Limited Card Pool Opens

Back in the room, Jia Youcai skillfully opened the system. With a tap of his fingertip, the Soul Ring Interface unfolded. To the right of his Artifact Spirits, three Purple Spirit Rings were displayed in plain sight.

At present, the two Artifact Spirits he possessed—the Great Saber and Blue Silver Grass—were practically at the bottom of the SR tier. Calling them "trash" would not be an exaggeration.

Although he had two Artifact Spirits, that did not mean he possessed Twin Martial Souls. After all, he could only use one Artifact Spirit at a time, and switching between them required a cooldown. It was rather useless.

A famous saying of unknown origin surfaced in his mind: There are no worthless Artifact Spirits, only worthless Soul Masters.

Why was that said? Because there was an enormous numerical gap between different Artifact Spirits.

For example, with the same build and the same Soul Power, an SSR-tier Artifact Spirit had stats at least a hundred times greater than those of an R-tier Artifact Spirit. How could such a massive gap possibly be made up for through skill alone?

Even compared to SR-tier Artifact Spirits, SSR-tier Artifact Spirits had ten times their stats.

Jia Youcai opened the illustrated guide and discovered that Huo Wu's Artifact Spirit was also SR-tier, but it was among the best of the SR tier, belonging to the first echelon. By comparison, the two Artifact Spirits in his hands were practically the "sewer" of the SR tier.

The reason he had managed to suppress Huo Wu in the morning and even defeat her so easily was entirely because his Soul Ring configuration far surpassed hers. Jia Youcai's Soul Rings now had a combined age of eight or nine thousand years, while Huo Wu's configuration barely reached two or three thousand years. The difference in stats was simply worlds apart.

Once the stats were high enough, even a pig could soar into the sky.

Unfortunately, his Artifact Spirits were such trash, and he had no Soul Bones to protect him. These three Soul Rings had even been given to him as a top-up reward. Hunting Soul Beasts to increase his Soul Ring ages and thereby improve his strength was not a bad option.

But the problem was that he was not some protagonist, nor did he have some heaven-defying cheat that locked his HP. If he died, he would have to spend money on Revival Coins. Fighting monsters above his level required even more skill. One careless move, and he would probably be smashed into pulp.

Jia Youcai opened the Card Pool interface again. The same six permanent Artifact Spirits greeted his eyes. There was no need to think about it—these six had to be the worst tier among SSR Artifact Spirits. Forget it. He would wait until the limited Card Pool opened later.

He checked the system's real-world time. It was nearly the next day. So he closed the system interface and lay flat on the bed.

With his current combat strength, he was still far from capable of protecting Xuexue.

Forget it. He would stop thinking about these troubling matters and log off for now. He could play again next time.

In reality, two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

In the game world, Jia Youcai had been exceptionally active, running through every area that could currently be explored. However, there were no treasure chests or other good things in this game.

As the days passed, the day the limited Card Pool opened finally arrived.

Jia Youcai skillfully opened the system, then opened the Card Pool interface. A cyan hammer appeared prominently on the screen. There was no need to ask—this had to be the Clear Sky Hammer, hailed as the number one Artifact Spirit in the world.

But this Clear Sky Hammer was vastly different from the hammers wielded by Tang San and Tang Hao. After all, even identical Artifact Spirits came in different grades. The Clear Sky Hammer in this Card Pool could only be considered below average in quality, no different from the hammer wielded by some ordinary Clear Sky Sect disciple.

If Jia Youcai used this hammer against Tang San's, then under equal conditions, Tang San would definitely grind him into the ground.

So what should he do if he pulled this Artifact Spirit but still could not beat the other guy?

The answer was simple: keep pulling from the Card Pool and upgrade its Dou Hun.

Dou Hun could be upgraded to a total of Six Dou Hun. Each additional Dou Hun would strengthen the Artifact Spirit to a certain degree. Only once it reached Six Dou Hun would it truly become the number one Clear Sky Hammer in the world. Even if Tang Chen showed up, his hammer would still be completely inferior to a Clear Sky Hammer upgraded to Six Dou Hun.

Unlocking One Dou Hun and Two Dou Hun each required one hammer; unlocking Three Dou Hun and Four Dou Hun each required two hammers; unlocking Five Dou Hun and Six Dou Hun each required four hammers. In other words, maxing out the Dou Hun required fifteen hammers in total.

Jia Youcai continued reading and discovered that, besides the limited Artifact Spirit, there was also an exclusive Soul Bone below it, which could be roughly understood as an exclusive weapon.

It was a ten-thousand-year exclusive right arm bone for the Clear Sky Hammer. After pulling it, he could keep pulling to increase the Soul Bone's age, up to a maximum of Hundred Thousand Year. In other words, maxing out the Soul Bone required ten pulls in total.

Jia Youcai silently calculated in his heart. One hundred pulls was the soft pity, and there was a fifty percent chance of missing the featured item. If he missed on the first soft pity, then the next one was guaranteed. One pull cost sixteen yuan. Assuming he never missed the soft pity at one hundred pulls, the total cost would be 100 × (15 + 10) × 16 = yuan.

After doing the math, Jia Youcai was secretly shocked. Maxing out one Clear Sky Hammer, including its Dou Hun and exclusive Soul Bone, would actually cost forty thousand yuan. And that was the ideal scenario where he never missed the soft pity. Under normal circumstances, would it not cost fifty or sixty thousand?

"Fucking scum, why don't you just rob people outright?!" Jia Youcai could not help cursing.

Previously, he had topped up three 648-yuan packs plus one 68-yuan pack, then bought over two thousand yuan worth of Soul Coins. In total, he had only gotten one hundred and twenty-five pulls.

The two Artifact Spirits he currently had were too weak. Jia Youcai felt that it was absolutely necessary to get himself an SSR-tier Artifact Spirit. Although a Clear Sky Hammer at zero Dou Hun would not be that invincible, it was more than enough to deal with some small fry.

His finger gradually approached the ten-pull button. His palm began to sweat slightly, and he felt both expectant and anxious.

With one light tap, 160 yuan vanished in an instant.

"Whatever. Take a gamble, turn a bicycle into a motorcycle!" Jia Youcai gritted his teeth and slammed his finger down on the ten-pull button. A burst of dazzling light flashed, and the image on the screen began flickering rapidly as the outlines of various Artifact Spirits appeared and disappeared.

Jia Youcai stared intently at the screen, his heartbeat involuntarily quickening. The light gradually faded, and the first Artifact Spirit appeared. It was an utterly ordinary Artifact Spirit, one Jia Youcai had not even seen in the illustrated guide. His heart instantly sank, and he inwardly cried out in alarm.

Then came the second, the third... one useless Artifact Spirit after another appeared.

"It's fine, it's fine. Keep going!" Jia Youcai comforted himself and immediately started a second ten-pull.

However, the result was deeply disappointing, without the slightest surprise.

The third ten-pull, the fourth, the fifth—Jia Youcai's face grew increasingly grim.

What the hell was all this stuff?

They were all worthless Artifact Spirits, Gold Soul Coins, and Remnant Souls. Gold Soul Coins were the highest universal currency for transactions in this world, while Remnant Souls could be collected and exchanged for draw tickets. This was the second way to obtain draw tickets besides directly purchasing them with Soul Coins.