Lin Chen began reasoning from a scholar's perspective, continuing to draw inferences and apply what he had learned to new situations.
Could the reason this world's human heroic spirit sequence cards could replicate so many Guardian Cards and Nun Cards be because of incense offerings?
More precisely, the power of faith.
The essence of human heroic spirits was that they had received the worship of the masses, which was essentially faith in disguise.
They could be said to be officially created images of artificial gods.
Their underlying logic was the same as that of gods: with faith, spirits could form, and thus they could be replicated without limit!
To sum it up, faith → spirituality → replication. That should be the principle behind card replication!
From this information, if Lin Chen wanted to summon another God Card, he would first have to rebuild the public's faith in the gods.
Put simply, he had to preach and gather faith!
But that would be difficult. The people of this world had a mountain of prejudice against the gods.
And with one careless move, he could easily be branded the leader of an evil cult.
But no matter how difficult it was, it still had to be done!
Only then could Lin Chen make full use of his greatest advantage as a researcher of folk mythology and survive in this world overrun by the strange.
Rekindling the glory of China's gods was a duty no one of our generation could shirk!
After sorting through all this, Lin Chen also discovered an original-owner card-making notebook filled with dense writing.
When he flipped through it, the first few pages were filled with basic Card Combination Formulas and key points for making cards.
By the later pages, the handwriting had grown increasingly chaotic, and the combination formulas had become tangled and complex!
The original owner had actually been trying to create an unknown card!
An unknown apprentice Card Master had no qualifications to obtain official authorization to create unknown cards.
If the authorities caught such an unauthorized card-making act, the punishment would be severe!
Lin Chen could not help grumbling, "The original owner courted death, and now I have to take the blame!"
But then he thought about it. He had also created an unknown God Card and had yet to take the initiative to "turn himself in" to the authorities. By all accounts, he was a standard evil Card Master too.
He had actually gone even further than the original owner. In that case, never mind.
Continuing to read, Lin Chen found three passages of the original owner's own words at the end of the notebook:
"I tried to search through scattered remnants of history for the cultivation sequence that once stood at the pinnacle of the land of China.
"Based on historical fragments and the oral traditions passed down by my ancestors, I deduced that all kinds of supreme mighty beings and glorious gods had once appeared within this sequence.
"I do not understand why the authorities have defined the history of the past as taboo!
"Only by tracing our origins, finding this sequence, can humanity be revived, the strange be opposed, and the old capital restored!
"So the truth is, history has been contaminated!
"When I realized this, the contamination of my reason could no longer be purged. I had already sunk too deeply...
"Then the only choice was to cast aside all scruples and investigate with all my strength. At worst, I would stake this ruined life of mine!
"After I lost count of how many times I failed, I finally made it!
"Although it is merely the lowest-grade white card, this is an entirely new card sequence, one that has never been preserved in the present age!
"My reason can no longer support the manifestation of this card series in the present world. I can only leave it for future generations to carry forward.
"This is the greatest contribution an ordinary Card Master like me can make after exhausting an entire lifetime.
"Based on what my ancestors knew of history, I shall name it—Daoist!"
This book had already been signed. Thanks to Qinghu's Water, I Am the Transformer and You Are the Great, Ren Yunji, Book Friend 20190506102304315, Scholar 1213, and Cicadas Listening to Rain Strike the Leaves for your recommendation-ticket support.
You gave me immense encouragement! It was together with all of you that I reached the point of signing a contract.
Chapter 9: New Card: Qinghe County Exile Fighter Wu Song
When he flipped to the very end, a white card slipped out from the final compartment of the original owner's notebook. The card depicted a Daoist holding a peachwood sword and dressed in a cap, cloth robe, and hemp garments!
Card Name: Daoist Type: Human/Daoist Quality: Normal Grade · White Border · One Star Traits: Cultivating Daoist: A Daoist recites Daoist scriptures, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to slowly cultivate and increase his own spiritual power. Skills: Exorcising Evil: The Daoist swings his peachwood sword, releasing his own spiritual power to drive away evil spirits and wicked ghosts.
Looking at this familiar figure, Lin Chen was stunned as well.
Moreover, the Cultivating Daoist trait could slowly absorb spiritual energy, and it was astonishingly similar to the Divine Spirit Gathering trait of the Door God!
Could the Daoist card sequence be a path to godhood?!
It made perfect sense. Daoists had originally been born to cultivate immortality and become gods.
Lin Chen could already foresee that when he created God Cards in the future, this card would certainly be the crucial core card!
The original owner had also been an extraordinary person. His ancestors had actually preserved some of the history of China's gods.
An apprentice Card Master had drawn on fragmentary historical remnants to create the basic divine office within China's god system!
Furthermore, the original owner's notebook had also said that history had been contaminated!
