163: Chapter 162 [The Binding Hoop]

Chapter 162 [ tightening hoop ]

Sun Po listened for a moment and asked,

" Does this mean this time it is similar to a five-nation martial arts tournament? Hundreds of people from five nations exploring and plundering each other? "

" Plundering foreign contestants doubles the points? And there will be a nationwide live broadcast? "

Li Tiance nodded and said, " That is the case. These foreign Card Makers seem to be elites from various countries, and they appear to have come to fight for an opportunity. "

Sun Po asked, " What opportunity? "

Li Tiance said, " It is not clear yet. "

Overall, Sun Po felt that it was not much different from the previous rules, except that some foreign teams were added, turning the team exploration, which originally leaned towards internal competition, into a confrontation between national factions.

However, Sun Po vaguely felt that the meaning behind this change was not simple.

Before the outbreak of secret realms, it was said that there were more than two hundred countries in the world. However, in the end, those that merged merged, and those that perished perished, leaving only these five major domains in the entire world. Now, the balance among these five major domains seemed to be about to be broken.

Unlike the previous minor frictions or radical rants among the populace, this time the confrontation between nations was pushed to an extremely serious and important occasion—the final stage of the Gaokao.

In Yanhuang Ancient Country, the importance of Gaokao goes without saying; it could be said to determine the life of the vast majority of Card Makers.

Yet for a long time, the final stage of Gaokao had been veiled in mystery and was unknown to the public.

It was not that no one had proposed that the final stage of Gaokao should be open and transparent like the previous stages.

However, the authorities claimed that the information of the national-level competition contestants was precious, concerning their life safety after going to the extraterritorial realms in the future, and could not be leaked.

Yet now, a nationwide live broadcast had suddenly started? Were they not afraid of leaks anymore? Sun Po thought this was too far-fetched.

Especially since the viewing qualifications for the final stage were opened for the first time, the number of viewers would inevitably hit a historical high.

And under such a huge number of viewers, a live broadcast of strong confrontation between national factions? Even encouraging it with means like double points.

As a Chinese netizen from his past life on Earth, Sun Po keenly perceived that this was to unite the hearts of the people and stimulate fighting spirit.

Combined with the massive exposure he had previously gained in the [ Huzhang ] incident in Gaoping City, and even getting the Yanhuang Third-Class Merit Medal not yet officially issued, Sun Po suddenly felt that perhaps something big was going to happen in Yanhuang Ancient Country in recent years.

However, there was one thing Sun Po could not figure out.

This was a card world, a world where individual martial power was extremely magnified.

Although Yanhuang Ancient Country had a population of 1.8 billion, there were only tens of millions of Card Makers.

Among these tens of millions of Card Makers, even novice Card Makers who only possessed the basic three-family cards had the ability to easily deal with a dozen unarmed strong men.

Those titled Card Makers standing at the apex of the Card Maker system possessed even the energy to make the entire country yield. He Bo had once flooded a quarter of the territory of Sakura Island Company Divine Kingdom, and it was only later when many titled Card Makers intervened and the Bald Eagle Federation put pressure together that the floodwaters of Sakura Island Company Divine Kingdom receded.

Yet throughout this, whether the flood was coming or receding, it had nothing to do with the populace from beginning to end. No one cared about the opinions of the populace, nor did anyone care about the opinions of civilian Card Makers.

Yet now, the populace was still weak, so why did they suddenly start paying attention to the most powerless populace? Did they expect the populace to explore secret realms?

Did they expect the populace to win the possible melee of the five major domains in the future? Or did they expect the populace to guard secret realms and defend extraterritorial realms?

Sun Po really could not figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about such questions.

He understood that many questions were only questions because his power was too weak, his standing position was not high enough, and the information he grasped was not comprehensive enough.

Instead of pondering bitterly there, it was better to seize the time and work hard to become stronger. After all, he still had a body full of treasures that he hadn't digested yet.

Li Tiance's news did not disrupt Sun Po's rhythm. He first took out thirty million and transferred it to Yang Xinyue's account.

This was something Sun Po had always wanted to do. Yang Xinyue's kindness to him could truly not be measured by money, but giving more money to this teacher who had always cared for him like a younger brother was also a way for Sun Po to express his gratitude.

Before long, Yang Yue's call came in: " Did you sell yourself to the Li family? "

Sun Po almost spat out a mouthful of old blood, and he hurriedly explained, " It is not selling myself, it is selling food—it is Paoding's Shadow-Dried Beef— "

After Sun Po explained the whole sequence of events from beginning to end, there was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time.

