Who said this card is outrageous?

In any case, this operation was ultimately a rift exploration mission led by the provincial capital, and it involved almost all the cities in the Southeast Province, so it couldn't be considered finished just by calculating a few points.

In addition to securing a spot to explore the Rift next year based on their ranking points, it's said that the City Hall will also provide them with some extra rewards on behalf of the Federation.

Unexpected surprises always captivate people, and Zhang Che and others were no exception.

Everyone quickly got ready and then took a city hall car to their destination, a large hall that could accommodate several hundred people.

By this time, about fifty people had gathered here, but perhaps because no important figures had arrived yet, everyone seemed rather casual, and some even took the opportunity to build relationships.

As the third-ranked team in this points ranking, Zhang Che and his team immediately attracted a lot of attention after they appeared, and several people took the initiative to come up and greet them.

With Zhang Che's not-so-deep memory, he could only barely recognize the identities of these people. In the end, it was Li Yao who took the initiative to help, thus avoiding some awkward situations.

However, those people didn't feel slighted; on the contrary, they all expressed their understanding, saying that Zhang Che, as a card maker, already had too much time to do anything other than research cards every day.

The fact that the fourth-tier transcendents were so understanding made Zhang Che feel flattered, while at the same time he secretly became more vigilant.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. If someone is being unusually helpful, they must have something in mind!

Sure enough, after a short while of awkward conversation, one of them casually brought up the incident of the attack on Binhai City by the Eye of Truth.

"...Everyone says that if it weren't for Brother Zhang Che's heroic efforts, even if Commander Zhong and the others had returned in time, Binhai City would definitely have suffered a severe blow."

"Not to mention those undercover agents from the Eye of Truth, just thinking about it sends chills down my spine!"

When he said the last sentence, the person was indeed somewhat sincere. After all, just recently, another case of the Eye of Truth infiltrating the city guard was exposed in Hezhou City. The undercover agent was even the famous Mirage Princess.

Although most of these new generation mid-level extraordinary beings had never heard of this name before this incident, as the investigation deepened, they couldn't help but feel a bit scared.

There's no other reason than that Mirage Princess's record back then was truly terrifying. Even though she later retired due to serious injuries, more than twenty years have passed, and who can guarantee how much of her strength she has recovered?

At first, they probably thought that it was a bit of an exaggeration for Shen Ji to be killed by Zhang Che, a mid-level transcendent who had only recently been promoted.

Now, with the final determination of the points rankings and some vague rumors, many people have begun to take this young Tier 4 card maker seriously.

Since we've started talking about Zhang Che's two outstanding performances, the conversation naturally extends to the cards he used in those two battles.

The incident in Binhai City was alright. To put it bluntly, it was by taking advantage of the information gap that a few Tier 3 purple cards displayed their power and successively ambushed the forces of the Eye of Truth invading, thus finally stabilizing the situation.

However, the battle in Hezhou City, where he faced off against three skilled opponents, including Mirage Princess, from the Eye of Truth, cannot be explained simply by using a Tier 3 purple card.

Especially now that the story of Mirage Princess is becoming increasingly fantastical.

Sure enough, as the conversation deepened, someone finally couldn't help but mention that Zhang Che seemed to be wearing a black suit of armor when he fought against Mirage Princess, which allowed him to defeat the three opponents.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Che couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

He didn't intend to hide the existence of the Black Rhino Armor, but he didn't actually use it often. Even Zhu Yunge, who arrived at the battlefield immediately after the battle, only learned of the card's existence afterward.

Could it be that he exposed it?

wrong!

A flash of inspiration struck Zhang Che, and another answer immediately came to mind: In fact, before Zhu Yunge, there was another person who had also seen the Black Rhino Armor, and it could even be said that he was the first eyewitness!

That person was the one who was knocked unconscious by Zhang Che at the beginning of the battle and then escaped through the secret passage!

At the time, Zhang Che hadn't paid much attention to the escaped guy because he had never seen the [Demon Chain] before. He never expected that it would still be waiting for him here!

