The Card Apprentice

The closer he got to the jungle, the more he felt the air dampen, but it was very different from the dampness in the drain pipes. This moist air was full of a smell of freshness, which made a person relaxed and carefree. Chen Mu’s spirits were lifted.

Just as Chen Mu was being intoxicated by the novelty of the dense forest, something dark and black plunged out from the jungle, coming straight for him!

It was too fast! The long dark thing grabbed his ankle before he could respond. At almost the same time, a strong force came up through his ankle and he quickly lost his stability, as he fell to the ground with a thump.

Was there a snake?

Chen Mu’s mind tensed, but things were happening so fast that before he could fight back he had lost his balance. Once his ankle was bound, Chen Mu was dragged toward the jungle by a tremendous force.

His spine was ground hot with pain from the grassy land, and he saw that he was getting closer and closer to the dense bushes. Chen Mu quickly drew himself up into a ball. The fine thorns which covered the undergrowth froze his heart in fright, but the series of misfortunes had come on too quickly, leaving him no space for any fear.

He automatically took some protective measures but couldn’t use the tailless shuttle card to fight back, which showed how far he was from being a qualified card artisan.

In an instant, the branches of the shrubbery left dozens of crisscrossing trails of blood on his arms that were protecting his body, bringing on another bout of burning pain. That pain made Chen Mu suck in a cold breath of air.

Although he didn’t know what it really was, it must have been some sort of snake-like creature, judging from the feeling coming from his leg, or it could have been the touch of a monster’s hand.

Among his pathetically small general knowledge, Chen Mu didn’t have a single piece of information about the creatures in the jungle. The only thing he could think of was the only thing he knew about, which was a snake.

Such great strength! Although he didn’t know what kind of creature it was, he couldn’t help being fascinated. But it wasn’t a very good thing that was happening to him, where he might very likely get eaten up.

He was abruptly dragged into the jungle like a bag of sand.

There was no longer any trace of that fresh humid air, which had been replaced by the smell of rotting leaves blowing in his face. The branches that were hitting Chen Mu right in the face made it impossible for him to open his eyes. But perhaps because too many things had happened that day, he wasn’t even feeling unfortunate and his mind was surprisingly sharp.

He relaxed his body and curled up into a ball, so that he could reduce the area for injuries by some large margin. He still suffered plenty like that, the dense underbrush being so covered in fine thorns that he was stabbed full of cuts and bruises.

If it were Copper, that knucklehead would be afraid of ruining his face he guessed miserably. That was the kind of thing which leapt into Chen Mu’s mind, so that he might have something to smile about.

Chen Mu realized that his chance had come when it seemed that there was some loosening around his ankle.

Without any hesitation, he exerted force from his waist and abdomen, so that his whole body shot up. That thing on his ankle also seemed to sense it, and it tightened. It wanted to tighten!

The feeling was too familiar.

From his gut, Chen Mu was thanking that person who’d made the mysterious card over and over. That unwinding game had saved his life!

A bow, a bend, and a shot, and his body exerted tremendous burst strength which suddenly exploded, while at the same time his ankles which were being bound left and right twisted in a flash, and all the sudden burst of power from his body was transmitted to his left ankle. After the twist and the flash, and because of the power that was between his ankle and that thing winding around his leg, it blew apart!

Pow, came the loud sound of cracking as Chen Mu felt his ankle lighten, thrilled that the thing had been burst open. Chen Mu was finally able to see clearly what it actually looked like. Surprisingly, it was a black vine the thickness of a thumb.

Could it be that even the vines were dangerous in the jungle? Chen Mu’s heart was racing wildly, as he suddenly felt the threats lurking on every side and couldn’t wait to get out of that dangerous place.

“Hey!” The sound of a woman’s whisper came from deep in the jungle.

Chen Mu was stupefied. There’s someone there? But his legs didn’t slow in the slightest. He couldn’t be concerned just then about whether or not someone was there. He would think about that after he got out from that dangerous jungle.

A warbling voice suddenly came from behind him, and as soon as Chen Mu turned his head to look, he saw that black vine drilling out from the thick underbrush like a snake, and its target was shockingly him!

It was too fast!

This vine hadn’t given up its ghost! Chen Mu tried to imagine what kind of monster it was. Had even vegetation gotten so fierce by then?

Without having anything left to preserve, he summoned even the strength from his milk-drinking days, and then without any regard for the thorny bushes, he plunged in willy-nilly, hoping to lose that terrifying vine.

As though it were looking only for Chen Mu, it trailed after him, unimaginably flexible, and as fast as lightning.

Chen Mu’s left ankle was bound again!

Damn!

Chen Mu stepped on the vine with his right foot, and like the last time, his left foot followed the recipe, and pow! Another cracking sound, as the tight windings around Chen Mu’s left ankle were blown apart.

But without waiting for Chen Mu to run away another time, the black vine that he was stepping on suddenly drilled ahead like a slippery freak, and the end of the vine shot up suddenly like a snake’s head, abruptly winding around Chen Mu’s waist.

That time, the vine had moved even faster! It was so fast that Chen Mu didn’t have time to blink; who knows how many times faster than the last time.

Chen Mu was horrified to find that his waist was feeling more power than he’d ever felt before, and he was suddenly blocked from flying out with that the move he had just been able to use.

More underbrush, more desperately protecting his face, more hot pain, but that time was a lot worse than the last, with Chen Mu having no chance to protect himself. Even his clothes were torn to shreds by the thorns that time, their tatters setting off the lines of blood.

The immortal feeling of ‘riding the clouds and mounting the mist’ was messed up!

Chen Mu was dizzy watching the ground sway back and forth from at least ten meters away. He had been hung up. Who knows how many times stronger and more pliable the vine was than those water weeds in the simple water world. He was now being pulled in so hard by the black vine that his waist was about to snap.

A person dressed all in black walked out below him. It was a woman wearing body-tight black clothes which revealed every feature of her figure. Even Chen Mu who had never had any concept of a woman knew that it was some kind of demonic body. He guessed that it was the woman whose voice he’d just heard.

But as soon as he saw that face, he couldn’t help sighing with regret that it really was a demon!

Her face looked like it was covered with some sort of crusty shell, with flesh visible in only a few places through the bumps and hollows, where the five sensory organs could be vaguely made out. Even her belly was covered with the scabby shell, oozing pus in a few places and looking terrifying.

Chen Mu gulped hard, while he wondered what that woman was actually thinking of doing.