The Card Apprentice

In the dark drainpipe, the dim rays from the apparatus spread over all of Chen Mu’s right hand, swirling toward his right index finger where they concentrated like a shark smelling blood.

A crystalline long tube-shaped shuttle appeared on Chen Mu’s right index finger, emitting a light halo, dazzling and beautiful. The more it spun, the faster it went, giving out a low hum as it got to its top speed.

This would be Chen Mu’s first time using it for battle. He was strangely not the least bit nervous, with his eyes fixed on his adversary, and his right index finger poised at an opening in the grate.

He knew that he had only one chance, and that he wouldn’t have time to see what he’d done.

Without knowing if it was because of the stimulation, his state of mind was the most excellent that it had ever been. The tube on his finger had never felt so much under his mind’s control, as he calmed down his urgent breath in that moment. Every particular from inside that mysterious card about controlling the tailless shuttle card was clear in his mind as never before.

He made continuous fine adjustments using his perception, as the spinning of the tailless shuttle tube grew faster and faster.

The two card artisans in midair had no idea that they had been turned from predator to prey.

Now! Chen Mu’s eyes narrowed, as his index finger pointed to some spot in the sky.

Sheeeooo, the tailless shuttle shot like a spark from the grid of the drainpipe cover, and Chen Mu dropped his head and started madly bolting with all his energy, with no chance to see the result.

Fifty meters was really nothing for the tailless shuttle! The two card artisans detected it almost the instant Chen Mu let the shuttle loose.

Their faces changed color instantly, as who knows how many multiples quicker the two card artisans’ reaction times were than Chen Mu’s. The one with the quickest response was the card artisan who hadn’t been targeted.

That card artisan had plenty of self-confidence as three beams of blue light immediately welcomed the shot. That type of ‘ultimate blue snake line’ battle card had alarming power, with its snake-like beam able to penetrate fifty centimeters of steel plate. What was more important was that the card of his was steeped in eight years of gongfu!

The tailless shuttle in midair let out a soul-sucking howl, with an inaudible low vibration from the spinning tube. But what was most astonishing wasn’t the wailing it gave in flight. It was that the shortening of the shuttle body was visible to the naked eye as its speed surged, getting faster and faster as it approached!

The three snake lines pounced on nothingness, as pow, a dazzling blue ball of fireworks emerged from the collision.

That card artisan lowered his head to see a bloody wound the size of a thumb. You couldn’t see his expression since he was wearing a face guard, but you could still see the strange expression revealed by his two eyes, seeming panic stricken and in disbelief.

Whump, he was planting down from the sky at the same time. Just as he was about to pound into the ground, the other card artisan, who made a rapid dive the instant he came to his senses from the shock, caught his companion. But by the time he caught him, he was no longer breathing. There was a finger sized wound over his heart, from which large surges of blood kept spewing out.

“Brother Yu, Brother Yu! Open your eyes, I beg you! Brother Yu . . . you said that you weren’t quite proficient with the ‘ultimate blue snake line’ and that I would still have to bring you along further . . .” There was panic and terror in the big warrior’s voice, as he kept calling out ‘brother Yu’ as though he were crazy, to which brother Yu made no response. Until he was hoarse and the big warrior could take it no longer, his voice lost in pain, he kept holding brother Yu, his tears gushing like a spring.

Chen Mu was plunging along with one foot high and one low, in a place where the stench would make anyone vomit; where startled rats could be seen everywhere, along with an occasional snake. When he was a child, he would often hide in the drainpipes, and that long dormant and distant memory suddenly came back to life.

It was hard to tell direction in the drainpipes, and with all its branches, you would lose the way if you were even a little careless. It was a good thing that Chen Mu was experienced and could keep running in the same direction.

The small town of Burlington was a lot smaller-scale than Eastern Shang-Wei City proper, and its drainage system was naturally quite inferior. Chen Mu had to crawl in a few places, at which times he would have to ignore the filthy water that he was crawling ahead through.

He didn’t know whether that shuttle just then had hit its mark in the end, though this matter had already been put to the back of his mind, since he still had to push himself to run a little farther before he could emerge from the drainage pipes. But he had already determined that he would be safe in a short while.

As it became a little safer, he couldn’t help thinking of Copper.

He could only hope just then that the Pei household had discovered that one of their men had already died. This would put them on the alert, making Copper correspondingly safer.

But he couldn’t worry about Copper just then, having quite a few difficulties that he would have to resolve still ahead of him, such as where to exit the drainpipes. And how would he get in touch with Copper and the others, and so forth.

He’d already been racing for about half an hour, and according to his speed, he was probably just about through the whole of the small town of Burlington. Just then there was a little light ahead, which must be an exit. Chen Mu decided to take a look.

It was indeed an outlet, and he seemed to have come to the end of Burlington’s drainage system. The pipe that he was in just then continued on to the surface, which made it clear that he had already gotten to the discharge outlet.

As he drilled out through the discharge outlet, the bright sun made him squint.

It was the outer reaches. He had actually gotten to the outer reaches!

Chen Mu didn’t know whether he was lucky or unlucky. It was lucky that he must have already lost those two deadly card artisans who were chasing him. But it was unlucky that it was the outer reaches.

The outer reaches were a dangerous and overgrown place. Only those card artisans with battle strength would dare to go out of the city. If convoys wanted to go, they would hire large numbers of card artisans to protect them.

A wry smile came up from the corner of Chen Mu’s mouth. But there was still the problem of how to get in touch with Copper from that place where birds wouldn’t shit. Unlike a big city, Burlington didn’t have many card artisans, and he hadn’t heard of them producing any. So, the card artisans for that kind of activity would be pitifully few. The probability of running into a card artisan out there was rather small.

It was Chen Mu’s first time to the outer reaches, and he looked all around. He couldn’t help being amazed. The air there was a lot fresher, especially as far as Chen Mu was concerned, who had just emerged from the drainage pipes.

As he walked along casually for a while, Chen Mu started to feel a little more genial under the sunshine.

Under his feet at that time was all soft grass, where about three hundred meters in front of him was a dense forest. There were trees everywhere with some so large that it would take a few people to encircle them, such as would never be seen in the city.

According to lore, the middle of the jungle was always full of danger, but it also held countless treasures. From what he knew, the most precious materials needed for card making mostly had to be captured from the dense forests.

That made him curious, and he couldn’t stop himself from walking slowly toward the jungle.