After a good while, laughter sounded from Yang Xinyue's side: " Consider it the rent for your kid's second half of life! Good luck in the national tournament! "

After saying that, Yang Yue hung up the phone.

Sun Po did not see that Yang Xinyue's eyes on this side of the phone were already red.

She had always regarded Sun Po as a younger brother. The scene of Sun Po's mother grabbing her hand and entrusting him to her before death appeared in Yang Xinyue's dreams more than once. When Sun Po originally went to participate in the Gaokao with only a Gray 1-Star Spirit Monkey, Yang Xinyue was even more anxious than Sun Po himself. Now seeing Sun Po reap such a huge sum of money, Yang Xinyue actually had the feeling that her own good-for-nothing son had finally grown up.

She did not advise Sun Po to spend sparingly, nor did she advise Sun Po to take the money back.

If a Card Maker's money was always saved up, it would easily turn into joss paper.

And whether Sun Po gave thirty million or three hundred million, it couldn't compare to the gratification of living up to expectations.

=======

Even with the remaining seventy million, sweeping through the Jinyang City card-making market was more than enough.

Sun Po looked around a circle; indeed, basically everything was decomposed goods, and materials of purple quality were very rare.

However, just as Sun Po stepped into a new storefront and touched a pitch-black wooden tablet, his heart suddenly shook.

I do not know if the dragon-patterned talent crystal imbued with the ability of Strong Luck played a role, but in this small Jinyang City material market, following fragment of yi yins soup cauldron, Sun Po had actually acquired another extremely useful material— [ horse token of Snow-Treading Wuzhui ].

Sun Po's heart thumped rapidly. Was this the pity system?

He hurriedly called out in his heart: " General Xiang, do you recognize this wooden tablet? "

After a long while, the deep voice of Overlord Xiang Yu came over: " My lord is thoughtful. This is indeed the mount's token of this general during my lifetime, but the physical body of this horse has been lost, and only a wisp of residual soul is deposited in this wooden tablet. I am afraid— "

Sun Po interrupted Overlord Xiang Yu: " General Xiang need not worry. Have you forgotten my ability? "

Back then, the changyou remains were also incomplete, and mod loading system didn't have the concept of spirituality value at that time. Having no other choice, Sun Po could only use system experience to complete the changyou remains.

Right now, with a huge reserve of spirituality value today, Sun Po could naturally easily complete this material.

At this point, Sun Po finally had some gains other than decomposed goods, and his mood improved a lot.

Moreover, it was still early, and Sun Po could stroll around a bit more.

Sun Po was walking in the market when suddenly someone bumped into him.

Seeing that he was about to crash into him, Sun Po sidestepped to dodge. The newcomer let out an Ouch, lunged into empty air, and fell to the ground in a sorry state.

" Clatter, clatter. "

A metal ring-shaped object dropped to the ground and rolled. Sun Po took a closer look and found it was a head hoop.

That head hoop was golden and shiny, shaped just like an ancient traveler's ascetic ring, and its surface exuded a bright golden light, looking extremely extraordinary.

The man hurriedly crawled up from the ground, quickly picked up the golden head hoop, tucked it into his bosom, and looked around furtively, as if afraid of being discovered by others.

This person had a robust physique and a rugged appearance, with flaxen-brown hair, and a lightning-shaped tattoo painted on the left half of his face.

Clearly a sturdy fellow built like a bear, he acted furtively like a rat, and even stole glances at Sun Po from time to time.

Sun Po was speechless in his heart. Ever since he started visiting the material market, he had always only heard of swindlers, but this was the first time he actually encountered one.

There were all kinds of card-making materials in the material market. The cheapest card-making materials cost several thousand, and generally tens of thousands.

Even the worst piece of card-making material could match the salary of ordinary people for one or two months, and if one were lucky enough to obtain a tight, in-demand card-making material within the known card-making sequence, it would start at six figures.

Under such huge profits, it would naturally lure certain non-Card Maker citizens to throw themselves into it.

However, these citizens were not Card Makers, so naturally they had no ability to obtain card-making materials from secret realms. Thus, they began to find ways to forge them.

Yes, you could even see people among the populace faking card-making materials.

The general method was to make some antique-imitation objects; the more ancient the better, the older the better, the more dilapidated the better.

Then they would buy some special pollen. This pollen originated from the Lion Tribe Alliance, and it could emit a light similar to spiritual fluctuations, and even its aura was seventy percent similar to the spiritual fluctuations of materials.

Moreover, this flower was colorful with numerous floral colors, and the light emitted by its pollen came in a wide variety of types, which happened to meet the forgery demands of materials of various qualities.

However, fake was fake after all. As long as most Card Makers carefully identified it, they could still see that something was wrong with this thing.

