125: Chapter 124 The Curtain Falls and the System Mutation!!

Chapter 124: Conclusion and System Mutation!! (5k Word Chapter)

Hearing the three words "No Deity Name", Yin Tianzheng grew even more suspicious in his heart.

No deity name meant the other party had no deity position, and no deity position meant no deity duty.

As the commander of the military's Thunder Department and the owner of [Wen Zhong], Yin Tianzheng's understanding of [deity card] definitely surpassed that of most people.

Take [Wen Zhong] in his hands, for example; after awakening his true name from an ordinary [Celestial General] and consulting ancient texts, he discovered that his deity duty was named [Hearer and Transformer of Voices of Thunder in Nine Heavens], located at the top of the [Thunder Department] deities.

Moreover, Yin Tianzheng's own strength and prestige in the military were sufficient, so it was only natural that he was appointed as the commander of the [Thunder Department], leading the [Celestial Soldiers] and [Celestial Generals] who had awakened the true names of the [Thunder Department].

Everyone in the military knew that the combat power of the [Celestial Soldiers] and [Celestial Generals] who awakened the true names of the [Thunder Department] was the most formidable in the military, so the value of the position as the [Thunder Department] commander went without saying.

Among the competitors of the same period, there were those whose combat power was not weaker than Yin Tianzheng's. For instance, the one who awakened the true name [Li Changgen] at the same time even possessed strength above Yin Tianzheng's, but simply because records stated his deity name was [Taibai Xingjun], he ultimately lost out, allowing Yin Tianzheng to become the [Thunder Department] commander. The importance of deity name and deity duty was thus evident.

Most of the time, the deity name could reveal a card's potential, background, and even stance on good and evil.

When Yin Tianzheng felt this contradictory aura in the sky that was extremely yang and rigid, overflowing with murderous intent yet filled with magnificent righteousness, he was completely unable to figure out the other party's background for a moment. Although he was naturally pleased in mid-air to see the other party pulling out [Huchang] and eating it raw, in his heart he did not think this was a benevolent being, suspecting it was most likely some weird evil deity. Which benevolent deity could look more like an evil ghost than an evil ghost? He even ate until his face was covered in fresh blood, coupled with that ugly countenance. At that time, Yin Tianzheng had almost concluded that this was an evil deity.

And [Zhong Kui] probably wouldn't have expected that countless years later, [Huang Chao], the user of his Yin deity power, would suffer another wave of misunderstandings simply because his Yin deity form manifested with the appearance of Zhong Kui's true face.

For tens of millions of years, the human habit of judging people by their appearance had still not changed much.

Yet when Yin Tianzheng saw that the other party did not directly grab the tiger beside him to eat, nor directly hack the tiger to pieces with the long sword in his hand, but instead went out of his way to save a pregnant woman and protect the birth of an infant, Yin Tianzheng could not help feeling a bit ashamed of his previous guess—where would one find such a kind-hearted evil deity? Even a benevolent deity would do no more than this. And to Yin Tianzheng, those three words "No Deity Name" seemed more like a manifestation of the other party's unwillingness to reveal their background; presumably, the owner of the card also had a deep understanding of [deity card].

After a complicated flurry of psychological activity, upon hearing the Yin deity report the two words "Sun Po", he was also somewhat bewildered. Who is Sun Po?

Was there a Sun family among the noble clans? Was he a newly emerging generation in the military recently? Or a retainer supported by some major clan?

While he was still pondering, he saw President Chen Wang, who had tumbled down from the clouds, pat the dirt off his body, crawl up from the ground, and hurriedly approach the personnel wearing combat team uniforms, pulling out a handsome young man dressed in a high school uniform.

Yin Tianzheng rebuked, "President Chen Wang! Go home and chat with your son. Are you going to neglect your benefactor?"

Yin Tianzheng's words were not exaggerated at all. If [Huang Chao] had not made a move this time, basically none of the citizens in Gaoping City who had transformed into [Huchang] could have been saved.

Especially since an area that had just undergone a time reversal absolutely could not undergo another reversal in a short period of time; otherwise, once the spatial barrier was completely damaged, this world would essentially be left completely at the mercy of those terrifying secret realm monsters and extraterrestrial monsters to come and go as they pleased.

The ultimate result would be that at least seventy percent of the citizens in Gaoping City would be killed or injured, and Gaoping City would cease to exist from then on. The remaining citizens would be dispersed and incorporated into other cities. As the top leader, President Chen Wang would not be able to escape post-incident accountability, and his political career would basically come to an end.

