The Card Apprentice

Lu Xiaoru slowly walked out of the flames looking pretty bad with her whole body showing burns. The destroyed red evening gown had long since turned to ash, though she didn’t care about any of that as she walked out of the flames completely naked.

Her face was distorted as she ground her teeth and looked at the orange energy cloak.

“You damned jerk, to make me so miserable! This time I’ll be giving you a taste of what it means when living is worse than dying!”

Her voice was full of hatred and satisfaction. But, the energy cloak surrounding her body had reached its limit, and it dissolved into the air with a pop.

Then, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and lightly choked her.

“Don’t move.” It was a very light, calm voice, though with some chill to it. It sounded like it still had some of the particular tenderness of youth.

Before she could react, she felt the wrist of her right hand lighten as her apparatus was removed by the stealth attacker from behind. From the heavens all the way to hell, there would be no way to describe what Lu Xiaoru was feeling just then. Her adversary’s motions were practiced and his thinking deliberate, making him quite a difficult character to deal with.

Was it him? Lu Xiaoru’s heart sank. Could the person behind her be the card artisan assassin? But, then who had she attacked? Her gaze fell onto the orange energy cloak when her expression suddenly faded away.

In the dark, the orange energy cloak was very conspicuous. How would a card artisan assassin use such a thing? Why hadn’t she realized that?

Biting her lip, it was too late for Lu Xaioru to fret, and she quickly considered how to free herself. There wasn’t a thread on her. Her adversary was pasted up against her, which was a dubious action, like a bold act between lovers.

Lu Xiaoru gave a little laugh as her stiff body when soft, and she stuck out her smooth butt. She was testing. She’d experienced lots of men, and she’d just heard clearly that the one behind her was a man—a very young man at that.

Wouldn’t a man feel desire, and a youth full of sap still more so?

Chen Mu furrowed his brow with his prior lesson still vividly in mind. This isn’t an honest woman! He groaned as his left hand formed into a fist, and he gave her a punch five centimeters above her tailbone. That was a move he’d learned from Wei-ah while sparring with him. Wei-ah would always be able to punch him numb. Of course, Chen Mu could never be as superb as Wei-ah, but he had some of the basics and was able to deliver a good punch.

Lu Xiaoru felt her whole body go numb. The powerful paralysis made her lose any ability to move; she couldn’t even talk or blink.

Her heart plunged. Although her adversary was young, he had some extremely powerful restraint. Added to his careful thinking, he would doubtlessly make a very tough adversary. There was already nothing she could do except to go along with it and wait for her chance.

The fear she felt wasn’t as strong as it had just been. No matter which power her counterpart belonged to, none of them had any need to kill her. There was a lot she was capable of. A card artisan with such skill as hers was a resource, and still more, she looked pretty good. To change camps was pretty much routine for her. She only had a cooperative relationship with the Central Island Firm and naturally had no loyalty. She didn’t care about sacrificing her beauty as long as she could go on living.

Although she couldn’t turn her neck, her attention was on the youth behind her. There were always some very minor things that might reveal some of her adversary’s habits and what was on his mind. She needed to understand him better. The more she understood him, the greater her chances of survival.

Chen Mu suddenly lifted his head as the card artisan in the orange energy cloak seemed about to come-to.

He made a move with his feet, and his body slid as though he were on ice over to where Butchie was. He extended the index finger of his right hand, on which a tailless shuttle was whirring at high speed. But, it never left his finger. Like a dragonfly touching the water, his index finger lightly touched the orange energy cloak.

The orange energy cloak suddenly shook violently as Chen Mu’s index finger set the tailless shuttle rhythmically tapping on the energy cloak. The movement was light and quick and the rhythm clear. The energy cloak’s shaking would go up a few notches with every tap.

Peng! After six more taps, the orange energy cloak finally couldn’t hold out, and it broke into an orange starburst.

Just then, Butchie opened her eyes.

