The Card Apprentice

Having returned to normal, Chen Mu finally explained, “It’s a metal separator. The composition of this purple fluorescent ore is just too complex, having at least 40 or 50 elements. My ability is limited, and I could only separate out the ten with the most content. But it looks like there are few useful ingredients in the purple fluorescent ore. You can only extract such a tiny amount from such a large piece of raw ore.”

“Oh, so this is what gets separated out from the purple fluorescent ore?” It suddenly dawned on Xi Ping. Looking again at the parts scattered all over, he finally understood what the boss had been doing those last few days.

But still, 150 million! At that critical time, even a few tens of millions would be rather important. Looking again at the pitifully small amounts of metallic liquid in the reagent bottles, Xi Ping felt it wasn’t worth it. But he wasn’t going to spoil the boss’s fun, and it was money the boss did earn, after all. It was his business how to spend it.

Xi Ping was already thinking it through and would certainly have to inquire about anything relating to the purple fluorescent ore. Even if it didn’t bring much, the money had already been thrown out, so anything that could be fished back would still be something.

Chen Mu had already used all of the purple fluorescent ore in the great hall, and he had still only gotten a tiny bit of the metallic liquids. Seeing that there were only a few drops of the metallic liquid, Xi Ping felt it would be ridiculous to announce any expectations for such a pitifully small amount.

Xi Ping threw himself into his work when he returned to Chilei. He had become an outstanding businessman. It wasn’t a simple matter to join a completely new business circle, and he had worked hard on it. As for those few drops of liquid, oh good lord, someone else could take them.

After a week, Crow Feather met up with Xi Ping with a case on his back.

“Why have you come? Are there instructions from the boss?” Xi Ping asked, finding it strange. In general, it was rare for a card artisan to come running to where he was. Most of the card artisans who came to Chilei would go to see Bogner, though they were neighbors.

“The boss had me send these over,” Crow Feather openly replied.

Xi Ping pointed to the case. “What is it?”

Crow Feather shook his head and mumbled, “I don’t know.”

Xi Ping opened the case with a dubious look only to see five reagent bottles lying inside it. The most among them was the bright purple liquid metal, which filled a bottle. The least was the red one, where there was only half a bottle. Once he saw the liquid metals, he thought of the hideous contraption of the boss’s and the 150 million that had been causing him so much heartache for so long! There were pitifully scant results, but in any case, there were some results. He hoped those gimmicks could be sold for something to increase their income a tad.

“I do know.” Xi Ping nodded.

“I’ll go back, then,” Crow Feather replied straightforwardly. He then bid Xi Ping farewell.

Thinking about it, Xi Ping didn’t just blindly go looking for someone to ask about it. He instead ordered someone under him to seek far and wide for all the information he could gather about the purple fluorescent ore. Fortunately, he had brought along quite a few of the people from the auction house. Having those old hands under him decreased the pressure on him by no small amount. Otherwise, he would already be wiped out if he were by himself.

Xi Ping felt that if he were to run out to ask someone about such a tiny thing, he might become the butt of some jokes. It would be better to look into it himself first.

* * *

Wen Zuofu was in a gloomy mood. That gang in the snow silkworm ravine, who came from who knew where, actually had surprising power. None of the ten Dark Fog card artisans he had sent there had returned.

To be able to swallow up ten Dark Fog card artisans explained how strong his adversary was. He didn’t quite understand what they were doing running over to that little ravine with such power. Still, they must have paid a considerable price. Ten Dark Fog card artisans would be an extremely scary force no matter where.

What made him feel still more terrible was that Qiao Fei went there first thing the next day. Wen Zuofu didn’t know what they talked about, but he was well aware of what was on Qiao Fei’s mind.

That made him still more firmly determined to fix that gang a little sooner. Once the gang was successful, he would absolutely be the first to be out of luck. For one thing, Qiao Fei had already been annoying Wen Zuofu beyond endurance, and then some awesome guy came along. Wouldn’t that just leave him no way out?

Wen Zuofu was no fool. When none of the ten Dark Fog card artisans escaped, it set off an alarm. If his adversary were relying on the favorable position of the ravine to make a hard attack, he would take heavy injuries for sure. But wouldn’t it also just let Qiao Fei off the hook for nothing?

“I just got the news, big brother. There’s some new activity with that gang in the ravine. They seem to have registered a card artisan firm. It’s called the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm. I did a little secret investigation. They registered 200 people. The funny thing is that they have no track record, so they have to start at the first level,” Yi Song reported mockingly.

Wen Zuofu was inwardly stunned. “They registered a card artisan firm?”

