The Card Apprentice

Under the incessant shocks, the perceptual vortex formed by the two sides’ perception finally started to slow down. Sue Lochiro’s charming face showed a joyful blush. It wasn’t so easy for her to remain calm given her new lease on life.

Her gaze floated distractedly over to Chen Mu. His forehead was covered in bean-sized beads of sweat, and he looked wiped out. But, his face was strangely still just as cool as before. Even his eyes were the same, devoid of any emotion.

That made a rather weird picture. Sue Lochiro was a medical card artisan, and when it came to general knowledge about the body, there weren’t many who went as deeply as she did. According to common knowledge, someone in Cao Dong’s present condition should be breathing hard with his veins popping out and his blood surging. But, such common knowledge wasn’t to be fulfilled on Cao Dong’s body.

Looking at that expressionless face and those eyes void of emotion, Sue Lochiro felt a chill arise from her heart.

Chen Mu’s every capacity was significantly elevated in the state of breath control, but even in that state, such a fine-grained operation was still laborious work.

Thankfully, the hardest part was already past with the perceptual spiral spring’s spinning slowing down. His perception had started to get back on track and was gradually becoming responsive. There was no joy on Chen Mu’s face as he steadily and methodically manipulated his perception.

His movements were faster and faster, and each shock wave was more powerful. Sue Lochiro’s perception received a powerful shock, and the information it fed back had gotten a little muddled.

Before she could respond, her whole body suddenly shook and then quickly relaxed.

Everything around had returned to normal in an instant. She’d gotten her perceptual control back.

There was nothing wrong! A look of joy flashed through her eyes, which were now in high spirits after being freed from danger. The originally refined and gentle Sue Lochiro was now blossoming with an alluring glow. If there had been anyone else on the scene, they would have been stunned by the beauty of her charming face.

Too bad Chen Mu’s face hadn’t changed at all. His eyes were even closed.

After a few seconds, Sue Lochiro calmed down and found Cao Dong sitting as always, without moving, which surprised her. Could something have happened to him?

Nothing had happened to Chen Mu. The time he could sustain the breath control hadn’t passed yet. He was just then examining the green thread in his body, which he could see clearly in the state of breath control. He had already decided to use it to check out the green thread before entering into that state.

It was as though he were off to the side, with no sign of feeling in his face, looking at something that had nothing to do with him. He could take in the entire green thread. It was so long. He had already gotten a taste of how awesome the green thread was during the first day he’d met the demonic woman. It had made a deep impression.

Parts of the green thread finer than a hair were complicated, and it even wound together in some places. It looked like the finest capillaries. Tightly stuck to Chen Mu’s bones as it was, it wouldn’t be easy to clear off.

Chen Mu had a stunning ability to calculate in the state of breath control. In an instant, he had already cleared up that chaotic ball of green thread, which didn’t seem to have any loose ends. His attack last time had made him realize the green thread in his body really was an utterly dangerous and lethal thing.

In the state of breath control, he was even more clear about how dangerous it was.

Chen Mu opened his eyes and startled Sue Lochiro, who was watching him. To so directly watch someone like that was an impolite thing to do. She couldn’t help but blush. She then quickly tossed those somewhat embarrassing thoughts to the back of her mind as Cao Dong’s subsequent moves blew her mind.

Chen Mu had activated his apparatus, and a light blue wavy blade appeared on his empty palm.

What was he going to do? All the blood drained from her face. Could he be thinking of killing her? Many card artisans were violent and readily killed people. Had she run into one of those?

Medical card artisans didn’t have any ability to defend themselves in front of battle card artisans. But, very few would be improper to medical card artisans. Who hasn’t been wounded? It wasn’t a big deal to offend one medical card artisan, but to offend the association would cause trouble. The medical card artisan association was extremely tight and united. Once on their blacklist, few medical card artisans would be willing to treat them. But, there were always counterexamples in that world. Naturally there were some without any fear of death, as well as the unbridled psychopaths.

Sue Lochiro was exceptionally smart, and she just about subconsciously negated that notion of hers, which had somehow seeped out.

She abruptly covered her mouth and stared at Cao Dong. Her eyes were aghast.

She had never thought she would see such a terrifying sight. She had many years of clinical experience, had seen countless operations and was well-familiar with all the organs and viscera of the body, but the scene in front of her still turned her face a deathly white.

