The Card Apprentice

The 12 only needed to go in to train for 20 minutes, but the card artisans who hadn’t finished the 50 sets needed to endure a 40-minute ordeal.

The sounds of screaming constantly wafted through the building. In the eyes of those card artisans, Chen Mu’s danger and scare index had already shot up to the highest level. What turned their hearts the coldest was the White Commander’s indifference.

* * *

In the old house of the beloved manor:

“Four men recently came to serve the third master.”

“Oh.” Tai-shu Yong was a little interested; the Shadow was well-informed, his nose even more acute than a dog’s. Since he had taken the initiative to talk about the matter, there would certainly be something to it.

“Where the four came from is unknown. Identity unknown. Names unknown. One of them is still a child. His main style of attack is from the cardless sects. The other three are unknown. One wears a black mask, unknown. Another wears the face of a general. Card artisan, tentatively at the same level as Huo Jiang under the eldest and Ba Luojia under the second son.”

Tai-shu Yong was made a little dizzy by that string of unknowns. When he heard one among them could compete against Huo Jiang and Ba Luojia, though, he was a little surprised.

“The third master appointed the one with a white mask as the commander of the guards, responsible to participate in the playoffs. The original commander, Ma Hu, was overridden and was just seriously injured in battle.”

“It looks like number three senses some urgency.” Tai-shu Yong smiled. “That would be good, given his nature. It looks like it worked pretty well to tell Old Baldy to go after the information. It’s just… how would he dare use such unknown people?”

“The third master has made an agreement with him. He requires them to be among the four strongest in the playoffs, while the conditions proposed by his counterpart were that he wanted to see you.”

“He wants to see me?” Tai-shu Yong sat up straight, his gaze a little severe, as his fingers lightly tapped the arms of his chair. He fell into deep thought.

The Shadow didn’t make a sound, knowing Tai-shu Yong was thinking.

After a long while, Tai-shu Yong finally returned to normal. “Don’t alarm them for the time being, but keep a close eye on things. Once you have news, report it immediately to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

Seeing all of the card artisans paralyzed willy-nilly on the ground, Chen Mu’s gaze didn’t change in the least. Up until then, not one of those card artisans had been able to stand up after the day’s training. The 12 who had completed the 50 sets of training were no exception.

He turned over the rest of the work to Angie. Tai-shu Ying, who wanted to keep going, was pulled off to the side by Jiang Ling.

Little Bu Mo was still gritting his teeth and bearing it. His perseverance and hard work really surprised Chen Mu. Wei-ah was sitting off to the side in a daze as though he were thinking about something. After taking a look, Chen Mu didn’t want to disturb them.

Sang Hanshui was sticking to Chen Mu like a shadow. He was now bound up in the same boat with Qiao Yuan and the others. It wasn’t that he hadn’t entertained the idea of escape, but it gave him a chill when he remembered Wei-ah, who appeared and disappeared like a ghost.

Furthermore, Qiao Yuan had caused such commotion in Zargan that he was afraid everything surrounding it would be checked out. He was afraid the matter of his falling into Qiao Yuan’s hands would be soon discovered by anyone who used their head. If he were to escape now and were to carelessly fall into the hands of those people, that would be like wanting to live while still looking to die.

Rather than that, he might as well remain by Qiao Yuan’s side. Although little Bu Mo didn’t have a lot of strength, the other two were plenty strong, especially the unfathomable Wei-ah. Qiao Yuan was still the 50th ace on the Black-Line Star Listing! Adding himself would make the strength of the three of them enough to give anyone pause.

Moreover, although Qiao Yuan was young, he did have some practical experience and that mysterious team behind him. Given so many factors, Sang Hanshui increasingly felt that following Qiao Yuan would be a pretty good thing.

Chen Mu took note of Sang Hanshui’s transformation.

“Let me have a look at your card,” Chen Mu suddenly said.

Card? Sang Hanshui felt puzzled, but his hands moved nimbly. Having such top-notch cards as the Golden Word Shackle and the Bipolar Card in his hands meant Chen Mu of course wouldn’t be interested in his own mainstream goods. But there must have been some reason for him to open his mouth.

Chen Mu took Sang Hanshui’s card and examined it a while before putting it down. Although it was a four-star card, it was perfectly mainstream with nothing worth commenting about.

“Go get it analyzed, and give me the results,” Chen Mu said.

Analyzed? Sang Hanshui’s heart beat faster! That so-called analytical testing meant a card artisan would conduct a full range of perceptual testing and checkups. Analytical testing had many applications, but it could generally react objectively to a card artisan’s particular perceptual features.

He first took his card and looked at it, and he then went off to do the analytical testing. Could it be?

“Ai! Let’s go!” Sang Hanshui almost frantically ran out to do the analytical testing. All of the instruments in the training area were perfectly complete and satisfied the requirements for advanced analytical testing. Could Qiao Yuan still have had more good cards in his hands? Sang Hanshui was incredibly excited, and he sped up his pace, charging into the training area like the wind. He was of two minds, seeing as Chen Mu might not have any other good cards in his hands. But he didn’t know Chen Mu was a powerful card master.

