The Card Apprentice

Watching the long, blue arrow shooting toward him, Qiao Yuan’s bronzed face became unwittingly mocking. That kind of attack wasn’t even worth a sneer from someone of his abilities. Without bothering to say more, a red thistle shuttle left his raised hand and traced a red shadow as it went flying toward the blue arrow.

The card in his hands was a five-star card with an ordinary name—the Four-Pronged Caltrop. It was a well-known card in the federation.

When he was young, Qiao Yuan was good at the wavy blade category of cards and had already started to show youthful promise. His teacher was planning to let him choose one of the high-level legacies from the Central Repository of the Classics, but he hadn’t wanted to abandon the Triangular Steely Blade he was already using, which nixed his teacher’s suggestion.

The Triangular Steely Blade was an ordinary three-star fantasy card that served as the entry-level wavy blade type of card used by many. It could emit steely-colored triangular wavy blades with about average attack power and firing frequency, as well as accuracy. It was at roughly the same level as the fiery dragon card category.

Seeing how persistent he was about following his original intention and in order to broaden his horizons, his teacher simply allowed him to study up on all of the wavy blade cards among the legacies at the Central Repository of the Classics.

All of the ordinary card legacies were placed in the library at the Central Repository of the Classics, and the students could borrow them for study as they pleased. Some of the higher-level legacies were placed in the Main Collection Building. It was a small building not more than five stories high, but it was sacred ground in the eyes of the scholars and professors.

Qiao Yuan remained at the Main Collection Building for five years. When he emerged, the first thing he did when he sought out his teacher was express his hope that he could swap out his card. His teacher was rather surprised when he heard Qiao Yuan wanted to abandon the Triangular Steely Blade he had hung onto for so many years. When he personally checked out his beloved student’s abilities, however, he was immediately filled with praise.

Afterward, the dean of the card division of the Central Repository of the Classics—who was the teacher of Madam Zhi Lian—personally intervened to make a completely new wavy blade type of card according to Qiao Yuan’s requirements. That was the Four-Pronged Caltrop.

After Qiao Yuan got his new card, he embarked on more than ten years of silence. He would occasionally do something during that time and was invariably outstanding when he did. The prestige of the Four-Pronged Caltrop spread far and wide.

Among the three disciples, Qiao Yuan was the least qualified but the most powerful. That was certainly related to how long he had trained, but his concentration and perseverance were still more outstanding.

It was said that the method to make the Four-Pronged Caltrop had been preserved; if Qiao Yuan could organize his skills systematically before he died, the Central Repository of the Classics would have another new and ponderous legacy.

Whether it was the students or professors at the Central Repository of the Classics—or card artisans outside—none of them thought that would be any problem.

Qiao Yuan himself was an expert in using the wavy blade type of cards, so how would he be moved by the sort of wavy blade he now faced? But, as aware as he was of what was going on in the world, he didn’t know the card in Butchie’s hands was 013 from the numbered series of cards!

Card 013, which represented malevolence and death, appeared mild and middling. But it would always make a fatal blow once it was scorned by the enemy!

The long, blue arrow was like a ramrod-straight chain formed of several hundred wavy blades. A whistling sound came from the spaces in the wavy blades flitting through the air at high speed.

Would someone dare challenge Qiao Yuan? Did they want to die? Everyone was looking at Butchie and Hugo in disbelief, not quite able to keep up with it all in their heads. Maybe they didn’t know who they were facing. It was Qiao Yuan, after all—the Qiao Yuan who was at the apex of the Big Six! The Qiao Yuan who could pinch them off like ants!

For an ant to extend its sharp tusks against an elephant was in itself a laughable event! Some of the card artisans from the Central Repository of the Classics looked like they were ridiculing as they watched the two jerks overextending themselves. One hand—no—maybe just a flick of his fingers would be enough to pinch those little, creeping bugs to death.

Even the card artisans on Faya’s side were dumbfounded. The energy fluctuation that had filled the sky had already utterly broken their will to fight. In their minds, that bronzed-faced man wasn’t even human; he was a demon!

The two deliberately provoked him at the same time from within their own camp. Even as they saw it, it was a provocation! The card artisans looking on couldn’t keep themselves from stopping what they had been doing.

A sudden flinch flashed through Qiao Yuan’s eyes as he stared at the long, light blue arrow composed of hundreds of wavy blades.

Whether it was the red thistle shuttle Qiao Yuan had shot off or Butchie’s blue wavy blade arrow, they were both so fast that there was no way to capture them with the naked eye. All they saw was a red line and a blue line in the sky, smashing headlong into one another.

