The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu opened his eyes and felt suddenly moved as he quickly sat up on the floor. He closely examined the perception in his body. With no warning, the composition of his perception had undergone a stunning transformation overnight.

The previous shuttle-shaped perceptual vortex had disappeared and was replaced by a composition made up of an orderly pair of snail-shaped strands. It was formed from two thick, parallel perceptual threads, which wound into a spiral. The two parts represented diametrically opposite properties, and the most wonderful thing was that there was a force field between the two.

It was because of that sort of energy composition that it was so firm—a lot firmer than the previous shuttle-shaped perceptual vortex. Those complicated and fine-as-hair perceptual tendrils had all disappeared. The new perceptual composition was refreshing and clean, with no superfluous parts.

The two thick perceptual threads were like one male snake and one female snake snuggling together, slowly winding around and around and wandering along a spiral directional wheel.

What was going on? Chen Mu watched the perceptual composition inside his body in a daze. It would occasionally stun him a little. Why had such a transformation happened? Was it good or bad? How could the completely new perceptual composition be used?

His mind was a mess, and Chen Mu couldn’t hide his bitter smile. Although he had invented the snow pit method, he clearly had insufficient understanding of that kind of mysterious human power.

He wouldn’t be able to do anything else that day, having only the single goal of feeling out the characteristics of his new perception. He returned his attention to the strangely paired spiral composition. The reason he had inferred that the two strands of perception had opposing characteristics was that their inner composition was completely opposite. Composition determined characteristics; that was the most basic law of perception.

Reasonably speaking, those two strands of perception with opposite characteristics should be mutually exclusive. How could they form such a stable composition? Carefully shifting one of the perceptual strands, it easily left the spiral composition.

That was impossible! Chen Mu looked even more shocked.

The more stable a composition was, the more difficult it would be to destroy, so how could he so easily control one of the perceptual strands and separate it? The perception in his body seemed to have completely overturned what Chen Mu understood about the composition of perception.

Just as he was getting discouraged, the fine perceptual strand that had just been shifted away from the spiral composition suddenly retracted back in like a fish, and it resumed its winding wandering along with the other parallel strand.

Chen Mu couldn’t help another bitter smile. The transformation of his perception that time was undoubtedly going to be a new challenge for him. It was strange beyond strange, and Chen Mu had to start trying it bit by bit. If he didn’t clear up the situation with his perception, he would have no way to advance his work.

Rotation and vibration were the two biggest characteristics of his perception before, and he planned to start with those two aspects to see the differences between his new and his previous perceptual compositions. He prompted the double row of helical perceptual strands to spin, which wasn’t as hard as he’d imagined it would be.

More astonishment floated onto Chen Mu’s face. The perception in his body was spinning faster and faster, already far beyond the speed of his previous perception. Until then, he still hadn’t perceived any issues with it.

Apart from the spinning, he didn’t discover anything else. If his previous perception were to have spun that fast, everything around him for quite a range would have been clearly reflected in Chen Mu’s mind.

There was no reaction!

Chen Mu’s expression shifted, and he had a bad feeling. His perception of the environment was the basis of his “hodgepodge” attack system. Cardless sects, close-combat perception, and remote battle were all inseparable from his being able to clearly judge his surroundings. On that point, he was nothing like the traditional card artisans as that term was used. They emphasized reactions to energy and perceptual fluctuations.

Without those advantages, Chen Mu would lose his biggest advantage compared to other card artisans. Without a doubt, that would be a big blow to him.

The paired spiraling perception was still speeding up, its speed already three times faster than the perceptual vortex’s limiting speed.

With his attention focused on the rapidly spinning spiral-paired perception, Chen Mu suddenly discovered an utterly subtle phenomenon. As the spinning of the perception kept increasing in speed, the distance between the two strands of perception closed little by little.

Could it be? Chen Mu was struck by the continually increasing speed of his perception’s spinning. It was already five times faster than before, and the distance between the two strands had gotten quite close. But there still wasn’t any specific transformation.

Chen Mu drew a line in his mind and stepped up the speed! When the speed reached eight times the previous limit, a transformation finally occurred!

The distance between the two perceptual strands had suddenly broken the critical value, and the energy field between them finally played its role. Within it could be seen a transformed perceptual strand that had turned into a fine perceptual spray, which was spinning around the other strand at a stunning speed. Following the increased speed, the spray of perception became denser and denser, and its volume shrank.