Her strangely smelling face was stacked over layers of black folds. Even her neck was black folds. There were some red spots on the folds above her face that were like drops of blood arranged in a peculiar pattern, making her entire face look more gloomy.

The two eyes showing were calm, mild and placid.

Then, everything went black, and she lost consciousness.

Chen Mu didn’t look at Butchie’s eyes anymore after she fell since the place was so full of danger; it wouldn’t be good to linger. At the same time, Chen Mu didn’t like killing people, although he sometimes didn’t have a choice.

Just as Chen Mu was getting ready to carry Lu Xiaoru away, he suddenly felt an energy fluctuation coming from behind him.

He abruptly pushed out his feet as he slid back with his whole body. With a tap of his toe, he changed direction. He went through a few turns before arriving in front of the awakened card artisan. The changes of direction enabled him to have his back to his adversary and face directly forward.

The entire process was bewilderingly fast with each change in direction very erratic, so his adversary basically had no way to fix on him.

He made contact with the card artisan’s terrified eyes and stayed still. They were only a few meters apart. At such a close distance, perception wasn’t as good as using close combat. His body’s explosive strength could be played out to its best at such a distance, which was also Wei-ah’s favorite distance.

Although his explosive power wasn’t up to Wei-ah’s, having been trained by both Wei-ah and the demonic woman, he was as fast as lightning. The card artisan couldn’t react. When the weird, ghostly face of Chen Mu appeared in front of him, it was almost pasted to his face. He could even see every stinking red spot formed by the ghost-faced flower.

Chen Mu’s arms were as soft as two whips for a simple strangulation, locked onto his adversary’s throat. The card artisan’s head dropped with a snap. The entire motion was quick and neat.

The card artisan went down like a soft puddle of mud, and his two vacant eyes remained terrified while already devoid of life. The energy body just formed on his hand lost control and went off to the side, making a pit in the ground.

Without needing to double-check, Chen Mu knew his adversary was dead, but it didn’t give him any satisfaction. On the one hand, he didn’t actually like to kill people. On the other, if it had been Wei-ah, it would have been a lot more pretty, which is to say it would have been more efficient. He would only have to use two fingers and half the time to be able to crush the opponent’s throat.

When Wei-ah was around, no matter what had to be done, it would be hard for Chen Mu to get excited about it. If it weren’t done, then it would indicate he hadn’t done enough; if it were done, then it would only be expected.

Lu Xiaoru could see everything from her angle, and her heart was filled with terror as she watched Chen Mu with a fearful gaze. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen people die. Machida would kill people in more bloody and perverted ways, but that wasn’t enough to make her afraid. She had even stood very appreciatively watching Machida use his butterfly wavy blade to torture someone to death bit by bit.

However, this time she did feel afraid. Her adversary’s expression was just too peaceful. His emotions didn’t move before or after, as though he were doing something utterly unremarkable. She had also killed people—quite a few people—and afterward was when she would undergo the greatest psychological transformation. Some would feel fear, some would feel excitement, while others might feel some faint defiance. She had never seen anyone who could remain so peaceful.

She hadn’t thought it was related to Chen Mu’s history. From his young life as a street punk, he’d seen a lot of death. Ever since he’d been mortally pursued, he’d had still more experience of death. That was especially true in the jungle, where he faced people dying every day, until by the end there were always children dying right in front of him.

In his eyes, death had gradually become an ordinary thing.

Chen Mu didn’t realize he would subconsciously imitate Wei-ah when in battle, which included such calm indifference.

* * *

On a distant building, there was a person watching. If Chen Mu could see him, he would have been stunned to discover he was one of the three who had mounted a sneak attack—the one with the bar-brow.

“It doesn’t look like him. Could I have been wrong the last time?” He was mumbling despondently. He’d seen clearly Chen Mu’s agile attack just then without the slightest admiration. On the contrary, it seemed he’d been disappointed.

