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

"Brother Fan."

Zhou Chen's voice came from behind.

Lin Fan turned his head. At this moment, Zhou Chen was still kneeling on the edge of the stage, holding the bride in his arms. He did not look at Lin Fan, but his gaze was on the window, in the direction where the Shadow Devourer had disappeared.

"What is that?" he asked.

Lin Fan paused for a second: "Shadow Devourer."

"Did it come out of the ghost spider?"

"Yes, it controlled the Ghost Spider," Lin Fan paused, then continued, "The Ghost Spider killed, but what made the Ghost Spider kill... was it."

Zhou Chen lowered his head and looked at the face of the bride in his arms. He reached out and tucked the hair in front of her forehead behind her ear. His movements were very gentle, as if he were touching a fragile piece of porcelain.

"I won't let them get away with what they did to you." He looked tenderly at the bride in his arms, his voice as soft as if he were whispering to her.

Zhou Chen gently placed the bride on the ground and walked step by step toward Lin Fan. He squatted down and looked Lin Fan in the eye.

"Brother Fan, teach me how to make cards. I want to use the cards I make myself to kill that thing!" Zhou Chen's expression was calm, so calm that it didn't seem like someone who had just lost a loved one.

Lin Fan stared at Zhou Chen, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I can make you a card to help you..."

"No," Zhou Chen refused, "Xiao Min said before that I would become the most powerful card maker. This time, I'm going to make cards myself to kill that monster!"

Lin Fan remained silent for a while. Card making not only required a synthesis formula, but also the support of mental power. Zhou Chen's mental power was insufficient to create a card that could kill the Shadow Devourer.

"If you have any questions, feel free to ask me, and I'll do my best," Lin Fan finally said.

Zhou Chen glanced at Lin Fan, giving him a grateful look. Then he stood up, returned to the bride's side, bent down, picked her up, and walked step by step toward the door.

The rest of the people in the hall watched as he carried his bride, stepping over shattered cups and plates with a "crackling" sound.

Watching Zhou Chen's figure disappear through the door, Lin Fan then spoke to Qin Muyao behind him.

"Let's go too!"

As the two passed the security captain, he handed them the card that the Ghost Spider had dropped.

"Sir, this card..."

Lin Fan glanced at the security captain, then at the blue card in his hand. "Since you killed him, it should rightfully belong to you!"

The security captain nodded mechanically and didn't say anything more.

Just as Qin Muyao pushed Lin Fan to the door, a series of hurried footsteps came from the corridor.

Wei Ming walked at the front, followed by two young team members wearing the Card Association uniform.

When Wei Ming saw Lin Fan and Qin Muyao, he paused, his gaze falling on the wheelchair beneath Lin Fan: "What's this?"

"I accidentally hurt my foot!" Lin Fan said calmly.

A hint of doubt flashed in Wei Ming's eyes, but he didn't ask any further questions. After all, he hadn't come here to question Lin Fan.

What happened inside?

"The Smiling Spider appeared inside, and many people died."

Wei Ming's expression darkened. He gestured to his teammates behind him, and the two of them quickly walked towards the witnesses inside to inquire about the situation. He himself stood still, watching Lin Fan and the other person.

"How did you end up here?" Wei Ming asked.

"The groom is my friend! We're here for the wedding," Lin Fan said.

Wei Ming's gaze fell on Qin Muyao, who was pushing a wheelchair. "And Miss Qin, too..."

Before he could finish speaking, a team member shouted, "Team Leader Wei! There's something going on here!"

He glanced at the two of them, but ultimately didn't ask any further questions. He then quickly walked towards the location of the team member.

In front of the wedding stage in the hall, the security captain stood there, his face ashen. Several hotel staff members stood beside him, none of them daring to utter a sound.

"The house defense card has expired?" Wei Ming shouted.

"It just expires today." The security captain swallowed hard, his voice trailing off.

"We originally planned to continue the event after the wedding tonight, but... we never expected it would be just a few hours later..."

Wei Ming took a deep breath: "When were the building security cards installed? Who's in charge of this? Call the relevant people over!"

