The Card Apprentice

The screen that shot out in front of Cheng Mu had multiple defined, complicated structures to it. This was the result of the Computation Box during this period of time.

The Computation Box was an extremely important card appliance, which was why he protected it carefully. Besides letting Qiu Shanyu take a look at it for the first time and keeping it alone in a room afterwards, he had always kept it with him through day and night. The Computation Box has not let his high expectations down either, having already completely enhancements for many different energy structures.

He clearly understood that if the information that he was viewing happened to be leaked, it would be enough to cause a huge uproar. Countless card masters will make a beeline for Dongrui City – even the Big Six would stop at nothing to possess this incredible card appliance.

Now, he did not have much time to scrutinize it, but secretly memorized every piece of information that the Computation Box received every day. What he calculated was mainly very basic structures – structures that were frequently used up to hundreds or even thousands of times when making cards. Any minor improvements were able to make the card’s ability increase evidently.

After making sure that he had remembered all the information without any errors, he reset to Computation Box to receive the next mission.

After completing all that, he walked into another room – this apartment had eight separate rooms. He shared this apartment with Qiu Shanyu. However, she was not allowed to enter any room other than her own, a source of grievance for her. She had no interest in any of Cheng Mu’s items, and had no idea why Cheng Mu was behaving in such a secretive and defensive manner, guarding against her. She was no chance to coming into contact with any core items. Then again, any item that she already knew about was enough to surprise her.

This Cao Dong actually possessed so many techniques! How would the Faya-born Qiu Shanyu not know about the value of these techniques?

What exactly was this person’s background? Qiu Shanyu, surprised and suspicious, kept thinking about Cheng Mu’s background, but to no avail.

The tightly shut door of her room completely blocked off her line of sight.

Cheng Mu took out the mystery card as his glance landed upon the starry-sky card exterior. His heart could not help but feel extremely consoled. He still remembered when he still received the card. Every bit of improvement brought him ultimate delight. Now, while the improvements have continued, that feeling of euphoria has damped significantly. Most of the time, it was a feeling of worry regarding whether his increase in strength was able to handle new problems that surfaced.

He did not insert the mystery card immediately, but was instead deep in thought. What he learnt was extremely multifarious, to the extent that he himself was somewhat stunned. There were so many fragmented pieces of items inside the mystery card that somehow resembled a self-built system. Wei-ah’s cardless sect techniques, especially Airskill, had already became his secret weapon in battles. Caesar’s State Zero was insightful and unpredictable, a skill that extremely useful in actual battle. It was even better than Breath Control.

Others such as card-making, card appliances were all part of an endless sea of knowledge, and he also had some experience in those.

As for cards, the knowledge was even more complicated and fragmented – Bipolar, Golden Word Shackle, Snake Lens, Hundred Changes, Patterned Shuttle…

“If it was going to be fragmented, then so be it,” Cheng Mu could not help but think in a self-loathing manner. While others were still worrying over the problem of passing down generations, he was worrying over what he was learning being too complicated.

His glance fell on the mystery card again. Compared to the past, there was no saying how much wider his foresight had become. He already had significant confidence regarding the origins of this card. The card contained the most elite levels of knowledge, and some parts of it had jarring differences with the existing database.

Such a high level was only achievable by the top-tier card masters, figures such as Heine Van Sant who stood at the top of the pyramid of card-making.

Heine Van Sant was the first person that Cheng Mu thought of as well. However, he quickly dismissed that possibility. The contents inside the card and the existing database was too obvious of a difference. The current system was one that Heine Van Sant personally established and named himself after – the Van Sant System!

Historically speaking, there was only one person who was able to reach levels equal to Heine Van Sant – Rosenberg! Legend has it that fantasy cards were his speciality, and that fantasy cards, advanced fantasy cards were all invented by him. The amount of knowledge about fantasy cards inside the mystery card was astounding. With Cheng Mu’s first three-star card, the Tailess Shuttle Card, he could now better comprehend the uniqueness of the mystery card.

However, there was something that made him suspicious – it was regarding the token card. In reality, even till now, he had not heard of any information regarding it. Across all types of textbooks, not a single word can be seen about the token card. If the token card was truly the doing of Rosenberg, why was it not passed down? Instead, he himself found out about how to use the token card when he was at downtown, where Alfonso and the others lived.

After mulling over it for half a day, he still did not manage to reach a solution. Cheng Mu suddenly let out a laugh – he actually had so much free time that he had reached the point of dwelling over the origins of this card.

Regarding the mystery card, Cheng Mu could face it in a calmer manner, unlike the excessive nervousness he would display in the past. The Cheng Mu in the past had not a single bit of ability to protect himself. In order to prevent others from plotting, he had always been highly on guard. However, there was no telling how much he had improved since then. So long as he did not meet card artisans of Tang Hanpei’s calibre, facing other elites, he still had the confidence to fully retreat and escape.

