Chapter 309: Card Upgrade
“……”
“……”
“……”
The entire secret realm fell silent. Everyone was first stunned by Jiang Li’s lavish card-drawing style, then left speechless when the black box exploded.
In short: too inexperienced.
“This fellow…” Daoist Dongxu wanted to console the cultivator who blew up the black box, but realized he didn’t know the man’s name.
“Wang Li,” Jiang Li introduced himself.
Not far off, Yuan Wuxing had a strange look on his face, as if recalling someone named Zhang Li, known as a Dao Sect Envoy.
Qin Luan also remembered. Before the Profound Mystery Secret Realm, she had first met a “Mister Kong Li” who claimed the same name.
“I wanted to ask, is it still possible to…” Jiang Li had just begun to speak when Daoist Dongxu hurriedly cut him off.
“No refunds on spirit stones.”
Daoist Dongxu had been scared by this so-called Wang Li. He had recharged six hundred and forty-eight top-grade spirit stones without blinking an eye. Just half an hour ago, he was doing ten consecutive draws—who knows how many spirit stones he had poured into the thing.
Although Jiang Li only appeared to be at the Nascent Soul stage outwardly, his wealth was clearly out of the ordinary. Daoist Dongxu suspected he might be the illegitimate child of some filthy rich cultivator in the Tribulation Crossing stage.
If he had to compensate him, he’d flee on the spot—he wouldn’t even care about the secret realm.
“I just wanted to ask if the black box can be repaired. I want to keep drawing.”
Daoist Dongxu shook his head hard. “No way. The black box was something I crafted, modeled after a storage ring. When a storage ring gets damaged, we lose connection with its internal space and can’t repair it. The black box is the same… theoretically.”
He had never tried repairing one before—because until now, no black box had ever exploded.
“I see.” Jiang Li looked genuinely disappointed. He had hoped to defy fate and draw a card of himself.
While he could still draw from someone else’s black box, it just didn’t feel as satisfying.
“I’ll give it a try too.” Bai Hongtu, seeing how much fun Jiang Li was having, rolled up his sleeves and joined in with interest.
One white, nine purples.
“Not as good as that nine purples and one gold from earlier,” Bai Hongtu muttered as he played with the cards he drew—one white Fusion Stage, eighteen purple Tribulation Stage, and one gold Jiang Li card. He was clearly unimpressed with the result.
Jiang Li’s face turned dark.
The gaming experience was abysmal.
Bai Hongtu examined his own image card, which was marked as Early Tribulation Stage.
On a whim, he took two identical image cards of himself and pressed them together. The two cards merged into one, and the information changed.
Bai Hongtu, Mid Tribulation Stage.
Then he added two more identical cards to the fused one.
Bai Hongtu, Late Tribulation Stage.
Bai Hongtu, Survived One Ascension Tribulation.
When he tried to keep upgrading his own card, he discovered it wouldn’t fuse any further.
“What’s going on?”
Daoist Dongxu explained, “You’ve hit the limit. Sect Master Bai has only survived one Ascension Tribulation, so you can only fuse three cards—three upgrades.”
“If you manage to survive more Ascension Tribulations, I’ll update the card for you.”
“…You’re pretty strict,” Bai Hongtu said speechlessly. He had thought he could use the card system to realize his goal of surviving two Ascension Tribulations.
“As cultivators, strictness is a must.”
“Actually, you don’t need to be so strict. You could try upgrading… Sect Master Bai’s card in advance,” Bai Hongtu coaxed. But Daoist Dongxu stood firm.
“No can do. This concerns a Tribulation-level powerhouse. It’s no joking matter. What if Sect Master Bai gets mad and takes it out on me?”
Yuan Wuxing and the others secretly snickered.
You’re not upgrading the card, and Sect Master Bai is already annoyed.
Bai Hongtu was too embarrassed to admit he was Bai Hongtu. He just wanted to upgrade his own card for fun.
“Why does Jiang Li’s card only show Great Ascension Stage, without splitting it into early, mid, or late stages?”
