The Card Apprentice

Chapter 111: The Rose, Cheng Ying

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Why didn’t vibrations appear in his shuttle-shaped perceptual vortex? It was a limitation of its composition, with the structure itself determining that it wouldn’t have the advantage of vibrations.

Composition! Insights suddenly flashed through Chen Mu’s brain, as he realized the core of the issue! Composition! It was composition! It was just because of limitations to the form that the composition of perception took inside of him that led to his perception having no way to realize vibrations.

Which was to say that his own perception could no longer meet his needs.

To put it another way, he could only learn breath control if he modified the composition of his perception to include the characteristics of vibration.

He was a little bit excited, since finding the crux of a problem moves one a step closer to finally being able to resolve it.

But he wasn’t bold enough to just casually modify the composition of his perception. Modifying the composition of perception was a risky affair. The perceptual vortex in him was extremely stable, and it would create difficulties if he wanted to break it. The firmer a perceptual composition was, the more fraught with danger it would be to break it.

So, he immediately nixed any thoughts about breaking the composition of the perceptual vortex, since that would be too dangerous for him as he was then. He would only be able to optimize it, using the perceptual vortex as the basis, to bring it more in line with his current capabilities.

That was to say that he would maintain the fundamental structure of the perceptual vortex, while adding the properties of vibration to it.

But what kind of composition could achieve that goal?

He thought about it very hard, and after a long time he still couldn’t come up with anything. The composition of the shuttle-shaped perceptual vortex was extremely stable, and the last time when he was facing the star lure, that sort of stability had saved his life, without letting him collapse his perception. Whereas now, the very stability of the composition of his perception was creating all his difficulties with making any modifications.

* * *

Bo Wen was really interested in looking all around. He had proposed to Ning Peng that he remain at the base for a while in his capacity as a card artisan. Although Ning Peng found it strange that he didn’t want to meet Chen Mu right away, he still quickly agreed. That prince wasn’t someone he could offend, and the clan elder had also given instructions that no matter what requests he had, they should be accommodated to the extent possible.

Ning Peng was concerned about certain things at the base being leaked to other powers. But he had no worries in that regard with Bo Wen. He was only afraid that the base would seem shabby to someone else.

In the Eastern Regions, there were twelve branches of the Ning family like them. They were like the branches and leaves of a tree, where the Ning family of the Eastern reaches were the original family, or the trunk of the tree. Unlike the other branches, none of the Eastern Ning’s had ever flourished. Still, there were always a few outstanding people who appeared in each generation, and for the past few years, the Eastern Ning’s weren’t only growing, they were also forming stronger connections to the branches.

It was said that a long time ago the Ning family was one of the two top powers in the whole Eastern Region, and that at that time there weren’t any branches. But then they suffered a sudden bout of assassinations which led to the tragic loss of the leader of that generation, whereupon the Ning family divided into over ten branches.

At that time everyone assumed that the Ning family was entering a period of decline, with the direct descendants who stood up in the generation which followed that leader leading it into that mess. Then after laboring to build themselves back up, the situation took shape as it was by contemporary times. The Eastern Ning’s had finally returned to their former glory.

Seeing Bo Wen strolling around the base in such a leisurely fashion, only occasionally picking up a commission, was unsettling to Ning Peng who was so busy night and day.

Could it be that the daily lives of the young from the Eastern Ning’s were all so relaxed? Ning Peng couldn’t restrain the criticism he felt in his guts. He felt that this young one hadn’t really come to look into Chen Mu’s identity, but was purely interested in coming to relax. But he didn’t dare express the least dissatisfaction; on the contrary, he would always be extremely enthusiastic every time he saw him.

Seeing that Bo Wen wasn’t really coming to look for him and given that he had mountainous piles of things to do on his hands, Ning Peng really wasn’t at liberty to pay attention to Bo Wen. The only thing that he was concerned about was that Ning Yan seemed to have taken an interest in Bo Wen, which was giving him a headache.

* * *

During that time, Chen Mu had been wracking his brains without coming up with any way to modify the composition of the perceptual vortex. He had never been able to mock up a suitable composition and was about to tear out all his hair, becoming restless with anxiety.

Without his quite realizing it, his mood was recently having a negative impact on all aspects of his training. Whether it was the perceptual training or something else, he wasn’t making any headway.

He did quickly realize the issue, and that he would have to dispose of it quickly or else he wouldn’t be able to learn the breath control that he so urgently needed right away.

He decided to go out and relax a little after being shut up in his apartment for so many days. Chen Mu’s mode of relaxation was very simple, flight training. What was dull and boring to others, was full of joy to Chen Mu, the simplest and most basic joy.

Chen Mu had rented a high-grade flight training space, and he went running into it alone.

Once he had entered the training space, he put all of those thoughts which weren’t making him happy to the back of his mind and flew off into the air with a shout.

