The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu didn’t spend much thought on the green thread inside his body—not because he was lazy but because it did no good to think too much about it. Although both Bogner and Xi Ping were very much concerned, he himself wasn’t holding out much hope. He figured the so-called Tai-shu “Great Uncle” family of Dongrui was likely to be a powerful aristocratic type, which he saw as out of reach.

And, the green thread hadn’t just been in his body for one or two days. Compared to the beginning, his dread of it had lessened quite a bit. He would have to do what he had to do. Just then, he was putting all the energy he had into those three cards of his. He had used up a lot of thought on those card sets, even going so far as to use some of the mid-level Token Theory he had only just learned. Of course, there were quite a few shaky places at the outset, but after making several thousand cards, he had gained a much deeper understanding of mid-level Token Theory.

Chen Mu wasn’t at all stingy with the things that had saved his own life, but he would always find some way to get whatever he could think of and whatever good materials he could for his own work. He had a arranged a large quantity of rare materials in front of him, but he didn’t immediately do anything. Although he had already decided the larger aspects of the cards, it was still worth thoroughly pondering how to design a completely new battle card.

Chen Mu once again shut himself into the lab.

Having just gotten so many cards, Bogner had a lot of work to do. He was so busy he could never finish it all. Xi Ping kept secret every day, and nobody knew what he was doing.

Recently, Bogner was truly both happy and in pain. None of the card sets Chen Mu had made were anything but fine. Whether it was the Whorled Sniper Shuttle, the Oudi Burner, the Ring of Sluggishness, or the Folding Explosion, they all had distinctive characteristics. In the same way, however, they all had distinctive shortcomings. As a result, how to put them together and how to form tactics was all quite painstaking work.

Up against Bogner’s meticulous thinking, Chen Mu’s introduction of those cards would only be considered general, leaving plenty of places perfectly fuzzy. In order to clearly hit on the cards’ capabilities, he would have had to try them himself.

The Whorled Sniper Shuttle’s power was exceptionally strong, and its accuracy was so high it was eye-popping. But, in the same way, it made high demands on the two who fired it. Bogner and Jiang Liang discussed it at length and decided that in order to deploy the Whorled Sniper Shuttle and bring its full power into play, the ones who fired it would specifically have to increase the training courses in their skills on locking in.

The Oudi Burner was another card giving Bogner headaches. There was nothing Bogner wasn’t satisfied with regarding its capabilities. Its powerful lethality toward energy cloaks made him still more satisfied. But he would still have to slow down with the training for the time being. The cost of using it was just too high!

The capabilities of the Ring of Sluggishness had already made his eyes light up, but in the same way, he had found an extremely fatal loophole! It was only effective against energy bodies, and it was useless toward real bodies. After asking Chen Mu, he found out that the essence of the Ring of Sluggishness was forming an “energy gentling” zone, which would naturally only be effective with energy bodies.

Once hit by a cardless sect, the Ring of Sluggishness wouldn’t be the least bit effective. As he thought about it, though, Bogner was somewhat relieved. The issue of the cardless sects was rather thorny for any contemporary troop of card artisans. Still, not being able to move once it was used did greatly limit its scope for deployment. Regardless, its excellent defensive capabilities against energy bodies made Bogner excited.

The Folding Exploder was the card set that imitated the folding Yanbo card. Its specialty was an explosive attack with huge power. Its firing frequency and accuracy were both quite good, though it wouldn’t be considered top-notch overall. What most filled Bogner with joy was that the Folding Exploder’s energy bodies were the same kind of fiery red. If they were mixed in with the Oudi Burner, it would be quite deceptive. The enemy wouldn’t detect them for a moment, so they would surely take a huge loss.

Looking over the sets of cards, not one wouldn’t be considered fine goods and a leader among cards for its capabilities! But Bogner had discovered an important issue. The four card sets were all battle-style sets, but none could become a conventional attack card! In other words, the cards were most suited for use in a large-scale battle—the more organized, the more shocking the power! The four card sets were too extreme with none of them suited to a battle between two card artisans.

Bogner could only smile bitterly about that. The more than 2,000 cards had taken Chen Mu three months to finish making, and Bogner well knew the boss didn’t have time to make more cards on such a large scale. He knew Xi Ping had been busy with something those last few days. Once he had some results, they would have to turn their attention toward how to help the boss get the gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus.

It looked like they would have to find some way themselves to solve the issue of generic cards. After pondering it for a long time and discussing it with Jiang Liang, they finally decided each card artisan would be allocated a conventional four-star card, though that still required Xi Ping to go out and buy them. More than 2,000 four-star cards would also represent a terrifying expenditure.

Chen Mu made his own cards quickly, only spending three days to finish them. After making cards continually for three months, the practical experience had worn him out, but it also rather enriched him and gave him quite a bit of inspiration.

