The Card Apprentice

The demonic woman stopped her feet and dove into the bushes to hide, grabbing Chen Mu with one hand. He couldn’t tell what that black suit on her body was made from, but the thorns on the branches of the bushes weren’t able to prick through it. They were hard on Chen Mu, though. By that time, every inch of his body was already scratched up, and those fine thorns ruthlessly and frequently ravaged him.

They were about three hundred meters away from the site that the demonic woman had just set up, and she was hiding stock still, like a cold blooded wild animal waiting for its prey to enter its ambush zone.

“Yo! dammit, what is this?” Blood curdling screams and shouts of alarm came one after the other.

The demonic woman had no change to her look, and maintained the same posture, like a lifeless stone statue. Chen Mu couldn’t maintain that sort of calm look, and his face was pretty messed up.

Three minutes later, all the sounds returned to silence.

Those people had all died! Chen Mu’s heart sank to its lowest place, wondering if he would be following in their footsteps. His childhood existence made him not so afraid of death, as though he were constantly fighting against it, struggling to stay alive and keep going.

He hadn’t thought that his life would come to a screeching halt after it had just gotten better. All of his struggles and all of his dreams would be coming to an end.

Chen Mu wasn’t at all saddened by that kind of fate, feeling only a cool grief, very very cool.

The demonic woman was as soundless and nimble as a cheetah, even still carrying Chen Mu bound into a bundle.

They sure were dead!

What Chen Mu hadn’t expected was that those peoples’ dead forms weren’t horrible, but on the contrary could even be called peaceful. Some of the corpses were still smiling, as though they were in a very happy state on the brink of death.

If one were to say that things had been cool, then that was bone-chilling. Too strange, and too terrifyingly creepy.

Chen Mu was a little bit confused to watch the demonic woman put her hand on one of the corpses, and then pull out one of those very fine light green threads from within it. It was not noticeably the slightest bit wet with any blood.

Chen Mu looked in dread at that fine light green thread, never having imagined that this unremarkable fine thread was such a horrifying killing instrument. The scene of its being drawn out bit by bit from the corpse really tested what a person could bear.

The thread was quickly wound around the demonic lady’s middle finger.

Chen Mu suddenly sensed another very slight fluctuation in energy. At almost the same time, the fine silken thread that was wound around the demonic woman’s middle finger went back to being a card, without any sign that it would do so; it was that card with the green colored fine composition of lines that he had seen before.

Could this be some new technique?

The inconceivable transformation made Chen Mu extremely curious, while his sense of curiosity also greatly reduced his dread. There is actually a card in this world which doesn’t need any apparatus to be used!

And he was really curious by then about who that demonic woman really was. What were the principles on which that card of hers was based?

The demonic woman fumbled about with the rest of the corpses for a while. Not seeing any signs of harm on their bodies, Chen Mu didn’t know how those people had actually died. He also didn’t know what the demonic woman was doing, since he couldn’t see her from his angle.

If one didn’t use any apparatus, then what method would you use? Chen Mu was wondering.

While Chen Mu was mulling over that arcana, the demonic woman had already gotten up.

She picked up Chen Mu and ran deep into the jungle.

Since he hadn’t been killed at once, Chen Mu sighed in relief. But the feeling of being carried was really messed up, and he was so shaken up that all the bitterness went right out of him. While seeming to really like those dense jungles, the demonic woman just kept drilling in.

They travelled for nearly a day and a night. After every little while, she would feed Chen Mu something that was a little like a red sea sponge. It was always a small piece, which had a very mild flavor. Chen Mu surmised that the red sea sponge must be what the demonic woman used in the outer reaches to appease her hunger.

Chen Mu finally relaxed when it looked as though he wasn’t likely to be killed. While he had always thought that the demonic woman wasn’t really thinking of killing him, his speculation was shaken by the cold blooded and bizarre ways that she would subdue him. He didn’t really decide that he wasn’t likely to die until after she fed him the red sea sponges.

Chen Mu had already lost any idea about where he was, since a day and a night of jostling had made him somewhat lose his mind.

When the demonic woman finally stopped, she wasn’t even breathing hard after a day and a night of continuous running while carrying a man by her hand! She casually tossed Chen Mu to the place. His energy was really low, and his face pallid.

The demonic woman finally released the black vine that he had been wrapped in. By that time, his body really looked horrible, showing line after line of bright red binding marks, and covered in fine cuts and bruises; even his face was all scratched up.

Chen Mu got back some of his energy after resting for several hours.

“What do you really intend to do?” Chen Mu asked listlessly.

“Who. . . are you?” the demonic woman labored to answer.

This was the first that Chen Mu had heard the demonic woman’s voice so close-up. Her enunciation was very awkward, a word at a time. That amused him a little, with even three-year olds being more fluent than she was. But as soon as he caught her look, he obediently swallowed the laugh that was coming from his mouth.

Cold. Bone chilling. The look that the demonic woman was giving Chen Mu was very cold, raising all his hair. He’d had the wrong idea all along. He was only prey.

“Chen Mu, card master.” Having calmed down, Chen Mu was completely cooperative.

The demonic woman shook her head, “Card Master? Don’t look like!” She still spoke awkwardly, but she was staring at him like a snake, trying to capture any change in his expression.

“Don’t look like? Why?” Chen Mu was a little surprised by what the demonic woman had said. It was really a good thing that he was a card master, since although he’d been surprised, he remained unperturbed.

“Strength, flesh!”

Although the demonic woman’s speech could be a little confusing, Chen Mu could still understand what she was trying to say. What the demonic woman wanted to say was that he was very strong, with very strong muscles.

“I really am a card master.” Seeing some improvement in the atmosphere between them, Chen Mu couldn’t help probing, “Why did you grab me?”

“Taking care of business. Success, live. Fail, die.”

The demonic woman’s gaze was indifferent, ice cold without any warmth. Chen Mu knew that she wasn’t joking with him.