The Card Apprentice

Chapter 132: The Best Breath Control (IV)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The two of them were only five meters apart, which was really too close. Bo Wen had let down his guard, which had doubtless been a fatal mistake. And Cheng Ying had just relaxed when Chen Mu made his move, just when everyone considered the overall situation to have been resolved.

He moved as fast as lighting to escape!

In the state of breath control, Chen Mu could employ every function of his body to the fullest. Even while his skills might fall short of the demonic woman, he was still the most powerful he had ever been. And having been continually training over a long period with the exercise gymnastics and with those excruciating routines from the demonic woman, his strength was already astonishing, including his burst strength. But being so routinely accustomed to his identity as a card master, he had naturally not realized his own strengths.

Bo Wen took fright and instinctually wanted to escape.

Chen Ying was also alarmed, not having considered that Chen Mu would still dare make a move by that time.

Didn’t he care to live anymore? Even if he could kill Bo Wen, he could never survive being hunted down by so many card artisans. And she had no chance to think it through that if Bo Wen were really killed by Chen Mu, then she would be unable to prove her innocence.

But before she could attack, Chen Mu had already snaked his way into Bo Wen’s breast-area like a cat. And the most despicable thing was that he was using Bo Wen’s body as a shield, so that she had no way to mount any attack.

All the color went out of Cheng Ying’s face as her heart sank, seeing the two of them on the ground with a look of despair in her eyes. Was this the end for the captured beast? She hadn’t imagined that the youth would have such a hot temper and would find death preferable to dishonor.

Damn, how could things have come to this? She closed her eyes since she knew how it would end, Bo Wen killed by the youth, and then the youth torn to pieces by the enraged Ning family card artisans. As for herself, she would have to bear the Ning’s anger alone.

Chen Mu remained as cool as ever seeing the terror in Bo Wen’s eyes, making it hard for anyone to know what he had in mind.

Did he want to die? Bo Wen wanted to close his eyes, being scared in the face of death. No matter how fine and powerful he was, he was still a twenty-year-old youth, without much experience with most of the ups and downs of the world. Fear would be the most common response to being so suddenly faced by unexpected death.

He had never expected to be killed at the hands of some sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth even younger than he was. His adversary’s strength, experience, and cards were all far inferior. For things to play-out as they did was really incredible, for all the plans of someone in this world to arrive at that point because of a sixteen or seventeen year old youth.

The night of the cross was really something.

Then Chen Mu made another move which far exceeded what anyone could have expected.

Not only did he not kill Bo Wen, but he didn’t even touch him. Instead, he rather deftly took that four-star power card out of Bo Wen’s hands.

Half a second to load it.

The big mud fish card burst into action, as he leapt out from Bo Wen’s chest like a mud fish and disappeared into the streets after making some snake like twists and turns along the ground.

Bo Wen and Cheng Ying froze.

Bo Wen didn’t respond until Chen Mu had disappeared. Finding himself so unexpectedly spared, the sudden change in his plight had blanked him out for a moment. By the time he came back to life, Chen Mu was long gone. He stared in the direction to where Chen Mu had disappeared as some nameless bone-penetrating chill arouse from his deepest reaches making Bo Wen feel as though his blood had frozen.

He grasped the flaw in his and Cheng Ying’s frames of mind, with their quick calculation to keep back from the brink of death. Chen Mu’s real intention had been to escape, and so he pulled the power card from Bo Wen’s hand, which could both save time and delay Bo Wen from catching up. He would have needed another power card if he wanted to escape, and the whole process hadn’t taken more than a second, which was enough to make some distance between them. Bo Wen was more certain than ever that Chen Mu had even calculated-in the amount of time he would be frozen.

Bo Wen took breath of cold air, as his face completely drained of blood.

Both he and Cheng Ying had been tricked by Chen Mu, and Cheng Ying had held off her attack for fear of causing greater harm. Even he had been fooled by what came next, with Cheng Ying’s strange response. Even though she could still use her power card, she had no way to fire on Chen Mu.

He suddenly realized why Chen Mu hadn’t killed him, since he had undoubtedly included the amount of time it would take in his calculations as well.

Such meticulous thinking showed a terrifying decisiveness and ability with calculation! He had to have powerful ability with calculation to be so precise with timing and human psychology, and then to seize the opportunity at such risk. Bo Wen believed that if it had been any other card artisan, ninety nine of a hundred wouldn’t have such ability to resist temptation, and would have killed him. But Chen Mu didn’t.

That made Bo Wen even more terrified.

