As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 128 The visitor is evil

Xiong Tieshan was not a man who never smiled.

The problem is that even when he laughs heartily from the bottom of his heart, it looks like he's blowing his beard and glaring at others.

This personality trait made him neither accepted by his peers in the industry nor did he have many friends in the media.

Having finally seized the opportunity, he naturally wanted to loudly proclaim and promote the ideas of the Absolute God Path.

"Humanity should always rely on itself. Even if it uses the power of remnants of the past, it can only be an aid!"

"Especially teenagers under the age of twenty should work hard to strengthen their inner strength and cultivate their physical body and will to the point of being as strong as steel, so that they can become the masters of the remnants of the past."

"However, many young people nowadays are afraid of hardship and fatigue, and only want to take shortcuts and exploit loopholes to reach the pinnacle of life easily and cleanly."

"The major card manufacturers also cater to the unrealistic ideas of these young people, constantly launching a variety of cards and card devices, giving people the illusion that 'you don't need to work hard at all, you can succeed just by inserting the card.'"

"There are also a large number of card-making studios and unorthodox card makers who are keen to reduce the difficulty of using sealed cards, engrave various auxiliary runes, and continuously improve the auxiliary intelligence and autonomous decision-making ability of the remnant souls of the past, so that the spirit master can stand still like a wooden stake and unleash dazzling ultimate skills, creating a seemingly powerful illusion."

"In reality, these seemingly strong but actually weak spirit masters are nothing more than human batteries that provide life force to the remnants of the past. They are all stupid and slow, practically 'spirit-summoning snails'."

"If this continues, the remnants of the past will grow stronger and the Spirit Masters will grow weaker. Won't we be regressing to the dark ages before the 'War of the Ten Commandments,' where the remnants of the past ruled the world?"

His rapid-fire remarks drew nods from the female reporter, who seemed to understand and empathize with his words.

"Spirit-summoning snail, that's such a precise term!"

The female reporter exclaimed in surprise, "Coach Xiong, do you think this phenomenon of 'battle cards getting stronger and stronger while spirit masters are getting weaker and weaker' is an unhealthy trend in the spirit master community?"

"At least for teenagers under twenty, that's certainly true. They're still at the age where they're building their foundations, yet they've been poisoned by the remnants of the past. Every time I see this, I feel heartbroken and wish I could snatch all their sealing cards and tear them to shreds!"

Xiong Tieshan looked around and grabbed Xu Yan, who was about to sneak behind Xiong Ruyue.

"Take Xu Yan for example, he is an extremely painful lesson!"

Xiong Tieshan slapped Xu Yan's shoulder hard, making a crisp "slap slap" sound.

Xu Yan felt a power ten times stronger than Xiong Ruyue's, and a mask of pain appeared on his face.

"I swear to God, this child is the most talented prospect I have ever seen. His physical strength and willpower are one in a million. If he follows me to train from a young age and builds an incredibly solid foundation, then after he turns eighteen, whether he continues down the path of no-card play or signs a contract with a powerful battle spirit to play a single-card or even multi-card play, his future achievements will be limitless. He may very well break through to the 'Gold level' and become a true Spirit Master, a true 'Legendary level'!"

Xiong Tieshan hugged Xu Yan's shoulders tightly, his face full of regret and resentment. "It's a pity that this child grew up in the wilderness and struggled to survive in the most brutal environment since childhood. He had to rely on various unknown remnants of the past to survive. When I met him, his body had been hollowed out by these unhealthy things, and his bones and fascia had also been fixed."

"He originally had the potential to become the next 'Chu Zhifeng,' the pride of Dawn City and even the entire Heroic Spirit Alliance."

"But now, no matter how hard he tries, he can only become an mediocre third-rate expert at best."

"What a tragedy, what a waste of talent, for both him and the entire alliance!"

The female reporter was gesturing rapidly.

The camera first zoomed in on Xiong Tieshan's face, which was filled with grief and indignation.

Then it moved to Xu Yan's face.

Xu Yan stared intently at the camera, expressionless.

"Xu Yan was unfortunate, but he had no choice; the survival environment in the wilderness is just that cruel."

Xiong Tieshan still doesn't realize just how utterly immoral these so-called "journalists" can be.

He was completely absorbed in his own logic. "What I hate even more is that the Alliance citizens in the safe zone, who are protected by the Spirit Card Association and the Spirit Guard Corps and will never encounter the attacks of the ancient calamities in their daily lives, have come into contact with the remnants of the ancient souls too early at the age when they should be laying a solid foundation and tempering their flesh and blood. They have embarked on the path of relying on external forces and completely destroyed themselves!"
"The card-making companies, which should be guiding people to perfectly control the remnant souls, instead of conveying the correct concept of spirit control, they encourage and even condone the absurd fallacy that 'the more cards you have, the more powerful you are, the stronger your guardian spirit is, and the stronger your spirit master is.'"

