The Card Apprentice

The battle was beginning to wind down, and there were only a few sporadic card artisans left in the air. The rest of the people had been either killed or injured in the fierce battle. There was blood flowing from the corner of Machida’s mouth. His face was pallid, and he looked monstrous. The chief uncle’s face had turned dark, and his right hand was slightly trembling. Kai’s situation had fortunately gotten that far. He glared with big, round eyes yet appeared deeply fatigued. By comparison, Hugo was doing a lot better. Although his clothes had been long since destroyed, both his expression and his complexion were a lot better. What Chen Mu admired was his gaze, which had remained calm after having gone through such a long battle. He was really tough.

There were only seven or eight remaining from that heap of card artisans with Howie. The other two card artisans who’d joined together to cruise around their perimeter had brought them a great deal of destruction. Their experience was rather shallow in the end, always looking left and missing what was on the right or looking ahead and missing what was behind them. They took heavy losses in one brief moment. Howie’s expression was aggrieved, but there was nothing more he could have done. If he were in perfect condition, he would have been able to fix those two card artisans by himself. But, as it was, he was not only physically exhausted, but there was nothing left of his perception.

The long-distance viewing apparatus captured it all very clearly. Chen Mu could see their every motion, even including the slightest expression on their faces. He mostly marveled at the screen that popped out from the long-distance viewing apparatus; it was not much larger than a fingernail and was in precisely the most comfortable position in front of his eyes. Not only could he see clearly, but it wasn’t tiring to have it on for a long time.

Chen Mu had relished seeing the battle among those ace card artisans. Every one of them a unique characteristic, such as the guy with the pallid face wearing the black windbreaker. The wavy blade card he’d used was quite special; the wavy blades were not moon shaped, but they were shaped like butterflies. Their trajectories were unpredictable. The middle-aged man he’d been fighting with had been using a superb ultimate blue snake line card, which was untold times more magnificent than the card artisan Chen Mu had encountered that year. He had been using the same kind of ultimate blue snake line card. Chen Mu could tell the middle-aged man had certainly done a considerable degree of optimization with the energy composition of the card. Otherwise, the ultimate blue snake line card’s power would surely have not had any way to reach such a place as it had.

The firefight between the other two had been more intense. The thinnest of the light rods the masked man had emitted were as thick as an arm, and the thickest were like a column of light. They also had explosive properties. There were several kinds of cards that could emit such energy bodies, but the one most consistent with those characteristics was probably the aurora beam card. The energy bomb used by Kai didn’t seem to have anything strange about it, though its power was rather stunning.

Cards that emitted energy bombs weren’t so popular among card artisans. Although they had a lot of power, they were a lot less accurate than ordinary cards. Among aces, where opportunities were fleeting, you might only have one chance in a battle to make a move. They preferred to use some cards with higher accuracy.

But, Kai could actually use the energy bombs to create a sense of oppression. His rate of firing was really fast. When the energy bombs were falling like rain, they could blanket an area and greatly make up for the disadvantage with their accuracy. They weren’t very complicated things to speak of, but their firing frequency was about two or three times more than an ordinary card artisan’s. Such shocking numbers meant during a similar amount of time, they could outmaneuver ordinary card artisans two to one.

That sort of energy bomb card was different from ordinary energy bomb cards. It was made specifically to accompany his kind of tactics where it could quickly send off attacks in an extremely short amount of time. For Kai, it was an oppressive style of play to take the initiative and to create opportunities.

And, every time Machida made a move, it was hard to predict. The chief uncle was shrewd, and Hugo had an easy calm. Everyone’s style was completely different, though they all had some things in common, such as the way they moved, which was extremely well worked out. Or, when they used the jet stream card to make the heart race and the spirit rock. Every time they had the chance to make a move, it was extremely clever and always when the adversary was at the biggest disadvantage. When they dodged, they would never use any tactic that was too complicated, but always the simplest and the most basic moves. They were untold times faster than the so-called standards.

