The Card Apprentice

“Of course, your older brother will do his utmost to cover for you. But, as a person with a conscience, I have to say it’s only a matter of time before people find you. Standing in front of the god of hell is easy compared to dealing with the smaller devils. The Big Six are like tall trees that catch all the wind, and they have to be scrupulous about their names. They also have enough bargaining chips to draw in my young brother. The scariest are those who operate in the dark. They will do anything to achieve their goals and are ruthlessly hot and hard to deal with. My boy had better be prepared.

“I’ve heard you have an ace by your side. That’s good. With just one person, though, it would still be easy to slip up. My young brother may wish to invite a few more. There’s no need for them to be too high-grade. On the one hand, you would put up a front to save a lot of trouble. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just useful to have more people. Your older brother has quite a few under him, but not because I’m mean—because they relax me.” The fatty had a solemn expression.

Chen Mu’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t know if the ace the fatty was talking about was Wei-ah or Lu Xiaoru. No matter whom, the fatty hadn’t informed him just to surprise him. He could hear there wasn’t any hostility in what he’d said, but he was rather saying it for his sake.

The fatty smiled until his chubby, rolling face showed how sincere he was. “Ha ha, to tell the truth, I’m being selfish. The longer it takes for my young brother to be discovered, and the later he becomes famous, the better it is for me.” He laughed. “If you were to do as I say, then my young brother would never have a name. That would be the best. Then again, someone as golden as my young brother would shine anywhere sooner or later!”

After talking, he patted Chen Mu on the shoulder. “Just keep this talk from your old brother in mind.” He then accompanied Xi Ping to go look at the rest of the tests on the folding Yanbo card. Pearson was left alone in the corner with a puzzled frown.

After a month, the folding Yanbo card would be sold at auction for the first time. That would undoubtedly be an auction of unprecedented scale. They were all worrying about whom to send the invitations to. Before that, they would have to completely seal off any news about the folding Yanbo card.

The fatty couldn’t wait for Chen Mu to be able to make a few hundred folding Yanbo cards, but that was only a beautiful wish. In reality, Chen Mu didn’t have a way to make even the third folding Yanbo card. He had already used up one of the critical ingredients: the rabbit hair crystal.

The rabbit hair crystal was a red crystalline ore, and inside of its crystal-clear body were a large quantity of filament-like objects, like rabbit hair, only more brightly colored. In the eyes of ordinary people, they would be a kind of commonly seen material.

But the rabbit hair crystal that was needed to make the folding Yanbo card had strange requirements.

The rabbit hair in the crystal had to be a silvery-gray. The ordinary rabbit hair crystal was red, and the rabbit hairs inside it were a deeper, flame-like red. The better the grade, the redder the rabbit hair crystal. A top-quality rabbit hair crystal looked as though the hairs were steeped in blood, dazzlingly beautiful.

However, it was clearly stated in the mysterious card that you certainly needed the rabbit hair to be silvery-gray in the rabbit hair crystal. Among their batch of rabbit hair crystals, there were only two pieces that met the requirements.

Chen Mu really wanted to try and see what kind of results he would get if he were to use those bright red rabbit hair crystals to make the folding Yanbo card. But those materials were really too expensive. Even tossing out the rabbit hair crystal, the price of the other materials was still so high Chen Mu had only gotten to the point of looking up at them with longing. He still hadn’t become so ostentatious as to use that much money just to experiment.

He had already gotten the fatty to acquire the silver-gray rabbit hair crystal. Looking at those expensive and rare materials, Chen Mu felt the stirrings of an unprecedented, powerful urge to make cards.

Apart from the folding Yanbo card, he still had the tailless shuttle card, but he didn’t have anymore outstanding card compositions on hand. That wasn’t such a big issue for him, however. Having mastered the Token Theory meant he was already using the most powerful weapon. He only needed to use the Token Theory to optimize any other so-called card’s compositions.

Those rare materials were constantly stimulating Chen Mu’s brain and causing him to be in a hyper state of excitation. What was life’s greatest happiness? Chen Mu didn’t know, but at that moment, he believed there wasn’t anything like those rarely seen materials in front of him to make him feel happy!

Chen Mu had always had to struggle to keep his balance on the line of having enough food and warm clothes. So, he had always been frugal with materials.

A powerful sense of abundance sprang out of nowhere! His gaze drifted off from all those kinds of materials to some card compositions, which had sprung involuntarily from his brain. The cards he had researched so many times seemed to be waving to him.

So many thoughts, so many ideas, so many compositions, as though a volcano had been saving up for a long time and was about to gush!

* * *

“My god! Is that guy still human?” Xi Ping murmured, his eyes vacant.

“How long has he been working?” the fatty asked with a somewhat trembling voice.

“Nearly three hours.” Xi Ping hadn’t heard the fatty’s strangeness in his vacant state.

