The Card Apprentice

After mulling it over for a moment, Chen Mu carefully manipulated the energy chain in his hands. He hadn’t thought it would actually be so lively. Once his perception had been activated, the energy chain became like a sentient being as it suddenly rolled toward the trunk of a tree in front of him.

At nearly the same time, Chen Mu’s face shifted. A stunning amount of energy was drawn like crazy from his power card and went along the energy chain in a flash, pouring like lightning into the area where the chain was winding!

The scene was as though some towering dam suddenly sprung a small leak at its base. The rapid flow of energy brought along some powerful pressure. It was like time had stopped during that moment.

Shapeless pressure came from all directions, squeezing in toward Chen Mu. It mostly focused on his chest, where it was unspeakably hard to take. Breathing became difficult, and his brain went inexplicably buzzing. Chen Mu was aghast. By that time, the energy was entirely out of his control as it continued to flow rapidly toward the tree trunk.

His perception was more and more stifled, and Chen Mu felt like he was a balloon that had been squeezed to the limit. He could be popped dead at any moment!

His physical perception of his surroundings hadn’t grown sluggish because of that; on the contrary, it had become clearer. It was so clear that Chen Mu could practically perceive his flesh and blood vessels being distorted. It really seemed as though he were being pinched in the palm of a huge hand that was continually tightening.

His sweat was pouring down in a winding stream. In an instant, Chen Mu felt he was at the point of not being able to take it. But there was nothing he could do to stop the rapidly flowing energy! His face flushed red, and the veins on his forehead were pulsing. He tried as hard as he could to mobilize all the perception in his body to fight off that terrifying pressure!

What to do? What to do? Chen Mu’s brain was churning as he tried to find something workable! He knew if he were to go on like that, once he’d lost control of those amazing numbers of energy bodies, they would be enough to tear him to shreds.

Ten seconds!

It was like he was in prison for ten seconds—or being fried to death. Chen Mu just held on for those ten seconds, but he had already reached his limit. The red flush on his face retreated and left him pale. Even his bones were creaking.

It didn’t make sense! How could that same card make such a scene when he used it himself? Although Chen Mu remained composed, his efforts to think it through had become critical.

Then, that swarthy stalwart shouting “Bam!” suddenly flashed through his brain. Could it be…

Chen Mu hardened his heart and still couldn’t find a way to resist the pressure. The pressure, which was coming from every direction and blocking out everything, kept pressing on Chen Mu’s chest until he wheezed out a breath and nearly unconsciously shouted, “Bam!”

There was a roar!

The tree trunk in front of Chen Mu suddenly blew to pieces. Wood chips stung him in the face, but he wasn’t the least bit annoyed. His face actually showed an irrepressible look of joy. Once that “Bam!” was out of his mouth, all the formless pressure around him abruptly disappeared without a trace. His whole body felt unspeakably carefree!

Still, he couldn’t care about being happy just then; he had to scramble off to the side in a flash as the 20-meter-tall tree crashed down. Its trunk had been blasted to pieces right through. That was a trunk with a diameter of six or seven meters!

Trees that grew in the icy and snowy regions grew so slowly and so dense that their wood was as hard as iron. A tree as big as that one would need at least several hundred years to grow.

The power of that “Bam!” was quite evident!

Chen Mu had a complicated expression as he surveyed the mess. His heart was pounding. If he hadn’t just thought of that word, he could have been ripped to shreds by that out-of-control energy. He had a vague sense that the probability of that was quite high.

Regardless, he was quickly attracted to the power demonstrated by the Golden Word Shackle. That was still only his first time contacting the card. He didn’t quite believe a card with such complexity and sophistication would only have that one kind of move.

When he had first extended his perception into the Golden Word Shackle, the first association he made was with the Sectional Succession. The Golden Word Shackle’s level of complexity wasn’t the least bit inferior to the Sectional Succession, though it was too bad that the legacy of the Golden Word Shackle was nowhere to be found. If it still existed, he wouldn’t have even had to wrack his brain about how to use it.

Still, he kept laughing to himself; if the Golden Word Shackle legacy still existed, how could he have ever gotten the card? That dark-faced stalwart had nothing more than the word “bam.” However, even if Chen Mu had killed them all by virtue of so many fierce wild animals, he was afraid he would long since have been killed if Mo Ta had the legacy of the Golden Word Shackle.

Any similar level of card would have 1,000 miles difference depending on whether it had or didn’t have its legacy! The Bipolar Thunderball he had, for example, had been passed down through so many people’s hands and had gathered the pearls of so many people’s insights. By the time it came into his hands, he had no way to bring into play all its power.

