While the others were drawing, Yang Zicang walked over and flipped open the unnamed journal. Gripping his sword, he studied the central and bottom-left patterns of the magic runes on the page.

The basic memory pattern slowly took shape in his mind, and subtle energies began to gather around his body. These weren’t affected by the Gaze-dispelling Sword in his hand; they assembled faintly, almost imperceptibly.

Yang Zicang thought to himself,This might be an even purer form of Aether energy.

“I’ve memorized it too. ” Within seconds, the young man declared.

By this time, Karl had only just finished drawing his patterns. He looked over with a hint of surprise, then remembered something. “President, was that the memory magic pattern Miss Hua Mi taught everyone? “

“You’ve heard about it too? “

“Haha, I heard about it while getting off the boat. I wonder if you’d be willing to teach us, President? Both Manager Kim and I already know two basic patterns we learned at the trade association. They’re pretty handy. “

“Of course, I can. “

“Hua Mi? A memory magic pattern? Wow, what’s that thing? ” Li Aimin stared at them with a mix of curiosity and wonder.

“That’s a secret. ” Yang Zicang handed the journal over to Kim Tae-cheol. “Quick, take a look at the rest of the content about the business card. Even though I’ve used something similar before, I really don’t know much about how to actually make it. “

As Yang Zicang drew patterns on a new piece of paper, Kim Tae-cheol, who was flipping through a book, looked up thoughtfully and stared at Yang Zicang’s back for a moment.

Come to think of it, this man… he’s probably been using a fake name all along, hasn’t he? He’s about to leave his name on the business card, I wonder what he’ll do.

……

— “A name is nothing more than… in the universe… a ‘Trait’ is our true tag… “

After finishing drawing the magical pattern, Yang Zicang looked at the several papers around him. He had dismantled the pattern into five parts, drawing them separately so that even a single person could complete the entire pattern.

Fortunately, the pattern on this business card wasn’t very complex.

But if it involved an extremely intricate and massive pattern, or some three-dimensional carving lines similar to the foundational spiritual stones, this method of dispersing the magic pattern for drawing would become extremely challenging.

Yang Zicang turned his head, glancing at Kim Tae-cheol, who was reading the book, and the other two people flipping through different items nearby.

“Found anything useful? “

“Yes, ” Kim Tae-cheol said, pointing at a line of text. “It says here: our spirit represents who we are, our actions represent the lives we live, yet both spirit and actions jointly shape our physical vessel. “

He walked over and read the remaining words.

—To travel through the Ether World, one must align these three forms with the ‘equivalent information’ of the Ether Realm, which is none other than the respective ‘Traits.’

Everyone began to ponder.

Yang Zicang fingered his chin, frowning slightly. After a few breaths, he said, “On these business cards… our real names probably don’t matter much. In my view, even having a name or no name at all can be entirely unnecessary. “

Kim Tae-cheol’s heart stirred slightly. The man before him hadn’t looked at the book in his hands, yet he could speak such words. It seemed he indeed had some understanding of this matter.

“President Yang, what are your thoughts? “

“Yeah, old Yang, just tell us everything you know. How are we supposed to create our name cards? I thought we just needed to write our names on them next. “

{But what’s the point of these name cards anyway? Should we be handing out fliers here to those ghosts? }

“……“

Li Aimin coughed, saying, “Well, although Brother Ax’s words are a bit off-topic, the question he raised is still quite important. Honestly, I still don’t know, even now, what the use of this ether name card really is. “

Kim Tae-cheol also turned his gaze to Yang Zicang.

“Oh? Well, alright then, I’ll graciously share this information with you all for free. “

Kim Tae-cheol rubbed his nose, thinking it might be too late to back out now…

Li Aimin, who had been feigning a somewhat sullen expression to show slight displeasure, suddenly widened his mouth. “Ah, sorry… I, I thought we were all good friends here, so it never even crossed my mind about the ‘free’ or ‘paid’ aspect. “

He chuckled sheepishly, scratching his head. “Well, that said, Kim Tae-cheol, I suppose this is now a favor owed by both of us, right? And Brother Karl too. “

Karl looked over with some nervousness.

Yang Zicang picked up a blank card-stock sheet and said:

“I suspect this ether name card is probably just one type among such items. Within this whole category, there might well be other objects with similar yet slightly different functions, such as ones that allow only psychic bodies to enter here, or those that grant access to the psychic force field. “

The identity card of the Cleaning Team, and Han Mingxiao’s pomegranate wood pendant, are both somewhat similar to it.

