Lin Qi

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Transmigration and Early Business

Lin Qi died on Blue Star after jumping into a river to impress a woman by rescuing a dog, only to remember that he could not swim. The dog had merely entered the water to retrieve a bone and swam ashore safely. Lin Qi then found himself on the Source Card Continent as Lin Feng’s son 1.

His adult experience made him unusually precocious. At nine, he persuaded Lin Feng to leave dangerous mercenary work and invest the family’s savings in a secondhand shop. Under Lin Qi’s direction, the business earned more in a month than Lin Feng had previously earned in half a year. His father increasingly deferred to him on household decisions 1.

Despite his reputation as a genius, Lin Qi did not sense Source Power until fifteen. His childhood ambition was to become the richest man in the Furnace Kingdom, but Travels in the Furnace Kingdom later inspired a more personal dream: traveling the world as a merchant and supporting himself by selling cards 1 4 34.

Awakening and Lin Feng’s Rescue

The awakening of a seemingly useless bone card brought public ridicule and privately devastated Lin Qi. Lin Feng bought him a two-star Wind Chime Cat and encouraged him with the example of a flower-card user who had become a Card Mastery Grandmaster. Lin Qi resumed cultivating and investigating his mysterious second card 3 4.

When Stone Iron Mountain’s bandits captured Lin Feng, Lin Qi secured Alicia’s help by promising Pink Fluorite for her card beast beauty contest. Alicia dispatched Kala to rescue his father. Lin Qi fulfilled his side of the bargain after finding a fist-sized fluorite chunk inside a Burrowing Bean Mouse 6 7.

Shortly afterward, Laifu ended their relationship and left him a skeleton Summoning Card as compensation. That card became a crucial ingredient in the fusion that enabled his first ranked breakthrough 8 10.

The Wonderful Tales Shop’s Card Business

Lin Qi recognized that fusion could turn cheap basic cards into profitable merchandise. After demonstrating his ability to Lin Feng, he proposed shifting the Wonderful Tales Shop away from ordinary resale goods and toward card sales 12 15 16 23.

To conceal his own involvement, he instructed Lin Feng to claim that a reclusive master had taught him card making. Lin Qi even staged a fusion demonstration that made Lin Feng appear responsible. The cover attracted customers and eventually led the Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion to order Phantom Longswords from the shop 16 17 28.

His business expanded into custom work when Fengye sought Healing Cards for the Wild Wolf Mercenary Corps. Lin Qi negotiated payment, materials, and a favor, then secured a larger order that he estimated could generate at least five hundred thousand Ka’en in combined earnings and remaining stock 40 41.

Conflict with Wang Meng, Lei De, and Oliver

After a suspected encounter with Lei De left the Wind Chime Cat injured, Lin Qi prioritized strengthening the family over expanding the shop. He upgraded Lin Feng’s cards and later developed a material-based advancement path that transformed the Wind-Breaking Saber into the blue-quality Blazing Wind Saber 24 25 36.

At the abandoned mine, Wang Meng attacked Lin Qi over a valuable stone after killing his own companions. Lin Qi subdued him with the Eerie Vine Demon, killed him with a dagger, and recovered the crystal hidden inside the stone 33.

Oliver subsequently arrived to arrest Lin Qi for all three deaths while demanding Lin Feng’s cards and advancement materials. Lin Qi suspected Lei De had engineered the accusation. During the confrontation, he supported Lin Feng with vines and later incapacitated the accompanying guards with neurotoxin; Oliver was killed in the clash 37 38 39.

Church Connections and the Bandit Plot

Seeking an advancement path for the Wind Chime Cat, Lin Qi visited Bishop Xiaoduo. The bishop interpreted the Hellfire Skeleton as a divine transformation and declared him the Messenger of the God of the Flame Hell. Lin Qi privately attributed it to his own fusion experiment, but accepted access to Xiaoduo’s teaching, the church library, and an awakening Source Crystal 44 46.

His bandit informant Jack later warned that Lei De and Scar planned to stage an attack on Stone Iron City while kidnapping Lin Qi to extort his father. Lin Qi brought the warning to Xiaoduo, who assured him that Alicia would handle the threat 47 49.