This was very likely another key reason for the generational gap of the gods.
But the original owner had died from contamination of his reason while investigating history. As a result, Lin Chen did not dare to delve any deeper for now. He could only improve himself first and worry about the rest later.
Holding this weighty "forbidden card," Lin Chen's emotions were complicated, and he had also taken on the original owner's hopes.
It seemed that rekindling the glory of China's gods really was a duty no one of his generation could shirk.
Rekindling the incense of faith was extremely important. Lin Chen decided to begin with his own home.
He immediately carved a Door God statue at home, set up incense for it, and worshiped it, saying:
"Door God - Qin Qiong, Yuchi Jingde, hear me. From now on, we'll each use our own titles. When you go out to fight, call me your lord. When we're privately at home, I'll call you Big Brother!"
After worshiping, he used a cinnabar brush to dot two eyes onto the wooden Door God carving, performing a simple "opening the light and dotting the eyes" ritual;
This made it a vessel for the gods' power, symbolizing that the gods could take up residence in the statue.
In an instant, Lin Chen felt that the carving had become even more lifelike.
Even without summoning a card, his home now possessed the safe feeling of being protected, and the Door God Card had gained another trace of incense faith power.
Sure enough, he could even farm faith from himself!
Striking while the iron was hot, Lin Chen hurriedly painted another Door God Painting and wrote a pair of door couplets, preparing to hang them at the entrance. If he was going to do it, he had to do the whole thing properly.
As luck would have it, his neighbor Uncle Chen came out of the opposite apartment and saw him. He asked curiously, "Little Lin, what are you putting up?"
Lin Chen said, "This is a Door God statue. Have you heard of it? It can ward off evil and protect the home."
Uncle Chen looked doubtful after hearing this, but he still boldly moved closer and whispered, "Little Lin, you haven't gone and started believing in some evil cult, have you?"
Lin Chen jumped and hurriedly denied it. "Of course not! Where did you get that idea?"
Uncle Chen said, "This 'god' thing—we don't dare believe in it! The official Card Association has said it before: anything with 'god' in its name is pretty darn suspicious! We have to believe in science!"
Lin Chen guaranteed that it was not some evil path, but something with positive effects meant to assist with card-making.
"All right, then. I don't understand anything about card-making, so I'm off fishing!"
Uncle Chen had been neighbors with Lin Chen's predecessor for many years and knew Lin Chen's identity inside and out.
That was why he did not question it too much. After all, ordinary people still held Card Masters in great respect.
There was a Card Master in their residential community. If something strange appeared, that person might be able to save lives.
"Take care, Uncle Chen~"
Lin Chen had finally experienced the present world's wariness and rejection of the gods. It seemed that neither the Door God Card nor the Daoist Card would be convenient to reveal for the time being.
In that case, the best choice was to first create a card type that was relatively common in the present world, one he could take out and use without any scruples in his daily life.
Since Lin Chen already had a Guardian Card for self-defense, he decided to make an offensive Fighter Card next.
As for the number of cards a Card Master could possess, it was tied to spiritual power. As spiritual power increased, so would the number and level of cards they could bring into a dungeon at the same time.
Take Zhong Yueming for example. As a beginner Card Master who had survived two dungeons, his spiritual power only allowed him to bring one green card and two or three white cards.
As for Lin Chen now, his spiritual power felt as vast as the sea. Even after bearing a purple Door God Card, he still felt no pressure at all, and bringing along another green card would be no problem.
One major reason was the feedback from successfully creating cards. Every successful card creation brought a Card Master an increase in spiritual power. The higher the level and the rarer the card created, the greater the increase.
What Lin Chen had made was an epic purple card, as well as a unique Door God Card. The increase in spiritual power this had brought him had already brought Lin Chen close to becoming an intermediate Card Master!
Another reason was surviving dungeons. The strange spiritual atmosphere within dungeons, together with the tempering between life and death, could all greatly increase a Card Master's spiritual power.
Finally, there was a special reason—the unique trait of God Cards:
Divine Spirit Gathering: Gods will actively absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to replenish the spiritual power consumed by the card.
This greatly reduced the burden on a Card Master's mind. Lin Chen did not even need to visit a card shop to replenish his cards' spiritual power.
One had to understand that summoning card spirits consumed spiritual power.
Once one's spiritual power was exhausted, either the Card Master had to replenish it with his own spiritual power, or he had to go to a card shop to restore it. It worked on the same principle as a car needing fuel.
The God Card had even saved Lin Chen the replenishment fee. Otherwise, the stronger the card, the greater its spiritual power consumption would be, and Lin Chen could not afford to support this epic card spirit.
As a Card Master, one's daily expenses were enormous!
Not only did he need to replenish his cards' spiritual power every day, but he also had to spend countless card-making materials to create cards.
Before you continue