The Card Apprentice

Eastern Shang-Wei City

Jiang Liang looked at the report on his hand and raised his eyebrows. Out of safety concerns, the Wood Word Camp and the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Team had taken control over Eastern Shang-Wei City. The remaining forces in the Eastern Shang-Wei City, surprisingly, paid full cooperation. They knew very clearly that these two teams were too strong for them to fight against.

There were several injury cases related to the cardless occurring in Eastern Shang-Wei City lately. Those incidents had caught the attention of Jiang Liang. During the battle at Snow Edge Valley, they had encountered many cardless sects. He suspected that these cardless sects were chasing after them following the fight. Contemplating it, he decided to report this intel.

* * *

In a jungle outside Eastern Shang-Wei City.

The shadows of people were seen darting away at an extremely high speed, and all of them were wearing plain clothes and barefooted. Their running speed was nothing less than a regular flying card artisan, with the agility of the beasts. Despite being hit by the dense tree branches, they all pretended as though they could not feel it.

Moments later, they came to an open area with hundreds of people standing around. All these people were also wearing plain clothes and barefooted. Some were lying on the ground while some were hung upside down from the tree branches. Though at first look, they seemed at ease, in fact, a sense of vigilance could still be spotted on everyone’s eyes. The leader of these people was Benji.

“How is the progress?” Benji asked in a grave tone.

“It’s done. We randomly killed 10 people and left some obvious traces,” One of the males answered quickly with some signs of anxiety. “Will this be able to lure him out?”

Benji was very confident. “As long as he knows where we are, he will not let this opportunity go. Huh! The King thought he would die in the last pursuit, but he survived. We must not let him go this time no matter what.”

Immediately, he looked at the people around him and shouted. “Card artisans can not perform their best in the jungle. No matter how strong he is, he will die for sure if we concentrate our strengths to fight against him. If we can kill him this time, the King will reward us with ample prizes! I will make a promise here: Whoever can kill him will be rewarded with at least three giant mountains!”

With this promise, everyone was suddenly in high spirits, and the tinge of fear they had previously was gone. Huge rewards gave courage to men!

Benji looked at these people with a satisfying look on his face. This high morale was what he needed. That man was absolutely horrifying! Without these rewards, some people would not even have the courage to fight against him.

Li Duhong led his team into the woods. Whenever he thought about getting to meet Sir and Wei-ah, he could not help but feel exhilarated. Those behind him were the top-notch warriors of the Moqi clan. Recently, with the young leader of the clan setting a good example, the rest of the clansmen were all fighting for a better life.

Before encountering Chen Mu, the Moqi clan had all been living in the woods for ages. They were indeed the “King of the Forest.” With the newly invented weapons from Alfonso, they were getting stronger over time in recent years.

Everyone was equipped with a glove in a light blue color. This glove was made out of pure metal, and it covered everything from the fingers until the elbow. The surface of the glove was illuminating faint blue rays, which could be vaguely seen during the day.

Their faces were covered with square masks, which made them looked eerie and stiff. The eyes on the masks were also emitting light blue rays. Looking from afar, it appeared like a pair of blue gems embedded in them. This stiff-looking mask, together with the blue gloves, were considered the two most important types of equipment in the Moqi clan. Suddenly, Li Duhong halted his pace as the whole team immediately fell silent. The blue eyes on the masks began shining brighter.

“We have spotted 521 individuals around 5 kilometers away.”

The clansman beside Li Duhong reported the number with a soft voice. The whole team resembled a tightly stretched bow, ready to attack at any second.

“How far is it from here to the Eastern Shang-Wei School?” Li-Du-Hong asked unexpectedly.

“According to the map given by Sir, it’s less than 30km.”

A slight tinge of viciousness flashed in his eyes. The corner of his mouth lifted, forming a devilish smile. “Sir is controlling the Eastern Shang-Wei City right now. Huh, so these people ambushing nearby must mean us harm.”

“Could it be a mistake?” One of the clansmen questioned.

Li Duhong slowly turned his face. The blue ray flickering from his square mask gave out a feeling of danger, silencing the clansman. He then looked away. He was like an emotionless beast in a forest.

“It’s better to be mistaken than to let go of any opportunities.”

He raised his right hand after finishing his sentence and slashed gently in the air. Everyone in the team hid their fearfulness in the heart. Li Duhong’s pose could only mean one thing, that is to prepare for the fight and leave no survivors! However, no one was surprised about that as they were all prepared like a group of fierce beasts.

