The Card Apprentice

“The shopkeeper’s purchase price was a hundred and three Oudi, which is to say that for every power card, he could get five Oudi profit. The shopkeeper purchased twenty-five one-star power cards from him every day. That is to say that he could get a hundred twenty-five Oudi in income every day. But there was a precondition.” Yu Long’s expression turned serious, “The precondition was that he not have one failed card. If he were to have a single failure, then his income would fizzle out, and if he were to fail with two cards, he would take a loss of seventy one Oudi every day. That showed the stunning success-rate he had making cards. What I admire the most is that he maintained such a life for four years.”

Qing Qing’s quiet eyes could help showing the admiration she felt.

“It looks like these investigations don’t have a whole lot of significance. Still, what I’m most interested in is Chen Mu himself. Those experiences can help us to understand the man. Chen Mu’s career with one-star power cards ended when the little shop’s owner passed away. After that he started with his important partner – Copper – he started to make card plays. We found their first work, ‘Chance Encounter.’ We discovered that it used the same technology. It should be said that it must not have been long before making ‘Chance Encounter’ that he got the technology. But we haven’t found any related clues.

“During that same period, Chen Mu joined the Eastern Shang-Wei City low-grade fantasy card club. That was also the only source we found for an image of Chen Mu. His performance at the low-grade fantasy card club was shocking. He was a genius in the arena of low-grade fantasy cards.

“Afterwards, an enmity formed between Chen Mu and the Zuo household. He was chased by the Zuo household, who was destroyed by the Ning household not long after.”

Qing Qing had been deeply affected by what she had been hearing up until then, and couldn’t help asking, “And then?”

“The Zuo household was destroyed, but we communicated with the Eastern Ning’s, and did get some useful information. The ones who were hunting down Chen Mu were instead killed by him. He hadn’t previously demonstrated any attack capability. The Zuo household never succeeded in hunting him down, and Chen Mu disappeared without a trace.” At that point, Yu Long couldn’t hide his excitement, “We had originally assumed, that was the end of the trail. But we hadn’t realized that just two months ago, a group of people suddenly showed up in the Heavenly Drum Village District. Because their transit pass was actually for the capitol, and because Tang Hanpei was making his worst ruckus during that time, we happened to have our own people among the card artisans responsible for the check point who then reported up the news. Our first thought was that Tang Hanpei might have been up to no good, but when we quietly investigated the matter, we hadn’t thought that we’d get an unexpected bonus.”

“The leader of that team was very similar to Chen Mu!” Yu Long was now talking very fast, with an excited expression, “That really got our attention. Since we only had one image, and that one was rather blurry, we couldn’t be one hundred percent certain.”

Yu Long’s tone had changed to include a note of regret, “Too bad that news hadn’t gotten our attention a month earlier. By the time we thought to investigate their trail we found out that they had already disappeared. Afterward, we activated nearly all the powers in the Heavenly Drum Village District and found that the last place they had been seen was the small village of Oak. It was said that they had cleaned up in a lounge. We guessed that they have already entered the icy and snowy regions.”

Hearing that, Qing Qing had already gotten the gist. She tilted her head, and those two eyes devoid of any of jadedness from all the world’s uproars, drifted over to the president, “And what are you thinking?”

“You’ve remained in the school these last two years. Perhaps you’d like to go for a walk.” The old man’s expression had turned serious, “This matter is quite important. If our surmises are correct, we have to do anything we can to get that thing he has. Not only would this matter be the greatest regret of Mr. Heiner’s whole life, it would also be enough to change the composition of the Federation: a treasure which could move our Star Academy forward.”

Yu Long continued on, “Up until now, no one has found out this secret. Its existence is only given a vague reference in Mr. Heiner’s journals. Even we don’t know what it really is. Our relative advantage is that Moon Frost Island is in the middle of a raging battle with the Desert Camp, and they won’t even be able to fend for themselves. And moreover, there are very few people who know your identity, Qing Qing, which makes it the right time for you to enter the Heavenly Drum Village District.”

Yu Long lowered his head, and then after a moment he raised it again, “The thing I’m rather concerned about is Tang Hanpei.”

“Tang Hanpei?” Qing Qing wore a puzzled expression, her elegant face showing that she didn’t quite understand, like a breeze blowing the tips of willow branches.

“Yes. We’ve paid a very heavy price to find out that the transit passes for Chen Mu and his team were arranged for by Tang Hanpei.” Yu Long’s response was surprising.

Qing Qing wasn’t so surprised, though she made it look as though she were. After a while, she did open her mouth, “Has the news of the House of a Hundred Depths and the Central Repository of the Classics collaboration been confirmed?”

Seeing Qing Qing with a rarely-seen serious expression, the old man and Yu Long looked at one another.

