Chapter 36: Earthquake Card

At night, leaving a light on.

The spiritual fan in Little Sam's card repair shop was spinning with a whooshing sound.

"To be honest, it wouldn't be very difficult to squeeze out Bast Card Repair Shop and force it to close down." Sitting at his workstation number four, Duke skillfully took out a damaged spiritual card and began to disassemble it.

His thoughts drifted elsewhere as he worked, "Creating more card repair promotions and then luring card crafters with high salaries would basically force Bast Card Repair Shop to shut down. But... aside from venting some frustration, there wouldn't be much benefit to doing that... With the expansion war, Snakehead Town is bound to become a supply hub for resources."

By then, a large amount of manpower and resources would be sent to Snakehead Town from all over, then gathered and sent towards the spiritual spring at Emerald Sea Valley.

"The era of having only one card repair shop on Second Vertical Street is long gone. Even if I manage to squeeze out Bast Card Repair Shop, others will come to open new ones."

"I'd rather keep Bast Card Repair Shop around as a scapegoat... a small-time boss I can easily bring down, it's much easier to deal with than an unknown dragon." Duke thought to himself, already letting go of any lingering concerns about Bast Card Repair Shop. After all, his life was not just limited to a single card repair shop; this was just the beginning.

As long as Little Sam's Card Repair Shop could earn enough resources for his cultivation, it would suffice for him to break free from the bottom layers of the transcendent world.

Compared to getting entangled in the constant competition of the streets, it was better to focus on the study of spiritual magic.

Calmly collecting his thoughts, Duke focused on the task at hand. These were the discarded spiritual cards he had salvaged from the scrap card station, sifting through heaps of trash to barely find the discarded cards that were repairable.

"Earthquake Card, 1-star arcane-type spiritual card, multiple loops damaged, card material fractured."

Xiaoyi reminded him in his mind.

Quietly, Duke began to work. He carefully peeled off the already shattered cover of the spiritual card, then pried open the card face, gingerly extracting the completely split card material.

Once he finished these steps, a discarded spiritual card remained with just the card core that housed the spell model.

Placing the card core on the recently activated loop stretcher, securing its four corners, Duke injected energy into the stretcher. This quickly activated the spell model within the card core. Following a series of precise manipulations, he stretched and expanded the compressed flat spell model, restoring it into a complex three-dimensional energy circuit.

Holding the spiritual pen, he carefully examined the breakpoints on the energy circuit.

"At the first bend, there are two fractures. They can be fused using a gentle touch of fire magic," Xiaoyi provided the repair solution.

Duke inquired in his mind, "Why use the gentle touch technique for fusion?"

"These two fracture surfaces on the energy circuit exhibit radial fractures. In order to prevent these fractures from deepening and causing radial damage, a gentle touch is necessary to maintain stability..."

"Understood."

With comprehension in mind, Duke began to take action.

With a slight activation of his battle energy, the hand holding the spiritual pen became as steady as a rock. He lightly touched the tip of his pen to the fracture on the energy circuit. The energy lines in his spiritual sea radiated with brilliance, and a surge of spiritual power flowed along the spiritual pen, gently infiltrating and merging with the energy lines of the card, until they were indistinguishable.

The fusion at the first fracture point was complete.

Duke didn't stop. He switched from the spiritual pen to a cutting tool and carefully trimmed away excess spiritual power from the fused point. This was to maintain the stability of energy flow throughout the circuit, preventing fluctuations that could lead to energy overload or loss of pressure.

And so it went.

The first fracture point was perfectly repaired.

Duke then shifted his focus to the next fracture point, continuing the meticulous repair process.

As he followed Xiaoyi's provided instructions, he also asked and understood the purpose of each step in the process, enhancing his comprehension of the energy circuit.

Closing an energy circuit was like creating a loop.

Every deepening understanding of this loop increased the speed of his spiritual cultivation in the sea of spirits.

At the stage of being a three-star spiritual apprentice, understanding spiritual magic was far more important than practicing meditation techniques all day. Understanding spiritual magic was like expanding the size of a water jug, while practicing meditation techniques was like pouring water into it. No matter how much water you poured in, it couldn't exceed the capacity of the jug.

Therefore, according to Xiaoyi's progress chart, he would need more than two hundred days to promote to a three-star spiritual apprentice. However, it wouldn't actually take that long.

Every deepened understanding of the loop would release the potential of meditation techniques.

Unconsciously, half an hour had already passed.

The model of the Earthquake Card triggered by the loop was completely repaired. All the breakpoints in the energy circuits had been meticulously restored by Duke.

He then continued to work on the material of the card. Filling it, fusing it, carefully polishing the interfaces. Duke restored the integrity of the Earthquake Card's material, then repeatedly polished the surface until it was smooth. Finally, he sealed it in the packaging machine.

With the entire process completed, a newly refurbished Earthquake Card was born.

Shaking the card gently in his hand, Duke felt a bit hesitant, "If I sell this card, it's really difficult to set a price. The card material has been repaired, which definitely affects its usage and durability... What if I sell it to a mercenary, and the Earthquake Card malfunctions during battle? It could lead to trouble... Well, I guess I'll keep it for my own use in the future."

Duke was always cautious about refurbishing arcane cards.

After all, these cards were mostly used for combat, and one small mistake could ruin his reputation.

It's far safer to refurbish civilian cards.

Even if a civilian card broke, it wouldn't cause significant issues and could easily be resolved.

Gripping the Earthquake Card, Duke gently infused it with a touch of spiritual power. He sensed the activation of the loop within the card, and the spiritual energy within it became subject to his control.

This spiritual energy could be manipulated according to his thoughts, continuously compressing the ground and compacting it.

For dealing with hidden prey underground, it was highly effective.

"Actually, aside from using it in battles, it wouldn't be bad for construction either. Using the Earthquake Card to strengthen the foundation would be great! Once I release the card, the ground will be solid!" Duke placed the Earthquake Card into his pocket and took out another discarded spiritual card.

The work of refurbishing arcane cards continued.

An extra income of 80 silver dragons per month was nothing to worry about, even if it required a few nights of hard work occasionally.

"But it's a pity that I've been to the scrap card station many times, and I've found very few 2-star discarded cards. There are even fewer 2-star cards that can be refurbished... No, I haven't found a single one yet."

Compared to the abundance of 1-star discarded cards, Duke was more eager to find 2-star ones.

A civilian 1-star card could be priced from 1 silver dragon to 1 gold dragon, but any civilian 2-star card would start at least from 10 gold dragons. Some even sold for several hundred gold dragons without being too surprising.

"Finding one would be enough to sustain me for a year!"