The Card Apprentice

By the second day, when Sue Lochiro detected that the concentration of poisonous gas in the air wouldn’t have any influence on humans, everyone went back into the ravine.

The once snow-white ravine was now unrecognizable. Everything in the ravine was charred black, and there were the bodies of bugs all over the place. The snow silkworms were covered in green and looking scary as hell. Even the card artisans who had been through hundreds of battles couldn’t help their expressions changing when they saw that scene.

They moved very quickly, knowing that it would become their main base for a long time.

The intense explosions had changed the terrain in the ravine, with both the snow and earth layers blown open to show purple colored rock underneath.

“Purple fluorescent ore! It’s purple fluorescent ore! I said that the air in here had a high concentration of metallic compounds.” Brenton bent down to touch the purple colored rock layer, having suddenly become excited.

“What is purple fluorescent ore, Brenton?” Xi Ping narrowed his eyes as he asked in curiosity. Having been in contact with Brenton for a while, Xi Ping already had a certain understanding of that golden-haired youth. Brenton was very young and tender, but his theoretical knowledge was quite rich, which is to say that it was pretty solid.

“Purple fluorescent ore is a kind of metallic compound with a complex composition. It can’t be used directly, but it contains quite a few precious metallic elements. Unfortunately, the technology for the smelting and refining of purple fluorescent ore is rather high-end. It would only be in the hands of a few large firms.” Brenton looked full of regret, though he soon got back his spirit, “If we sell the information to some large firm, we would certainly be amply rewarded.”

Bogner glanced at Brenton as though he were looking at an idiot, “Why would we give away such a good thing?”

“Money grubber.” Brenton wasn’t afraid of Bogner, as his face blushed red, and he said in a loud voice, “Without the technology, keeping the purple fluorescent ore is useless. The purple fluorescent ore is completely useless without refining it.”

“This is an investment, do you understand?” Bogner said arrogantly.

“You’re just dreaming of getting rich, Uncle.” Brenton smiled coldly in contempt.

Xi Ping was watching the dispute all smiles, not being involved. But Chen Mu had been stimulated. He had never heard of purple fluorescent ore before, and he wasn’t clear about what it was used for. But hearing what Brenton said, it seemed to be rather valuable.

And for Chen Mu, the smelting technology that Brenton had spoken of wasn’t such a big issue. Having been with Alfonso for so long, although he hadn’t completely learned the metallurgy of the Moqi clan. But when it came to various technologies for purification, that wasn’t so hard for him.

The ravine was very quickly cleaned and put in order, and it was time for Borna to take the stage.

Borna was holding the latest specialized construction card artisan card appliance that Xi Ping had bought for him, and after spending only half an hour, he had already completed a scan of the ravine’s topography.

From the screen which popped out from the card appliance, the entire ravine showed up in three dimensions.

Borna’s plan took three whole days, during the process of which he and Bogner carried on some complex discussions. The communication and tacit understanding between the two of them was no problem at all, which sped up the construction progress by quite a bit.

During those three days, Chen Mu wasn’t going to let those card artisans be idle.

All the card artisans were training their perception in the snow, as Chen Mu had ordered. Despite the cold and their shivering, quite a few of them had become quite diligent when they saw their boss leading the training.

Having them train their perception in the snow wasn’t some one-time idea for Chen Mu. Ever since entering the icy and snowy regions, he had clearly felt that training perception in such a bitter cold place did indeed get twice the results for half the effort. By then he understood that what Brenton had said about card artisans liking to enter the ice and snow was certainly correct.

Ever since he discovered that peculiarity, Chen Mu kept trying to find some way to take advantage of it. He was completely satisfied with the card artisans now on hand. Those days, they were proving by their own performance that they were qualified team members.

But Chen Mu also saw their limitations. Their perception was too weak, and among them were still some whose perception was still at the third level, while others were only at level four. If their perception weren’t sufficient, it would be the soft spot of those card artisans.

If their perception were higher, Chen Mu could design a more powerful set of cards.

And furthermore, the card artisans were all quite young. The oldest wasn’t more than twenty-five, while the younger ones were only eighteen or nineteen. If he were to allow them to continue developing the way they had been, Chen Mu felt that it would be a pity.

After carefully studying the perceptual training that they had learned, Chen Mu had a new idea.

What those card artisans were studying was mostly some basic perceptual training methods, except for individuals like Jiang Liang. What he did was the military method of training perception.

That was a kind of perceptual training called the B standard. Jiang Liang didn’t keep anything from Chen Mu, and he explained every detail of that training.

