The Card Apprentice

Before everyone’s eyes, a green strike cut through the sky as fast as lightning. Seeing everything clearly from the platform, Huo Jiang’s pupils suddenly constricted as a chill ran up his tailbone. That scene was impressed in his mind, and his back was full of sweat.

The White Commander’s sprint looked no different than it had before. As Ba Luojia rose into the air, the White Commander, who was still on the ground, changed his moves at almost the same time.

He did three actions in one fell swoop: touched the ground, twisted his waist, and swung his arms. The green strike was let out at the moment he swung his arms. The White Commander was like a viper ready to attack. He suddenly jumped into the air! The whole movement was fluid, as if he had anticipated it. What terrified Huo Jiang the most was that Ba Luojia didn’t look like he had been hit by the green strike. Instead, he was like a moth darting into the fire, moving toward the green strike. That was the truly scary part!

It was enough to explain how precise the White Commander’s prediction was! Huo Jiang couldn’t even fathom how that could be done. As far as he knew, it was impossible.

Although Ba Luojia was appalled, he kept his calm and rigidly dodged aside without thinking. He didn’t notice that as he changed direction, the green strike did the same.

Just when Ba Luojia thought he had made a lucky escape, the green strike reappeared in his field of vision! His eyes suddenly dilated, a trace of fear flashing through them, but that couldn’t stop the rapid enlargement of the green strike in his eyes. Zap! He could only watch as his right calf was pierced by it. He felt extreme pain and let out an involuntary groan.

In the eyes of the spectators, it looked like he had wanted to be hit by the green strike.

At such a critical moment, he could no longer care about anything else. He clenched his right fist and gave a hard blow to his own chest! Without a sound, cobweb-like cracks appeared in front of the green strike and spread along its length with lightning speed!

Right when Ba Luojia hit his chest, Chen Mu’s face changed slightly, and he retreated! He sensed a violent shockwave from Ba Luojia’s blow, and it was spreading from his fist to the surroundings.

Bang! Full of cracks, the green strike produced a crisp sound. It shattered into pieces and formed a ten-meter-long trail of fragments in the air.

As Chen Mu retreated, his body waded like a fish. He then felt like something was pushing him from his back, and his speed increased abruptly! As he was about to hit the energy shield at the sidelines, Chen Mu suddenly changed his direction and strangely moved upward against the inner wall of the energy shield. Before the audience had a chance to comprehend what was going on, the energy shield shuddered. Everyone’s expression changed; even Rong Ming was no exception.

Ba Luojia’s hit on the chest must have been some skill, but they didn’t feel a ripple of energy! From the vibration amplitude of the energy shield, the force of that move was incredibly powerful! No one could guarantee they could avoid such an insidious attack if they were in such a situation. But the White Commander had done it!

Chen Mu, who had gone to the top of the energy shield, was coming down rapidly and was about to deal a fatal blow to Ba Luojia. He could tell the move had brought an enormous burden to Ba Luojia. The opponent was now in his weakest state! At that moment, however, Ba Luojia suddenly raised his right hand and hurriedly exclaimed, “I give up!”

Everyone went silent.

“As expected, a master makes a master…” Rong Ming murmured. Chen Mu’s skill amazed him too much! He increasingly felt that he had made the right choice. If a student already had such unpredictable skills, how powerful would his master, the card artisan in the brown mask, be? To him, the White Commander was almost certain to be a student of the brown-masked card artisan.

Xu Jia, who had yet to recover from the shock, replied subconsciously, “What did you say?”

Rong Ming was then snapped back to his senses. He quickly answered, “Ho ho! I was saying the White Commander has really good skills!” Tan Yumin, who was beside them, changed her expression slightly but didn’t say a thing.

Ba Luojia smiled bitterly. “The White Commander is indeed strong. You had Ba Luojia lose this match convincingly.” His calf was still bleeding, but he didn’t look at it, nor did he flinch.

Chen Mu couldn’t help but admire that, but he hadn’t forgotten about Ba Luojia’s killing intent and was still vigilant toward him! They had only met for the first time, so there theoretically shouldn’t have been any hatred between them. Is it because of Tai-shu Shen? That’s possible!

Chen Mu nodded toward Ba Luojia. The energy shield had opened, and both of them flew back to the platform. Ba Luojia immediately called for the medical card artisan but didn’t leave, probably because he wanted to watch the next match.

Everyone was looking at Chen Mu completely differently! Although they had some speculation, it was still largely because of Rong Ming. But Chen Mu had shown enough strength to gain respect through the previous match. Ba Luojia was normally rather low-key, and that match had been extraordinary. Regardless of the sonic attack early on or the mysterious self-attack later, it had been so unpredictable!

