The Card Master threw his head back and laughed. "What's the big deal? Just use mine! Sisters, hurry up and get to work. The banquet must not stop! Continue!"
Amber smiled in relief, raised the empty wineglass in her hand, and said:
"That's right. Sisters, honored guest, let's hurry and drink this cup together!"
The beauties present surrounded the Card Master with beaming smiles, extended their sharp claws, and began slicing his body apart in unison. Blood gushed in all directions from countless wounds on the Card Master's body!
Yet what the Card Master saw was red wine flowing out of his own body. He happily cheered:
"There's wine! There's wine! We... continue! The banquet... must not stop!"
"Haha... don't stop..."
"So... happy..."
The drinker's voice gradually faded.
His scattered blood, however, slowly condensed into a drop of essence blood and melted into the blood-red wineglass in Amber's hand.
The maids present abruptly changed from their earlier frenzy and stood by respectfully, awaiting orders.
Amber instructed them, "Take this sacrifice to the plantation to nourish the seedlings."
The maids immediately began to act.
Looking at the wineglass forged from flesh and blood in her hand, Amber revealed a rare fervor.
"The Holy Grail has absorbed another drop of essence blood. It'll soon be complete. Just a little more!"
The handsome young man pondered for a moment, recalling the information on the registration form from earlier.
Then he opened the communication software, dialed a secret number, and said:
"Help me investigate two Card Masters."
The author has brought bartender Amber along to ask for votes and follows! This is extremely important for the later traffic!
Looking at the ranking forged from monthly votes on the new-book chart, Amber revealed a rare fervor. "This book has absorbed another monthly vote. It'll soon make the list. Just one more!"
Thanks to: Nostalgic Painting Scroll and A Glance Back, Still the Beginning, for the monthly votes!
Rewalking the Heroic Epic Road, Awakening the Peerless Hero Skill!
From the other end of the communication software came a voice impossible to distinguish as male or female.
"You didn't expose yourself, did you?"
Amber said indifferently, "I just took a liking to two sacrifices. The Holy Grail is about to be completed. It's only missing that final push."
The other party said, "I didn't expect you to progress so quickly without being discovered by the authorities."
Amber said, "Because I only target third-rate Card Masters. There are actually many such Card Masters. The authorities can't investigate them all."
"Give me their names and addresses."
Amber flipped through the registration form. "One is called Lin Chen and lives at... The other is called Chen Xiao Diao. She's a patrol officer with the Security Bureau and lives at..."
The other party warned him, "There's even an official Card Master from the Security Bureau. Don't mess this up. The key to this project isn't your Holy Grail."
Amber said, "Of course I understand. If I mess it up, I'll die to atone for my sins."
"Just be sure you know what you're doing. I'll send you the information I find through the usual channels later."
Amber said, "Thank you. Praise the Mother Goddess."
The other party returned the courtesy. "Good luck. Praise the Mother Goddess."
After the call ended, the other party's number displayed as deactivated.
Amber then went to his office. From a heavily locked box, he took out a card and summoned a square chunk of flesh.
The chunk of flesh trembled slightly, as if it were breathing.
After waiting for a while, a series of slashed wounds began to appear across the chunk of flesh!
The scratches interwove stroke by stroke, unexpectedly forming one character after another and gradually joining into detailed sentences:
"Chen Xiao Diao, nineteen years old, orphan, H City Card Association Security Bureau—Patrol Team One—beginner Card Master. Holds one green-ranked Fist Fighter Card. Ranks at the bottom of the Security Bureau in terms of strength. Reckless and brainless..."
"Lin Chen, twenty-three years old, single, third-rate Apprentice Card Master. Recently purchased one white-ranked Fighter Card. Assisted Chen Xiao Diao in resolving an 'Anomaly Level' incident. No other publicly known card information..."
Someone was transmitting intelligence to Amber by remotely slicing the chunk of flesh!
Even stranger, after the writing surfaced, wriggling regenerative flesh quickly erased it and restored the chunk.
Through the flesh's regenerative ability, the method achieved the effect of erasing traces—information that burned itself after being read!
What an eerie and secretive method of transmitting information!
The restoration time was also enough for Amber to memorize all the intelligence.
However, this intelligence was clearly not up to date.
Otherwise, it would have stated that Chen Xiao Diao had only just obtained a blue card yesterday.
As for Lin Chen's information, because of Zhong Yueming and Chen Xiao Diao's help in concealing it, it had never been publicly disclosed.
Yet the source of the intelligence could learn even about card purchase records and reports on resolved Anomaly incidents. It definitely had official backing!
Amber muttered, "Two more Card Masters living alone. They only have green cards, which fits my criteria. I can attack them without worry.
