Who said this card is outrageous?

Once everything was settled, Zhang Che looked up and shouted loudly into the courtyard, "Sister, Uncle Wang, I'm back!"

As soon as he finished speaking, two figures hurriedly came out of the room.

Concerned for her husband's safety, Wang Xinran grabbed a spatula and rushed outside, her eyes darting anxiously around the yard, searching for Ji Xingchuan.

But when he scanned the entire room, he couldn't find Ji Xingchuan anywhere. The tension in his heart snapped instantly, and the worst thought rushed into his mind.

Her legs went weak, her face turned deathly pale, and the spatula she was holding fell to the ground.

"Happy!"

Wang Guofu reacted quickly and caught his daughter. Although he was old, he still had the strength to prevent her from falling to the ground.

Zhang Che arrived at this moment and quickly said, "Sister, brother-in-law is alright! There was just a slight mishap during the mission. He's going to report the situation with the rest of the team, and he should be back soon."

Wang Xinran was stunned for a moment, her gaze fixed on Zhang Che.

"Really?"

“Absolutely true!” Zhang Che nodded seriously. “I saw it with my own eyes. My brother-in-law didn’t have any serious injuries, just a few scrapes. If you don’t believe me, wait for him to come back and see for yourself.”

Wang Xinran stared at Zhang Che for several seconds, and only after confirming that he was not lying did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Then her expression changed.

She grabbed Zhang Che's arm and slapped it a few times in annoyance: "You brat! Don't you know you should tell me important things first? You made me worry for nothing."

What else could Zhang Che do but repeatedly admit his mistake: "Yes, yes, it's my fault, it's my fault. I'll definitely let you know I'm safe next time."

"There will be a next time?!"

"No, no, there won't be a next time!"

Wang Guofu, watching this scene from the side, couldn't help but laugh: "Alright, alright, Xingchuan is fine, it's good that he's back safe and sound."

Wang Xinran then stopped, glared at Zhang Che, bent down to pick up the spatula from the ground, and turned to go back into the house.

Zhang Che rubbed his arm, which had been slapped red, and gave Wang Guofu a wry smile.

At this moment, two city guards who were waiting nearby spoke up to say goodbye: "Mr. Zhang, all the supplies have been properly delivered. We need to return to the city to stand guard, so we won't stay any longer. If there are no other instructions, we will take our leave."

After receiving Zhang Che's nod of approval, the two soldiers quickly boarded the vehicle and left.

The rented off-road vehicle belongs to the Adventurers' Guild and will have to be returned later.

The courtyard finally returned to quiet. Looking at the various extraordinary materials piled up on the ground, Zhang Che turned to Wang Guofu beside him and said, "Uncle Wang, we have obtained a lot of extraordinary materials on this trip. You have the most experience in how to deal with these things, so I will leave it all to you."

Wang Guofu naturally wouldn't refuse; this was his old profession, and he had made a living from this skill for many years.

At this moment, Wang Xinran also came out of the house after hearing the noise. She had been exposed to the craft of material processing since childhood and had learned it from her father for many years. After calming down, she immediately stepped forward to help.

The three worked together and successfully completed the initial processing and proper handling of all the extraordinary materials before lunchtime.

……

Lunchtime.

The table was filled with the aroma of food, all home-style dishes cooked by Wang Xinran herself.

While carefully looking after her young son, she frequently glanced at Zhang Che, her eyes flickering, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated, her brows furrowed with doubt and confusion.

Clearly, Wang Xinran had some doubts about Zhang Che's identity.

Even with the fabricated excuse that "his master told him to keep a low profile," it's impossible to explain why Zhang Che was able to leapfrog a major level and advance to the mid-level extraordinary realm in just three years.

Zhang Che took in the subtle changes in Wang Xinran's expression and sighed silently in his heart.

He could understand why the other party had such concerns; after all, anyone would have doubts in this situation.

The problem is, he really is Zhang Che.

Genuine and authentic, the kind that's honest and trustworthy.

He just has an extra memory from another world in his mind, but he is still himself!

To prove himself, Zhang Che took a deep breath and revealed a secret that only he and his sister knew: "When you were twelve years old and had your first period, you bled a lot and thought you were going to die. You were terrified, but you didn't dare tell anyone."

Wang Xinran was stunned upon hearing this, completely unexpected that Zhang Che would start with zero frames, leaving her no time to stop him.

"Then you mustered up the courage and wanted to confess to that handsome guy in your grade. I even helped you with the love letter—"

Before he could finish speaking, Wang Xinran rushed over, took two steps across the distance between the dining tables, and tightly covered Zhang Che's mouth.

"Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking!" Wang Xinran's face turned as red as a boiled shrimp, her ear tips even turning blood red. She was so ashamed and angry that she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. "I was wrong, I shouldn't have doubted you. Please stop talking!"

Before she could even send out the love letter, a teacher noticed Wang Xinran's unusual behavior and gave her a thorough explanation of female puberty physiology.

So, the confession naturally came to nothing.

So, the only people in the whole world who knew about this were her and Zhang Che.

"Tch, what a troublesome woman..."

Zhang Che rolled his eyes at Wang Xinran just like he did when they were kids, and then resumed enjoying his food.

Zhang Che wondered if becoming a mother had a boost to her cooking skills, but he always felt that Wang Xinran's cooking skills had reached 90% of what Aunt Wang had mastered back then.

