Lin Chen had checked the original owner's savings, and there was not much left. Apparently, the original owner had gone bankrupt making the Daoist Card.
Fortunately, White-grade fighter main-body cards were extremely mainstream cards, and every major card shop sold them.
They were not particularly expensive, but buying the Fighter Card had still used up all of Lin Chen's existing savings. He could not afford even a single other card material.
So Lin Chen had to be meticulous with his calculations and carefully plan how to use his existing materials:
Ghost Yaksa Bones (Green)
Drowned Person's Black Umbrella (Green)
Paper Effigy Dowry Child (White)
These three were spoils from the Myriad Ghosts Night Parade instance. The original owner's family still had some materials:
Red Sandalwood Peach Wood Branch (White)
Engraved Jade Piece (White)
Beast Bone Ruyi (White)
These were clearly leftovers from the original owner's research into Daoist Cards. They were all Daoist ritual-materials, and did not mesh well with a Fighter Card.
So how should he combine the materials?
The difficulty was that all of Lin Chen's higher-grade Green materials carried eerie attributes.
They were all eerie objects, which meant that any card made from them would inevitably have negative imagery and traits.
So what fighter image was both fierce and able to accommodate negative qualities?
The Ghost Yaksa from the previous instance was a fighter-type Eerie Spirit, making it the best fit.
The Ghost Yaksa Bones material had also come from it. If he really wanted to make a Ghost Yaksa Card, it could indeed be done.
But first, Lin Chen feared he would not be able to control the Eerie Spirit and would suffer backlash. Second, even if he succeeded, it could not be exposed to the light of day. What decent person would use an eerie as a card spirit?
The best choice would be the image of a human hero who was both righteous and wicked.
As his thoughts gradually cleared, Lin Chen could not help thinking of a famous novel depicting all kinds of heroes.
Its heroic characters were all celestial fiends descended into the mortal world;
Every one of them was a vicious evil star, breaking the law through martial force, gathering in the mountains and forests, and drawing their blades whenever they saw injustice.
This novel had been passed down by countless people and was hailed as one of the Four Great Classics of China.
It was Water Margin!
Nothing could suit eerie-object materials better.
Lin Chen's first choice was naturally the most dazzling hero in Water Margin—Wu Song!
Then the materials could be finalized:
He would use the yaksa attribute of the Ghost Yaksa Bones to point toward vicious might;
He would use the bone attribute to symbolize a tall, robust body;
The eerie attribute would echo Wu Song's origin—an Evil Star descended into the mortal world.
The Fighter main-body card symbolized heroic combat;
Then he would use the Red Sandalwood Peach Wood Branch to make a club as his weapon. That would be the finishing touch.
Card-making formula: Fighter + Fierce + Eerie + Robust + Wooden Club = Wu Song
The formula was settled, the materials were ready, and card-making began!
Lin Chen wielded his brush as if guided by a god, concentrating as he visualized Wu Erlang, fierce as a yaksa and divine as a celestial being.
He silently recited the famous passage from Water Margin describing Wu Song's first appearance:
"His body was imposing, his features dignified. His eyes shone like cold stars, and his arched brows were as dark as lacquer. His broad chest held the might to defy ten thousand men; his lofty speech breathed a thousand yards of soaring ambition. Bold of heart and daring of spirit, he was like a heaven-shaking lion descending from the clouds; with bones hard and sinews strong, he was like an earth-shaking pixiu taking its seat above.
As though the Demon Master of Heaven had descended, he was truly the Human Tai Sui God!"
The stars in the heavens seemed to sense something, and a flash of starlight descended.
Lin Chen opened his eyes. The card was complete!
The author had arrived bearing the Divine Spirit Gathering trait, begging for votes and follows!
Divine Spirit Gathering: This book will actively absorb readers' monthly votes to make up for the loss of traffic suffered by the book.
Card Name: Qinghe County Exile Fighter · Wu Song
Type: Human/Fighter
Quality: Excellent Grade · Deep Green Border · Two Stars
Traits:
Human Tai Sui Wu Song possessed baleful intent. He was fierce in temperament and mighty in bearing, fond of courage and combat. His killing intent radiated outward, intimidating ordinary living beings. If too much killing intent accumulated, Wu Song had a chance of transforming into an Eerie Spirit.
Strong Muscles and Bones Wu Song possessed innate divine strength, with vitality and a physique far beyond ordinary people.
Hidden Trait (Visible only to the Card Master):
Fallen Evil Star Wu Song was a Star Spirit descended into the mortal world. He possessed high spirituality and growth potential and could evolve into a Spirit Hero Card.
Skills:
Evil-Breaking Heavy Club Wu Song used all his strength to swing the peach-wood club heavily, dealing extremely high damage and adding an evil-breaking effect.
However, it was easy to miss. After a missed swing, the heavy club could not be used again for a short period, and Wu Song would switch to close-quarters combat with martial techniques.
Jade Ring Steps/Mandarin Duck Kick Wu Song was agile and astonishingly fast, possessing nimble, chaotic footwork and kicking techniques.
