The Card Apprentice

That was the most basic method of attack. Chen Mu was like a starving wolf who’d seen some delicious food. His eyes were giving off a hot glow, which was very different from his normally calm, cool look. Looking on, Lu Xiaoru was a mess thinking there was something wrong with her card.

The Sound Beam was a powerful card, though its attack style was pretty singular, as he had determined from its principles. Chen Mu guessed there were two places that formed the crux of the sound beam card. One of them would be to use perception to strum the two energy reeds. That looked like a simple strumming, though it must have contained quite a few variations. The other critical place would then be the shape, size and thickness of the energy reeds and so forth.

But, Chen Mu was a complete layman with regard to the likes of musical rules. Even if he understood the crux of those, he wouldn’t have any way to deduce the variations among them.

Still, he had his own tricks. Summoning up all the perception in his body, Chen Mu strummed the two energy reeds very hard. It was as though two large hands had pulled them out to some outrageous extent and just let them loose.

Pa!

A hole was blown in the chair in front of him and the table behind it as well. Wood chips scattered all over the living room! Stones from the wall behind splashed from a hole blown the size of a fist, which was surrounded by cracks like spider webs. A hole had also been blown through the closet that could be seen right through that hole in the wall. A swan-down quilt on the big bed behind the closet also had a hole blown through it, and the soft down was fluttering wildly all over the room.

Lu Xiaoru was staring with her mouth open.

She’d already had the Sound Beam in her hands for several years, and no one was more clear than she was about what its power was like. As she saw it, that card could only be considered an oddity with basic power that wasn’t worth talking about. Once an enemy was prepared for it or had seen the card, she thought she’d have to revert to other means to win.

But, it was extremely unorthodox, so there would be few people to speak of who could catch on the first time.

The Sound Beam had never played out such immense power in her hands. How had he done that? Her gaze toward Chen Mu turned hot.

Wei-ah only took a quick look before pulling back his gaze. Who knew what he was thinking?

Chen Mu shook his head to himself. His perception was basically still not strong enough. Just then, he’d mobilized the perception in his entire body to pluck those two energy reeds, but he’d never reached their limit; it was still far from the Sound Beam’s full power. His means didn’t have any skill in them, and no one could unreservedly mobilize all of the perception in their body for a single attack in the midst of battle.

However, it was enough to make Lu Xiaoru excited. Ever since getting that card, what she understood about it was pitifully little. She had no way to surmise anything from the card’s basic principles the way Chen Mu just had. She could only perform repeated trials, but she had made pitiful gains to that point.

Shutting down his apparatus, Chen Mu removed the Sound Beam. That card wasn’t suited to him. If he’d wanted to specialize in it, he’d have to first learn music and the laws of sound. If the Sound Beam were to fall into the hands of a card artisan proficient in sound, then the power it could bring into play would certainly be stunning. But, how many would there be among card artisans who were likely to be proficient with sound? That destined it to become some obscure and out-of-the-way card.

He certainly didn’t intend to study something new because of one card. His time was already super tight, so how could he find the time to study something new starting from the basics?

Lu Xiaoru was anxiously watching Chen Mu, now looking like a docile and cute little kitten.

Seeing her look of longing, Chen Mu thought for a while and then said to her, “Come on over.”

Lu Xiaoru was overjoyed and rushed over to Chen Mu’s side. But, she didn’t just sit casually on the carpet like Wei-ah and Chen Mu. She knelt down on her heels instead, with her two hands on her legs and her back erect.

It was unnerving to see the curves formed by her butt with that erect back.

“There are two critical parts of this card…”

Lu Xiaoru was sitting upright like a student and listening attentively. Chen Mu wanted to tell her about the mysteries of the Sound Beam, which far exceeded her every expectation. Not to mention her two sides were her best friends, and there wasn’t anyone who could inform her so calmly as Chen Mu was. For a card artisan, understanding one’s own card was the basis and foundation of power. If one didn’t understand their card, then one fundamentally couldn’t bring all of the card’s power into play, never mind being able to adjust and optimize the energy bodies it emitted.

