The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu didn’t look at Ru Qiu. Her solid foundation in basic skills was a lot more outstanding than that of her half-baked teacher. To be designated as the next dean of the Origins Academy card making division, what could she possibly lack?

Moreover, he didn’t have the leisure to pay attention to Ru Qiu. All of his concentration was on the sky-blue solution in front of him, immersed in which was a card blank made from the bark tannin of the white snow maple.

Chen Mu’s perception was tightly wrapping the card blank, and his refined perceptual tendrils could detect every finest transformation within the card. A card master needed to master every little transformation in the entire procedure. The information available to the naked eye was quite limited. Although instruments could capture quite a few aspects of the information, they were lifeless things in the end. For a card master, especially a high-level card master, perception was far more reliable than the naked eye or an instrument.

Chen Mu could clearly observe the reaction of the card blank and the sky-blue solution by means of perception, but no amount of looking with the naked eye could see the fine blue threads nearly filling the card blank.

It still wasn’t enough! Chen Mu had an extremely focused expression and didn’t dare to relax in the slightest.

After a while, the blue filaments started to concentrate like myriad extremely fine snakes, condensing into a coarser and longer blue thread. But from the angle of the naked eye, only the traces of a few light blue threads thinner than a hair could be seen. The light blue traces slowly deepened until they finally became a dark blue. The snow-white card then had countless dark blue lines. The originally sky-blue solution had also become completely transparent.

Chen Mu breathed a sigh of relief; the processing of the card had been quite successful. He turned to see that Ru Qiu had already gotten to the most critical moment, where the red prismatic crystal liquid had become a bright purple. The transparent reagent bottle was like a rock-sized, beautiful purple crystal.

She next needed to pour in the red oil that had been extracted from the red-lined crow silk. A drop the size of a fingertip of the gorgeous red oil lightly dropped into the bright purple reagent bottle.

Suddenly, a ball of bright purple starburst lit up in the reagent bottle, mixed up with a purple glowing ball. Chen Mu and Ru Qiu had both been long prepared for that, and the two of them closed their eyes at the same time to avoid their eyes being pricked by the light. Without hesitating, Chen Mu the put the powder from the black and white chrysanthemum rock into that ball of glowing purple. If you were to use perception, you could see that all of the liquid in the reagent bottle had started to combust like mad! It was because of that combustion that the purple glow was so eye-piercing.

After the black and white chrysanthemum powder was mixed in, the eye-piercing purple gradually softened. After five minutes, the burning liquid in the bottle also calmed down as the solution with the black and white chrysanthemum rock deepened in color to appear a very dark purple. The combustion in the bottle was calmed, and there was only a small, light purple flame floating on the dark purple liquid.

By that time, Ru Qiu didn’t dare to touch the bottle with her hands, knowing how hot the light purple, fiery liquid was. It was hot enough to burn her hands to ash. The bottle was held by a mechanical arm.

That small ball of light purple fire burned for a strangely long time. After fully half an hour went by, it still hadn’t changed in the least. Chen Mu suddenly made a movement, carefully adjusting the instrument in front of him.

The twinned titanium stone that was already in the mechanical arm was gradually suspended over the ball of fire. After he did that, Chen Mu put the processed card in front of him, where the Weak Water pen set had been previously placed in the most comfortable position.

After ten minutes, the iron water with a slight black shine started to ooze out of the twinned titanium stone and gradually dropped into the ball of fire. The iron water then blended with the twinned titanium stone to become a ferro-titanium alloy liquid.

The iron water melted into the solution for a moment, and the calm solution abruptly started to churn like boiling water. That boiling state lasted only five seconds. It then calmed and became like a broad, deep pool of water, which made it seem like what they had just seen was a hallucination. What appeared in front of Chen Mu now was a bottle of viscous amber liquid.

Well-prepared for battle, Chen Mu instinctively grabbed the Weak Water pen. The twinned titanium stone had a special characteristic after it was refined; it had to be absorbed into the card within a few minutes. Otherwise, it would lose its effectiveness.

Every detail and composition of that card had been turned over in his mind so many times he couldn’t have been any more familiar with it. Without the slightest hesitation, he lowered the pen to make one smooth go.