Zhang Che scooped a spoonful of braised pork broth onto the rice, mixed it, and then took a big, satisfying bite, his eyes narrowing in contentment.

Yes, that's the taste!

……

After eating and drinking their fill, Zhang Che asked Wang Xinran to find a quiet place, which was the basement of this house, to test the spiritual traits that he had finally awakened after his battle with two mid-level transcendents, using the extraordinary materials he had obtained this time.

Zhang Che's situation is indeed somewhat special, because both Xu Jing and Grandpa Mo successfully awakened their special traits shortly after advancing to the fourth rank.

Without the aid of spiritual crystals, their spiritual strength was even lower than when Zhang Che had just advanced.

Therefore, it is clear that Zhang Che's inability to awaken his spiritual traits is not due to his spiritual strength. To address this, he even fabricated a so-called "evolutionary" trait.

Just now, after finishing the battle with the harpy leader and the armored corpses, whether it was triggered or some other condition was met, his mental traits suddenly awakened.

However, it was not safe in the wild, so he had been holding back until now, and finally had the time to study his awakened traits.

Chapter 170 My Traits

In the basement, Zhang Che sat alone at a table, with his card-making tools and a pile of materials spread out in front of him.

He closed his eyes, sensing the newly awakened spiritual quality in his mind.

To be honest, Zhang Che has always felt a little uneasy about the concept of "special traits".

Although he had always assumed that the cards he created that could reduce mental energy consumption were because he had awakened the "trait" of a card maker in advance, he knew very well that it was just an effect that came with the fusion ability.

As for himself, he was just an ordinary person.

The evidence is that only cards created through fusion can reduce resource consumption, while cards created through conventional methods do not have this effect.

If traits were truly at play, there shouldn't be such a difference.

Now, with his official advancement to the mid-level transcendent, he has finally obtained his own unique traits!

"Can it really increase the success rate of card production?"

Zhang Che carefully considered the information that surfaced in his mind and gained a general understanding.

According to the information obtained from Grandpa Mo, it is rare for two people to have exactly the same special trait.

The traits awakened by two different card makers may have some overlapping effects, but upon closer examination, some differences will always be found.

For example, some card makers have the special quality of "precision calculation", which allows them to accurately calculate the direction and intensity of each energy circuit during the card making process, thereby avoiding energy conflicts;

Some card makers possess the trait of "sensing," which allows them to perceive subtle changes in the energy within materials and strike at the most opportune moment. Of course, the most outrageous trait is "copying," which is also the trait Zhang Che most wants to awaken. Its effect is to be able to directly reverse-engineer the production method of a finished card by observing it.

Unfortunately, it's definitely not going to happen now.

As for Zhang Che's awakened trait, its effect is to anchor one or more characteristics of the material during the card-making process—such as hardness, sharpness, or the inherent properties of the material itself—so that it has the highest probability of appearing on the final finished card.

Why is card making difficult? To a large extent, it's because the materials themselves have a variety of properties.

These characteristics can interact and interfere with each other during the card-making process; if a conflict occurs accidentally, the card will fail to be created.

Chang Cheh's special quality is that he can "anchor" certain properties of materials, like nailing them in place, so that they stay obediently in their proper place and don't wander off.

This makes the construction of energy circuits much smoother, and naturally increases the success rate of card crafting.

The best use for this trait is definitely when creating new cards.

When creating existing cards, the recipes and materials are fixed, and there's experience to refer to at every step. While Zhang Che's special abilities did have an effect at that time, they were more like icing on the cake.

When creating brand new cards, since there are no recipes to refer to and no experience to draw upon, everything has to be figured out by the card maker on their own. At this time, the role of traits is completely different.

With a little care and by focusing on the key properties of the materials, he can even control the direction of the final card to some extent.

Zhang Che believes that this may be its greatest value.

Because often, what card makers define as a failure when researching new cards is not that there is no finished product, but that the finished product does not meet their original vision.

For example, you might want to create a Fireball card, but end up with a useless card that can only stay in one place; or you might want to create a speed-boosting support card, but end up with a card that makes the player unable to stop running.

While there may be occasional pleasant surprises and a small chance of creating a masterpiece that far exceeds expectations, most of the time, finished products that deviate from the intended direction tend to have a worse effect.

With its own anchoring traits, the probability of "going astray" will be greatly reduced.

So what should I call you?

Zhang Che wondered if he should give his trait a name, since he couldn't just keep calling it "that trait" or "my trait" all the time.

But considering that he already has a trait called "evolution" on the surface, it seems unnecessary to give him another name.

In any case, Zhang Che will not reveal his special traits, otherwise he would become a peerless freak who has just advanced to the mid-level extraordinary level and already possesses a total of three "traits", the kind that is unique in the entire history of card makers.

This completely contradicts Zhang Che's original intention. He never wanted to show off; he only wanted to make a fortune quietly. Low-key development was the key.

Therefore, Zhang Che temporarily put aside the matter of naming it, or temporarily referred to it as "anchoring".

Anyway, names are convenient to have, but not having one won't prevent you from using them.

……

Then Zhang Che's gaze turned to the pile of materials laid out in front of him.

These were all extraordinary materials collected from harpies. They were arranged on the table in different categories, each gleaming under the light.

"Let's start with you guys."