Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3141: Beyond Mortal Limits

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Azorheim, Temporal Cave Valley, Temporal Cave No. ES3030

After pondering the problem for a while, I finally realized that I was not merely a Card Creationist they had hired to solve their cultivation problems. I was their Ruler.

That distinction changed everything.

These kids might not want to sacrifice one of their precious Origin Card slots for a Soul Core that would eventually be reforged into a Soul Gem, and I couldn’t fault them for that. Their ambitions were still young, and they wanted to leave themselves every possible path to grow stronger. But there was no reason that refusing to equip a Soul Core Origin Card had to prevent them from condensing their Soul Core, refining it, and eventually reforging it into a Soul Gem.

In fact, I wanted them to do exactly that.

Soul Gems were going to become the new standard of cultivation in the New Empire. The sooner that became the norm, the better it would be for everyone. But that didn’t mean I could force my people to surrender one of their Origin Card slots just because I believed I knew what was best for them.

As their Ruler, I could make the laws. I could even force everyone onto the path I believed was correct and perhaps, years or decades later, history would prove that I had been right.

But being right wasn’t enough.

The means mattered too.

If I wanted my people to trust me, I couldn’t turn my authority into a hammer and smash every disagreement flat simply because I had the power to do so. A ruler who only cared about the result could easily justify almost anything.

That wasn’t the kind of ruler I wanted to become.

So I decided to give them a choice.

I would return the merits to any young Card Apprentice who didn’t want to give up one of their Origin Card slots. Along with the refunded merits, I would give them the Soul Core Condensation Technique and let them cultivate their Soul Core through their own efforts.

I would also create a smart Array Formation specifically designed to assist them with the technique, much like the one I was planning to create for reforging a Soul Core into a Soul Gem. The array could guide their cultivation, regulate the flow of soul energy, identify problems in their condensation process, and provide the precise assistance they needed without doing all the work for them.

That way, they wouldn’t have to sacrifice their Origin Card slot merely to gain access to the Soul Core path.

They could condense their Soul Core, strengthen it through their own efforts, and eventually reforge it into a Soul Gem when they were ready. Once they reached that point, they could use the Soul Gem to establish their divinity without ever having been forced to equip the Soul Core as an Origin Card.

Of course, there was a limit to how much assistance an array could provide.

If someone still couldn’t forge a proper Soul Core even after receiving the cultivation technique and all the assistance the smart array could offer, then they would have to make a choice.

Either continue searching for another path, or give up one of their Origin Card slots and obtain a Soul Core Origin Card.

At least then, the decision would truly be theirs.

I wasn’t going to force them to walk the path I had chosen.

I would simply make sure the path was there when they were ready to walk it.

This arrangement gave them freedom of choice, but it also came with a disadvantage they probably wouldn’t appreciate until much later.

They would be giving up the advantage of having their Soul Core, and eventually their Soul Gem, baptized by the Card World.

The longer a Soul Core or Soul Gem underwent Card World Baptism, the more its synchronization rate would gradually increase. It wasn’t an immediate transformation, nor was there any guarantee of how far someone could push it, but given enough time, talent, and repeated baptism, the accumulation could become extraordinary.

There was even a possibility of surpassing the seemingly absolute limit of one hundred percent synchronization.

And if that happened, they would no longer be confined by the limitations of an ordinary mortal.

I knew that wasn’t merely theoretical.

I had experienced it myself.

I was living proof that the one-hundred-percent synchronization limit could be broken. Of course, I had an absurd number of advantages that most people could only dream of. I possessed vast resources, rare encounters, special inheritances, and unique bloodline and powers that had contributed to my growth. It would be dishonest to pretend that talent alone had carried me that far.

But even with all those advantages, I couldn’t help wondering what someone with exceptional natural talent could have accomplished if they had been given the same opportunities.

Someone like Field Marshal Lorn.

She was one of the most talented Card Apprentices I had ever known. More importantly, she was the kind of person who actually made use of her talent. She was hardworking, disciplined, and willing to grind away at something long after most people would have given up.

If Lorn had encountered the same opportunities I had, I genuinely believed she might have achieved results comparable to, or perhaps even better than, mine in certain areas.

That was why I couldn’t simply tell these young Card Apprentices that giving up one Origin Card slot was unquestionably the correct choice.

It wasn’t.

It was a choice with consequences on both sides.

If they kept both Origin Card slots available, they retained the possibility of finding two extraordinary Fate Ingredients someday. That possibility was incredibly slim, but it wasn’t zero.

If they gave up one slot for their Soul Core, however, they would gain something far more tangible. They could begin cultivating their Soul Core immediately, reforge it into a Soul Gem, and let their talent combine with repeated Card World Baptism to continuously improve their synchronization.

And unlike waiting for a second Fate Ingredient to fall into their hands, this was something they could actively work toward.

When I eventually explained the choice to them, I would have to make that distinction clear.

Giving up an Origin Card slot might look like a loss in the short term. They would see one fewer slot and probably imagine all the incredible Origin Cards they might have obtained in the future.

But what if they spent decades waiting for that perfect opportunity and it never came?

What if, instead of gambling their future on a possibility, they used the resources already within their reach and became stronger every single day?

Talent and Card World Baptism could work together.

Their talent determined how far they could potentially go, while baptism gave that potential repeated opportunities to grow. Every baptism would make their Soul Core or Soul Gem more compatible with them, which in turn would improve their synchronization rate and create an even stronger foundation for future growth.

And if they were truly talented, there was always the possibility that their synchronization rate wouldn’t stop at one hundred percent.

That was the part I wanted them to understand.

They shouldn’t sacrifice their present strength for a future that might never arrive.

Get stronger first.

Increase your possibilities.

Then use that strength to chase whatever future you want.

After all, the possibilities available to someone at the peak were vastly different from those available to someone struggling at the bottom.

I couldn’t help thinking of stagnant water.

The longer water remained still, the more likely it was to become foul. Cultivation was much the same. If they spent years standing in the same place, endlessly waiting for the perfect opportunity, their possibilities would not magically become better with time.

They would become narrower.

Strength, on the other hand, opened doors.

The stronger they became, the more resources they could obtain, the more dangerous places they could explore, the more people they could meet, and the more opportunities they could create for themselves.

So when these kids made their choice, I would explain both sides to them.

I wouldn’t force them to surrender an Origin Card slot.

But I would make sure they understood exactly what they were giving up by refusing to do so.

Sometimes what looked like losing something was actually an investment in gaining something far greater.

And sometimes the biggest mistake wasn’t choosing the wrong path.

It was standing still because you were afraid of closing one.