“How many cards has he finished?” the fatty continued to ask.

“I don’t know.” Xi Ping felt his brain had gone wooden, and he glanced at the cards scattered on Chen Mu’s desk. “Probably more than ten!”

They were all at the door discussing quietly. No one went in to disturb him, lest they awaken Chen Mu from the state he was in.

The fatty looked at Chen Mu overjoyed, having felt in his heart countless times how glad he was about that gamble! There really was a god of wealth!

There were a lot of card masters in the Heavenly Federation, and it wasn’t as though there weren’t powerful card masters! But they had never seen any card master with as much power as Chen Mu, nor one so efficient. In general, card masters with exceptional power were always utterly prudent about making cards. Their temperaments were weird and not quite human-feeling, and they seldom did anything. One card would often require several months’ time.

Chen Mu had utterly destroyed the impression of card masters they had in their minds!

Chen Mu making cards could only be described by two words: like crazy! Chen Mu had an amazing burst of energy when he threw himself into card making again. His pen never stopped! In that moment, it was like he was simultaneously possessed by both Rosenberg and Heiner Van Sant.

The madness just shocked everyone!

* * *

He worked continuously for eight hours without a break! His every movement was so precise, and his every stroke was so perfect, that in his silence, Chen Mu would make everyone feel a kind of powerful tension. The many kinds and styles of cards arrayed in front of him were scattered all over. Those were the cards he’d completed in eight hours.

Chen Mu finally stopped, his whole body beyond limp and sore from head to toe. His perception was somewhat floating, and he nearly didn’t have the strength to stand. But his gaze was still brimming with intense joy!

Seeing Chen Mu had stopped, those who had been waiting outside all day hurried in.

The fatty, who was in the capacity of the big boss of the auction house, was now like a servant, holding out steaming food with both hands and anxiously presenting it to Chen Mu. The one called “iron face,” who was in the capacity of the top manager, Xi Ping, was respectfully providing Chen Mu with hot towels. In one hand, Pearson held the pot, while in the other he held out cups. His face was like a blooming chrysanthemum, as though he were trying to suck Chen Mu in with his flattering look.

Hungry to the point of collapse, Chen Mu wanted to eat without wanting to. He nearly buried his face in the rice.

While Chen Mu was eating, the three of them started to inventory the day’s results.

One, two, three…

The final result was 22 cards, added to the folding Yanbo card he first made. In that one day, Chen Mu had made 23 cards altogether. Among them were 21 three-star cards and two four-star cards, with no two the same.

Twenty-three cards!

Their gazes fixed on the cards in front of them, and the three were utterly speechless. For one card master to make 23 cards in a single day wasn’t just strange; to be able to make five or six three-star cards was already extremely powerful. To be able to make 23—moreover, 23 cards with entirely different compositions—was far beyond the category of human in their minds.

There was no card master who could make cards like that. Being a card master was an extremely money-burning profession, and experience was established on countless materials. Ordinary card artisans didn’t have the opportunity to waste materials, and those card artisans who had institutions to support them lived pampered lives. Why would they so desperately squeeze their own perception?

To concentrate for a long time put a big load on the body.

However, that didn’t mean anything for Chen Mu. Starting from when he had been making one-star power cards, he had conducted such a heavily loaded life every day. The difficulty of making a three-star card wasn’t like the one-star power card; in the same way, the strength of his perception was not what it had been.

That day, Chen Mu far exceeded his ordinary performance. He’d been provoked to a passion for making cards by the high-grade materials in front of his eyes, and once provoked, he couldn’t hold back. His card-related accumulations had also reached a certain level where once he was triggered, it turned into the scene in front of them.

If he had to make another one, he wasn’t certain he could do it.

But those results had been live in front of their eyes, and the shock it gave them was unparalleled.

The fatty and Xi Ping were both smiling and hadn’t stopped. In those days, card masters were easy enough to find. Powerful card masters were hard to find, and card masters who were both powerful and desperate would be one in a thousand. Although they still hadn’t assessed those cards’ quality, just based on the speed, they were both quite satisfied.

At that speed, he was simply a one-person card printing machine.

The smile on Pearson’s face had become a lot simpler as he bowed down in prostration. He couldn’t wait to throw himself at Chen Mu’s feet.

Chen Mu’s manner of eating was just as crazy as his card making; he ate six people’s portions in a single breath. The three watching changed their expressions slightly.

Like crazy! Too crazy! This guy isn’t normal! The three were communicating with their eyes.

Seeing Chen Mu finally finish eating, the fatty’s face was full of smiles. He already couldn’t wait. “Let’s go test some cards, young brother. You need to digest the food we just made.”

Chen Mu nodded, having recovered some of his strength. “Ok.” He wanted to see how he’d done, as well. He didn’t remember clearly what sorts of cards he’d made in that crazed state.