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

"Mr. Lin, Mr. Zhao asked me to bring this over." Xiao Zhou pushed a wheelchair in from outside. "This can be folded up and fits in the trunk, and it's also suitable for mountain roads."

Lin Fan got up, slowly walked over and sat down. Apart from being a little cramped, there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

He no longer needs a wheelchair; his leg injury has almost fully recovered, and he can at least walk slowly without any problems.

The only use of the wheelchair for him at this moment was to prevent the group from slowing down their walking progress.

"Miss Su is already waiting at the door," Xiao Zhou said. "She said she needs to get to Dongliu City before dark."

Lin Fan checked his pockets to make sure he had the card on him before letting Xiao Zhou push him out.

Two black SUVs were parked in front of the villa. Su Wanqing was standing next to the first car, looking down at her phone.

"Miss Su, Mr. Lin is here!" Xiao Zhou whispered to Su Wanqing.

Su Wanqing then raised her head, her gaze lingering on Lin Fan's new wheelchair for a moment, before speaking to the team members standing beside the car.

"Everyone, double-check your belongings, and get on the bus as soon as you're ready." Su Wanqing looked at Lin Fan and said expressionlessly, "You sit in the back bus."

Xiao Zhou pushed Lin Fan to the back, opened the back door of the second car, and helped Lin Fan sit inside.

At the same time, a burly man squeezed into the other side of the car, wearing clothes emblazoned with the New World Foundation logo.

He glanced at Lin Fan, grinned, and said, "Hello, Mr. Lin, I'm your bodyguard. You can call me Da Niu. I'll take care of your safety on this trip."

"Hello! Da Niu." Lin Fan nodded.

"Mr. Lin, it will take us three hours to get there. You can rest for a bit, and I'll call you when we arrive."

"Mm," Lin Fan replied, without trying to start a new topic.

Da Niu wisely kept quiet and turned his head to look out the window.

The cars started, and the two SUVs drove out of the manor, the scenery along the road rushing past.

Lin Fan's phone vibrated; it was the bald manager calling.

"Hey, supervisor!"

"Lin Fan, is everything going smoothly?"

"It's alright!" Lin Fan replied.

"You should make the most of this opportunity to make cards for Mr. Zhao. If there's anything the company can help you with, just let me know. Don't be shy about asking the company."

"No, not at all. I'll let you know if I need anything."

"That's good, that's good." After saying that, the supervisor added, "Do a good job over there. If you handle Mr. Zhao's order well, your promotion and raise are a sure thing when you come back."

Lin Fan responded, then, as if remembering something, asked, "By the way, Supervisor, how is Zhou Chen now? Have you been in contact with him?"

"Zhou Chen?" The supervisor's voice paused noticeably.

"Is this kid upset? I was going to give him a break so he could rest for a while, but he refused. Yesterday he applied to go to Dongliu City to assist Master Qian."

"It's quite a coincidence. It's as if Zhou Chen knew that Master Xiang was short of people. He had just applied when Master Xiang asked for help."

"What a coincidence!" Lin Fan said softly.

"Who says otherwise? If it weren't for Master Xiang looking down on you... no, I mean those trainee card makers, I would have thought they had made contact in private."

Lin Fan then asked, "How long has Master Xiang Qian stayed in Dongliu City?"

"It's been almost two weeks, hasn't it?" the supervisor replied after thinking for a moment.

"He said the card production over there isn't going smoothly and it's still not finished. So yesterday he sent someone over to lend a hand. What, do you need him for something?"

The supervisor's tone was full of doubt. He knew very well that Lin Fan and Xiang Qian did not get along, so how could he not be suspicious of Lin Fan's sudden application?

"No, I was just asking," Lin Fan continued. "I'll be arriving in Dongliu City soon, and I was hoping to catch up with them!"

"He probably doesn't have time. I contacted him before, but he was always on leave. He's probably busy making cards."

"They live there, I can get there by myself."

"The customers contact Master Xiang one-on-one, and I don't really know where they are."

The supervisor was silent for a moment before continuing, "How about this, I'll give you Master Xiang's contact information. You can contact him later, but he might not have time."

"OK."

The supervisor chatted with Lin Fan for a while longer before hanging up the phone.

Lin Fan leaned back in his chair, looking at the phone number his supervisor had sent him, with the note "Master Xiang Qian" at the end.

He stared at those words, recalling the eerie aura emanating from Xiang Qian when he activated [Prison Suppressor] at the company that day.

It has been two weeks since Xiang Qian arrived in Dongliu City.

Coincidentally, the "Master Xiang" mentioned by the symbiotic humanoid "Xiao Xu" that Lin Fan encountered in Dongliu City was also in Dongliu City.

Judging from the clumsy manipulation techniques of "Xiao Xu", he must have become a human-demon symbiote not long ago. According to the timeline, the time when "Xiao Xu" changed was the same time when Xiang Qian was in Dongliu City.

If Xiang Qian is indeed that "Master Xiang," then his presence in Dongliu City is definitely not just a simple business trip to make cards; he might even be the one creating more "Xiao Xu" figures.

But how did Zhou Chen get involved? He hadn't even buried his wife's body yet, and he abandoned everything to go find Xiang Qian.

If he wanted to learn how to make cards, he could have found someone else; there was no need to come all the way to Dongliu City.

Unless Zhou Chen already knows the identity of the money-gathering ghost symbiotic relationship and wants to take a shortcut like "Xiao Xu" to quickly gain power so as to kill that Shadow Devouring Ghost.

Lin Fan quickly rejected his own idea and muttered to himself.

"No, that doesn't make sense either. Even if he wanted to become a hybrid of human and ghost, he could have done it after the funeral. Why rush it in a day or two?"

Lin Fan looked out the window at the passing scenery. "Unless... there's something that makes him impatient."

Has the Shadow Eater appeared? Or... something else entirely?

Even so, Zhou Chen and Xiang Qian had no interaction at all. Xiang Qian was a high-ranking and top-notch card maker in the company, and she would never even glance at the interns.

Zhou Chen was an intern who had only been with the company for a short time and couldn't even make a basic card. How could these two suddenly connect?

"Someone is acting as a go-between!" This thought suddenly popped into Lin Fan's mind, and he sat up straight with a "whoosh".

Lin Fan frowned. There was another middleman, someone who knew Xiang Qian and had access to Zhou Chen.

"The All Souls Society, what exactly are they trying to do? Do they want to turn everyone into those inhuman, ghostly beings?"

Upon arriving at this point, Lin Fan immediately dialed Zhou Chen's number, but his phone displayed a "not in service area" message.