Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2640: Live Streaming

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Southern Capital, Guild Association Mall

When I inspected the demigod guards assigned to Sky Blossom City for the nth time using my Primordial Soul Pupils and found nothing wrong with their soul pathways, nor any traces of Gideon Grim’s Origin Card roots within them, I had to accept the fact that it wasn’t Gideon Grim.

With the most obvious suspects ruled out, I had no choice but to consider other likely candidates, such as the Supreme Leader and the Masters.

However, the Supreme Leader’s specialty did not involve controlling minds. Even if he had gained such an ability in this timeline, I was certain he would not be proficient enough to avoid detection by my Primordial Soul Pupils. His organization’s upper management was filled with his incarnations for a reason. If he could control minds, he would never trust that ability over his incarnations. This removed any possibility of him mastering a mind-control technique to a level that could fool my Primordial Soul Pupils, that could peer into the mysteries of the origin source.

That left the Masters. It could either be them or their hounds. Under normal circumstances, they would have simply kidnapped the people I cared for and forced me to come to them, where they held absolute advantage. But it had already become clear to them that the Card Celestial was biased toward me. For once, the Card Celestial was not at their call, rendering their world decree useless, and they were losing their shit enough to threaten the Southern Region with war and economic isolation.

Having relied on the Card Celestial for so long, they understood better than anyone how much this lone factor mattered. Therefore, unless they were absolutely certain, they would not dare to move against me directly. Instead, they resorted to indirect methods to keep me in check, such as threatening the Southern Region with war and economic isolation.

They knew this approach was like poking a hibernating bear, but they did not mind as it was clear that once the bear woke up, it would kill them anyway, so they might as well prevent it from getting proper rest, on the off chance it would wander off a cliff while half-asleep.

So, if it was not the Masters, then who was it? Someone I did not know? That was when the Emissary of Light surfaced in my mind. I then remembered what I had seen in the Clown Mask’s future vision: how he had turned the most loyal card apprentices of the Eastern and Western Regions into his followers, and how they had betrayed and killed their loved ones for him.

Unable to trust their own allies and comrades, the morale of the Western and Eastern regions’ forces had plummeted. However, they soon discovered that the easiest way to identify an Emissary of Light follower was to curse the Emissary of Light aloud. During that period, poets and writers of the two regions composed songs and stories condemning and cursing him. The soldiers sang and recited them day and night whenever they found time to rest, ensuring that those beside them were not followers of the Emissary of Light.

So, on a hunch, I decided to test the same approach. I cursed the Emissary of Light loudly enough for the entire city to hear, after instructing the Western Princess and her group to monitor the city and capture anyone who behaved aggressively or strangely upon hearing the curse. To my surprise, my hunch proved correct. Soon, the Western Princess’s group and I had captured all of the Emissary of Light’s followers. That was when the Emissary of Light’s soul projection appeared to check on them.

I had no idea why the Emissary of Light was targeting me when we had not even crossed paths before today, but that did not stop me from deciding to land a decisive blow on his arrogance. So, when the Western Princess and her group returned after capturing all of the Emissary of Light’s followers in Sky Blossom City, I asked them to livestream the entire event while also sharing the footage I had recorded since his arrival.

Yes, all five regions were watching and listening to our actions and exchanges the whole time. Therefore, even as I remained indifferent to his tests and provocations, I deliberately played the role of the innocent and righteous Southern Hope, while showing the five regions who the Emissary of Light truly was and what he was capable of. After all, in trying to reveal the true nature of the Emissary of Light to the world, I should remember not to expose myself as well. Now, that would be foolish.

This approach against the Emissary of Light was a double-edged sword, which was why neither Sansa nor Karl dared to use it against him in the Clown Mask’s future vision. After all, the Emissary of Light worked on a belief and faith power system. Had it been when the Emissary of Light was just starting out gathering belief and faith, then maybe this could have worked, but now that he had enough belief and faith to pull out any miracle out of his ass, it was a very bad idea. They would only be giving him a larger stage and a broader audience to recruit more followers and believers.

However, I had full faith in my abilities, at least enough to know that I could reveal his and his abilities true nature to the five regions. As for the Empire, they were a lost cause for now. Anything I did would only appear to them as blasphemy or provocation, or as deceit meant to confuse them and make them question their Herald, the one true son of the world.

I would not be surprised if they launched a crusade against me after witnessing the livestream. After all, the human mind only sees what it wants to see and only believes what it wants to believe, even if the truth were to drop on their head.