The Bipolar Thunderball, the Sectional Succession, the Golden Word Shackle—as Chen Mu saw it, those three cards were all incredible. But if he were to assess them, the one that would get the highest points would still be the Bipolar Thunderball. The reason was simple: the Bipolar Thunderball wasn’t more than a three-star card.

Chen Mu could only look up to a three-star card, which could line up with the other two cards and even be rated as brilliant.

Still, the three cards had to be treated completely differently. The Bipolar Thunderball, which he would rate as the best, was the worst among the three, as well as the most obscure. The Sectional Succession had rocked the federation and was regarded as a treasure by the Federation Comprehensive Academy. The Golden Word Shackle had fallen into the hands of a bandit, though it still somehow managed to help get him listed among the first 100 names in the Black-Line Star Listing. That had made it rather famous.

There were basically two reasons for that. One aspect was the continuity of a legacy. On that point, the Sectional Succession was the winner. A different aspect was that people had blind faith in the star ranking of the Van Sant System. The Golden Word Shackle was five-star, which was like a nameplate that showed how extraordinary it was. The Bipolar Thunderball wasn’t valued, being a three-star card.

That was also why the numbered series of cards could be sought after by so many people. The appearance of the numbered series of cards broke through the so-called star-level grading to a certain extent. It was just that they could only play a limited role as compared to people’s ingrained ideals. Still, their appearance was tantamount to planting a seed. Quite a few people then discovered it wasn’t always the case that a higher star level meant a more capable card.

The appearance of the Snake Lens and the Golden Word Shackle also made Chen Mu’s power surge. However, if he had practiced the Sectional Succession, his strength actually might have flown up in still more of a hurry. But the Sectional Succession was unfortunately the only one among those cards he couldn’t use. It wasn’t that he hadn’t learned the legacy of the Sectional Succession; once he was recognized using the skills it contained, the results of that weren’t something he wanted to imagine.

Furthermore, he still needed to think up some way to sell the Sectional Succession and its legacy. Otherwise, it would be a time bomb if he kept it on him.

What he was most interested in about the Bipolar Thunderball was what had been revealed by its card technologies and its information regarding card making. Since it didn’t have a legacy, exploring it was a huge undertaking. Although the Hundred Changes and the Patterned Shuttle didn’t have the power of the Bipolar Thunderball or the Golden Word Shackle, they were cards he had designed himself. They were more compliant when he used them.

Having gone through all that, though, Chen Mu finally realized the shortcoming of his tactics. If he were only to use the Hundred Changes and the Patterned Shuttle, his tactics would be too limited. Once he stopped using them, he basically would have no other contingent means.

Naturally, he put the Bipolar Thunderball on his itinerary. Given his current perceptual strength and acuity, a hard indicator of controlling a three-star card was how well he handled it. Moreover, he would have another choice if he were to add in the Golden Word Shackle. It was just that the Golden Word Shackle was a little difficult! That thrilling scene just then had left his heart pounding.

Raising his head to look at the vast forest, a powerful sense of danger made Chen Mu’s gaze turn resolute. He would get the gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus, and he would survive! That goal was now within reach and was stimulating Chen Mu’s fighting spirit, unlike his previous hopelessness had.

After several days, when Chen Mu still hadn’t discovered anything like the energy waves emitted by the Snake Lens, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief. But when he thought about it, that made sense. The Snake Lens certainly wasn’t a mainstream card. As Chen Mu saw it, a card at that level was something only the Big Six would use in any large scale.

What made Chen Mu the most surprised was that among that pile of cards, he had actually discovered the legacy of the Snake Lens! Its performance was already powerful, but having the legacy meant he could make its range of detection go up by a factor of five.

In the fantasy card that recorded the legacy of the Snake Lens, there was also recorded another stunning piece of information. The Snake Lens came from one of the Big Six, after all—Desert Camp! No wonder the Snake Lens was so awesome. Anything from the Big Six would be extraordinary.

That made Chen Mu still more certain his adversary wouldn’t have another Snake Lens. So, he was in no hurry to leave the forest. He had taken over the initiative in the forest with the Snake Lens, and it was a familiar battleground for him.

There was nothing better for him to do than take advantage of that time to carefully research the Bipolar Thunderball and the Golden Word Shackle and to perfect his own tactical system. That way, it wouldn’t be so easy for him to fall into the passive position after leaving the forest.

The gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus wasn’t easy to get. According to the plan formulated by Bogner and Xi Ping, he needed to become known, and he needed to challenge other card artisans. He was afraid that would mean lots of vicious battles. He wouldn’t be able to do all of that without power. The stronger he was, the better his chances.

And, having the thousand kilometer card meant that even though he was in the forest, he could still conveniently communicate with Wei-ah and the ravine.

* * *

Poor Jin Yin was leading his small team each day, searching along the way in the direction of Zargan without gaining anything. His ordinarily sullen look had become still more sullen. That was right up until Bao Le and Jeremy’s two small teams came running to join his suffering. That made him feel more psychologically balanced.

The formidable Constellation had run out of strategies by that time.

As always, Wen remained sunk in his ease and leisure, as though he hadn’t been affected at all. His magical, feminine voice once again came out from underneath the demonic mask and said, “The plan remains the same. You’re the lead, Yuchi. You’re second in command, An Sa. Pay attention to where our quarry is headed, Gan Lin. As for those other three, let them play. Still, if I don’t have some results when the time comes…”

An Sa and Gan Lin felt a chill. If the three small teams didn’t grab him this time or kill that mysterious ace, the aftermath would be miserable.

Yuchi Bai didn’t immediately follow the orders. He said hesitantly, “What about your safety, Master?

Wen smiled lightly, and the eye-like red jewel on his forehead became still more lustrous and unspeakably pretty.

“Ha ha! Who am I but Wen, Yuchi?” His soft, feminine speech had the sense of the powerful self-confidence of a child looking down on the whole world.

The three showed looks of awe, and they hung their heads to say respectfully, “Yes, sir!”

* * *

Bogner was looking expressionlessly at the card artisans practicing. They had already begun to gradually display a sense that they were soldiers. Although they were still far from the troops Bogner had in mind, they had accomplished a lot in a short time, which rather satisfied him.

He was especially pleased with the noticeable growth of Jiang Liang. Ever since Jiang Liang’s perception was cured by Chen Mu’s snow pit method, he seemed like an entirely new person, as though he had been reborn. Bogner would give him more responsibility to manage by the day. From time to time, he would even turn over some of his own ideas to him. Without knowing it, Bogner and Jiang Liang had become like a teacher and his disciple.

The snow pit method had already been disseminated to the entire ravine. Since many people in front of him had accumulated a lot of experience, the entire process was as smooth as could be. The several card sets Chen Mu had designed had also been distributed.

Apart from Bogner expending endless mental energy formulating the tactics, there had also been the addition of tactics that the card artisans had created themselves.

That was something Chen Mu had reminded Bogner about. That set was really its own different kind of legacy. They didn’t need to wait across the generations for the essence to emerge from the weeds. There were a lot of them. With several thousand creating together, as well as going through battle testing, they could quickly summarize a set of ideas.

A card like the Sectional Succession would have 30 or 50 people practicing it each generation until it had been developed to the extreme. But the power of a crowd was boundless!

While they had no way to compare with those who were so favored by the heavens, with 100 times more people and by working as a team, they should come up with at least 100 times more ideas. Although most of them would be useless, the fine ones that came through would still add up to a lot. Moreover, those card artisans didn’t have the flaw of being overly ambitious, so the usage they came up with would have practical value.

Once he thought of that, Bogner felt satisfied. That method was used in the military, where the army did the same kind of preparation. The usage of every kind of card was utterly tried-out in practice.

But, in the army, they didn’t have the card set! When he thought of that, he felt even more satisfied. Having found that the boss was safe those last few days, he was finally able to allow the stone hanging in his heart to drop.

He turned the work over to Jiang Liang and walked to Xi Ping’s office. Even though the boss remained unharmed just then, Bogner still felt buried in a pile of worry.

Yikes, isn’t that the manager of the Snowflake Card Artisan Team from Chilei? What’s he doing here? Bogner was puzzled, although he didn’t show it by his expression. The manager was in a hurry and didn’t even pay attention to him.

Bogner glanced at him before retracting his gaze, going straight over to Xi Ping’s office.

Seeing Bogner, Xi Ping didn’t raise his eyelids as he said, “What’s the idea of running over here, you old devil?”

Bogner chuckled. “You hurt my feelings talking like that. We have such good relations that I can’t even come pay a visit?”

Xi Ping wasn’t affected by that as he said with a cold smile, “You came to see me? When have you ever come here without getting something to take back with you?”

“Ha ha! What would we ever do without each other?” Bogner had thick skin and laughed it off before saying with some puzzlement, “I just saw someone from the Snowflake Card Artisan Team. Why did they come?”

