The Card Apprentice

Ten dark shadows quietly stole into the ravine.

They had never seen such messed up defenses. The card artisans from Dark Fog looked at each other, each seeing the hint of contempt in the others’ eyes. With such outstanding geographic conditions, they still hadn’t perceived the slightest bit of defensive pressure. No wonder they looked down on them.

They were a little confused about why those people had actually wanted Dark Fog to go out. Wasn’t that a waste of resources? But even though their expressions showed contempt, they still moved in complete silence. Plus, they had gotten rigorous training on their special jet stream cards, which made them look like a light bit of smoke fluttering by. The dark was giving them their best cover. If they hadn’t happened to lift their heads, it would be difficult to see those ten shadows swiftly wandering along the cliffs.

The line of ten shadows scattered off at high speed to plunder every different corner of the ravine. They could already see the lit up, transparent base. When had such a multi-faceted and huge construction been built in that ravine? That took them by surprise.

One of the Dark Fog card artisans was looking at the eye-catching Valley Nest with bloodthirsty focus. His mouth opened into a silent grin as he subconsciously licked his lips. It had been a long time since he’d had any fun! He would finally be able to gratify his craving that evening.

With no warning, a hand suddenly came out from behind him to cover his mouth. Before he could react, there was the light sound of bones breaking in his neck.

The sound came a second time.

And a third.

It was right up until half of their comrades had disappeared before the gang of Dark Fog card artisans discovered something was wrong.

“Be careful! It’s an ambush!” Before that card artisan’s voice fell, it rattled to a stop.

The remaining few people were stunned, and their eyes grew wide as they looked around in terror. It was utterly silent in the ravine without a breath to be heard. Even the air seemed to have congealed.

The Dark Fog card artisans were feeling skittish. Without them knowing it, their backs were soaked in sweat. It was too quiet! Any fool would know something was wrong.

Where was the enemy hiding? They looked around on alert. Seeing that there were only four of them left, their fear was like the endless dark, oppressively taking their breath away.

“Scatter!” the lead card artisan ordered decisively through gritted teeth.

Xiaobo was watching the scene, expressionless, and shuddering inwardly. He had very sharp eyesight and saw that each of the infiltrators had extremely high ability. It was no weaker than that turtle he’d run into that day.

Thinking back on the scene of him challenging Wei-ah previously, Xiaobo couldn’t help a bout of retrospective fear. Wei-ah was a freak, after all! One should never provoke a freak! Xiaobo had made up his mind to firmly implant that lesson in his brain.

Wei-ah’s moves were too fast. He was simply the unrivaled king of the dark! Without any flourish, cries of passion, nor complicated techniques, he would use a tree branch, a rock, a puddle, and they could all become the most lethal weapons in his hands. His moves were always simple—so simple they could turn a person’s blood cold. Watching the killing wouldn’t give anyone a sense of it being stunning or glorious; it would only make someone’s heart sink to realize how fragile life really was!

Like kites whose strings had been cut, the second and third shadows fell from the top of the cliff. Xiaobo swallowed hard. He’d seen a lot of killing. Some was nasty, some heroic, and some even glorious. Then, there were the crazed bloodbaths. But he had never seen someone like Wei-ah—someone with such terrifying ability to kill.

From beginning to end, Wei-ah had no expression as he silently harvested his enemies’ lives as though he were the grim reaper.

Only one last man remained. That card artisan was scared out of his guts. He had never seen such a terrifying enemy, and he didn’t know how his comrades had died. He didn’t dare to turn around for fear that if he did, he would slow his speed and be killed!

Xiaobo laughed bitterly. Until then, he could do nothing but watch from the sidelines.

Yikes. He suddenly rubbed his eyes and looked at where Wei-ah had just been, stunned. No one was there anymore. Was Wei-ah going to let that guy live? He glanced at the only remaining infiltrator, who was about to arrive at the entrance to the ravine.

When the Dark Fog card artisan saw the exit from the ravine right in front of him, his spirits got a boost, and his face looked ecstatic. If he could only leave the ravine, his probability of survival would shoot up! Thinking about his adversary’s disappearing tricks, a truly cold feeling surged up in him, making it still more certain that his adversary had set a lot of pitfalls in the ravine. That must have been what had gotten his comrades along their way.

