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

Just as Lin Fan was about to dial Zhou Chen's number again, the car suddenly braked sharply.

Lin Fan lunged forward and crashed straight into the seat above, dropping his phone to the ground.

"What's wrong!" Da Niu immediately became alert, placing his hand on his waist, ready to fight at any moment.

"I don't know, I'll go down and check." The driver unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, and got out of the car.

Lin Fan saw through the windshield that Su Wanqing and several team members had gotten out of the black SUV in front of them and were standing in front of the car, as if they had been stopped.

Seeing this, Lin Fan opened the car door and slowly stepped out.

"Mr. Lin!" Da Niu quickly went around the front of the car and grabbed his arm. "Why did you get out? We'll handle it if anything happens."

"It's okay, I can walk by myself, I'm just a little slow." Lin Fan waved his hand, not letting him help him, and slowly walked forward on his own.

Da Niu followed closely beside Lin Fan, his hand outstretched to protect him, ready to help him up at any moment.

Right in the middle of the gravel road stood several people, led by an elderly man who was holding a bamboo pole and blocking the way.

"Grandpa, what are you doing? Our car needs to pass, could you please move aside?" Su Wanqing stepped forward and spoke to the old man.

The old man didn't move. He squinted at Su Wanqing, then at the people behind her, and said in a heavy accent, "What are you doing here? It's not safe to go any further in!"

"What happened inside?" Qin Muyao frowned slightly and continued, "We also have urgent business to attend to!"

An old woman behind the old man stepped forward and said loudly:

"I advise you to come back later. Several people are dead inside; they were carried out looking like dried corpses!"

"Why are you shouting so loudly? What if you call that weird thing over here?" the old man immediately scolded the old woman.

"What are you afraid of? We still have Little Fatty," the old woman said, looking at the young fat man who was fast asleep beside her.

"He's a famous card master in our village. If that strange thing comes, Little Fatty can subdue it in no time, and we won't have to live in fear every day."

"Is something strange happening inside?" Su Wanqing asked.

"Yes, those corpses were all drained of their life force. It couldn't have been done by a ghost, could it?" the old man continued in a low voice.

"The police said that no one can go in before the truck association arrives. Isn't going in just sending them to their deaths?" The old man looked at the group with a serious expression and refused to let the car pass.

"If you ask me, why make such a fuss? Just send Little Fatty in and subdue that weird thing, wouldn't that be enough?" the old woman shouted in her loud voice.

"You old hag, what are you saying? This place is so big inside, how is Little Fatty going to find it all by himself? Besides, if he leaves, what if that weird thing comes down from here?"

The old man was so angry that he picked up a bamboo pole and was about to hit the old woman.

Su Wanqing stopped the old man and said to him, "Grandpa, we're here specifically to deal with those strange things you mentioned."

"You're card masters too?" The old man looked at the group with suspicion, his eyes finally settling on Lin Fan, who was slowly approaching. "You don't seem like it!"

"Grandpa, we really are." As she spoke, Su Wanqing took out a card, and a flash of light appeared, revealing a dagger in her hand.

"Let us in. If we encounter the monster you mentioned, we can help you deal with it, saving you the trouble of waiting here for the Card Association to arrive."

"Are you really card masters? I've seen card masters who can summon things. You produced a dagger, you didn't do magic, did you?" the old woman said.

"A magic trick?" Su Wanqing gripped the dagger, her face full of black lines.

"It's just magic," the old woman paused, then continued, "those performers who came to the village last time, they used the exact same trick!"

Su Wanqing put away the dagger and was about to explain when a lazy voice came from behind the old woman.

"Blue Domain Weapon Card." A shocked voice came from behind the old woman.

"Little Fatty, do you know him?" The old man turned to look at him.

The fat man who had been fast asleep on the stone bench woke up at some point and looked at Su Wanqing with a shocked expression.

"Blue Domain Cards, those are all good stuff! Most card masters can't even use them!"

After hearing the little fat man's affirmation, the old man showed a hint of apology on his face.

"We don't usually see any card masters, so it's not convenient for us right now. We're doing this for your own good, after all, I don't want you to die for nothing."

"Grandpa, tell us what exactly happened inside." Su Wanqing put away the card, a look of curiosity on her face.

The old man hesitated for a moment, then moved the bamboo pole blocking his way away from the middle of the road, and said in a low voice:

"I don't know the specifics, but early this morning, a few people from the village went into the mountains to collect herbs via the road to the north. Only one of them came back, and when he did, he kept muttering things like 'beautiful woman,' 'coffin,' and 'help.'"

The old lady chimed in from the side, her voice still as loud as ever:

"That person died a short while later, and we immediately called the police. When the police arrived, they found the missing people; their bodies were emaciated, just skin and bones!"

"Keep your voice down!" The old man glared at her, then turned to Su Wanqing.

"Then they told us to wait for the people from the Card Association to come and not to let us go into the mountains anymore. A few of us old guys and Little Fatty took turns guarding this place, afraid that some unsuspecting people would try to sneak in."

Su Wanqing frowned slightly: "A coffin? What kind of coffin?"

"I've never seen him before," the old man shook his head. "The person who survived died before he could explain himself clearly."

"Little Fatty, aren't you a card master? Tell me, where did that thing come from?" the old lady said to Little Fatty.

Little Fatty shrank his neck, looking a little embarrassed.

"Grandma, I've never seen it either, but I heard Old Zhang from the next village say that the coffin that thing carries seems to have words on it, like the word 'Min' is engraved on it."

As he spoke, he picked up a twig and traced the character on the ground.

"Min? What kind of weird thing is this?"

Su Wanqing looked at the words on the ground and couldn't figure it out for a moment. Logically speaking, all strange things should be recorded in the "Encyclopedia of Strange Things". Could it be that this strange thing did not appear in the encyclopedia?

Lin Fan stepped forward, looked at the words written on the ground, and said, "Is it the coffin ghost?"

Su Wanqing's expression remained unchanged as she replied:

"The coffins of the Coffin Ghost all have the character 'coffin' written on them, so how come the character 'agile' appears? I think this must be a new kind of ghost, and 'agile' probably means that it is fast."

Lin Fan frowned slightly. New strange creatures do appear, but they usually don't appear easily in secret realms. How come they've come out here now?

After greeting the old man, Su Wanqing moved the stone blocking the road before getting into the car.

"Let's go! What are you looking at? If we don't go in soon, it'll get dark, and we need to find a place to stay!"

Su Wanqing spoke to Lin Fan.

Lin Fan returned to the car with Da Niu's help.

Does "敏" really mean "agile"?