The Card Apprentice

Su Heiming was listening intently to his subordinate’s report.

“There are news coming from the Mohadi Domain. People other than Mr Benji were all knocked down and he seems to be having a nervous breakdown because upon returning to his tribe, he hasn’t been seen in public for once. No one has any idea about what they had been through, not even their King as Mr Benji refuses to answer the King’s call-in by pretending to be sick. They sent a new team to fulfil our mutual agreement but two of the new members had disappeared since entering Heavenly Federation. We tailed the two suspects once we realized it and it has been confirmed that their target will most probably be Tang Hanpei.”

“Tang Hanpei?” Su Heiming narrowed his eyes, his expression dark and tension arose. The subordinate who was reporting his findings held his breath as he was afraid to step on Su Heiming’s mine.

“Yes sir! I dare not make any decision on this matter. Please convey me your instructions!”

“What’s the purpose for them to see Tang Hanpei?” Su Heiming was thinking hard.

“I have no idea yet, sir,” the subordinate replied reverently.

“Are they trying to benefit themselves from both sides?” Su Heiming snorted while mumbling to himself. “However, that’s not going to happen.”

He let out a deep groan before he continued, “Tang Hanpei is my greatest enemy, if the people of the Mohadi Domain are going to side themselves with him, hmph! Take both of them down and listen to what they have to say. People of the Mohadi Domain aren’t that simple.”

“Yes sir!” His subordinate obeyed his instructions immediately.

“How about the others? Are they under control?” Su Heiming’s mood lightened up after resolving one of the problems.

“Most of them are under our control. However, there are a few of them who seem to be conspiring a plan among themselves. Our people who lurked after them have grasped a hold of the situation and we will get them once the evidence comes in positive,” the subordinate replied humbly. He knew from his heart that everything he owned, including his power, were all granted by the man sitting in front of him.

“Well, make sure you act mercilessly. But, before that, the evidence must be conclusive. It’s time for you to perform,” Su Heiming said casually.

“Yes sir.” The subordinate remembered something but was hesitant to tell. “Sir, I heard something but I’m not sure whether I should tell you.”

“Say it,” Su Heiming replied dryly.

The subordinate organized his thoughts before speaking, “Have you heard about the Eastern Wei Base, sir?”

“The Eastern Wei Base? Oh, I remember. It is a base created by Caesar’s student. He is great but he refused to work with me,” Su Heiming said regretfully. He raised his head suddenly, “Oh yeah, Benji was defeated by him, wasn’t it?”

“You are right, sir!” The subordinate praised Su Heiming. “Eastern Wei Base was expanding fast for the past two years. Even though their base is still small, they’re in common residential district. Their potential is huge, not far behind when compared to Faya.”

Su Heiming straightened his body, clearly intrigued by the topic. “Oh, they’ve achieved a status this high in only two years time? Caesar has found an outstanding apprentice.”

“The rise of the Eastern Wei Base was much like a shock. Although they have Snow Worm Card Artisan Team and Wood Battalion, their expansion was above normal rate and it all happened without them being the initiative ones. Besides, according to our investigation, Chen Mu wasn’t backed by any forces or consortiums.”

“Oh, what’s the reason then?” Su Heiming asked with a smile.

“I was suspicious so I carried out some in-depth investigation about the Eastern Wei Base. I found that the reason for their massive and rapid expansion was due to their formidable economic appeal. However, Eastern Shang-Wei City is merely an ordinary city. Its commercial base shouldn’t be this powerful. We conducted a search on Eastern Wei Base’s trading and some shocking revelation was uncovered.” The subordinate stole a glance at Su Heiming and saw an intrigued face staring back at himself. He was relieved and continued.

“Based on the search, we found that the largest sales from the city were from the sales of different rare and precious materials! These materials formed a huge part of its trade and the suppliers of these Materials were Eastern Wei Base itself! There are more or less 20 types of Rare and Precious Materials involved and they seem to appear out of nowhere in the city.”

Su Heiming was reminded about something suddenly. The smile on his face faded away slowly.

“There was a rumour being spread in the city. They said that it is possible to have transit windows in the Eastern Wei Base itself. I am doubtful about this too. It’s only possible to produce this much of rare and precious materials all at the same time in an ash stratum,” the subordinate revealed the information gathered all at once to Su Heiming.

“Transit windows!” Su Heiming’s eyes brightened up all of a sudden. He was clearly provoked by the mention of these two words.

After a moment of silence, Su Heiming gave his instruction suddenly, “Widen the search and find out what’s going on there! Right now!”

“Yes sir!”

The transit window to the Mohadi Domain was under Su Heiming’s control and he knew exactly how valuable that transit window is, or should he say, how valuable the ash stratum is. The only flaw for this transit window which connected Mohadi Domain and the ash stratum was that it had been long developed, and that had caused those areas which were under-developed previously be exposed to over expansion. The areas which were still unaffected were either dangerous in nature, or its value did not live up to expectations.

