Card Making: My Card Game Starts with the White Dragon

After the words "[Third Prince of the Jade Dragon of the West Sea]" were written, Zhou Hao seemed to hear a dragon's roar.

Several [Material Cards] also released specks of light, condensing into the light and shadow of monsters.

For a time, the sounds of dragons roaring, tigers howling, horses neighing, eagles crying, cattle bellowing, and camels braying filled the air.

But as time went by, the sounds faded away, and the lights and shadows gradually dimmed as well.

Zhou Hao quickly picked up his pen and continued writing the story:

The dragon is the chief of all scaled creatures. Its horns resemble those of a deer, its head a camel, its eyes a rabbit, its ears a cow, its body a snake, its claws an eagle, its scales a fish, its belly a clam, and its paws a tiger.

Dragons are born of water, adorned with five colors, and thus are considered divine. When they wish to be small, they transform into silkworms; when they wish to be large, they hide within the world; when they wish to soar, they rise above the clouds; when they wish to descend, they enter deep springs. Their transformations are without daylight, their ascents and descents without time; this is what makes them divine.

[The dragon reigns over the four seas. In the Western Sea dwells a Dragon King named Ao Run. Ao Run has three sons, Ao Lie, also known as the Third Prince of the Jade Dragon, who has loved swords since childhood.]

[Later, Ao Lie set fire to the Heavenly Pearl and was sentenced to death. Fortunately, Guanyin Bodhisattva of the South Sea intervened and allowed him to atone for his crime by serving as a porter for Tang Sanzang on his journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures.]

On that day, when Tang Sanzang was on his journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures, he passed through Eagle's Sorrow Gorge. Ao Lie revealed his dragon form and swallowed and killed Tang Sanzang's white horse.

[Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang's first disciple, fought fiercely with Ao Lie. Ao Lie was no match for him and dived into the water.]

Sun Wukong continued his cursing and taunts, unleashing his power to overturn rivers and seas, causing a brief disturbance in Eagle's Sorrow Stream. Ao Lie went ashore to fight him again, but was no match for him, so he transformed into a water snake and fled.

Zhou Hao stopped writing here, even though there was still ink left.

The reason is that what follows is the part where Guanyin transforms Ao Lie into a white dragon horse.

He had heard a conjecture in his previous life that made him somewhat hesitant about this story.

In the original Journey to the West, the White Dragon Horse was able to exchange a few blows with Sun Wukong in the early stages.

Later, in the Kingdom of Baoxiang, he was no match for the Yellow Robe Monster, and he rarely made a move even on the journey to the West.

Some analysts believe this is because in the original Journey to the West, when Guanyin Bodhisattva transformed the White Dragon into a white dragon horse,

They removed the pearl from its neck; that pearl was actually the white dragon's dragon pearl, equivalent to the inner core of a demon.

Once the inner core is removed, all magical power and cultivation will be in vain, and naturally, divine power will be greatly reduced.

While this analysis is subjective, Zhou Hao felt it wasn't entirely without merit.

After all, what he urgently needs right now is not a mount like the White Dragon Horse, but the combat power of the Third Prince of the Jade Dragon of the West Sea.

If this story really does give him more mounts but less combat power, then Zhou Hao will truly be devastated.

Even though the story is incomplete, the handwriting is already dazzling and radiant.

The surrounding [material cards] shone brightly, illuminating Zhou Hao's mental space even more.

The writing process may seem brief, but Zhou Hao had poured all his knowledge of Ao Lie, the Third Prince of the Jade Dragon of the West Sea, into these words.

It seems that the "card-making rules" in the dark also recognize concepts such as the Heavenly Court, the Dragon King of the West Sea, Guanyin Bodhisattva of the South Sea, and Sun Wukong.

That makes sense. Most cards created by card makers can be materialized, so these myths that once truly circulated on Earth would naturally have no problem.

But it was far from time to relax. Zhou Hao picked up the drawing pen again, dipped the tip in the spiritual liquid, and began to draw the card.

