149: Breakthrough! The battle begins!

“Actually, it’s not difficult at all.”

Jiang Yuan shook his head, “It mainly depends on your profession. I can choose the card type based on your profession.”

“Oh, that’s right. Speaking of which, I’m a melee swordsman, didn’t expect that, did you?” Hu Qingwei said with a smile, looking at Jiang Yuan.

After all, no one would think that a delicate woman like her would be a melee professional, right?

But Jiang Yuan didn't mind.

“Then consider it, do you want a Skill Card that isolates fire, or a Skill Card that allows you to move through flames and quickly approach the opponent?”

“The one that isolates fire. I already have a displacement skill, so I don’t need another one.”

After a brief thought, Hu Qingwei made a decisive decision.

This decisiveness indeed surprised Jiang Yuan a little.

“Alright, how will the remuneration be calculated?”

“It depends on the effect of your card. If the effect is good, I will not be stingy with the reward. You can name your price.”

Hu Qingwei smiled slightly. What remuneration? How much could a blue-quality card cost? Do I have enough lower-grade star spirit stones here?

As a small rich woman, she had that kind of confidence.

“Alright, no problem.”

Jiang Yuan’s eyes lit up, and he nodded, immediately agreeing. He liked people who paid quickly.

Speaking of which, should he also put the Linglong Pagoda up for sale?

He had been saying for a long time that he would sell the Linglong Pagoda, but it still hadn't been listed.

Hmm, it’s decided. When he goes back this time, he’ll list the Linglong Pagoda.

And see if anyone else needs other Skill Cards.

Seventy-Two Transformations and the like are still very useful.

He could change it into a one-time Skill Card.

That’s great!

This way, he could continuously fleece them.

“Since that’s the case, I’ll go back and create the card. I’ll give you a message in the next two days. Let’s add each other’s contact information.”

Jiang Yuan said, picking up his phone, and after adding Hu Qingwei’s contact information, he turned and left.

“Do you think he can do it?”

Watching Jiang Yuan’s departing back, Hu Qingwei asked Tong Yuchang beside her.

“If you didn’t have expectations for him, you wouldn’t have sought him out, would you?” Tong Yuchang smiled, noncommittal.

“If he can pass the test, then he can join us.”

“If he doesn’t pass, with his ability to create Summoning Cards, he will join us sooner or later.” Tong Yuchang was expressionless.

“That’s true. Then our probing this time was meaningless?”

Hu Qingwei turned her head, her eyes smiling as she asked Tong Yuchang beside her.

However, Tong Yuchang completely ignored her.

This woman’s thoughts were too complex; it was best to have as little contact with her as possible.

“Don’t be so cautious. We’re not some evil organization, just a mutual aid society among Card Creators.”

Hu Qingwei patted Tong Yuchang’s shoulder with a smile, then turned and sat back down on the sofa.

The meaning was clear: dismiss the guest.

Tong Yuchang naturally understood her meaning and turned to leave directly.

It sounded good, not an evil organization, just a mutual aid society among Card Creators.

But who knew what they would do later?

Under a complex network of relationships, were they really just a mutual aid society?

Tong Yuchang left expressionlessly.

He also didn’t know if pulling Jiang Yuan into this was the right choice.

Or perhaps not “pulling him in,” as their current actions truly didn’t resemble an evil organization.

Besides, whether Jiang Yuan would join or not was still another matter.

Jiang Yuan didn’t know about these things.

After returning home, he prepared to start creating cards.

Of course, first, he had to call out Shi Ji and ask her what she meant by the message she replied to and what she wanted to do.

“Mu Qianshan, long time no see~”

As the blue light of the card shone, Shi Ji appeared before Jiang Yuan.

Shi Ji’s eyes curved, and she greeted Jiang Yuan with a smile.

“Stop messing around. I called you out to ask what you meant by those words you replied with on the official website? What do you want to do?”

Gently swatting away Shi Ji’s hand that was trying to touch his hair, Jiang Yuan asked.

“You’re so unromantic!”

Shi Ji sighed lightly and then said, “Didn’t you say you were out of money? If you fight him, you’ll have money.”

Shi Ji looked at Jiang Yuan with a smile, “You don’t think we can’t beat him, do you?”

