The Card Apprentice

A man walked out of the shadows. Even though his pace was slow, but an invisible sense of tension suddenly came like a tsunami! Like a devil walking out of the depths of hell, he emitted a dark and deadly demonic aura.

The man’s facial features were unique. One of his cheeks was dark while the other was ghastly pale. All the people in the crowd gasped when they saw this face, chills emerged in their hearts.

“Su Hanhao!” Baiyue’s gaze was cold, the intention to murder flashed through her eyes, “Aren’t you heading to Qianhu City?”

Her heart sank. Based on the information they’ve gotten, they thought that Su Hanhao was heading to Qianhu City to await for an opportunity to sabotage the alliance conference. Even Caesar was on his way to Qianhu City to stop him. But why was he here instead?

“Haha!” Su Hanhao chuckled with sinister, “How could I miss out on something so good here? It’s only natural that I’d want a taste of what the Bitter Solitude Temple and Star Court wanted. I was troubled at how I would do it all alone, but who would’ve thought, Principal Tang was interested too! How great is that?”

All the others’ expressions changed drastically. They didn’t think that Tang Hanpei would join hands with Su Hanhao!

Su Hanhao turned to Tang Hanpei and said, “Little Principal Tang, what about my portion?”

Tang Hanpei smiled, “I prepared for you in advance, senior.” He didn’t mind being called as Little Principal Tang as Su Hanhao’s age was far greater than him and he was a superior from the same era as his mentor Pavchek. He passed over four notebooks and said, “These are the original manuscripts for you. I have made other copies.”

“Principal Tang is indeed someone who is very capable, impressive!” Su Hanhao praised. He received the four notebooks bluntly and flipped through briefly for confirmation that those were original. Tang Hanpei shouldn’t be able to forge them in such a short time.

Looking at the four notebooks falling into Su Hanhao’s hands, pain struck Tan Yumin’s heart. Ji Zhihao couldn’t help it but secretly praised Tang Hanpei’s intelligence for giving the manuscripts to his partner. By doing so, both parties would hold no grudges, thus their alliance would be more stable. No layman would be willing to hand the manuscripts to others while keeping only a copy.

“I heard that the first book is in Faya? Let’s pick a time to force them to hand it out! They’re not worthy of having it!” Su Hanhao said darkly.

“Since senior said so, Hanpei will of course oblige.” Tang Hanpei smiled warmly.

Seeing those two dividing something that belonged to the Bitter Solitude Temple and Star Court inconsiderately, Mei Ji and Siam looked extremely unhappy while Bai Yue kept her stare on Su Hanhao. The Desert Camp was the biggest enemy of the Moon Frost Island, they were like fire and water. They had endless battles in the recent few years, and their hatred towards each other was to the extent of incurable between them.

Siam’s handsome face changed, but he made his decision in an instance. He said with determination, “Mei Ji and Baiyue, please team up to kill Su Hanhao the maniac, I’ll block Tang Hanpei off!”

Mei Ji and Baiyue took a glance at each other then surrounded Su Hanhao without hesitation.

“Haha!” Su Hanhao laughed, “You want to stop me with only the two of you? What a joke!”

Finishing his sentence, he disappeared from the room like smoke. Baiyue and Mei Ji didn’t hesitate at all, they moved and followed him closely behind.

Tang Hanpei and Siam confronted each other in the room.

“You’re brave, but you’re too weak.” Tang Hanpei said leisurely, “Perhaps you can fight me in another ten years. But, you’re full of determination, kind of similar to your mentor. However, you think that you can stop me?”

“Siam’s strength is clearly lacking compared to Principal Tang.” Siam’s expression was calm as if there was no fear, “But I’m willing to put my life at risk. If I could stop you just for a moment, it would still be possible to buy some time.”

“Hehe, even if you can delay me for awhile, you think that the two of them can defeat me?” Tang Hanpei looked at Siam with interest.

“No, there might be a slight chance to defeat you if the three of us combined forces. The two of them are clearly not able to defeat you.” Siam shook his head.

Tang Hanpei raised his brow, “Oh, you’re useless then? You’re sacrificing your life for nothing?”

Siam looked downwards and said solemnly, “What you said before is correct. I might need another ten years to have the strength to fight you, but this is only under normal circumstances. If I die in this battle, everything goes to dust, but if I don’t, I’ll have another chance to challenge you in five years.”

Tang Hanpei’s face finally showed some amazement, his eyes gleamed with admiration, “Not bad, your mentor accepted good mentees. You’re indifferent and ruthless, you can even abandon your own self, fitting enough for Bitter Solitude Temple’s purpose of selflessness. But, if you’re dead and the two of them challenge me, aren’t you all still at the end of the road?”

