Who said this card is outrageous?

"I'm fine, it's just..." Ah Li's words trailed off. She lowered her gaze, let go of the door frame, and turned to go into the kitchen.

Soon, a clanging and clattering sound came from the direction of the stove and sink.

Shui Xian stood at the kitchen doorway for a few seconds before turning back to look at Zhang Che, her eyes filled with obvious confusion and a plea for help.

Zhang Che had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and wave to her.

Narcissus walked back to the sofa and sat down, but her gaze kept drifting towards the kitchen: "Archer, what happened to Ahri?"

Her tone clearly carried a hint of confusion.

"It's okay, Ahri is cooking for me."

"But Archer, didn't you buy a lot of food?" Narcissus pointed to the items spread out on the coffee table, her tone still confused.

Zhang Che choked for a moment, not expecting that his newly created card would have such a strong spirit of inquiry, wanting to get to the bottom of everything.

So he could only swallow the tofu pudding in his mouth and replied without changing his expression, "These are just appetizers. I have a big appetite; this alone isn't enough."

Narcissus blinked, seemingly processing the information.

After a couple of seconds, she nodded, accepting the explanation. She looked away from the coffee table and back towards the kitchen, without asking any further questions.

Zhang Che could sense that she still had some doubts, but she also clearly sensed his reluctance to discuss the matter further, so she took the initiative to stop talking.

……

Around 10 p.m., Zhang Che returned to his room to rest and touched his slightly protruding belly, involuntarily letting out a burp.

This Ahri is so reckless! He actually prepared so many dishes all at once, and they were all his favorite meat dishes.

It would have been fine if he hadn't bought so much food when he came back, but having so much stuff to fill his stomach first really made him feel stuffed afterwards.

Fortunately, the metabolic capacity of high-level superhumans is such that their digestion and absorption efficiency of ordinary food is far superior to that of ordinary people. After about ten minutes, the bloating in their stomach gradually subsided.

Zhang Che then stood up from his chair, stretched his shoulders, and sighed silently to himself.

Cards with too much autonomy can sometimes be inconvenient.

Back when Ahri was still a Tier 3 Blue Card, she had already formed a fairly complete prototype of an autonomous personality based on the massive amount of information provided by Zhang Che.

After being promoted to a purple card, Ahri's self-awareness was further strengthened. Moreover, after this period of accumulation and growth, Ahri is now no different from a living person in terms of mentality and emotions.

They have their own emotions, joys, sorrows, and happiness, and they also have their own troubles.

The only thing that can still restrain her now is the card itself under the rules of Blue Star.

Cards of three qualities—white, green, and blue—have fixed quality and level, with no room for improvement.

The reason why purple-quality cards are so valuable is that they have limited growth potential.

But after all, there's a limit. No matter how strong a Tier 3 purple card is, it can only reach the level of a regular Tier 4 blue card.

To break through this bottleneck, you either need to find a way to upgrade Ahri's card to Tier 4, breaking the existing level framework and rebuilding it; or you need to cross the hurdle of purple cards and push her to the legendary highest orange quality.

Neither method is easy for Zhang Che.

The first method involves breaking the original stable structure of the cards.

This is actually not difficult. The card's structure was designed with the possibility of repair and fine-tuning in mind from the beginning, so the technical threshold for disassembly is not high.

But the problem lies in how to rebuild a new, stable structure within the broken framework after dismantling it, while simultaneously allowing the rank to smoothly advance to the next level—that's a completely different matter.

Zhang Che felt a headache just thinking about it!

That was the core technology that the first super-ranked card maker painstakingly researched. Although it has been improved and popularized by several generations, to this day, card makers who are capable of independently upgrading the card itself are still extremely rare.

Moreover, this can only be done in extremely rare cases. It is possible to replicate the process, but if it is used on other cards, the probability of it being reproduced is not high.

As for the other method, taking Ahri, who has already reached the quality of a purple card, to the next level and making her an orange card, it seems that this step-by-step method would be simpler, but in practice it is no easier than the first method.

While purple-quality cards are difficult to create, there are always some talented card makers who can do it. The number may be small, but even in a medium-sized city like Binhai City, you can find one or two.

Orange cards are different. Even in Qi'an City, the capital that gathers the essence of the entire Southeast Province, Zhang Che has never heard of any card maker publicly claiming that they have the ability to make orange cards.

It's important to know that the Federation has never restricted the knowledge of creating purple and orange cards. Basically, as long as you can prove that you have the ability, you can go to the adventurer's guild or town hall in the corresponding city to learn the relevant knowledge.

Even so, orange cards are still extremely rare.

Chapter 333 Welcome and Cleansing Ceremony

Logically speaking, Zhang Che has made connections with many high-level extraordinary individuals along the way, so he should have never even heard of anyone possessing a card of that quality, let alone seen an orange card.

With his mind racing, Zhang Che rubbed his throbbing temples and decided to put these thoughts aside for the time being.

Having just emerged from the Gray Nether Rift, I haven't even recovered yet. Trying to tackle such a difficult problem now would just be asking for trouble.

He lay in bed with his eyes closed for a while, and as his physical exhaustion completely subsided, he finally fell into a deep sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, it was already past ten o'clock the next morning.

Zhang Che rubbed his stomach and decided to go out and find something to eat first.

The remote urban area is a completely different world during the day and at night. The streets are bustling with people, and the vibrant atmosphere of daily life is palpable.

There were middle-aged women carrying vegetable baskets, leisurely haggling with vegetable vendors, and young people riding bicycles, ringing their bells, squeezing through the gaps.

Several old men were squatting on the steps at the alley entrance, playing chess, surrounded by a group of onlookers. Every now and then, someone would point at the chessboard and exclaim in sudden realization, "Oh!"

