The Card Apprentice

“Linghai Card Artisan Training Camp.” Those five large gold-leaf words were rather eye-catching in the sunlight. Small clusters of students were coming and going, all of them putting on fierce looks.

Chen Mu and his group stopped up the gate, which got everyone’s attention. Many of the students passing through gave them dirty looks, sneering when they turned their gazes to the group’s leader, Chen Mu.

When Ji Ming arrived at the gate of the training camp in a rush, he saw what was happening. He couldn’t refrain from laughing. As the director of external relations for the training camp, he had seen a lot. The Linghai Training Camp was Zargan’s best-known training camp. They would encounter several groups of challengers every year, which was how they had become so well-known.

At Ji Ming’s first glance, he knew the gang had come for a challenge. But it was the first time he’d seen such an ugly challenger. He couldn’t hide his look of amusement.

Chen Mu and his gang paid no attention to that familiar response. The issue he was considering just then was how to begin. He had no experience issuing a challenge, and he had never seen anyone else do it. He didn’t know anything about the steps of the process.

His gaze then fell onto that gilt signboard, and he had an idea. While Ji Ming and the students were laughing, a golden energy chain was curling up to write “Linghai Card Artisan Training Camp” on the sign, and Chen Mu lightly shouted, “Bam!”

Ji Ming’s expression shifted, but it was too late to do anything about it. There was a loud bang, and the huge sign was blown to bits.

With their smiles frozen on their faces, the students were stuck as dumb as wooden chickens. There was then a very brief period of calm at the gate.

Ji Ming’s expression was also frozen, but he suddenly calmed down to squint with a gaze as sharp as a knife toward that strangely ugly man. He had received countless challengers, but none had ever been so bold and arrogant. Who would destroy someone’s sign before crowds in the open space except for some mortal enemy? But, seeing how his adversary looked, Ji Ming couldn’t remember when the training camp had had such an enemy!

There had never been any challenger who would so brazenly give the Linghai Training Camp what amounted to a slap in the face. That left no room for turning around their relations; one of them would have to die!

Ji Ming was turning those thoughts over rapidly, getting more and more puzzled, but he had to make a quick decision. With the sign destroyed, he would certainly be punished as the director. If he were to allow that adversary do something else that crossed the line, however, he would be finished as director.

“You dare to make a disturbance at our Linghai Training Camp, sir, so you must have an awful lot of confidence in your power. I am ashamed to say I am the director of external affairs for the camp and will be obliged to teach you an important lesson.” Ji Ming spoke darkly with a chilly expression.

“F***ing kill him, Director Ji!”

“I’m coming, Director Ji! I’m going to smash that unknown f***ing animal!”

* * *

Things became rather explosive right away at the gate of the Linghai Training Camp. The students were like an angry mob, surrounding Chen Mu and his group. They were burly and in groups of three or five. Once they surrounded them, they were immediately blocking the gate of the camp.

Duan Fu was staring with his eyes wide open, utterly dumbfounded. Where had that Mr. Ugly on the scene come from? By the time he could react, he was already shivering, looking in fear at that group of students about to explode all around them. He couldn’t help but move a little closer to Mr. Ugly, as though that could provide a little sense of security.

Not only his, but all of the other guards’ expressions had shifted. Quite a few of them cursed to themselves about how that ugly devil must be sick to run over to someone else’s place and go crazy like that. It would be fine if he wanted to go crazy by himself, but to drag them into it, poor souls, they could only follow the bad luck.

On the other hand, Ah Sang seemed perfectly calm, though her face was covered by a black veil; there was no way to see her expression clearly. There was only a vague flash from behind it, which seemed to show that the beautiful young woman wasn’t feeling quite as calm as she presented.

Hearing his adversary’s invitation to fight, Chen Mu breathed a sigh of relief to himself. It looked like the way he had issued the challenge wasn’t too far off. He had been afraid his counterpart wouldn’t fight, which would have meant his plans had come to naught. But he still felt guilty; no matter where, destroying someone’s sign would be big no-no.

Since he’d already decided he would make a move, Chen Mu didn’t want to muddy the water any further. He swung out the energy chain from his hand.

Continual expressions of “Ai-ya!” were then heard from the surrounding students, who were caught off guard and huddling together. Being surrounded by them wasn’t conducive to his play.

Ji Ming’s expression turned uglier. That sort of move right in his face was certainly quite rude! Without wasting any words, Ji Ming made a move with his body and pulled up rapidly. In the blink of an eye, he had flown about 200 meters from the ground.

Zing, zing, zing!

There was a thrumming burst of sound as eight energy saw-wheels of about eight centimeters in diameter were floating around his body. Those white energy saw-wheels were thin and full of fine, sharp teeth around their edges. Each energy saw-wheel maintained a high rate of spinning, which made the zinging sound.

