The Card Apprentice

Like a fish in water, those glinting sharp-tipped dark-green wings that exuded a chill seemed to be growing beyond what anyone would expect. And they would automatically avoid Gong Liang. Gong Liang had a very easygoing look in the manner of a dignified ace. He looked at Chen Mu with utter disdain.

The onlookers all realized that Chen Mu was in trouble, which wasn’t anything unexpected. As they saw it, that relatively unknown youth hadn’t had but a couple of weird killings and wouldn’t be considered that powerful himself. Gong Liang’s fame was known to quite a few people in the Heavenly Drum Village District, and moreover the ages of the two sides were rather far apart. That would largely determine the depth of their power.

Quite of few of them felt inwardly rather sorry for Chen Mu, since by the rules, Gong Liang could absolutely kill that youth. He must have had terrific talent to be so young and able to deploy the power they were witnessing. Especially his superb dodging skills, which expanded people’s horizons. If he were fighting against any other card artisan, he might have been able to stand undefeated.

Too bad that he had encountered Gong Liang; the Gong Liang who used the Wing!

The peculiar attack style of Gong Liang’s Wing made quite a few of the card artisans looking on furrow their brows, especially those who would participate like him in the elite competition. They were all considering how they might crack Gong Liang’s tricks.

And just then the situation on the field turn a sudden turn downward.

Chen Mu had found the Wing’s secret! The reason Gong Liang’s wouldn’t be hit by the wing feathers was that he was also emitting a kind of fine wave. It was just that the waves from Gong Liang were at a different frequency than his, and those waves could make the bird feathers stay away from him, while the waves that he emitted would draw the wing feathers closer.

In a spark of time, Chen Mu had carefully considered that he would nix the idea to use his state-zero that he had already prepared, since he had a better way.

His ghostly figure seemed to appear and disappear, so fast that people couldn’t keep track of it.

And then just when he was dodging, his right hand suddenly opened back up but that time he was pointing at himself!

The dense wing feathers like raining arrows suddenly lost their vitality, and it was as though they had lost their lives. Although they kept emitting their soul-sucking shrill whistle, and although the were still sharp and glinting with their cold chill, those card artisans who had rich experience immediately realized that something had happened!

Chen Mu stood like a javelin in midair not budging as he faced the bird feathers coming at him!

The raging waves of deep green engulfed him in that instant, and the brutal smell made people believe that even if what it faced were a mountain, it would be able to completely destroy the adversary.

When the last bird’s feathers disappeared over the distant horizon, Chen Mu, who had maintained his position, kept floating in midair, completely intact.

He was coldly watching Gong Liang.

Gong Liang’s expression turned instantly ashen!

The onlooking card artisans all exploded. The were looking at that youth in midair with disbelief. And even those who knew that something was wrong in that first instant couldn’t help their looks of surprise.

How did he do that?

Not one of them knew!

Chen Mu didn’t intend to let out that secret, as he disappeared from where he was.

As though he were waking from a dream, Gong Liang’s face became ugly. He knew that he had lost any chance. Maybe someone else might known how Chen Mu had done that, but as the one who deployed the Wing, he knew that Chen Mu had already seen through its secrets. The comparative strength of the two sides was utterly overturned.

He had already lost any hope of winning, now only hoping that he could survive. By the rules, the one challenged could kill the challenger, but in the same way there were no rules that the challenger couldn’t kill the one he had challenged! If he were killed by the challenger in public, there would be absolutely no sympathy for him.

Damn!

He glanced at where Xiong Shen was, his heart constantly plummeting. In the battle just then, he had already distanced himself from Xiong Shen and the rest unconsciously. The weird and unpredictable speed of that detached youth in front of him had made an incredibly deep impression on him. The jet-stream card that his adversary had was a higher level than the one he had, with much more outstanding capabilities!

Before he could think carefully about it, that youth’s body had already gotten to within twenty meters, and he was abruptly scared out of his wits.

And the thing that scared him even more out of his wits was that in the midst of that youth’s high speed flight he had actually raised his right hand.

Those two Xiong Family card artisans’ miserable deaths suddenly floated in front of his eyes, and he felt immediately uptight! His adversary obviously had a super powerful illusion card. He had heard about how scary such a card could be.

He could only feel everything in front of him go dark!

His pupils suddenly expanded, as he looked all around in panic!

It was dark. Utterly dark without a shred of light.

In his deep fear and in the boundless and hopeless void, he was like a volcano that had been building up for a long time suddenly spewing forth. There were boundless negative emotions which effortlessly destroyed his weakened psychological defenses, The dark eroded his sprits like mad.

“Ah!”

There was a mournful shout which tore through the sky.

There wasn’t a shred of life’s color left in Gong Liang’s ashen eyes in midair, and his face was all distorted, as he stood like a clay sculpture.

Every one of the card artisans looking on were creeped out with their hair on end as they looked at Gong Liang. The scene in front of them just too weird and too scary! They didn’t know what sort of terrifying thing Gong Liang had finally seen, to have surprisingly made such a powerful card artisan let out such a poignant scream!

Gong Liang stayed in position in a daze.

