The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu had a meal with Xu Jia, but it wasn’t much of a good experience for him. They ate at a restaurant inside the building that was frequented mostly by the company’s internal staff. Several staff members were seated when the two walked in, and they looked at Chen Mu and Xu Jia with peculiar expressions.

One was a renowned ace who had been the talk of the place as of late, and the other was the most well-known beauty in the company. There was simply no way for them not to attract attention.

Things were rather different there than at the banquet with Tai-shu Zheng. While they had both attracted a lot of attention at the banquet, the guests had still been rather restrained. However, the staff members kept looking their way every now and then. Furthermore, it seemed someone had gone about telling people they were there, which led to more and more people sitting in the restaurant. The dining area, which had 80 tables, was filled within mere moments. What was even eerier was how no one spoke loudly; only whispers were heard. Unfortunately, Chen Mu’s hearing was superb. Those around them had suppressed their voices, but he was still able to hear them clearly nonetheless. Hearing how the staff members gossiped about him and Xu Jia in glee, he broke into a cold sweat despite his usual unfettered, composed demeanor. Xu Jia, who was also normally calm, had never anticipated something like that happening. She was feeling just as uncomfortable.

The meal was finished in an awkward manner. They both felt like they were actually running away from something after they were done, instead of simply leaving the table.

Chen Mu walked all the way to the training grounds. By the time he arrived at Bu Mo’s training room, his emotions had returned to their usual calm state. Not a single hint of unease or haste was left in his cold eyes as they became totally composed.

Wei-ah had been waiting for Chen Mu inside the room. They took a look at each other and got ready to depart at the same time.

“Hey, Woody…” Bu Mo said with a weak voice. Chen Mu turned around, surprised.

“What is it, Little Bu Mo?” Bu Mo had certain similar traits with his name in the sense that he hardly spoke at his own will.

“Can I come with you?” Bu Mo asked in a rather uneasy manner. He seemed to feel sorry about even asking in the first place, but he quickly lifted his tiny fist to prove he had what it took. “Woody, I’ve been working hard lately! Even Wei-ah said my progress is astounding!”

Chen Mu took a look at Wei-ah, who shook his head and added, “You’re not strong enough yet.”

Chen Mu had no choice but to shrug at Bu Mo. He went on to console Bu Mo, seeing how dejected the boy looked. “No need to rush, Little Bu Mo. Keep at it with your current rate of progress, and we’ll be fighting alongside each other in no time!”

While Bu Mo still looked rather dejected, his resolve was quickly lit up again as he lifted his bald head, saying seriously, “Yeah, Woody! I will continue to work hard!”

Seeing Bu Mo’s determined expression, Chen Mu felt like he was suddenly looking at his past self. He patted Bu Mo’s head and said nothing.

All manner of fantasy card commercials were seen as night fell. The grand, vast city of Dongrui looked dazzling as a result. Wei-ah was incapable of flight, so the two simply walked on the streets.

The Garden Above the Center hanging over their heads emitted cold, subdued light, making it look like a giant moon. The fortresses that surrounded the floating suburb shimmered like stars. Citizens of Dongrui had gotten used to it, but Chen Mu, who had never seen it before, couldn’t help but look up from time to time, being impressed by its grandness.

Both men zipped through the buildings at high speed under the cover of night. Wei-ah was moving incredibly fast. It was difficult to imagine what kind of power lay within those legs, which could hardly be described as robust. He was able to cover a distance of seven to eight meters with just a single step. Chen Mu had to give it his all just to keep up. Every single step Wei-ah took made it seem like he disappeared right where he stood, suddenly appearing seven to eight meters away.

While it wasn’t the first time Chen Mu had seen Wei-ah move, he was still quite impressed. Such speeds would make him a force to be reckoned with in combat. Chen Mu, who had frequently sparred with Wei-ah, felt that very deeply. Furthermore, he knew that wasn’t the highest speed Wei-ah was able to achieve! Just how fast can Wei-ah be? I’ve never seen it.

All passers-by who saw them doubted if their eyes were playing tricks on them. Some card artisans with a certain measure of powers were shocked and knew well enough to stay out of their way. Living in such times, everyone who had any common sense would know what to do when dealing with such situations.

After traveling for about 20 minutes, they finally reached their destination.

“There.” Wei-ah was able to convey what he meant perfectly, saying only a single word with a simple gesture.