“It’s not good to have the people of the Bitter Solitude Temple to sacrifice themselves.” Siam said lightly.

For some reason, Tan Yumin’s heart had chills when she heard this.

“Hehe, how are you so sure that I’ll kill them both?” Tang Hanpei smiled.

“Your enemies are all over the world!” Siam answered flatly.

“Haha!” Tang Hanpei threw his head back and laughed, he stopped after a while, “Not bad! I admire you more now. Whether you will live or die today, it depends on your ability.”

Tang Hanpei walked out from the door first and Siam followed him without hesitation.

Only Tan Yumin and Ji Zhihao were left in the room.

You Yin appeared at the door suddenly and bowed, “Miss.”

“You Yin, guard the door for me. If there are any intruders, kill them.” After giving the order, Tan Yumin experienced a fatigueness which she had never felt before, it was as if all her energy was drained from her body.

“Yes!” You Yin followed the order with respect and stood at the door.

After some modifications, the interior of the Jungle Shuttle was beyond recognition. Various instruments were placed inside. The various spare parts of the Card Appliance had caused a stench of a mixture of metal and motor oil in the shuttle. If others were to enter, they wouldn’t be able to bear the stench and would leave, but Chen Mu could stay inside comfortably.

The Computation Box’s lights blinked while it was operating at the corner.

Many Card Appliance spare parts were placed in front of Chen Mu.

He didn’t work these few days as his thoughts were filled with one problem.

The card system became the most important system in the Heavenly Federation society. However, if one thought about it carefully, they would notice that there are many things that are unnecessary. For example, advanced cards and rare materials were not the most important component for the system. The reason that really led the Heavenly Federation to go into the cards era was the usage of power-cards with lower stars, especially its mass production.

This is the main reason that caused the Heavenly Federation to revolve into the cards era!

Advanced cards would always belong to a minority of the people. But the power-cards of lower stars were the true support of the society. Their existence caused cards to enter all parts of daily life of the people, including lighting, eating, warming…

The mass production of it was the most important part of all this!

Right now, all cards with three stars and above would be handcrafted and produced by card masters, this also produced many card masters. However, it also shackled the development of cards.

Chen Mu wanted to produce a meter initially but he suddenly thought of Faya’s Battle Shuttle Car and many problems that came with it.

Using his own team as an example, if he wanted to completely change a card, that meant a minimum of 2000 cards would be needed!

Making an order of 2000 cards in any city would still be a large order. This would require many card masters and they would consume a long period of time to finish it. Chen Mu used to spend few months creating card sets.

But now, time simply did not allow this to happen.

He realised that this problem was more valuable than a meter, it was also more important than himself.

The mass production of cards had always been the main focus of research by various groups. However, no one has succeeded yet. Chen Mu didn’t think that he was more clever than the others but he knew that he had an advantage which the others did not. He was a card artisan and he knew how to produce cards, he also knew the token card technology which was long lost. Furthermore, he knew about metal processing and the way to produce a Card Appliance!

The knowledge he possessed was an absolute advantage. Although all the knowledge systems were incomplete, but if he could rearrange and assemble them together effectively, it could be of some use.

This problem sparked his interest. If it could be of some use, it was even more useful to him now. Chen Mu was a loyal pragmatist, he only did research on useful objects. He would never research topics that would be useless to him.

The difficulty in mass production of cards lied, in perception as perception itself was a medium that was required to fit card materials into the cards themselves. Only card artisans and card masters could use perception, there was no way cold machines could use perception. Moreover, card artisans’ perception cannot be used as a medium as they concentrated on features instead of dispersion.

A staple reason of why lower star power-cards could be produced in bulk was because they didn’t need the help of perception.

For now, humans have not found a medium replacement for human perception yet.

Since nothing was found, then why must perception be replaced? Chen Mu decided to change his way of thinking. His system of knowledge was incomplete but there were basically no fetters. In his mind, nothing was certain and inevitable.

Chen Mu was familiar with the procedure of cardmaking as he had produced uncountable cards. He could troubleshoot the problem by just honing calmly. The difficulty for a card master in producing cards lied in the control of perception. Due to the fact that the required perception strength was different for each card pattern, it was extremely difficult for the whole process to be perfect. The more advanced the card was, the more complex the pattern. Even if a card master bear it in mind, it would still be very easy to make mistakes in the process of production.

Humans were not machines, mistakes would definitely be made!

An idea illuminated Chen Mu’s mind! Humans were not machines, mistakes were natural, but what if machines took over this part of the job, would there not be mistakes anymore?

As this thought emerged, inspiration rolled in like a flood.

Chen Mu felt enlightened!

An undiscovered path was presented in front of him, he felt immense joy from his soul until he trembled!