She had gotten used to all the ways of the world and knew how rare such an opportunity was, so she listened very carefully, afraid to miss a single detail.

After Chen Mu was finished talking, he saw Lu Xiaoru with her head lowered in thought. He didn’t disturb her but walked off to the side. Although the Sound Beam didn’t suit him, it had revealed quite a few things to him. Previously, he had never thought sound waves could be weaponized. Now, he’d gained a lot and expanded his horizons.

Just then, Bu Qiangdong called Chen Mu back.

The terms had been settled at 7 million. They were also extremely harsh, requiring completion within two days, and they included 20 completed sets. Every additional set would get another 500,000. There were no further requirements regarding the advertisement apart from saying it needed to have an impact—a very powerful impact.

After Chen Mu had gotten the details, he felt suddenly as though he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The advertisement his counterpart wanted to do was actually about a card and a device that could conduct communication from the outer reaches. Central Island’s target was himself. Hadn’t they been wanting to get the communications array and the thousand kilometer card from his hands?

But, he quickly pulled himself together. He was short of money—or he should say really short of money—just then! For him, 7 million was very important. So finally, without any hesitation, he’d taken that piece of business even though the other party was the Central Island Firm.

Apart from those things, there weren’t any further rigid conditions. They only wanted to see the final result of the fantasy card advertisement and didn’t care how much creativity had actually been used for it.

Except two days’ time was pretty urgent!

Within those two days, there was actually only one day for Chen Mu. The other day would be taken up with preparing the special sound card. Time was extremely short.

Chen Mu went immediately back to the Heaven’s Wings building with the other two. Bu Qiangdong was already waiting for them.

By the time they’d rushed over, Bu Qiangdong was below the building looking up crestfallen and mumbling, “How could this be… how could this be…” Just as he’d been given so much hope and had found such a rare sense of belonging, who could have thought that in the blink of an eye the building would be unrecognizable? Several upper floors had been cut right in half. He could clearly see the broken walls exposed to the air, which made his heart ache.

He felt some retrospective fear just then since the boss normally lived up there…

It was a miracle the boss was still alive!

When he saw Chen Mu, Bu Qiangdong felt a stone fall away from his heart as though he’d just found his backbone. “It’s so wonderful nothing happened to you!” His tone was sincere, and one could hear he was expressing his true joy. Chen Mu was moved and nodded while grunting in response.

Bu Qiangdong’s gaze then fell onto Lu Xiaoru to Chen Mu’s side. She’d already changed her face by then; with nothing more than a reshape to her eyebrows and a few other tricks, she seemed like a completely different person. What was most inconceivable to Chen Mu was that her temperament had also undergone a stark transformation. This Lu Xiaoru was wearing light-framed glasses and a classic white blouse with knotted clasps down the front and slim dress pants below. Those made her legs look slender and tall.

There wasn’t anything of that sexy, voluptuous and charming Lu Xiaoru he had seen before. This was a completely different intellectual, professional woman. She followed behind Chen Mu like a dignified secretary. Even such a career veteran as Bu Qiangdong was fooled by her. He thought the boss must have had time to find a secretary and was praising him silently for his choice.

He well understood the subordinate’s place and didn’t look askance, nor did he ask anything further. But, watching that pretty secretary walking so close to the boss, he couldn’t help but wonder about the relationship between the two.

Lu Xiaoru might be said to have rich experience in that regard, and she got it right away. She kept her face looking cool and sober as she moved a little closer to Chen Mu without any indication of it from her feet.

Chen Mu didn’t introduce her to Bu Qiangdong, not feeling the need to. The line of people then entered the Heaven’s Wings building. As soon as they entered, Bu Qiangdong rushed over to the fantasy card advertisements in the exhibition hall, and his face filled with excitement. “Good god, how wonderful. They’re all still here!”