It was a joy to look on as Chen Mu made the card. The incredibly smooth pen demonstrated that he already had the composition clear in his soul, which filled him with the power of self-confidence. His movements were as smooth as the running clouds and flowing water style of calligraphy, and they were unspeakably pleasing to see. Ru Qiu had watched quite a few card masters but had seldom seen anyone who could compose like that. Even she herself was far from there.

Three minutes! A brief three minutes, which seemed like forever!

The card was finally completed after Chen Mu’s closing stroke. The background of the white card was filled with many irregular, deep blue and amber patterns, which abruptly lit up as though they were breathing. The amber color flashed its shine before dimming.

Ru Qiu couldn’t help her eyes rolling up, and her face was as red as an apple from the excitement. He had succeeded! He truly had!

That quickly disappearing flash meant a card was completed. If the composition wasn’t complete, there would be no way to see such a breathing sheen. That was also one of the signs showing whether a card was successfully made or not.

Chen Mu also breathed a sigh of relief as his straightened back relaxed, as though all his energy had been sucked dry. He had spent those three minutes concentrating all his energy to complete that card! After finishing it, a feeling of exhaustion surged up in him. It had been a long time since he’d felt so exhausted after making a card. That card had been an extremely tricky challenge to his perception, without a doubt. But he had finally succeeded! If he had failed, just thinking about how valuable the materials were would cause him pain for a long time.

Closing his eyes, Chen Mu was restoring his energy while his right hand was unconsciously rubbing the card. Ru Qiu was looking at Chen Mu in adoration. She knew very well how much technique had been involved in that card from having read the entire plan in detail. She would dare confirm that the card was absolutely the most complex she’d ever seen.

That wasn’t all! She had never even thought a card could be so complex. To be able to make it—no, to be able to design that card—Chen Mu was someone to be looked up to like the highest mountain in her eyes.

After ten minutes, Chen Mu opened his eyes, finally having enough energy to fully appreciate the card he’d made. The fine blue patterns against the white background made a perfectly gorgeous design against the amber composition! Even Chen Mu himself couldn’t help but be drawn in by that card’s complex and fine composition. It drew his gaze as though it were a magnet.

Chen Mu couldn’t help but smile in a perfectly happy way. That was the card he was most satisfied with up until then, and it was also the most powerful and most expensive!

The edge of a card was often used by card masters to leave their own mark. Chen Mu thought about leaving a small character in that blank space.

“023? Wheel – C.” The first named card of the numbered series had been born.

* * *

The amount of money Bogner and Xi Ping were making those past couple of days had simply gotten to a point where they had to think twice. Each one of those jungle card artisans had one or two things on them that were pretty good. But most of those had fallen into their hands by then.

A medical card artisan was a treasure! That was the biggest thing they felt during those two days, and they had both decided that after the boss came out, they would certainly bring up a lot better treatment for Sue Lochiro. Bogner was already considering whether he could use the same trick for the rest of the trip.

* * *

A shadow appeared at the entrance to the base, along with quite a lot of mist, which created a fuzzy feeling.

Ta, ta, ta! A man enshrouded in mist walked toward the large hall.

“It’s Xiaobo!”

“He came back, after all. Do you think he hunted up anything good this time?”

“I don’t know, but every time he does, it surprises me. I wonder what it might be this time.”

The jungle card artisans were discussing in low voices, unconsciously making out his path.

Ta, ta, ta!

That man wasn’t affected as he kept up his steady pace, as though nothing in the world could stop him.

Bogner stopped what he was doing and squinted to look at the mysterious man.

He was almost two meters tall and straight as a javelin, wearing tall, black leather boots. His clomping footsteps made that ta ta sound. His snow-white, long hair was tied carelessly by a red rope and reached nearly to his waist. His handsome, distinguished face was flecked with road dust. He wore old, faded clothes, damaged in quite a few places, although they were remarkably clean. That sometimes thick and sometimes faint mist that enshrouded him added a sense of mystery.

Seeing the long line in the great hall, Xiaobo tilted his head to do a double-take, and a look of surprise flashed through his eyes. But he didn’t stop and went straight to the escalator.

Once he left, the great hall became lively again. Everyone was excitedly discussing what sorts of spoils Xiaobo might have brought back that time.

Bogner’s gaze had never left his mist-enshrouded image.