The Card Apprentice

Chapter 406: The Child

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“What should we do next, Madam?” a card artisan asked respectfully. “We have already determined that Moon Frost Island’s reinforcements are still a day away.”

“Oh, they’ll be here so soon. Even if we still don’t know who is behind the situation, we can easily help them out by attacking the reinforcements.” The sweet and smooth voice had a hint of indolence to it.

Amazingly, the one sitting at the top chair was the Madam from Faya who had been in Pomelo. She was still wearing a veil, but no one dared to look straight at those entrancing eyes. If Chen Mu saw her there, he would certainly remain surprised about why Qiao Yuan hadn’t killed her that time. He would also certainly wonder how she had escaped from that deadly place, Pomelo.

“According to our intelligence, it’s Constellation.” The card artisan didn’t even dare to lift his head. Her eyes were just too seductive, and he was afraid he’d make a fool of himself in front of her. She had a distinguished identity but also exuded a little sultriness, and one could imagine how she might kick up her heels offstage. Not only him, but all the card artisans kept their heads strictly lowered, not daring to make contact with those eyes.

The Madam gave out a laugh. “If Constellation has that kind of insight, the situation won’t stay just about right, the way it is now, for very long.”

“The Madam is wise!”

“Tsk, tsk. Don’t be such suck-ups. Oh, I just remembered. Did you find out anything about what I had you look into?” While the Madam’s voice still sounded jovial, her entrancing eyes were suddenly oozing a chill.

“We activated all of our power in the Heavenly Drum Village District, Madam, but got very little.” The card artisan was trembling in his cautious response. “That Cao Dong you spoke of did certainly enter the Heavenly Drum Village District, and the last place they disappeared from was the small village of Oak. We discovered that the Federation Comprehensive Academy also seems to be looking for him.”

“The Federation Comprehensive Academy?” Her gaze became abruptly sharp as she murmured, “Could Tang Hanpei also be interested in him?” She suddenly thought of something, and it dawned on her as she spoke to herself. “That’s right; Tang Hanpei bought the Starfish Fort from him. Hmph! If it weren’t for the Starfish Fort, how could he have killed Qiao Yuan? No wonder!”

Hearing her talking to herself, none of those under her dared to make a sound. They kept their heads lowered and were afraid to even breathe.

The Madam pondered for moment before saying slowly, “Cao Dong has two leaders under him. One is called Bogner, and the other is Xi Ping. If you can’t find Cao Dong, see if you can find those two. Remember; once you have any news, report it to me immediately, no matter what time it is.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Those under her accepted the order, trembling.

The Madam’s thoughts were a little flighty. She would never forget what had happened in Pomelo for her whole life. She had always thought of herself as uniquely wise and quick-witted, but it was during that time that she had suffered her most serious blow. She found out afterward that all of it had been run by Cao Dong from the shadows. The funny part was that she hadn’t felt a thing. She had nearly become one of the countless departed spirits in Pomelo—nearly. No matter what, she couldn’t forget about that person!

Just wait for me, Cao Dong! the Madam was thinking to herself with gritted teeth.

One of those under her then came forward and cautiously asked, “What about Qiao Yuan, Madam?”

“Qiao Yuan?” She had seen the information on Qiao Yuan, whose incredibly ugly face had left her with a deep impression. Among the newly promoted aces in the Black-Line Star Listing, he had defeated Dang Han not long before and could be said to be in the spotlight. The thing she found the strangest was that Qiao Yuan seemed to have so suddenly popped up from the underground, and they couldn’t find any related information about him.

The Madam pondered a moment before saying, “Could we possibly draw him in?”

Several of the card artisans looked at one another before one said a little hesitantly, “That isn’t likely. Zeng Yushan also revealed his own intentions to him in that regard, but he was rejected.”

“Oh. Don’t bother with him, then.” She languidly stretched, letting out a mild groan from her exquisite nose, which made the blood pressure of all the card artisans in the room rise.

Noting their embarrassment, the Madam giggled charmingly and smiled. “Turn over all matters inside Zargan to Constellation. We’ll just watch to see how the show turns out.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

Having gotten all the materials, Chen Mu set to work. Although he hadn’t been making cards for a while, his movements didn’t look at all rusty. In order to avoid interference, he’d had to find a different room.

Although Token Theory was already a familiar path for him, the number of times he had made specialized token cards was pitifully small. That time, his goal was extremely clear. He wanted to make a specialized computational token card. It would only have one capability, which was calculation! A token card was basically used for calculation, but that clearly wouldn’t satisfy Chen Mu at his level. He had decided to play out the calculation capability of the token card to its extreme.

After spending three days, he finally succeeded in making it. It was gray with a coffee-colored design and a little dull-looking. No star-rating logo could be found on the card. It was Chen Mu’s first time to be so bold as to make use of Token Theory for something experimental.