He could survive if only he could get out of there! Despite not wanting to reveal himself, the card artisan opened his jet stream card fully to fly desperately to the mouth of the ravine.

He was getting out!

The card artisan’s whole body suddenly relaxed. In front of him was the narrowest part of the mouth of the ravine. It would be wide open after getting through there.

Something suddenly seemed to appear in front of him. Since his speed was too fast, he couldn’t dodge it, and he then felt a pain in his chest. He fell headlong onto the ground after losing control. At such a high speed, the fall made him give up his ghost immediately.

Xiaobo’s heart tightened; he was completely stupefied. Wei-ah had no sense of time and had just ambushed him outside the ravine. His lethal weapon was nothing more than an icicle the thickness of an arm. Wei-ah had merely put the icicle right in the way of where the infiltrator had to go. He was going so fast and hadn’t thought Wei-ah would suddenly show up there. He was caught off guard and fell right into the trap.

Xiaobo was bowing down in admiration. That trick was too awesome! Wei-ah hadn’t used a card during the entire process. He couldn’t understand how the cardless sects could have waned if they were that impressive. As he thought about it, however, he felt rather glad. If the cardless sects were really as awesome as Wei-ah, then over 95 percent of the card artisans in the federation wouldn’t be able to find work. He would certainly be among those.

Ten kilometers away, on the outside of the ravine, two people were lurking in the layers of snow, their gazes fixed on the ravine from start to finish.

“They still haven’t come out after two hours. They have quite possibly already…” His tone was so grave that it was self-evident what he was thinking.

“Dead, all right! Who knows how many of our people that gang of shady ghosts has killed!” the other one said with hatred. “I’m afraid Wen Zuofu will feel heartache for half a day this time! Heh heh.”

The card artisan who had first spoken showed no look of joy as he gazed at the ravine, somewhat in a trance. After a long time, he said, “It looks like some pretty impressive character has shown up here.”

“Why do you think so much? Anyhow, with the boss-lady around, there’s nothing to worry about!” the other one said, not concerned in the least. “Besides, Wen Zuofu and those guys are already finished, which is good for us!”

“Well, if that’s the way you want it. We still have to send back the news, and we don’t know how the boss-lady will react when she hears it.”

“Heh heh, how will she react? She’ll be happy, of course!”

***

Chen Mu was completely ignorant of anything happening outside. His attention was fully focused. The first time for those card artisans to try the snow pit method had revealed all sorts of issues. Many of the situations were things he’d never thought of. In the end, Chen Mu had only handled Jiang Liang before then. Jiang Liang’s excellent psychological qualities had caused a lot less trouble for him, but the rest of the card artisans didn’t have those sorts of psychological qualities.

Except for Chen Mu, the busiest probably included Sue Lochiro. It was a good thing she had previously prepared quite a few pieces of therapeutic equipment. Even so, she was still flustered.

After 20 minutes, there were still 52 card artisans in the snow pits. That really surprised Chen Mu. Even Jiang Liang could only hold out for 40 minutes. To be able to last for 20 minutes already showed pretty good ability. Compared to what he’d expected, for more than ten people to be able to last that long was pretty impressive.

He hadn’t thought there would actually be 52. That was far beyond what he had expected, but it also made Chen Mu feel quite excited.

At 30 minutes, there were only the final nine remaining.

At 33 minutes, there were four left.

At 34 minutes, there were only two.

By 35 minutes, the last two people couldn’t take it anymore and were pulled out.

Seeing everyone so flustered, Chen Mu finally breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as he slacked off, he could only feel a pain from his forehead. He had overdone his use of perception. He could just barely say to Jiang Liang, “Compute the results tonight, and give them to me tomorrow.” After he said that, Chen Mu—already exhausted to the limit—couldn’t take any more and returned to his room to rest.

