Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2322 Cruel Pride

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Lil. Red Storm, Seed World, Devil Merchant Code, Inter-Realm City, Sector WS9909, Infinity Library, Study Room

Parkʼs plan was to obtain a physique, trait, or card for Corey that would make her resistant to the darkness brewing within her title demon core-a darkness that grew stronger with each of her breakthroughs. However, what Park failed to understand was that making Corey resistant to the darkness was the same as making her resistant to the title demon core itself. Her body would begin to reject the title demon core because the darkness was the title demon core. Rejecting the darkness meant rejecting the very essence of her title demon core.

In essence, any physique or trait designed to resist or erase the darkness would act like poison. In her attempt to help Corey manage the darkness better, Park had inadvertently prescribed a cure that would have been lethal. Had Wyatt not thoroughly done his job and instead lazily followed Parkʼs research, he would have killed Corey rather than helping her. This was precisely why Wyatt gave one hundred percent effort to every task he undertook, whether by choice or assignment. A single lapse could be life-threatening to his clients. He would either give it his all-or not do it at all.

What Corey truly needed was to embrace the darkness to fully merge with her title demon core. However, embracing the darkness came with a heavy cost: it made her lose her sanity. Instead of remaining the level-headed Corey who sought to surpass her past selves, she would spiral into madness, driven by her fears and insecurities. While accepting the darkness would make Corey stronger, it would also turn her into the very definition of a demon.

Coreyʼs struggle with the darkness in her title demon core mirrored why Wyatt had turned to martial arts. She, too, had to confront a darkness beyond her understanding. Unlike Wyatt, however, martial arts was not the answer for Corey. Her problem wasnʼt hers alone-it was a common issue among all those who used artificial demon cores. Park had faced this problem herself. But unlike Corey, Park had started with a low-tier artificial demon core, while Corey began with a title demon core from the outset. Moreover, with each breakthrough Corey made, her title demon core underwent a baptism as part of her origin card, growing stronger and causing the darkness to expand at an accelerated rate. Corey never stood a chance against it.

In Parkʼs case, as she cultivated her low-tier artificial demon core, she gradually grew accustomed to its darkness. She didnʼt just adapt to it-she made it a part of herself. Eventually, her body fully accepted the artificial demon core, allowing her to evolve it into a title demon core and ascend to the rank of demon emperor.

19:44

Asking a Card Master realm Corey to get accustomed to a Demon Emperorʼs title demon core was like asking her to achieve the impossible. It was already a miracle that Corey hadnʼt succumbed to the title demon coreʼs darkness.

The more Wyatt learned about the struggles slaves faced-trying to adapt physically to the artificial demon cores fused with them and mentally to the darkness these artifical demon cores introduced into their mind and soul-the more he couldnʼt help but feel sympathy for Corey, whose battle was a hundred times worse than those slaves, Wyatt, who had once thought of Corey as an identity loon, now couldnʼt help but be impressed by her mental fortitude.

As he pondered this, Wyatt began to wonder: where did this darkness come from? Yes, it was part of artificial demon cores, but his artificial Viltronian cores were also a type of artificial demon core, and they didnʼt have any darkness threatening to consume the userʼs mind and soul. Jayaʼs Viltronian core, along with every artificial Viltronian core Wyatt had created, showed no trace of such darkness. None of the people Wyatt had bestowed Viltronian cores upon displayed any signs of being corrupted by darkness.

In Jayaʼs case, her Viltronian core was innate, so it wasnʼt surprising that she showed no signs of being tainted by darkness. But this wasnʼt the case for Wyatt himself or his other clients. According to the Dark Racesʼ research on the darkness affecting those with artificial demon cores, it was claimed that the darkness was an inherent part of these cores. Wyatt had initially agreed with this conclusion. The research also stated that the darkness served as a test of worthiness for those seeking to wield artificial demon cores, a notion Wyatt found absurd and dismissed.

Wyatt disregarded such nonsensical theories and searched for more substantial explanations. Eventually, he stumbled upon something worth considering: a study suggested that the darkness was stronger in artificial demon cores because the demonic pearl bombs used to refine them were more similar to the demon cores of demonic beasts than to the demon cores developed by the Dark Races from infancy.

While the demon cores of demonic beasts and the Dark Races shared similarities, they were fundamentally different. It had long been discovered that the darkness in demonic beastsʼ cores was far stronger, which explained why these creatures were aggressive, primal, and lacked the high intelligence that set the Dark Races apart from them and even capable of becoming one of the dominant force in the Myriad realms. With this understanding, Wyatt realized the truth: the Dark Races never intended to cure the darkness in artificial demon cores. Instead, they accepted it as an intrinsic part of these artificial demon cores and refused to label it a side effect that needed a solution instead called it a test that slaves need to go through to show their worthiness because they never wanted slaves to stand as their equals. Their pride was evident in their brutal practice of killing any of their infant incapable of developing a natural demon core rather than granting it an artificial demon core.

The deeper Wyattʼs understanding of the Dark races developed, the more Parkʼs achievement in the Dark realm began to resemble a fairy tale. From being a lone slave of Belphegor, she had risen against him, amassing strength and a formidable force capable of threatening his very existence. Even though she failed, it was still an incredible feat. Nobody can deny it.