The Swelling Population

Back at the hotel, Zhang Zhi connected his consciousness to the World Bead.

Staring at the gray card slots on the World Bead, he felt a bit like complaining—all the gray cards had definitely been converted by him into white or even green cards, so those gray slots were completely useless.

Speaking of card conversion, Zhang Zhi suddenly realized something.

So far, he had only converted gray cards into white cards. After that, he subconsciously assumed he could convert white ones into green.

And even if he actually could, he had no idea how much Mental Power it would take to turn a white card into a green one. With that thought, he moved his consciousness, disconnected from the World Bead, and entered the Sea of Consciousness.

The cards he had bought at the Black Market last night had already been refined into the Sea of Consciousness.

Looking at the cards in his Sea of Consciousness, he pondered for a moment before finally focusing on those seven gray Character Cards.

People were the foundation of everything, after all.

A moment later, Zhang Zhi stared in astonishment at the Human Cards in his Sea of Consciousness.

Those seven gray Human Cards couldn't advance!

After absorbing a certain amount of Mental Power, those seven gray Human Cards simply stopped absorbing any more!

Gazing at the human portraits on those gray cards, he gradually formed a rough guess:

The humans in the cards came from other Small Worlds and secret realms—they were real, not conjured out of thin air.

If that was the case, these humans had inherent limits to their potential from birth.

His Mental Power couldn't create humans out of thin air; in other words, what his Mental Power enhanced was the quality of the humans within the cards, not their quantity.

When a card's human potential was raised to its own ceiling, it couldn't be improved further.

The quality—or potential—of the humans in these cards wasn't enough to let the card advance. Or rather, their potential couldn't absorb enough Mental Power, so in the end, these Human Cards remained gray.

But this was just his speculation. To verify it, he'd need to buy more gray Human Cards and see if any of them could successfully advance.

Looking at those gray cards, he chuckled self-deprecatingly: "I just said gray card slots were useless. See, now they're useful."

Since Human Cards were a no-go, he'd have to use other cards.

He'd originally wanted to upgrade that Flat Peach Card, but considering it wasn't an urgent need for the Small World, he ultimately chose an Iron Mine Card.

The Small World was desperately short of iron ore, especially graded iron ore. The thousands of Blood Refining cultivators at the Elite Realm and Fang Yun's dozen or so at the Mortal Transformation Realm all urgently needed proper weapons.

Of course, right now, aside from food, there was nothing his Small World didn't lack.

The original white-grade Iron Mine Card, if integrated into the Small World, would form iron deposits roughly ten times larger than a gray one, with a decent chance of producing Fine Iron Ore.

In the end, that white Iron Mine Card absorbed twenty-seven points of Mental Power and evolved into a green-grade Iron Mine Card.

A green-grade Iron Mine Card, when integrated into the Small World, would be ten times larger and higher in quality than a white one. Not only would it yield a decent amount of Fine Iron Ore, but it could also produce a small quantity of Mystic Iron Ore, suitable for forging Mortal Transformation Realm weapons.

Watching the green-glowing Iron Mine Card in his Sea of Consciousness, Zhang Zhi let out a light sigh.

Sensing that the green Iron Mine Card could still absorb Mental Power, he finally found some consolation for the disappointment of not being able to forcibly upgrade Human Cards.

For now, it seemed green grade wasn't the ceiling of his Mental Power's enhancement.

After slotting this green card in, he stretched.

He was left with only two points of Mental Power—completely drained.

Having confirmed that his Golden Finger could evolve gray cards into green ones, his plan for the next few days was clear: integrate all the Human Cards the Principal had given him today into the Small World!

And he had to get it done before the Heaven and Earth Trial!

Heaven and Earth were the most fair and impartial. If you passed the Heaven and Earth Trial, they would surely reward you.

After passing the trial, all life in the Small World—especially humans—would receive Heaven and Earth's blessing. Simply put, almost everyone would have some aspect of their traits—like potential, intelligence, or physique—enhanced by Heaven and Earth.

So, the more people in the Small World at that time, the more would receive Heaven and Earth's rewards. The more people, the higher the chance of producing a few extraordinary geniuses.

Not to mention someone like Fang Yun.

Oh, no—half of that would do. I'd be satisfied with a few geniuses with half of Fang Yun's potential.

Since he had some free time, Zhang Zhi pulled out all the cards he had.

First, the dozens of Beastman Cards he'd gotten from Night Shadow. He couldn't use these himself, and they weren't suitable to sell for now, so he set them aside.

Next were those five Crossbowman Cards. Integrating them into the Small World would directly add a hundred crossbowmen, but they weren't much use to his Small World. It'd be better to sell them for other cards.

Then came the Human Cards the Principal had given him today.

Looking at that thick stack of Human Cards, Zhang Zhi chuckled lightly. It seemed people on the Human Path all understood how high the demand for population was.

One green card held roughly fifteen hundred to two thousand people. Ninety-five white cards, each with a hundred twenty to a hundred fifty.

His Small World's population would suddenly jump to nearly fifty thousand.

Zhang Zhi shook his head with a smile, thinking, They gave me so many Human Cards—aren't they afraid I won't be able to feed all these people at once?

Finally, there was the most valuable card: the green Dragon Gate Card. With so many Human Cards now, he was leaning even more toward integrating this card into the Small World.

The thought of feeding over fifty thousand Blood Refining cultivators made his scalp tingle. If he could integrate this Dragon Gate Card, along with some Fish Cards, the food problem might just be solved.

Zhang Zhi gritted his teeth and decided that tomorrow, he'd use his Mental Power to integrate this card, then add some Fish Cards, so Fang Yun wouldn't complain about being dumped with such a huge burden all at once.

Just then, with little Mental Power left and nothing else to do, Zhang Zhi decided to make another trip to the Black Market.

He wandered around the Black Market and bought four gray Scale Fish Cards, one gray Tiger Fish Card, and one gray Seven-Star Fish Card.

He also picked up a gray Blade Forging Skill Card for the "Three Forging Blade." After circling the area and finding no other cards he needed, he left the Black Market.

He still had too many cards waiting to be refined. Unless he came across a card he deemed essential for the Small World, he wasn't in a rush to collect more.

On this trip to the Black Market, there were still people openly buying Beastman World Path cards at a 20% premium.

Once outside the Black Market, he couldn't be bothered to take a roundabout route this time. He simply swaggered straight back to the hotel.