The Mysterious Card Maker: Starting with Zhang Jiao's Deification

Lin Fan and Da Niu searched high and low in the villa, but couldn't find anything to fill their stomachs.

"Your foundation is something else, you can't even find anything to eat in such a big villa," Lin Fan couldn't help but complain.

Da Niu scratched his head and said with a smile, "Mr. Lin, why don't you wait here and I'll go to the kitchen to get you some, but you can't run out, otherwise I won't be able to explain it to Miss Su."

"Okay, you go ahead, I won't go out." Lin Fan didn't dare to go out; it wouldn't be good if he ran into the All Souls Society.

Just as Da Niu was about to leave, the villa's door suddenly opened.

"Mr. Lin!" Xiaoyun rushed in, pushing a small food cart. Her face was slightly flushed and her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat as she ran.

"The front hall is so busy, I'm so sorry. If Miss Su hadn't reminded me, I would have almost forgotten about you."

Xiaoyun looked at Lin Fan with an apologetic expression, then took the items out of the food cart one by one and placed them on the table before weakly saying something.

"Mr. Lin, I still need to go to the front hall. You can stay here..."

"Go ahead and do your work, don't worry about us here," Lin Fan said with a smile, looking at Xiao Yun, whose face looked slightly flustered.

"Yeah, you go ahead and do your thing, as long as there's food." Da Niu said, smacking his lips with a few crumbs stuck to the corner of his mouth.

Lin Fan glanced at Da Niu, and in the time it took him to turn his head, the guy had already started eating.

"Mr. Lin, I'll head out now." Xiaoyun nodded quickly, pushing the empty food cart as she prepared to leave, but she stopped abruptly at the door.

"Miss Su... Miss Su."

Outside the door, Su Wanqing, dressed in a black dress, stood at the entrance, holding the dress in both hands, looking completely different from her previous capable demeanor.

"Okay, you go ahead and get busy outside!"

At Su Wanqing's prompting, Xiaoyun took a few steps back somewhat awkwardly, and after leaving the villa, she turned around and ran towards the front hall.

Su Wanqing was also somewhat bewildered by this scene, thinking, "Am I that scary?!"

"Miss Su, doesn't this show that you have high prestige and that everyone respects you?" Da Niu stuffed another piece of cake into his mouth, and as he spoke, cake crumbs flew out of his mouth.

Su Wanqing's expression stiffened. She looked at Da Niu and then said, "Da Niu, you go out too. I have something to discuss with Mr. Lin."

"I haven't eaten yet..." Da Niu said, but after looking up and meeting Su Wanqing's unquestionable gaze, he immediately shut his mouth.

Before leaving, he even took a piece of cake when no one was looking.

"I'll go keep watch outside!" he said, and ran out.

Looking at Da Niu's appearance, Lin Fan couldn't help but say, "Miss Su is truly... revered in this manor!"

Su Wanqing rolled her eyes at Lin Fan, too lazy to continue the conversation, and simply handed the box in her hand to Lin Fan.

"These are the cards my uncle asked me to give you. He said they're the material cards he found for you."

Lin Fan took the card box from Su Wanqing, but didn't open it immediately. He looked at Su Wanqing and said, "Thanks for the charging cards you gave me!"

Su Wanqing paused slightly, her gaze involuntarily shifting away from Lin Fan's.

"What's the big deal? I have plenty. I just saw that you needed card energy for your [Netherworld], and I happened to have some, so I thought I'd send some over to save you the trouble of buying them."

When Su Wanqing spoke, her face flushed slightly, clearly even she herself felt that this excuse was too deliberate.

Lin Fan smiled. "And that [Prison Guardian], why did you give it to me too? That thing is worth quite a bit, and you just gave it to me like that?"

"Do I look like someone who's short of money? Besides, you've done a lot to fight against Xiang Qian, so that stuff should rightfully be yours."

Su Wanqing paused, her voice lowering slightly, "Besides, you avenged Xiao He. Compared to that, that card is nothing!"

Seeing that Su Wanqing wasn't very interested, Lin Fan quickly changed the subject, "Are the people at the headquarters outside from the All Souls Society?"

"They arrived very early this morning; I didn't even get any advance notice."

Lin Fan said thoughtfully, "I heard from Da Niu that they came for that item at the auction that lowers the level of strangeness? It seems they value that item a lot!"

"During the time we went to Dongliu City, my uncle somehow got hold of a talisman that is said to reduce the card's 'twisting value'."

"As soon as this news got out, the whole of Jiang City was in an uproar, and those people came as soon as they smelled it." Su Wanqing frowned slightly, seemingly somewhat displeased with the arrival of the Wanling Society.

"symbol?"

"Hmm." Su Wanqing nodded. "I heard it's a special item that came out of a secret realm, but I didn't have time to ask any more questions."

"Didn't the All Souls' Church directly ask Mr. Zhao for it?"

"Of course I looked for them," Su Wanqing chuckled. "And I looked for them as soon as I arrived, but my uncle shut me down with just one sentence."

"He said that the news of the auction had already been released, and if they couldn't produce anything in the end, the foundation's reputation would be ruined."

Lin Fan couldn't help but chuckle when he heard this.

Zhao Zhong was clearly telling them, "If you want it, then you'd better pay up and bid."

"Even if they are unhappy, they can't openly turn against us now. After all, the foundation is still useful to them. If the foundation's reputation is ruined, they will lose one of their funds."

As Lin Fan listened to Su Wanqing's words, his expression suddenly froze. "You just said... that thing was a talisman?"

"Yes." Su Wanqing was taken aback by his question. "What's wrong?"

"Is that talisman a one-time use item?" Lin Fan had never seen a talisman that could be used multiple times; those things were consumables.

"Hmm." Su Wanqing nodded. "I heard it only lasts for one use."

Upon hearing this, Lin Fan's eyes suddenly lit up.

"A one-time use talisman, yet it can be confirmed in advance that it has the effect of reducing the monster value." Lin Fan

Normally, no one can be 100% certain of the effect of a one-time use, unknown item before it is actually used.

Zhao Zhong publicly claimed that it could reduce the level of strangeness, unless... unless he had personally used it before.

"What did you say?" Su Wanqing muttered to Lin Fan, but didn't hear him clearly.

"Did your uncle only get one talisman?" Lin Fan asked, voicing his question.

"I only found out about this talisman when those people were talking about it in front of my uncle, but from what he said, there should only be one."

She paused, then looked at Lin Fan with a strange expression. "You've got your eye on that talisman too?"

"Yes." Lin Fan didn't hide anything and nodded directly. "That thing is very important to me."

Su Wanqing sighed, "It's a pity that people inside the foundation can't participate in this auction, otherwise I could have found a way to help you get it."

At this point, she suddenly seemed to remember something, "I still have about 500,000 in my personal account. I can't touch the foundation's money, but this part is my own."

"I can lend it to you if you need it."

Looking at Su Wanqing's serious expression, Lin Fan couldn't help but chuckle. "I can't refuse Miss Su's kind offer."

Su Wanqing rolled her eyes at him. "I'm being serious with you."

"I'm serious," Lin Fan replied with a smile. If it's really needed, it's not too late to borrow it later, since the auction doesn't require immediate payment.

"However, I'm more concerned about something else right now than that."

"What?"

"How did Mr. Zhao determine the talisman's effectiveness? Is it possible that Mr. Zhao actually possessed more than one talisman, and that the auction was merely a smokescreen?"