The completed card had a deep green border, representing the pinnacle of the Green grade. Its quality was extremely close to that of a Blue-grade card.
At the same time, a trace of eerie aura and starlight seeped through the patterns on the card back. Clearly, it was no ordinary card!
Like the Door God Card, this card also had an independent name.
Lin Chen had studied the rules of card-making. Any completed card that had a name would surely possess a spirit!
Cards with independent names all had exceptionally high spirituality.
This point was proven by the hidden trait Fallen Evil Star. Not only did it echo Wu Song's origins, it also granted him the potential for continuous evolution, something exceedingly rare among Green Cards.
Normally, for a Green Card to advance to Blue, one had to pour in a sea of materials and combine them repeatedly before succeeding.
Wu Song could actually evolve on his own over time, which was equivalent to saving Lin Chen another fortune.
And being able to evolve into a Spirit Hero Card meant he could absorb faith and be replicated. His upper limit was extremely high!
Unable to wait any longer, Lin Chen summoned Wu Song:
A mighty, imposing man stood before the hall. A newly patched red silk jacket was tied around his waist, revealing a body of knotted muscle. He held a club in his hand, with swordlike brows and starry eyes, naturally commanding awe without showing anger.
When Wu Song saw Lin Chen, he knew that he was his Card Master, and clasped his fists in greeting.
Lin Chen looked at Wu Song's full, well-defined muscles, like those of the Statue of David, and was extremely satisfied.
Because he had no materials related to tigers, wine, ring-headed sabers, revenge, and the like, famous episodes of Wu Song's life—Subduing the Tiger at Jingyang Ridge, Causing Havoc in Happy Forest, Fighting Ximen Qing to the Death, and Blood Splashed on Mandarin Duck Tower—could not be incorporated into the card;
So the version Lin Chen had made now was, as its card name revealed, Wu Song during his exile at Chai Jin's manor.
It was basically a blank-slate form. His skills were ordinary too, but his panel traits were still powerful: high attack and thick health!
If he had to name a deficiency, it was that although the Ghost Yaksa Bones had granted Wu Song the Strong Muscles and Bones trait, they had also made the baleful intent in his Human Tai Sui trait too intense.
Without stricter control, this card might truly turn into a blood-soaked man-slayer!
But its only flaw was being excessively vicious. That already counted as reducing the negative effects of an eerie object to the absolute minimum.
According to countless past card-making cases, using eerie objects to make cards came with extremely severe negative traits!
They might even escape the Card Master's control and directly turn into wild eeries that bit back.
Lin Chen immediately recalled Wu Song into the card. This card had no spirit-gathering effect, and summoning it consumed spiritual power, so he had to use it sparingly.
At the same time, because the card-making had succeeded, Lin Chen also felt the spiritual power in his Sea of Consciousness grow stronger once again, and his senses became far sharper.
He could clearly hear the footsteps of Uncle Chen returning home after fishing next door, as well as the heavy fishy smell. It seemed this trip had not ended in an empty haul.
"Is this the benefit of being a Card Master?"
After finishing the card, Lin Chen began handling some other matters.
The next problem to solve was his finances. Card-making was a bottomless cave; no matter how many or how fine the materials were, they would never be enough,
Lin Chen was still thinking of making a few Equipment Cards for himself, or preparing for Wu Erlang's advancement.
Moreover, his spiritual power was sufficient, and he still had card slots he could bear. It would be best if he could also obtain some one-time Spell Cards. At a critical moment, they could be cast instantly and turn the tide of battle.
So how was he supposed to make money?
Selling card copyrights was the fastest way to earn money. He could not sell a God Card, but surely he could sell a Fighter Card.
With Lin Chen's current card-making ability, he could completely make all 108 Heroes of Mount Liang, then sell the copyrights and card-combination formulas to some major card merchant. Whether he earned royalties or sold them outright, it would be a huge sum.
But even the finest wine feared a deep alley. He currently had no reputation and no channel through which to contact major card merchants;
No matter how amazing his cards were, if others had never seen them, they would not know. How could he sell them for a good price?
He needed an avenue for exposure and had to make a name for himself!
The only Card Master he knew at present was Zhong Yueming. Zhong Yueming had left his number in the instance, and Lin Chen had contacted him, but there had been no response for now, so he let it go.
Then he would first look online for channels to sell cards and, while he was at it, learn about the current card market.
After looking into it, Lin Chen discovered that the card market in this world was actually not very prosperous.
The types of cards in circulation were limited, their scarcity was not particularly high, and they were mainly supplied for Card Masters. There were no cards intended for ordinary citizens.
The main reason was the tremendous pressure from external monsters. Humanity was still facing a crisis of survival, so card resources were concentrated primarily on supplying Card Masters, with no surplus for ordinary people.
Secondly, a card's price was not low, and using one required a threshold of spiritual power.
Even the lowest-grade White Common Card required spiritual power support and daily upkeep that ordinary people could not afford.
In summary, cards were used more often in military and national-defense fields. The civilian card market currently had a massive vacancy.
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