Chen Mu had deliberated seriously before deciding to exchange a card for Sang Hanshui. The changes in Sang Hanshui over those last few days were always on his mind. If he were to do it, not only would he be able to increase their battle strength, but it would also improve the relations between the two sides. The most important thing was that it would help avoid anyone realizing Sang Hanshui’s identity.

It had been a long time since he had made a card, and his hands were itching for it.

Sang Hanshui’s analytical report came out quickly. When Chen Mu scanned it, he was able to roughly sound it out. He gave the report back to Sang Hanshui and then lowered his head as though he were thinking of something.

“I’ll be going out for a while. You watch over things here.”

Watching helplessly as Chen Mu left the building, Sang Hanshui’s heart chilled. Could he have been wrong?

Every floor of the building had an entryway for card artisans to come and go, and Chen Mu flew right out the entryway. He wasn’t familiar with Dongrui, but after only flying in midair for a moment, he suddenly felt something.

Someone was tracking him from behind!

That shadow had been following right from when he left the building. If it weren’t for Chen Mu’s perception being of a partially physical nature, he wouldn’t have been able to discover that guy. The energy fluctuations emitted by the one following him were very small, and he was perfectly concealed. However, he couldn’t have known Chen Mu’s perception wasn’t only good at detecting energy fluctuations but was even better at exploring physical characteristics.

Chen Mu understood that the one behind him was probably someone from the Tai-shus. Those guys didn’t know where he had come from, but he wondered whether they might have been alerted. Still, Chen Mu didn’t intend to let such an issue continue to bother him! He started to fly in a more remote direction, and the card artisan behind him stayed right with him.

Chen Mu then suddenly stopped, the entire move unspeakably abrupt, as though it had gone against the laws of physics. He was fixed in midair without any transition.

The card artisan following so closely behind hadn’t expected Chen Mu to make such a move, and he couldn’t react. He watched helplessly as he went crashing toward him! Chen Mu saw him coming straight at him with no thought of avoiding him. Those two wavy black lines winding down his white mask were unspeakably weird. His eyes were full of murderousness, and his gaze had absolutely no good will toward him.

Now, Chen Mu was advancing instead of retreating!

Damn! The stalker was horrified and erected his energy cloak in the first instant. The energy cloak’s glow covered his field of vision with a layer of light blue, which used to give him a feeling of safety but felt surprisingly cold that day. The insecurity he felt didn’t decrease in the least, and he almost unconsciously used up all the energy in his body to flip to one side.

In the afterglow in the corner of his eyes, he glimpsed the light green starburst in Chen Mu’s hands flash and die, followed by a string of incredibly dense crackling sounds. The light blue filling his field of vision disintegrated with no warning. The stalker became immediately uptight, unable to bear any more just then. He didn’t even know whether it was because of the stimulation, but he had actually succeeded in the lateral flip he’d originally thought he wouldn’t be able to do!

Xiu!

He was like a cannonball as he rolled from Chen Mu’s side and swept off, his energy cloak long since having disappeared.

Chen Mu was rather surprised, never having thought his adversary would actually be able to complete a flip to the side under such high-speed conditions and within such a short span of time and distance! The card artisan who had been stalking him had pretty good power, but he wanted to teach him a lesson to give the Tai-shu household a warning.

Watching his adversary’s gorgeous tail-spin drift as he disappeared into the distance, Chen Mu couldn’t help but show a look of admiration. He reckoned the card artisan was a specialist in tracking, with rather outstanding flight skills. Still, he had smashed the energy cloak, which he figured must have startled him, Chen Mu thought with some sinister amusement.

For insurance, he went in a big circle before landing. It was a good thing there were so many people on the street, so Chen Mu could blend in with the flow to quickly disappear.

He walked into a mask shop and bought another mask. Once again swapping for a new mask, Chen Mu could now stroll casually along the street. Dongrui was the most bustling city he had ever seen. The scale of any of the storefronts went far beyond those so-called flagship stores of Eastern Shang-Wei City.

Shops that made the materials he needed were all over the place. Chen Mu randomly entered one of them, and the staff immediately welcomed him with their restrained smiles.

“Is there anything I might help you with, sir?” Although Chen Mu was wearing a mask, the staff person wasn’t surprised. The recent popularity of masks had led to an increase in people wearing masks when they went out, and they no longer found it strange.

“Do you have card making studios for rent here?” Chen Mu asked.

“We do.” The staff person’s eyes lit up since only a card master would ask such a thing; those who rented card making studios would need to make cards. Looking again at how empty-handed Chen Mu was, the staff member couldn’t help but become still more enthusiastic. “We have card making studios of various specifications, all fully equipped with instruments. If you need to use some kind of specialized instrument, we can have it moved in for you, but you’ll have to pay a certain fee for that.”

Chen Mu nodded. “The price?”

“We have five star levels for studios altogether. At the one-star level, the fee is 5,000 Oudi per day. A two-star card making studio has a daily fee of 10,000 Oudi. Three-star would be 50,000 Oudi. Four-star would be 200,000 Oudi, and a five-star would be 500,000 per day. The fee includes three meals no matter which level studio. But there would be different standards at the different levels.”