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

at the same time.

Lin Fan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the villa's lobby, his gaze fixed on the ever-changing mist outside the estate.

"Red, black, white, gray!" he muttered under his breath. "Why is this eerie fog so many colors?"

The strange tides he had seen before were only gray.

But at this moment, outside the defensive light shield, eerie mists of four colors—gray, red, white, and black—were churning and colliding with each other.

It even subtly gives one the feeling that... they are fighting over something.

As the colors continued to intertwine, the cards in Lin Fan's pocket grew increasingly hot.

He immediately looked down and reached into the pocket containing the cards. He took out the card "Zhang Jiao, the Great Teacher" and placed it in his hand.

On the card, the mark of the Demon King seemed to be stimulated by something, and its originally blood-red eyes began to drip bright red liquid again.

The scarlet blood flowed down the card, but instead of dripping, it began to slowly wriggle as if it had a life of its own.

Lines of blood spread across the card, and in no time, the card was covered in crimson.

Upon seeing this, Lin Fan's face darkened, and his unease grew stronger.

Looking at the blood-red [Great Teacher Zhang Jiao], and then looking up at the outside world shrouded in gray mist beyond the manor, Lin Fan couldn't help but have the thought of advancing Zhang Jiao's level.

Indeed, when Lin Fan sensed the approaching strange tide, he did have the idea of ​​having Zhang Jiao advance his level.

After all, Zhang Jiao has already obtained the "Taiping Essentials". Once he completes the fusion, his strength will inevitably increase dramatically again.

In this unpredictable situation, having an extra powerful card means having a better chance of survival.

However, he ultimately did not take action.

Putting aside the fact that Wang Bo is still in the manor, if Zhang Jiao were to advance at this moment, even the slightest anomaly could expose his true identity.

If Wang Bo were to notice, the Wanling Society would find out sooner or later. At this point, he was still under the protection of the manor's defense card, so there was no need for him to take any risks rashly, since it wasn't a matter of life and death yet.

But what Lin Fan was most worried about was not his identity being exposed, but the strangeness value on Zhang Jiao's body.

The higher the Deviousness Value, the greater the probability of the card going out of control. This was evident in the extremely high Deviousness Value of the evil spirit when Zhang Fei was created.

If Zhang Jiao suddenly rebels during the fusion process, or even refuses to be controlled, and other anomalies occur, he himself will ultimately be the one who suffers.

Unless we can obtain the [Purification Talisman] first and then proceed with the fusion under safe conditions, the risk is too great.

The problem now is that Zhao Zhong is demanding that he create He Jin before he will hand over the [Purification Talisman], but Wang Bo is still in the manor, so he can't create He Jin.

For a moment, Lin Fan seemed trapped in an unsolvable cycle, caught in a dilemma.

Just then.

With a loud bang, the villa door was suddenly pushed open. Lin Fan quickly put the [Great Teacher Zhang Jiao] behind him and looked in the direction of the door.

Da Niu was panting heavily as he leaned against the villa's main door, his eyes scanning the hall.

"Mr. Lin, have Miss Su and the others come looking for you?"

Lin Fan casually stuffed the card back into his pocket, frowning as he looked at Da Niu. "No, didn't you go to look for them? Didn't you find them?"

"That's strange..." Da Niu panted heavily, then paused to catch his breath before continuing:

"Miss Su and Mr. Zhao are both missing. I've searched for ages, but I can't find them. I don't know where they went. I thought they had gone to..."

Before he could finish speaking, he seemed to see something, and suddenly ran to Lin Fan's side, looking out the window.

"Holy crap, what the hell is this thing?" Da Niu's expression suddenly froze, and he stood there dumbfounded, as if he had seen something terrifying.

Lin Fan followed his gaze and turned to look out the window. When he saw the dark figure slowly emerging from the gray fog, he was stunned.

At this moment, in the sky above the manor, a huge blood-red eye appeared out of nowhere, surrounded by countless blood-red thorns that bound it tightly like chains.

