The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu looked at the advertisement being broadcasted on the fantasy card platform. The green mark could be clearly seen on it, giving him an odd feeling. Up till now, nearly all mainstream fantasy card platforms were broadcasting this advertisement. Faya’s clout was indeed huge. This matter that would be very difficult for him had been completed by Faya just like that with an absolute ease.

Perhaps this might show some results after all. Looking at the green mark being broadcasted everywhere, a trace of hope rose in Chen Mu’s heart. Suddenly, House Tai-shu’s commander rushed into the room with a card in his hand, “White Commander, someone handed me a fantasy card outside and named you as the recipient of the card.”

“Where is he?” Chen Mu asked.

“He left after leaving the card.”

Chen Mu took the fantasy card and inserted it into his apparatus. House Tai-shu’s commander tactfully left the room even though he was very curious about the content of the card as well. A short while later, Chen Mu shut his apparatus, his eyes turning frosty.

A piece of news about the Big Bad Wolves was contained within this card. Then person that had delivered this card was a card artisan of Central Repository of the Classics. Before Xie Yanbai left, he requested that they helped as best as they could. The Big Bad Wolves were only three days away from Dongrui City. It was clear that their target was Chen Mu.

This was completely different from Chen Mu’s previous guess. He had guessed that the Comprehensive Federation Academy was merely pretending to be in pursuit of him to get an excuse to intervene with the alliance being set up at Heavenly Drum Village District. But from how aggressively the Big Bad Wolves was behaving, it was clear that he was their actual target.

Chen Mu could not understand the reason for this. The Comprehensive Federation Academy was rather lacking in power at the moment. It was not a smart thing to send a huge number of powerhouses after him with great fanfare like this.

If a person like Tang Hanpei was doing something that seemed stupid like this, there was definitely some unknown agenda hidden behind this. Very few people actually knew what Tang Hanpei had in his mind. Chen Mu did not believe that he was one of them. However, Chen Mu also understood that watching on as the Big Bad Wolves came would be very dangerous.

He would still have some sort of leeway when dealing with Tan Yumin. But if it was the Big Bad Wolves, there was no leeway to speak of. It would seem like he now owed Xie Yanbai yet another favor. Wei-ah, Little Bu Mo, Xiaobo, and Sang Hanshui were all gathered by Chen Mu. The first thing he did was replaying the fantasy card in front of them.

“Boss, maybe you are too handsome? That’s why everyone got attracted?” Xiaobo appeared completely flabbergasted. Although Sang Hanshui did not speak, his expression made it clear that he agreed with Xiaobo. In his eyes, his boss was a magnet that could attract numerous troubles without knowing it. Even his boss would be astonished by the all the troubles.

“I’ll help you!” Little Bu Mo said as he waved his fist with a serious expression. His fight with Si Dongkou had previously had given him a boost in confidence. He was now training harder than before, and as he was at the age where his body developed the fastest, he was growing quickly.

Wei-ah did not say anything and his face was expressionless. However, everyone was already used to his detached persona. Chen Mu took out the fantasy card from the card player and inserted a different fantasy card into it. A detailed three-dimensional map appeared in front of everyone.

“Huh? Boss, where did you get this?” Xiaobo asked in astonishment as he stared at the map. The map was extremely detailed and lifelike. A three-dimensional map with such precision was extremely rare and was not available for sale.

“I got it from Tai-shu Yong,” Chen Mu replied. Then, he pointed at a city on the map and said, “They are here, Seven Mengri City.”

All four of them looked at where Chen Mu was pointing at as their gazes collectively landed on a city not far from Dongrui City.

“From Seven Mengri City to Dongrui City, they can take three paths. The path going through Fir Town is the shortest path. I believe the probability of them choosing this path is the highest,” Chen Mu gave a detailed explanation.

“Why, Woody?” Little Bu Mo asked as he looked at Chen Mu with doubt.

Chen Mu explained, “They had not bothered concealing their coming all along the way. It was as if they are afraid that nobody would know they are coming. From this, it is obvious that they are extremely confident in destroying us.”

When Sang Hanshui heard that, he snorted, “Those idiots.”

His eyes were filled with an ominous glint.

“This is why I guessed that they will take this path as this path will take them the shortest time to travel,” Chen Mu concluded directly.

“What should we do?” Xiaobo was no longer as playful as he usually was. This time, their enemies weren’t some ordinary people. Those people were the elites of the Comprehensive Federation Academy.

