The Card Apprentice

To tell the truth, the unwinding game wasn’t really any fun. The demands on explosive strength from the game were high, since you could only free yourself from the windings of grass if you had powerful burst strength. The crux of the problem was that it was in water; never mind strength, it wasn’t easy even to stand still there.

Chen Mu was very suspicious that the person who made the card had deliberately added the word ‘rewards’ just to lure people in. Otherwise he was afraid that almost no-one would persist in playing such a dull game.

Over and over, he gave out bursts of strength, which really used up his energy. He was already out of breath after a few rounds. This was the result after he had so vastly improved his conditioning after practicing those exercise gymnastics. If it were before that, he wouldn’t have been able to free himself even from the lowest-grade strands of water grass.

He didn’t know what kind of water grass it was, but it was extremely firm, strong and flexibly tough.

After spending three days and using up all of his energy, Chen Mu was finally able to free himself from the two strands of grass. He had finally found a little perception which could writhe like a fish in the water, which would then greatly reduce the resistance of the water. Just as he was benefitting from his discovery, he was able to free himself from the bindings of those two strands of water grass.

Chen Mu was excited by his little discovery. He couldn’t stop trying all sorts of strange postures to feel the changes in the resistance of the water.

In all his trials, Chen Mu realized that the most surprisingly useful thing to bring into play was perception. The discovery surprised him. If he weren’t in the middle of perceptual training which required him to extend his perception all around his body, he would absolutely never have considered that method.

By then, he had fully realized the benefits of the approach, and could sense any slightest change in the currents all around him.

He had gotten the trick to deploying power in the water according to those tiny changes, and was thus able to free himself from the entwining of the water grass.

But his excitement didn’t last for very long. When four strands of water grass wound around him, no matter how much strength he used, there was no way to break free of it. The only thing he could do was to sit still for ten minutes, when the water grass would fall away of itself. Otherwise, breathing would have been an issue.

Chen Mu had no choice but to let his own perception refine his sense of the changes in the current, try out more movements, and build up his burst strength. Apart from his daily perceptual training, he was always struggling with that water grass.

Chen Mu kept persisting in what was such a dull game. Every little discovery inspired him to exert himself even more.

While he was in the middle of struggling with the water grass, he received the invitation from the club, inviting him to participate in some sort of bi-directional meeting the next week.

Copper was surprised to see such an invitation envelope and looked at Chen Mu as though he were looking at a man from outer space, “Have they made a mistake? How could it be so quick? A two-way meeting with the advanced group? Don’t tell me you really are some kind of f**king genius!”

“Genius? Do I look like it?” Chen Mu looked at Copper in all innocence.

“You sure are! The more I say it the more I think you are!” Copper nodded his head to express his approval. “Still, after going just once you can sleaze your way into the advanced group? This is really a bit too much!”

“Could they have sent it by mistake?” Hearing Copper talk like that made him feel a little skeptical.

Copper nodded, and then said ponderously, “That’s my sense too, since that’s the highest probability. Do you have the four hundred plus contribution points that are required to enter the advanced group?”

Chen Mu shook his head, “No” He didn’t have to pull it out to know that the contribution points on his membership card were still zero, since he remembered it very clearly.

“So, this was a mistake.” Copper said firmly, following on with a pitying look at Chen Mu, and pronouncing in an exaggerated manner, “Blockhead, if you were to go, someone would say to you ‘excuse me sir, we’ve made a mistake’ and then you’d return crestfallen. Gee, how embarrassing.” He clucked his cheek.

“You’re right!” Chen Mu thought about it, and came to his final verdict. He tossed the invitation into the trash can, and turned back into the room to continue his struggle with the water grass.

“These days people are so sloppy with their work that they make this kind of mistake?” Copper mumbled to himself, as he turned back into the room to continue his struggle with the script for “The Legend of Master Shi.”

* * *

The short haired girl was a little bit nervous standing at the entrance to the low-grade fantasy card club’s advanced group two-way meeting.

“How could he not have arrived? Could it be that the invitation wasn’t delivered?” she murmured. The advanced group two-way meeting is very influential in Eastern Shang-Wei City, and we’ve never experienced someone deliberately not attending.

If a low-grade card master’s work was really good, would he be treated comparably with a high-grade card master, or would he fall far behind? But they maintained close relations with the industry, where the club would act as the go-between.

“Hasn’t he arrived yet, Miss Feng?” A guy snuck up behind the short haired girl, looking like a thief, with his nose inclining toward her white powdered neck to sniff it.

The short-haired girl gave him a look, “Are you looking to die, An Xiaoyou? Do you dare to eat grandma’s tofu?”

An Xiaoyou laughed, “Talking like that, and with your natural beauty, what man wouldn’t be moved by you, Miss Feng? Mine was merely an instinctual response, ahh, it’s just that my body moves more quickly than my thoughts. If I’m not careful, I’ll speed past a car, ha ha!”

He wrung his hands and said with a somewhat dubious voice, “Now don’t play with me Miss Feng, is that guy Chen Mu really coming today?”

“He should be.” Lan Feng’s tone was a little uncertain.

“Alright, alright!” His face a little bit flushed with excitement, An Xiaoyou said smacking his lips, “This fellow is really too much. How could he have thought of such a simple but clever notion to attach the instrument to the hat or the glasses? I really want to meet this ace!”

Lan Feng returned a contemptuous look, and said unhappily, “Just you? Has anyone else swept up four hundred points in a day? This is the first time since the club was established that this has happened. Go and give someone else a lift.”

An Xiaoyou’s expression dulled, as he stammered along incoherently, “One day, one day . . . a four-hundred-point sweep . . . ”

“What? You don’t believe it?” Lan Feng’s expression was also a little odd, “Hmmm, I’m telling you, I checked it myself.” She deliberately struck the dumbly staring An Xiaoyou on the shoulder after she finished saying that, “Go and find another master to worship while you’re still young.”

* * *

Four strands of water grass. Even though there wasn’t any reward, Chen Mu was no longer thinking of rewards, since he felt that his own gains were more real than any reward. The skill to deploy strength in the water, and the deployment of perception, were both fascinating.

And the most amazing thing was that the entirely new way to use his perception surprisingly also stimulated the reach of his perception. By giving a long pause to his perception, he discovered a hint of its increase.

And even though it was only a hint, it was sufficient for Chen Mu to go enthusiastically all in with his struggle against the water grass.