"I know that this is the general trend of our times, and it cannot be reversed overnight."

"But right is right, and wrong is wrong. That's my philosophy, and I will do everything in my power to uphold it to the end!"

Xiong Tieshan swung his arm, which was thicker than Xu Yan's thigh, and swung it down heavily.

It was as if he wanted to turn his fist into a hammer and sweep away all the evil spirits that lingered over the Alliance of Heroes.

Xu Yan took the opportunity to break free from his grasp.

While he continued gesticulating wildly and talking incessantly, she dragged Xiong Ruyue into a corner.

"Sister Xiong, this interview can't continue."

Xu Yan whispered, "The media you paid so much money to hire are really unethical. They're practically selling you out and expecting you to pay for the shipping!" "Huh? What do you mean?"

Xiong Ruyue appears to be a shrewd and capable female business elite.

In essence, he was just like Xiong Tieshan, a very pure martial artist, with a clear innocence shining in his eyes.

Completely unaware of the problem, she shook her head and said, "I didn't invite them!"

"what?"

Xu Yan was taken aback. "Didn't you say that the club just spent a lot of money on renovations, doubling its size and upgrading all its facilities, and that you were determined to shine in the 'Dawn Cup,' so you wanted to invite the media to give it a good publicity?"

"Oh, that's tomorrow."

Xiong Ruyue said happily, "Today, 'Dawn Media' came to us on their own. They are the top media outlet in Dawn City, with first-class credibility and influence. Normally, you can't hire them even if you pay them!"

"They came to us on their own..."

Xu Yan narrowed his eyes.

Look around, the environment reeks of money, with astronomical sums spent, and advanced facilities comparable to the three oldest clubs in the city.

In addition, during my month at the Kuangtie Club, I've had a vague sense of unease in my daily work.

He sensed danger.

"Sister Xiong, let me confirm one more thing. Since the two Spirit Card Maintenance Masters resigned at the same time, we haven't been able to recruit any new Spirit Card Maintenance Masters besides myself. We haven't even had anyone willing to come for an interview, is that right?"

"Uh, it seems so. Don't worry, I'll adjust the salary again, and we should be able to recruit people soon."

Xiong Ruyue looked embarrassed.

Given the current size of the Kuangtie Club and the debugging and maintenance of the new equipment, normally at least two Spirit Card Maintenance Masters would be needed to barely manage it.

In other words, Xu Yan's skill level far exceeded her expectations, managing all sorts of training equipment and training cards in an orderly manner, which is why there were no problems for the time being.

But she also knew this was not a long-term solution.

It's strange, though. The employment situation in Dawn City has clearly not been good in the past two years, and there should be many card makers who need to work. Why is it that the job posting has been posted for more than a month and no one has shown any interest?
Even considering the ideological conflict between the cardless system and the mainstream card-making circle, this doesn't make sense—work is work, and life is life. It's one thing if senior card makers don't come, but are all junior card makers this temperamental?

Xu Yan remained silent.

The expansion and renovation of the Kuangtie Club took place before his arrival.

He was just a lowly spirit card maintainer. Besides doing the work of three people, he devoted his spare time to cultivating the Wheel of Life and the Palace of the Mind. He hadn't yet figured out many of the strange things and hidden risks.

Only today, with the hostile intentions of Dawn City's largest media outlet, has he managed to sketch out the outline of a storm.

"Sister Xiong, find a way to call Grandpa Xiong over and tell him to end the interview immediately. If possible, it would be best to take back all the interview materials and give them a stern warning that we completely disagree with every word we just said. We absolutely cannot broadcast even a single scene, and we will not allow them to maliciously edit or disseminate it. Otherwise, we'll see you in court!"

Xu Yan's expression was more serious than ever before.

Xiong Ruyue had never seen him look so apprehensive, even more so than when he first arrived at the Kuangtie Club and faced dozens of muscular men.

"why?"

Xiong Ruyue was completely confused. "Isn't giving an interview a good thing? What we need most right now is publicity!"

"That's right, we need publicity, not to make enemies!"

Xu Yan said, "Listen to the questions they're asking?"

Xiong Ruyue pricked up her ears.

Then the female reporter asked with a smile, "You just said that Chu Zhifeng, the ace player of the Kuangtie team, is the most outstanding young talent in Dawn City and will definitely win the 'Dawn Cup' this time?"

"Chu Zhifeng, like Xu Yan, is one of the most talented young people I have ever met. It was a double stroke of luck for both of us to meet him five years ago."

Xiong Tieshan responded, "It's hard to say what kind of results I can achieve. I never underestimate any opponent—whether they are human or remnants of the past."

"However, as a practitioner of the cardless style, using one's own flesh and blood as the sharpest weapon, if one doesn't even have the ambition to be the best, how can one compete and how can one go to the battlefield in the future?"

(End of this chapter)