The Card Apprentice

Star Academy’s second student exchange session had finally arrived! But the Eastern Wei Academy scholars who had been through the excitement of the first time weren’t making such a big fuss about it then. That was except for the strong students and teachers, like Hong Tao, who were really amazed, since the students from Star Academy were then quite a bit stronger than the first time, almost every one of immeasurable strength.

“Qing Qing is here!” There was some affection in the way that Wang Ze welcomed her, along with a hint of respect. Yin Chenjiu and the rest alongside him had adoring faces, slightly bowing, giving those who didn’t know the impression that they were welcoming their lead teacher.

“I am grateful for such hard-working student leaders to have taken such trouble.” The person who spoke with such clear simple elegance was a girl with long hair. She had an average face, which gave off an air of elegance, and she wore a long turquoise dress which conveyed a kind of unspoken serenity. All her movements were like a spring breeze, gentle and calm.

Wang Ze emerged from his initial silence to reply with a wry smile, “Qing Qing is more and more charming. Even I can’t stand it.” Seeing the crowd behind her, Wang Ze sighed, “It looks like the president of the academy has spared no expense this time.”

Qing Qing pursed her lips in a chuckle without saying anything.

Outsiders had no idea how strict the division was at Star Academy between the inner academy and the outer academy, while everyone there understood it well, and greeted her in appropriate fashion.

Most of those there to receive her that time were Star Academy exchange students, along with a few Eastern Wei Academy professors, as well as Hong Tao and Zuo Tingyi.

Wang Ze introduced those from Eastern Wei Academy. When he introduced Zuo Tingyi, Qing Qing smiled, “Student leader Tingyi comes from the Zuo family. No wonder I’ve been sensing that aristocratic aura, which I will learn from.”

Zuo Tingyi responded, “Young classmate Qing Qing is too flattering. We are only the lords of a remote region, and nothing to do with aristocracy. Our young classmate Qing Qing is really the one who has escaped the ordinary!” What Zuo Tingyi said wasn’t just self-effacement, since although the Zuo household was very influential in Eastern Shang-Wei City, it wasn’t even ranked across the Federation, and would naturally not be considered aristocracy.

Star Academy produced the people of real quality. Although that Qing Qing in front of him didn’t have a notable name, who knows how many sons of the aristocracy she has surpassed with her elegance and tranquility.

But no matter if it was Zuo Tingyi’s bearing or his other aspects, he was quite outstanding. He had gotten the attention of the Star Academy students, who rather admired him. Zuo Tingyi always returned the favor when they all smiled at him.

Qing Qing smiled lightly, “Perhaps some time when the student leader is free, you could show Qing Qing the beautiful sites of Eastern Shang Wei City.”

That simple warm smile gave some pause to Zuo Tingyi who was quite used to beautiful women, but after a while he politely bowed to say, “I am ready to be at your service.”

The rest of the group was already used to that kind of thing, and didn’t think anything of it.

* * *

“You are too scrawny and easy to kill.” To Chen Mu’s hearing, the demonic woman’s voice was no longer so awkward, “But you’re still useful, and won’t die for the time being.”

The demonic woman summarized Chen Mu as basically worthless. But it was still a good thing to know how many catties he weighed, and he accepted her manner of letting him know her estimation of his usefulness. It had been a long time since he’d gotten such a pure and artless estimation. There wasn’t anyone in the world other than your mother or father who had any obligation to you.

If you want something, you have to get it yourself.

The overhead of the cramped loft was already full of all sorts of stuff, among which Chen Mu was racing back and forth.

His first day’s obligation was very simple, to run three hundred circuits. The demonic woman’s only demand was that he use all of his strength for each circuit. She was sitting cross-legged in the corner supervising it all. It was very dark in the loft, for which the demonic woman seemed to have an unusual preference. She shut the skylight, but beyond that she stuffed things into any little crack which might let any light in.

The loft was pitch dark such that you couldn’t see the fingers on your hand. While Chen Mu’s eyes were a whole lot sharper than before, he still couldn’t adapt to that environment.

The most critical thing was that there wasn’t any order at all to the debris which was strewn around. The first thing that Chen Mu needed to do was to adjust to the dark.

But from what he could ‘see,’ that first step wasn’t going to be easy.

As soon as Chen Mu moved, he bumped up into a sack of beans, and when he quickly dodged to the side, he tripped over a bag of rice. That continuous knocking over of stuff was stopping his momentum. But if he slowed the slightest bit, that snake-like black vine of the demonic woman would whack him on the back and leave a bloody trail.

There would be a shocking number of lash marks crisscrossing his back every evening. But he knew that the demonic woman was very precise, and would only bring him to the point of pain that penetrated to his marrow, without breaking his bones.

Chen Mu had embarked upon a life of working in the day and training hard at night. But he had become remarkably strong, to an extent that even he himself would never have imagined he could hold out for.

His daytime work could be considered rest, compared to the intensive training in the evenings, and his daily sleep had been compressed into two hours.

Although he had entered into many different kinds of training, there wasn’t one of them which caused as much transformation as that one did. With his crashing around nearly every night until he was black and blue, it was a good thing that the demonic woman had some salve which had excellent results, or he wouldn’t have been able to go on the next day. Sometimes, he would wonder there in the dark what she really did.

Assassin? That was the most likely guess. Her dark style and her endless stream of weird moves, plus her indifference to life, all supported it. But as seemingly endless as those all were, that bizarre ointment made her seem more like a doctor.

Yeah, perhaps a high-grade assassin. They probably understand quite a lot, Chen Mu was thinking.

Chen Mu’s training was finally starting to improve. He could sense where all of that stuff was, having already started to get accustomed to the dark environment. The most crucial thing there was perception.

The scope of his perception was still four and nine-tenths meters, but what he needed to train then was his ability to control his body.

By that time the demonic woman had started to go out frequently every night. It was for a different length of time every night, but the biggest change was that her Federation dialect became more and more fluent.

But she still didn’t speak very often.

A month went by without his awareness. Chen Mu could shuttle about easily then among all the debris in the loft so dark that you couldn’t see your five fingers. And his speed was up to the lowest standards set by that demonic woman.

“You still have a month.” The demonic woman suddenly opened her mouth that night.

“A months’ time?” Chen Mu didn’t quite understand.

The demonic woman looked coldly at Chen Mu, and said with an icy voice, “You’ll enter Eastern Wei Academy in a month.”

“Impossible!” Chen Mu shook his head, and without waiting for her to ask, he explained, “The Eastern Wei Academy is very hard to get in to.”

“You are a sponsored student.” From some unknown place, she came up with a big pile of stuff, “These are your materials. This is money.” She handed over a huge pile of money cards, raising a cold sweat on Chen Mu. How many people had this bimbo killed to get so much money?

The demonic woman had no intention to explain, as she just laid out all the materials in front of Chen Mu.

“I remember you saying that you are a card master?” she continued.

Chen Mu answered cautiously, “I know a little.”

“Mmmm. You’ll enter the card making department.” Her tone wasn’t leaving any room for opposition.

“What do you want me to do?” Chen Mu was staring at the demonic woman, when he abruptly blurted out, “Is it the Star Academy?”

She coldly looked at him without saying anything.

You’ll only be out twice a week. I’ve already found you a place to live. Here’s the key. If you have any issues, be in touch with the communications card.” She handed over the key and the communications card.

Chen Mu mutely took the communications card and the key, knowing that there wasn’t any room for choice.

“You’ll have to learn the most basic life-saving skills in a month. You’ll have five days a week when you can depend only on yourself to stay alive.”