time, he went downstairs in the night, found a spot with an anthill, and dealt with it on the spot.

Seeing that the little Golden Silkworm on his shoulder had no reaction, he let it use the [Gu Descend] skill on the anthill.

But still, it was of no use.

“It seems that only creatures with ‘spirituality’ count, there’s no loophole in the advanced task…”

Chronicle returned to his room, washed his hands, and felt no regret.

Compared to the advanced tasks of Seven Brothers, Eight Brothers, General Zeng, and the old rice dumpling, the little Golden Silkworm’s task was really not difficult.

“Let’s take a nap first, other things can wait until tomorrow morning.”

Chronicle said, yawning.

Although the feedback from the little Golden Silkworm had restored a lot of his spirit, the events of the day still had some impact on him:

Just a scenic god card that hadn’t reached its peak had such terrifying power.

He could hardly imagine what the existence at the level of the supreme gods in the great scenic myths would be like.

“Actually, strength is secondary…”

Even the card spirits created by the blue star Card Craftsmen themselves, when reaching a certain number, have the power to rival the great scenic gods.

He was confident that the Chinese myths in his mind were no less than those sacred and eerie, invincible yet cunning and vicious scenic gods.

“The unknown” is the most terrifying.

Even with his knowledge beyond the times, it was hard to determine the foundation and type of those “scenic gods.”

All he could do was take it one step at a time.

Thinking this way, the weary Chronicle soon fell into a deep sleep.

Ying Tai, who had been secretly observing him, put down her phone at this moment and walked over gently.

As the main battle card spirit connected to the Card Craftsman’s spirit, she naturally sensed that something was off with Chronicle.

But due to insufficient spirituality, she didn’t know what she could do.

She could only watch him worriedly under the moonlight, then reached out with her fair fingers to smooth his furrowed brow.

“Sigh…”

A gentle sigh echoed in the sea of consciousness.

…

Meanwhile, in room 404 not far away.

Just as Gao Sheng was about to sleep and had placed his glasses aside, the specially made secure phone on the bedside table began to ring.

“How’s it going? Confident about winning the championship?”

As soon as the call connected, the person on the other end cheerfully asked.

“It’s hard to say.” Gao Sheng shook his head lightly: “I thought winning the championship wouldn’t be difficult, but then Chronicle came out of nowhere… I feel that, just from the card crafting perspective, he’s much stronger than me.”

“That impressive?”

The person on the other end was slightly surprised. For his always arrogant brother to say such words, this Chronicle must be something special.

“But it doesn’t matter, these days I’ve been using the stories and materials I saved up to craft cards, plus the feedback from Shijie Town, it won’t be long before I break through to Silver.”

“Then, using the story provided by Third Master, to craft that card…”

Gao Sheng paused, not looking very confident: “I should be able to win this competition.”

“You can or you can’t, what does ‘should’ mean?”

The person on the other end questioned loudly: “You know why the family is spending so much to cultivate you, if you can’t even win a provincial championship, how can we expect you to lead the team to counter-invade the secret realm?”

“I will do my best.” Gao Sheng took a deep breath, his voice heavy.

“It’s no use telling me this, there are only four matches left, you have to hold on no matter what.”

Sensing his younger brother’s anxious mood, the person on the phone changed his tone, softly comforting:

“After what happened today, the finals will definitely make minor adjustments.”

“Your anchor point is set in Green Mountain, whoever you fight for the anchor point with, they have to clean up the mess left by that person.”

“Looking at it this way, if it’s Chronicle who makes it to the end with you, you actually have an easier chance of winning.”

“After all, he anchored in the relatively ‘peaceful’ Land of Peach.”

“Without the ‘gods’ leftovers, it’s easy to take over.”

“Also, you’ve seen that person’s strength today.”

“The story Third Master gave you, although it can’t compare to the ‘gods’, is also full of wonderful uses and terrifying foundations.”

“As for Chronicle, the more General Wang favors him, the less likely he is to spoon-feed him.”

“So, what you’re facing is just a ‘commoner’ genius without any backing.”

“Making up stories all by himself, can he compare to your [Three Aspects Ghost Jiao Robe Yuan Xi Mourning King]?”

“I understand, brother.” Gao Sheng nodded slightly, regaining his confidence and nodding firmly.

“And… Mr. Lu is very interested in Chronicle, seems like he wants to take him as a closed-door disciple…”

Before he could finish, Gao Sheng interrupted: “Brother, with Chronicle’s brain, if he enters the divine sect, where would our family stand…”

“You see, you’re anxious again.” The person on the phone said: “A Card Craftsman is like rolling a snowball, if you can beat him once, you can suppress him for a lifetime, what’s there to fear?”

“Brother just wants to tell you, don’t offend him to death, otherwise, if you become ‘family’ later, it can hinder big plans.”

“I got it.” Gao Sheng said in a muffled voice, then hung up the phone.

Looking at the reflection of his face on the phone screen, recalling the events of these days, he fell into deep thought: “Chronicle…”

“Who’s calling me?”

In a nearby room, Chronicle suddenly opened his eyes.

Perhaps because his spiritual power was about to break through, his senses had been extremely sharp lately, reacting immediately to any slight disturbance.

Then he saw Ying Tai looking at him with concern, and his heart warmed.

Just as he was about to say something, he felt a chill on the back of his neck.

Turning his head, he saw Seven Brothers and Eight Brothers had appeared at some point, silently guarding by the bed.

Their intentions were good, but the scene was indeed a bit too ghostly.