The Card Apprentice

The imperceptible, fine currents were relentless under the water. Chen Mu’s originally strong perception became as weak as paper there, and if he were the least bit careless, it might be broken apart by those fine flows. The complexity of the flows was far beyond what Chen Mu could then control, which put him in a difficult situation.

It was hundreds of times more complex than the simple water world. Chen Mu now understood a little bit about why it had been called that. The one who had made the mysterious card had also understood how different the card was from real-world water. That was why he had called it the simple water world.

But, Chen Mu didn’t retreat. On the contrary, he felt faintly excited. He had been caught up in the slow phase of increasing his perception for a long time, where its increase was like hair, growing one strand at a time. Although that hadn’t made Chen Mu anxious, he had now accidentally discovered a shortcut that would speed up the increase in his perception.

The basic premise of his “extreme training method” was that the simple water world involved a lot of pressure, which would constantly refine his perception. His perception would then improve quickly. As he pursued the continual strengthening of his perception, the more he adapted to the simple water world, the less difference there would be between it and the normal world. Chen Mu would feel the pressure decreasing at the same time the increase to his perception had hit a bottleneck.

Now, he had found a new way to resume the feeling of pressure! It was everywhere and in every orifice with its incessant, fine flows that made him feel like he would go crazy. It was also much more brutal than the simple water world. In the simple water world, the pressure he’d faced would always be precisely just beyond his perceptual strength, putting him just beyond the state he could bear from beginning to end. But, in real water, those complex flows didn’t care if he could bear them or not. That tore into his brain and drove him crazy. That kind of pressure was more direct, as well as more powerful.

The perception within Chen Mu’s body was getting weaker and weaker as the situation around him was becoming more and more confused. It was a manifestation of the disappearance of a large part of his perception. The scope of perception was a lot smaller than in the air; if he were to use it, its rate of consumption would be a lot faster.

Mental arousal was not enough to cause a person’s body to make a similar response. All of Chen Mu’s attention was spent on how to control what remained of his perceptual tendrils, and he was unaware of how much time was passing. Without knowing it, the oxygen in his blood had been gradually depleted.

The depletion of the oxygen in his blood could made him feel dizzy. Chen Mu wasn’t paying attention to that detail, thinking it was the influence of his own rapidly depleting perception.

The suffering on his face could be vaguely discerned through the glass of the pool.

Wei-ah was already standing on the platform to the side of the pool prepared to fish Chen Mu out at any time.

The surroundings became more and more fuzzy as his perception was constantly being torn apart by the trickles in the water, leaving only a small part remaining. The depletion of oxygen in his body was accelerating the consumption of perception until Chen Mu’s consciousness started to gradually blur. The sounds and images became distant all at once.

His mind had become blank.

Watching from the platform, Wei-ah could see Chen Mu was at his limit with his face ashen and without a drop of blood. The water had already started to rush into his mouth, and bubbles were gurgling up.

Just then, Wei-ah’s eyes changed their expression and narrowed as he turned his head and cast his gaze to the window. A powerful surge of a murderous aura came from where Wei-ah was standing, and it was as though the temperature in the training room had dropped several degrees. Even the white lights seemed to have chilled.

In the water, the dizzy Chen Mu felt enshrouded in a chill. Stimulated by it, he immediately awakened from his unconscious state! Chen Mu was frightened by the powerful murderous aura at first, having just been restored to his senses. He felt as though he were an ant in the storms of winter without any means of resistance. His blood congealed, and his body hardened while an unfathomable terror arose from the deepest reaches of his heart.

He was just then unconsciously gathering his own remaining threads of perception to resist the powerful surge of the murderous aura. In that busy instant, he forgot about those incessantly flowing, tiny ripples in the water. After his overwhelming fear, the desire for survival was as tenacious as spring to follow winter. Under the threat of death and its stimulation, Chen Mu felt a clarity and calm such as he had never experienced. The perception within his body suddenly become clearer than ever with every finest detail at his fingertips. And, the perception he had just felt so difficult to control seemed to have been given a jolt as it became incomparably docile. No matter how much Chen Mu manipulated it, it was compliant beyond anything he had never experienced.

