The Card Apprentice

“Mr. Cao.” Jiao Si greeted him as he sat down.

“Is something the matter, President Jiao Si?” Chen Mu asked, finding it a little strange.

“Ha ha, I have a somewhat unreasonable request.” Jiao Si looked straight at Chen Mu, speaking calmly. “Mr. Cao is the most excellent card master I’ve ever seen. I’m hoping Ru Qiu could follow after Mr. Cao for a while. It would be her good fortune if you were willing to show her a few things. If you are busy, it would be fine if you made her your underling. Of course, we at the Origins Academy would amply reward you.”

Jiao Si had been dealing with them for a while. He had slowly gotten used to the guy’s temperament. There was no need for him to hold anything back. If he overpaid a little, it wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Sure enough, Chen Mu showed an interested expression. “What kind of remuneration?” It would be a small matter for Chen Mu to allow Ru Qiu to follow him for a while. With no basic guidance on the fundamentals of the token card, the difficulty of its content meant it would be basically impossible to grasp on one’s own.

Chen Mu really wondered about the genius who’d invented Token Theory. He must have been a math professor. Although contemporary card masters did study some math, what they studied was superficial by comparison and not even at the elementary level.

What Chen Mu was more interested in was the remuneration Jiao Si had spoken of. He then understood how people like Jiao Si and Tang Hanpei could pull out a bit of hair as thick as his own leg. Being polite to them wouldn’t be worth his trouble.

Would Chen Mu cause any trouble for himself? Of course not!

Jiao Si was also a wily, old fox as he asked a probing question. “What sort of remuneration would Mr. Cao like?”

Xi Ping interrupted. “President Jiao isn’t being very sincere. How could it be right to ask our boss to make a quote?”

Jiao Si then realized a professional businessman was sitting next to Chen Mu, and he couldn’t help but curse himself for his muddle-headedness. However, he had thick skin and wasn’t embarrassed by such a small matter. He laughed and said, “It’s because I don’t know what Mr. Cao needs. If it were money, I would like to pay 20 billion Oudi, which is a sincere price. To tell the truth, there has never been a card master whose apprenticeship cost has been so high.”

Xi Ping said disapprovingly, “Of course. No card master would demand such a high price. But wanting to apprentice with a card master of the boss’s ability isn’t something to be resolved with money.”

The higher the level of the card master, the more stringent the conditions for student selection. A card master at the level of Chen Mu naturally wouldn’t be lacking for funds, so their demands would always be quite strange.

No card master could provide for such a gang as they were—including an armed force—by virtue of his own strength! So, Chen Mu’s requirements would be different from that of other card masters; he did need money.

Looking at Chen Mu, Jiao Si spoke firmly. “Of course. But Little Qiu wouldn’t be just any apprentice. If Mr. Cao wished to take on Ru Qiu as a student, no matter what conditions Mr. Cao might raise, we at the Origins Academy would agree to them.”

Xi Ping closed his mouth since it was the boss’s issue.

Chen Mu shook his head. “I won’t be taking students.” Although he spoke mildly, he was utterly decisive.

Of course he wouldn’t take students—for rather complicated reasons. On the one hand, Chen Mu didn’t feel his ability was sufficient to be someone else’s teacher. Although he’d made the numbered series of cards, there were quite a few things about them he couldn’t even explain clearly to himself. How could such a person be someone else’s teacher?

Another reason was the peculiarity of token card knowledge. Up until then, he hadn’t even seen 1,000 cards, but he had seen quite a few hundred. However, he had never seen one of them from anywhere else having the token composition. That was hard to conceive.

For Chen Mu to have been able to get to his current ability was completely by virtue of the mysterious card. Nearly without him knowing it, that card had become his most core secret, and Token Theory was the core of the core, without a doubt. How could he transmit the secret he depended on for his survival?

A look of discouragement flashed across Jiao Si’s eyes, even though he’d expected Chen Mu wasn’t likely to agree. But once Chen Mu had given his definitive response, he couldn’t avoid being a little discouraged.

Xi Ping understood what Chen Mu meant in an instant.

Chen Mu was leaning back in his chair while Xi Ping and Jiao Si were haggling beside him, their voices seeming to recede farther and farther away. His tightened nerves finally relaxed. For the past few days, he had been like a wild beast caught in a cage, laboriously looking for some way out. Seeing himself helplessly sink deeper and deeper into the muck was an abysmally awful feeling. The pressure had kept increasing, and he had just gritted his teeth and persisted, trying hard to keep himself from collapsing!

Quite a few images went flitting past his eyes: Copper, his first fight, the demonic woman, the jungle… The soft chair beneath him and the rhythmic hissing of the shuttle train as it started to move—along with the soft lighting—led his young and exhausted heart quietly to sleep.

Without knowing how much time had passed, Chen Mu opened his eyes. He had actually slept! He was startled and abruptly sat up, losing all sleepiness. He looked around on alert.

The long shuttle train was continuing on at high speed, and nothing had changed in the carriage since before he fell asleep. Most of the resting card artisans had also fallen asleep.

Nothing had happened! Chen Mu relaxed.