From his angle, he could see Chen Mu had picked up Lu Xiaoru and was getting ready to leave. That was from about 600 or 700 meters away; he had been watching Chen Mu’s every movement in secret.

Picking up Lu Xiaoru, Chen Mu started to leave the battlefield. From the higher vantage, Chen Mu seemed like a phantom shuttling through the shadowy corners. If he hadn’t been paying close attention all along, he would have been hard to discern. Those shadows were giving Chen Mu the best cover.

Right up until he was leaving, he hadn’t even raised his head to look at the chaotic battles in the sky.

The world he watched was tilted, and his pupils flashed a rare look of panic. When? When had that person arrived? He hadn’t found out a thing. He wanted to see what his adversary looked like, but he couldn’t because he was above, and the face was always toward the ground.

* * *

Chen Mu wasn’t interested in the battlefield, not feeling it had anything to do with him as he carried Lu Xiaoru off quietly. He’d knocked her out and dressed her in the clothes from the card artisan he had killed.

Wei-ah appeared before he went very far. To his surprise, Wei-ah was also carrying someone.

“Where did you find this guy?” Chen Mu recognized the bar-browed man in Wei-ah’s hands and couldn’t help but ask.

If he hadn’t guessed wrong, he would be from the Lewin family, probably under Mose. Could the Lewin family also be participating in the big battle? He found it strange that Wei-ah had brought him back. Given Wei-ah’s temperament, he would seldom be so concerned about anyone. Or, he would want to directly kill his adversary to resolve some issue, not knock him out to bring him back with him.

Wei-ah didn’t waste any words and said directly, “Come with me.” He then led the way.

They were still within the scope of the battlefield, and the two of them were both carrying a person. If they had been discovered and drawn into the melee, it wouldn’t have been pretty. Chen Mu immediately closed with Wei-ah.

Chen Mu may have been bizarre and erratic before, but Wei-ah’s advance seemed fierce and full of the explosive power of a cheetah. While each pace wasn’t big, every one of them seemed like an explosion from his feet. The whole person was like a shooting artillery shell with a very powerful impact.

Chen Mu had to use all of his strength to keep up with Wei-ah. Probably only someone as freakish as Wei-ah would have been able to get that far on pure physical power alone. Although speed wasn’t the strong suit of the big mud fish card, it was a jet stream card after all, and Chen Mu knew Wei-ah wasn’t even using his full power.

Carrying a person, Wei-ah didn’t need to use any tools as he very easily climbed 22 floors with his bare hands. Even though Chen Mu had a jet stream card, he still felt rather taxed.

“Here.” Wei-ah used words like gold and tossed the bar-browed man to the ground as though he were throwing something away that wasn’t a person.

As compared to Wei-ah’s savagery, Chen Mu was a lot more civilized. He knew what he carried was fragile and needed to be picked up and put down lightly.

Checking things out all around, Chen Mu asked with curiosity, “How did you find this place?” You could see the entire battle field from there, but it seemed relatively safe. And, with the one-way glass, you could see outside with no way to see in. Unless you had really lousy luck—like that masked man with the light beam hitting the building—the damage from ordinary energy attacks would be very limited.

There were also a lot of things for spying in the room, such as a long-distance viewing apparatus. It was an instrument that used a special card to observe things from a long way off. Since its fluctuations were very small, it would be difficult to discover.

But, that little toy had a steep price. The army did have it, but military material was strictly controlled. If an ordinary person wanted to get one, it wouldn’t be easy.

Chen Mu was very interested to open up the long-distance viewing apparatus, it being his first time to see the real thing. It took very little skill—not very much different from ordinary glasses. After putting them on, you could see things very far away quite clearly. He quickly grew to like that thing. It was really just too convenient.

Wearing the long-distance viewing apparatus, Chen Mu threw his gaze to the battlefield. Once he saw it, he immediately drew a deep breath.