The Card Apprentice

Chapter 155: How Many Points, Teacher?

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

“How about a little chen-stone? Hurry up, hurry up, we still need the luminous leaf, and everything has to be ready!”

“The floor has to be resurfaced again. Oh, there’s still some zebra-stone in the storeroom. Go get some.”

From some distance away from the house, the elders could hear the sound of elder Bafu’s full voice shouting. People were coming and going in an endless stream, carrying all kinds of stuff, most of which were raw materials.

“This will be Mr. Chen’s temporary residence. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to bring it up. The materials you stipulated have already been placed in your room, and if there is something you still require, please don’t hesitate to speak up.” The clan elder was smiling as he accompanied Chen Mu on the walk to the room. Wei-ah was behind them, showing no expression at all.

The three of them entered the room where they saw a frenzied scene. They saw people incessantly moving things into the room. Apart from elder Bafu, Alfonso was surprisingly there. Having seen Cheng Ying’s stunning blow with his own eyes and having found out that her card had been modified along the way by Chen Mu, Alfonso had very quickly admitted defeat. He’d then quickly gathered everything there, taking the initiative to move all sorts of materials from his own storeroom to the storeroom in Chen Mu’s house.

He was directing the villagers about how to categorize the storage, and he had even made some instruments specifically for Chen Mu, except that those instruments were all based the instruments he commonly used, such as metal processing equipment and the like. He didn’t know if Chen Mu needed those or not, but he moved everything in, lock stock and barrel.

Seeing Chen Mu and the clan elder enter, elder Bafu and Alfonso hurriedly dropped what they were doing to welcome them.

“What might you still require?” Alfonso asked in a very flattering tone.

Seeing Afonso’s expression, the clan elder was stunned and immediately burst out in a big smile while pointing at him tauntingly, “You know how to win people over now, Alfonso? No more putting on airs? Ha ha!” He then turned to Chen Mu to say, “You have no idea how this guy struts around normally. Apart from giving me a little face, if anyone else were ever to want anything nice from him it would be just about impossible. He really likes to put on airs, ha ha, and now he finally knows how to put on a smiley face!”

That didn’t make Alfonso mad, as he chuckled off to the side. To his side, elder Bafu looked like he couldn’t stand to watch.

Chen Mu wasn’t joining in the fun, having realized much earlier that Alfonso was a studious type. He exhibited the advantages of a scholarly cast at the same time that he exhibited its significant disadvantages. Chen Mu could understand Alfonso’s behavior better than others could.

“Let’s first take a look in the storeroom.” Chen Mu wasn’t very long-winded either.

The alacrity with which they treated Chen Mu couldn’t help but demonstrate their admiration.

The storeroom was already half full with all kinds of materials, as Alfonso had moved nearly everything from his own storage into it.

Chen Mu examined everything very meticulously item by item, while everyone else kept unwittingly silent under his influence.

After finishing his examination, Chen Mu finally raised his head to say, “I’ll need some gold-mottled grass or some constellation leaves. If those aren’t available, white banana leaves would do in a pinch.” No matter what kind of card he might make, they all required the same basic thing, which was blank white cards. The ones he usually used were finished products, whereas he would now have to make them himself.

“No problem.” The clan elder responded very nonchalantly.

Taking into account future usage, Chen Mu added, “It would be better to get a lot.”

“OK.” The clan elder’s response was as direct as ever, as he said to elder Bafu, “Go and speed them up a little.”

“Yes, sir!” Elder Bafu responded loudly, and then turned to leave the room, his pace nearly breaking into a run.

After giving the command, the clan elder turned smilingly toward Chen Mu, “Let Alfonso know if you need anything later, and don’t worry about disturbing him.” Seeing Chen Mu’s gaze remaining on the materials, he left with Wei-ah.

Alfonso was introducing the materials to Chen Mu, when Chen Mu realized something strange; the naming of materials there was quite similar to that in the Heavenly Federation. Apart from a few kinds whose designation was starkly different from outside, most were the same.

That made Chen Mu think to himself that the ancestors of Alfonso and the rest might have come from the Heavenly Federation. But he very discreetly didn’t inquire into it, and he really wasn’t all that interested anyhow.

There were many materials that he hadn’t used before, or even seen. A good part of those weren’t even listed in the illustrated fantasy card that Chen Ying had, which was giving Chen Mu a headache. Not knowing the materials was tantamount to not knowing their characteristics, which would make them worthless no matter how he looked at it.

Judging from Alfonso’s expression, Chen Mu realized that none of those materials were staples. It would be such a waste if that were the case and they never got used, so Chen Mu couldn’t help considering how he might use those materials that he couldn’t even recognize.