However, as an Ether Beacon, the Name Card could not only allow spiritual attachment but also give birth to consciousness years later. This is probably something the pomegranate wood pendant couldn’t achieve.

-｛Distributor Loki. Tata Mingqi says “Aha. “｝

Yang Zicang stared at the pendant on his chest, right… this distributor on the first layer of the Moon Realm surely knew about this kind of intel.

Should he go ask him first, then make the name card later?

Just as he was thinking about it, faint and colorful ripples of light suddenly radiated from his body, one after another.

……

“You, what’s wrong with you, President? “

The others looked at Yang Zicang in some surprise.

｛I begin communicating with the ‘Ether Foundation·Gaze-dispelling Sword’｝

Yang Zicang held the ancient longsword whose edge emitted distorting energy, warily gazing at the colorful rays of light being deflected around him.

In a few breaths, they settled down.

“It seems… nothing unusual? “

The young man looked around in some confusion.

“Maybe it’s this room, ” Karl said, rubbing his arm. “We should study the name card’s function quickly. This place feels rather strange. “

“Alright, indeed we should finish it here first. The more Glory-Radiance we generate, and the faster I move on to the next epoch’s continent in order to catch up to those who are immensely powerful. “

Li Aimin looked eagerly at the business card in Yang Zicang’s hand. Although he didn’t know exactly what the Ether Business Card was for, seeing this magical space was enough to tell him—this was a huge opportunity!

Kim Tae-cheol, flipping through a book, quickly said, “President, and Karl, come take a look at this page. “

“What is it? “

The group walked over and looked at a magical pattern resembling a magic circle on it. Below were some twisted, unrecognizable characters. Fortunately, there was a Chinese translation underneath.

— Communication Manifestation Diagram of the Etheric Alchemical Magic Array.

— Although I never intended to become a scholar of alchemy, and I don’t know when I’ll find good moon realm materials to carve our own ether seal, it’s rare to encounter an alchemist willing to sell his own alchemical magic array chart. It would be a pity not to buy it.

— This alchemical magic array is the foundational alchemical formation imprinted by “Secret Alchemy Scholar Jon “…

Below was a sentence written in a slightly different hand.

— It’s been nearly eighty years. I’ve contacted him many times without a reply; perhaps he has already left this world. Still, the contracted transaction must continue. Every use requires taking ten coins of any nation’s currency—this is the minimum cost I’ve determined after several experiments. Maybe this is the only benefit of not being able to find the magic pattern’s owner.

— If only I had known from the start to just try the cheapest option.

“……“

“This… “

Everyone fell silent. According to the record above, the cost of using the magic pattern once was enormous.

For instance, a Time Order of at least two thousand years, or a Void Zero Order of over four millennia, or some material designations that were simply unreadable. Who would have thought it would end up requiring only ten coins, without even specifying a unit…

“There’s mention of ‘Trait’ written here. ” Kim Tae-cheol spoke after flipping two more pages.

He desperately wanted to learn about the business cards solely from this notebook, or, at the very least, not from the mouth of Yang Zicang. Because that would mean he truly was indebted to him. And this debt of gratitude was actually quite unnecessary…

But the cost of this favor was a bit terrifying.

As for suggesting using a few blank business cards for experiments… although it crossed my mind…

“Finally… the Mirror Room is built, and everyone is really looking forward to what their Trait is… Since it’s hidden behind the figurehead, we all agreed to call it the ‘Prime Minister’s Office,’ anyway… the last mission just ended… ” Kim Tae-cheol read the text and then exclaimed, “Installed an Imperial Prime Minister?! “

The four of them exchanged shocked glances.

“Umm… is there more? “

“Earlier I saw a sentence on a page. ” Kim Tae-cheol flipped back to a page he had been holding with his thumb.

— “Everyone has many Traits, but I can’t figure out which one to amplify? If I make the wrong choice here, correcting it later will require a tremendous effort. “

“The entire book only has a few places related to Traits. This sentence was written before the Prime Minister’s Office was built, which shows they knew their stuff about Traits. “

“Why don’t we test one of the cards? ” Li Aimin suggested.

Several people glanced at him.

Yang Zicang shifted sideways to clear the way for Li Aimin.