In his previous life, Zhou Hao was an art student, but he was unemployed after graduation, which forced him to become a mythology popularization YouTuber.

Although I haven't painted for many years, my aesthetic sense and composition skills are still there.

The original owner of this body had been learning painting since childhood, and painting was ingrained in his bones, so drawing cards was not a difficult task for him.

Zhou Hao wielded his brush with lightning speed, and soon, a beautiful white dragon painting appeared on the scroll.

The White Dragon painting is predominantly black and blue, with the Western Sea as its background.

Dark clouds loomed over the sea, and turbulent waves surged.

At the crest of the waves, countless shrimp soldiers, crab generals, and ferocious sea beasts, carrying ceremonial guards and holding up canopies, surrounded a young boy.

The young man had a cool and aloof look, wore elegant clothes and had white hair. He had a sword at his waist and was handsome and otherworldly. Behind him, a huge white dragon shadow appeared.

The dragon's shadow was ethereal, its eyes radiating indifference and arrogance, its scales gleaming with a golden and jade-like luster, exuding an indescribable majesty and nobility.

"The classic white-haired, grumpy face, but being born into the Dragon King's family, who rules over a region, it's only natural for him to be aloof and indifferent."

Zhou Hao became more and more satisfied as he looked at the card. After admiring it for a moment, he continued to finish the card, which was to draw the back of the card.

The patterns on the back of the card are actually the best indicator of a card maker's skill.

How to make the back of a card both perfectly function as a spiritual loop and aesthetically pleasing is a complex art.

Fortunately, this field of study is open nationwide; the original author had studied card making for many years.

Having already developed muscle memory for these basic [Summoning Card] patterns, it was naturally easy to complete.

As the last stroke was made, the illusory image of the brushstrokes on the enormous scroll slowly dissipated.

[Material Card] Like streams of light water, they crashed straight into the fading painting, creating a series of waves.

In the distance, amidst the gray fog, Zhou Hao seemed to see the phantom of an old dragon that could summon clouds and rain, as well as a crystal-clear palace.

Further away, however, were blurry silhouettes of a monkey holding a stick and a monk. Looking even further, the golden light was so dazzling that they could no longer be seen.

As the illusory light dissipated, the gray mist beside Zhou Hao also slowly dissipated, and he felt his whole body sinking.

Suddenly, a high-pitched dragon roar was heard, and a white dragon, its body as white as jade, rose from the gray mist and clouds.

Zhou Hao's feeling of weightlessness vanished abruptly, and when he came to his senses, he was already sitting upright on the dragon's head.

It felt as if I had truly become a carefree immortal, riding the wind and dragons, roaming freely between heaven and earth.

"Thanks……"

Zhou Hao was reveling in this dreamlike scene when he suddenly heard a strange yet clear young voice in his heart.

Before he could react, the light and shadow before his eyes suddenly changed, turning into white dragons, gray mist, and golden silhouettes, all dissipating like fleeting clouds.

When his pupils refocused, Zhou Hao was back in that familiar study.

He was still a little dazed, puzzled by the "thank you" he had just heard.

"I've never heard of this happening when making cards. Is it this card? Or is it just my imagination?"

Or rather, can these cards truly communicate with the gods?

Zhou Hao was unaware of this; he was just a newbie who had just created his first card and his understanding of this world was far from sufficient.

But this card is indeed of great importance, as it has stirred up the Four Dragon Kings, the pilgrimage team, the Heavenly Court, Buddhism, and so on.

The golden silhouettes that appeared at the end seemed to contain a lot of information, but the card's foundation was too weak to bear so much.

Suddenly, a bold guess flashed through Zhou Hao's mind: "Could it really be as netizens in my previous life predicted?"

The pearl that Guanyin Bodhisattva took from her neck was actually the White Dragon's inner core, and the White Dragon's final "thank you"...

Is this a way of thanking me for not pushing him to that end?

……