Chapter 198: 198 Nobility Origin_1
Yan Moling quickly acquired the Shark People Card.
Matching levels didn’t necessarily mean creating cards of the same level; sometimes card crafting was based on the abilities of the cards themselves. The upper limit of a card’s potential was set; even wanting to make an SSR Card wasn’t that simple. Creating a new A-Rank Card was an accomplishment worth encouraging.
Moreover, cards produced by the military were considered internal national assets. Whether they were circulated outside depended purely on the considerations of the upper echelons. If a card was particularly special, it wouldn’t be publicly used either.
The creation of the Shark People Card was like a potent stimulant for the higher-ups. At the very least, it proved that Wen Jiang hadn’t held back; the information she provided was genuinely useful. It wasn’t as if no one had doubted the origins of her strange and curious ideas, or wondered how many lost civilizations she had mastered.
Some had suggested that an uncontrollable element like Wen Jiang should ideally be brought under control, but this was quickly vetoed by the highest authority. Few at this level were foolish; such an idiotic proposal would surely be met with criticism.
Regardless of where Wen Jiang’s knowledge of civilizations came from, the things she produced were undeniably valuable. She hadn’t used these resources for any illegal activities, all her actions were under the watchful eye of the Yunxia Empire, and she was the heir to the Jimo Family. Considering these points, it was absolutely out of the question to risk significant gains for minor ones.
Of course, those who proposed such ideas weren’t necessarily foolish. The Nobility’s network was extensive, and the military’s movements could hardly be completely concealed from them. Some families had already received news and thus began to harbor malicious thoughts.
Were they foolish? Not really.
Everyone understood that this development was a great boon for the Empire, but that didn’t stop them from feeling their own interests were threatened. Once those cards from lost civilizations became a reality, the cards they held would lose all advantage.Especially now that a Shark People Card had been successfully created—and not even by a particularly outstanding Card Maker, yet they still managed to create such a dual-state card. This proved that the Yunxia Empire’s previous path in card crafting was, to some extent, a "misstep." This implied that the cards held by the Nobility were very likely to become obsolete.
If this was true for A-Rank Cards, what about SSR Cards? Once Divine Beast cards—equivalent to or even surpassing Bai Ze and Bi Fang—were created, what earth-shattering changes would this world undergo?
But there was something they didn’t know yet.
"We’ve tried these cards; they don’t enhance our spiritual power like the Moon Palace Card Set does."
The Shark People Card had already begun to be mass-copied within the military, and naturally, a vanguard team was the first to test its power. However, after a period of training, there was no obvious improvement among the Spirit Card Masters comparable to that experienced with the Moon Palace Card Set. Of course, this "obvious improvement" referred to an actual increase in their spiritual power, but it wasn’t a sudden leap to greatness. Rather, it simply meant that the more these cards were used, the more beneficial they were for their spiritual power.
The Shark People Card was powerful, but it was still just an ordinary A-Rank Card, not as special as the Moon Palace Card Set.
Why was that?
Wen Jiang was indeed exceptionally strong, but her strength was primarily demonstrated in competitions. Frankly, it wasn’t enough to make powerful S Rank individuals take serious notice. Sometimes, competing in matches was entirely different from fighting a life-or-death battle. Some Spirit Card Masters were skilled in combat, but in a life-threatening crisis, they might not possess the same explosive power as those in the military. This also explained the distinction between combat and competition.
So why did the cards she made exhibit such a difference?
"’Like this?’" Yan Moling also summoned a Shark People Card. In contrast to the special nature of the Moon Palace Card Set, this Shark People Card indeed offered her no additional unique effects upon summoning. Its power was decent, enough to qualify for A-Rank tournaments; it couldn’t be called unremarkable.
The problem, then, likely lay with Wen Jiang.
Yan Moling quickly realized this matter was highly unusual. If they previously thought that cards made using the data Wen Jiang provided would possess the same power as those made by Wen Jiang herself, they were now sorely mistaken. At the very least, the discrepancy that had now appeared was perplexing to the military’s top brass.
Wen Jiang’s uniqueness was thus starkly revealed. They had previously, and rather naively, assumed that cards produced through orthodox Yunxia civilization methods would inherently possess such abilities. Now they realized their mistake.
Yan Moling pursed her lips, recalling how Di Yantang had, just a few days prior, seemingly casually mentioned the attitudes of the other three major families. She knew he was hinting that Wen Jiang had become too conspicuous, and dissatisfaction was stirring among the Nobility. If her mystery box market could be dismissed by the Nobility as mere dabbling, then the cards now produced from the data she provided struck at the very roots of the Nobility’s power.
Doesn’t the state want to restrain the Nobility? Of course, it does. Even Yan Moling herself had connections to the Nobility. But she had grown up with her parents, a scion of a traditional military family that didn’t engage in such convoluted dealings. Thankfully, though Yunxia had lost much of its heritage, the fundamental spirit of the military remained intact. This integrity had prevented major disputes with the Nobility.
Regarding the concept of the Nobility, she vaguely remembered older family members mentioning remnants of history. They said the Yunxia Empire had experienced a feudal period in its past, where dynasties essentially ruled as the domain of the Nobility. However, after a period of consolidation, such class distinctions had been, at least nominally, abolished.
The upheaval stemmed from the great cataclysm a thousand years ago. That disaster struck with ferocity, nearly halving the global population. Survival itself became precarious, let alone anything else. The state exerted immense effort to prevent the complete collapse of social order. Then, cards suddenly appeared.
These cards were purely a matter of luck value. Some commoners who obtained cards developed nefarious intentions; a portion of them were eliminated by the state, while others joined the Empire, feigning loyalty while biding their time.
Later, as surrounding countries succumbed to disaster, only a few major nations managed to endure. The Yunxia Empire absorbed most of the fleeing refugees and established itself, becoming one of the world’s three great powers alongside the similarly re-integrated Sanctuary and Frost Moon.
Then, after the disaster ended and the world needed time to recover, the incredibly powerful cards remained. Some people proposed conditions; they desired different statuses. The world had already endured one catastrophe, and no nation had the spare capacity for further conflict. With entities like Sanctuary and Frost Moon—which already had their own Nobility and were largely indifferent—also egging things on, the Yunxia Empire, for the sake of peace, begrudgingly acknowledged the existence of the Nobility.
But this kind of opportunistic extortion was unpopular; at least the then-morally upright military couldn’t stomach it. The military and government of Yunxia were separate, and the military and the Nobility were perpetually at odds. This was a major reason why the military had not been infiltrated by the Nobility to this day.
The Jimo Family was able to enter the military largely because its Family Head had made significant contributions without making any demands at the time. The Empire, wary of the Nobility’s growing power, had promoted the Jimo Family as one of the noble families loyal to the military.