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

Lin Fan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and the outline of the gates of hell in his mind gradually became clearer.

A door made of decaying wood separates Yin and Yang, with the Yin commander as witness, allowing entry and exit to the underworld. Yin soldiers and remnant souls serve as guards, checking wandering spirits. A mysterious threshold acts as a general, protecting the underworld. The Forgotten River Stone forms the foundation for the city's defenses.

The Gate of Hell is the first and most important gate in the underworld. Guarding this gate means being separated from the living and the dead!

Lin Fan engraved "Gate of Hell" on the blank card, and then began to depict the image of the Gate of Hell.

He then suddenly opened his eyes, picked up the [Yin Yang Rotten Wood] and put it into it. The city gate pattern on the card lit up, and two beams of light, one black and one white, overflowed from the card, intertwined, and slowly poured into the blank card.

Next came the second item: the shape of the [Yin Commander] token condensed in the light, with white characters on a black background, the character "令" on the front and the character "司" on the back, and it slowly entered.

The third item, the [Forgetful Stone], is a cool pebble that falls into a blank card, causing a city tower to rise high.

The fourth item, [Remnant Souls of Yin Soldiers], was picked up by Lin Fan at once, and six hazy gray lights simultaneously fell into the blank card. They lined up on both sides of the door, three on the left and three on the right, standing straight, holding ethereal weapons in their hands, their faces expressionless, now serving as dutiful guards.

Lin Fan's fingers trembled slightly, not from nervousness, but because the Domain Blank Card required far more mental energy than ordinary cards.

Although the materials were all gray and green zone cards, he could feel his mental sea being rapidly depleted.

But he didn't stop.

The last one, [Threshold Ghost], is also the most difficult, as the resentment associated with Threshold Ghost is too strong.

Dark red mist surged out from the [Threshold Ghost], condensing into a blurry outline in mid-air. It drifted above the control panel, refusing to descend.

"No...no...I don't want to go in," the blurry silhouette growled.

Lin Fan gritted his teeth and increased his mental energy output, trying to press it into the blank card.

"Roar, I don't want to go through this door!" it roared, its eyes filled with fear, clearly resisting entering the doorway.

"Damn it..." Lin Fan gritted his teeth and called out to Zhang Jiao, "Old Zhang!"

A figure in a yellow robe solidified behind him, lightning swirling in his sleeves. Zhang Jiao glanced at the churning dark red mist on the control panel, said nothing, and simply raised his hand.

"Boom!"

A bolt of lightning struck down from the void, landing precisely on the eerie outline of the threshold—it was the Earth Lightning Soul Suppression Technique.

Seeing that the dark red mist had not disappeared, another earthen mine struck, causing the mist to tremble and begin to shrink.

The blurry outline grew smaller and more solid, finally shrinking into a hunched shadow, slowly sinking into the blank card, no longer struggling.

As the [Strange Threshold] entered, a light suddenly shone on the control panel.

Immediately afterwards, a cold, dark door appeared in the card-making room, guarded by ghostly soldiers on both sides. Blurry shadows flickered in front of the door, as ghosts lined up to walk by.

The phantom lasted for several tens of seconds before slowly dissipating, eventually turning into a card that fell into Lin Fan's hand.

The Underworld

Type: Domain Card

Quality: Green Domain 2 stars

Range: Maximum, ten zhang in radius (determined by card power).

Functions: [Gates of Hell] Entry restrictions, ghostly soldiers patrolling, threshold blocking access.

Special Feature: [Underworld] Card spirits belonging to the underworld will not consume the user's mental energy in the area.

Overview: The Gate of Hell is the gateway to the Ten Courts of Hell and the boundary between Yin and Yang. Those who enter this gate will know that life and death are preordained, and those who leave this gate will realize that the human world is truly endearing.

Lin Fan plopped down in the chair, panting heavily.

Zhang Jiao withdrew his hand, and the lightning disappeared into his sleeve. "Is this what you were talking about yesterday?"

"That's right, with this you won't have to keep watch at night anymore." Lin Fan picked up the card in his hand and shook it, a smile involuntarily appearing on his lips.

"Green Domain 2-star! The quality doesn't look high, but once you're inside, you can't see through it. It's like being weighed down by something." Zhang Jiao's expression was unusually solemn.

Lin Fan was taken aback. Zhang Jiao was the Heavenly General, whose Five Thunder Orthodox Law didn't even put evil spirits in his eyes, yet he said something like "being suppressed."

This is the [Underworld] domain card. As long as the card has card energy, it can keep running. As for the card energy, you can replenish it by buying a card energy replenishment card, just like refueling a car.

Because it doesn't require mental energy, its energy can only be supplied by the card energy within the card.

He put Zhang Jiao away, along with the Underworld Palace, into his pocket.

After resting for a while, when he opened the door to the cubicle, he saw Zhou Chen standing there, his mouth agape and his eyes wide open.

"Fan... Brother Fan." His voice was weak, "What... what were you doing just now? Were those ghostly figures all eerie?"

Lin Fan looked at his trembling body, patted his shoulder, and said, "Don't be afraid, those are just temporary illusions created by this door."

"What door?"

Lin Fan glanced at him, a slight smile playing on his lips: "The gates of hell."

Zhou Chen opened his mouth, then closed it again. He originally wanted to ask what the Gates of Hell was, but he swallowed the words back.

He suddenly felt that he shouldn't have asked about this name; it didn't sound very festive at all.

"Let's go." Lin Fan patted him on the shoulder. "It's time to get off work."

The two walked out of the card-making room. Most of the people in the company had left, leaving only a few card makers who were rushing to complete orders and were still working diligently in the card-making room.

As the two walked out of the company gate, Lin Fan looked at the bright full moon overhead. His stomach growled at that inopportune moment, and he realized that he hadn't eaten anything all day.

"Let's go. You haven't eaten either. Let's grab something to eat by the roadside. Consider it repayment for the interest on the money you borrowed from me before." Lin Fan, who was carrying a "huge sum" of four thousand, was unusually generous for once.

"Brother Fan, aren't you afraid of strange things happening late at night? Strange things happen more frequently at night, and besides..." He pointed to the moon in the sky, his voice lowering a few decibels, "Today is the fifteenth."

"Fine, I'll just go home and have some instant noodles then."

Now that things have come to this point, going out again wouldn't be a wise move. Even if I have the cards [Zhang Jiao] and [Underworld], I don't have much ability to deal with any powerful monsters. It seems I'm missing an attack-type card.

"Hurry up and go, Fan Ge, don't just stand there, this is the last subway."

Lin Fan responded and quickly followed.

The shops along the roadside had long since closed, and the roller shutters were covered with all sorts of cards that read "Exorcise Evil and Protect the Home," "Guardian of the Home," and "Nighttime Protection," the words gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

No one noticed that a dark figure flickered and disappeared into the shadows at the base of the wall, heading in the direction the two had been walking.