“If you’re willing to test your Trait, then please, go ahead. “

Seeing how he’d earlier cleared the way for Karl to the statue, Li Aimin immediately waved his hand in solemn refusal.

“Forget I said anything, esteemed Chairman Yang. “

“So what exactly is a Trait? ” Karl asked, walking over while examining a porcelain bottle.

At that moment, Yang Zicang recalled that on Yu Qingqu’s ether name card, there were two characters before her name. He pulled it out for a look only to find the ink had faded to near-illegibility. Still, he remembered it was something like ‘Jue’.

“Feng Jue? “

But then it struck Yang Zicang: could those two characters be not a nickname, but the meaning of Trait?

“The uniqueness and identifiability of the anchor point…’using intent as a guide, Trait as ink’…’engraving…’. “

Replaying all the fragmentary information he now knew, he began murmuring softly.

“Intent… action… and the shell. The physical body comes last; psychical intent represents the self, the origin… but what is the nature of intent as a Trait? “

As Yang Zicang muttered to himself, Kim Tae-cheol’s eyes flickered with light as he looked at the name cards.

“Chairman, there are two left, ” he suddenly said with a hint of excitement. “Why do you think it’s name cards, and not something else? “

“Name cards? ” The others turned to look at the holder containing the blank card paper.

Ether Name Card?

“Name cards… what is their role in the human world? “

Yang Zicang swiftly connected the clues in his mind. “In the shortest possible time, through information like name, title, and contact details, we can precisely locate and identify a specific individual. “

Kim Tae-cheol also exclaimed excitedly,

“A highly condensed identifier representing someone—just one glance tells you who this person is. It’s like how we log into various software with our IDs online. Perhaps the trait is the ID, and we ourselves are the password. Or maybe the other way around. “

Before he could finish speaking, Yang Zicang struck out with his holy sword!

Kim Tae-cheol took a frightened step back only to realize that surging energy had just appeared around his body.

“Uh, thank you, President. This place really makes it too easy to fall into a trap… “

“No need to thank me—it’s only right. ” Yang Zicang looked at the others. “I think we know why it’s the ‘Ether Name Card.’ “

{Huh? }

“Huh? You already know? “

“Aimin, don’t you get it yet? ” Kim Tae-cheol spoke with excited joy. “A name card lets others recognize us. So, the Ether Name Card—who is it for? For this space! “

“And that’s not all. ” Yang Zicang traced sword arcs through the air, one after another, speaking solemnly. “The Ether Name Card, isn’t it just what lets the Ether World recognize us? I think this so-called ‘trait’ is the anchor point of the Ether World—it’s our bond with the Ether Realm! “

Karl and Li Aimin’s eyes lit up, and Li Aimin slammed a fist into his palm.

“I get it! As the anchor point in the Ether World, the trait is like a root system we choose to delve deep into that world! Could it possibly… “

A few of them all looked over with some excitement.

“Will our Traits continue to grow stronger in the future?!“

……

One always has to take the first step.

Since they had gone from total confusion to having a relatively clear conception, Yang Zicang decided to stop waiting. After all, everyone had been in a state of high mental tension recently, and they had just gone another night without any rest. Staying here in poor mental condition was very unsafe.

Following what the notebook said, he walked into the small control room next to the main chamber and pressed his hand onto a crystal-ball-like device there.

Instantly, energy surged around him, and one complex pattern after another emerged everywhere. Although they were not words, just patterns of lines, they emitted all kinds of emotions.

“Ideas are our essence…“

Yang Zicang began to understand this sentence a little. He also vaguely understood why it was these very emotions here that created the illusions.

Because emotions themselves are the byproduct of thought.

“Lost fear of world…“, “Fear… of the future…“

“Loneliness…“, “Guilt…“, “Devotion…“

“Anger…“

Many complex patterns revealed themselves. Yang Zicang sensed them. These seemed to be Traits that many people possessed; they appeared first and were the most chaotic. But immediately after, behind these globe-like encompassing patterns, another layer emerged.

“Merit Student“, “Basketball Competitor“, “Class Representative“, “Bilingual Learner“… “Movie Enthusiast…“, “Tv Series Disdainer…“

These are… are these Traits too? How come they look like…

Suddenly, one pattern shimmered faintly with a somewhat hazy, colorful light.

“Person Who Persistently Attends School without Interruption… “

“What?! – Radiance: subtitle… ” The few people beside him, faintly sensing these ripples, stepped back in astonishment.