The Card Apprentice

With the issue of Sang Hanshui’s card resolved, the power of the four-man team had increased by another step. Chen Mu had Bogner transmit a specific training plan, which he then gave to Sang Hanshui, making him responsible for its implementation. Sang Hanshui was doing the bidding of Chen Mu by then and guaranteed he would never compromise in vouching for Chen Mu. He loved that Bomb he had just gotten so much that he never let it out of his hands. He had a rich knowledge of cards, so of course he recognized the mark on its surface.

It was from the famous numbered series of cards! In his mind, the value of that card could only go straight up. The number 029 had never before appeared among the known numbered series of cards, but Sang Hanshui had no doubt about that card’s identity. Apart from the numbered series of cards, he had never thought any kind of Bomb card could reach that level.

Ever since the affairs in Pomelo, the mysterious card master who had made the numbered series of cards had completely disappeared. Many people were speculating about whether that genius-grade card artisan had met his fate in Pomelo. Sang Hanshui had never thought he would get one of the numbered series of cards one day and especially that it would be one of the four-star cards in the numbered series. Every one of the three-star cards in the numbered series had brought a price greater than 10 million, and the four-star cards brought in still more terrifyingly sky-high prices.

Sang Hanshui was so eager to become familiar with the card in his hand that he couldn’t wait to throw himself into the training room. Since the job of training that gang of cards artisans had been tossed to him, however, he couldn’t abandon them and would just have to train together with them.

His own training room was only divided from the card artisans by a sheet of protective transparent glass. After that, the card artisans were living every day in the shadow of terror, which really led to a surge in their training efficiency. It was just too terrifying!

The Hit Man was like a crazy man, blowing things up like mad in the training room. The dense firepower constantly shook the floor, which dreadfully irritated the card artisans’ fragile nerves. By then, apart from the Hit Man, no one else could enter the training room. The thick protective floor, now full of holes, could clearly be seen through the protective glass. That was no testing room for testing cards but was a training room built to advanced standards. Every bit of material in it and every piece of the floor conformed to high standards for impact resistance. But no piece remained intact on that high-grade protective floor, which was as thick as 50 centimeters. For fear that Sang Hanshui would blow through the entire floor of the building, the training room would be patched up again about once every two days.

Watching the Hit Man ravage the floor like mad every day with their own eyes, the card artisans felt chilled. Even Tai-shu Ying, who wasn’t afraid of anything, was rather afraid of Sang Hanshui at that point. No card artisans were sandbagging Sang Hanshui’s orders, the floor being their best example.

Angie felt pleasantly surprised. Sang Hanshui’s power was far beyond what he had expected. Of course, he was quite happy that the old man could get such powerful help.

The news about the third master recruiting an awesome card artisan had spread throughout the Tai-shu household. The strange thing was that the master of the household seemed to have nothing to say about it, while even the Jiang household was paying quite a bit of attention. They had seen first-hand how much power Sang Hanshui had. That part was clear from the number of times Jiang Ling had gone to the Tai-shu household.

Chen Mu kept shut-up in the training room every day with too many things he needed to digest. What Caesar had pointed out weren’t just empty generalities. They were real, honest, detailed, full, and accurate pointers that were aimed at the current situation with the perception in his body.

Chen Mu didn’t eat or sleep, making endless adjustments to his perception each day. He hadn’t even been able to look at the fantasy card Caesar had given him. Caesar’s pointers had only taken two hours, but those two hours had contained a huge amount of information.

After five days’ time, Chen Mu finally completed his adjustments to his perception. When the final pitfall had been resolved, he couldn’t refrain from heaving a sigh of relief. Because it involved perception, he didn’t dare to be the least bit careless. His nerves had been tense throughout those five days.

It was pitch-dark in the training room, and he had long forgotten the passing of time because he was so involved. As he slowly stood and opened his eyes, every finest bit of the room was completely present in his perception even though the room was utterly dark.

He couldn’t keep a slight smile off his face. Those five days hadn’t been so long, but he felt like he had been completely reborn. After adjustment, his perception was incredibly docile and had nothing of its previous sense of recalcitrance. He felt incredible well-being in his whole body. The strength of his perception hadn’t increased by much, but Chen Mu really needed that little bit. The thing he could be certain of was that his perception would increase faster than before, and he could now play out the greatest capabilities of his perception to the greatest extent.

The apparatus on his wrist suddenly sounded. Being worried that Bogner and the rest might look for him for something while he was alone, he would often set up the communications array.

After he took the communication, Bogner and Xi Ping appeared on the screen. Once he saw their disposition, Chen Mu knew something had probably happened.

“There’s something you need to decide, Boss.” The one talking was Bogner, who was frowning as though he had encountered something quite difficult.

Chen Mu was a bit surprised. He had turned over the base’s affairs to Bogner and Xi Ping when he had been about to leave, and the two of them had full authority to make decisions. Unlike Xi Ping, Bogner would undoubtedly have strong views. It was hard to see such an awkward expression on his face just then.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Mu asked with curiosity.

Bogner said, “The Luo family came looking for us today.”

