The Card Apprentice

“Has the Fifth Unit prepared?” Elder Bafu asked in a cold voice. There was nothing of his normal jolliness in his face this time.

“We are ready!” Colin responded loudly.

The Fifth Unit was strong! That was Chen Mu’s conclusion upon inspecting them. There were 200 soldiers carrying the Blue Moon Gun to protect them, as well as eight of the small-scale cluster cannons. It must be known that there were 800 of the Blue Moon Guns altogether, and only 40 of the small-scale cluster cannons. But when he saw the unit assembled, he finally understood why the village had put such importance on it. Nearly the entire unit was composed of children and youth. And it numbered well over 1,000 people, with upwards to 3,000!

In a village where the difficulties of childbirth meant a low survival rate for babies, children and youth were the most precious resources and the hope of the Moqi line of descent. The village therefore provided the unit with about a quarter of its battle power. Chen Mu noticed that among the adults protecting them were Kitt and Alfonso. Kitt gave a mild smile upon seeing Chen Mu, though Chen Mu still noticed that thread of deep concern in his eyes.

If one were to say what surprised Chen Mu the most, it would be seeing Wei-ah. That taciturn fellow who almost never departed from the clan elder’s side actually showed up in the unit!

Wei-ah had certainly been sent by the clan elder, though who could be so important for the clan elder to make such a determination? Chen Mu swept his gaze over Kitt, who might have been the one! Kitt had a very special position in the village, although Chen Mu still wasn’t clear about what he really did. Still, he had discovered that no matter if it were the clan elder or any other elder, or those like Afonso, they were all very courteous and respectful toward Kitt.

Or was it the little devil? Chen Mu’s gaze fell upon Li Duhong, feeling that to be quite possible. The little devil’s relationship with the clan elder was extraordinary, which was already evident when they first entered the village. Li Duhong must have been the child of the clan elder, though Chen Mu had never gotten such information through the daily channels and had no way to prove his conjecture.

The appearance of Wei-ah calmed the children quite a bit. It looked like the person who was considered the top ace of the village had a truly majestic position in the eyes of the children. Chen Mu often saw their looks of fervent admiration watching Wei-ah’s back. Kitt’s luster had been nearly stolen by that taciturn guy in comparison.

What Chen Mu didn’t notice were the gazes of the children toward him, which were still more fanatical!

Chen Mu, Kitt and Alfonso were walking together. Chen Mu had long since stopped feeling himself a child. No one around him treated him that way even though his age wasn’t more than two or three years beyond those youths.

“What about Bo Wen and Cheng Ying?” Chen Mu asked of his two companions who hadn’t deployed in the same division with them.

Kitt smiled and said, “Bo Wen and Cheng Ying have already set off in the Third Unit. If our luck holds, we might come across them.” He had already silently concealed his worry, and with his placid, distinguished face, he had calmed the unwitting youths all around him. Before Chen Mu had arrived, Kitt was the most learned public figure in the village, though Chen Mu occupied that position after he got there. But the villagers were still full of admiration for that non-worldly, quiet, and sophisticated young man.

In truth, many people considered Bo Wen and Kitt to be the most gifted young men.

There was an animal that was the so-called beast of burden for riding in the village. The body was huge at nearly two meters and had four stout powerful legs, but it still had a mild disposition. There were limited numbers of that beast of burden, which had all been used for packing supplies. All the people had to walk.

Colin was the top commander of the division, though expectations of Wei-ah, like Chen Mu, weren’t much lower than for him. Kitt had never been able to command Wei-ah. Wei-ah had never communicated with any of the others, only remaining silent among the unit.

Seeing the expressions among the blank and terrified youth in the unit, Kitt said with regret, “Among them are quite a few who will become qualified soldiers after another couple of years.”

Chen Mu was silent looking at those youths holding the metallic weapons. Each of them looked young and tender, with their fingers turning white from their powerful grip on the weapons, showing how nervous they felt. His students were within the unit, all very intent on protecting their partners.

“The Moqi line has always been plagued with misfortunes,” Kitt said with a calm expression that made Chen Mu feel somewhat astonished.

