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

"Click"

A bolt of lightning pierced through the eerie mist, shooting down from the sky and striking the evil spirit precisely. In the instant the lightning exploded, Zhang Jiao's phantom dissipated, transforming into a card that returned to Lin Fan's hand.

"We're saved!" The crowd erupted in ecstasy at the sudden halt of the demon's massive body.

Several people almost instinctively moved closer to Lin Fan; if they didn't try to curry favor now, when would they?

Lin Fan gripped the card, feeling a sense of relief.

"Did it work?"

However, the next second, something unexpected happened. The evil spirit simply shook its body, and a layer of charred skin fell off, revealing its blood-red aura once again, even stronger than before.

"roar!"

The demon roared and slammed down with a punch, instantly blasting open the last remaining wall of the security room. Screams erupted everywhere. Some people were hit by rubble and went silent with a muffled groan, while others had half their faces sliced ​​off by the flying debris and collapsed to the ground in pain, clutching their faces.

Lin Fan, choked by the dust in the corner, couldn't open his eyes. When he looked up, the security room had been reduced to ruins. The survivors had scattered and fled, and no one was looking in his direction anymore.

Master Huang fell to the ground with his eyes open, not even having had time to activate the defensive cards in his hands.

"It won't work!" Lin Fan gritted his teeth, frowned as he looked at the evil spirit, his confidence in successfully making the card completely crushed, and his gaze swept over the card surface.

Card Name: [Zhang Jiao, the Great Teacher]

Type: Summoning Card

Quality: Blue Domain 5-star

Feature: Absorb (acquires the user's mental energy storage into the card)

Skill: [Five Thunder Orthodox Method] summons the five thunders of heaven and earth, with the added effect of binding curses: metal thunder breaks armor, wood thunder entangles the body, water thunder corrodes bones, fire thunder burns the heart, and earth thunder suppresses the soul.

【Huang Tian Dang Li】Using talismans as a guide and yellow earth as a form, a Yellow Turban Warrior of immense strength is summoned.

Overview: He was originally a poor scholar who failed the imperial examinations, but by chance he received the "Taiping Essentials" from the Old Immortal of Nanhua, and from then on he stepped into the path of the unorthodox. Under the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there are countless souls of believers.

Lin Fan's gaze fell on the skill description, and he finally understood why.

Curse! None of these lightning spells are directly fatal; they have no killing power whatsoever.

The evil spirit was merely trapped.

He looked up and met the demon's enormous eyes. The demon ignored the fleeing crowd and stared intently at him, as if looking at delicious food, making no attempt to hide its desire.

Without the slightest hesitation, he quickly walked to Master Huang's side, picked up the pile of defense cards, and ran away as fast as he could.

But his legs couldn't outrun the demon's stride. Before he could run far, the demon caught up with him in one step, followed by a terrifying fist.

"Defense Card!"

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Lin Fan picked up the defense card in his hand and quickly activated it. A series of light shields lit up around him, but as his fist fell, the light shields were easily torn apart like paper, and the defense card in his hand exploded one after another.

He didn't know how many cards he had used. When the fist withdrew, he looked down and saw that he only had one cracked defense card left in his hand, barely holding on.

The demon withdrew its fist, looked at its hand, seemingly surprised that it hadn't hurt Lin Fan at all, and growled softly in its throat.

"Damn it!" Lin Fan gasped for breath, clutching the nearly shattered defense card. "I was so close to dying!"

Yuanshi Tianzun, Lu Ya Daoren, Tongtian Jiaozhu... any one of those familiar names could easily crush this thing, but without any material, it's all just wishful thinking.

What do card makers in this world rely on to make cards?

Relying on materials, recipes, and the strength of their mental power, they treat cards as tools, weapons, and consumables that can be mass-produced.

They never think about what's in the cards, they only ask what they can do.

Lin Fan looked down at Zhang Jiao. He seemed to be the same way. All those gods, Buddhas, ghosts, and figures from all dynasties had names, stories, and legends.

They once existed, and they had their own 'spirit'.

The demon raised its fist again and attacked Lin Fan once more.

Lin Fan glanced at the cracked defense card, tossed it aside, and stared at the fist about to fall, showing no fear.

"Zhang Jiao, is that all you've got?" Lin Fan said in a low voice as he picked up the [Great Teacher Zhang Jiao].

The card surface glowed at that moment, and the whole thing got slightly warm, as if responding or questioning.

Lin Fan smiled and poured his mental energy into the card once more.

The image of Zhang Jiao, the Taoist in yellow robes, reappeared, no longer the semi-transparent phantom as before, but a solid Taoist with flowing robes.

"Five Thunder Dharma!"

The demon's fist brought a whistling wind, and a foul, bloody stench brushed against Lin Fan's cheek.

The lightning struck again, freezing the demon's fist in place, just a fist's distance from its head.

Immediately afterwards, five bolts of lightning of different colors struck down from the void. The demon's enormous body was instantly engulfed by the lightning, and the blood-red aura on its body quickly dissipated. It could only let out mournful roars, but it could not move at all.

Seeing this, Lin Fan quickly walked up to the evil spirit. Its huge body was lying on the ruins, twitching from time to time. He quickly pulled out a blank card from his pocket and threw it at the evil spirit.

According to memory, as long as the eerie creature is not completely dead, a blank card can seal it. The worse the creature's condition, the higher the probability of capturing it, but there is also a chance of failure.

But if so.

Countless threads surged from the blank card, forcibly pulling the evil spirit into it.

"Bang"

The white card emitted a dazzling red light, and with a loud bang, it exploded.

"It failed!"

He then took out his last blank card and threw it out again. If he failed again this time, he would have no choice but to kill the monster and obtain the material card from it.

The price of a complete monster and the materials used to make it can vary drastically.

This time, the blank card emitted a green light, which absorbed the figure of the evil spirit into it. The light subsided, and a fat evil spirit image appeared on the card, surrounded by blood-red evil energy.

Then, the words "[Black-faced Demon] Blue Domain, Evil Transformation Value 97%" slowly appeared on the card.

Lin Fan's hand trembled slightly. The higher the Deviousness Value, the more uncontrollable it is. Such a high Deviousness Value means that as soon as he uses it now, the evil spirit will break free again and even turn against the user. It can only be used after being purified by a specialized institution.

"You ignorant brat, do you know the might of Heaven?" Zhang Jiao clenched his fist, and lightning surged within his palm.

"Truly a great and wise teacher, I admire you." Lin Fan glanced at Zhang Jiao standing behind him, his Adam's apple bobbing. In a daze, he seemed to see the man who had stirred up the Yellow Turban Rebellion and was known as the "Heavenly General".

Lin Fan cupped his hands in apology to Zhang Jiao, as if to apologize for what he had just said.

Just as the two were talking.

"Woof woof woof"

Amidst the mist, a few low barks echoed from afar. After creating Zhang Jiao, Lin Fan's perception had become much stronger, allowing him to detect even the faintest sounds from a distance.

But the barking grew closer, interspersed with rapid breathing.

"Something else is coming. There's so much stuff in this strange tide!" Lin Fan raised an eyebrow. "Old Zhang? Can you handle it?"

"Old Zhang, are you calling me? Never mind, it's just a form of address." Zhang Jiao walked in front of him, shielding him behind him, and turned to look at him: "A mere Green Domain-level brat, easy peasy..."

Zhang Jiao paused abruptly, then turned his head to look in another direction, his expression becoming serious.