The Card Apprentice

Looking at the Y09 energy block he had just taken down, Chen Mu was full of joy. A person’s power was like a cask of water; each failure raised the level of the water in the cask by some imperceptible trace. In the eyes of most people, that little bit was so tiny they would just ignore it. Even when the number of failures had gotten large enough, people would still have the illusion they hadn’t gotten the necessary return on their effort, and most would get discouraged.

But 1,611 failures was 1,611 traces, which, when gathered up, had helped Chen Mu break through the layer of obstacles.

What made Chen Mu even more excited was that after he’d resolved Y09, his power seemed to have immediately shot up quite a bit. Afterwards, the process of taking down the energy blocks was extremely smooth, with most of them done in a single breath and successful on the first try. Whenever he encountered an energy block with similar difficulty to Y09, he could easily take it down after a few tries.

That made Chen Mu still more excited and surprised. He even wondered if it was an illusion.

Spending only half a day, the model built with energy bocks was already more than half completed. His previous speed, which was as slow as a clumsy ox, turned around. The workload was half completed, and the model could be seen in prototype. Chen Mu had originally thought the model was a fortress. But he got an entirely different feeling when he built it piece by piece with his own hands.

That feeling became more and more powerful after the number of energy blocks increased.

When the model was 80 percent completed, Chen Mu could already guess it must be a kind of energy composition. As for that energy composition’s use and characteristics, he still couldn’t tell.

There were quite a few kinds of energy compositions. No one could clearly explain that issue, never mind Chen Mu. Even Rosenberg and Heiner Van Sant couldn’t explain the matter. Every mid-grade card master needed to grasp several hundred kinds of energy compositions, but they would only master ten or so, or even fewer. Grand masters like Madam Zhi Lian would recognize more types of energy compositions, but their truly awesome aspect was being able to transform and optimize the energy compositions to make them more perfect and efficient!

Their understanding of the rules of energy was far beyond that of ordinary card masters.

Since the time Rosenberg proposed the theoretical system of cards, it had undergone the development of countless grand masters, such that the current card theoretical system was completely different from the original one. Among the theories were newly developed derivative theories. In the same way and for all sorts of reasons, quite a lot of the ancestors’ knowledge got scattered and lost in the long river of history. That situation was especially serious during the age of the sects.

That was right up until after Heiner Van Sant, when the situation finally improved greatly. The chaotic age of the sects had concluded, and the era of the academies began with the establishment of all kinds of standard systems, especially regarding the cultivation of card masters and card artisans. Academic cultivation meant all the succeeding theories were almost completely preserved.

Quite a few things from before were gone, however—especially from Rosenberg, the founder of the card theory system. Many of his things had already disappeared without a trace. That caused pain for every generation of card masters. Even Heiner Van Sant—the other great master—wasted a lot of energy in his life hoping to be able to gather Rosenberg’s scattered, precious wealth. Unfortunately, the results were minimal. Regardless, such theoretical knowledge was still far richer in the Star Academy’s library than in the other five of the Big Six.

The Star Academy was said to have some old pedants who specialized in researching the ancient card masters. Their knowledge about theory was rich to the point of being scary.

But our poor Chen Mu was undoubtedly outside the academy. He had never undergone professional study. When compared to an ordinary mid-grade card master, he didn’t even have a quarter of the energy compositions they understood. He didn’t have any mastery to speak of even with the ones he did know about. Most of the time, he relied on the Token Theory to optimize those few energy compositions. Even that really wasn’t about how deep his comprehension of the rules of energy was. Instead, the Token Theory was truly that powerful.

He had never seen the energy composition model now in front of him. It looked like a strangely shaped fortress composed of 266 energy blocks. Its composition was utterly stable.

He had never studied analytical energy composition and therefore had no way to determine its specific performance. But he did have his own native ways, which was to use Token Theory to analyze it.

The results of the analysis really shocked him. The perfection of that kind of composition was far beyond what he could have imagined, to the point where it exceeded the degree of optimization he could grasp using Token Theory. But, thinking about it, he felt relieved. The Token Theory was the core content of the mysterious card; since the energy composition had appeared inside the mysterious card, how could it not have undergone Token Theory optimization?

Clearly, it was a type of extremely perfect energy composition.

In the world of card masters, there was a saying: Composition determines everything. An excellent energy composition would definitely demonstrate excellent performance.

Chen Mu was a little puzzled, however. All the cards he’d previously made had followed some precedent. Those like the tailless shuttle card and the folding Yanbo card were detailed to the point that each step was clear, and the only thing he had to do was realize them according to the steps. The rest of them, such as the raining shuttles card or the numbered series of cards, were all derivative.

