The Card Apprentice

Bu Qiangdong was glad to hear that. He admired Chen Mu’s power to the point of adulation, never believing there was anything the boss couldn’t do. He had only been afraid the boss wouldn’t want to do it, in which case there would be nothing he could do. He knew how important the opportunity was for Heaven’s Wings. Provided they succeeded this time, Heaven’s Wings’ reputation would rise to unprecedented levels.

When the time came, never mind Pomelo; they would also get a reputation in the entire Ming Zheng District. It was not easy for a fantasy card advertising company that wanted to achieve that, and even the biggest fantasy card advertising firm in Pomelo, Easy Sailing, wouldn’t have any way to accomplish such heights.

After closing his apparatus, Chen Mu turned around to Lu Xiaoru and said, “Tell me about the Central Island Firm.”

Lu Xiaoru considered that for a while before saying, “The Central Island Firm was founded by the current director-general, Ren Wenzhou, when he was 20. Right now, it is the most powerful firm among the powers in Pomelo. Ren Wenzhou has deep local roots. His father, Ren Wensheng, was the chief of the garrison for decades, which was very prestigious. I don’t understand much about the firm, but I do know they are powerful. They have lots of labs, and for these past few years, Ren Wenzhou has invested quite a lot in them. They seem to be doing some important experiments.”

Chen Mu then became interested. “Oh, so how did you find that out?”

“Actually, the Central Island Firm has been getting consistent results these past few years, though they have yet to develop any very successful products. There was one time recently when I ran into that old pervert Farley, the head card master. He was very excited at the time and told me he had made a breakthrough that would mean everything to the firm very soon. I didn’t really believe it at the time since what that old ghost said was always pretty watery. Besides, wherever the foundation of the firm was, how could everything be turned over in Central Island?”

Lu Xiaoru continued talking slowly as she reminisced.

“And afterward?”

“I never ran into that old goat Farley after that, although I did run into Boss Qian a few times. Oh yeah, that would be Qian Mingyi, the competent confidante of the director-general who has been at his side for dozens of years already. We normally communicate with Boss Qian and are more familiar with him. During that time, Boss Qian’s mood wasn’t so good. I felt he was under a lot of pressure. There were lots of rumors within the company then, and everyone was rather restless.”

Chen Mu immediately perked up. “What kinds of rumors?”

No matter how you looked at him, Chen Mu didn’t seem like a gossip. Lu Xiaoru gave him a surprised look, though she continued on. “It seemed there was some large firm getting ready to acquire Central Island, and it was said to be among the handful of federation powers. So, the people in the firm were all anxious. But, since it didn’t have a lot to do with me, I didn’t pay much attention to such issues.”

Chen Mu nodded in understanding; it really didn’t have so much to do with Lu Xiaoru and her people. There wasn’t any power that wouldn’t enthusiastically court such an exceptional card artisan as Lu Xiaoru.

Lu Xiaoru went on with her hands spread out. “We got our orders after that. The firm issued each of us a signal ball, saying the signal had been originated in the northwest district of Pomelo. Our job was to find the one sending the signals and all of his related equipment.” She looked at Chen Mu cautiously and then said a little timidly, “Boss Qian said we could cause injury but to keep him alive and not to leave anything behind.”

Chen Mu went quiet, and his expression was unchanged. In his heart, however, his anger was brewing like a storm. Even though Qian Mingyi’s demands weren’t much different from what he had thought, he still felt angry. Maybe he was nothing more than an ordinary person, but he still didn’t think his fate and his life could be so casually messed with like that.

He still didn’t quite realize how much he had changed from before.

He took in a deep breath and repressed the anger arising from his heart. He restored his calm. The Central Island Firm was a long way from anything he could resist. But, still…

Chen Mu was clenching his fist unconsciously, and his gaze went suddenly deep.

His gaze startled Lu Xiaoru, and she somewhat regretted adding that last phrase. It wouldn’t be good for her to enrage her counterpart.

But, beyond what she expected, Chen Mu didn’t get furious with her. He instead coolly and calmly waved his hand. “Ok, I need to get to work.” Catching Chen Mu’s dark and calm gaze, Lu Xiaoru’s heart went cold. That youth in front of her was only about 17 or 18, but for him to have developed the ability to control his emotions to that extent, without any sign of the impetuosity of youth, and to be so seasoned and mature, she was afraid he would have limitless achievements later on. Thinking more about how young he was, with his perceptual strength right up to hers, she became more and more certain of her surmise.