For a novice like Chen Mu, such a battle was a rare learning opportunity. The last time he saw the battle between Su Wei, one of the Gemini Twins from the Desert Camp, and the Moon Frost Island’s female card artisan, it may have been a more brilliant battle with a higher level of ability. But, as far as Chen Mu was concerned, it still couldn’t approach the current battle for deepening his insights.

His strength wasn’t sufficient yet to allow him to appreciate such high-level battles. While the one just then wasn’t up to the level of those two, Chen Mu was still being enlightened. Their positions, for example, were always likely to have something new when compared to his own thinking. But, when Chen Mu had seen those other two before, there was simply no way to trace their movements. They completely contravened common sense, and it was difficult for him to resonate with them.

Wei-ah seemed to understand Chen Mu’s thinking, though he didn’t say anything. He suddenly noticed the bar-browed man seemed to be showing some signs of life. Wei-ah rudely stepped on his back, making the pitiful bar-browed man stiffen before sinking back into his helpless paralysis.

Chen Mu wasn’t paying any attention to what Wei-ah was doing. Instead, he was paying rapt attention to what he watched, afraid to miss a single detail.

The battle had finally reached its critical moments; the masked man suddenly burst forth!

He leaned slightly forward and traced a circle with his arms in front of his chest. His whole person was like a cannon, while the circle traced by his arms was like the barrel.

Suddenly, the energy fluctuations rose powerfully, and Chen Mu could feel them clearly even as he watched the battle from afar. All of the card artisans in the sky suddenly stopped in the midst of their fierce battling, and the expressions on Machida’s and the chief uncle’s faces changed. The two of them scurried to separate and escape as soon as it started.

Howie was looking at Hugo in terror, his heart aghast. The ugly man wearing the mask actually had the power to create such a terrifying situation! Feeling such a bout of fundamental energy fluctuations, his heart raced and pounded. All the card artisans around him were ashen-faced. Some of them were trembling, and even those two who were cruising around their perimeter stopped what they were doing and looked at their leader in awe.

Kai’s expression changed! He hadn’t thought his adversary would have any room to maneuver by that time. He immediately realized the gap between their power.

He couldn’t get away; he was firmly locked in by his adversary. Although Kai was frightened, he didn’t fall apart. He might as well not have bothered to defend himself since it wouldn’t be much use by that time. There was just about nothing he could do. He summoned up all his remaining perception. All of the energy in his energy card then went through the card with stunning speed and formed in his hand.

Another eye-catching energy bomb took shape.

There was another powerful energy fluctuation in the air, and all of the card artisans then understood Kai would lose! There was an obvious difference in the strength of the two energy fluctuations. The energy fluctuations disseminated by Hugo were seemingly substantial and completely oppressive. They could already smell the spent quality of Kai’s energy fluctuations, even though they were powerful as well.

His adversary fighting desperately like a cornered beast didn’t touch Hugo’s expression at all, and his silvery mask was suffused in a dim cold with his desolate eyes devoid of any feeling.

“Scatter!” He spat out the word lightly, and his normally piercing voice was full of a desolate awe.

Everything between Heaven and Earth was alight!

Chen Mu only sensed everything in front of him going white, and the fierce, eye-piercing beam of light made it so he couldn’t see a thing. He closed his eyes unconsciously because of his body’s automatic protective response.

His eyes only returned to normal after a full ten seconds. Chen Mu sneered involuntarily when he saw there wasn’t anyone battling in the air. The long-distance viewing apparatus worked well, but it also increased the stimulation to Chen Mu’s eyes far beyond what he would have felt without them. He hadn’t been blinded when the eye-piercing light had been emitted in front of his eyes, which was pretty lucky.

Chen Mu helplessly warned himself he would certainly have to learn his lesson for next time. He had missed the most brilliant part. He was very curious about what kind of attack the masked man had finally set off.

His gaze returned to Wei-ah with an inquisitive expression, which Wei-ah certainly saw. However, Wei-ah didn’t hold his gaze but pointed at the bar-browed man on the floor.

“He was secretly watching you.”

Chen Mu felt a sudden chill. His gaze immediately turned to the bar-browed man. Why did that guy want to secretly watch him? And, why would he brave such huge dangers by entering the field of battle? Chen Mu suddenly looked all around and blurted out, “From here?”