“We will take the initiative and make the attack,” Chen Mu said calmly. Then, a frosty glint surfaced on his eyes as he added, “If we stay passive and wait for them to come, we will lose the initiative. The difference between our strength is too great. From what they had done so far, they seem to be underestimating us. They never would have guessed that we would be attacking instead. The distance between them and us make it best for us to ambush them since even if we fail the ambush, we have enough leeway to continue fighting on. If we fight in Dongrui City instead, we will be in a very difficult situation as once surrounded, it will be the end of us.”

Everyone was evidently shocked by Chen Mu’s reasoning. They all listened attentively, not wanting to miss a single detail.

“Between Seven Mengri City and Dongrui City, there were three cities and one town. The city before Fir Town is Chur City. There is a distance of 3,700 km between them. This is a distance that will take about five to seven hours to travel with high speed flight. As these card artisans are all from the capital, they won’t be used to the harsh cold of Heavenly Drum Village District. It is very likely that they will try to reduce the time on the road and head straight to Fir Town before stopping to rest.”

Xiaobo nodded, “That’s right. If it’s me, I will also head straight to Fir Town before stopping. This weather is a torture to travel.”

“This is good for us. After five hours of flight, their stamina and Perception would have been greatly exhausted. They would be tired in both mind and body. Moreover, we have one benefit at our side, the energy card.”

“Energy card?” Sang Hanshui couldn’t help but to ask. He could not understand how energy card would have anything to do with this.

“Yes, energy card. Using five-star energy cards as everyday source of replenishment is impossible as this card is too expensive and the difficulty of production is too high even for the Comprehensive Federation Academy. Generally, people would only use four-star energy cards. And using four-star energy cards as the base of our calculation, flying over 3,700 km will exhaust about 80% of the card’s energy,” Chen Mu explained quickly, confidence in his tone.

Before anyone could reply, he continued, “If we attack at that exact moment, they will not have the time to switch their cards. This will be very advantageous for us. Moreover, I have the Snake Lens. I will be able to determine their exact location, helping us when planning or revising our ambush on the go.”

After he spoke, Chen Mu felt his throat go dry and drank some water. When he saw that nobody was responding, he asked curiously, “Why? Is there any problem with the plan?”

Xiaobo’s mouth was wide agape with a blank look on his face. After a while, he spoke, “Boss, when did you become so great?”

Sang Hansui was also shocked with his eyes opened wide. He nodded his head in agreement by reflex.

“Great? How am I great?” Chen Mu was completely confused.

Xiaobo gradually regained his calm as he looked at Chen Mu with an odd gaze, as if he was looking at a freak. Little Bu Mo was looking at Chen Mu with a worshipping gaze, as if stars were twinkling in his eyes.

“When did you learn that from Commander Bog? No, that doesn’t seem like something Commander Bog would do.”

Xiaobo rubbed his chin in contemplation and continued, “Is boss trying to get on the Renowned General Ranking? Oh, looks like the Black Line Star Listing is below boss now.”

While Xiaobo babbled on, Chen Mu rolled his eyes and said, “This is very easy. It only requires some simple calculation.”

“Simple?” Xiaobo laughed but did not comment much on it. He knew that most of the time, this boss of his was an extremely insensitive person as his sense of logic was way too different than an ordinary person. Today, his boss surprised him greatly. Only now did he realize that unknowingly, his boss had grown to this extent.

In truth, this plan wasn’t exactly complicated. But from this analysis, one could see that Chen Mu had an extremely clear train of thought now. Indeed, that was merely a matter of calculation. But unknown to Chen Mu, this seemingly simple calculation had propelled him to a new height.

Xiaobo was a knowledgeable person and understood how difficult it was to come by a growth like this. If a card artisan only focused his attention on skills, he would at most become a powerful card artisan instead of a leader.

Now, Chen Mu was no longer looking at things from the perspective of a card artisan. He had learned to see things from a higher perspective. In this chaotic world, this would be extremely important for a team. Furthermore, Chen Mu was still so young. He had a lot of room for growth.

XIaobo refreshed his conviction to follow Chen Mu. Sang Hanshui was also an old fox like Xiaobo. All these things that Xiaobo thought of had also appeared in his mind. They both exchanged glances before smiling knowingly to each other.

“We will rest for five hours before setting off,” Chen Mu decided when he saw that nobody had any objections. Apart from Little Bu Mo, everyone here was a veteran of many battles. Therefore, it did not take them long to enter a resting state.

As for Chen Mu, he rested his chin on his palms as he studied the three-dimensional map. His brain spun rapidly as he was trying to see if he had missed anything. Without Bogner by his side, he had nobody to give him guidance. He had to decide everything by himself. With such pressure on him, he did not dare to slack. That was why he was putting all his effort to improve their situation. This battle would be very important for them. And that was not all of his plan.