First Card Repair

"Little Duke!"

Bob was always the first to arrive at Little Sam's Card Shop. Since he couldn't repair cards, he was mainly responsible for logistics and greeting customers. Only diligence could earn him a place there.

"Morning, Bob."

"Morning, morning." Bob looked Duke up and down with some surprise.

He wore a white shirt underneath, a blue neckerchief around his collar, and a dark-blue lightweight jacket over it, with both sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His lower half was clad in coffee-colored casual trousers, secured with a brown belt, and he wore a pair of black broad-toed leather shoes.

A brown leather tool bag hung from his shoulder.

His blackish-brown hair was slightly naturally curly, about fifteen centimeters long, and parted thirty-seventy. His handsome face had sharply defined features, and his skin was full of collagen.

Compared with before, Duke now possessed an indescribable vigor, along with a carefree air.

That appearance alone put him ahead of most people.

"Bob, what do I need to do? Has the boss given me any instructions?" Duke was no longer an apprentice worker, so he needed to ask what his new duties were.

Bob came back to himself and hurriedly said, "The boss announced three days ago that you'd become a regular employee. He hasn't assigned you any specific work for now. He only told you to follow him or one of the three Card Masters and learn card repair techniques."

"All right."

"Um..." Bob was somewhat puzzled. "Little Duke, what did you do for the boss to suddenly make you a regular employee?"

"It's nothing much. I just opened my Spirit Sea." Duke smiled in response. It wasn't a secret, and there was no need to hide it, much like getting into university after the college entrance examination.

"Y-you opened your Spirit Sea!" Bob's eyes widened. "You mean... you opened your Spirit Sea and actually succeeded?"

"Yes."

"Oh, ah... congratulations, Little Duke." Bob's smile twisted somewhat.

Duke didn't mind. He simply said, "The Card Masters haven't arrived yet. If there's no other work arranged, I'll go read for a while."

"All right, suit yourself."

Bob watched Duke go to a corner, take a book from his leather tool bag, and start reading. He then drew a deep breath, hurried to the repair area, and grabbed Bobby, who was lazily wiping a table.

Bobby was his son.

"Go congratulate Duke."

"What?" Bobby looked as though he had just woken up.

"Go congratulate Duke. You're good friends, aren't you? He's successfully opened his Spirit Sea and become a Spiritual Apprentice. He'll definitely become a Card Master in the future."

Bobby froze for a moment, then cried out, "How is that possible!"

As an apprentice worker himself, Bobby found it impossible to believe.

He knew that Duke had secretly saved money before, buying both Qi Boosting Potions and Blood Boiling Potions. In the end, he had failed to open either his Qi Sea or Blood Sea. Clearly, he was just an ordinary person like everyone else, with no cultivation talent.

Moreover, of the three seas, the Spirit Sea was the hardest to open.

"He couldn't even open his Qi Sea or Blood Sea. How could he possibly open his Spirit Sea!" Bobby shook his head. "Dad, don't lie to me."

Smack!

Bob slapped Bobby across the head. "Go!"

Bobby wasn't stupid. Seeing his father's stern attitude, he had no choice but to believe it, no matter how unwilling he was. He dropped the rag and went to congratulate Duke, reluctant every step of the way.

"Duke..."

"What is it, Bobby?" Duke asked knowingly. After opening his Spirit Sea, his five senses had become considerably sharper, and he had already overheard the conversation between father and son.

"Did you open your Spirit Sea?"

"I did."

"No way, you really opened it?" Bobby still wasn't willing to give up. "How did you open your Spirit Sea? Didn't you just fail to open your Blood Sea? This is too outrageous."

"I borrowed some money from the boss and bought a Spirit Awakening Potion to take a gamble. Then I won." As he spoke, Duke pulled the Spirit Card from his pocket and waved it once. "The day before yesterday, I went to Chen Jiao City with a delivery truck and registered as a Spiritual Apprentice at the Spirit Tower."

"Spirit Card!" Bobby's eyes widened.

He wanted to take the Spirit Card and have a proper look, but he couldn't bring himself to ask. After all, just a few days ago, he and Thomas had mocked Duke for wasting his money and foolishly dreaming of opening all three seas.

The turnabout was too abrupt for him.

Once he confirmed that Duke really had opened his Spirit Sea, Bobby could no longer keep up appearances. He mumbled, "You're really lucky. Congratulations. I'm going to wipe the tables first."

"Go ahead." Duke waved him off.

He was truly in a good mood.

From the attitudes of Bob and Bobby, father and son, he could clearly feel that opening the Spirit Sea—even as merely a newly registered One-Star Spiritual Apprentice—represented a tremendous leap in status.

In the supernatural world, supernatural power was the truth.

At eight in the morning, Old Sam entered the shop. Duke immediately shared the good news that he had opened his Spirit Sea.

After his initial surprise, Old Sam was delighted for Duke. "Now your chances of becoming a scholar have increased quite a bit. Keep working hard, you lucky and clever young man."

Duke took the opportunity to say, "Boss, I'd like to try repairing a discarded Spirit Card."

"Hmm, you've cultivated Spirit Liquid?"

"Yes."

"Then find some discarded cards and try them yourself. I'm too lazy to repair cards right now, so use my workbench."

There was naturally a large pile of discarded Spirit Cards in the Card Repair Shop. Duke picked out the most common one among them, a Spirit Dragon Card, then activated the Spirit Card inspection machine to examine the energy circuits inside.

As the machine activated the energy circuits, the circuits within the Spirit Dragon Card could be seen to be fractured as if they had suffered shattered bones, breaking into countless tiny segments.

"Xiao Yi, assist me in repairing it."

"All right, Master. Xiao Yi will tell Master the repair steps, and Master will perform the repairs personally."

Xiao Yi was the best intelligent auxiliary tool. Unfortunately, she couldn't materialize or control Duke's hands herself, and could only provide theoretical and technical support.

"The ring of this Spirit Dragon Card is broken into twenty-seven segments. Based on the structure of a normal ring, there should be another six energy routes that have dispersed, so the Spirit Card cannot be fully repaired."

"We don't need to repair it completely. Let's use it for practice. We'll work together and connect one energy route."

Peeling off the outer layer and prying open the card shell—

Duke was already thoroughly familiar with these basic card-repair procedures.

The energy routes were now completely exposed before his eyes.

He picked up a Spirit Channeling Pen. It was a kind of spirit artifact that could perfectly transmit the operator's spirituality, transform it into stable spiritual energy, and draw energy routes.

At once.

He felt the Spirit Liquid in his Spirit Sea slowly flow through his arm and into the Spirit Channeling Pen.

Duke gathered his thoughts and focused on the discarded Dragon Spirit Card. With Xiao Yi's assistance, he found two energy routes that were still faintly connected, then slowly lowered the Spirit Channeling Pen.

With a pop.

A massive surge of Spiritual Power gushed from the pen tip, directly smearing over the energy routes. The excessive spiritual energy instantly burst the two routes apart, destroying them completely.

"Too much energy was infused. Repair failed," Xiao Yi concluded.

"I know. Again."

For an entire hour, Duke tirelessly repaired the Spirit Dragon Card. By the time he had ruined every energy route in the entire card, he still hadn't successfully repaired even one.

"It sounds simple, but doing it... is really hard!"