Therefore, [Huang Chao] not only saved the citizens of Gaoping City, but even more so, saved President Chen Wang.

President Chen Wang naturally understood this point as well, which was why he had rushed in front of Sun Po to express his gratitude before his former old commander even made a move.

Hearing the white-bearded old man's words, Sun Po also had black lines on his forehead. President Chen Wang held Sun Po's hand, and upon hearing Yin Tianzheng's reprimand, he turned back and smiled, saying, "Old Chief Yin, if I could give birth to a son like this, I'd wake up laughing in my dreams!"

As he spoke, President Chen Wang pulled Sun Po over to walk in front of Yin Tianzheng and said,

"Old Chief Yin, let me introduce him. This is the Sun Po mentioned by that Yin deity, and also the owner of that Yin deity."

Saying this, he looked at Yin Tianzheng again, and seeing the other party nod, he continued:

"Little Friend Sun, this is the commander of the Yanhuang Defense Force's [Thunder Department], my old chief from when I was in the military—Yin Tianzheng."

From the moment Yin Tianzheng and the three-eyed old man riding an ink-colored exotic beast beside him landed, Sun Po's gaze was firmly attracted.

With wind and cloud horns on his head, covered in ink-dragon scales, dragon's head and deer's body, ox hooves, and a lion's tail, stepping on fine flashes of lightning under his feet, the old man he carried on his back had a yellow face and white beard, majestic without anger, with a single eye on his forehead, holding weapons, and clad in full armor.

If Sun Po still couldn't guess who this iconic appearance belonged to, he really would have wasted reading so many volumes of 《Investiture of the Gods》 when he was a child.

The genuine [Hearer and Transformer of Voices of Thunder in Nine Heavens], the legendary top boss of the Heavenly Court's [Thunder Department], in charge of heaven and earth thunder tribulations and punitive matters.

This was definitely the most fierce card and the card with the biggest background that Sun Po had ever seen since coming to this world.

Sun Po was shocked in his heart: Is this the foundation of the official authorities?

But on second thought, with ordinary [Celestial Soldiers] and [Celestial Generals], how could there not be those well-known orthodox deities of various departments?

Could the official authorities also have a [Celestial General] whose awakened true name was Zhang Bainren?

If they really had such a foundation, it didn't seem so strange that they could suppress all the noble families."

But he didn't know that the shock in the heart of Yin Tianzheng opposite him was even greater than his.

A high school student? What high school was so terrifying?

The aura emitted by that card had actually reached the level of golden!!

Are you kidding!! Was the golden tier so easy to cross?!

If one could advance cards before orange as long as there were resources, and even with slightly lower intelligence, one could forcefully pile them up to orange using resources,

then card advancement after orange had hard requirements for the card's own accumulation, intelligence, potential, and other implicit conditions.

This was also why true name cards were classified as rare cards. In the early stages, compared with ordinary cards, they only seemed a bit smarter, but upon reaching the orange stage, true name cards found it much easier to use their own intelligence and comprehension to knock open that abstruse and mysterious door between orange and gold.

But this process was by no means easy. How many middle-aged powerhouses in the military with true name cards had been stuck at the orange quality for many years and unable to make any progress? Now, President Chen Wang told him that the high school student in front of him was the owner of a golden-quality [deity card]?

When he noticed the words "Gaoping City No. 2 Municipal High School" on that uniform, he felt even more absurd in his heart.

He was merely studying in a municipal middle school in a mere Gaoping City, and it was just the No. 2 Municipal High School?

The number of noble clans in Gaoping City was not very large. Correspondingly, this place itself was not a city with a very dense concentration of secret realms, so it didn't give birth to too many noble families to guard it.

Such a city was naturally considered stable, but the quality of its Card Makers was usually quite average.

The quality of public school education and teacher-student resources for Card Makers could not compare with major cities like Jinyang.

In a school like this, let alone deity name and deity positions, most wouldn't even teach the classification of rare card types, because high school students in cities of this level basically had no use for this knowledge. If they could make a white-quality "Three House" card, it was already considered pretty good; if it could reach green, it was already a very excellent level.

Thinking back to when he was in high school, he only held a [blue 5-star] [Warrior], yet he was already able to slaughter everywhere in the [Gaokao] exam arena.

Has the era changed? High school students? Golden-quality [deity card]?

Could old man me have my sanity affected by extraterrestrial demons?