It was different from any card Chen Mu had ever made and had a dense pattern on its surface. Quite of few of its lines were even finer than hairs, and they filled both sides of the card. The lines were so complex that even if Chen Mu himself were to glance at it, he would feel his scalp go numb.

He held the finished product in front of his face and felt a little surprised that he had completed such a complex card by himself! The next second, he was filled with a powerful sense of pride.

Ever since he had only been able to make a one-star power card, he had always discovered that his own progress would exceed his expectations without him quite realizing it. In his pride, it would be hard to avoid emotions. Of course, he was endlessly lucky, but to have been able to get to where he was today had also taken a lot of sweat and hardship!

He inserted the card into his apparatus, wanting to try it out. Since it was an auxiliary card, when he activated his apparatus, it only needed a small wisp of perception to activate. For safety, Chen Mu had added a composition with a secret function onto the card, so only when the perceptual frequency reached a certain value could the token card be activated.

The apparatus on Chen Mu’s wrist lit up, and countless shiny, silvery flashes were visible, as though a star cluster had suddenly blown apart. The silver rays scattered, and a strange scene appeared in the room. Only Chen Mu was visible, as though he were in the middle of the Milky Way, with countless large and small silver beams distributed throughout the room into every space. Each one of the silver beams was like a star moving slowly along. Among those silver stars, some variable rough lines would swim windingly around from time to time. The blurriest were the crystalline, transparent surfaces, each one a different size, which looked like they were distributed in a disorganized fashion. There were dots, lines, and surfaces, along with several more complexly composed and complicated three-dimensional structures. There were even multi-dimensional structures…

Chen Mu was in a daze as he looked at that strange scene, his brain having nearly crashed. Had he really made such a wonderful and mysterious card himself? He unconsciously swallowed and suddenly thought of the awesome star evolution fantasy card he had seen before at the low-grade fantasy card club in Eastern Shang-Wei City. That card had come from the grand master Chemosich. The card he had made himself was still more shocking than that one, and more charming!

Then, in his shock, the feelings Chen Mu was having abruptly became weird. Anyone would feel proud and satisfied to be able to make such a wonderful card. But, even as a card master, he had no way to predict even the cards he made himself. That would show how deficient he was academically. There was nothing glorious about that. It looked like his mastery of token cards was still too superficial!

As he was carefully examining himself, Chen Mu raised his head and concentrated entirely on those messes of silver stars, lines, and surfaces. He suddenly discovered a more vexing issue. How should he use it if even he didn’t know where it came from?

Good lord! All of the remaining pride and satisfaction he had just been feeling abruptly vanished. How could a card master not even know how to use a card he had made himself? It would be humiliating for any card master to even say such a thing!

Those silver stars, lines, and surfaces were like a gang of naughty children who weren’t paying any attention to Chen Mu. They kept playing around among themselves and minding their own business, making Chen Mu feel a little more depressed.

It was difficult to consider that while his card making craftsmanship had made a new breakthrough, the blows had nevertheless appeared in such quick succession. Looking at that glorious, mysterious scene, which shone like the Milky Way, Chen Mu felt somehow as though it were mocking his incompetence.

He simply sat in that river of stars, closed his eyes, and contemplated its rules.

As he sat there thinking with his eyes closed, Chen Mu wasn’t paying attention to those silver stars and lines scurrying everywhere, not to mention the strange, transparent surfaces, which were in the midst of changing little by little. Token Theory was really abstruse, and Chen Mu’s heart sank as he thought about it with a multitude of feelings. He’d always thought his own mind was rather bright; now, he was about to explode. He had no choice but to stop his thinking for the time being, and he put the card away.

He called it the Child since it was like a child that wouldn’t listen. He had thought he could make a type of auxiliary computational card and could compute the remaining words for the Golden Word Shackle. He hadn’t expected come up with such a strange card. He thought about how he had fought with Dang Han along the way to getting the materials for it and how he had nearly fallen into Sang Hanshui’s hands—all for those materials. The result was that he came up with such a card to beat himself up with.

Seeing Chen Mu’s gloomy face, Sang Hanshui discreetly dodged to the side. He had been terrified those last few days watching the cardless sect training every day. That had made his fragile nerves even more fragile.

He did have a deep understanding of the cardless sects in the end. As he saw it, the so-called cardless sects’ true meaning was to destroy yourself first and to then destroy others. Seeing that little child training every day, Sang Hanshui felt that if it were him, he would already have died several times over. The more he watched, the more chilled his heart felt. How could that little guy destroy himself like that and then go destroy others? What a cruel way it was!

Subsequently, Sang Hanshui realized that the riskiest professions would impressively be the cardless sects.

* * *

Wei-ah suddenly lifted his head and looked toward the sky outside the training room.