The Card Apprentice

Sang Hanshui had ducked into the clouds to hide, where he couldn’t open his energy cloak. Although there wasn’t any wind in the clouds, the fine ice crystals would still sometimes fall onto his face, so cold that they would make him shiver. After so many years of living like a prince, it had been a long time since he had suffered like that, though he didn’t feel the least bit plaintive. That was because the boss was by his side, not opening his energy cloak either.

The boss had been using the Snake Lens all along maintaining a serious expression. Sang Hanshui had some reverence in his heart for that young boss. His moves were fierce and decisive, and a lot more powerful than those so-called famous card artisans. That could be seen from the operation they were then carrying out, with five against twenty. Any normal person would have long since been scared off, but only such a powerful person as the boss would choose to take the initiative to attack!

The clouds were quite thick and never mind several people, they could hide several hundred within them, and make them hard to discern.

But Sang Hanshui did actually feel a little bit nervous, since not only did their adversary outnumber them, who knew how much more power they had. Twenty elites from the Federation Comprehensive Academy among whom ten had reached beyond the seventh grade; such a lineup would have to be called luxurious. If he didn’t feel that his boss’s plan was quite workable, he might not have even had the courage to fight with him.

If the pursuit team was truly travelling by that route, and the boss’s prediction was accurate, then the possibility for the success of the overall battle plan would increase by quite a bit. And if they didn’t wait for the pursuit team, that would mean that they hadn’t travelled along that route, and they would at least have room to escape.

Sang Hanshui didn’t think there was any shame in escaping.

Still, apart from being nervous, Sang Hanshui felt a vague sense of anticipation. It was a five-star power card that was in his apparatus. That was taken by Chen Mu from Tai-shu Yong. The expression of pain on that old fox’s face gave Sang Hanshui some secret pleasure just to remember it then.

He had never used a five-star power card himself!

He was really looking forward to what kind of a scene it would make to use the Bomb at full power. In his daily training, he had really never dared to use its full power. Otherwise, he might have had the destruction of the building on his hands that evening.

The time kept passing in Sang Hanshui’s nervous anticipation.

“They’re here!” Chen Mu abruptly yelled coldly. Sang Hanshui was startled, and quickly got up his spirits. At such a critical time, he couldn’t help wondering if the boss was actually not the least bit nervous!

“There are energy control fluctuations at a seven-second delay. The field for attack; A3, A7, B6!”

Chen Mu’s commands were very methodical. Sang Hanshui’s nervousness eased all at once under their influence. Without any hesitation, he released the Bomb from his hands that he had prepared earlier.

Only the glow could be seen on his hands, as Sang Hanshui loosed all the power that time with a very serious expression!

Within a brief five seconds, he had shot off three hundred bombs in a single breath! Those bombs whistled quietly through the clouds toward the designated zone. Before the battle started, Chen Mu and the rest had divided the area in a circle around the ambush into several regions. And his requirement of Sang Hanshui was not accuracy but to carry out a blanket attack by using an increased number of bombs.

The energy control fluctuations enabled Sang Hanshui to minimize his own energy fluctuations, in order to delay the enemy from finding his specific position. By delaying seven seconds, that would require that if the bombs shot off by Sang Hanshui didn’t hit their target, he could send off more after seven seconds!

That series of orders were very demanding on Sang Hanshui. Still, he was able to complete them in the end, having benefitted from his daily groping along with the bombs.

Sang Hanshui took a break after firing off those three hundred energy bombs in a single breath, needing to watch the fruits of the battle. He immediately adjusted his perception, in preparation for the next round.

The team was flying at high speed under the clouds in order to be able to determine their direction.

They could vaguely see the town in front of them, which made Zola feel glad and shout out, “Come on everyone, Fir Town is right in front of us where we can recuperate, warm up, and fill our bellies before continuing on in the afternoon.” He was the captain of the team, whose power was also at the top of the group.

“Excellent, I’m about to freeze solid! Good grief, such a cold day to rush trough the sky is really a crime!” one of the team members couldn’t help complaining.

Another team member said without any strength to his breath, “It looks like you still have some energy left, kid. I’m so tired I can’t move.”

“This Heavenly Drum Village District is really f***ing cold! I don’t know what those people from Moon Frost Island were thinking to actually plant themselves in such a place. Did they have some kind of brain fart?”

“What do you know. Haven’t you felt how much more quickly your perception is depleted here?”

“Nonsense. It’s so cold that no one would dare to stop their perception. Isn’t it the same as freezing to death if you don’t have any heating?”

“You’re such an idiot. Think about it, going through this every day, aren’t they using their perception every moment of the day? The card artisans of Moon Frost Island are unrivalled in the word for their perceptual control, which is an important reason that they are said to have a lower internal temperature. Moreover, the speed by which perception increases here is faster than in other places.” A somewhat older card artisan explained.

At that time Fir Town’s outline was becoming clearer to them, and everyone abruptly cheered. Their physical and perceptual exertions were very serious after that long-term flight, and they were extremely tired.

