The Card Apprentice

With his perception distributed outside his body, Chen Mu carefully paid attention to Jiang Liang in the snow pit, not daring to slack off. There wasn’t actually anything creative about the method he had thought up. It was mostly a kind of trade-off. No one was clearer than he was about the dangers of the extreme method; to tell the truth, he felt his still being alive was something of a miracle. The more he trained to the finish, the more pronounced that feeling became.

Although it was a trade-off, that didn’t mean it had no technical content. During that period, someone would have to be extremely awesome to be able to make the slightest change in the methods of perceptual training. Moreover, what Chen Mu was doing wasn’t just a little bit of change.

It involved perception producing and growing according to its principles. If it weren’t for Jiang Liang’s B-Standard perceptual training method, Chen Mu might not have even touched the threshold.

After entering the icy and snowy regions, he found that the cold could increase the speed of perceptual growth. That had touched him a great deal. He couldn’t help but associate that with some conjectures he’d made about perception.

Perception was a kind of human ability, after all—a kind of potential. No matter what ability one might be talking about, the harsher the environment, the easier it would be to grow more quickly. It was just that the extreme training method had pushed that to the limit. Moreover, the card master who made the mysterious card had also understood the principle of a gradual, sequential approach. That was also why there was the Simple Water World. Even so, the training process was still full of danger.

At the beginning, every time he finished the hour of painful training, he would have a penetrating headache and couldn’t even forget if he’d died. Having been torn apart to his last nerve, every slightest breath of air moving the grass would explode in his head.

The greatest difference with the program he’d designed was the different medium. In the water, there was no way to breathe, and the incessant pressure forced Chen Mu to stimulate his potential. The closer he got to the end, the more apparent that was getting. The pool he was then using for training was 20 meters deep. The pressure deeper than that was pretty scary.

The medium for this scheme was snow. Compared to water, snow’s texture was soft and light. Moreover, it was fluffy and porous, allowing for a small amount of air inside. That little bit of air naturally wouldn’t be useful for an ordinary person. But for a card artisan, it could increase the time they could remain under the snow. The constant, bone-penetrating cold could simulate the growth speed of perception in the same way.

As far as he could see by then, Jiang Liang was in pretty good condition. Chen Mu could know his every slightest change as well as he could see the back of his hand. That light layer of snow wasn’t going to be able to block Chen Mu’s perception from probing.

At the outset, Jiang Liang’s perceptual fluctuations had been huge. To be suddenly buried under a meter-thick layer of snow, no matter who it was, their first reaction would be fear. But Jiang Liang’s terrific psychological qualities were reflected that time as he quickly settled his mood. Then, he slowly pushed his perception according to the method Chen Mu was teaching him.

Jiang Liang’s sudden leap into the snow pit, followed by Chen Mu burying him alive, had shocked everyone. However, none of them were stupid. They knew the boss was certainly trying something with Jiang Liang.

It was just that the trial was a little shocking. Now, all of those who had been shocked were desperately training their perception lest the boss see they weren’t being diligent and pull them out for a trial.

Borna and his team were working with fervor. Apart from a slowdown from not being familiar with the equipment and materials at the outset, their speed increased greatly after they got used to things. As far as the overall framework was concerned, however, they had only completed a small part. Apart from a lookout built at the highest point, they hadn’t built anything beyond some ice houses everyone could live in temporarily.

The crystal clear, four-cornered ice houses made everyone overjoyed. The most brilliant were Sue Lochiro’s and those few girls’ housing. Borna had used bright colors for those three rooms.

Lu Xiaoru’s room was bright red, like a small room made from fragrant red wine ice. Sue Lochiro’s room alternated between sky blue and white, which were the traditional colors of a medical card artisan, as well as her favorite colors. Seeing it from afar was like seeing blue sky and white clouds, quiet in the distance. Ru Qiu’s was emerald green. Its greenish glints made it look like it had been carved from a huge chunk of emerald.

The colors were gorgeous, and the clear luster of the ice houses was accompanied by ice wind chimes hanging from each of their four corners. When the wind blew, they would tinkle in a delightful way. The three women looked endlessly starry-eyed and in high spirits. That also made Borna very pleased with himself.

Just then, there was some commotion where Chen Mu was. He could be seen suddenly getting up and desperately starting to excavate. Within ten seconds, he touched the ice-cold Jiang Liang. He grabbed his arm and jerked him up forcefully.

Jiang Liang’s face was frozen white, and there was no color in his entire body. His demeanor was also rather subdued. But his eyes were blooming with a sense of joy.

“B-b-b-b-boss! M-m-my perception is restored!” Jiang Liang’s teeth were chattering with his excitement.