“How is that possible? He’s only at the Xuanxiao Early Stage.”

Jiang Yuan waved his hand, “By the time he gathers all the resources, I might have already broken through.”

“At that time, Xuanxiao Early Stage fighting Xuanxiao Early Stage, how could he possibly beat us?”

“So why don’t we accept such a large sum of cultivation resources?”

“I just feel it’s a bit of a waste of time.”

“But what if it’s set after your breakthrough?”

Shi Ji tilted her head slightly, looking at Jiang Yuan with a smile as she spoke.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s ranked over 700th among second-year Students. As long as you defeat him, when you advance to the second year, you’ll directly take his ranking.”

“Eh, why?”

Jiang Yuan was stunned and looked at Shi Ji, somewhat confused.

Was there some special rule about this?

“I don’t know if you’re the Student or I’m the Student?”

“You don’t even read the Student handbook properly.”

Shi Ji shook her head slightly, “It’s clearly stated in the Student handbook. If a first-year Student defeats a second-year Student during their first year, then when that first-year Student advances to the second year, they will directly take the defeated Student’s ranking.”

“That is to say, after Mu Qianshan’s breakthrough this time, the further he can fight, the better.”

Otherwise, once he truly advances to the second year, it will be more troublesome.

The challenge rule is within fifty ranks.

That means if you are ranked 1000th, you can only challenge Students ranked from 950th to 1000th.

Although the challenged Student cannot refuse challenges from lower-ranked Students, this challenge method would also greatly slow down Jiang Yuan’s rank progression.

Of course, if Jiang Yuan hasn’t advanced to the second year yet and is still a first-year Student, if he actively challenges a second-year Student, the second-year Student can refuse.

So this opportunity is great.

After defeating Ailin Mountain, he could see if there was an opportunity to continue challenging forward.

Time is money.

And what Jiang Yuan lacked most was money.

“Oh, I see.”

After Shi Ji explained, Jiang Yuan understood why Shi Ji had accepted this challenge.

Of course, for Jiang Yuan right now, money was the most important thing.

“Can I tell them that the resources can be exchanged for star spirit stones?”

Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan looked up and asked Shi Ji.

“Of course, you can.”

“Cultivation resources are hard to gather, but star spirit stones are quite simple. Are you sure you can break through in these two days?” Shi Ji shook her head slightly and then asked Jiang Yuan.

Actually, Shi Ji was more inclined towards cultivation resources.

After all, cultivation resources could be exchanged for star spirit stones, but star spirit stones could not be exchanged for cultivation resources.

Most cultivation resources in the academy required academic credits for exchange.

This was why the second-year Students had not gathered them even after such a long time.

After all, having academic credits in hand was not as cost-effective as spending them to convert into one’s own strength.

“Don’t worry, if nothing unexpected happens, I should be able to break through tonight or tomorrow.”

Jiang Yuan was very confident because he had already felt the bottleneck of breakthrough loosening.

With just one more push, he would be able to successfully break through!

Speaking of which, his strength had improved very quickly due to the Star Gathering Array.

However, Mu Qianshan was a bit slow.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan slapped his head abruptly.

“Oh my! I forgot to tell Mu Qianshan about the Gathering Star Array!”

Jiang Yuan gave a bitter smile. No wonder Mu Qianshan’s breakthrough speed was so slow.

It should be known that Mu Qianshan was even faster than him when he broke through to the Star Epoch Middle Stage.

But it’s not a big problem.

He just needed to find an opportunity to give it to him in the next two days.

He still needed Mu Qianshan by his side.

Putting everything else aside, as a young master of a prominent family, Mu Qianshan’s knowledge and experience were far superior to his own.

Sometimes, certain problems required Mu Qianshan to solve them.

In such a situation, he couldn't let Mu Qianshan fall too far behind him.

During this time of card creation, Mu Qianshan had been running around, which was also hard work.

Jiang Yuan didn’t go out much when creating cards, but some cards weren’t available in the card market, so he could only buy them at the Wild Market.

Usually, when Jiang Yuan needed a card, he would send a message to Mu Qianshan, and Mu Qianshan would buy it on his way back from class and bring it back to Jiang Yuan.

The two of them could be considered to be helping each other.