Yin Tianzheng was stunned for a long time before he finally calmed his emotions, looked at Sun Po in front of him, and sighed:

"President Chen Wang, that kid has such great luck! An eighteen-year-old owner of a golden [deity card]—unseen and unheard of!"

For a moment, Sun Po didn't know what to answer. He couldn't possibly say, "Didn't you just see one today?"

But the atmosphere didn't remain stiff for long. Yin Tianzheng quickly reacted and asked:

"Please forgive me, Little Friend Sun. The old man was momentarily dazed. May I ask who your family elders and master are?"

This was asking about his family background. Sun Po said calmly, "My parents have already passed away, but I do have a teacher."

Hearing this, Sun Po turned around and pulled Yang Xinyue over amidst the envious gazes of the combat squad members, saying, "This is the teacher who gave me important guidance, and the most important benefactor on my path as a Card Maker."

Yang Xinyue had not yet recovered from the shock of this extreme sorrow turning to extreme joy, and she was still a bit dazed. She watched as the ugly yin spirit and fierce tiger not far away looked like competitive eaters entering a buffet. At first, they chewed the [Huchang] carefully, but later, the man and the tiger opened their mouths wide and swallowed them whole one by one.

That appearance looked even more terrifying, and she completely didn't understand how their mouths could open that wide. However, watching every single [Huchang] being pulled out and eaten, which caused one citizen to return to normal, she felt in her heart that the ugly yin spirit also became imposing.

As she was watching intently, she was suddenly pulled by Sun Po to stand before Yin Tianzheng. Noticing the other party's uniform with a golden cape, Yang Xinyue knew this was obviously a high-ranking official, which made her feel even more constrained. She had never seen such a high-ranking official before.

Sun Po naturally had his own selfish motives for doing this. He already knew the situation Gaoping City was facing at this moment, and he also knew how much help [Huang Chao] had given to the authorities.

Yang Xinyue had just joined the authorities and everything depended on her own hard work. Now that Sun Po had the opportunity to enter the vision of the official high-level management, he naturally harbored the intention of paving the way for Yang Xinyue.

After all, Yang Xinyue's care for him over the years was one of the few warmth he felt in this world. Especially after seeing that Sun Po's parents had also passed away, she almost treated him like a younger brother rather than maintaining a pure teacher-student relationship.

President Chen Wang had navigated official circles for so many years, and Yin Tianzheng was an old and astute character; of course, they could see through Sun Po's intentions.

Yang Xinyue was the only bridge between Sun Po, a super genius among commoners, and the authorities at present, so her importance went without saying.

But they also knew very well that in terms of strength, I'm afraid Yang Xinyue's help to Sun Po was not that significant.

In other words, this was an ultimate monstrous talent who had basically walked to the golden quality step entirely on his own.

Yin Tianzheng looked at Yang Xinyue and said, "I thank you on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of living souls in Gaoping City. Rushing back in a panic from the outer realms this time, being able to see such a brilliant disciple can be considered a worthwhile trip. It's just that that little bastard President Chen Wang lacks vision; how could he let such a renowned teacher be buried in this tiny combat squad? I will definitely give him a good scolding."

Yang Xinyue could naturally understand Sun Po's intention. Moved in her heart, she still explained, "I dare not take the credit. It is entirely because the child Sun Po is outstanding himself, and President Chen has already taken good care of him."

From the moment Sun Po showed his attitude, what Yang Xinyue said actually didn't matter anymore. Moreover, she was Sun Po's genuine teacher, and she fully deserved this credit.

The envious gazes of the others in the combat squad could no longer be hidden. The commander of the Thunder Department!!

This was a big shot that many people wouldn't even get to see in a lifetime.

If the Card Association was just a logistics department similar to a nation's, and the Card Association at best acted as the head of logistics, then the commander in the National Defense Army was the actual ruler of the front lines and the actual distributor of resources.

A single sentence from such a person was enough to make Yang Xinyue's official career smooth sailing from then on.

And all this was simply because of a single sentence from Sun Po.

In just this short while, the entire street of Jiaqing Residential Area had no trace of [Huchang] left. Those recovered citizens present had witnessed the whole process of [Huang Chao] eating [Huchang] with their own eyes, and only then did they realize they had already walked through the gates of hell.

Everyone couldn't help feeling a bit guilty for having hindered the security team's quarantine just now, while at the same time feeling even more grateful to this ugly, huge yin spirit.