"The only troublesome part is that the girl comes from the official Security Bureau. She'll definitely be investigated afterward, so I'll have to leave her until last."
Lin Chen, unaware that he had already been targeted, returned home and began his routine review, focusing especially on the part where he had inexplicably gone up to the bar's second floor.
He must have been affected mentally!
But during the Night Fishing Anomaly—Rotten Fish Corpse incident, his spiritual consciousness had warned him. Why had there been no reaction this time?
There were two possibilities:
1. The fish corpse's mental bewitchment had been thick with anomalous energy and clearly malicious, so it had been easy to detect.
But this time, the method of mental bewitchment had not contained as much malice. Instead, it involved the relatively positive emotion of "pleasure," causing his spiritual awareness to let down its guard.
2. The fish corpse had been Anomaly Level, with the lowest degree of contamination, so Lin Chen could resist it.
The entity on the bar's second floor might have been of a higher level, which was why it had been able to ensnare Lin Chen.
Lin Chen guessed that both reasons were possible, and they might even have been true simultaneously.
Then was Amber, that handsome and gentle bartender, actually an extremely powerful mind-type Card Master!?
With such strength, why would he open a bar, provide service, and entertain ordinary people and low-level Card Masters?
He couldn't earn much money that way, nor could he obtain many resources.
What, then, was Amber after?
Lin Chen had made similar plans. In the future, he would provide ordinary citizens with reproductions of the Door God.
But Lin Chen was no Sage. The reason he had made such plans was to accumulate faith for the God Card.
If there were no benefits at all, Lin Chen might do it as a convenience, but he definitely would not devote all his effort to it.
Lin Chen was suddenly reminded by his own example!
His Door God Card needed the faith offered by others to advance.
Then Amber most likely needed to run a shop and obtain something from the drinkers to advance his own card.
A bar, and drinkers—then wine definitely couldn't be avoided.
Lin Chen shifted his gaze to the bottle of grape wine Amber had given him.
The wine bottle was made of ceramic, with simple yet elegant lines and a naturally blue color. Ivy was carved into its body. One glance was enough to tell that it carried a long-inherited craftsmanship.
This style of craftsmanship seemed extremely familiar to Lin Chen, but he couldn't recall where he had seen it for a moment.
He tried pouring out a little. The crystalline wine flowed into the glass.
The sweet scent of grapes instantly filled the entire room. Just smelling it made people feel happy and intoxicated.
The wine was definitely fine wine, but he was afraid there might be something more mysterious hidden inside.
Lin Chen didn't dare drink it himself, so he summoned Wu Song and had the wine fanatic try it.
Besides, he had originally bought the wine to feed Wu Song.
As soon as Wu Song appeared, he gazed obsessively at the wine in the glass. He raised it and was about to drink when he sniffed it, then suddenly flung the wine away!
The hero shouted angrily, "There's Methanol in this wine!"
What Wu Song meant by Methanol was that the wine contained hallucinogenic ingredients, absolutely beyond what ordinary people could endure.
Wu Song had rich Jianghu Experience. In the original Water Margin, when he passed through Crossroads Slope and the inn run by Mother Yaksa Sun Erniang, he had seen through Sun Erniang's plot to drug the wine with Methanol.
As for whether wine had been drugged, Wu Song was practically an expert. He had detected it with a single sniff.
Even more bizarrely, spiritual light suddenly radiated from Wu Song's body and gathered into the Qinghe County Exile Fighter Wu Song Card.
The card trembled slightly, and starlight flashed!
Lin Chen hurriedly took the card and examined it closely. He saw that a new column had appeared under the card's traits—
Jianghu Experience: Wu Song was bold yet meticulous and possessed rich Jianghu Experience. He could identify malicious behavior such as lies, deception, schemes, and poison with a high probability.
This wine tasting had unexpectedly awakened a new trait in Wu Song!
This Jianghu Experience was precisely connected to the word "exile" in the name of the Wu Song Card.
When Wu Song had fled to Chai Jin's manor, he had met countless heroes traveling north and south, accumulating rich Jianghu Experience.
Lin Chen's scholar's mind kicked in again, and he began breaking the matter down to the very bottom.
What was the mechanism that triggered a Card Spirit's awakening of a trait?
He began searching online for shared experiences regarding card-trait awakening and discovered that there were very few guides on the subject.
From some scattered discussion posts, Lin Chen still managed to summarize one rule:
A Card Spirit had to trigger one of its "Exclusive Events" before it could awaken a latent trait.
Every Card Spirit's Exclusive Events were different. There would be no prompt indicating what kind of event it was; everything depended on luck.
But Lin Chen felt that since trait awakening was not an isolated case, there had to be some logic behind the triggering events.
Before you continue