Xi Ping stopped what he was doing and said with an expression as though something were strange, “They came to rush the purple fluorescent extracts. The order they left this time was for a still greater quantity than last time. It’s strange. What do they want with so much extract? You can’t eat the stuff!”

“How much did they order this time?” Bogner asked with a lot of curiosity.

“They ordered 150 billion worth.” Xi Ping tossed the number out with his usual expression.

Bogner was stunned. “Oh my god! Do those guys have so much money they don’t know where to spend it?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s a little unusual myself. From the material I’ve gathered, the purple fluorescent extract can only be used to make cards. If over 150 billion worth of it were to be used to make cards, the quantity would be terrifying,” Xi Ping muttered.

“Could they be wanting to hoard it?” Bogner thought that might be a possibility.

“I don’t think so.” Xi Ping shook his head. “They want it pretty urgently even at an increased price. If they were hoarding it, they wouldn’t need to be so urgent.”

“I imagine there must be something fishy about it.” Bogner rubbed the stubble on his chin in contemplation.

“Mmmm, I’ve already planned to slow production.” Xi Ping had felt vaguely uneasy about making that decision.

“Heh heh. That’s a good idea. The Snowflake Card Artisan Team has gotten too powerful, which isn’t necessarily a good thing for us.” Bogner laughed. Both of them being crafty old devils, of course they sniffed out what was fishy about it.

The speed of producing the liquid extract from the purple fluorescent ore was something only the two of them knew about and something they keep secret from outsiders. They also didn’t need to be worried that it would make the Snowflake Card Artisan Team dissatisfied. Their production speed was so much faster than that of similar companies; even if they slowed it down, it would still be faster than anyone else’s.

“Right. I was just looking for you. I have some information about them.” Xi Ping’s expression looked serious.

Bogner quickly restrained the smile on his face and unconsciously straightened his back to ask, “What’s up?”

“The surname of the Chum Salmon Passenger Company’s general director is Yan, named Hao. He was previously a rather powerful card artisan. When he was 30, he founded the company. His son is called Yan Pei and grew up to be a pretty good fellow. He married three years ago.”

Bogner didn’t interrupt as he listened carefully.

“Yan Pei’s wife is called Xu Qianchen, and she’s not a card artisan. Her background is a mystery, and the Yan family is very vague about it. I spent a lot of energy looking into her background. He father was called Xu Bailun, and you certainly wouldn’t guess he came from Moon Frost Island.”

“Moon Frost Island?” Bogner’s eyes suddenly enlarged at that utterly unexpected result. As he saw it, no matter how arrogant Constellation was, they would absolutely never dare to turn their attention to Moon Frost Island. “I never would have thought they would be so bold!”

Xi Ping nodded. “The news startled me too. By the time I looked into that Xu Bailun, I was still more surprised. He was no ordinary person inside Moon Frost Island! He was its past president and the disciple of the number-one spot on the Heavenly Drum Rolls, Jia Yingxia.”

“No way!” Bogner’s mouth hung open in shock. “Such a powerful person?”

“Xu Bailun stays pretty low-key and isn’t so famous. Apart from his making a move when Jia Yingxia was contesting him for president of Moon Frost Island, he’s never made another move. That happened 20 years ago, and few people know about it. There’s no way to know how much power Xu Bailun has. But after Jia Yingxia assumed the presidency of Moon Frost Island, he took over as director of the library and seldom showed his face. Not long after Jia Yingxia assumed the presidency, he also quit as director of the libraries. Xu Bailun had only a daughter, and he never taught her anything about being a card artisan.” Xi Ping spoke confidently and frankly.

“Not a simple guy!” Bogner immediately determined, looking dignified. “Constellation has kicked a hornet’s nest this time!”

“I’m afraid that’s what they intended to do!” Xi Ping said, seeming shocked. “Apart from the background of Chum Salmon Passenger Company, I can’t find any way to gather information related to Constellation. Its chief, Wen, makes bizarre moves that are hard to fathom, though he always plans before he acts. He’s certainly not reckless. Even though we were able to find out the background of Chum Salmon Passenger Company, they won’t be able to find out that we did!”

“Their target is Moon Frost Island!” Bogner couldn’t resist blurting that out, and once he said it, he looked aghast. If what they had surmised were true, things would become more complicated than ever.

What did Constellation have in mind by attacking Moon Frost Island? They certainly had something to depend on that Bogner and Xi Ping didn’t know about!

The two of them seemed to have found some invisible hand manipulating everything.