“Careful, something’s wrong!” There was a sudden change in Zola’s expression, and before his voice fell, countless red energy bombs the size of fists came drilling out from the clouds!

They were then just feeling the weak energy fluctuations scattered by those energy bombs!

An ambush!

More and more red bombs came drilling out from the clouds, like a school of red fish! Everyone’s expressions changed; there were just too many of those red bombs, so dense that there couldn’t be fewer than hundreds.

Zola was both alarmed and enraged: Alarmed because someone had mounted a sneak attack! Enraged because anyone would dare to do that!

Not only him, there was no one on the team who thought that anyone would dare to mount a sneak attack. That team was so powerful that unless it were Moon Frost Island, there was no one else in the Heavenly Drum Village District who would dare to make an enemy of them. In order to increase their speed, they hadn’t even had anyone take the responsibility to do reconnaissance scanning.

Their adversary had set up an ambush under the cover of the clouds. The only thing that calmed Zola was that their adversary obviously wasn’t very powerful. Of course, he couldn’t be more familiar with the shape of the bombs. That sort of four-star card which was nothing out of the ordinary had rather ordinary power.

Judging from the numbers, their adversary must have had at least twenty card artisans.

Zola quickly restored his calm in the midst of his startled fury and couldn’t help a cold smile. Judging from the location and timing of the ambush, things were perfect! The thick clouds not only didn’t allow them any way to find their adversary’s specific position, it also influenced their perception. And as far as the timing, it was their time of being tired and hungry, which would be the best timing for a sneak attack.

There was someone awesome among their adversary! Still, it was too bad that they had too little power! A better plan would have required more power to implement. With bombs everywhere, his energy cloak wasn’t even shaking, making that sneak attack all for naught!

After going through their initial panic, the other card artisans also quickly discovered that those energy bodies were only bombs, and each of their faces couldn’t help a look of mockery. Although their current state wasn’t so good, those little bombs were something that they could deal with.

Quite a few of them didn’t even dodge them, but just waited for the bombs to hit.

Still! Zola discovered that most of these bombs weren’t flying directly at them, but were flying above and all around them, causing a hint of danger to come crawling up from his heart.

Just then, there was a sudden change!

Hong!

All of the red bombs exploded at the same time!

Over three hundred red bombs exploding at the same time made for an extremely frightening scene. All of the card artisans of the pursuit team were enshrouded in midair by the area of the huge red explosion. The huge sound waves produced by the bombs came sweeping across the entire sky in an instant.

Even Chen Mu and Sang Hanshui who were some distance away were nearly shocked out of control to fall headlong.

And the shock waves from the explosion made a three-kilometer hole in the thick clouds, letting the sun shine straight down, looking like a beam of light from a distance. And underneath the region of the explosion, the forest was like it had been devastated by a tornado, with fir trees topsy-turvy all over the place.

Sang Hanshui held fast, that being his first time to use the full power of the Bomb, and he absolutely didn’t imagine that it could be so devastating!

It had to be known that the blow just then had used a quarter of the power in the five-star power card. That is to say that even though it was a five-star power card, it was only enough for him to make four such attacks! That was also why Chen Mu went to ask Tai-shu Yong for five-star power cards. Four-star power cards wouldn’t be enough to make even one such attack!

Chen Mu was also somewhat surprised, but not by the power of the Bomb; by how careless those card artisans had been. Those so-called aces only discovered the energy bodies when they came drilling out from the clouds. It was hard to believe such a lax state of alert showing up among a team of aces.

And some of the card artisans didn’t even make way, which was really inconceivable to him. Didn’t they even have any common sense? Chen Mu was certain none of the card artisans under Bogner would ever behave so foolishly.

There were twenty miserable card artisans floating in the glowing beam formed by the sun’s rays, and apart from Zola, none of the energy cloaks of the other card artisans could be seen.

The Snake Lens had accurately detected that information.

The blow just then had obliterated eight of the card artisans, and Chen Mu couldn’t be more pleased with that result. But he was also very clear that the battle had just begun. The rest of the twelve card artisans were doubtless the strongest twelve on the team.

“B3, B5, C1, one second of output with a two-second delay!” Chen Mu wasn’t paying attention to anything else as he rushed to give his orders.

Sang Hanshui who had just taken a breath once again gritted his teeth to send the full power roaring out!

Within a single second, he sent nearly eighty energy bombs roaring out that time! Such a number far exceeded his best ordinary results. His power had made another breakthrough at such a critical juncture!

Zola’s gaze was cold and dark, the raging attack just then had made him completely calm down from his anger. Seeing only twelve left, he realized that the one who had made that plan was a very dangerous figure!

His adversary had anticipated. He had attacked in anticipation!

Damn! His adversary certainly had a card artisan who could do reconnaissance at a distance for such a sneak attack to be able to be so accurate catching their position from such a distance.

But even though that’s the way it was, it was only because he could make a precise judgement about their actions that he was able to accomplish such impeccable anticipation. From that he could determine that his adversary’s commander had high tactical literacy.

In Zola’s chilling gaze, a crazed but calm will to battle burned wantonly.

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