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

Chapter 216 Beneficiaries of Depth Charges

The bizarre deaths of Chu Zhifeng and Sheikh Krat were like two bombshells dropped one after the other in the Spirit Master circle of Dawn City.

In particular, along with the death of the owner of the Shattered Star Club, a huge amount of funds that should have been in the accounts, as well as the high-end sealed cards that the four card manufacturing companies sold through the club, all disappeared without a trace.

Furthermore, it's unclear what kind of banned substance Chu Zhifeng took, the source of the substance, whether it was an individual act or if everyone in the Shattered Star team was involved, or whether more clubs or teams were also involved.

These have all become mysteries.

Their mangled remains were discovered in the early hours of the morning.

By the time the first match of the Dawn Cup kicked off today, the news had spread through every mouth and every ear in the city.

The vast arena was enveloped in a series of buzzing sounds, creating an extremely eerie atmosphere.

No matter how thrilling the round of 16 was, the audience had no time to pay attention to the fierce competition among the contestants.

These seemingly plausible rumors spread faster than the flu itself.

Some say that behind Chu Zhifeng's doping scandal lies a super-powerful force that no one can afford to offend, one that even Sheikh Krat could not withstand and was tragically silenced.

Its target is Aurora Life, one of the four major card manufacturers and the maker of "Silver Moon Meteor".

Some say this was an internal conflict within the Shattered Stars Club, with Chu Zhifeng and Sheikh Krat killing each other.

This deduction is quite close to the truth.

The problem is that there are still many unanswered questions.

Some even say that this matter involves the Black Dream organization, which has been very active in the southeastern border region recently.

This is a harbinger of the Black Dream organization's large-scale advance on Dawn City.

Of course, most people don't care about how Sheikh Krat died.

Instead, they are concerned about the future of the Shattered Star Club and whether their purchased Shattered Star Club Gold Membership Card will still allow them to enjoy the various services promised by Sheikh Krat himself.
As time went on, one bad news after another came in.

Despite the fact that the Shattered Star Club is strictly sealed off by the Security Bureau and its stakeholders, not even a fly could get out.

However, well-informed insiders still managed to uncover the club's current financial situation.

When many senior members who had just switched from "Brilliant" and "Ben Teng" realized that the high membership fees they had carefully weighed and made up their minds to pay had not appeared in the club's public account and been converted into various facilities and services, but instead vanished along with Sheikh Krat's death.

Their vision went black, and they wished they could leap into hell, drag out Sheikh Krat's spirit, and torture him to find out where such a large membership fee had gone.

Some people also hope for the best.

I suspect this is a rumor from a competitor.

However, the members of Team Shatterstar, including "Golden Boy" Carlos, displayed a sleepwalking-like performance in the ring today, which severely shattered their last hope.

In fact, after such a big incident, the remaining players of the Shattered Star team originally wanted to withdraw from this year's Dawn Cup.

It was only after repeated persuasion and explanations from the organizers and influential figures at Liming Heavy Industry, who offered reassurance and explained the pros and cons, that they were finally persuaded to step onto the stage.

Given this trend, this is very likely to be the last Dawn Cup for the Shattered Star team.

When this year's Dawn Cup comes to a close, Shattered Star Club will become history and cease to exist.

Of course, the uproar caused by the depth charge, while wiping out the entire fortunes of many, also propelled others to the forefront. The biggest beneficiaries were undoubtedly the two high-end spirit card clubs, "Brilliant" and "Pentium."

As a direct competitor of "Shattered Star", they have been overwhelmed by their enemy for the past month and have lost a large number of high-quality members.

Now, these premium members seem to have no choice but to return to their embrace.

In the Dawn Cup, the lackluster performance of "Golden Boy" Carlos and other members of the Shattered Star team allowed the players of the Glorious Team and the Rushing Team to become even more imposing and win one battle after another.

Another hidden beneficiary is the Kuangtie Club.

In the round of 16, Hou Zhijian was eliminated due to excessive exertion from his intense battle with Chu Zhifeng and the fact that he ran into the main player of the Benteng team.

However, he still showed a tenacious will in the game, winning the respect of the entire audience and even his opponents. In the end, he walked off the ring shoulder to shoulder with his opponent.

In another match, Xiong Rulong's opponent was the third main player of the Shattered Star team.

It's unclear whether it's because he's deeply embroiled in the doping scandal, or because he holds a large number of shares in the Shattered Star Club, and it's uncertain whether he can still cash out, or even because he's lent his entire fortune and life to Sheikh Krat.

This player was in a state as if he hadn't slept for ten days and ten nights. He could be crushed to death by the four guardian spirits he summoned without Xiong Rulong even having to lift a finger.

Xiong Rulong easily defeated his opponent and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals, miraculously fulfilling his pre-match promise to the sponsor.

Meanwhile, outside the arena, while the entire city of Dawn was deeply captivated by the perplexing tragedy involving the Shattered Star Club...

The Crazy Iron Club has quietly opened up a new area specifically for the distribution and maintenance of second-hand sealed cards.

The first batch of cards to be released all came from the second-hand card street in Rolling Stone Castle.

They are all black iron civilian cards.

Because most of the raw materials are recycled from the landfills in the planned areas around Dawn City, the price can be as low as one-third or even less of a brand new card.

After Xu Yan's new design and Li Tong's leadership of Rolling Stone Castle's card makers for repeated adjustments, the performance of these second-hand cards can basically reach 90% or even 95% of that of first-hand cards.

If it weren't for the tragic deaths of Sheikh Kratt and Chu Zhifeng, the fact that Kuangtie Club changed its decades-old business philosophy and started selling Sealed Cards would definitely have attracted the attention and even hostility of its competitors, who would have tried every means to create obstacles for them.

But now, the "Shattered Stars" faction is leaderless and in dire need of protection.

Both "Ben Teng" and "Hui Huang" are eyeing the opportunity, waiting to divide up "Sui Xing" and feast on it.

In addition, there is the disappearance of a massive amount of funds and the fact that the doping scandal has not yet come to an end.

No one wanted to cause trouble for Kuangtie Club or compete for the seemingly unprofitable second-hand card business.

Xu Yan was happy to have some free time.

For the next few days, he stayed in the card-making room that the Kuangtie Club had just set up for him, happily fiddling with the various card-making machines that had just arrived.

Thanks to the outstanding performance of the Kuangtie team.

The club's biggest financial backer, DeepBlue Pharmaceuticals, was very satisfied.

To deepen their cooperation, they specially obtained a number of card-making devices incorporating the essence of the Qiji civilization from the parent company, "Deep Blue Technology".

The futuristic technological style, so different from the cultivation world, captivated Xu Yan, who found it incredibly exciting.

(End of this chapter)