“Mmmm.” Chen Mu grunted his response and started moving. After a few hops, he had brought Jiang Liang to Sue Lochiro.

She had been watching Chen Mu all along. When he brought Jiang Liang in front of her in such a rush, she said no more and immediately started her treatment. Under her care, Jiang Liang’s pallid face finally got its color back, and his trembling body started to calm.

Chen Mu stopped Jiang Liang as he was getting ready to say something. “First, rest. Everything else can wait until you’ve rested.”

“Yes, sir!” Jiang Liang was looking at the boss with gratitude as he lay back down.

Jiang Liang’s success made Chen Mu very happy. If that method worked, that would mean those card artisans would have more room for growth. But Jiang Liang had also made him realize his scheme still had quite a few limitations, such as the control of time. He couldn’t personally be at the side of all the card artisans under him when they were training, so it would be extremely important to establish a standard time frame.

There was also the issue of frostbite. Being buried in the snow could certainly stimulate the growth of perception, but the possibility for frostbite was extremely high. The recovery afterward was especially important. That would also mean they would need more therapeutic equipment and more medical card artisans. Fortunately, that wouldn’t be such a big issue; he had a lot of cash on hand at that time.

Just then, Bogner walked over. “Borna has already built houses for us to live in, Boss. Let’s take a look.”

“Ok.” Chen Mu thought a while and then said, “Let everyone go in and rest for a while. They have been working really hard.”

Cheers were heard from within the ravine.

It was as warm as springtime inside the ice rooms, and they even needed to take off their outer coverings.

“So nice and warm—you’ve done a good job with these, Borna,” Bogner said in praise. He put out his hand to knock on the crystal-clear ice walls a couple of times, which made a dinging sound.

Borna laughed and said, “Borna is a clever construction card artisan. But you haven’t honored Xi Ping’s assistance. Borna would have had no way to build such ice houses without him. And, only under the great and sage leadership of his eminence, our boss, could we have achieved such results.”

Pffft. Xiaobo spewed out a mouthful of the tea he was drinking. After a while, he called out, “I never knew you could kiss ass better than I do, Borna.”

Chen Mu couldn’t help a little smile as he watched the scene of happy relaxation in front of him. The howling wind and snow outside seemed to be far away from them.

Xiaobo suddenly put down his teacup, and a cold flash went through his eyes. “There’s someone spying on us, Boss.”

The room became immediately quiet with that.

* * *

In a small fort 200 kilometers from where Chen Mu was, a skinny fellow spoke with a thin voice. “A group has arrived at the snow silkworm ravine, big brother. It’s not clear where they came from. It seems like they intend to settle there.”

“Snow silkworm ravine?” The one talking was a middle-aged man with a forked beard. He was a little puzzled. “There’s nothing there apart from the snow silkworms. Does someone actually want to occupy it? How many of them are there?”

He was Wen Zuofu, the leader of the biggest power in the area, the Downstream Alliance.

The thin fellow responded respectfully. “A few hundred. We haven’t dared to get too close. His eminence of the Western Guard says there is a rather awesome guy among them.”

Wen Zuofu was moved a little bit. “It certainly must be an ace to make the Western Guard say awesome.”

The skinny fellow didn’t interrupt, knowing his leader was considering how to oppose the group.

“What do you think, Yi Song?” He hadn’t thought the boss would ask his opinion.

Perplexed, Yi Song said, “I don’t think we should allow them to so easily occupy the snow silkworm ravine. This is our territory. How can we just casually let them occupy it? Anyway, our conflicts with the House of Qiao are getting worse every day. Who knows if they are wound up with the House of Qiao? The snow silkworm ravine is dangerous terrain; although there is no room for development there, if someone wanted to defend it to the death, it would be hard to break in.”

“You are correct.” Wen Zuofu nodded hard. “It’s not clear where that gang is from, and we don’t know how much power they have. Send someone ahead to check them out and to get to the bottom of this. Then, we’ll decide what to do. If they aren’t so powerful, we’ll send people to destroy them. If they have enough power…” he pondered, “we’ll talk about it again.”

Once he said that, however, he couldn’t help but smile inwardly about how overly cautious he was being. How strong could a team of a few hundred be? A team as lean as the Snowflake Card Artisan Team was as small as could be. Again, if they were really that strong, why would they even look at the barren snow silkworm ravine? He had seen the luxury of the encampment of the Snowflake Card Artisan Team with his own eyes.

Yi Song rushed to compliment him. “Big brother is so brilliant!”

Wen Zuofu’s face relaxed. He said to Yi Song in satisfaction, “Do a good job. If you do, of course it will benefit you!”

Yi Song was pleased. “Thank you for your patronage, big brother.”