First thing when Chen Mu got up the next day, there were two reports placed in front of him. One of them was the report on the perceptual training, the results of which were perfectly gratifying. Chen Mu believed after another half a year, or even less, they might even have a few card artisans show up with perceptual strength at level five. The one among them making the most rapid progress was of course Jiang Liang. He had only a notch to go for the fifth level.

Lu Xiaoru and the rest were also going to try the snow pit method that day. He didn’t know what the results would be like for them.

The other report surprised Chen Mu. There had actually been a sneak attack last night! He didn’t even know there was any commotion. When he thought about it, he immediately felt some retrospective fear.

They were lucky Wei-ah was there! At the end of the report, Bogner had added conjectures about where those people had come from.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Bogner was standing there when he opened it.

“There is someone from the area who has come to pay a visit, Boss. They want to see you.”

Someone is paying a visit? Chen Mu hastily washed his face. He was so tired the night before that he looked a little as though his spirits weren’t so hot.

Walking into the great hall behind Bogner, Chen Mu saw the visitor. It was a woman! That rather surprised Chen Mu. As he saw it, it was surprising for there to actually be a woman—and such a pretty one, at that—in such a miserable place!

She was dressed casually and had short hair to her ears, which made her look perfectly spirited. Her dark skin and rather wild features made it look as though some powerful altar liquor was about to be lit up. On her neck hung a tooth from who knew what wild beast, and she wore a pair of black leather gloves on her hands, cut off to expose her fingers.

She was sitting there carelessly, eating snacks and drinking tea. She didn’t drink it in a leisurely way, as Xi Ping did, but drained the cup a single, heroic gulp. She ate each one of the exquisite little snacks in a single bite.

From when Chen Mu first saw her until when he walked up to her, she had poured nearly a pot of tea and had eaten seven or eight snacks.

“This is our boss, Miss Qiao.” Bogner politely introduced Chen Mu and then introduced her to Chen Mu. “Miss Qiao is the boss-lady of the fort of the House of Qiao. Her name is Qiao Fei.”

“How are you, Boss Chen?” Qiao Fei cracked a smile, revealing a pair of tiger teeth as she rose from the chair and walked over to Chen Mu. She suddenly gave him a big hug and a friendly pat on the back, as though they had long known one another. “We welcome you here to make your fortune!”

That heroic gesture—giving such an ample greeting with the flavor of the outlands—left Chen Mu, whose spirits weren’t so good just then, unable to respond for a while. His expression was rather sluggish, and his brain had short-circuited. He looked at Qiao Fei in a daze, tilting his head as though he were thinking seriously about something.

After quite a while, it seemed he finally understood why he might feel so strange. If the one in front of him were exchanged for a husky, bearded fellow, everything would be perfectly normal. But for that to happen on the body of a woman was a little bit…

“I’d heard that you came, Boss Chen. Your little sister came to see. I hope I’m not being too bold!” When Qiao Fei spoke, she wasn’t really facing Chen Mu but was pouring tea while desperately stuffing her face with snacks.

“Not too bold—welcome, welcome! We are honored that Miss Qiao could come.” Having dealt with so many people for so long, Chen Mu could muster the most basic aspects of the art of showing face.

Seeing that Chen Mu seemed to be about to sit, Xiaobo, who was standing to the side, rushed to pull open a chair for him. Qiao Fei raised her head to take a look at Xiaobo and said in praise, “This henchman of yours isn’t bad, Boss Chen!”

Henchman… The flesh on Xiaobo’s cheeks involuntarily twitched a few times.

“Oh, he’s pretty good.” Chen Mu was trying to make conversation as he watched Qiao Fei ravenously gobbling the snacks, which made him suddenly feel hungry.

“If Miss Qiao hasn’t eaten breakfast, then why don’t we eat together?” Chen Mu said.

Qiao Fei’s eyes lit up, and she kept nodding. “Ok. We should have some meat. I haven’t eaten much, so just give me a roasted leg of lamb.” Looking at the stony-faced crowd, she added, “We should have the back leg. The whole thing.”

Drinking his porridge and looking at Qiao Fei with her whole face focused on ripping apart the leg of lamb in front of him, Chen Mu was staring at her, wide eyed. He suddenly felt that this Qiao Fei was a lot of fun.