Chen Mu was a little perplexed to see Bu Qiangdong so excited. What was there that merited such excitement? Those fantasy card advertisements were nothing more than ordinary cards. He didn’t understand why Bu Qiangdong would care so much about those little gizmos.

There was no expression on Wei-ah’s face, while Lu Xiaoru was still more reluctant to open her mouth as she didn’t quite understand the situation. She was conscious about remaining behind Chen Mu in the guise of a secretary.

“Tell them all to come.”

Chen Mu tossed that phrase off when they’d arrived at the basement storeroom of the Heaven’s Wings building.

There were quite a few materials inside the Heaven’s Wings storeroom. They were all basic materials like some Chen Stone and the like. The materials weren’t worth anything, but they were all rapidly consumed, making it too much trouble always to shop for them. Most companies would accumulate some inventory if the conditions permitted.

Chen Mu was minding his own business picking things up in the storeroom while Bu Qiangdong was off to the side trying desperately to contact the rest of the employees. Depending on Chen Mu alone, there would be no way to complete the 20 sets of fantasy card advertisements.

For Chen Mu, making one- or two-star fantasy cards was a simple matter he was very familiar with. Of course he was beyond used to it from that year when he and Copper had been making card plays, and he had needed to produce them continuously and repetitively every day.

But, even though they were only making one- and two-star fantasy cards, Chen Mu was exceptionally focused. He wasn’t the least bit casual because of their low level. That was a habit leftover from making one-star power cards, when any mistake would mean a loss of money for him.

He watched with concentration as the card ink in the vessel constantly changed color. Chen Mu carefully and precisely placed all the necessary kinds of ingredients in it. Bu Qiangdong was excited to be able to see the boss do the work himself. He had a background in card making himself and worshipped Chen Mu’s ability in that regard. He couldn’t wait to be able to record every step the boss was taking.

The moves were skillful and unhurried, precise and fastidious. Every move the boss made was exemplary, still more so in the eyes of such an old hand at card making who couldn’t help but feel full of praise.

His heart filled with emotion. He didn’t know who had mentored the boss, but his fundamentals were amazing. No one in all of Heaven’s Wings could produce such exemplary movements. To some extent, the boss might be considered a kind of freak among card masters.

What card master would practice penmanship those days? Penmanship had limited use for card masters, and it required a lot of time to practice. Most card masters wouldn’t want to waste time on it. So, one would often see extremely clumsy compositions drawn by some of the highest-grade card masters. However, the boss’s beautiful penmanship was utterly the best he’d seen and must have taken a lot of time to practice!

No matter how you said it, the boss had always been hard to penetrate.

Still, Bu Qiangdong quickly cleared all those miscellaneous thoughts from his brain as he watched every step of the boss wide-eyed, lest he miss a single detail.

After putting in the final ingredients, which took 15 seconds to complete, the card ink in the vessel turned from a dark yellow into a subtle violet, which gave off a strange smell. Of course, that was only as far as Wei-ah and Lu Xiaoru were concerned since Bu Qiangdong had a background as a card master and was accustomed to that smell.

Lu Xiaoru was wide-eyed as she watched Chen Mu’s utter absorption with surprise. Was he a card master? That was puzzling to her. For a card artisan assassin to actually be a card master too? Chen Mu had an expression of great concentration and had forgotten himself, which was a state she had only seen in some truly outstanding card masters.

What kind of person was he, after all?

Jungle, communications, impact… those words were swirling around in Chen Mu’s mind. To tell the truth, he wasn’t so good at writing the script. That had always been Copper’s work before, and he was reluctant to do it that time.

It was a good thing Chen Mu had actual experience in the jungle.

If… if one could communicate in the jungle…

The scene of him leading children in the difficult trek through the jungle suddenly emerged before his eyes. The scene of Colin leading the soldiers to lure off the white mottled ants…

He suddenly lowered his head and without any hesitation pulled out one of the slanted blade pens from his set of Weak Water pens. He dipped it fully into the card ink and started to draw confidently on the blank white card.