The murderous aura was exceedingly powerful, in front of which Chen Mu’s resistance had become more like a praying mantis instead of an ant in the ice and snow. Chen Mu was so cold in the water his teeth were rattling, and his body was trembling. With all of his energy focused on resisting the murderous aura, Chen Mu hadn’t paid attention to his internal perception having increased at such a shocking rate.

Outside the window, a dark shadow flew off and disappeared into the distance like a startled, large bird.

Wei-ah didn’t go in pursuit, as he was preparing to bend down and fish out the already exhausted Chen Mu. Just as he was bending over and as his gaze attached to Chen Mu in the water, there was a sudden burst of light in his eyes. He halted his movements to stand.

* * *

Without any decorum, Butchie opened the short-bearded, middle-aged man’s liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red wine, grabbing the neck with her right hand and lightly twisting it. She let out a whistle and contentedly took it halfway down the neck, having just inadvertently cut off the entire mouth of the bottle, leaving the cut gleaming like a mirror.

“Can’t you do it the ordinary way?” Clearly displeased with the way Butchie had opened it, the short-bearded, middle-aged man was looking at his very expensive and fine bottle of red wine.

Not thinking anything of it, Butchie said, “This is more convenient!” She was just getting ready to pour the wine when she suddenly lifted her head.

The expression on her face suddenly froze. It then quickly turned serious, her gaze turning to the houses not far away.

“What a powerful murderous aura!” The phrase contained seven parts praise and two parts astonishment, along with one part excitement.

“What happened?” Without having felt a thing, the short-bearded, middle-aged man was looking at Butchie full of curiosity. But, his expression became surprisingly serious; he had full confidence in Butchie’s power. Within the organization, there was only a handful of card artisans as awesome as Butchie. She had certainly discovered something; a card artisan’s perception was extremely sensitive.

“There is a scary ace over there who just emitted an extremely powerful murderous aura. I never thought Pomelo would actually have such aces.” Butchie clucked her cheek and gazed through the glass to where the forest of apartments was and said, not having quite expressed herself, “The most critical thing is the murderous aura! Who knew there could actually to be such a chilling murderous aura in this world? That would have to be some kind of ruthless ace.”

“Does Pomelo have such an ace? Why haven’t I heard of it?” The wondering look on the face of the short-bearded, middle-aged man deepened. He understood Butchie’s temperament very well, with her eyes always gazing over the top. For her to actually use “terrifying” to describe a person shocked him and naturally piqued his curiosity.

Just then, Butchie’s gaze froze as it fell onto the dark night sky.

“Interesting!” A hard-to-describe smile floated to the corners of her mouth. “It looks like it was just the bug provoking the lion. Ha, ha, I’ll go and get him.” She got a mask from who knows where and put it on her face. She pushed open the window and flew off without a word of parting.

Before the short-bearded, middle-aged man could say a thing, Butchie had disappeared without a trace, leaving him shaking his head with regret. Afterward, he contentedly grabbed the bottle of red wine and poured himself a glass. “What a waste!”

One in desperate flight and the other in pursuit, they were naturally very different.

The one dressed all in black and wearing a mask on his face was the dark one. There were no designs nor anything special about the mask. The black mask and black clothes made him look like a ghost in the dark.

Butchie wore a black and red mask, which gave off a desolate and eerie feeling. Watching the black shadow in front of her, she became more and more stunned. The black-suited card artisan in front of her had more skill than she might have imagined. He made a series of highly difficult tactical maneuvers that nearly threw her off. While she had originally looked down on that “little reptile,” he had now gotten 120 percent of her attention. His moves weren’t like hers, though the differences were minimal. She had considered her movements to be covert and her adversary to be unaware of her. But, once her adversary had suddenly used a set of moves with such a high degree of difficulty, the intent was obvious. He had discovered her.

Her adversary was extremely vigilant and powerful. He was no ordinary character! Thinking back on the one who had emitted the murderous aura, she became still more terrified. How long could she hold out against the power of the black-suited adversary in front of her who had fled from the murderous aura?

The more she thought about it, the more alarmed she became. When had Pomelo produced so many aces?