Seeing that Chen Mu had awoken, Xi Ping, who had been in the middle of chatting quietly with Bogner, walked over. “I negotiated 20.5 billion Oudi with President Jiao Si. You’ll only have to take Ru Qiu for half a year, with no incidental requirements. What do you think?”

“Ok.” Chen Mu’s response was simple. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“Six hours.”

Chen Mu was slightly startled that it had actually been that long!

Xi Ping got Chen Mu’s answer and called Jiao Si back over, who grinned to get Chen Mu’s definitive response. It looked like the Origins Academy had taken a loss, but there was some profound meaning behind Jiao Si’s manner.

Chen Mu being so determined to enter the five flourishing districts had doubtlessly dashed any plans Jiao Si had for collaboration. Now that he had Ru Qiu following Chen Mu, Jiao Si was quite confident in her understanding. While of course it was good to be able to learn something, even if he hadn’t thought of that, it was still a pretty good deal.

So long as Ru Qiu were following Chen Mu, she would be like a bridge that could keep the Origins Academy from losing their connection to that mysterious team. In that way, his scheme to cooperate with the team would remain feasible.

While the Origins Academy wasn’t as rich as the Big Six, several billion was still a small number for them. They weren’t lacking for money. What they lacked was something like the folding Yanbo card!

In the early stages of power accumulation, money could often resolve most issues for any firm. But once their power had grown to a certain extent, if they wanted to advance any further, that was not something money could solve. That was the situation of the Origins Academy just then.

After some hesitation, Chen Mu said to Jiao Si, “We might be entering into a frigid region where the environment is rather harsh. What about Miss Ru Qiu…”

“Relax, Mr. Cao. Little Qiu isn’t that sort of spoiled little girl.” Jiao Si immediately followed and suddenly thought of something. “Oh, right, we’ll be able to resolve Little Qiu’s pass.”

Jiao Si hesitated but still couldn’t help but ask, “I am very curious, Mr. Cao; why do you wish to go to the frigid region for your advancement? I traveled there when I was young, and half of the cities were established on top of ice. Apart from the city centers, everywhere else had cold winds that cut like a knife. There was only one season per year there: ice, snow, and permafrost. The living conditions are perfectly harsh. Apart from the natives, it is hard for outsiders to be based there. By comparison—apart from the deserts of the Northern Reaches—the Upper Gan District, the Heterodox Brilliance District, and the Fanasi District are all pleasant climates, along with the capital. Besides that, their economies and technologies are somewhat more advanced.”

Chen Mu didn’t know how to explain it, so he just smiled.

Seeing that Chen Mu wasn’t about to answer, Jiao Si knew he had asked something he shouldn’t have. Trying to defuse his embarrassment, he said with a smile, “Now that I speak about it, it has been many years since I went to the flourishing districts. They will have transformed much more quickly than the ordinary residential districts. I still remember the first time I entered the flourishing districts, when a lot of jokes were still being told about them. Oh, right, you should pay attention. The cost of living in the flourishing districts will be a lot higher than in the ordinary residential districts.”

Jiao Si was casually recounting his previous experiences entering the flourishing districts, which suddenly drew Chen Mu’s attention; he listened with relish. Jiao Si had realized Chen Mu was listening attentively, so he was speaking more seriously.

It hardly needed to be said that Jiao Si’s experience was rich and colorful. He had traveled widely while young, going to countless places. He had quite a few clever, wild tales, social customs, and popular sentiments right on the tip of his tongue. Besides, those were his personal experiences, so they were all very realistic. Even Xi Ping was listening, entranced.

Probably because they were entranced, the time passed quickly. Twelve hours went by in a flash.

“We will arrive at the Weiwen City station. All travelers, please prepare to disembark.”

Everyone was immediately on alert, and those comrades who hadn’t yet awakened were clapped awake. All of the card artisans entered into a state of alert, with the apparatuses on their wrists in an activated state. If anything out of the ordinary were to happen, the attacks from those card artisans would shoot off toward their adversary without hesitation.

The shuttle train slowly entered the station, and the carriage doors opened.

“May I ask, who is Mr. Cao?” A card artisan with a cold manner had entered the car, inquiring politely.

Chen Mu stood. “That would be me.”

The card artisan saluted him. “How are you, sir? I’ve gotten orders from above that we should escort you all into the capital.”

A look of vigilance flashed through Bogner’s eyes as he said in a raised voice, “Thank you very much, but we don’t need to bother you. We know how to enter the capital.”

The card artisan paid no attention to Bogner. Expressionless, he said, “I am very sorry, but my orders are to safely escort you all into the capital.”

Unbowed, Bogner made a signal to the card artisan at his side. With no forewarning, 22 card artisans had been deployed tactically in the blink of an eye. All passageways, along with the small team of card artisans outside, were locked in.

The expression on that card artisan’s face shifted, but his counterpart had already taken control of the situation in an instant. The fighting strength of those 20-some card artisans had shocked him. They were invulnerable, whether it was their response, their stations, or their acting in concert!

Damn! Where did such an awesome guy come from? There was no detectable quivering in those young card artisans’ cheeks.

The atmosphere had become abruptly tense.