That pregnant woman had just fainted from pain and was now too weak to get up and kowtow. Her husband had also returned to human form, and upon learning the situation, he frantically kowtowed to [Huang Chao] and shouted, "Supreme Deity!! Thank you, Supreme Deity, for saving my child's life!! Thank you, Supreme Deity!!"

The other recovered citizens also frantically kowtowed towards [Huang Chao], who was heading into the distance to continue swallowing [Huchang]. At this moment, someone spoke up, "I asked those few people in uniform over there, and they said this is a card belonging to the Card Maker Sun Po."

"A Card Maker?! Sun Po? The young man living right across from me is named Sun Po. Could it be him?"

"Impossible. Although that young man is also a genius, he is only in his third year of high school and performed very well in this year's Gaokao. I even went to watch his match, and his card is a purple-quality white-haired monkey, not this one."

"Is the one standing over there Sun Po from our residential area?"

"It really seems to be! It really seems to be him!! Those people next to him look like high-ranking officials!"

"That person is the president of our city's Card Association, the top boss!!"

"Look, that president seems very polite. It really seems to be Sun Po from our residential area!!"

"I could tell back then that he was extraordinary, leaving early and returning late every day, working very hard."

Following one resident's voice, the kneeling residents all looked over toward Sun Po.

Sun Po thought to himself that it was bad; he didn't like being exposed to the public gaze in such a high-profile manner, so he said goodbye to President Chen Wang and the others, preparing to leave.

[Huang Chao] had already gone all over the city to eat [Huchang] and wouldn't need him for the time being. He also wanted to go back and check the gains from this trip.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly discovered a strange colorful halo drifting toward the direction of himself and [Huang Chao] in the distance. Sun Po felt that this light was somewhat familiar:

"What is this? It looks a bit like that colorful blob of jelly on the middle screen when creating a custom mod, but it also seems somewhat different?"

At this moment, Yin Tianzheng spoke up, "Little Friend Sun, you have great luck! This time, your yin spirit actually generated a trace of the [Power of Merit] by saving Gaoping City."

Sun Po stopped in his tracks and asked, "The [Power of Merit]? Are these colorful halos streaming across the sky?"

Yin Tianzheng looked up at the sky where colorful halos were drifting in wisps and said, "Exactly!"

At this moment, his feeling was like seeing an infant still sucking on a pacifier and unable to speak, yet holding a chunk of solid gold in its hands. He really wanted to say, "Junior, this kind of fortuitous encounter is not something you can grasp!"

But alas, he couldn't, because according to past experience, this [Power of Merit] has been bound from the moment of its appearance. Even if that person dies, the [Power of Merit] will only disappear rather than be taken by others. Yin Tianzheng even felt a trace of envy rise in his eyes as he said:

"This colorful halo is named the [Power of Merit]. The Bald Eagle Federation calls this power [Holy Power], and other countries call it things like [Brahma Power], [Emperor Power], [Ancestral Power], all sorts of names. But one point can be agreed upon: this power is the highest-level and most mysterious force humanity has come into contact with so far. Its efficacy is even stronger than the power of destiny, yet no one in the world has been able to research and understand this power. How did it appear? How did it disappear? How is it utilized? No one knows anything about it."

"Only a tiny fraction of lucky individuals have ever obtained this power, but its manifestation on each person and each card seems completely different."

Sun Po understood. That is to say, this thing was quite precious, and no one in the world could figure it out right now.

But what on earth was the use of this power? Aside from feeling that the world in his eyes was clearer and his mind was sharper at this moment, he didn't have any obvious feelings in other aspects. Could it be that it just had a refreshing and mind-clearing function?

Suddenly, a familiar system electronic sound came to Sun Po's ears, but strangely, there was also a female voice in his ears:

"[The mod loading system has detected unknown energy!!]"

"[The mod loading system is undergoing an unknown mutation!!]"

"[Unknown energy is insufficient!! The mutation of the mod loading system has been suspended!!]"

"[The mutation progress of the mod loading system has been retained!!]"

"Is it you, little monkey?"

The female voice that sounded simultaneously with the system sound was as gentle as a spring breeze and fine rain, making people feel as if they could put down all burdens and defenses, as reassuring as returning to a mother's embrace during infancy. This timbre made him feel somewhat familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before, yet no matter how he tried, he couldn't remember it.

But at this moment, his heart had been firmly hooked by those system sounds. Every system upgrade had brought a huge leap in Sun Po's strength, but what was this "system mutation"?