“Hunh!” Ji Ming grunted and pointed two fingers toward Chen Mu with a light flick.

Xiu, xiu, xiu!

Three energy saw-wheels suddenly left his side and turned into three beams of light, which shot rapidly in a triangular formation toward Chen Mu’s group.

They were approaching with a lot of momentum. Chen Mu shrank his body slightly, and the golden energy chain was swaying like seaweed at the bottom of the sea.

Suddenly, the three energy saw-wheels blew apart in midair and dispersed!

That turn of events was too sudden, and even Chen Mu was caught a little off guard. The three scattering energy saw-wheels enshrouded Chen Mu and his group. Because things had changed so suddenly, however, Chen Mu’s reaction was half a beat slow.

Surprisingly, one of the saw-wheels’ targets was Ah Sang to the side of Chen Mu. Ji Ming had sharp eyesight and saw that Ah Sang was clearly a woman standing by Chen Mu’s side. He thought she might be someone important, like Chen Mu’s lover or something.

Hovering in midair, Ji Ming was sneering to himself. Which one would he choose to save? That move of his wasn’t really practical, but his adversary that day had brought along a crowd, which gave him an excellent opportunity.

At that point, the two sides weren’t at a place where if one were to die, the other would live. Of course, he would take care of the killer!

Chen Mu made a slight frown and had his group stay on the sidelines. It would be too easy for him to be distracted. His own experience was still deficient, and he should have thought of that earlier.

But it wasn’t the time to think about any of that. Chen Mu’s right hand lightly swayed, and his wrist suddenly became very flexible. His long fingers made a move as though they were lightly and continually plucking a harp on the energy ball at the end of the chain. The entire movement was unspeakably pleasing, like a dragonfly touching water.

Ah Sang’s eyes looked like they had been lit up by that move of Chen Mu’s. Even though the thick black veil was obstructing what emanated from her eyes, they glowed more brilliantly than diamonds.

As though it had been awakened by Chen Mu’s continuous strumming, the swaying energy chain started to move merrily. It was hard to tell, but the energy chain was growing at a shocking speed.

The three energy saw-wheels were moving too fast. The sound of their cutting through the air combined with the sound of their spinning, which turned the scalps of those listening numb.

Chen Mu sighed to himself. The energy chain hadn’t quite grown to the ideal length, but he had run out of time. He made a prompt decision, and his perception fluttered like a butterfly flapping its wings. His minuscule perception conducted itself onto the energy chain, where it turned into a howling rainstorm!

Having already lengthened to more than a dozen meters, the energy chain was swaying crazily and crashing around, filling everyone’s ears with the sound of the chain links. In that patch of clinking, there was a cold voice so clear that it came through the storm.

“Save!”

The three triangular pieces at the end of the energy chain quickly opened and blossomed like a flower. The energy chain moved like lightning and became ramrod-straight, weaving into a three-meter-long and five-meter-wide net.

A layer of transparent, golden-colored energy cloak appeared on the surface of the net, looking like a square piece of golden glass with interlaced stripes from a distance. It emitted a golden glow and floated above the heads of Chen Mu and his group.

The three energy saw-wheels chopped hard into glass-like energy cloak!

Squeal!

The screeching sound of high-speed friction tortured everyone’s ears and made their teeth sour. The spinning saw-wheels were desperately trying to use the teeth around their perimeter to cut right through the energy cloak. In the places where the saw-wheels intersected with the energy cloak, there were sparks as bright as fireworks—brilliant and dazzling in the daylight sky.

Ji Ming’s expression shifted as the energy saw-wheels floating around his body gathered in front of him. Five energy saw-wheels were neatly suspended in front of him, and Ji Ming looked serious. His hands spread apart and immediately pressed inward much faster!

Clang!

The five energy saw-wheels lit up in front of him. When the light dissipated, only one was left. It had a diameter of 30 centimeters and sharper teeth around its perimeter. It was spinning at a shocking speed. Because of that, the surrounding air was cut apart to the point where Ji Ming’s clothes were being shredded by the flow of air.

Ji Ming’s face flashed with a flush of red, and his hands slowly pushed forward with a great deal of effort. Sweat was dripping from his forehead, his veins were throbbing, and his breathing became extremely fast. His eyes suddenly widened in anger as he burst out to yell, “Go!”

With that push, the huge energy saw-wheel started to fly down.

As compared to the three small energy saw-wheels, which had been flying at a streaming speed, that one was simply moving like an ox. Seeing Ji Ming use so much energy for that thing to turn out like that, the guards of the Chichi Trading Firm looked as though they wanted to smile but didn’t dare.

Chen Mu’s expression became exceptionally grave.