It was an unassuming civilian dwelling—a three-story building with a garden and fewer than 500 square meters. Any resident of Dongrui with a decent job would have been able to afford such a house. The place they now found themselves in was called Hualin Village, a satellite town of Dongrui quite a distance away from the city itself. It felt rather surreal to Chen Mu that Wei-ah had been able to come all the way there with his investigations. The dwellings looked identical, which made Chen Mu feel somewhat dazed.

No. 169, 11th Street, Hualin Village. Chen Mu memorized the address written on the plaque at the door. He then took his mask off and held it close. If the enmity he had for the Big Six had stemmed out of self-preservation, his hatred for Faya ran even deeper and was more intense; it was outright irreconcilable. He wouldn’t hesitate to do anything that was deemed capable of weakening Faya’s powers. However, that wasn’t to say he had lost his composure. He wouldn’t have chosen to fight an enemy head-on before deeming himself strong enough to do so. His identity as Qiao Yuan had thoroughly gotten on the bad side of Faya. As such, it would be better to just go all the way. Wei-ah looked at how Chen Mu acted. He then took his mask off and held it close, as well.

Both men moved like ghosts as they leapt onto the wall. The three-meter-tall wall was hardly an obstacle for them. Chen Mu didn’t even bother to use his senses to scale it. His pupils, however, suddenly dilated as soon as he landed.

Card appliances! He turned around abruptly and evaded the location of a card appliance just in time. Having calmed down a bit after that, he then lifted his head and gasped.

The small compound was filled with a large amount of card appliances! Any enemy who snuck in could easily trigger one if they weren’t being cautious. The latest models of shallow explosive card appliances, wavy blade shooters known for their high rate of fire, trapper energy nets that could easily tie something as huge as a fist into a dumpling with a designated area…

Chen Mu clicked his tongue. The card appliances there were far more advanced than what they themselves had been using! Chen Mu knew a thing or two about card appliances since Hertha, who was adept at using them, had been working for him. However, they seemed to have been laid in a hasty, random, and messy manner in the compound. Not only was their placement problematic, but not even the most basic of camouflages had been used on them. If Hertha had been with them, he would have scoffed at how those card appliances had been placed.

To Chen Mu and Wei-ah, however, that was an opening they could exploit. Those card appliances would have caused them a great deal of trouble otherwise.

Furthermore, three nearly imperceptible beams of perception had been sweeping over them consecutively within the span of several seconds. Chen Mu determined that if he were to even use a bit of his perception, he might end up being detected by those sweeping beams of perception. Worse still, any card appliance triggered would lead to their cover being blown.

Chen Mu hunched and silently snuck into the house, moving along the seams of the card appliances. Wei-ah followed right behind and made no sound. He was so quiet that even Chen Mu, who was leading the way, felt weird.

Chen Mu put his ear to the wall after sneaking to the bottom of it and listened closely. His six sensory inputs were now unnervingly sharp, so he was still able to vaguely hear the conversation within the house despite having a wall between them.

“I’m getting sleepy here. Even a robot would collapse having to keep doing overtime like this!” a card artisan groaned in a low voice.

Another card artisan, who seemed to be older from his voice, consoled the first card artisan, saying, “Just hold on for a few more days. Reinforcements will be here by then. We have a few days’ break after that. You know the Madam would never shortchange us. The overtime pay will be hefty.”

“That’s true and all, but if that black-ops guy hadn’t screwed up in the first place, we wouldn’t have to do this!” The young card artisan was apparently displeased.

“The black-ops sure got themselves in a tight spot this time, and things aren’t going to look good for them in the future. But, man, who would have thought some guy like that would have been with the Tai-shus?” the older card artisan said with a tinge of worry.

The young card artisan snorted and said, “Hmph! That bunch of eerie, unpopular good-for-nothings know nothing but sneaking around. Their dumb faces look like they came out of a single mold, and they sure are unfriendly. I say it serves them right!”

“Watch what you’re saying!” The older card artisan apparently dreaded the black-ops and continued, “All right, all right. Just don’t go sticking our noses where they don’t belong. Focus on guarding the Madam, and let the others worry about the other stuff.”

Chen Mu, who was outside the house, silently processed what he had just heard. Those card artisan assassins had probably come from a subdivision of Faya called the black-ops, and reinforcements were arriving within days. The intel had him determined to get what he had come for that very night. Otherwise, when reinforcements arrived, there would be no more opportunities for him to do what he needed to do. He came to understand why those card appliances had been laid in such a crude, haphazard manner without a hint of technical expertise to speak of.

The young card artisan voiced his concerns. “The Madam hasn’t seemed to be in a good mood for the past few days! This is the first time I’ve seen her so damn angry!”