Seeing all those obstacles floating around, Chen Mu went headlong into them without thinking about it.

The thrill that came with speed was heating up his blood. His mood from those last few days seemed to have been lit on fire, and Chen Mu didn’t hold back from taking his speed to its highest.

The power he felt transmitted through his body increased, and the scene all around him blurred. The wind was roaring in his ears, and when he raised his head he could barely keep his eyes open.

This was his first time taking his speed to the top, and a kind of feeling that he had never experienced surged from the deepest part of him, with all his blood seeming to have started boiling in an instant.

He felt so carefree that he nearly shouted out, but before he could open his mouth, bam! Once he wasn’t in control, he went headlong into that sky blue colored protective air sack, where he was quickly submerged into the soft cushions.

It took him a long time to struggle out, when he started laughing like a maniac. That little bit of craziness just then had loosened him up like he’d never felt before, clearing up his feelings and wiping away all the fog from the last few days.

With his carefree expression, Chen Mu didn’t go right back to raising his speed to the limit the way that he just had, but started instead to practice with abandon.

Chen Mu had outstanding balance and reflexes, which in addition to his precise control of his perception, made him progress very rapidly.

According to the standard assessments, his flight score had already reached seven hundred and twenty-six. Although that wouldn’t be considered a high score, it was still an accomplishment for someone like Chen Mu who hadn’t been learning for very long.

His most outstanding score was in small-scale dodging training, where his score was generally above eighty, having gotten as high as ninety. That was a result which would put quite a few professional card artisans to shame. Using his perception to probe all around him, along with the very unconventional dodging and evading skills from the demonic woman, plus his fine control of perception, he had finally been able to get these scary results.

Usage wasn’t very high for any of the flight training spaces, since for a lot of card artisans, flight was just a mode of travel. They were used to having their feet on the ground when they fought.

But Chen Mu really liked flight training, always practicing for two hours before leaving. He had at least ten “crashes” that time, though that didn’t annoy him in the least, but on the contrary made him very happy.

Once he had finished his flight training, he walked out of the flight training space.

Just as he left through the gate, as he was walking along the terrace he ran into a woman dressed in a skin-tight combat suit coming right toward him. Chen Mu casually glanced at her and then retracted his gaze.

Cheng Ying had just joined the Ning family, and it hadn’t been five days since she’d been at the base. Having just finished a commission, and having earned about forty contribution points, she was just arriving at the training space. She had long since heard that the Ning family had great training facilities, which was one of the reasons she had been attracted there.

She saw a man coming out of the flight training space with a face full of sweat, who took a look at her and then retracted his gaze.

Among card artisans, there were far fewer women than men, so that the women drew a lot of attention to themselves. And Cheng Ying’s looks stood out, with mature and yet delicate facial features, showing a calm and reserved temperament. She was tall, and with that skin-tight combat suit, her curves would be something else to attract someone’s eyes.

The reason she was called “The Rose,” was because the rose is both beautiful and prickly. She had long become accustomed to the attention of others, and so running into a card artisan who was so cool, she couldn’t help taking another look.

He looked very ordinary, with nothing special about him, and Cheng Ying guessed that the next time she saw him she would very likely not recognize him. But the thing that had made her the most comfortable about him was that he looked so cool, and she couldn’t help sighing about how temperament could actually make an ugly person look so much more pleasant.

She quickly noted another strange thing.

How could his face be so full of sweat? Didn’t he just come out from the flight training space?

Flight training was the training least likely to produce a sweat. In the first place, there wasn’t that much activity, with the card artisan only having to control the jet stream card to go. What was needed was perception, and not strength. And the wind while flying face-up would quickly dry any sweat.

That person had been training until his face was sweating, which really seemed strange.

Chen Mu had no idea that the unrecognized woman was running through so many thoughts in her head in the instant that he brushed shoulders with her passing by.

Cheng Ying was moved, and since she was getting ready herself to go to the flight training space, why not go into that one? Having that thought, she immediately turned to enter the flight training space from which Chen Mu had just exited.

She swiped her room card.

“The standard rate for using this training space is three points per hour.”

Cheng Ying was immediately startled, since three contribution points per hour was the standard fee for the highest-level training spaces. Was the guy really that wealthy? That was the first thought which had come to Cheng Ying’s mind.

The first thing she felt upon entering the base was that contribution points were hard to earn. She would never have thought that the unremarkable guy she’d just seen would be using such a high-level training space.

There were only a few kinds of people who might have a lot of points, traders, card masters with outstanding power, and card artisans. And certainly, neither traders nor card masters would be likely to do flight training. Apart from them were the card artisans having outstanding strength who could take all kind of high-level commissions, where the rewards were naturally generous.

Could that unremarkable guy she’d just seen be a hidden card artisan?