Su Heiming knew for sure that the Eastern Wei Base must have found a new transit window and ash stratum that connected areas which were way easier to be developed because the Eastern Wei Base wasn’t that much of an advanced place. It was unmistakably a huge benefit for Desert Camp.

The Eastern Wei Base…

A sudden worry flew across Su Heiming’s eyes. He turned to ask the Head of Iron Guards, Zhu Heng, who was standing beside him, “Star Academy held a social event a few years ago, do you remember what was it about and where it was held?”

Zhu Heng was flustered but he still tried his best to remember. He answered hesitantly, “If I’m not mistaken, it was held at a place called the Eastern Shang-Wei City.”

“Eastern Shang-Wei City!” Su Heiming mumbled to himself, “So Star Academy knew from the start?”

Inside the Comprehensive Federation Academy in the Heavenly Federation, Tang Hanpei was reading the report. He looked as refined as he was, but wearing trench coat which was the colour of tobacco ash made him looked like an ordinary academic. He narrowed his brows and muttered, “So there is really a transit window over there?”

He fell into deep thought, looking puzzled.

There was a black notebook placed in front of him.

Jie Yanbai had gotten the same message and he was currently discussing it with Cao Zhengqiu.

“Old Cao, how reliable do you think this is?”

“Very.”

“Very…” Uncertainty was heard in Jie Yanbai’s voice. Transit windows were vital to all of them! Central Repository of the Classics was merely holding itself up. If they could get a hold of the transit window, their power would be massively improved in a short period of time.

Cao Zhengqiu raised his gaunt face and looked at Jie Yanbai. He became steady after becoming Chief Officer for tactics room. He shook his head and said, “I think the others have noticed it too since we’ve noticed it. Besides, I don’t know if you’ve realised, but I suspect that Star Academy had known about it long ago and that was why it sent its people to Eastern Shang-Wei City since few years ago. I think they have not found the exact location because after all, no actions have been taken by them.”

“So you’re proposing that…” Jie Yanbai turned around and asked hesitantly.

“That we keep our mutual respect!” Cao Zhengqiu said confidently. “The amount of materials we have gotten from Eastern Wei Base has been increasing steadily over all these years and I’m certain that Su Heiming and Tang Hanpei wouldn’t sit still and see the precious transit windows fall into others’ hands. If their target is the Eastern Wei Base, things will be much easier for us.”

He paused before continuing, “And let’s not forget that their boss is also a very powerful person. He must have turned even more powerful by now.”

Jie Yanbai’s hesitation was cleared, he then smiled, “You’re right. He is someone full of surprises, he even owns a wolf! Tang Hanpei and Su Heiming should get a taste of the wolf’s ability.”

They looked at each other and smiled.

Star Academy.

Rossiji was still huge like a mountain. He sat on the principal’s seat and looked utterly unfit for the role, but none of the people in the room were bothered by it.

Wielding the report, Nick’s eyes were bright, “Fatty! Look, it’s a transit window, it’s really a transit window!”

Fatty glared at him. “Why are you shouting? Your info is so outdated. What is there to shout about?”

“Outdated?” Nick was surprised. “So, you have seen it? That can’t be it. I just received the news.”

“Transit windows are present in the Eastern Wei Base, am I right?” Fatty snickered.

“Hey! You really knew about it!” Nick looked dumbfounded.

Fatty scoffed and said, “I was told by Qing Qing just now.”

“How can I not know?”

Fatty rolled his eyes. “She is like a ghost to you, and how would I know where’ve you been to steal some sleep?”

Nick looked upset but turned bright in a blink of an eye, “Are we going to do nothing and see the guy named Bai be expelled so that they can seize his so-called land?”

“His name is Chen Mu, not a guy named Bai,” Fatty corrected him. He grinned, “we should be the audience.”

Nick was agitated, “Fatty, this is a transit window! Do you know how much it costs?”

Fatty drank his water slowly, but his grin hadn’t fade. “So do you want it? You have to snatch it. How are you going to snatch it from them?”

Nick hadn’t thought about that.

“Our enemy now is Tang Hanpei. Chen Mu is nobody to us, and don’t forget, he owns that wolf! Tang Hanpei’s commanding ability was out of my expectations in a good way but if he is to fight that wolf, he would be doomed.” Fatty sneered. “I’ve always found Tang Hanpei’s tactics similar to one I’ve witnessed and now I know, it’s actually quite similar to that wolf. Wow, how would the encounter of the real and fake be? I think I’m worried that Su Heiming will try to interfere. After all, he is cunning. He has taken control of Moon Frost Island, he should be paying the price now.”

Worry flashed past Fatty’s eyes.

The Big Crack Base.

Bogner was reading the report in his hands. It was an urgent message coming from Eastern Wei Base. They achieved full control in terms of Elemental Fantasy Platform’s shareholding over the past few years and those journalists all over Heavenly Federation had became their most faithful informers. They would report new findings to him as soon as they had gotten a hang of what the situation was about.

“It’s finally here.” Bogner’s expression was calm.