The little boy ran ahead carrying a bag of steamed buns, while the adults behind him hurried after him, shouting, "Slow down, don't fall!"

Zhang Che stood at the alley entrance for a few seconds, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.

This is what life should be like.

After living in the cold, oppressive atmosphere of the Gray Rift for too long, constantly on edge, people tend to get stuck in a rut, feeling that everything in the world needs a solution to feel at ease.

But seeing this scene before him, he felt much relieved. Thinking about things too much is useless; you have to take things one step at a time, eat one bite at a time, and solutions to problems can never be found overnight.

It's most important to fill our stomachs first.

He walked a few steps onto the street, found a stall, sat down, and prepared to have a good meal.

While waiting for his meal, Zhang Che planned to go to the Adventurers' Guild after eating to ask about the requirements for learning how to craft lower-level extraordinary orange cards.

No matter how difficult things are, you have to take the first step; otherwise, it's all just empty talk.

However, Zhang Che's plan was soon interrupted by an accident.

A plate of steamed buns was served when the cell phone on the corner of the table suddenly rang. The caller ID showed the name Ma Qiyun.

Zhang Che quickly answered, "Hello, Brother Ma."

A hearty laugh came from the other end of the phone: "Brother, did I disturb your rest?"

"No, no, I just woke up and am eating out," Zhang Che replied, swallowing the bun in his mouth.

"That's good. I was in such a rush to get out that I didn't have a chance to chat with you properly." Ma Qiyun's voice sounded deeper on the phone than in person. "You've been in the rift for so long, and I haven't had a proper welcome-back dinner. I happen to be free today, and I've already found a place. There's a nice restaurant in the city center; it's quiet and the food is quite good. Is it convenient for you?"

Zhang Che glanced at the steamed buns in front of him and put down his chopsticks without hesitation.

"Sure, Brother Ma, send me the address, I'll head over after I finish eating."

"No rush, I'll send the address to your phone, just come over." Ma Qiyun chuckled twice, and a brief instruction came from the other end of the phone, "Call me when you arrive, I'll come out to meet you."

After quickly clearing the food off the table, Zhang Che walked to a quiet, open space and took out the alchemy cart.

This action naturally attracted the attention of many people around, and the way they looked at Zhang Che changed.

Most of the people living in this area are ordinary people. Although they have seen many superhumans thanks to the convenience of the city, this is the first time they have ever seen something like an alchemy vehicle.

In order not to cause too much impact on the neighbors, Zhang Che has been concealing his presence since he returned, so he appears to be just an ordinary lower-level superhuman.

And that young face also played a very important suggestive role.

When the alchemy vehicle started, the engine emitted a low hum.

Soon, the car merged into the traffic on the street in the distance, and the shops and pedestrians on both sides of the car rushed past the car windows.

After passing through several bustling streets, the road gradually widened, and the roadside trees changed from locust trees to neatly trimmed ginkgo trees. The buildings along the roadside changed from multi-story small buildings to glass curtain wall buildings with more than ten stories.

That was also his destination.

Zhang Che got out of the car at the entrance and looked at the several magnificent golden characters on the hotel's exterior wall. Only then did he realize how much exaggeration Ma Qiyun had given the word "restaurant."

He put away the alchemy vehicle, took out his phone and called Ma Qiyun, who answered shortly afterward.

"Okay, I'm coming down right away!" Ma Qiyun's voice was filled with a hearty laugh.

……

Led by Ma Qiyun, the two arrived at the reserved private room, and upon entering, they saw that there was another woman inside.

The woman looked to be in her early thirties and was well-maintained. She wore a light purple knitted cardigan with a beige long skirt, and her hair was loosely tied in a bun at the back of her head.

She was looking down at the teacup beside her when she heard the door open. She immediately stood up, a polite smile on her face. Her gaze fell on Zhang Che for a moment before turning to Ma Qiyun.

"This must be Brother Zhang Che, right?" Her voice was gentle and soft. "Old Ma has mentioned you several times at home, saying that you're young, but your skills are truly first-rate."

Ma Qiyun walked over with a smile, put his arm around the woman's shoulder, and said to Zhang Che, "This is your sister-in-law, Yin He. She's been with me for over ten years. She takes care of everything at home, big and small, so I can work outside with peace of mind."

Zhang Che was stunned for a moment. He subconsciously glanced at the two of them again, and it took him a while to process the information.

However, considering that Ma Qiyun is over fifty years old, it doesn't seem strange that he has started a family.

When Zhang Che had dealt with him before, he had never heard the other party mention his family situation. In addition, he was still young, and most of his friends were unmarried, so he subconsciously overlooked this point.

Seeing the genuine surprise on Zhang Che's face, Ma Qiyun finally breathed a sigh of relief—when Zhang Che deliberately approached him in the Gray Rift, he had suspected that the other party had ulterior motives.

However, given the life-saving grace first and the gift of the card later, Ma Qiyun didn't really want to delve into the hidden details. He could simply treat it as a mercenary mission.

But it wasn't until he saw Zhang Che's completely unaware that he was already married that he finally realized the other party didn't have any ulterior motives and genuinely just wanted him to help.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have failed to investigate something like this.

Chapter 334 Unrestrained Remarks During a Drunken Retreat

During the meal, Yin He perfectly embodied the qualities of a virtuous wife, allowing Zhang Che to personally experience what it means for both host and guest to have a pleasant time.

Ma Qiyun clinked his wine glass with Zhang Che's, and his words became much more frequent than before.

During this time, Zhang Che also learned from the couple's conversation that they had two children, a son and a daughter, but both were still in school.

Gradually, after a few drinks, Ma Qiyun's face flushed red, and he began to talk freely.