She saw Cao Dong cutting open his own flesh without any expression on his face, as though he were looking for something. The air suddenly filled with the smell of fresh blood, which was winding down from the wound.

Sue Lochiro opened her mouth to say something, but seeing Chen Mu’s ever expressionless face, she chose to close it.

From a professional angle, she had plenty of reason to tease Cao Dong about how poor his technique was. An excellent medical card artisan could have halved the flow of blood for the same wound in the same place. Sue Lochiro herself could have even reduced it to a quarter of what it was.

But, if she were truly the one handling the knife, she would never have made such a horrible wound. For a high-grade medical card artisan, a ten-centimeter cut would only be used for very difficult surgery or serious orthopedic situations.

She didn’t laugh. To be able to so calmly cut open his own left arm and watch his own blood flowing out, and then afterward tear open his own wound with the same calm look… Who would dare to make fun of such a person?

Finally, Sue Lochiro could hardly restrain herself. She couldn’t help but warn, “Your wound will get infected like that!”

Chen Mu turned a deaf ear as he kept his head down, with his right hand deep into the wound on his left arm as though he were searching for something. Sue Lochiro felt her hair stand on end. It was as though Cao Dong wasn’t feeling any pain.

No matter who it was, it would be hard to forget such a scene for a lifetime.

She watched everything happening in a panic and was about to stop it when Cao Dong suddenly fell off the chair without any warning and stopped moving. Sue Lochiro was surprised. Just as she was about to come forward to examine him, Cao Dong’s body started to shake as though it were going through a great deal of pain. His eyes were closed tight, and his face was full of pain.

She couldn’t pay attention to anything else as she rushed up to examine him.

* * *

Pomelo was growing by leaps and bounds and surging with undercurrents. That big play by the Central Island Firm had caused it to abruptly become the focus of the entire federation. Each and every power was secretly making every effort, striving as hard as they could and all in the same ways.

Butchie was scrutinizing the gizmo in her hand and couldn’t help but ask with curiosity, “What kind of card is this?” She held a card in her hand like none she’d ever seen. The boss-man had specifically sent it along with the reinforcements.

Hugo’s ear-splitting voice sounded, “This is something new for the signal-cracking ball.”

“A new product? What does it do?” Butchie looked puzzled. The dazzling, thin golden card was flitting elegantly in her fingers.

Hugo wasn’t the one to answer. The Beard was, as he contentedly sipped his red wine to say languidly, “Such a great thing! Those under me secretly kidnapped one of their researchers, ha ha! We never thought we’d gather such massive intelligence.”

“What information?” Butchie suddenly opened her eyes wide, very interested. Seeing that expression, Hugo dropped the corner of his mouth without making any noise, as though he were laughing. He quickly contained the humor. The half of his face that wasn’t covered by a mask had a serious expression.

The Beard took a sip of his red wine with satisfaction. It had cost him no small effort to be able to sniff out the information. “Do you still remember that card artisan that time when you all ran into the Central Island Firm and that gang from the Central Repository of the Classics?”

“What about it?” Butchie found that still more strange. How could she forget that day? A slightly raised face appearing from the dark involuntarily surfaced in her brain. How could she think of him? Butchie abruptly shook her head to force the illusion to the back of her mind.

“Don’t you find it a little strange? There were so many card artisans mobilized, and they all took action without a word. Don’t you think there’s something fishy in there?” The Beard saw Butchie take a fighting stance and rushed to say, “What I’m saying is their actions that day were because they had actually discovered someone in Pomelo was using the same technology they had, and it was farther along than theirs.”

Butchie was surprised at what he’d said. “How could that be?”

The Beard said with a solemn expression, “The information is completely validated. When we first heard it, we didn’t believe it either. We spent a pile of money to verify it, in addition to kidnapping one of their researchers. We found the information to be utterly verified before we could believe it. It’s said the signal appeared twice.”

Butchie looked stunned. All of the large firms were involved in research into jungle communications, but up until then, only the Central Island Firm had experienced any breakthrough progress. The Central Island Firm’s miracle had already completely destroyed the iron laws in people’s minds. For what could only be considered a local firm to actually be able to create such a miracle in such a high-end field was quite impressive.

But, they had discovered there was yet another person still more miraculous. And, that person was also in Pomelo. How would Butchie not be dumbfounded?