“Wait a minute. The Luo family? Which Luo family?” Chen Mu couldn’t quite respond for a moment.

“The Luo family from Thousand Lakes! Don’t you remember, Boss? It was that Miss Wei Wei, whom Bogner escorted before. She has already become the current master of the Luo household by now!” Xi Ping explained.

“Right. That’s the one,” Bogner continued with a serious expression. “The one who came this time was Miss Wei Wei’s diplomat and chief of bodyguards, Meng Jiezi.”

“Sure. I remember that woman; she was a little cold. What were they doing looking for me?” Chen Mu asked, puzzled.

Bogner and Xi Ping looked at one another and hesitated before saying, “They’re hoping to get the card set technology!”

“Card set technology?” Chen Mu was rather stunned, never having thought they would bring up such a request.

Bogner explained, “Mmmm. When I escorted Miss Wei Wei last time, we went through a lot of battles. Although we were already being careful, Miss Wei Wei still discovered the card set technology. She has been busily competing for the position as master of the Luo household for a while. Then, not long ago, she fully consolidated that position. She hopes to be able to purchase the card set technology from us, and Meng Jiezi says they would like to offer a sufficient price.”

No wonder Bogner and Xi Ping both had such serious expressions. That was an extremely vexing problem.

“The card set technology…” Chen Mu pondered. He suddenly lifted his head to ask, “What do the two of you think?”

They had obviously discussed the matter earlier, and Bogner categorically said, “We can’t sell it! The card set technology is fundamental to us! If it were to get out, we would lose our biggest advantage, leaving us in a precarious situation. The Luo household is now far more powerful than we are, and we can’t sell. Once the Luo household gets hold of the card set technology, the first to be eliminated would certainly be us.”

Xi Ping continued on in the same wavelength. “But the current issue is that the Luo household is a lot more powerful than us. If we so directly refuse them, no one can predict whether they would subsequently mount an attack on us. Stepping back a little, I would say if they leak out information about the card set, we would become the fatty meat in the eyes of the large firms of the aristocratic families. The next time they come looking for us, though, it wouldn’t only be the Luo household; even Moon Frost Island could possibly get interested. When it comes to the Snowflake Card Artisan Team, we can’t expect them to maintain any position on the matter.”

The two of them were like the act of a front man and a player on stage. When they finished talking, they both shut their mouths and turned their gazes toward Chen Mu, awaiting his decision.

Chen Mu was rubbing his forehead with an unbearable headache. Of course, the card set technology couldn’t be allowed to get out. Bogner was right; letting the card set technology get out would send them on their way to extinction. But Xi Ping’s concerns were also reasonable; even if the Luo family didn’t directly send someone to attack them, just their plotting against them in the dark would still be enough to make them miserable.

After pondering for a long while, Chen Mu finally opened his mouth. “Of course we can’t give them the card set technology. Mmmm. We could sell part of the card sets to them. We eliminated the first generation of the card set last time, right? Just sell those to them.”

As Chen Mu thought about it, they had long since rendered the first-generation card set obsolete. Since they couldn’t get into a stiff relationship with the Luo family and couldn’t let the current card set technology leak out, the best choice would be to sell part of the card sets. When the Luo family got the card set, they were bound to research it. Chen Mu wasn’t actually worried on that point. He had always had plenty of confidence in the token card’s anti-cracking ability.

Bogner and Xi Ping didn’t seem quite prepared for that idea of Chen Mu’s, but the two of them had discussed it and had also thought of a way.

Xi Ping reminded Chen Mu, “We only have a few of the first-generation card sets left, Boss. I’m afraid those numbers could never satisfy the appetite of the Luo family.”

“Mmmm. Tell them we don’t have any ready goods, then.” Chen Mu was thinking as he spoke. “Well, I could have Ru Qiu make a few of the first-generation card sets.”

“I’d be skeptical. The Luo family might know we’re using the second-generation card set. We’ve had a lot of actual combat these last few days, and some news of it inevitably leaked,” Bogner said with a smirk.

Chen Mu emphatically shook his head. “We can’t do anything about that. No matter what, we can’t turn over the card set technology to them. I also don’t have the time to make the second-generation card sets.” Then, he had a sudden inspiration. “You could ask them if they could get gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus. If they can, we could provide them with a certain quantity of the second-generation cards, or something else.”

If the Luo family could really get the gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus, he wouldn’t have to waste his time where he was anymore. Compared to how many uncertain factors and dangers he now faced, making some card sets would undoubtedly be worthwhile.

Bogner and Xi Ping both nodded, also thinking it wasn’t a bad idea.

Chen Mu said to Xi Ping, “I’m turning over the negotiations to you.” As the so-called soft knife, Xi Ping was the true ace with negotiating.

“Don’t worry, Boss,” Xi Ping said with a calm expression.

Bogner suddenly laughed and said, “Now that we’ve finished talking about the bad news, we’re going to give you some good news.”

“Oh, what’s the good news?” Chen Mu’s spirits were stirred.

Bogner and Xi Ping looked at one another and laughed at the same time. “Xiaobo has left through the pass!”