Chapter 220: 220 What are you looking forward to!_1
She hadn’t known before. Now that she understood these things, Wen Jiang naturally wanted to investigate the source of the disaster that had struck this world a thousand years ago.
She contacted Yan Moling, the only person she knew with the ability to do so.
Yan Moling was a little surprised and impressed when she received Wen Jiang’s unsolicited call. "I thought you’d rest for a while after the competition, but you truly are amazing!"
The news of the ’seven versus nine’ incident had already spread throughout the Yunxia Empire, so of course, she already knew.
Considering Wen Jiang might need to rest, she hadn’t called to congratulate her immediately.
"There wasn’t much pressure," Wen Jiang casually bragged, then directly stated her purpose, "I’d like to understand some things that might help me with card creation. Can you find any information about the great calamity from a thousand years ago?"
"HM?" Hearing her request, Yan Moling was somewhat surprised. "You need to know about that? It was so long ago. The information is all stored away in the Imperial Library. I’ll have to go and inquire for you."
She didn’t refuse outright, which indicated it wasn’t a significant issue. "Why are you suddenly interested in this?" she asked. "When I first learned about it as a child, I also asked my family, but they didn’t know much either. It’s a bloody period of history. It took us a long time to gradually move past the gloom. Some scholars believe these painful histories aren’t suitable for the younger generation, and textbooks covering these events are becoming increasingly scarce."
Yan Moling didn’t quite agree with that sentiment. "Although it happened a long time ago, we should still know what price our ancestors paid. Don’t you agree?"
"Of course, the younger generation should know," Wen Jiang said with a sudden, short laugh. "No wonder cards are becoming scarcer these days."
"EH?"
Yan Moling was startled. The fact that cards were becoming scarcer wasn’t common knowledge; for ordinary people, it was a distant concept. Occasionally, some experts speculated that cards were on a downward trend. People knew cards were becoming fewer but didn’t understand why.
Hearing Wen Jiang’s remark, Yan Moling wondered if she knew something. "Is the decrease in the number of cards related to this?" she asked.
"I’m not entirely sure."
After all, the Heart of the World hadn’t told her. "So, I want to look up information about the past," Wen Jiang explained.
"Alright, I’ll have someone look into it for you."
Yan Moling was efficient. Within an hour, she had results for Wen Jiang’s request. "I’ve found some materials; some are ancient texts. Since you’re currently abroad, I’ll scan and upload them for you. You can look through those first. Some Nobility families might still have ancient records. I can see if I can try to borrow them for you, if you need them."
"That would be great." Of course, Wen Jiang wouldn’t trouble Yan Moling with such cumbersome tasks. "You can just give me their names, and I’ll try approaching them using the Jimo Family’s name."
One should leverage their family’s name when necessary.
"Alright."
Yan Moling scanned and sent over a concise document. It indeed recounted part of the story about the great calamity’s origin.
The document was titled "The Transformation of Humans."
This calamity originated from humanity itself.
No one knew how the calamity suddenly struck. A portion of the population went mad, the murder rate surged, and these individuals transformed into monsters that the weapons of that era couldn’t harm—unkillable, indestructible. They were like zombies from movies, yet not entirely.
They didn’t devour the flesh of their kin, but after killing, they grew increasingly powerful.
As monsters emerged one after another and cities fell, cards appeared in humanity’s moment of despair.
With cards as weapons, humanity’s combat strength soared, and the monsters began a steady retreat.
As cards became more numerous, the monsters dwindled.
Eventually, the calamity ended.
The summarized information was this: scarce, yet it offered the same answer.
More cards, fewer monsters.
In her original world, as Cultivators increased, monsters also became fewer.
Wen Jiang was stunned. Could her world and this one truly share an inevitable connection? Initially, she had assumed it was just one among countless parallel spacetimes. As a Cultivator, she believed in both non-scientific theories and science fiction concepts. After all, her own existence defied scientific explanation.
Zero Egg watched her stare for a long while. Assuming she had finished reading, it suddenly asked, "What have you figured out?"
Wen Jiang closed the documents and said, "I’m wondering what the connection is between your world and this one. As a System, you can access countless spacetimes. Why did you specifically come to this one?"
"HUH?" Zero Egg sounded somewhat troubled. "You’ve really stumped me there."
Matters not involving data had always been its weakness. "I don’t know why I was the one who came to this spacetime," it admitted. "But assignments like ours are random. If it hadn’t been this world, it would have been the next. There are many spacetimes like this one."
The information Zero Egg had let slip was already more than enough.
Wen Jiang’s eyes flickered. "I understand now," she said.
"HUH?" Zero Egg pressed. "What do you understand?"
Talking to humans was so annoying. Their minds could take eighteen twists and turns, and they wouldn’t even grant it access, leaving it clueless about what Wen Jiang was actually thinking.
This information at least confirmed Wen Jiang’s suspicions: the appearance of monsters was inversely related to extraordinary power. The more extraordinary power present, the more the monsters could be suppressed. If cards were to disappear, this world would inevitably face its doom. Her mission was to create cards. And to raise the Fate value to its peak within a limited time. Judging by the rate at which the Fate value was declining, she just didn’t know how long this time limit was. However, Wen Jiang knew that such things couldn’t be rushed. The competition would soon be over. She could return to the country for a good rest and, in the meantime, think about the card set for Yan Moling. And that Divine Card Set—she needed to see what that was all about too.
The Broken Heart Association won, as expected. Three days later, the match between Mount Flower and Broken Heart was scheduled.
This time, Broken Heart was quite accommodating, still banning the Four Heavenly Kings and Su Daji. With Mount Flower not banning the Moon Palace Card Set, Broken Heart managed to secure Hou Yi and Jade Rabbit in the first pick.
Unfortunately, Mount Flower had already snatched Changer.
As a result, Wen Jiang, with Changer in hand, completely shut down the opponent’s Hou Yi card, thoroughly dominating them and making the Broken Heart Association feel like their heads would explode.
This gave Chen Yunbai, who had once been brutally defeated by Changer, a strangely satisfying sense of vindication.
See? Not even the Broken Heart Association could stop her! How could he be blamed for his overconfidence when using Hou Yi back then?
The outcome was, naturally, no surprise: Mount Flower successfully claimed the A-Rank Group championship in this year’s world league.
This was Yunxia’s first championship in many years, a momentous occasion truly worthy of celebration.
Wen Jiang also felt it was worth celebrating. However, her way of celebrating wasn’t overt. Instead, with a grand gesture, she had the Mount Flower Card Factory make an announcement.
Announcing the upcoming launch of the Phoenix Group Cards.
We hope everyone looks forward to it.
Fans who still hadn’t collected the complete Founding Emperor Card Set: ...
Look forward to what?!