Clearly, after ruling out the possibility that Zhu Yunge and Bai Tao, among other insiders, may have disclosed the information voluntarily or involuntarily, only one possibility remains.

And the probability is quite high!

Having roughly guessed the answer, Zhang Che didn't hide anything and openly admitted that he had indeed made several good cards, and it was precisely because of their power that he was able to defeat Mirage Princess and the other two without any major incident.

It's also a way of advertising for himself. As a card maker, he can't rely on just a few orders to support himself; he still needs to develop more customers.

After all, this is the provincial capital. Not to mention fourth-tier card makers, there are even sixth-tier card makers here.

Among them are those capable of crafting mid-tier extraordinary purple cards. If Zhang Che wants to get a share of the market, he'll have to put in some effort.

Those who actively gathered around were clearly doing so for the same purpose, and for a time everyone was happy, with the conversation becoming increasingly engaging.

As we all know, time always flies when people are focused on something.

Even when the city lord finally arrived and interrupted their conversation, Zhang Che still had a hint of lingering satisfaction on his face.

It feels amazing to be fawned over by a group of people. Even with Zhang Che's strong will, he couldn't help but feel a little smug after being in this state for a long time.

However, he did not come away empty-handed; he received at least several bookings, with the promise to discuss the details after the meeting.

At this moment, everyone's attention began to be drawn to the city lord speaking on the stage, and Zhang Che had no choice but to put the order matter aside for the time being.

What he didn't know was that a pair of eyes were watching him intently from not far away.

Chapter 268 A Little Turmoil

Zhang Che's fairly keen senses made him realize that someone had ill intentions towards him. However, because there were too many people present and the city lord Zhou Hengyue was speaking up, he couldn't find the source of the malice for the time being. So he could only put the matter aside for the time being and focus his attention on the important matter.

"...All the teams performed very well in this rift exploration mission. Although some things that no one wanted to see inevitably happened, this is the nature of the extraordinary era—"

At this point, Zhou Hengyue's tone became even more serious and solemn:

"The moment we step into the rift, life and death are no longer in our own hands. Only by being prepared for this can we go further on the path to transcendence!"

Zhou Hengyue didn't nitpick over words; his words were straightforward, yet they also highlighted the core issue.

Finally, he announced that, in light of the experiences and gains of each team during this exploration mission, the high-ranking officials of Qi'an City, led by himself, unanimously decided to name it the "Flame Dragon Rift".

The character "炎" (Yan) needs no further explanation; given the abnormally high concentration of fire-attribute extraordinary energy within the rift, the name absolutely had to include a word related to "fire."

As for the word "dragon," it's quite simple. The number of dragon-descended superhumans in that rift is also somewhat excessive. Apart from Zhang Che's team encountering lizardmen and several different kinds of wild beasts, other teams have also had similar experiences.

This can also be seen from the materials submitted by each team at the end.

Clearly, the reason this rift became a resource-type rift is most likely because the subspace behind the rift was once inhabited by dragon beasts with extremely high bloodline concentration.

This also means that the subspace is full of countless dangers. The fact that only one entire team and less than ten scattered members were lost out of the fifteen teams sent in by Qi'an City is already a result to be grateful for.

To be honest, this resource-rich rift that everyone explored together was a boon for all the teams. Except for the unlucky ones in Golden Hill City, the other teams all brought back quite a lot of good stuff.

Zhang Che looked at the leaderboard and saw that even the last-place team had exceeded the minimum score of 380 points, which indirectly indicated that many teams were hiding something and had not submitted it.

Those would all go into their own private savings; who wouldn't be tempted?

If it were an ordinary rift, not to mention the final casualties, even if everyone returned to Earth unharmed, how much resources they could bring back would still be unknown.

Throughout the history of the Federation, there have been numerous instances where vast amounts of manpower and resources were spent on developing the Rift, only to find that the final harvest was far less than the investment.