Chen Mu’s ears perked up.

The older card artisan sighed. “Yeah. I’ve been sticking around the Madam for a couple of years, and I’ve never seen her so frustrated about anything!”

“It’s all that good-for-nothing Qiao Yuan’s fault! If I see that a**hole again, I’m going to grind him to dust!” the young card artisan said in an enraged tone.

The older card artisan suddenly lowered his voice and said, “Shh! The Madam is coming down.” Both of them shut up immediately. Chen Mu flinched and gestured with his eyes at Wei-ah, who was right beside him. If he hadn’t been keeping himself highly focused, he would have missed that line.

The Madam had been in a bad mood lately and hadn’t been sleeping well at all. She was unable to sleep at night and was unable to keep her eyes closed for very long during the day. She had only shut her eyes for about half an hour previously and had quickly found herself unable to sleep any longer. She decided to get up and take a walk instead.

Her eyes turned gentle upon seeing the bronze-masked man standing guard at her door. “Uncle, don’t just keep standing here,” she said. “You’ve had even less rest every day than I have. Your body will collapse if you keep doing this.”

“Ha ha! Little miss, people like us don’t need much sleep,” the bronze-masked man said, chuckling.

“Uncle, Father said Zhuo Qing has emerged out of isolation. He was unparalleled among the young generation of card artisans back then, and I’m sure he’s even more powerful now! My father said he intended to send Zhuo Qing to the capital.” She felt rather excited but only displayed a bit of her girly side at that moment.

The bronze-masked man looked at her with doting eyes and said, “He is the one who will take my place to protect you in the future, after all. He would need to sharpen himself more now to do that.”

“Ha ha! I bet you’re feeling rather excited! He’s your number-one disciple, after all!” she said in glee.

The bronze-masked man’s voice remained gentle as he continued, “Zhuo Qing has exceptional talents, and it is quite a rare thing that he has both good intentions and a good personality. I’d be able to rest easy with him taking my place to protect you.”

The Madam sounded rather unwilling and said with a squeamish tone, “So, you’re going to leave me, Uncle? No way! No way!”

The bronze-masked man patted her head and said with a sigh, “Your uncle is going to get old someday, and he will die, too.” He then noted that the conversation was sounding quite sad and changed the subject subtly. “Oh, right. Butchie should be here within two days.”

“Butchie?” She sounded surprised. “How are her injuries?”

“She is well now and seems to be far more capable than she was.” He then said with a tinge of dejection, “It’s a pity Hugo didn’t make it. He was the one I had expectations for among those kids. While his talents were lacking, he was resilient. He would have become a great, if late-blooming, card artisan if it hadn’t been for that accident.”

The Madam was silent for a while before saying, “He probably didn’t regret it. If it hadn’t been for him covering Butchie, she would have died at Qiao Yuan’s hands.” She then smirked. “All right. Enough with the chit-chat. Let’s go for a walk, Uncle. It’s my first time here in Dongrui.”

“Right.” The bronze-masked man nodded.

Both of them walked downstairs, and the card artisan guards straightened themselves. All guards were ordered to never leave the premises so as not to attract attention.

The bronze-masked man suddenly turned his head with bone-chilling eyes!

“Hmph! Come out!” He waved his right hand at the wall before he finished. The sturdy wall material became as flimsy as paper, and a hole was blasted through it. Light shone from the hole, but there was nothing outside. The card artisans around were unable to react in time and turned to look at the big hole with dazed expressions.

No one!

Everyone felt stunned as they soon heard a rumble! The parts of the wall two meters from both sides of the hole blew up. Debris flew to the ground like raindrops! It was too sudden, and all of the card artisans were caught by surprise! The scene turned into chaos as the dust and debris shrouded the entire living room.

The bronze-masked man stood before the Madam to protect her and immediately encased both of them in an energy shield. Two figures who seemed like black bolts of lightning charged at the energy shield in the midst of the confusion!

The bronze-masked man snorted and said, “Some guts you have!” He felt himself dazed before he finished his line; one of them seemed to have appeared right before his energy shield out of nowhere! The bronze-masked man’s pupils dilated!

Such speed! He flinched and backed off immediately.

Bang! A crisp cracking sound was heard as the energy shield shattered into pieces and fell all over the place like petals, making the scene look somewhat dreamy. However, the bronze-masked man had no time to admire the view. He took the Madam in his hands and was entirely on alert. His opponent had been able to shatter his energy shield with just a single punch.

What uncanny powers, indeed…