The Card Apprentice

The ambush of Borman City was flawless from other people’s perspectives.

In their eyes, from the moment Wood Word Camp showed up outside Borman City, they had already won the battle. The breathtaking performance of both card artisans from Wood Word Camp in that awe-striking battle had caught the attention of many. Other than that, the rumors of their luxurious equipment had also been spreading like wildfire around town. However, everyone could only look on in envy, as none other than the Great Six would have the ability to possess such luxurious equipment.

This incident also seemed to have solidified the long-standing assumption that the White Commander was the creator of numerical series cards. Nevertheless, there were still those who found it suspicious as it had only been a short time since the White Commander first assembled the Wood Word Camp. Even if he was actually the creator of the numerical series cards, how could he possibly create that many cards by himself? Did he already make preparations for them early on? Or were there other reasons?

People had realized at this point that Caesar, the God of Slaughter, was an inexplicable mystery, and so was his student, the White Commander. The Commander had never taken off his mask, so no one knew what the face under it looked like. Was it a handsome face? A hideous one? Other than his appearance, his real name, his hometown, and basically everything concerning his identity, was unknown.

The White Commander was widely revered as a powerful card artisan, one who was mentored by Caesar, the God of Slaughter. He had defeated the owner of The Floating Wings of Blue Ice, who was a Faya elite, within a mere ten moves! According to rumors, he was also the mysterious creator of numerical series cards, whereby every card he made was a masterwork and extremely valuable. Lord Rossiji had also acknowledged him as a tactical genius of the new generation, as he had succeeded in escaping from the lair of the Great Four Coalition Army of the Underworld, massacred an entire battalion of Jiang Military Force soldiers, and ambushed Borman. Every move he made had captured the attention of the Heavenly Federation. Within a few months after the formation of Wood Word Camp, he had turned the camp into a fearsome force! He was surrounded by elites and no one will ever know who was the strongest in Wood Word Camp.

All of these added to the mystery of the White Commander, attracting the attention and wariness of many. As for the citizens, they were more interested in knowing how much the Wooden Character Camp had pillaged in this raid. According to those that had witnessed that incident, when Wood Word Camp left Borman City, they went back with an endless entourage of vehicles trailing after them.

If Wood Word Camp could be considered bandits, then they would definitely be the most fearsome bandits in history, as big cities like Borman had never been plundered to such an extent before.

In Chen Mu’s perspective, when he finally reviewed the summarised list of loot that they had gained, he was also in quite a bit of a surprise.

Jackpot! was the first thought that came into his mind.

Every figure on the list was astronomical compared to every previous gain that he had. Without any trace of doubt, it could be said that the essence of all that had been accumulated by Borman City had fallen into Chen Mu’s hands.

As for Xiaobo and Sang Hanshui, they had fallen asleep. The euphoric excitement of their success had finally subsided, and the exhaustion that followed immediately after made them collapse. Luckily, they were not in Beiwang Island anymore. After designating some guards to be on the lookout for possible threats, the other card artisans went inside the caravans to rest as there was ample space for everyone. They were able to sleep with ease, knowing that the Spinulosa Disk’s powerful detection ability and the card artisans on lookout outside were watching their backs.

With only about a dozen card artisans scattered about to guard such an enormous fleet, it seemed almost too shabby and lackluster. However, since all of these card artisans were Grade Seven card artisans, it was a completely different matter.

Wen Renhong’s stubbornness seemed to have softened compared to before. In fact, they were left with only eight seven-grade card artisan guards, and their status had dipped a significant amount. In the last round of personnel cleansing, out of 15 seven-grade card artisans, seven were found to be problematic, which made the rest of the camp members feel uneasy. However, the feeling of uneasiness was suppressed by the artisans’ sheer strength. Nevertheless, now that Wood Word Camp had numerous Grade Seven card artisans, Xiaobo and Sang Hanshui suggested Chen Mu select a new batch of more reliable guards.

Chen Mu rejected their suggestion, as, from his perspective, these guards had not done anything wrong in their jobs. There was no reason to replace them. Despite rejecting their suggestion, he had decided to assign the problematic ones to be under Xiaobo’s control and supervision. The Grade Seven guards had first-hand experience of how cunning and ruthless the Chrysanthemum can be, so they kept their toes in line.

When Chen Mu climbed into one of the larger caravans, he noticed the group of people inside, who were having a heated argument. There was a disassembled Spinulosa Disk in front of them. Among them, there were elders with graying hair, while there were some looked young and fresh, but all of them were fuming, their faces flushed red with rage.

“Dylan, I disagree with your view. This disk is definitely not of a tridental structure, I would definitely know if it is!”

“Charles, only tridental structured disks have these kinds of attributes. Although it might appear different from the traditional tridental structured disks that I’ve seen, their attributes are obviously similar.”

“No, no, no, I disagree with both of you. Personally, I think…” All of them were focused on the discussion. None of them had realized that someone had entered the caravan.

This was one of the biggest caravans they had. It had a large capacity for cargo. Scattered inside the caravan were piles of raw material for card appliances and the relevant processing and refinery equipment, which explained why the card appliance experts liked to gather here. Although these experts were not exactly qualified as first-class card appliance experts, in Borman City, they were the elites.