To put it bluntly, the extraordinary individuals on Earth today, especially those at the mid-level or higher, are not afraid of the dangers beyond the rift, but rather of reaping little reward after going through hardships.

……

Zhou Hengyue remained as concise as ever, saying a few simple words to boost morale before announcing the start of the ranking rewards distribution.

First, there's Golden Hill City, which suffered the greatest losses. Their team was wiped out and therefore not included in the rankings, but they still received a special contribution award—Golden Hill City can send a team to participate in the rift exploration tomorrow.

They will also receive a special gift of condolence from the city hall.

The other teams that suffered casualties experienced the same situation, except that the level of condolence was not as high as that of the former.

Zhou Hengyue didn't specify what it was, but since he was making such a big deal out of it, it probably wasn't anything particularly bad.

Of course, none of the other teams were envious, since the price of that consolation was their own lives, and they couldn't enjoy it no matter how good it was.

Next came the publicly announced ranking rewards, with four tiers: first place; second place; third place; fourth to sixth place; and sixth place and beyond.

The lowest tier of reward is naturally not a good thing... well, it should be said that it's not a good thing in Zhang Che's opinion, but it's already pretty good for many people.

They are mostly materials and resources such as crystal cores, and most of them are third-order, with less than a third being fourth-order.

The items given in the third tier are similar to those in the fourth tier, but there are no more third-tier materials to fill the gaps; they are almost all fourth-tier, and there are also some special item quotas.

For example, spiritual crystals, although only at the lower-level extraordinary level, are enough to make those people extremely surprised and delighted.

Whether it's the three major powers in Qi'an City or the various cities under their jurisdiction, the number of mid-level superhumans is ultimately a minority of decisive forces, while the vast majority of low-level superhumans are the mainstream.

A special item, like a spiritual crystal, means that a talented lower-level transcendent can save a lot of hard work and prepare for advancement to a mid-level transcendent earlier.

The most important thing for the city as a whole is to cultivate a few outstanding reserve forces through this.

Then the second and third place winners went on stage to receive their awards.

"Congratulations, Captain Zhang Che."

Su Muxue greeted them with a smile, and this scene instantly made the other five members of the team widen their eyes—was this still the aloof goddess they knew? When did she become so gentle and polite?

With that charming smile, some people might even believe she's been possessed!

"I only came in third place, I don't deserve Miss Su's congratulations," Zhang Che replied humbly.

"Really? Thank you very much."

For some reason, when Su Muxue said those words, Zhang Che always felt that there was a special meaning hidden in her smile.

Could it be that she recognized me?

Zhang Che remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was inevitably stirred by the emotions within.

However, while the two were exchanging cryptic remarks, the rest of the two teams were also observing them.

Fu Xing and Li Yao were wondering when their older brother/captain had gotten involved with this rumored goddess of Qi'an University, and how they seemed to be so familiar with each other.

Because before this, he had always stayed in the villa to study cards and rarely went out.

Pan Tingting had a long-standing grudge against Su Muxue because of a previous conflict with her supporters that had dragged Zhang Che into it.

"Hmph, once I advance to the fourth tier and can reliably summon the 'Galactic Wind,' I'll definitely test the mettle of your title as the number one prodigy!"

Ruan Ruoshi then recalled the day she followed Zhang Che and discovered that he and Su Muxue had spent a long time in a teahouse.

Could it be that...?

The little girl clenched her fists tightly, her eyes filled with resentment.

Only Song Ruolan remained detached, watching the interactions between the different people with great interest.

As for the reason for all this, Zhang Che simply glanced at it.

Chapter 269 Special Reward

With varying thoughts and somewhat numb, the group received their team rewards from Zhou Hengyue. In addition to the usual extraordinary materials and special resources such as lower-level spiritual crystals, the most important thing was that each team received three special exchange coupons.

According to Zhou Hengyue, these vouchers can be exchanged for any mid-level extraordinary item at the city hall, even sixth-tier extraordinary items.