His effort to demonstrate religious devotion had an immediate cost: three hours of prostration left his leg sore, and Xiaoduo assigned him to clean the god’s statue alone. He nevertheless returned with a piece of Fire Crystal Ore 50.

Appearance

• Build: Somewhat slender and not particularly burly 4 21.
• Height: Approximately 1.75 meters 13.
• Hair: Black 13.
• Face: Somewhat handsome, though the butcher’s extravagant praise is explicitly insincere 13.
• Clothing: Ordinary cloth clothes, described elsewhere as unfashionable 13 21.
• Expression: Clear eyes and composure beyond his years 21.

Personality

Lin Qi is commercially shrewd and attentive to leverage. He calculates fusion costs and profit margins, cultivates useful contacts, and uses Alicia’s need for Pink Fluorite to obtain help that an ordinary appeal to the authorities would likely not secure. He also deliberately waits for Alicia to request the completed fluorite rather than delivering it immediately, hoping to avoid appearing subservient 6 12 20.

His carefree manner hides intense competitiveness. The failed promise of his awakening wounds him deeply, but he responds with prolonged cultivation and systematic experiments. He records fusion results, tests hypotheses, and can become so absorbed in research that he neglects sleep 4 9 25 36.

He is protective and materially generous toward those who have cared for him. He strengthens Lin Feng’s cards, tends the injured Wind Chime Cat, and supplies Ruilian with Source Crystals and advancement materials. Conversely, he becomes ruthless when he believes enemies threaten his family or expose their secrets 24 25 38 48 50.

His tendency to manage others can become controlling. Laifu says that he regulated her outings, clothes, and conversations until their relationship felt suffocating. He also enjoys teasing people, praising his own cleverness, and making irreverent jokes even in tense situations 8 13 20 38.

Abilities & Skills

Rule Card Fusion

The vortex-shaped Rule Card combines cards into new or improved forms 9.

• Quality upgrades: Five Dust Star Iron Sword cards produce a white one-star Mercenary’s Saber; the demonstrated sword progression requires five white cards for green and ten green cards for blue 14 25.
• Cross-type combinations: Related attributes can produce new effects, including fire-and-thorn traps and wind-and-smoke concealment magic 36.
• Beast Taming Card fusion: Converts ten Gold-Digging Rat cards into two green-quality, two-star Rock-Shattering Vicious Rat cards 18.
• Material preparation: Produces refined materials used in conventional Natal Card advancement, including the Refined Iron Cards prepared for Lin Feng 36.
• Completion requirement: Initially rejects his incomplete bone card; supplying a complete skeleton allows him to develop it further 9 10.
• Costs and limits: Consumes Source Power and mental energy. Excessive use has left him unconscious or asleep for a full day and night 4 28 30.
• Non-universal results: Fusion does not always raise both star level and quality. Later smoke and trap experiments overturn his assumption that five white cards must produce a green card 43.

Natal Skeleton

His original bone card develops through Skeleton Soldier, Sword-Wielding Skeleton, and Hero’s Remains before becoming the Hellfire Skeleton 10 18 25 42.

• Repeat summoning: As a Summoning Card, the skeleton can be summoned again after destruction if Lin Qi has sufficient Source Power 10.
• Weapon integration: Recalling a skeleton together with its held weapon incorporates the weapon into its card information 15.
• Earlier skills: Fearless Charge temporarily improves attack and speed; Basic Swordsmanship provides simple sword techniques. Further fusion adds Brave Heart 18.
• Hero’s Remains: Wields a black, bone-spurred greatsword and displays golden soul fire 25.
• Hellfire fusion: Incorporates fire magic, greatswords, a Magic-Resistance Breastplate, and Boots of Stealth in an attempt to balance offense, defense, and mobility 42.

Eerie Vine Demon

A three-star, blue-quality Secondary Card developed from Parasitic Vine Seeds through Entanglement Thorn 31.

• Restrains opponents and provides defensive protection, stopping Wang Meng’s Shadow-Devouring Fang 33.
• Uses barbed vines to inject neurotoxin and incapacitate multiple guards 38.
• Grants vitality feedback that eases Lin Qi’s mental strain, along with some toxin immunity 31.