“They did! They chose to make it an anonymous registration. Could they just be too weak?” Yi Song asked, puzzled.

The procedures for anonymous registration were a lot simpler, and they didn’t require as much detailed information about the team. But the shortcoming was that it would be a little harder for them to advance in level. They would have to rely entirely on completed commissions for an assessment of their strength.

Wen Zuofu smiled coldly. “Idiots. They want to hide their power. Mmmhmm, anonymous registration. That’s fine as long as they’re a card artisan firm. If they want to fight me, they’re still a long way off!”

Yi Song rushed to say, “Just so, just so. That gang isn’t even worthy to pick up big brother’s shoes!”

* * *

Bogner was sitting in the encampment. The card artisan team had already finished the registration. He was quite familiar with all of that, but he still hadn’t gotten any business up until then. No wonder. They were nothing more than a level-one card artisan firm. No one was going to come looking for them to take a commission.

He was only divided from Xi Ping by a wall. That old thief was getting great things done, but on his side, they still hadn’t gotten started. That was starting to give him pains in the chest.

Promoting a card artisan firm had always been difficult. Ordinary level-one card artisan firms would mostly only get some trivial commissions with very low pay. Those were all commissions the mid- and high-level card artisan firms were unwilling to undertake. If a card artisan firm wanted to advance to the second or third level, it would generally take five or six years.

Their biggest weakness was that their members’ ordinary levels were too low, and they couldn’t flaunt the tactics from the card set. So, they fell to that embarrassing place.

Then, there was knocking on the door.

“May I ask if this is the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm?”

Bogner’s spirits got a boost as he rushed to signal someone under him to open the door, where there stood an elegant and cool woman. She wore a low-cut, tight, shiny, long silk dress, which hugged her body. She had thin, high eyebrows and narrow eyes, and her thin, red lips seemed a little chilly.

“We are the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm.” Bogner looked at the pretty woman, and his excitement, which had originally been at 70 percent, shot up to 100. He ran anxiously to where she was. “If we can be of any service to you, please just let us know!”

Paying attention to Bogner’s lusty glare, an inadvertent look of disgust floated past the elegant woman’s eyes, though she immediately resumed her calm. “I’ve heard your honorable firm is quite strong. We just happen to require some assistance, so I’ve come to take a look. Still, it looks like your firm’s strength is only so-so. You don’t even have a card artisan above level five.”

Seeing that it was business at the door, after all, Bogner was overjoyed and quickly retorted, “Hearing you say that, miss, business for card artisan firms right now isn’t so good. How would we dare to go out and get mixed up in things if we didn’t have a few skills?” After he said that, he growled out with no warning, “Come over, Little Xiao!”

Xiaobo’s job was to be responsible for Xi Ping’s safety. He was Bogner’s neighbor, however, so of course that roar was transmitted into his ears. Xiaobo was the scariest on the team apart from Chen Mu, Wei-ah, Xi Ping, and Bogner.

He flipped over the wall in a rush and cried out, “What’s up, manager?” When he saw the cool and elegant woman next to Bogner, his eyes lit up. He pretended to be serious, apart from the look that would float into his gaze to show his nasty intentions.

Bogner coughed and said pretentiously, “Now, Little Xiao, this young lady doesn’t quite believe the power of our Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Firm. I’ve considered it and don’t think we should be so low-key. Could you show this young lady a couple of things?”

Xiaobo was inwardly overjoyed. To be able to shine in front of a pretty woman was more than he could ask for, though he kept his serious expression. “Yes, sir.”

Just as the sound fell, there was a light green, faintly discernible mist floating around his body. Xiaobo stood as straight as a javelin in the mist with his grave face and long white hair in its bright red tie, all of which made him look quite handsome. The mist around his body would suddenly congeal and scatter, as though it were there and then not there, which gave his enshrouded body a mysterious feel.

The woman couldn’t help but show her surprise, her gaze firmly drawn in.

Seeing that he had gotten the woman’s attention, Xiaobo inwardly felt pretty cool, though he kept his face deadpan. The card was the one he used to use, although Chen Mu had changed it a little to make it stronger. To act cool in front of the beautiful woman, he had chosen the card he was most adept at without hesitating.

Without him making any visible motion, the mist swirling around his body suddenly changed. A small ball of mist then turned into a small bird that was extremely life-like apart from being made of white mist. Everything else was identical to an actual bird. The little bird broke free of the mist and flew two cheery turns around Xiaobo’s body, finally stopping on his shoulder. Even when it stopped on his shoulder, it looked very nimble, pecking with its beak and clawing with its little claws from time to time.

The woman was entranced and couldn’t take her eyes off that magical performance.