That time, Chen Mu was facing a strange energy composition he had never seen before. If he wanted to know its use, the simplest and most practical way would be to make it. But if he wanted to make it, he would immediately face more problems—more direct problems.

What materials should he use? How would those materials be processed? What kind of compositional pattern should he use to get the desired results?

He felt more confused than he had ever felt. The disadvantage of his scant foundation had been fully revealed! The other way would be to analyze it according to theory, but that was still less possible than making a card.

The biggest pain in life wasn’t anything more than to be sitting in from of a mountain of gold yet unable to take away even a grain of gold dust. That was the way Chen Mu was feeling. He had an energy composition put in front of him, but he couldn’t start. He didn’t know how to make it into a card!

Frustrated beyond endurance, Chen Mu simply put all of his energy into building the model. After finishing one, there would still be four more. He was curious about the other four models. What would they be? Energy compositions? Or something else?

* * *

Butchie and Hugo were talking about the affair of the Central Island Firm. The two of them were both thinking they didn’t quite understand the attitude of the organization. They were looking at the Federation Comprehensive Academy and the Central Repository of the Classics. One team was led by Zu Ning and the other by Jie Yanbai, both of whom were powerhouses, though Butchie was no slouch. If the organization leadership was interested in the technology of the Central Island Firm, they should have sent more powerful backup.

But the current organization didn’t actually make any moves, which was something they completely failed to understand.

The Beard rushed into the room like blast of wind, looking as excited as could be.

“You’re all here! Excellent! Good lord, just guess what I found out!”

They stopped and looked at each other, showing puzzled expressions. The Beard was always calm, and it was their first time to see him dancing for joy like that.

“You’ve discovered your hemorrhoids have gotten better?” Butchie asked seriously, tilting her head.

The Beard’s laughter abruptly stopped. His smile froze on his face, which created a really weird expression. Hugo couldn’t help but laugh when he saw it.

The Beard was really annoyed, though he didn’t dare show it. The female T. rex wasn’t someone he could provoke. He bitterly looked at Butchie and quickly returned to his excitement. “According to what Butchie averted last time, I conducted a little investigation into the relations between Cao Dong and Yang An. I didn’t expect to make such a stunning discovery!”

Butchie’s and Hugo’s expressions turned immediately serious.

“At Ren Wenzhou’s banquet, quite a few people saw Yang An and Cao Dong chatting for a long time. Some of them vaguely heard them talking about some kind of cooperation. Not long before, Yang An had acquired some really good materials. The numbered series of cards must have been made from that batch of materials. Not long before that, before the auction was conducted, several people personally witnessed Yang An and his subordinate, General Manager Xi Ping, enter the auction hall together with Cao Dong. The numbered series of cards appeared just a few days later.”

Butchie’s and Hugo’s eyes lit up.

“If you think there’s some coincidence in there, it couldn’t all be a coincidence. Combining the information, I am reasonably certain Cao Dong is the one who made the numbered series of cards!” The Beard was completely convinced, and his face had flushed red because of the intensity of his excitement.

Slowly relaxing his energy, the Beard’s excited expression didn’t slack in the least. “And, the good thing for us is that the other powers still haven’t gotten this information. We can steal him right away before they even look into Cao Dong!”

Hugo asked coldly, “How much power does Cao Dong have beside him?”

The Beard laughed. “That’s the most critical thing. I’ve already investigated, and Cao Dong only has one high-grade card artisan. I believe Butchie could settle things by herself!”

Butchie thought of the scene that day when she went to Heaven’s Wings, and she couldn’t help but stand. “I remember. Right. There was a high-grade card artisan next to Cao Dong whose strength must be about the same as mine! It was a female card artisan!”

“And her specific position?” Hugo asked in a deep voice. His gaze was as deep as the ocean, and his silvery mask glinted bewitchingly.

“I did determine it!” the Beard rushed to say.

“Butchie and I will go together, along with five more professionals! We don’t just want to grab him, but we also don’t want to draw anyone’s attention!”

A flash of excitement went through Hugo’s eyes, though he said without concern, “We still haven’t found out much about Yang An’s background. If we offend Yang An by this, and we then provoke Jiao Si, that would cause some trouble! How about we clarify that before we make our move?

“Speed is critical. We have to move before the others respond! We have to be clean about it, so if anyone wants to investigate us, it won’t be easy,” Hugo said proudly. “Then, if Jiao Si shows up, what would we do? Could that one person along with the Origins Academy contend with us?”

The Beard thought about it and thought he was being too paranoid.

Hugo immediately stood and glanced at Butchie, saying in a low voice, “Let’s go!” Butchie, who had been doing the numbers to the side, followed closely without hesitation.