Mirage

A three-star, blue-quality card fused from ten Hazy Smokescreens 44.

• Creates illusions intended to confuse enemies and support fights against larger groups 44.
• Grants Illusion Breaking, allowing Lin Qi to see through illusions and disguises within a limited range 44.

Cultivation and Deck Building

• Exhaustion-and-recovery training: Repeated fusion expands his Source Power reserves beyond those typical of his rank 19 30.
• Rapid crystal absorption: Absorbs a Source Crystal in roughly ten minutes, compared with the several hours required by his Five-Star Card Master father 44.
• Meditative concentration: Can observe his internal Source Power flow and naturally enter deep concentration 28.
• Card synergy: Plans combinations of skeleton offense, vine control, and the Wind Chime Cat rather than selecting unrelated Secondary Cards 31.
• Advancement research: Uses hundreds of attribute-combination experiments to establish a workable evolution path for Lin Feng’s saber 36.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Wind Chime Cat Beast Taming Card — A two-star card purchased by Lin Feng for ten thousand Ka’en; becomes Lin Qi’s first Secondary Card 4 10.
• Boots of Stealth — Three-star footwear Lin Qi makes and wears 31.
• Storage Card — Gifted by Fiona with card-making supplies inside; can be stored in his Card Slot Space without occupying a slot 29.
• Dagger — Used to kill Wang Meng at the mine 33.
• Source Crystals — Used to replenish Source Power and accelerate cultivation 43 44.
• Awakening Source Crystal — A valuable gift from Xiaoduo following his recognition as a divine messenger 46.
• Travels in the Furnace Kingdom — A former tutor’s gift that broadens his knowledge of the world and inspires his traveling-merchant ambition 34.

Relationships

• Lin Feng — Father and business partner. Trusts Lin Qi’s judgment and serves as the public face of their card-making operation; Lin Qi supplies his equipment and designs his Natal Card advancement 1 16 36.
• Ruilian — Lin Feng’s former mercenary companion and an uncle-like caregiver who helped raise Lin Qi. Lin Qi repays him with cards, Source Crystals, and advancement materials 19 48 50.
• Wind Chime Cat — Affectionate bonded card beast. Lin Qi considers its Secondary Card slot irreplaceable and actively seeks a stronger evolution path for it 24 29 46.
• Laifu — Childhood girlfriend, dating him from age ten. Ends their relationship over his controlling behavior and admits she has had another boyfriend for two months; leaves the skeleton card used in his breakthrough 8 10.
• Alicia — City lord’s daughter and a useful but initially unimpressed contact. Helps rescue Lin Feng, criticizes Lin Qi’s choice of money over cat-advancement materials, and later reassesses him after seeing his interest in history 6 21 48.
• Bishop Xiaoduo — Recognizes him as a divine messenger and offers instruction, library access, and material support. Lin Qi also seeks his protection against the bandit plot 46 49.
• Fiona — Ten Thousand Cards Pavilion manager who cultivates ties with the supposedly card-making Lin Feng through Lin Qi 28 29.
• Kane — Pavilion salesperson whom Lin Qi insists on retaining as his attendant. Lin Qi’s purchases help him reach a promotion threshold 23.
• Fengye — Wild Wolf Mercenary Corps deputy leader and major Healing Card customer. Also agrees to search Xinyao City for skeleton-type Summoning Cards 40 41.
• Jack — Paid bandit informant whose cooperation previously protected the shop’s shipments. Warns Lin Qi about the planned kidnapping 6 47.
• Wang Meng — Former childhood follower turned antagonist. Attacks Lin Qi at the mine and is killed after being restrained 13 33.
• Lei De — Lin Feng’s enemy and the suspected organizer of Oliver’s accusation. Later identified as a participant in the scheme to kidnap Lin Qi 37 47.

Notable Quotes

“Even if you are a bone, I'm going to figure you out!” 4

“The Rose Count cultivated from a trash card all the way to Card Mastery Grandmaster, so why can't I, Lin Qi, do the same?” 9

“When reading, start with history. Only by understanding history can you understand the true meaning of the world.” 48