"Clatter!"

"Clatter!"

Red liquid kept dripping from his eyes, and the sound reached Lin Fan's ears through the defensive light barrier. Lin Fan's heartbeat quickened with each drop of liquid, making him feel a little palpitations.

The liquid splashed onto the light screen, instantly creating puffs of blood mist. Da Niu pointed at the writhing black shadow on the screen and exclaimed, "Mr. Lin, what...what is that?!"

Lin Fan stared intently at the light screen, his brows furrowed. He saw that the moment the blood exploded, one after another, wriggling monsters appeared.

"These... strange phenomena all originate from that eye!" Lin Fan was shocked, his voice low and urgent. "Could this... be the true source of the eerie tide?"

Red liquid kept sliding down from the corners of his eyes, and more and more eerie things appeared on the screen.

At that moment, the eye slowly opened, and the dark hole in the center slowly rotated, scanning the entire manor as if searching for something.

Lin Fan's heart tightened suddenly. He recognized the eyes; they were exactly the same as the Ghost King's Mark on Zhang Jiao's card.

"It...is looking for me!" Lin Fan muttered to himself, his body involuntarily retreating towards the window.

The card in his pocket became increasingly hot, even giving off a faint, burnt smell in the air.

Da Niu sniffed the air, a hint of displeasure on his face: "Damn it, who's in the mood for grilling meat at a time like this!"

Lin Fan finally came to his senses. While Da Niu was looking out the window, he took out the [Great Teacher Zhang Jiao] card and fanned it quickly, trying to cool it down.

"Buzz!" Outside the light screen, another anomaly occurred. Next to the red eye, space began to distort, and a pale white eye slowly appeared, forming a standoff with the red eye.

"Mr. Lin has another eye!" Da Niu said.

Lin Fan peeked out and observed the air. He saw not just two eyes, but a third and a fourth appeared in succession.

Four enormous eyes floated in the sky, each occupying one side, corresponding to the four-colored eerie mists surging below.

They formed a strange order in the air, and even the eerie creatures that had been writhing on the light screen stopped, as if waiting for the commands of these eyes.

"Those strange things have all stopped!" Da Niu exclaimed in surprise, "What happened?!"

"This is probably more than just a wave of strange events," Lin Fan said after a moment of contemplation.

"Mr. Lin, what do you mean by this?"

"If a color represents a wave of strange events, then this time..."

"You mean, we're at the center of four waves of strange tides!" Da Niu immediately interjected, "Those eyes?"

"If it really is four waves of strange tides, then the eyes represent four strange kings!" Lin Fan said solemnly.

"Four Demon Kings...we...we can't be that unlucky, can we?!"

Lin Fan nodded affirmatively, "After those eyes appeared, all the strange things stopped. I think this is because they were faced with multiple 'kings,' and for a moment they didn't know whose orders to follow!"

Da Niu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, "In that case, those monsters shouldn't launch an attack until the four Ghost Kings have decided who is the victor."

"I wish that were true, but I'm afraid..."

"What are you afraid of?" Da Niu pressed.

Lin Fan said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid they'll quickly split into factions, and then all the strange creatures will unite to deal with us."

He recalled the scene in the first level of the underworld, where he saw those strange creatures vying to attach themselves to the one bearing the mark of the King of Ghosts.

He finally understood why those Ghost Kings didn't reject the weaker ghosts around them; it was those weaker ghosts who helped them obtain the Ghost Kings' marks, which could be considered a unique reward for them.

Involuntarily, images of the first level of the underworld appeared in his mind, showing the weak and eerie creatures vying to possess the Ghost King.

He then realized why the Ghost King hadn't banished the weaker monsters around him.

It was these weak beings who helped them obtain their respective marks, which was also a kind of reward.

These strange creatures also face this choice: if they follow the right Ghost King, they might be able to enter the first level of the underworld.

But what exactly is it about the first level of the underworld that attracts them?