Jiang Yuan provided Mu Qianshan with help in combat.

And Mu Qianshan provided Jiang Yuan with help in daily life.

After making a decision, Jiang Yuan began creating cards.

He would create cards for a period, and once the Gathering Star Array was filled with Star Power, he would then cultivate in the Gathering Star Array.

Jiang Yuan's mental strength is quite impressive now.

Continuous Card Creator work has allowed Jiang Yuan's mental strength to grow rapidly.

Mental strength is roughly divided into gaseous and liquid states.

A Star Epoch mental strength is like a small cloud of mist.

By the Star Epoch Late Stage, mental strength is like a large cloud of mist.

Mental strength mist.

If we talk about proportions, the mental strength mist of a Star Epoch Late Stage Card Master can occupy about five percent of their mental sea of consciousness.

But Jiang Yuan has far exceeded this proportion now.

His current mental strength mist occupies about fifty percent of his mental sea of consciousness.

Once the mental strength mist completely fills the mental sea of consciousness, Jiang Yuan's mental strength can enter the next stage.

Mental strength raindrop form!

After the mental strength mist sublimates again, it transforms into mental strength raindrops and falls.

Once the falling mental strength raindrops completely fill the mental sea of consciousness, mental strength will enter the next level.

Because mental strength is already full, the further increase of mental strength raindrops will expand the mental sea of consciousness.

From the mental sea of consciousness expanding to the mental pond, then expanding to the mental lake, and the mental ocean.

At any of these three stages, if one cannot continue to expand, it means their limit has been reached.

Everyone has their own different limits, which is what is called talent.

However, Jiang Yuan is still very far from this.

First, break through to the Xuanxiao Stage, secure the first place among second-year Students, and obtain all the cultivation resources for the first-place second-year Student.

Jiang Yuan ultimately chose the card 'Sitting Fire'.

Compared to not being harmed by the temperature of the flames, he felt that isolating flames was better.

Especially since his goal is to be first on the second-year Student leaderboard, he will inevitably encounter the two opponents Hu Qingwei just mentioned.

The top ten are challenged one by one, moving up.

It's not that if you reach fiftieth place, you can directly challenge first place.

While Jiang Yuan is working hard here, Ailin Mountain and his team are also working hard on the other side.

After Shi Ji glanced at Jiang Yuan, she replied as Jiang Yuan said, that 'cultivation resources can be replaced with star spirit stones'.

This made things much easier for Ailin Mountain and his team.

Poor in literature, rich in martial arts!

This is an era of martial arts, so those who can get into top academies like Zhongyuan Academy are all second-generation rich, or from inherited families.

They naturally don't lack star spirit stones.

Of course, most of them don't lack them at the current stage.

Paving the way with money can make early combat power stronger.

After all, when others are still using white-quality Skill Cards, you are already using blue-quality Skill Cards.

This is an advantage.

No one is willing to give up this advantage.

But the later it gets, the smaller the combat power increase brought by paving the way with money.

Because in the later stages, talent and effort are more important than money.

Everyone has combat power; if they go to the grottoes and fight, they will naturally have money.

Dangerous, of course it's dangerous!

However, there is definitely a difference in combat power between a Student who has been continuously tempered by various grottoes and a Student who rarely experiences life-and-death situations, doesn't go to grottoes, grows up in a greenhouse, and paves the way with money.

Although many families have already realized this now.

Even their direct descendants also need to enter the grottoes for tempering.

As for whether they will die?

Dying earlier and dying later makes no difference.

But even so, facing those geniuses who have fought their way up, their true combat power is still slightly inferior.

And now, both first-year and second-year Students belong to the early stage.

They have more star spirit stones than they can use right now.

After all, for just blue-quality cards, how many star spirit stones could they possibly need?

So, after Jiang Yuan proposed that star spirit stones could replace cultivation resources, the second-year Students quickly gathered them.

Roughly calculated.

The star spirit stones equivalent to sixty percent of the second-year Students' cultivation resources would be about one hundred mid-grade star spirit stones.

Converted to lower-grade star spirit stones, it would probably be about ten thousand lower-grade star spirit stones.

It's not a lot.

But for Jiang Yuan now, it's definitely a huge sum of money!