Chen Mu optimized the Big Mudfish according to his new designs, which greatly increased its performance. It would accompany Chen Mu’s physical abilities to become still more weirdly erratic, even incorporating some of the style of the demonic woman. Chen Mu had also compressed the new big mudfish card’s energy fluctuations to the extreme, so even he himself would have a hard time perceiving them unless he had been warned ahead of time.

The hundred changes card would become Chen Mu’s principal move from then on. Its creativity derived from a card Chen Mu had repaired himself when he was in Eastern Shang-Wei City. That was the hundred changes cloaking card the gentle Madam Ning’s father had once used. The hundred changes cloaking card was an energy cloak card, but it could change the shape of the energy cloak in irregular ways. For instance, it could turn it into a shuttle shape to reduce its flight resistance or could form into a conical shape to attack the enemy. It had been the first combined offensive and defensive card Chen Mu had seen.

That card of Chen Mu’s and the hundred changes cloaking card had no essential differences except that his was more clever. It could form a thin layer of energy that would be hard to see with the naked eye. But the thin layer shouldn’t be looked down upon, as it had rather powerful defensive capabilities! Without using a powerful weapon such as the Whorled Sniper Shuttle, no ordinary energy body would have a way to penetrate that layer.

The energy layer had another capability. It could constantly change color, so Chen Mu could blend in with his environment, greatly increasing his concealment.

In the training space, Chen Mu was in the midst of familiarizing himself with the Hundred Changes. A thin, almost indiscernible wavy blade suddenly appeared on the edge of his palm. Chen Mu carefully tried controlling it with his perception, and two sharp cones about seven or eight centimeters long suddenly appeared on his shoulder. Those two energy cones were colorless and transparent; they would chill the heart like the fangs of a monster.

Then, with a glow too slight to notice, a sharp point was oscillating out from the tip of his toe. Chen Mu had become like a monster covered with all sorts of weapons. By using the Hundred Changes, every part of his body could turn into a lethal weapon. In that way, he could deploy his powerful cardless-sect-style body to the greatest extent.

He would have the remote-attack type of card he had made for himself in reserve. It was a simplified version of the Whorled Sniper Shuttle he called the Patterned Shuttle. Its destructive value was a little less than that of the Whorled Sniper Shuttle, and it was much more difficult to control. It was a good thing Chen Mu had stunning perceptual acuity and was good at the fine control of perception, which was perfectly suited to that sort of card.

The new cards were tailor-made for Chen Mu, and all three had the same peculiarity, which was that the energy fluctuations were extremely small. That allowed Chen Mu to fill his means of attack with concealment and suddenness. Against card artisans who were used to judging their adversary’s moves by way of their perception, that was the style they least wanted to encounter.

His perception had recently made a qualitative leap, and his control had gotten a step stronger. He gradually got used to the Hundred Changes.

Even so, his overall power had abruptly increased. When he was doing resistance training with Wei-ah, he could hold out ten seconds longer than before. That really encouraged him. The most miserable was Xiaobo. His perception had just broken through to the sixth level. Once, when he was a little over-eager, he thought he would show off in front of Chen Mu, which only resulted in Chen Mu beating him to a pulp.

Seeing as Chen Mu could sail along as he wished with the unparalleled directional changes of the Big Mudfish, be impossible to defend against with his bizarre Hundred Changes, and use his lethal remote-attack Patterned Shuttle, Xiaobo really suffered.

Before Chen Mu had even gotten used to those three cards, Xi Ping finally had some news.

In the meeting room, Chen Mu, Bogner, and Xi Ping were discussing the recent intelligence.

Xi Ping said with a serious expression, “I did some investigation and finally found where the Tai-shus of Dongrui came from. They are an ancient clan said to be of the same era as the Luo Household of Thousand Lakes, both seeming to have the same origins. But in the information I uncovered, there was no intelligence to show that the Tai-shus of Dongrui have any gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus.”

Bogner said ponderously, “Judging by Mobley’s character, he doesn’t seem likely to be making this up. Since he is so insistent that they have it, it couldn’t just be an empty rumor. Otherwise, he certainly would have listed it among those powers that only might have it.”

“Mmmm,” Xi Ping said in agreement. “Our intelligence sources are naturally quite lacking compared to those of the Snowflake Card Artisan Team. Inconsistencies would be likely. I also trust their intelligence. Anyway, judging from the intelligence we have gathered up until now, I feel we have an opportunity!”

“Why do you say that?” Bogner suddenly got some spirit, and even Chen Mu pricked up his ears. Although he wasn’t holding out much hope, hearing Xi Ping talk about an opportunity naturally excited him.

In his mind, Xi Ping and Bogner both had good judgment and were seldom mistaken.