The Lower City was located deep in the forest. They seldom had the chance to interact with other human beings. The enemies they encountered in the past were all fierce beasts. It was the first time they had seen other humans, and their opponents were evidently not weak as shown from their movement speed. They were all affected by the words of their clan leader. The Moqi Clan had always been living in the forest. They believed in the law of nature instead of the common law of human society. There were only the strong and the weak, the living and the dead in the forest, and no one in between in their society.

They all started to proceed carefully toward this group of people as though they were hunting.

“Is he really coming?” Someone asked impatiently.

Benji frowned subconsciously and said in a low-pitched tone, “Rest assured! We have left traces for him to recognize. If he can detect them, he will come and look for us. I am sure he will because of the grudges between us,” He looked at the people around him and said in a flat tone, “The 10 great mountains have been gifted to each of your clans. Is anyone planning to return them? Even if they do, can that undo what has been done? Can the dead be revived?”

With these words, some of the expressions on their faces changed, having mixed feelings.

“We are not dropping out. It’s just that he still hasn’t shown up yet. Can we think of another tactic? Or pick another time?” One of the people said defensively. Some people were starting to agree with him.

Benji was looking at these people with contempt. Oh, these foolish fellows. Did they still think that they could get lucky? On the other hand, he was frightened by how intimidating Wei-ah was. All these years since the last pursuit, he never thought that Wei-ah would be this daunting to these people, and even when he was alone.

He felt a slight tremble in his heart thinking of the number of casualties in the last pursuit. The terrifying number was still bothering him profoundly whenever he thought of it. He forced himself to calm down. Looking at the disturbance among the group, he was a little irritated.

His voice became cold suddenly. “Everyone needs to think this through clearly. According to the temperament of His Majesty, if he finds anyone flees before the fight, I’m afraid that your clan would be…”

With these words, nobody was making any more noise. Suddenly, Benji’s heart skipped a beat. “Be careful! He’s here!”

The others also had sensed something. However, the noises came from was on the opposite side of the Eastern Shang-Wei City.

Everyone stared at Benji.

“Wait for it!” Benji said these three words softly.

With the terrifying ability of Wei-ah, Benji was not confident to fight against him when they were in a mobile situation regardless of how many people were on his side. He made up his mind to use positional tactics to surround Wei-ah and then slowly torture him to death. Li Duhong and his people who were moving undetected soon found out how weird these people were.

“Something is wrong with these people,” Li Duhong squinted his eyes, saying in a flat tone. He then stretched out his hands to both sides gently. The clansmen behind him instantly formed two arc lines and moved horizontally to both sides. Li Duhong’s plan was straightforward. He wanted to surround them! He was very confident in the abilities of his clansmen. They had hunted down countless fierce beasts, and even herds of animals were extremely weak against this group of elites in his clan.

Benji soon discovered that they were surrounded!

The look on his face worsened as the number of opponents was more than what he could imagine. Also, the opponents were like expert hunters who were keeping a distance from them. The range was not in their favor. It was not too far from them but just far enough to keep the opponents out of their attack range.

However, Benji was not upset because he knew Wei-ah could only seek help from the Wood Word Camp and the Snow Silkworm Card Artisan Team, and they were all only card artisans. After being in the Tianyou Federation for this long, he was familiar with the weaknesses of the card artisans. A complex terrain like this would be unfavorable to card artisans who relied on jet stream card to fly. These people around him were all exquisite elites chosen from each clan.

He never thought that Wei-ah would seek help from others. This was unexpected because he never thought that this so-called undefeatable man would also feel less vulnerable at times. Benji decided to make some changes to his plan.

Card artisans were not good at engaging fights in the forest. However, their strong firepower was what he was afraid of. He opened all ten of his fingers and waved them out. The people around them immediately understood. The crowd split into dozens of forces and rushed outward like an avalanche.

They formed small groups and moved forward nimbly into the jungle. All the fear and doubt had vanished in the air. They were all excellent warriors, so they were in absolute focus once they got into combat mode. Although their speed was not much different from before, it gave out a totally different feeling.

Some of them were light on their feet, some were plunging forward from branches to branches like a monkey. It was incredible how nimble they were. Some of them made explosions on the ground wherever they stepped as if they weighed tons. Others shot through the air like a speeding bullet.

Benji, however, was completely different from the rest. He walked with both his hands behind his back, calm and composed. He appeared in and out of view as if he was teleporting!

The blue eyes on Li Duhong’s square mask were flashing brightly. He lowered his head a little, and the blue metallic gloves on his hands came to life as if they were awakened from the depths of sleep!

Soon, both his hands were covered in blue rays!

His bloodlust leaked along with the rays!