The security captain nodded quickly and took out his phone to make a call.

Wei Ming turned around and glanced across the hall. Members of the Card Association were collecting residual energy fluctuations, and the corpses at the scene had been covered with white sheets.

Where are the bride and groom?

The security captain said, "The groom left with the bride's body?"

"They left with the body...?" Wei Ming paused, then continued, "Give me a copy of the information the groom left behind!"

Fenglinwan Residential Area, sixth floor.

Qin Muyao pushed Lin Fan into the room and pulled over a chair to sit opposite him.

"Lin Fan!"

"Um."

"You mean what happened today...was it an accident?"

Lin Fan didn't reply; he knew what Qin Muyao was thinking.

She was worried that today's tragedy was caused by the "Mark of the Demon King" she carried, and that those people died because of her.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say "no," but the words stuck in his throat and he couldn't say them.

Because the Shadow Devourer did indeed come because of the Demon King's Mark, but the Demon King's Mark was not on Qin Muyao, but on him.

"You should go back first," he finally said. "Let me be alone for a while."

Qin Muyao glanced at him, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but seeing that Lin Fan didn't intend to continue the conversation, she ultimately didn't say anything.

She walked to the door, glanced back at Lin Fan, then opened the door and went out.

The door closed, and the room fell silent. Lin Fan looked out the window, the scene of the white wedding dress stained with blood flashing through his mind.

"Next time, will it be someone close to me who dies?!"

Lin Fan's right shoulder began to ache faintly, and bloodstains were faintly visible. He looked towards the door and felt a surge of guilt.

"It would be better to send her back to the Qin family sooner," he said in a low voice, as if talking to himself, "to keep her away from me, this jinx."

He said something self-deprecatingly, glancing at the material card that had just been delivered.

He reached out, tore open the packaging, and several material cards were laid out in a row.

[Cold and Elegant Saw], [Spring and Autumn Annals of Zuo], [Severed Head and Long Beard], [Red-Faced Devious General], and placed the mental recovery fluid in a place where it could be easily reached.

"Let's begin!" Lin Fan took out a blank card, patted his face, and tried to clear his mind of distractions.

He closed his eyes, and the image of the red-faced, long-bearded figure slowly appeared in his mind.

Lin Fan painstakingly etched those images into the card, his mental energy rapidly depleting, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, but he did not stop.

[Cold and Elegant Saw] is cast. On the card, the phantom of a Green Dragon Crescent Blade slowly emerges, and the killing intent on the blade solidifies, surging around the card.

[Zuo Zhuan] As he immersed himself in the card, a surge of righteous energy welled up from it, mingling with the killing intent of the blade, and the frenzied killing intent became restrained.

When the card "[Severed Head and Long Beard]" was used, the image on the card suddenly changed. The long beard of the red-faced man moved without wind, as if he had come to life.

Lin Fan's hands began to tremble, and his mental sea had run dry.

Without hesitation, he picked up the mental recovery fluid, unscrewed the cap, tilted his head back, and took a sip. His mental sea, which had been mostly empty, was filled with new mental energy.

He did not stop making cards.

The last one is [Red-faced Ghost General].

Lin Fan placed his hand on the material card, probed into it with his mental energy, and forcibly extracted the remnant soul of the red-faced ghost general, fusing it into Guan Yu's skeleton.

The Crimson-Faced Ghost General resisted entering, though not as violently as when he created Zhang Fei, but this action still left Lin Fan somewhat embarrassed.

Lin Fan rubbed his forehead with his elbow, let out a low roar, and poured all his mental energy into it, trying to suppress the red-faced monster general with his own mental energy.

"Go in!"

The red-faced demon roared as it slowly melted into the blank card.

Immediately afterwards, the blank card burst forth with a blinding light.

Lin Fan was panting heavily, his fingers still resting on the card, his fingertips trembling slightly.

"Hmm! Where's the Kaling phantom? Did it fail?" Lin Fan turned his head to look around, but did not see Guan Yu appear.