Chen Mu didn’t have as much conjecture to his thinking as Lu Xiaoru. He knew what could be called reality from his life since he was small. He was clear that whatever he might encounter now, it would only be one part of what was real. He was just as clear that there was always another side to reality, but if you wanted to push reality over to its other side, you would need power.

The work Chen Mu was talking about was to study the sound beam card. That alternative card had greatly expanded his horizons and had taught him quite a few things.

Watching Chen Mu study her own card, there was nothing Lu Xiaoru could do about it. Ordinary card artisans would practice some fisticuffs and the like, but no one took it very seriously. Lu Xiaoru was the same; once she didn’t have her apparatus, even as a card artisan she wasn’t any different from an ordinary person. Lu Xiaoru didn’t expect her bit of fisticuffs could lead to anything good in front of those two. In particular, after she’d seen Wei-ah casually break the dense pomelo wood chair into pieces single-handedly, she was even more confirmed in that thought.

She was also curious about what sorts of fancy tricks Chen Mu could research out from that card. After she’d acquired the sound beam card, she’d been assiduously buffing her usage, but what she’d achieved was quite limited. What she could do by then was still only a few of the most basic moves.

Although the sound beam card wouldn’t be considered the most alternative card Chen Mu had ever seen, it was still rather unique. The card probably had some years on it, and from the feel of it, he could tell it certainly hadn’t experienced only a single owner. The Sound Beam was a three-star card, and the main body of the card was made from the tanned bark of mine thorn branches. It had a rough feel. The mine thorns were common gray shrubs that could be seen most anywhere, but they were especially dense above mine veins. That was how they got their name. Previously, they had been an important sign for prospectors to determine whether there were mine veins underground.

Of course, prospecting methods were more advanced now, and very few people would be likely to pay attention to them anymore.

When Chen Mu had determined the main body of the sound beam card was made from the tanned bark of mine thorns, he had been rather surprised. What surprised him wasn’t that the mine thorn was a common kind of plant, but rather that the mine thorn had a peculiar characteristic. Although there was an introduction to the mine thorn in the Illustrated Handbook of Materials, there really weren’t many people who would use mine thorn to make cards. Since the mine thorn often grew on mine veins, the mine thorns from different veins would have subtle differences. That was the basic reason card masters would seldom use it.

Although the differences were subtle, in the field of fastidious and precise card making, they showed too many variables. And, he had no way to speculate on the ingredients of the ink used to draw the composition.

Chen Mu didn’t plan to try copying the Sound Beam. If he wanted to copy that kind of peculiar card, it would be difficult. The hardest part about it would be to identify the ingredients of the ink. Although there were devices that could perform component analysis, the analysis could cause a certain degree of damage to the material the card was made from. The most sophisticated part of a card was the pattern on its surface; if that was damaged at all, then the card would likely be destroyed. And, if you wanted to know its composition or any of its specific ratios, that would cause injury to the brain!

Most card masters would first analyze the principles of any novel card they encountered. Then, they would analyze its composition, and then its materials, to speculate about their possible proportions before finally experimenting. But, once they encountered truly high-grade cards, that method was no longer feasible. For example, why were there no copies of the star card in the hands of the Star Academy president that had come from Heiner Van Sant? On the one hand, it was true that its principles were abstruse and mysterious, while on the other, the materials were hard to get. Never mind experimenting; even if Heiner Van Sant were still alive and wanted to make a second star card, he would also be facing a situation where there wouldn’t be any rice to put in the wok.

The Sound Beam’s principles presented no difficulty for Chen Mu. With the help of the Token Theory, he’d quickly discerned the pattern within its tangled swirls. The card master who’d made the sound beam card had rather peculiar notions. To want to produce power from sound waves would require the consumption of way too much energy. Moreover, while the power wouldn’t be sufficient, the attacks might not distinguish between the enemy and oneself. That card master had also had the idea to compress the sonic waves.

There were two reeds formed from energy that were lightly strummed with perception to induce a high-frequency vibration, which would then produce a rather powerful sound wave. The resulting tone would then enter an energy pipeline. That energy pipeline was composed of two layers of energy piping with a vacuum between the pipe walls. That would effectively prevent the sound waves from diffusing in other directions.

The sound waves would be compressed and strengthened within the energy pipeline, increasing their power many times over. In that way, it would greatly reduce the energy losses while increasing the power of the energy waves. What was most amazing to Chen Mu was that the energy pipeline formed by the sound beam card was only 20 centimeters long. But, it’s flight speed was exactly the same speed as the sonic wave. While the sound waves were on their way to reaching the enemy, they were constantly colliding and compressing within the pipe walls, which would prevent the sound waves from losing their power because of dissipation before hitting the enemy.

What a brilliant idea!