The Tribulation Crossing Stage wasn’t usually subdivided—those who reached it all had exceptional abilities. For example, Yu Yin had just entered that stage but could already wield national destiny and duel veteran Tribulation cultivators. No one dared treat her as merely early-stage.
Daoist Dongxu replied with a question: “How exactly would you split the Great Ascension Stage?”
Bai Hongtu turned to the man with the dark face. “How would you split the Great Ascension Stage?”
“No idea. I’m Wang Li, not Jiang Li.”
In truth, Jiang Li didn’t know either. After entering the Great Ascension Stage, he just kept getting stronger. The speed at which his Ascension Tribulations escalated couldn’t keep up with his power growth. Eventually, tribulations became boring.
He used to prepare carefully for tribulations, worrying about what might happen if he failed.
Now it was the tribulations preparing themselves, hoping to pressure someone named Jiang Li.
“You could divide the Great Ascension Stage by age,” Bai Hongtu offered enthusiastically.
Holding the golden luck-representing card, he said, “For example, this is Jiang Li at two hundred years old.”
“After upgrading, it’s Jiang Li at three hundred. Then four hundred, five hundred… How perfect.”
Everyone thought about it and figured if another Great Ascension cultivator appeared in the Nine Provinces, people might really say:
“Look, that one’s a two-hundred-year-old Great Ascension!”
“What? This one’s actually three hundred years old!”
“Whoa—four hundred-year-old Great Ascension cultivator! How terrifying!”
“He… he actually lived to five hundred after becoming Great Ascension!”
It all felt a bit weird.
Daoist Dongxu didn’t agree with Bai Hongtu’s wild idea, for the same reason as before—it involved Great Ascension cultivators. He didn’t dare arbitrarily create new classifications.
Seeing everyone had used up their ten free draws, and no one else was interested in spending six hundred and forty-eight top-grade spirit stones, Daoist Dongxu declared the contest over.
“This secret realm session is concluded. I’ve seen each of your luck levels.”
“Song Ying, Aguna… you two have mid-grade luck.”
“Yuan Wuxing, Little Fox—you both have high-grade luck.”
“Qin Luan, yours is top-grade.”
“Everyone else, please leave the secret realm. Those with mid-grade luck and above, stay behind—I have gifts for you.”
Daoist Dongxu glanced at Bai Hongtu. Clearly, he had supreme luck and would receive the final reward.
Jiang Li, however, put Daoist Dongxu in a dilemma. He couldn’t tell whether his luck was good or bad. His instincts were sometimes reliable, sometimes not—too unreliable to judge.
But considering the vast number of spirit stones Jiang Li had spent, Daoist Dongxu lumped him into the same tier as Bai Hongtu—both eligible for the final reward.
“You two, please stay for a bit. I have something to discuss with you.”
“Song Ying, I see you practice painting. This is a brush I acquired long ago. A certain wolf demon king of the Baize Dynasty had a bout of fur loss—I took the chance to steal some wolf hairs and crafted this brush. I gift it to you.”
“Aguna, judging by your appearance, you must be from the Gu Clan. I’m no expert in Gu arts, but I know your clan uses blood essence to raise gu. This pill enhances blood vitality—I give it to you.”
“……”
“Yuan Wuxing…”
“Little Fox…”
“Qin Luan, your luck is rarely seen in my lifetime. The Nine Provinces’ future will surely include you. The thunder arts you practice are too rigid. They need to be softened with yin energy. This Nine Yin Fruit will neutralize your excess yang.”
The entire gift-giving process was done openly—everyone could see what each person received.
Inevitably, it stirred envy, especially when people saw Qin Luan’s Nine Yin Fruit. It was a priceless treasure, worth thirty card draws!
It wasn’t hard to guess what might happen once they left.
Daoist Dongxu had done this on purpose.
He believed that looting and counter-looting were both forms of luck. No need to interfere—those with real luck would always laugh last.
“You two aren’t really Nascent Soul cultivators, are you?” Daoist Dongxu turned to the two pretending to be younger.
“I’m Wang Li, Nascent Soul Stage.”
“I’m Wang Hongtu, Nascent Soul Stage.”
“……”