“The reason for our ancestors entering the jungle that year is no longer known in detail, but it’s easy to imagine that it wasn’t anything good.” Kitt’s tone was as calm as ever, although it was quite a bit louder. “And the disasters faced by our Moqi clan line have been never-ending since entering the jungle. This catastrophe of the gummy cloud layer is the second time. That year was the height of the Moqi line, with our population having reached 30 million! In the history of the clan, such catastrophes have never stopped. Disasters involving wild beasts have been recorded in the clan’s history where the 500,000 of the remaining Moqi line was reduced by a steep decline to half. There were only somewhat over 200,000 remaining. Snowstorms and floods along the way reduced the clan population even further to only 100,000.”

The youth all around raised their heads one by one, turning their gazes, all of which were aggrieved and low, towards Kitt.

Kitt looked around and saw the gazes of the youth directly when his tone became abruptly impassioned. “And so, we Moqi line have never yielded! To enter the jungle from the outside, our ancestors battled with innumerable beasts! We survived! During the first gummy cloud layer disaster, under conditions of heavy casualties, our ancestors toughed it out to complete the migration! And once again, we survived! Blizzards and floods have caused a lot of harm to our Moqi line, but they still have not defeated us! We’re still alive! Proudly alive!”

The gazes of the people all around, whether soldiers or youth, turned hot with passion. Many of their faces were red, as their breath came course and heavy.

Scanning the crowd slowly, each of the soldiers and youths who had been touched by Kitt were unwittingly standing high with chests puffed.

“Today, we once again encounter danger! But I am confident that our Moqi line will certainly survive!” Kitt’s voice had become hoarse, and the gazes of the Moqi clan showed nothing of loss or terror; their eyes were full of steady resolve.

Watching Kitt, Chen Mu’s heart was filled with admiration. What was a leader? Kitt was providing the best rendition! Some were natural leaders after all, and Kitt was surely among those.

Chen Mu asked himself whether he would have done that, but it didn’t obstruct his admiration of Kitt. Only Wei-ah had no response within the unit, betraying no response with his body. Chen Mu sometimes couldn’t help but wonder whether that guy could also practice breath control and enter into the state at will. That crazy thought flashed through his brain.

The martial spirit of the division was at its peak, and it seemed like an entirely different troop from just before; its forward speed stepped up a few notches.

Markers could be seen left behind along the way by the advance unit, which calmed everyone quite a bit.

In the jungle, where no air could penetrate, no one really knew where the danger lay. No one dared to be careless, even though they were still within the range of their daily activities.

By the ninth day, they had already left the area of their daily activity. They would see some freshly erected gravestones along the way from time to time, and even though they had no names on them, they would fill everyone with grief. That also made Colin and the rest feel like they were confronting a mortal enemy, not daring to loosen up in the least. The soldiers protecting the unit had gotten their orders prior to departure.

That unit was the future of the village. Under such immense pressure, each of the soldiers was in a high state of anxiety, as though walking on thin ice second by second.

But, Chen Mu was extremely unperturbed. As compared with the time when he had set off into the jungle together with Bo Wen and Cheng Ying—just the three of them—such a large-scale mobilization felt an awful lot safer. He rather enjoyed chatting with Kitt, who turned out to have broad knowledge, yet was quite tolerant about knowledge and thoughts he didn’t understand.

Alfonso remained bottled up to the side, appearing as though he would never open his mouth. The two of them were chatting very leisurely with Chen Mu talking about matters regarding the Heavenly Federation and Kitt talking about some of the myths of the Moqi line. For such a truly fanatic technophile like Alfonso, nothing apart from the technology was other than boring and uninteresting.

By the fifteenth day, even Chen Mu and Kitt had gone silent, needing to conserve their energy. But only Kitt continually insisted, though Chen Mu’s strength wasn’t as weak as he appeared.

The signs that they saw along the way kept decreasing until the twentieth day, when they had lost all contact with the advance division.

They weren’t able to find a single marker!

The unrest spread through the entire unit, with quite a bit of difference between the psychology of the youths and the soldiers.

Still, the unrest pervaded the soldiers just the same. Colin had already kept up his steadfast expression through several days, which had made the atmosphere still more stifling.

The disaster didn’t stop there. They had no way to retreat! During that time the puffs falling from the gummy cloud were coming much more densely than before, and so to retreat at that time would only be a road to death. The thing that worried them even more was whether the division behind them could even survive such dense gummy cloud puffs.