Chen Mu’s attention was drawn to a card appliance expert named Kirkley. He was young, a mere 30 years old, but he was fairly well known in Borman City. Of course, his fame did not come from how outstanding his card appliance crafting skills were, but rather his unpredictable and bizarre behavior. Most of the time, he seemed like a lunatic. His gaze usually lacked focus, and he would mutter to himself from time to time, which caused the other card appliance experts to avoid and ostracise him.

Kirkley was squatting on the ground, staring intensely at the components of the disassembled Spinulosa Disk. He had not moved a single inch since Chen Mu came in. If Chen Mu had known that he had maintained this position for three hours, he would definitely be shocked. The components of the Spinulosa Disk were gifted by Chen Mu to the card appliance experts for them to investigate and explore. He wanted to gauge their ability.

Card appliances were deemed important only after the Spinulosa Disk showed how powerful it was. In this battle, the Spinulosa Disk had played a key role. It was highly possible that the Wood Word Camp might have been detected by their enemy without its contribution. A card appliance that was neglected and almost forgotten by him turned out to be one of his trump cards in this battle. This made Chen Mu feel the need to look at card appliances with a new perspective, as he had always seen them as a negligible supplement in the card system.

The reason for that change of mindset was obvious. For both the Wood Word Camp or Snow Silkworms Card Artisan Team, their combat prowess had definitely been honed by taking on challenging obstacles. Despite that, they had a fatal weakness—a lack of members! The combined forces of both teams was just a little over 4,000. It was not possible to even compare them with the Great Six, as just the Snowflake Card Artisan Team had already commanded a large pool of members far superior to them. Although their team could be more flexible as they had fewer members, it would be a nightmare if they were ever trapped in a prolonged battle of attrition.

The Spinulosa Disk had inspired him. With the Spinulosa Disk, they could always be the ones taking the lead. They would be like a pack of wolves, nimble and quick, avoiding enemies at a distance, waiting for the opportunity to pinpoint the weaknesses of enemies, and win the battle with one critical and deadly strike. Chen Mu was hoping to make more extraordinary card appliances to stack the odds in his favor. He needed to do this before he departs to Qianhu City, which was necessary in order to find the demonic woman.

Although he was not a politician, it was clear that in the upcoming general assembly that would be hosted by Qianhu, countless powerful authorities and forces would be involved. In that kind of chaotic environment, they would only be able to guarantee their safety if they held enough power in their hands. He had too many priceless artifacts with him, and Cang Lan’s actions had set off multiple warning bells blaring in his head.

Kirkley suddenly reached for the components of Spinulosa Disk on the ground.

“Kirkley! Are you crazy?” someone screamed as he saw what Kirkley was trying to do.

Kirkley ignored the shrieks and proceeded to put two parts of the components together. All of the bickering stopped as everyone chose to stare stupidly at Kirkley instead. They could guess what the components were and Chen Mu’s intention of gifting it to them. None of them dared to act recklessly. Since it was such an important object, if it was accidentally damaged, their lives would probably be forfeited.

They felt as if they were being held hostage by bandits. Xiaobo and Sang Hanshui, owing to time constraints, hadn’t even announced that they were from Wood Word Camp or provided any information on the situation. They had just nabbed the people and skedaddled.

Kirkley’s hands were sickly pale, with starkly protruding joints. His movements were slow at the start but he sped up after familiarizing himself with the object. The pile of components on the ground shrunk quickly as his assembling speed increased. It was hard to believe that it was his first time being in contact with the Spinulosa Disk.

When a complete Spinulosa Disk appeared in his hands, everyone let out a collective gasp of amazement.

“Greetings, I am the chief of Wood Word Camp. You can call me the White Commander,” Chen Mu introduced himself calmly as he stepped forward, finally bringing their attention to himself. The aura he exuded was remarkedly different from before. This battle had served to mature him by a large margin.

Wood Word Camp! The White Commander! The card appliance experts blanched in fear, some of them collapsing backward to sit on their bottoms due to their knees giving out underneath them.

It’s over now, we can’t keep our lives! The Wood Word Camp is the enemy of Mister Cang Lan! The White Commander, as Caesar’s student, is someone who could kill without blinking an eye!

Kirkley’s head was still bowed, a glazed expression on his face as he stared at the Spinulosa Disk in his hands, as if he did not hear what Chen Mu had said.

“I’m the maker of the Spinulosa Disk.”

This statement finally made Kirkley lift his head. “It’s called the Spinulosa Disk? You made this? It’s a decent name.” He had deep-set eyes, their pale bluish color instilling a sense of unease in people. “The structure of the disc is not bad, but some parts of it can still be further refined. For example, by incorporating the double lock structure, which can reduce its weight and free up more space.”

Chen Mu’s heart skipped a beat in joy, but his stoic tone was unaffected. “The double lock structure?”

“Correct. It’s a structure in which the arms here are intertwined and could function as an internal support frame,” Kirkley explained.

“May I ask if you would like to take on the honor of designing it?” Chen Mu asked respectfully.

“No problem,” Kirkley answered without hesitation. “But I’ll need you to explain its structure as I’ve never seen this kind of structure before.”

“Sure!”