Page 24

Fenghua Club and Judgment were both top-tier Card League clubs, and their players were immensely popular pros. Their guilds constantly clashed in the game, so naturally, the two sides were far from friendly.

Red Candle turned to leave, but Setting Sun stopped her with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Sister Hong, long time no see. What have you been busy with lately?"

"I came to the Black Market to buy some cards and materials," Red Candle said coldly.

"Preparing for the new season?"

"Mm." Red Candle hurriedly turned and left.

Setting Sun did not stop her again and leisurely strolled through the Black Market.

Guilds generally had their guild merchants purchase top-quality cards from card specialty stores on Commercial Street. Those stores carried plenty of finished high-star cards that could be used immediately after purchase. The chances of finding a top-quality card in the Black Market were extremely low, and most of the cards there were one-star to four-star low-level collector cards with little combat value. But whenever a top-quality card appeared, it often led them to talented new card makers.

Fenghua Club's lead card player, Tang Muzhou, had risen to prominence in the Black Market.

Several years had passed since Tang Muzhou's plant cards swept through the Black Market, yet old players still found the memory terrifying. Back then, newcomer Tang Muzhou had used the character "Tang" as his logo and made a huge batch of plant cards to sell in the Black Market. They were instantly bought out. Later, Tang Muzhou, who had made a fortune, used his exceptional card-making talent to single-handedly revive the wood-element deck, which had languished for a long time.

Ace player agent Xue Linxiang and Fenghua Guild's president Red Candle were both formidable figures he had brought out of the online game.

Tang Muzhou's emergence dealt a powerful blow to the Card League in its fifth season. A massive reshuffling eliminated many veteran players while allowing countless newcomers to rise. Since then, no single element had ever dominated the five-element cards again. The various decks gradually became more balanced, players of every element developed their own distinctive styles, and the competitions became even more exciting to watch.

Perhaps because of Tang Muzhou's influence, coupled with Sister Red Candle's fondness for browsing the Black Market, the Black Market became a treasure trove for major guilds seeking talent. The managers of every guild also developed the habit of "browsing the Black Market whenever they had nothing better to do."

Unfortunately, in the five full years since Tang God, not a single professional player had started out by selling cards in the Black Market.

Setting Sun browsed the Black Market while reminiscing about the past.

Just then, he suddenly received a private message from the spy he had planted in Fenghua Guild. "Boss, Red Candle suddenly sent people to buy beautiful female character cards, saying she wants to collect them. She also privately set up a stall in the Black Market offering high prices for character cards."

Setting Sun froze. "Why is she buying character cards?"

The spy said, "She says she's recently taken a liking to character cards and wants to buy some for her collection."

Setting Sun had no idea what Red Candle was up to, so he instructed the spy, "Keep following up. Tell me immediately if you hear anything."

In truth, Red Candle had no choice. After waiting for a long time without spotting the person selling cards, she decided to lure the snake out of its hole—she directly set up a large stall in the Black Market called "Buying beautiful female character cards with collector value at high prices." The only thing missing was a direct sign reading "Daiyu Burying Flowers."

Every guild planted spies in the others, and everyone knew it. So Red Candle kept a low profile and did not dare mention the Daiyu Card. Her actions left all the major guilds in the game baffled, and they began speculating about her reasons.

What left Red Candle torn between laughter and tears was that once the purchasing stall opened, all sorts of random card makers came to sell her beautiful female character cards. In just half an hour, she had seen beauty cards in every imaginable style.

Surrounded by beautiful women, Red Candle could not voice her suffering. She could only hope that the fellow called Yueban would show up soon!

Xie Mingzhe was destined not to appear at that purchasing stall, because he had stopped drawing Lin Daiyu.

That was the conclusion he reached after browsing the Black Market twice—in a game that had been running for ten years, artists of every style emerged endlessly. Handsome male and beautiful female cards were everywhere, and character cards suffered from a severe sales slump.

Aside from the laid-back players who casually raised cards for fun, most players in this game were competitive enthusiasts. The auction had made that clear: no matter how adorable pet cards were, they sold for only a few thousand gold coins at most, while the top-tier combat card Tuberose sold for the astronomical price of 660,000 gold coins. Passionate players cared far more about card attributes than their appearance.

Therefore, whether a character was attractive was secondary. Powerful combat ability was what truly mattered.

Having figured that out, Xie Mingzhe temporarily abandoned the idea of drawing the beauties from Dream of the Red Chamber and turned his attention to Water Margin.

Of the formidable fighters in Water Margin, the first one he thought of was Wu Song.

He had loved reading novels and comics since childhood. He had been only six when he read Water Margin picture books. Those books had been donated to the orphanage by a philanthropist, and he held those picture books every day, reading them with great fascination. He thought Wu Song was unbelievably cool for beating a living tiger to death with just a few punches—a real man, a true tough guy! Unfortunately, he could not remember the Wu Song from the television dramas very clearly, but he did remember the black-and-white illustrations from the picture books.

Xie Mingzhe first pictured the scene of Wu Song fighting the tiger in his mind. Once he had settled on it, he took out Nebula Paper and began attempting to make a new card.

Since he only remembered the black-and-white picture books, this composition was much simpler than Daiyu Burying Flowers.

As his mental energy slowly flowed in, a black-and-white ink-wash illustration gradually appeared on the Nebula Paper—an imposing man clenched his fist, veins bulging across it. As he threw a punch, it landed squarely on the tiger's head. The tiger's brains splattered from the blow, and it died on the spot!

System: "Card successfully created. Please connect to the database for review!"

With his experience reviewing the Lin Daiyu card, Xie Mingzhe waited patiently this time. A few minutes later, the approval notification sounded in his ear, and he skillfully stamped his "Yueban" logo on the back of the card.

It was still a low-level starter card. Xie Mingzhe picked it up and carefully examined the new card's data.

Wu Song (Fire)

Level: 1

Evolution Stars: ★

Uses Available: 1/1

Base Attributes: Health 300, Defense 300, Attack 300, Agility 10, Critical Hit Rate 20%,