The old man nodded, “It’s not likely to be wrong. The Central Repository of the Classics is an evildoer this time, humph, the House of a Hundred Depths has always been shady and has been coveting the rich land of the Federation for a long time. They aren’t likely to have good intentions this time.”

Yu Long was nodding all along. The House of a Hundred Depths was a truly desolate area, and it was said that the four seasons there were as dark as night, like hades. The environment was so bad and the earth so barren that it was hard to exist there. The so-called ‘hundred depths,’ referred to the many caves and abysses there. Those caves are where the people of the House of a Hundred Depths lived. They were huge inside, and often connected.

The surface was scraped by sandstorms all year, and the blowing sand and tumbling stones prevented survival there. Only the strongest flexsters could survive on the surface.

That name – the House of a Hundred Depths – always reminded Qing Qing of that hideous woman.

Qing Qing arose, saluted the old man, and floated off.

* * *

Everything was transforming daily in the ravine. Borna’s efficiency was stunning. The scene of construction in full swing easily excited everyone. The card artisans were training up, and were exceptionally diligent. Having truly entered the Heavenly Drum Village District made quite a few of them feel as though they were dreaming.

Chen Mu was dragging Jiang Liang along for constant adjustments. Jiang Liang’s perception had already been restored to eighty percent of what it had been, which overjoyed him, and really encouraged Chen Mu.

But to make it safer, Chen Mu was bringing Jiang Liang along as a reference, to constantly improve his scheme.

Among them all, Xi Ping was the hardest working. The nearest city to the ravine was Chilei City. It was twelve hundred kilometers away as the crow flies, and driving a shuttle car required a day and a night.

The construction in the ravine required lots of materials, and Xi Ping took responsibility for purchasing what they needed. There was a special shuttle car team transporting large quantities of materials to the snow silkworm ravine every day. Xi Ping had become the most welcome guest of honor at all the business establishments.

Poor Xiaobo had become the captain of the transport team, running between the ravine and Chilei every day.

He sat on top of the shuttle car, having emitted his “eggshell,” everything vast in front of him. The howling cold wind was interspersed with countless huge flakes of snow to scratch the face like a knife. For him, the bumpy shuttle car didn’t make any difference, as he just casually sat on the top as though he were rooted there, motionless.

Xiaobo’s eyes suddenly glinted cold as sharp knives, so sharp that they could nearly split all the snow in front of him in two.

Xiaobo complacently arose and faced the wind, his long hair fluttering. His bright red hair-tie was eye-catching in the snow. The card artisans in the shuttle car were ever-alert, and hurried to stop it. The rest of the shuttles cars quickly discovered that something was off, and they all stopped.

“Does just any old cat or dog jump out as a bandit these days?” Xiaobo’s voice sounded as languid as ever.

“Some card artisan who hasn’t even gotten to the sixth level of perception dares to be so bold?” A faintly discernible chilly voice loomed in the cold wind.

His long slender and fair fingers adjusted his hard collar. At that time, Xiaobo looked like a gentleman about to go to dinner, elegant and at ease.

“Come on out, you five little guys. Don’t hide.” He suddenly squinted his eyes and raised his head, “I say, floating about in the air like that, aren’t you cold?”

“His eminence does have good eyesight, after all!” The chilly voice penetrated the wind and snow, clearly transmitted into Xiaobo’s ears. At the same time, there was a swishing sound in the snow beside the team of cars, as five card artisans wearing masks came shooting out of the snow, glaring at the car-team as though it were their prey.

Xiaobo’s slender fingers brushed lightly across his lips, as a light smile hung from his handsome face, giving him an unspeakably demonic look.

Having just flitted across those bright red blushing lips, his long white womanly fingers looked to be carelessly flicking lightly.

An amber colored starburst as fine as hair drilled into the snow in the blink of an eye.

“Careful!” The card artisan in the sky blurted out.

Too bad it was already too late, as there appeared a spot of blood the size of the tip of a needle on the necks of those five card artisans. The five card artisans looked startled, but didn’t seem to have made any reaction. The red spots quickly leached out into dark red drops of blood, and then in the blink of an eye, a fountain-like slender long string of blood spurted out.

By that time the five card artisans had reacted, and they covered their throats in horror, calling out, as they slowly collapsed. They lay writhing in pain on the ground, flopping away.

“You dare to make a sneak attack!” The card artisan in the air was both shocked and enraged.

“Should I have introduced myself first, uncle?” Xiaobo’s handsome face showed an unexpectedly weird charming expression. Before his voice fell, several amber starbursts went shooting toward that indistinct image in the sky.

“I’m going to kill you!” The card artisan in the sky was enraged and made his move with all his power. Countless very fine energy bodies like snowflakes appeared to face Xiaobo’s amber glowing lines.

The two of them collided without any further suspense.

And then there was an extremely bizarre scene.