Back at the hotel, Zhang Zhi connected his consciousness to the World Bead.
Looking at the gray card slots on the World Bead, he felt like complaining. He had definitely converted all the Gray Cards into White Cards, and even Green Cards, so those gray card slots were completely useless.
Speaking of card conversion, Zhang Zhi suddenly realized something.
So far, he had only converted Gray Cards into White Cards. Afterward, he had subconsciously assumed that he could convert White Cards into Green Cards.
Moreover, even if that was truly possible, he had no idea how much Mental Power it would take to convert a White Card into a Green Card. With that thought, he moved his consciousness, severed his connection with the World Bead, and entered his sea of consciousness.
The cards he had purchased at the Black Market last night had already been refined into his sea of consciousness.
Looking at the cards in his sea of consciousness, he pondered for a while before finally turning his gaze toward the seven gray Character Cards.
People were the foundation of everything, after all.
A while later, Zhang Zhi stared at the human cards in his sea of consciousness, his face full of astonishment.
The seven gray Human Cards actually could not advance!
After absorbing a certain amount of Mental Power, the seven gray Human Cards actually stopped absorbing it altogether!
Looking at the human portraits on the gray cards, he gradually formed a rough guess:
The humans in the cards came from other Small Worlds and secret realms. They truly existed and had not been generated out of thin air.
If that was the case, then the aptitude these humans were born with had an upper limit.
His Mental Power could not create humans out of thin air. In other words, what his Mental Power improved was the quality of the humans inside the cards, not their quantity.
Once the aptitude of the humans in a card had been raised to their inherent limit, it could no longer be improved.
The quality of the humans in these cards—in other words, their aptitude—was not enough to let the cards advance. Or rather, their aptitude could not absorb too much Mental Power, which was why these Human Cards ultimately remained Gray Cards.
However, this was only his guess. To verify it, he could purchase more gray Human Cards and see whether any of them successfully advanced.
Looking at the gray cards, he mocked himself. "I just said that gray card slots were useless. Look, aren't they useful now?"
Since Human Cards would not work, he could only use other cards.
He had originally intended to improve the Flat Peach Card, but considering that the Small World did not urgently need it at present, he ultimately chose an Iron Mine Card instead.
The Small World was currently desperately short of iron ore, especially iron ore with ranks. The several thousand Blood Refining cultivators in the Elite Realm and the dozen or so Mortal Transformation Realm cultivators, including Fang Yun, all urgently needed suitable weapons.
Of course, apart from food, there was nothing the Small World was not short of right now.
If the original White Rank Iron Mine Card were merged into the Small World, the resulting iron mine would be more than ten times the scale of a gray one, and there would also be a certain chance of producing Fine Iron Ore.
In the end, after absorbing twenty-seven points of Mental Power, the White Iron Mine Card turned into a Green Rank Iron Mine Card.
If the Green Rank Iron Mine Card were merged into the Small World, its scale and quality would also be more than ten times those of a White Rank card. It could produce not only a certain amount of Fine Iron Ore but also a small amount of Mystic Iron Ore capable of being forged into weapons for the Mortal Transformation Realm.
Looking at the Iron Mine Card flashing with green light in his sea of consciousness, Zhang Zhi let out a soft breath.
When he sensed that the Green Iron Mine Card could still absorb Mental Power, the disappointment he had felt at being unable to forcibly improve Human Cards finally found a little balance here.
At present, it seemed that Green Rank was not the limit of what his Mental Power could improve.
After placing the Green Card into the card slot, he stretched lazily.
He had only two points of Mental Power left. He had been completely drained.
He had confirmed that his Golden Finger could evolve Gray Cards into Green Cards.
His plan for the next few days was to merge all the Human Cards the Principal had given him today into the Small World!
Moreover, he had to strive to finish this before the Heaven and Earth Trial!
Heaven and Earth were the fairest and most impartial of all. If one passed the Heaven and Earth Trial, Heaven and Earth would definitely grant one a reward.
After passing the Heaven and Earth Trial, all living beings in the Small World, especially humans, would receive Heaven and Earth's blessing. Put simply, certain traits of nearly everyone—such as aptitude, Wisdom, and constitution—would be improved by Heaven and Earth.
Therefore, the more people there were in the Small World at that time, the more people would naturally receive the Heaven and Earth reward. The more people there were, the higher the probability of producing a few geniuses of extraordinary talent.
Putting everything else aside, someone like Fang Yun—
No, even half would do. He would be satisfied if a few geniuses with half of Fang Yun's aptitude appeared.
Taking advantage of his free time, Zhang Zhi took out all the cards he had.
First were the dozens of Beastman Cards he had obtained from Night Shadow. He could not use these cards, and it was not suitable to sell them for the time being, so he set them aside.
Next were the five Crossbowman Cards. Merging these cards into the Small World would directly produce one hundred crossbowmen. They were not very useful to his Small World, so selling them in exchange for other cards would be more worthwhile.
Then there were the Human Cards the Principal had given him today.
Looking at the large stack of Human Cards, Zhang Zhi chuckled softly. It seemed that those who followed the Human Path all understood how great the human world's need for population was.
A Green Card contained roughly 1,500 to 2,000 people, while each of the ninety-five White Cards contained 120 to 150.
The population of his Small World would increase to nearly fifty thousand all at once.
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 this many people?
Finally, there was the most valuable card of all: the Green Dragon Gate Card. Now that he had so many Human Cards, he was instead more inclined to merge this card into the Small World.
The thought of feeding more than fifty thousand people practicing Blood Refining made his scalp go numb. If he could merge this Dragon Gate Card into the Small World and then merge in some Fish Cards, the food problem might be solved.
Zhang Zhi gritted his teeth and decided to merge this card tomorrow as soon as he had enough Mental Power, then merge in some Fish Cards as well, so Fang Yun would not complain that he had suddenly dumped such enormous pressure on him.
As he happened to have very little Mental Power and could not do much anyway, Zhang Zhi simply went to the Black Market again.
After walking around the Black Market, he bought four gray Scale Fish Cards, one gray Tiger Fish Card, and one gray Seven-Star Fish Card.
He also bought a gray "Three Forging Blade" Blade Forging Skill Card. After walking around and finding no other cards he needed, he left the Black Market.
He still had far too many cards waiting to be refined. Unless they were essential cards he believed would be useful to the Small World, he was not in a hurry to collect them for now.
During this trip to the Black Market, there were still people publicly purchasing cards from the Beastman World Path at a twenty-percent premium.
After leaving the Black Market, he could not be bothered to take any more detours. He swaggered straight back to the hotel.
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