“Mmmm.”

“Have you asked him anything?” Chen Mu’s expression had become serious. That person’s activities had an obvious purpose, which put him on alert.

“You ask.”

Wei-ah wasn’t going to waste words as he scanned all around, and his hand then went to the water glass on the table. He seemed to abruptly realize the water glass was a little too small, and he saw the fish tank placed beside it. He walked over and picked up the fishbowl, which was as big as a cabinet, and walked over to where the bar-browed man was.

Chen Mu couldn’t bear to watch as Wei-ah turned the fish tank over onto the bar-browed man.

The temperature was already quite cold in the room, and the water in the fish tank was piercingly colder. Under the stress, the bar browed man immediately shivered. His legs twitched like a pair of scalded frog’s legs.

Seven or eight plump goldfish were flopping around desperately on the man’s chest, and he looked like a drowned chicken.

His face was frozen blue as he was shivering and trying to stand. The fish all fell to the floor and jumped on the backs of his legs as his fat butt kept twisting.

He was looking at Wei-ah in alarm, and Chen Mu could even hear the sound of his teeth chattering. Swallowing hard, Chen Mu seemed to feel a little cold himself. He had been treated like that at the beginning himself. There was a time when Wei-ah thought Chen Mu was dragging out his recovery time from practice, and he just threw him straight into the pool. Fortunately, the water in the pool was quite a bit warmer.

Watching the scene, Chen Mu secretly swore he would never raise goldfish indoors for the rest of his life.

Although he was scared, the bar-browed man was still expressing a pretty good degree of calm. He was looking at Wei-ah and waiting for what he would ask. The apparatus on his wrist had already been removed by his counterpart, and even if he’d had one, he didn’t think he’d have any chance. His adversary’s strength was too much greater than his, and to attempt any kind of overreaching in that situation would have been extremely stupid.

Chen Mu rather admired the bar-browed man, thinking he wouldn’t have been able to demonstrate such seasoned calm in the same situation.

Looking at Wei-ah’s expression, Chen Mu understood the job of questioning would be his.

“Why were you secretly watching me?” Chen Mu asked. To tell the truth, he did find it strange. He didn’t feel he had anything about him to draw anyone’s attention, but his counterpart had specifically watched him in secret. His first thought was that he’d been sent by Mose, but he didn’t think that was likely. Chen Mu’s response the last time had clearly demonstrated where he stood. If Mose had sent someone to cause trouble even after understanding the situation with his power, that would be incurably stupid. From his first look at Mose that day, he didn’t think he was that kind of person.

The bar-browed man wasn’t saying anything. Judging from his expression, he seemed to be struggling.

Wei-ah raised his eyelids and gave him a look. The look of his was full of meaning and immediately tipped the balance the bar-browed man been struggling with in a decisive direction.

“I’d like to know what sect you belong to.”

“Sect?” Chen Mu didn’t respond right away. That ancient term, sect, was seldom brought up anymore, especially with someone like Chen Mu, who’d never been through any systematic education. The only thing he knew about such things was mostly from a few isolated comments. His understanding about sects was limited to knowing something about the age of schools and what the Night of the Cross mentioned in the mysterious card. That’s all he knew. He had never thought he would actually be associated with any school or sect.

“You give me a very familiar impression.” The bar-browed man took a look at Chen Mu and added, “The first time we entered the building, your method of concealment felt familiar.”

The bar-browed man looked calm and not as though he were lying.

Chen Mu couldn’t help but think back on the details of the situation the day of the sneak attack when he had injured one of them. The method of concealment he’d used was the bogus borderline breath control he’d invented himself. How could it be related to a sect?

Wait a minute! Sect? Chen Mu suddenly remembered. Didn’t the breath control method come from something called the Night of the Cross? Could that be it? The more he thought about it, the more Chen Mu thought that was possible. His own bogus borderline breath control had originated with the Night of the Cross method of breath control. But, there were only one or two references to the Night of the Cross in the mysterious card, and Chen Mu really couldn’t get any substantial understanding about the sect from those.

Calmly watching the change in Chen Mu’s expression, the bar browed man became still more certain.