It would be too terrifying if all the night of the cross card artisans had that ability.

But Bo Wen was no ordinary person and he quickly held his feelings in check to restore his calm. He quickly pulled out a power card and inserted it into his apparatus. He took note of the card artisans from the Amay Ning’s coming toward him, knowing that they weren’t reliable. If even he had been taken advantage of by Chen Mu, he was afraid that those people wouldn’t be able to capture a hair from his body.

The Eastern Ning’s had been holding a grudge against the night of the cross for a long time, and Bo Wen had seen Chen Mu’s power that day which hardened his resolve to get rid of him. Whenever he thought about such a calculating and terrifying enemy lurking in some dark corner, he thought of long sleepless nights.

Although he’d been repeatedly taken advantage of by Chen Mu that day, he hadn’t been harmed. On the contrary, Chen Mu had been badly wounded, which clarified the difference in strength between them.

Chen Mu depended on his powerful calculation for his advantage in the field, but because of the difference in their power, he had been the one injured. Even though Bo Wen was the one who seemed in dire straits, he had remained completely intact.

That gave Bo Wen some of his confidence back.

And Bo Wen realized that it was an extremely rare opportunity! Chen Mu was already wounded, and even though he looked down on the Amay Ning card artisans, their numerical advantage would be very useful. It would be his best opportunity to destroy Chen Mu! Once he missed it, that would mean that he would fret for the rest of his days. Once that night of the cross card artisan hid in the dark, no one would be able to find him.

The pitiable Chen Mu probably wasn’t thinking about any of that. At the same time that the state of breath control had given him a lot of power, it also brought him a lot of trouble.

Chen Mu’s mind had remained calm while in flight that there were just forty seconds remaining in the state of breath control, and he had to find someplace safe as quickly as possible. Once the state of breath control ended, he would lose his ability to move for a little while because of its powerful side effects, when he would become a lamb waiting for slaughter.

The dark was fortunately giving him a lot of cover, and he adapted to the dark even more in the state of breath control. His perceptual control was extremely precise in that state, and he wasn’t likely to make any mistakes in his facile control of the complicated jet streams from the big mud fish card.

Chen Mu slithered along like a dark mudfish as he shuttled through the residences in the dark of night.

Where would forty seconds allow him to escape to?

. . . the outer reaches!

Not having any fear of the outer reaches by then, Chen Mu quickly calculated that even though the probability of survival in the outer reaches was very small, at least there was that possibility. The plans had gone perfectly that day except for the unexpected Bo Wen. He still didn’t know why Bo Wen would attack him and was not willing to stop until he died.

Because of that surprise, Chen Mu had always been on the brink of failure.

He needed to take care of his wounds, though if he were in the city his bleeding would have given him no place to hide. The Ning family card artisans would have quickly found any hiding place and once he was surrounded it would have been a standoff. For one person to break through the entire Ning family wouldn’t have even a one percent chance of victory.

Although nine out of ten would die in the outer reaches, at least there was still a chance to live!

Chen Mu didn’t hesitate at all, as he quickly exchanged for the high-speed jet-stream card and flew off to beyond Amay City.

Bo Wen immediately descried Chen Mu and went in pursuit without hesitation.

Cheng Ying’s face kept changing in her indecision, although she gritted her teeth and went in pursuit as well.

The speed of the high-speed jet-stream card deserved its acclaim, and Chen Mu put his all into it to push it to the top of its theoretical speed. There were very few who would fly at such high speed within the city, since if there were to be the slightest loss of control and one were to bump into any obstacle one would turn to mincemeat, without the slightest chance of survival. It would be hard to escape from even the lightest graze.

Bo Wen’s eyes were glinting as he quickly matched the speed. He had already decided that no matter how, he wasn’t going to let Chen Mu survive the day. But compared with Chen Mu’s abandon, Bo Wen looked a lot more cautious. That was his first time flying at such a high speed within the city and he was a little scared. And because of that, Chen Mu was immediately stuck with the tag of a desperate outlaw.

Cheng Ying was the most disheartened as she watched the speed of the two of them, and she almost lost the courage to pursue. The two of them didn’t seem to want to live! But seeing them disappear over the horizon, Cheng Ying had no choice but to put all her energy into pushing the jet stream card in desperate pursuit. Among the three of them, the most helpless and innocent was her, the one with the least initiative.

To escape the Ning family card artisans, Chen Mu was flying very low. If he weren’t in the state of breath control with such precise control of his perception, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up such a high speed. At that speed he had a little higher probability of death than if he were to commit suicide.