The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu grabbed a pile of the materials he needed as the fatty and Xi Ping looked on anxiously. It was no wonder; the materials Chen Mu grabbed were all the most precious among them.

Since he had made up his mind to show what he could do, Chen Mu wasn’t going to hide behind the easy stuff. He had gotten ready to make one of the most powerful cards he could make just then—the folding Yanbo card. He had researched the procedures and steps for making that card for a long time, and it could be said to be cooked into his mind. But, he had never had enough materials, in addition to most of his energy being devoted to the tailless shuttle card. He had hardly gotten caught up in the folding Yanbo card.

It was now time to demonstrate his strength, and the folding Yanbo card would naturally make a good choice. He was confident about everything that had shown up in the mysterious card. And, with such a complete set of materials in that place, there were all the critical materials for the folding Yanbo card. He could find replacements for those few that weren’t there.

The materials required for each kind of card composition were different. So, one inevitable responsibility of the card master was to be able to find substitutes.

Moreover, each type of card didn’t just have a single composition. Chen Mu had found 12 different compositions for even the simple one-star power card.

In the eyes of a card master, the composition of cards was quite flexible. What was known then about materials formulation was all summarized from prior research. Every type of card, and especially high-grade cards, might have upwards of dozens or even a hundred kinds of required materials. To think of staying strictly in accordance with the formulation would be too difficult. So, card masters had come up with techniques for finding their replacements.

There were quite a few works on that, such as the rather common “Table of Physical Properties” or the “Handbook of Materials Science” and so forth. Among the Big Six, they would often have their own related internally written handbooks. Those were several times more valuable than the ones seen on the market, and they couldn’t be purchased on the outside.

However, not all materials could be substituted. Every card composition had a few critical materials, which were irreplaceable. Which materials could be substituted and what could be used as a substitute, and what the results were like, were all a deep and vast topic of study.

Of course, they couldn’t make cards in the warehouse. In order to get the best results, Chen Mu accompanied the fatty to a specialized card making studio.

Xi Ping went ahead and lightly knocked. An old voice came from within. “Who is it?”

“It’s me!” Xi Ping replied.

“Come in.”

Pushing open the door, a dark-haired old man was in the middle of an experiment. The old man was taken aback to see Yang An. “What are you doing here, An?”

“Pearson. I need to borrow your card making studio for a while.”

“I’m in the middle of conducting an experiment, An,” Pearson said discontentedly. He was waving his withered arm. “I thought you were bringing me materials; I never imagined you would actually crash my card making studio!”

“Ha ha, we won’t be too long. I will compensate you for the materials.” The fatty spoke nonchalantly and immediately turned to Chen Mu to say, “Use whatever you need, my boy, and if you need Pearson to assist you, instruct him as you please.”

“An!” Pearson’s expression became a little ugly, and he couldn’t help but snarl. “You want me to be the assistant to this guy whose mop hasn’t even grown out? What an insult to this mid-grade, titled card master! A very serious insult!”

Frowning, Xi Ping interjected from the side. “You consumed 3 million Oudi in materials last month, Pearson, and so far, you haven’t succeeded to make a single card. Are you thinking of paying back that chunk of change?”

Up until then, Pearson had wasted about 30 million Oudi in materials to come up with nothing. But, that project was something the big boss had agreed to, and he couldn’t really object.

Pearson’s face turned red. He kept smiling with embarrassment, saying, “An, please believe me, the experiments are about to succeed! Just give me a few more months, and I’ll surely succeed!”

The fatty signaled him to stop and tipped his head to ask, “If he needs it, help this Mr. Cao.”

“No problem!” Pearson washed away his anger and patted his chest. “Pearson is an outstanding assistant!”

The fatty turned around and smiled at Chen Mu to say, “Just ask, young brother. If you need any assistance, go to Pearson. He is a mid-grade card master with a pretty good foundation.”

“I’ll be a high-grade card artisan in a jiffy!” Pearson couldn’t help but make the distinction.

Chen Mu nodded. “Ok.” Then, he started to arrange the materials he had brought from the warehouse on the desk.

“Oh my god! My lord, what I am seeing? I must be dreaming. Liquid snow iron! This is liquid snow iron. I am actually looking at liquid snow iron!” Pearson started shaking in his excitement, making his frail body look as though it were a reed fluttering in the wind. That old face, like a dried-up orange peel, had flushed red. He blurted as though he were spitting beads from his mouth, “This is cat’s eye sandalwood. Good lord, it’s at least ten years old! Star tuber grass? Could this be star tuber grass? Ah! Cross-grain shark wood, good lord, this must be an illusion. I must have gone crazy wanting some cross-grain shark wood…”

Pearson was murmuring to distraction in front of those materials, sunken into a kind of unconscious fanaticism.

Chen Mu took a look at Pearson with some understanding. When he had so suddenly seen the materials before, he hadn’t known what to do. However, he didn’t have time to become entangled with the old guy, having already started his work.

