The Card Apprentice

Familiar—why would he have that sense of familiarity?

When Chen Mu saw Butchie’s vacant eyes, he finally understood where that familiarity was coming from.

Breath control! Chen Mu remembered having learned breath control from the mysterious card. Wasn’t such a feeling rather similar to when he would use breath control himself? Could the two be somehow related? Or was it nothing more than a coincidental similarity?

Breath control was one of the two main feats of the Night of the Cross. That ancient school was endlessly mysterious in Chen Mu’s eyes. The power of breath control had helped him get through a series of difficulties. At the same time, however, its powerful side effects had forced him not to make use of it for the time being.

It would be great if he could use breath control without the side effects. That absurd notion popped in Chen Mu’s mind countless times.

Too bad his theory was too shallow. Never mind advancing; up until then, he still hadn’t clarified the basic principles of breath control. It was hard to imagine how a school with such powerful skills would actually be obliterated in the long stream of history. Who knew how deficient the power of the bar-browed man was compared to that of his ancestors?

Of course, Chen Mu couldn’t go showing off his half-baked breath control.

The energy fluctuations in the air became fiercer, as though a typhoon were taking shape. Qiao Yuan’s bronzed visage was quite serious as he stared hard at Butchie with his body ramrod-straight. Even the rest of the people had long since retreated some distance away.

Chen Mu wanted to get away as well, though Wei-ah wasn’t stirring by his side. By then, Chen Mu believed Faya would certainly recognize him as soon as he showed his face.

But Chen Mu didn’t have much fear toward Faya. Bogner had said clearly that once Faya was exposed, the three sides would certainly descend into a melee. No matter who it was, they wouldn’t go looking to mess with them before the overall situation had been determined.

Could they determine the overall situation? Chen Mu and Bogner were of about the same opinion in that regard; unless the powers were too lopsided for the short term, it wouldn’t be resolved.

Just as Chen Mu was about to let his imagination run off with him, Butchie finally made her move. She endlessly emitted blue wavy blades, but they didn’t actually shoot toward Qiao Yuan. Instead, they surrounded Butchie’s body in a rapid swirl, one after another…

Chen Mu could no longer tell how many there really were.

Qiao Yuan gave a cold groan as he took the first shot. He could have made his move earlier, but he had never encountered an adversary who used the Ultimate Method for the Concentration of Ability before. He wanted to observe its power, which finally allowed Butchie to finish getting ready.

Of course, he had heard of the power of the Ultimate Method for the Concentration of Ability. It was just that he was still more self-assured about his own strength!

That was the classic attitude of the powerful! They moved step by step from being a novice toward being powerful, going through the honing of battle after battle. His self-confidence in his own strength had long since permeated through to his marrow after endless honing.

That was also why the powerful would sometimes manifest a kind of idiotic underestimation of their enemy. It wasn’t that they were fools, but rather that they just had too much confidence in their own strength. All their accomplishments had informed them how powerful they were to the point that it was habit.

Just like at that moment—if it had been Chen Mu, he would certainly have detected the signs that it wouldn’t be the right time to make his move in the cradle of deadly danger. Instead, Qiao Yuan was just interested in waiting for Butchie to finish, so he could observe the Ultimate Method for the Concentration of Ability.

Chen Mu and Qiao Yuan had utterly different attitudes. One wanted to survive, but the other was looking for a challenge.

For an ace like Qiao Yuan, survival was far too remote! He probably thought it wasn’t even something he needed to consider.

A red thistle shuttle went whistling off from his hand toward Butchie.

Such a tiny red thistle shuttle happened to have outstanding power. Chen Mu had just witnessed how terribly it had penetrated several card artisans’ bodies. He reckoned its power ought to be about the same as that of the folding Yanbo card. But the red thistle shuttle’s peculiarity was how sharp it was, and the folding Yanbo card’s characteristic trait was explosion; when it came to penetrating power, there was a huge difference between the two. However, the folding Yanbo card was doubtlessly a few notches better when it came to explosive power.

He didn’t know much about the other characteristics of the two. Chen Mu had too little understanding regarding the skills of the folding Yanbo card. It was more like decoration in his hands.

Should he sell it? That was the sort of nonsensical notion that would suddenly pop out from his brain. Probably because he realized how untimely such thoughts were, a small smile curled up from the corner of his mouth.

The red thistle shuttles didn’t hit Butchie but were easily annihilated by the swirling blue wavy blades. Chen Mu’s mouth hung open as he watched, stupefied at Butchie surrounded in midair by blue wavy blades. That couldn’t be…

The scene in front of him made Chen Mu suddenly think of the other 007 card he had made. The blue wavy blades dancing in flight to form a spherical wavy blade cloak was like the spherical wavy blade type of energy sphere of 007.