A second later, some of the onlooking card artisan’s pupils suddenly contracted, and their gazes as sharp as swords were staring hard at Gong Liang in midair, a look of shocked disbelief floating onto their faces.

– Gong Liang was dead!

He had stopped breathing and his heart had stopped beating. His perception had disappeared!

There was only one physiological behavior which corresponded to those characteristics. That was death!

If one were to say that those two Xiong Family card artisans had already allowed them to see how weird the illusion card was, the death of Gong Liang made them reassess the power of that illusion card that Chen Mu had in his hands! To be able to directly cause someone’s death, and for there to be no sign of any wounds on the dead person’s body, how could such an illusion card not cause fear to arise in someone’s heart with such a formless means of attack?

The same sort of death would doubtless be still more terrifying when it was so unknown and invisible.

The faces of the card artisans all changed, especially those who would be participating in the elite competition. Quite of few of those among them had made up their minds that if they were so unfortunate as to encounter the youth in front of them, they would choose to forfeit without the least hesitation.

Gong Liang fell headlong from midair into a blur of flesh and blood.

Hong! The onlooking card artisans drew back like the tide, as though there were a plague on Gong Liang’s body. While most of the card artisans drew back, those who stood their ground were like rocks revealed after the tide goes out.

Qiu Shanyu and Wei-ah, a man wearing a golden mask and a man with blue scars on his face along with seven or eight other card artisans remained. Although their faces looked ugly, they still stood their ground.

The one with blue scars on his face said with surprise in a low voice, “Gong Liang must have been directly killed by a shock to the nerves in his brain. The illusion card in the hands of that youth is quite awesome. However one practices, it would be hard to learn the nerves in the brain. There would be some trouble encountering that guy,.”

The dry hoarse voice of the one wearing the dark golden mask was hard to listen to, “He has a six-star illusion card.”

“Six-star?” The man with the blue scars was a little surprised, “I thought it would be seven-stars.”

“The seven-star illusion card is at the Star Academy.” The man with the dark golden mask said simply.

“Yikes.” The man with the blue scars noticed Wei-ah and Qiu Shanyu, one male and one female, who were way too calm compared to everyone else’s shock.

The gaze of the man with the dark golden mask followed his stunned gaze toward Wei-ah and Qiu Shanyu, and when his gaze swept over Qiu Shanyu it didn’t change. But when his gaze fell onto Wei-ah, his eyes suddenly blazed.

“Don’t provoke them.” The man with the dark golden mask narrowed his eyes to evade Wei-ah’s gaze, talking to his companion beside him in a low voice, while taking a step back.

The man with the blue scar’s heart abruptly skipped a beat, nearly wondering if he had heard wrong. He swallowed with difficulty, not able to imagine that phrase would ever be uttered from the mouth of the one beside him.

How powerful would someone have to be to make him utter such a phrase?

The waves that had been stirred in his heart by that weird battle just then in midair, were nothing to that man with the blue scars compared to what the man with the dark golden mask had just said. And his companion taking the initiative to stand back made him feel still more jumpy, as though he were on tenterhooks. He wouldn’t dare let his gaze glance back onto that one man and one woman.

“Who are they?” the man with the blue scars asked with some difficulty in a low voice.

“I don’t know.” The man with the dark golden mask said, “He’s very dangerous.”

The man with the blue scars got that seemingly conflicted answer instantly. But the answer made his heart beat still faster. He had always trusted the judgement of the comrade beside him implicitly. From the time the two of them met, the dark golden masked man’s judgement had never been wrong. But that was his first time to make such a judgement!

And so, he thereupon very consciously added them to his list of dangerous figures, one man and one woman.

Chen Mu cast his gaze toward Xiong Shen.

Xiong Shen suddenly shuddered in fear, the power of his adversary having gone far beyond what he could imagine. The Xiong family having placed such high hopes on him, Gong Liang was finally killed on the spot in the blink of an eye. Moreover, that would mean that their entry card to the competition had been taken. Even as he looked on helplessly at the entry card being taken away, the Xiong Family had lost everything that time. Awaiting him when he returned would only be the cruel and ruthless family law.

It wasn’t only him. That was what all of the Xiong Family card artisans were thinking. They wouldn’t be able to live, according to the harshness of the Xiong Family law. All of their looks were devoid of expression.

Xiong Shen drew a line in his mind and put everything about the reputation of the Xiong Family to the back of it. What his mind was then full of was those terrifying family rules. How to avoid them became the only thing on his mind.

A fierce look flashed through his eyes, and he suddenly shouted out powerfully, “Having so brazenly provoked our Xiong Family, you should die a thousand deaths for such a sin! Everyone rise up!”

Copper was stunned to anger, “You are a nasty fellow, Xiong Shen . . .”

His cursing came to an abrupt stop as he blankly watched Blockhead come charging directly into the middle of the Xing Family card artisans from midair!

He lifted his head with a dazed expression to look to midair, muttering to himself, “when did Blockhead become so full of such courage . . . yikes, that’s not right. Isn’t he a card master . . . did he change profession?”

Hearing what Copper had said, Lan Feng suddenly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, as the terror she felt became confused.

The air was full of criss-crossed murderousness!