He first put the star tuber grass in front of him. It was purple and slightly bigger than his palm. The leaves were plump to the point of dripping and gave off a taro-like scent. Turning over the leaves would show tiny mottled spots, with each spot like an extremely standard five-point star.

He first pulverized the star tuber grass in the grinder and then used the A-13 reagent as solvent to get a tube of bright purple liquid. Then, he carefully used the liquid flowing from the liquid snow iron to dropper into the tube of purple liquid.

In the blink of an eye, the purple liquid changed into a dense, inky black.

The fatty and the rest had long since been struck dumb.

Card masters wouldn’t let others disturb them when they were making cards. Before then, they had never seen a card master making a card. Chen Mu hadn’t asked them to leave, and they were naturally happy to watch. They were all staring wide-eyed, afraid to miss a single detail.

Pearson was staring closely at Chen Mu’s hands, frowning in concentration, mumbling to himself, “What is the principle here… How could liquid snow iron be used like that…”

The movements of Chen Mu’s hands were dazzling. It was as though he didn’t have to think, with every move and every step seeming to be at his fingertips. In the eyes of the fatty and the rest, Chen Mu was like some superb dancer whose every move was graceful and smooth. He used the moving clouds and flowing water style of calligraphy, which gave the sense that it was all done in a single go.

Pearson had already given up thinking. His eyes were fixed on Chen Mu, and sometimes he moved his hands along with him in imitation of his movements. He was utterly certain the youth in front of him, who didn’t look older than 17 or 18, was who knows how many times deeper in his attainments at card making than he was. A connoisseur would recognize artistry, whereas laypeople might simply enjoy the show. Each step Chen Mu took looked perfectly simple, but it held a lot of meaning when it fell onto Pearson’s eyes.

Pearson memorized each of the materials that had been put in, hoping to be able to gain something. But, he knew most of that would be in vain. Card making was an extremely precise discipline; any slightest mistake could produce drastically different results. He only knew the order of the materials and didn’t know their quantities, so it wouldn’t be much use.

In his mind, he had already determined Chen Mu must be a grand master. If he wasn’t, then he was surely a high-grade card master.

Being able to see the process of an ace making cards with one’s own eyes was a rare opportunity. Although his counterpart wasn’t likely to teach him in person, he could still learn quite a few things. For instance, he had never heard and had never thought liquid snow iron could be processed that way. That had given him a lot of inspiration.

It was quiet in the card making studio. No one dared to breathe. Even the beautiful female card artisan next to the fatty couldn’t help but hold her breath.

Chen Mu was excited. When facing a tube of card ink that had probably cost 50 million Oudi in materials to make, no one could not be excited—especially when that 50 million had been spent on oneself.

The card ink, which was as black as night, flashed with little silvery floating lights that were unspeakably beautiful and mysterious.

But, he didn’t have time to become intoxicated in the beautiful card ink. The ink was very hot—about 150 degrees. Chen Mu needed to use it up before it sank to 72 degrees, or else the tube of beautiful card ink would lose its effectiveness.

The time between 150 degrees and 72 degrees was between 37 and 45 minutes.

Chen Mu had to finish drawing the folding Yanbo card within that period of time. Not just one card, but two! Although he knew the composition of the folding Yanbo card very well, he had never made one and couldn’t be certain he could succeed even once. Just in case, he made two batches of the card ink at the same time to give himself another chance. But, that also meant he would have to be quick.

Without any hesitation, he took out two three-star cards he had prepared earlier and put them on the desk. He pulled out his Weak Water pen set.

Pearson was staring at the Weak Water pen set. Although he didn’t know what the card making pens were called or from what master’s hand they had come, he could see at a glance they were uncommon. But, when he thought about how much further along the card-related attainments of his counterpart were than his own, the envy in his heart lightened quite a bit. It was replaced by a feeling of being in sync.

By that time, Pearson was endlessly regretting that if he’d known earlier he would be running up there to be an assistant, he might have been able to stand right behind to watch his counterpart.

The card ink underwent perception to meld with the card, and that kind of union went through countless transformations that went beyond anyone’s ability to speculate. That was just when the card making was the easiest to perceive.

The pen moved vigorously like dragons-and-snakes style calligraphy. His wrist moved as though it had no bones, which was astonishing to see.

Pearson was bowing down in admiration. Those were such skilled movements and such powerful basic skills, unlike any he had ever seen on a card master. Who knows what he would have thought if he had known Chen Mu had gotten his basic skills by training on thousands of one-star power cards?

There was sweat on Chen Mu’s brow as fine as beads, and his breathing through his nose had become coarser. The rhythm of his hands hadn’t changed at all. The time passed by the second and by the minute until the very last stroke. He pulled back the pen like a light wisp of smoke and proclaimed to the multitudes he had completed the folding Yanbo card.