He had already consumed all those cultivation resources in the previous month.

Of course, a large part was spent on Card Creator work.

The rest was used for cultivation and improving mental strength and physical strength.

However, that small portion from the second-year Students was just a drop in the bucket.

The cultivation resources at the fourth-year and fifth-year Student levels would be much better.

But for now, these are better than nothing.

Although Jiang Yuan using cultivation resources compared to them using star spirit stones is a bit of a disadvantage.

But it doesn't matter, Jiang Yuan believes he won't lose.

"I've already gathered the star spirit stones, when will we fight?"

Facing Ailin Mountain's reply, Shi Ji just looked at it and had no intention of replying in a hurry.

She turned to look at Jiang Yuan, who was already cultivating in the Gathering Star Array.

Now, it depends on whether Jiang Yuan can successfully break through.

If Jiang Yuan breaks through, they can fight tomorrow.

If Jiang Yuan doesn't break through today, then they'll wait two more days.

After all, I'm a Card Creator.

Shi Ji smiled slightly and sat on the sofa nearby.

This is something Jiang Yuan didn't see; if Jiang Yuan had seen Shi Ji's current appearance, he would definitely have had a nosebleed.

Shi Ji's appearance was too alluring.

It seemed she learned her style from Master Li Yueying.

She was wearing a black hip-hugging skirt on her lower body, and as she lay sideways on the sofa, the partial exposure of her thighs was incredibly enticing.

Her bare feet were neatly crossed; Jiang Yuan would definitely blurt out two words if he saw this scene.

Wearing a white shirt, you couldn't hide the towering curve.

However, Jiang Yuan, who was cultivating, obviously had no such luck.

...

...

"Then let's meet at the Martial Arts Arena this afternoon."

Early the next morning, Shi Ji replied to the challenge message.

Jiang Yuan's guess was correct; he had indeed broken through to the Xuanxiao Early Stage realm during his cultivation last night.

"Let's give them a surprise this time."

Jiang Yuan stretched, looking at Shi Ji with a smile and saying.

"Alright, I've already talked to Nezha; I'll lead the charge in this battle, and Nezha will be our trump card."

"You lead the charge? Isn't Nezha leading the charge? After all, Nezha has already been exposed."

"It's fine. Last night, I watched many combat videos of second-year Students. I think I can sweep through the bottom 500."

Shi Ji smiled gently, but the sharpness in her eyes could not escape Jiang Yuan's gaze.

Indeed, Shi Ji is a demon immortal, after all.

This fits Shi Ji's character.

Jiang Yuan smiled. To be honest, he had always been deceived by Shi Ji's gentle appearance before.

He even thought there was a problem with his Card Creator work.

But it seems Shi Ji is still that Shi Ji.

Is gentleness only for me? That's not bad either.

Jiang Yuan smiled happily and extended his hand to Shi Ji, "Let's go, together."

"Alright."

Shi Ji smiled and extended her hand as well.

Jiang Yuan looked at Shi Ji's hand reaching for his, feeling a little moved.

Are they going to hold hands successfully?

"Slap!"

With a light pat, Shi Ji slapped away Jiang Yuan's hand, then chuckled and walked out the door.

"Ah, playful!"

Jiang Yuan, not knowing whether he was disappointed or Feelings, said this before following Shi Ji's footsteps.

"The challenge is about to start, want to go watch?"

"Of course, I also want to see Jiang Yuan's combat power, and by the way..."

"Summoning Card, huh. I'm also very interested."

Hu Qingwei smiled and left with Tong Yuchang beside her.

Tong Yuchang was slightly disappointed.

In the end, Jiang Yuan still chose to accept his challenge.

Not a wise choice.

And cultivation resources versus star spirit stones.

They are simply not equivalent.

Or rather, do you have absolute confidence in victory?

Tong Yuchang looked up at the sky, somewhat confused about what Jiang Yuan was thinking.

Fighting across a major realm, even if you, Jiang Yuan, didn't accept this battle, there would be no problem.

After all, it's really too difficult to defeat an opponent when crossing a major realm.

Tong Yuchang shook his head, really not thinking highly of Jiang Yuan.

Especially in a one-on-one situation like a ring match.

That card in Ailin Mountain's hand is simply too unreasonable.