However, people always remembered winners better. The spectators were deeply impressed by the stunning green strike and the uncanny moves. In the eyes of a true connoisseur, though, they saw something completely different! The green strike was nothing special; it was something many card artisans could produce. The card used by the White Commander should only have four stars, which was considered ordinary compared to famous cards. And, although his movement was weird, many card artisans with good flying skills could do the same.

Those weren’t the terrifying aspects, however. It was the White Commander’s prediction ability! He had seemed to know what the opponent would do next, and his predictions had been unbelievably accurate!

The cards were normal, and the flying skills weren’t too sophisticated. With that outrageous precision for prediction, though, the lethality increased exponentially. Moreover, there was the control of the murderous aura. No one would ever doubt the strength of Chen Mu anymore. On the contrary, many were wondering how such a powerful card artisan could have no outstanding cards.

Tai-shu Cheng was excited! He had purposely brought the White Commander that night to showcase his skills, and that goal had been completely achieved. So, even if the White Commander surrendered in the rest of the matches, no one would ever look down upon him in terms of skills. That had always been his biggest weakness, and it was no longer something to be worried about. How could he not be excited? Tai-shu Zheng had set up such a big stage, but the biggest winner was Tai-shu Cheng.

Tai-shu Shen’s face was really ugly because Ba Luojia had lost in the first match. It was a great disgrace to him! He couldn’t spout any curses but had to come forward to comfort Ba Luojia instead. How resentful! He gazed at Chen Mu with anger; it was that guy who had let him fall into disrepute that night.

Jiang Ling and her bodyguard suddenly rushed to the platform. “Tan Yumin!” Jiang Ling’s eyes lit up, and she hurried over with a shout of joy. Her inseparable bodyguard stood in front of Jiang Yu and called, “Master!”

Jiang Yu let out a sigh of relief. “You have arrived at last!” He patted the bodyguard’s shoulder and said solemnly, “Your task for tonight is to get me that bracelet from Miss Tan, by hook or by crook. You’ll have to get it!”

“Yes!” The bodyguard said nothing else. Upon seeing the familiar face of the bodyguard, Chen Mu understood that he was going to fight! Jiang Yu seemed to trust him a lot.

Luo De’s card artisan then showed up. Surprisingly, it was a female card artisan!

Chen Mu withdrew his gaze after assessing her slightly. He needed to rest after experiencing such a big battle. His mind, however, was full of the combat scenes he had just fought, and his spirit was a little keyed up after using Caesar’s fighting skills for the first time.

Behind Chen Mu, Tan Yumin was being pestered by Jiang Ling. Inadvertently, her eyes occasionally fell on Chen Mu. Xu Jia was a little afraid; after he showed his incredible strength, she didn’t dare to joke about Chen Mu unscrupulously like before. The murderous aura he had released, especially, had scared ordinary people like Xu Jia.

The few matches after that were of varying levels, most of them letting spectators doze off. One of the most interesting matches involved a defensive card artisan who unleashed a strong and solid energy shield that managed to bear all of the blows from his opponent until his opponent ran out of energy. He then won the match with one hit, and spectators started booing from the platform as they watched.

Huo Jiang won easily, and there was no expression on his face when he did. He just looked toward Chen Mu. The card artisans from the Jiang family and Luo family were also quite strong and easily won matches.

The second round of the competition soon began. Chen Mu’s opponent was the defensive card artisan.

The opponent used a four-star energy shield card, which was difficult to destroy. That card artisan was alert enough to fly into the arena with his thick, turtle-shell-like shield over his head, fearing he wouldn’t even have time to activate the shield. That made the spectators on the platform laugh.

As soon as the opponent came into the field, he put on a defensive stance and didn’t move, causing the crowd to boo. Some card artisans were worried for Chen Mu since they knew the damage value of the card used by Chen Mu previously hadn’t been high. Indeed, the advantage of the Hundred Changes was to change the form of the energy body at will and not to damage. But Chen Mu didn’t only have the Hundred Changes with him. He slowly changed the card to the Patterned Shuttle.

The thunderous roar of the Patterned Shuttle reverberated through the arena, rattling the hearts of the spectators. The opponent’s shield only held on for three shuttles and was then destroyed! The first thing the card artisan did was concede, but it was a tad too late.

The strong damage value of the Patterned Shuttle also made the other card artisans’ expressions change slightly. If they were hit by a shuttle casually, half of their body would be torn by the impact!

Compared to Chen Mu, the others took the win much more easily.

After several rounds of matches, the final four were determined. Except for Chen Mu, the other three had been expected—Huo Jiang, Jiang Shan, and Luo Qing. If it hadn’t been for the appearance of Chen Mu, Ba Luojia would have undoubtedly occupied another position in the final four. However, the appearance of Chen Mu had upset that predetermined play.