Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2874: Faith Ocean

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City, Headquarters

Honestly, I had never actually seen Anna angry before. Now that I had, I didn’t wait—I took the first cue and ran.

Soon, I arrived at the basement, where Karl was holding the half-dead Emissary of Light. Saintess Catherine and Redfall were already waiting for me; I’d planned to hand over whatever loot I managed to extract from sacrificing the Emissary. After all, one would run my cult in the Card World, the other in the Dark Realm.

However, I didn’t have high hopes considering his situation. The ’Breath of Erosion’ had done considerable damage to his body and divinity—there wasn’t much left to sacrifice.

"My lord, he’s showing no signs of recovery. We need to sacrifice him now," Karl urged, reminding me to hurry.

It had been a while since I had Dredre remove the ’Breath of Erosion’ that was eating away at him, but he showed no signs of recovery and was barely clinging to life. Karl even had to feed him a couple of health potions and actively regulate his soul energy just to keep him from slipping away.

I nodded and summoned my Celestial Blood Fate Plunder Domain, letting it spread across the basement. I began by channeling blood rule energy into the Emissary’s body, repairing his eroded soul pathways and using the same rule to stabilize his flesh as much as possible.

I could have healed his divinity as well, but that would have required primordial energy or pixie dust. That wasn’t my goal. I was after his origin card, not his divinity—and for that, his body alone was enough.

"You—" the Emissary, barely conscious, managed as he struggled back to awareness, finally finding the strength to speak. "What are you doing to me?"

"Collecting a debt," I said, as I activated the Blood Fate Plunder meaning through my Celestial Rule Domain.

Bit by bit, his body began to dissipate into the domain, unraveling into strands of crimson light. Before long, a dark, blood-red beam descended in front of me, leaving behind a hovering card the color of fresh-spilled blood.

I reached for it. Etched on its surface was the image of a teardrop touching a still pond, ripples spreading outward in perfect rings. It was the Emissary of Light’s origin card—Faith Ocean.

[ Card Name: Faith Ocean

Card Type: Blood Fate

Card Rank: SSS-Rank, Mythical Grade

Card Rate: Blood Bound

Card Durability: [100/100]

Card Effect: For every drop of faith you gather, there is an ocean of miracles waiting to be shaped.

Additional Effect:

i) Faith Reap: You can reap drops of faith from those who believe in you.ii) Faith Fill: You can use drops of faith to bridge the gap between your thoughts and reality.

Note:

i) Oceans have no bounds, but your thoughts do.ii) The card would bind to the card apprentice through blood and couldn’t be equipped by anyone else.]

After skimming through the card’s details, I handed it to Redfall and Catherine. It was essentially reality-warping, dressed up as something biblical.

"So, which of you wants it?" I asked, once they’d both gone through the card’s information.

When they hesitated out of politeness, I pulled out the Faith Halo Horn I’d harvested from Konjur and held it up between them. "One of you takes the card," I said, "and the other gets the horn."

I wasn’t worried about giving my Bloodkins the ability to use faith, unlike when turning a faith user into a Calamity Daughter gem. The difference was simple: the Bloodkins were already bound to me. The thought of rebellion wouldn’t cross their minds—and not to mention, there wasn’t a guarantee that they would use that power to break free.

Seeing the horn, Redfall stepped forward saying, "Then, I will take the card your highness, it will go perfectly with my origin card."

I looked at Catherine who nodded in agreement, so I said, "Good, then I will give it to you. But for now follow Catherine around for a while and help her manage the Empire until I learn more about the horn."

It wasn’t the horn’s secrets that concerned me, but its origin and history. It was a symbol of the Dark Cults, and I needed to understand its significance better before I dared to use it. I was already at odds with the Faith Order—I didn’t need to be at odds with the entire Dark Cults as well.

Yes, as a demon merchant, I was already on bad terms with the Dark Cults, but I had no intention of painting an even bigger target on my back.

"So, what did the Freedom Fighters have to say?" I asked Saintess Catherine, knowing that Henricks had invited her and City Lord Tess for dinner, due to schedule constraints they settled for a coffee.

"He suggested we exchange a few trusted subordinates to establish proper communication channels—basically, like a foreign embassy. Then Luna took over, proposing plans to open a university where the best and brightest of our forces could teach the younger generation and carry out the necessary research, so we don’t lose sight of the future in the heat of conquest," Catherine revealed, laying out everything the Freedom Fighters had planned.

They weren’t doing this behind my back—just gathering majority support before bringing it to me. That way, their proposal would carry enough weight to persuade me to greenlight it.

"What did the border city have to say about it?"

"Well, they chose to abstain on both issues. But when Luna suggested the university could be built in their city—or wherever they preferred—they reluctantly agreed to support her proposal. They did make one thing clear, though: if you’re against it, they’ll withdraw their support immediately. They like the idea, just not enough to risk offending you over it."

"What about you?"

"Me? I had to support both of their plans. She promised we’d be allowed to open a church in the area of the Southern Watch base they’re planning to conquer—and within the university as well."