Cheng Ying and Bo Wen had begun teaching the villagers how to train their perception. They were both professional card artisans, whose foundations were a lot more solid than Chen Mu’s. That naturally wasn’t any problem for Cheng Ying, while Bo Wen was very clear about his situation, that if he didn’t appear cooperative it wouldn’t do any good for him.

He felt like he was in crisis!

Chen Mu had pushed him into a very dangerous place, even though he’d saved his life. Bo Wen felt that he wasn’t as good as Chen Mu regarding his strength as a card artisan. And as for card making, he was still more clear that his own ability wasn’t even worthy to be his assistant.

Chen Mu could do anything that he could do, while he couldn’t do all that Chen Mu could do. Even though he didn’t like to admit it, he really did know that Chen Mu was a lot more valuable to the villagers than he was. And the thing that he regretted the most was that the clan elder seemed uninterested in any kind of cooperation with the Ning family.

Cheng Ying’s status in the village had shot up because of her battle exploits last time, and the small children really loved the beautiful female instructor.

Cheng Ying had no air of pride, and she served with sincerity which quickly earned the love of the villagers, everyone being very fond of such a forthright and sincere girl.

To spark the interest of those little friends, Cheng Ying would sometimes put on a demonstration, such as a flight demonstration.

Sometimes, she would do a complex rolling maneuver in midair, which would elicit wave after wave of screaming and cheering from the little friends below. The adults in the village had much more serious expressions, since the battle-advantage of being able to execute such difficult maneuvers in midair was very clear to them! If they were able to fly like Cheng Ying, they would be able to live much more freely in the jungle.

With the applause they sent up from time to time, the little friend’s hands had been clapped red, and every little face had turned rosy. The only one distracted was Li Duhong, since not only had he already seen such flight, he’d actually experienced it at Cheng Ying’s chest. Looking down on his excited companions, his mouth twitched, and his dark eyes were flitting about, as though he were paying attention to some unknown ghost.

“Teacher is awesome!”

“Teacher, Can I fly like you some day?” . . .

When Cheng Ying landed, her little friends all clamored to outdo one another.

Cheng Ying patiently smiled toward the little friends to say, “One day everyone can study a special flight curriculum. If you are all diligent then you can certainly all fly.”

“Our teacher is really awesome! Livelier than the poison bat!”

“Oh yeah! Teacher, teacher, is it hard to fly the way you just did?”

Cheng Ying laughed a little, “Not so difficult! The maneuver I just did is in the flight lessons, with a difficulty of only forty-five.”

“Teacher, how hard is forty-five?” All their hands were being raised like a little forest.

“That’s a very low level of difficulty.” Cheng Ying felt very fond of those children, as she crouched down to patiently explain, “You should know that Mr. Chen could achieve a score of eighty in close-range dodging and evading exercises where the level of difficulty was eighty.”

“Wow! Awesome!” All of the little friends looked stunned. Even Li Dugongs eyes lit up, which had been so tepid all along.

The villagers all looked at each other, having heard the frightening news that Cheng Ying had so inadvertently revealed. That move of Cheng Ying just then was only forty-five, so what would a maneuver that had a degree of difficulty of eighty look like? And what did it mean to get eighty points in those circumstances?

They really didn’t know how high that degree of difficulty was, though they felt that it must be quite high. Al the villagers were feeling that Mr. Chen was basically an ace!

Cheng Ying’s moves had also drawn the attention of the little friends who were just then studying in front of Bo Wen, when one of them suddenly raised his hand to get Bo Wen’s attention.

Bo Wen asked, “What’s your question?”

The little friend asked with a face full of curiosity, “Teacher, instructor Cheng was talking about some kind of training with a difficulty of eighty. How many points can you get, teacher?”

Bo Wen’s face quickly darkened.

* * *

Chen Mu was so tired he was about to lay down, as there wasn’t any card making equipment there. While he had restored Cheng Ying’s card under very primitive conditions, that didn’t mean that he could just make cards at will under such conditions. It was a good thing that the metallurgy was extremely well-developed there, and that Alfonso was the village’s most accomplished specialist. Chen Mu was always demonstrating with gestures to Alfonso, wanting to get him to make some simple equipment. He finally made Alfonso understand that even such simple equipment was beyond Chen Mu’s power.

The two of them had pulled an all-nighter the night before and were beyond exhausted.

There was sudden knocking on the door at dawn, and someone could be heard yelling outside, “Mr. Chen, we’ve delivered the materials you asked for!”

“Coming”

Chen Mu responded and then groggily got up, still in a confused state. He walked over to open the door and forced open his sleepy eyes.

He looked outside in his daze and was struck dumb, as all his sleepiness vanished at once.