The spray of perception then transformed into a cloud, rotating around an axis in a crazy motion. The other strand of perception had been pulled nearly straight by the high-speed spinning to form the axis of the perceptual fog.

Just at the instant that the spray of perception turned into a fog, Chen Mu’s brain exploded in a burst of light. Right in the middle of that burst of light, everything around him was reflected in his brain. All of the tables, chairs, and instruments in the lab were far clearer than if he were seeing them with his eyes. Even the smallest screws in the darkest corners were captured as clearly as possible.

Good lord! Chen Mu felt like he had been hit by a powerful surge of happiness!

His lab had an area of nearly 1,600 square meters, and no corner could escape his perception. As compared to before, whether in clarity or scope, his perception was far more powerful.

Restraining the ecstasy he felt, Chen Mu continued to increase the rotational speed of his perception. The walls of the lab seemed to be right in front of his face. He could clearly see patterns on the wall that were finer than hair. He immediately understood that the scope of his perception expanded still farther than that. But it was blocked by the walls of the lab, which was why that situation had taken shape in front of his eyes.

Continuing to increase the speed until it was ten times faster than the previous limit, Chen Mu finally perceived something wrong. He then stopped the rotation of his perception.

Like a tide, the images reflected in his brain receded. The fog of perception condensed into a strand, once again forming the composition of a helical pair.

Chen Mu seemed to have gotten a perfectly novel new toy, which he was greatly interested to research. He named the one among those two strands of perception that could become a perceptual fog the number-one strand, and he named the other one the number-two strand.

Apart from the rotation, he was also familiar with the other kind of perceptual motion, which was vibration. The helical pair had the same characteristic of vibration, which meant Chen Mu didn’t have to give up his other stunt of bogus borderline breath control. Derived from breath control, it had already completely replaced the position breath control had previously occupied. Breath control was powerful beyond measure, but the strength of its side-effects was equally powerful.

The bogus borderline breath control—which wasn’t as powerful as breath control—combined with his unique battle style to be put to endlessly wonderful uses.

Apart from that, there were still quite a few novel effects of the helical paired composition. Chen Mu finally understood the characteristics of the other strand.

It couldn’t become a spray of perception or a perceptual fog like the other strand, but it could change shape at will and be kneaded into any desired shaped like modelling clay. It was very tough, however; no matter how much force was applied, it couldn’t be split apart. That characteristic gave it quite a few interesting aspects, such as being able to be pulled into a long and fine thread, which could even be tied into a butterfly knot with enough control.

To adapt to a new perceptual composition was far more than what could be completed in a day. He would need a long time. What Chen Mu most lacked just then was time. There was no time for him to slowly polish it, having so much other work to complete.

The four-star card set!

Ru Qiu was so tired she was about to lose all her strength. She speechlessly watched Chen Mu, not knowing how to express the shock she felt. But the bigger possibility was that she wouldn’t have the strength to open her mouth to talk.

After a night’s reset, she felt that her energy was pretty good. However, she had never thought today would be more miserable than the day before!

Preparing card ink was work that required complete attention and familiarity. Having become familiar with it the day before, someone as intelligent as Ru Qiu had smoothly memorized the entire process. She was 50 percent more efficient than the day before, preparing 63 bottles of card ink. But, shockingly, the speed with which she was preparing the ink still couldn’t keep up with the boss’s speed making the cards!

Good lord, that was a four-star card, after all—not just any three-star card. It wasn’t like casually making a one-star power card. Its demands on perception were so high, its composition was so complex, and the energy transmitted to the pen nib was so sensitive. Each one was so difficult that they practically announced the difficulty of making them.

She had seen with her own eyes how the boss had used up 42 bottles of card ink the day before to become so tired that he was a puddle of mud. But, today?

She was the one who announced her surrender. The boss had gone crazy, his card making speed so terrifying that it was as though he were making one-star power cards. Most of the time, he would have to wait off to the side for her to finish. She would deliver every bottle after she finished it into Chen Mu’s hands in the shortest time possible. Then, Chen Mu would complete a card right away in the shortest possible time.

By that time, the next bottle still wasn’t done. All day long, Ru Qiu felt like she was being chased by a pair of hasty, silent footsteps, urging her to tighten her spring as she desperately increased her speed.

She sped up again and again until every last ounce of energy was squeezed out of her. She didn’t understand. How had the boss become that awesome in just one night’s time?

But she was really too tired. She quickly pushed the question aside and dropped her head to sleep.