After he’d studied it, Chen Mu found the biggest peculiarity of that sort of military perceptual training to be its simplification and rationalization. It could allow people with all kinds of characteristics to learn simultaneously. Although it couldn’t be compared with the high-level training among the Big Six, it was still an excellent method.

It was at opposite poles from the extreme training method that Chen Mu used. It was mild and harmless, while his extreme training method was extremely violent.

Chen Mu spent those few days trying to simplify the extreme training method. After experiencing daily progress himself, he knew that the extreme training method wasn’t something everyone could do. It was an excellent method, but at the same time it was an extremely dangerous method.

Jiang Liang’s B standard of perceptual training rather inspired Chen Mu. Chen Mu could even seek out some principles for perceptual training in that kind of more reasonable perceptual training method.

Going through over twenty days of racking his brains, he finally came up with a simplified extreme training method. While the simplified training method hadn’t gotten such stunning results as the true extreme training method, it also wasn’t so dangerous, and its theoretical results rather satisfied him.

But seeing the card artisans keeping up their practice of perception in the snow, Chen Mu was a little hesitant. His simplifications hadn’t been put into practice yet. Whether they were truly effective or not, or had any side effects, he didn’t know. And such a trial brought with it a certain danger.

Injury to perception wasn’t the same as bodily injury. It was much harder to cure, and perception was harder to restore.

After thinking about it, Chen Mu walked over the Jiang Liang.

Jiang Liang was just about the hardest practicing card artisan of all of them. Ever since finding out that training perception in the snow could be conducive to growth in perception, he had simply practiced naked from the waist up in the wind and snow. Every time he finished, he was so cold that his face had turned blue, and there was frostbite all over his body.

That had also led to Sue Lochiro making her opinion clear to Chen Mu that up until then, there had been quite a few card artisans with frostbite. But because it had been Chen Mu’s orders, no one would back down.

“Boss.” Seeing Chen Mu in front of him, Jiang Liang immediately stood, and saluted without any expression.

Seeing such a gritty look, Chen Mu’s gaze fell onto Jiang Liang’s naked upper body. His well-built body was already full of frostbite, and he suddenly realized something.

“I just finished designing a new perceptual training method which hasn’t yet been proven. Would you like to give it a try?” Chen Mu was looking at Jiang Liang with a calm expression.

Jiang Liang’s indifferent eyes abruptly turned hot, while his face that was white with the cold flushed red, and with a trembling voice filled with determination, he said, “I would!”

Bogner watched Borna, who seemed like magic, while he was chatting with Xi Ping.

Borna was like a magician. The ravine had now become entirely different, with some prototypes already visible. The construction card artisans had driven the outer shape with a snail-like card appliance shuttle car, which floated above the ravine. The card appliance shuttle cars had quite a few nozzles, which would spurt out some warm liquids. Those liquids would quickly solidify when they hit the air, turning hard as could be.

All of the buildings were made of the ice walls which were formed from those solidified warm liquids. Bogner tested their hardness, hitting them with a somewhat weak energy body. Apart from some shards of ice that flew off, it hadn’t been any use. And the most interesting thing was that those ice walls were very conveniently repaired. You only had to pour the warm liquid in them, and they would be as good as new.

Bogner slapped his mouth, “When did Borna get such technology? I’ve never seen him use that before.”

“Oh, I brought him a Heavenly Drum Village District construction methods fantasy card last time, and I imagine he’s just showing off what he learned.” Xi Ping spoke languidly, while little Yang Bo’s nose had turned red from the cold at his feet, though he opened his eyes wide in curiosity, finding everything in front of him quite wonderful.

Rubbing his hands, Bogner was grumbling about the heat, “Ai, that guy works really slowly. Who knows in what year and month we might move in.” The he suddenly glanced at Ru Qiu having a nice chat with Brenton, “What do you think about that golden-haired kid?”

Xi Ping pondered before saying, “Ask the boss. Right, what has the boss been doing these last couple of days?” Chen Mu’s strangeness those last couple of days had gotten Xi Ping’s attention, and he was a little concerned.

Bogner shrugged, “Who knows. That guy Jiang Liang is in secret every day with the boss. Ha-ha, he’s bare chested every day, and it looks like Miss Sue is looking at him rather murderously.” Then he stroked his chin, as though he had something on his mind, and said, “Could the boss have peculiar tastes?”

* * *

In front of the bare-chested Jiang Liang there was a snow pit which was as deep as a person and filled with snow.

He took in a deep breath, and jumped into the pit without any hesitation, lying down flat in it.

Seeing him laying down, Chen Mu quickly put all the snow piled next to the pit into it. In an instant, the snow pit was flattened again.

After doing that, Chen Mu sat beside the snow pit, and closed his eyes.