Chen Mu was struck dumb that 013 could be used that way.

It was quite remarkable for Butchie to get such results. The red thistle shuttle hadn’t collided with a single wavy blade when it was annihilated. It was finally annihilated by more than ten blue wavy blades hitting it at the same time. That meant the red thistle shuttle’s destructive power was about equal to that of more than ten wavy blades.

Each of the blue wavy blades would cause diminutive injury if that were the case.

The glint in Qiao Yuan’s eyes brightened abruptly, as though he had gotten still more interested. He shot off another red thistle shuttle, but that one was a brighter red and faster!

Still, that red thistle shuttle didn’t penetrate the spherical cloak composed of the blue wavy blades; it was twisted into a bright red starburst canopy. That was quickly followed by three red thistle shuttles let loose at the same time from three different angles, which traced three strange arcs shooting toward the blue wavy blade sphere.

Hua! Like fish scrambling for food, dozens of blue wavy blades all pounced on the three red thistle shuttles.

Just then, Butchie made her counterattack.

Five blue wavy blades were suddenly fixed in front of her, statically floating into a line. The rest of the wavy blades were flitting as usual.

Then, swiftly, those five fixed wavy blades suddenly squeezed closer together. In the blink of an eye, a single blue wavy blade appeared in front of Butchie. The single new wavy blade was a much deeper blue than the rest.

Yi! It can even do that? Chen Mu was a little dumbfounded. Even as the one who’d made 013, he hadn’t thought it could be used like that. Still, no one understood its parameters better than he did. He turned it over a little in his mind before understanding how Butchie had done it.

From that, he could see the difference between the two of them in their attainments as card artisans. Still, Chen Mu wasn’t intending to observe the two of them fighting openly, even though he knew it would certainly be spectacular.

It was a good time for him to escape while Qiao Yuan wouldn’t have the energy to pay attention to them. If he were to wait until after Qiao Yuan stopped, there would be no way to escape if they wanted to.

Chen Mu lightly pulled Wei-ah along. He looked a little mystified, but Wei-ah was no fool; he immediately understood what Chen Mu was thinking.

The two of them pulled away slightly, which wasn’t so simple. But the other card artisans had already scattered far and wide, and their attention was completely on the battle between the two in midair. On top of that, they were both top notch with their stealth, so no one had discovered them.

Once they left the manor, they suddenly sped up. Up until then, everything had gone completely according to plan.

Then, another unusually powerful energy fluctuation came exploding from the manor. Chen Mu was aghast. The energy fluctuation was completely different from those of Qiao Yuan and Butchie. Could another ace have shown up? Would such an ace just be wandering around those days?

Going straight to a relatively safe position, Chen Mu finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. That evening could be called extremely thrilling since he and Wei-ah had gone over to provoke Qiao Yuan. Thinking about it then, Chen Mu felt he was dreaming.

He surmised that the situation of the powers in Pomelo would certainly be transformed after that evening. Chen Mu had also started to consider the issues, never wanting to toss them all to Bogner again.

The Central Repository of the Classics was the most powerful. There was no doubt about that. The Federation Comprehensive Academy was the weakest, which wasn’t going to change. The crucial thing was what sort of role Faya would play when they took center stage.

Determining that the Federation Comprehensive Academy was the weakest and so forth suddenly brought Chen Mu some enlightenment. He unconsciously stopped, and Wei-ah stopped with him, looking at him a bit strangely.

“What’s up?” Wei-ah asked.

Chen Mu hesitated. “I have an idea.”

“What is it?” Wei-ah showed some unusual curiosity.

“I’m thinking of sneaking into the Federation Comprehensive Academy encampment,” Chen Mu said.

“What would you be doing sneaking up on them?”

Chen Mu’s eyes shone. “Zu Ning has something on him that I need, and this is just the right time while they are at their weakest. I think I can give it a try.”

“Oh.” Wei-ah nodded in understanding and said with a natural expression, “Grab it.”

The gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus was something that could liberate him from the green thread, and he had heard Zu Ning had some on him. That had a fatal attraction for Chen Mu. He had never previously thought about Zu Ning, but fighting with Qiao Yuan and Mi Xiaqing had given him a rather large plug of encouragement.

On top of that, the gold-mottled liquid-soft fungus was just too important for him! That was why he had suddenly had such a bold notion, and he felt his chances were a lot better with Wei-ah’s help.

When he had studied the routes in Pomelo with Bogner at the outset, he had gone through the large amount of intelligence Xi Ping had gathered. That intelligence not only included the Central Repository of the Classics and Faya, but it also included the Federation Comprehensive Academy.

He was extremely clear about where the Federation Comprehensive Academy’s defenses were.