Consequently, various scams derived from the card-making material market, and among them, carrying goods to bump into people was a very typical one.

It was roughly similar to the principle of selling antiques on Earth: bumping into you properly while walking on the road, and then knocking the high-quality materials out of his arms.

Then you would feel that you had picked up a bargain today and develop an interest. The other party would cover up, act coyly and half-heartedly, pretend to be in a hurry without a stall, sell at a low price, and finally complete the transaction.

Perhaps Sun Po's purchase of card-making materials today was too fierce, which made this swindler notice him.

But what left Sun Po most speechless was that even when this guy was scamming, he should pay attention to his styling methods.

That robust body shape standing two meters tall and that lightning tattoo were obviously the attire of Northern Ice Bear Kingdom.

Although this was Jinyang City, the ancestral land of the Li family, there were indeed more international friends here, but in the material market of Yanhuang Ancient Country, a Northern man like a bear holding the momentum of bumping you to death with a shoulder—anyone would feel that something was wrong!

And this person bumped straight over; even though Sun Po had intentionally dodged just now, this guy still chased after him to bump him. He was really hard-pressed on scamming!

Sun Po did not want to waste time on this person, so he bypassed him and continued walking.

The Northern man like a bear caught up with Sun Po, raised the head hoop in his hand, and said in clumsy Chinese:

" My material! Good! You! Rich! Buy my material! "

This was a very unqualified swindler, an intern swindler. Sun Po saw that this person's body was covered in dust, obviously having fallen more than once.

But this scam was really too obvious; how could anyone believe it?

Sun Po did not ask his name. He saw that this person's Yanhuang language was not good, and Sun Po was not in the mood to dawdle with him, so he still walked forward on his own.

However, this bear-like man still persistently followed behind Sun Po.

After following for a long time, Sun Po finally couldn't take it anymore. Just as he turned his head, this giant-bear-like man rushed up in a stride and directly shoved the head hoop exuding golden light into Sun Po's hands.

Sun Po was about to throw it away, but at the instant he touched that head hoop, the familiar system voice rang in his ears:

" Trace amount of divinity substance discovered. "

Sun Po's heart shook. Was the Jinyang City material market going to defy the heavens?

It would be one thing if he could get fragment of yi yins soup cauldron earlier; that was still within the normal category.

How come divinity substances had even come out? Was the grand era of deity card coming?

How could a place like the material market produce high-end goods like divinity substances?

If Li Jiancheng had known this earlier, would he still need to painstakingly go to extraterritorial realms to get some water virtue stone of wuzhiqi?

By wandering around the Jinyang City card-making material market more often, you could have everything.

With a thought in his mind, Sun Po began to analyze the head hoop glittering with golden light in his hands:

[ Card-Making Material Analysis ]

[ tightening hoop ]

Quality: [ Gold 1-Star ]

Introduction: [ A unique restriction magical artifact of Buddhism. After wearing it, one cannot use divine powers without the permission of the applier, and hearing a fixed mantra will cause a splitting headache. It is a treasure bestowed by Guanyin Bodhisattva to the Mountain-Guarding Deity of Luojia Mountain, which contains the divine position of the Mountain God of Luojia Mountain, but its spirituality has extreme deficiencies ]

MOD [ Mountain God of Luojia Mountain ] and Wuzhiqi Adaptability: 100%

MOD [ Mountain God of Luojia Mountain ] Loading Success Rate: 100%

MOD [ Mountain God of Luojia Mountain ] and Overlord Xiang Yu Adaptability: 100%

MOD [ Mountain God of Luojia Mountain ] Loading Success Rate: 100%

MOD [ Mountain God of Luojia Mountain ] and Huang Chao / Zhong Kui Adaptability: 100%

==

[ tightening hoop ]! !

This really has quite a background!

Good heavens, this is life-threatening! !

He actually picked up a divine position in the card-making material market! !

And it was a passerby who forced it on him! !

But what falls from the sky is not necessarily a pie, more likely a trap.

This was the first time Sun Po saw a material whose adaptability with all his cards was full.

Even after loading, there was still another name: [ Mountain-Guarding Deity of Luojia Mountain ].

If Sun Po remembered correctly, this thing came from the Chinese mythological novel journey to the west, which contains the "gold",

"tightening",

and "forbidden" hoops.

Among the wearers of these three hoops, the most prestigious belonged to the wearer of the tightening hoop, disciple of Patriarch Bodhi, one of the Seven Demon Kings, the Handsome Monkey King of Huaguo Mountain, the Intelligent Stone Monkey among the four mixed-world monkeys,

the Great Sage Equaling Heaven who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, Sun Wukong! !