The red shadow was like a lion charging into a herd of sheep, sending them flying in all directions. Only the red shadow could be seen to pass through; the light blue arrow formed by the wavy blades was as fragile as paper and was broken straight apart. There were nearly 100 wavy blades scattering. The red thistle shuttle had easily penetrated the arrow.

Sure enough, the two sides were just too far apart! All the card artisans watching were shaking their heads and sighing.

Qiao Yuan then suddenly raised his eyebrows. At the same time, the scattered wavy blades were like a school of sharks smelling fresh blood as they went whistling into ranks and swept toward Qiao Yuan.

The line formed by 100 wavy blades moving at high speed made a kind of flower-bud-shaped after-image, the tip of which was astoundingly pointing straight at Qiao Yuan!

The sudden twist surprised everyone. Quite a few of them finally remembered what the card in that young woman’s hands was.

Card 013! Good lord, it’s 013! Many of the card artisans couldn’t hide their excitement. No wonder those light blue wavy blades had looked so familiar. No wonder someone had the guts to jump out. With 013 in their hands, what would they be afraid of? Some card artisans in the manor were even feeling some hope.

The power of that mysterious card artisan was certainly unfathomable, but they had 013 on their side! Among those card artisans, only a few of them knew about Qiao Yuan. But if you were talking about Card 013, 90 percent of them knew about it.

Those days, if you were walking on the street without knowing about the numbered series of cards, you would be ashamed even to greet anyone else. It was said that not to know 013 in this life would make being a card artisan a vain pursuit! For those people to be able to recognize 013 was due to the images that had been showing up on all the platforms. Even some of the card artisans from the Central Repository of the Classics recognized what card Butchie was using.

“Faya! That gang is Faya!” some of the card artisans from the Central Repository of the Classics were shouting.

Card 013 was too well-known and really couldn’t be hidden. The news that it had finally fallen into the hands of Faya was known to everyone. The card artisans from the Central Repository of the Classics had earlier surmised that for the power in the manor to actually be so frightening, someone must have been behind them, after all. They just hadn’t thought it was Faya!

Qiao Yuan’s expression went cold, and a chill surged up from his heart. What was Faya doing gathering together so many card artisans?

Ah, but their goal was self-evident. A murderous aura skimmed over Qiao Yuan’s eyes. That damned Faya!

In the minds of the Central Repository of the Classics personnel, Faya had already become their principal enemy, even more detestable than the Federation Comprehensive Academy. Jie Yanbai had been mortally wounded in their attack. That had given the Federation Comprehensive Academy another opportunity, which then led to the later series of unfortunate events.

Qiao Yuan and Jie Yanbai were close, but as they saw it, such a fierce provocation to their authority by attacking the Central Repository of the Classics scholars was already damnable! It was still more so because someone who could reach such a level would be no fool.

When they found out those card artisans had all been gathered by Faya, things were suddenly clear as a bell, including what Faya was calculating. A cold, dark smile formed in the corner of Qiao Yuan’s mouth as his gaze firmly locked onto Butchie and Hugo. With no visible movement, he slid to the side as though he had suddenly disappeared from where he was. He then reappeared seven or eight meters away.

The blue wavy blades split off from where he had just been and flitted over like a lively flock of blue swallows. Amazingly, the blue wavy blades were so lively that they didn’t even lose control when they came up empty. They all lined up into an arc and came firing after Qiao Yuan once again. But when they were a few meters away from him, they suddenly started to dance around Qiao Yuan in a high-speed flight. They were tracing marvelous trajectories while Qiao Yuan, enshrouded within them, abruptly blurred.

Interesting! Qiao Yuan had seldom seen such elegantly controlled wavy blade cards. His gaze fell involuntarily onto the apparatus on Butchie’s wrist.

Just then, a powerful energy fluctuation took Qiao Yuan by surprise.

With his half-silver mask and half-expressionless face, the energy fluctuation produced by Hugo had already given the rest of the card artisans a faintly unsettled feeling. It was a powerfully oppressive feeling, like leaden clouds hanging low and squeezing everyone’s hearts to a flutter.

The bare half of Hugo’s face turned pallid while the other silvery, glowing half of the soft mask constituted a rather demonic pattern. He leaned over slightly in midair with his hands hanging naturally in front of him, his gaze fixed on Qiao Yuan.

At the same time, the flock of blue wavy blades filling the sky around Qiao Yuan changed direction.

Clang!

As though a sword were lightly slashing, the 100 wavy blades formed into a line of 100 blue streamers, which went plunging toward Qiao Yuan in their midst.

At that exact moment, Hugo made a circle with his arms.