The more he learnt about the token card, the greater his gratitude regarding how deep and profound the knowledge inside it was! He was completely unafraid of others learning information about it, such was the sheer depth and profoundness of the system.

He took some basic token card knowledge in particular and sent it to Ru Qiu. Bogner and the others were fighting in the forest. With himself not be her side, once the card is damaged, there was no way of repairing it. These knowledge about the token card were pretty fundamental, but Ru Qiu and Cheng Mu had a significant amount of time. Also, having participated multiple times when Cheng Mu was making cards, under the long term influence, her ability was greater than before, allowing her to quickly digest the knowledge. This meant that Bogner and the rest had another layer of protection.

The increase in knowledge made him understand that not everything could be done by himself. The power of teamwork would forever be stronger than the power of one!

However, this time, his target was not knowledge regarding card making. Tan Yuwen brought nothing but endless trouble by revealing her identity as Caesar’s student. In the past, Caesar made countless numbers of enemies across the land. The failure to locate Caesar made her the best alternative target. The lack of activity till now could be explained by the aftereffects of that huge battle a few nights ago, and also the existence of Jie Yanbai adding on to their indecisiveness.

However, with Dongrui City having more and more experts, this type of stalemate was soon to be broken. Jie Baiyun’s strength was powerful, but Cheng Mu did not want to live under the protection of others.

He was no longer the powerful Cheng Mu from before!

Once again entering the mystery card, his sight muffled as the realistic illusion appeared again – another perception sensitivity test.

The familiar scenery made him laugh uncontrollably. Right then, his perception was no longer reserved as it was completely unleashed!

“Test result: Perception Sensitivity Index 95. The activation condition for the Seven Main Energy Structures Dynamic Presentation has been met.” A long-awaited, old and frail voice could be heard once again.

Perception Sensitivity Index of 95! This result was not too outside of Cheng Mu’s expectations. His improvement speed had been rapid during this period of time, and under the training of Bipolar Card and State Zero, there was an evident increase in his Perception Sensitivity.

He was here for the One Breath Perception Training Guide! While his Perception Sensitivity was extremely high, in terms of strength, he had yet to make the breakthrough from grade seven. This was the most important issue hindering his improvement as well. There were many existing problems in the Perception Sensitivity training methods that he had figured out for himself. Had it not been for Caesar’s pointers, he would have definitely faced negative counter-effects in the future. While the exchange between them was a trade, looking at that transaction from this perspective, Cheng Mu was ultimately still quite grateful towards Caesar.

Only by possessing a higher level of perception training method can one improve to the next level. Once his perception strength made the breakthrough from grade seven, his personal strength also increased by a significant amount.

Before he even had time to activate the One Breath Perception Training Guide, the environment of his surroundings changed suddenly. A white fog spread in the air, and a piece of paper, a book, a pocket model and a silver round ball floated in front of him.

Cheng Mu gently touched the paper with his finger and it became a giant screen. On the screen appeared the words “One Breath Perception Training Guide”. He hurriedly calmed down and carefully read the content on the screen.

The reading took him three hours. The information inside were not difficult to process, with even the wording and phrasing being extremely straightforward and accurate, easy to understand. However, out of habit, he started to think about the philosophy of the One Breath Perception Training Guide, which was why it took him so much time.

The training guide was completely different from what Cheng Mu had imagined it would be. The techniques that he was using now was found when he was fumbling around on the basis of the One Breath Perception Training Guide name. He even created the Snow Pit Method because of it. His technique was making use of high levels of pressurising external strength to stimulate the increase of perception.

However, the One Breath Perception Training Guide was not the same. It used the card artisan’s breathing. More accurately speaking, it incorporated perception training into the normal breathing of the card artisan, turning perception training into a bow string-like perception string. Every breath was like an arrow being shot out from the bow. Each inhale was like pulling the bow, each exhale was like releasing the arrow. With the level of perception being constantly stimulated and trained with breathing every day, it would become stronger and more durable. Furthermore, there was another speciality about the perception levels that were trained under the One Breath Perception Training Guide – its explosiveness!

Cheng Mu could not help but admire whoever created this incredible set of perception training methods. Compared to others, the Snow Pit Method he had created was simply raffish and filled with loopholes. Had it not been for highly skilled medical card artisans such as Sue Lochiro, there would be extremely incredible levels of non-battle attritions.

As for the One Breath Perception Training Guide, it was methodical and harmless towards the health of humans. Furthermore, why would his perception growth slow down if he trained it constantly?