Ground Ramming Card

At night, one lamp was left burning.

The spirit-powered fan in Little Sam's Card Shop whirred away.

"Actually, forcing Best's Card Repair Shop out of business wouldn't be difficult." Sitting at his own Workstation Four, Duke skillfully took out a damaged spirit card and began dismantling it.

His thoughts drifted farther afield. "I could launch more discounts on card repairs, then poach the Card Masters with high wages. Best's would basically have to close. But... aside from venting my anger, there'd be no real benefit... Once the Pioneer War began, Snakehead Town would inevitably become a materials hub."

By then, vast amounts of manpower and supplies would be sent to Snakehead Town, where they would gather before heading toward the Spirit Spring in Emerald Sea Valley.

"The era when Second Vertical Street could have only one Card Repair Shop is already hard to bring back. Even if I drove Best's Card Repair Shop out, someone else would open a new one."

"I might as well keep Best's Card Repair Shop around as a shield... A local tyrant I can crush whenever I please is far easier to deal with than an unknown dragon crossing the river." By the time Duke thought of this, he had completely let go of his grudge against Best's Card Repair Shop. After all, his life was not limited to one little Card Repair Shop. This was merely the beginning.

As long as Little Sam's Card Shop could earn enough resources for cultivation and support him in breaking free from the bottom of the supernatural world, that was enough.

Rather than sink himself into the competition between shops in every street and alley all day,

he was better off putting his energy into researching Spiritual Arcana.

Gathering his thoughts, Duke began focusing on the work in his hands. This was a discarded spirit card he had scavenged from the Scrap Card Station, a scrap card he had only managed to find after rummaging through a huge pile of garbage.

"Ground Ramming Card, 1-Ring Arcane spirit card. Multiple nodes in the ring are damaged, and the card material is fractured."

Xiao Yi reminded him in his mind.

Duke silently got to work. He peeled away the spirit card's shattered casing bit by bit, then pried open the card face and carefully picked out the completely fractured card material inside.

Once these steps were complete, the discarded spirit card was left with only the card core encasing the spell model.

He placed the card core on the ring-pulling instrument he had just activated and fixed its four corners in place. The instrument injected energy, quickly stimulating the spell model within the card core. Duke then worked a series of controls, stretching and extending the spell model compressed into a flat shape until it recovered into a complex, three-dimensional energy circuit.

Holding the Spirit Channeling Pen, he carefully observed the breaks in the energy circuit.

"First bend angle: two fractures. They can be fused using the Light Touch Method." Xiao Yi provided a repair plan.

Duke asked in his mind, "Why use the Light Touch Method for the fusion?"

"The fracture surfaces at these two breaks are radial. To prevent the radial damage from deepening, you must maintain stability through light contact..."

"Understood."

Only after fully grasping it did Duke put pen to card.

His battle aura circulated slightly, and the hand holding the Spirit Channeling Pen became steady as a rock. He gently touched the nib to the break in the energy circuit. The energy lines in his spirit sea burst into radiance, and a stream of Spiritual Power slowly flowed along the pen, gathering at the break.

The Spirit Channeling Pen was like an extension of his finger. He controlled the Spiritual Power as it continuously merged with the spirit card's energy lines until the two became indistinguishable.

The first break had been fused.

Duke did not stop. He replaced the Spirit Channeling Pen in his hand with a Spirit Cutting Knife and carefully sliced away the excess Spiritual Power at the fused break, preserving the stability of the energy flow throughout the circuit so it would not fluctuate and cause an energy overload or pressure loss.

Thus,

the first break was perfectly repaired.

Duke shifted his gaze to the next break and continued repairing it with meticulous care.

While following the plan Xiao Yi had given him, he also asked about and understood the purpose of every step in it, deepening his own understanding of energy circuits.

A closed energy circuit was a ring.

Every time he deepened his understanding of rings, his cultivation speed in the spirit sea would increase.

At the Spiritual Apprentice stage, understanding Spiritual Arcana was far more important than practicing meditation all day. Understanding Spiritual Arcana was like enlarging a kettle, while practicing meditation was like filling the kettle with water. No matter how much water was poured in, it could never exceed the kettle's capacity.

Thus, Xiao Yi's progress chart said he still needed more than two hundred days to advance to Three-star Spiritual Apprentice, but in reality, it would not take that long.

Each time he deepened his understanding of rings, he released more of the potential in his meditation method.

Before he knew it, half an hour had passed.

All the breaks in the energy circuits of the Ground Ramming Card's spell model, stimulated by the ring-pulling instrument, had been carefully restored by Duke to perfect condition.

Then, after another series of operations, the ring-pulling instrument slowly compressed the Ground Ramming Card's spell model back into a flat shape and embedded it into the card core.

Duke waited until the machine had completely stopped, removed the card core, and placed it into the spirit card testing machine on the other side.

After a clattering series of tests, the spell model operated normally. The core ring of this Ground Ramming Card had been declared successfully repaired. Next came repairing the spirit card's material.

"Unfortunately, the material itself is too badly damaged. Even after I repair it, it won't come close to the durability of an intact spirit card..."

He filled in the material, fused it, and carefully polished the joints. Duke restored the Ground Ramming Card's material to completeness, then polished it repeatedly for a while, smoothing the card face before placing it on the packaging machine to wrap it in a casing.

Once the entire process was complete, a refurbished Ground Ramming Card came fresh off the line.

Holding the card and giving it a shake, Duke looked troubled. "If I sell it, this card will be difficult to price. The material has been repaired, so it will definitely affect its performance and durability... If I sell it to a mercenary and something goes wrong with the Ground Ramming Card during battle, they'll probably come back looking for trouble... Forget it. I'll keep it and use it myself later."

Duke had always been cautious when refurbishing Arcane Cards.

After all, spirit cards of this kind were mostly used in battle. One careless mistake could ruin his reputation.

They were far less safe than refurbishing civilian cards.

Even if a civilian card broke, it would not cause any major problems and could easily be dealt with.

Holding the Ground Ramming Card, Duke gently injected a thread of Spiritual Power into it. He then sensed the ring inside the spirit card activate, and the spiritual energy within became something he could control at will with his thoughts.

Following his will, this spiritual energy could continuously compress the ground, compacting the entire stretch of earth.

It was extremely effective against prey hiding underground.

"Actually, even if I don't use it in battle, it would be great for building houses. Drop this Ground Ramming Card down, and the foundation would be absolutely solid!" Duke put the Ground Ramming Card into his pocket, then took out another discarded spirit card.

His work refurbishing spirit cards continued.

An additional income of eighty Silver Dragons a month was nothing, considering he occasionally had to work hard for a few nights.

"It's a pity I've scavenged spirit cards from the Scrap Card Station so many times, but I've seen very few discarded 2-Ring Spirit Cards. The ones that can be refurbished are even rarer... No, I haven't scavenged a single one."

Compared to the ubiquitous 1-Ring Spirit Cards, Duke hoped even more to find 2-Ring Spirit Cards.

A civilian 1-Ring Spirit Card could cost anywhere from one Silver Dragon to one Gold Dragon, but any civilian 2-Ring Spirit Card started at a minimum of ten Gold Dragons. It was not unusual for some to sell for several hundred Gold Dragons.

"Find just one, and it would be enough to feed me for a year!"