The Card Apprentice

The amber glowing threads abruptly slowed within the scope of what was enshrouded by the snowflake-shaped energy bodies, as though they were in some high-resistance liquid that they could only penetrate with great difficulty. The incredibly fast amber glowing threads had slowed to a snail’s pace, giving the illusion that time had stopped.

Xiaobo’s expression shifted. Every one of his adversary’s energy bodies was in the shape of a six-cornered snowflake, and each corner was unique, matching every possible category and forming a weird magnetic field. That magnetic field had led to the scene in front of him.

Xiaobo gave out a cold groan, letting off a few more amber glowing threads from his hand. They followed a strange trajectory in a detour around the region to his adversary’s body.

In the middle of all the blowing snow, that card artisan gave out a cold snort.”Humph, little one, is that the only trick you’ve got?” Before the sound fell, the spherical region enshrouded by the snowflakes was quickly flattened, as though it were being squashed by a large, invisible hand.

In the blink of an eye, a crystalline wall of air was erected between them.

The blowing snow in the sky couldn’t penetrate the wall of air. Apart from those freely floating, snowflake-shaped energy bodies inside the ice wall, it blocked all the other fluttering snowflakes. Besides the mischievous snowflake energy bodies, the most eye-catching things within the transparent wall of air were the nearly static amber glowing threads.

Without exception, all of the amber lines Xiaobo had just shot off penetrated the wall of air. Once they did, those incredibly fast and lethal amber glowing threads were immediately locked in and became as slow as crawling bugs.

Xiaobo’s expression finally changed, that being his first time to encounter such a weird card! He hadn’t thought his first battle after having entered the Heavenly Drum Village District would be with such an unmanageable enemy. That gave him a real headache. But having the ability to remain in the jungle for half a year, his battle experience was so rich that on the entire team, apart from Wei-ah, no one was up to him. Even Chen Mu couldn’t compare with him in that regard.

Abruptly activating his jet stream card, Xiaobo shot like an arrow toward the side of his adversary. Since a head-on attack wasn’t going to work, he would just resort to mobile warfare!

Having honed his mobile skills in the complex environment of the jungle, they had become rather terrifying. With his changes of direction and sudden stops back and forth, Xiaobo was like a white streak, flashing in and out of the snowy wind.

That trick was rather effective; although the wall of air was huge, it wasn’t enough to block Xiaobo. His adversary was suddenly in a tough spot. However, he was also a crafty sort and wasn’t going to give in so easily. With no visible move, another change appeared in the wall of air. It became a sphere, protecting the card artisan inside it.

Xiaobo was a little dumbfounded. Wasn’t that turning turtle? He looked at the transparent sphere, inside of which were countless white, snowflake-shaped, disorderly energy bodies. Among the silvery snowflakes were mixed in several fine amber glowing threads, making a gorgeous scene.

Xiaobo was in an awkward spot. He wondered how the mess had gotten started.

“You’re still too tender, little one! Are those the only tricks you’ve got? Whatever skill you’ve got, bring it on! Come on in!” The card artisan inside the sphere was taunting him with a smiling, smug face.

Xiaobo could now see the card artisan clearly. He had a long, horsey face with a pair of rat’s eyes and was dressed in a proper business suit. Looking him up and down, Xiaobo thought the guy in front of him wasn’t so pleasing. So ugly and still wearing a business suit?

The accompanying smug look gave him an impulse to just go ahead and destroy his adversary’s turtle shell. However, the turtle shell really did imply a lot of technology. If he were Wei-ah, he would have used a rock to straight-out smash the guy to death. But he had plenty of experience and could see at a glance that the defensive layer of snowflakes would be effective against energy bodies.

Too bad he wasn’t Wei-ah.

He well knew there was no perfect defense in that world. Where was his adversary’s soft spot? His gaze fell onto the amber glowing threads interspersed among those silvery snowflakes, not knowing how many zillions of levels they had slowed, to where they were now crawling with great difficulty.

Xiaobo was then struck with an idea. His expression became serious, and he extended his right hand. His slender, white fingers moved like weeds in water and swung into a rapid rhythm. At just about the same time, the apparatus on his right hand suddenly lit up.

Like a snake, a fine and bright amber glowing thread suddenly shot out of the apparatus along his wrist and wound forward. In the blink of an eye, Xiaobo’s right wrist was covered in a fine pattern of glossy amber spirals, as though amber metallic threads were densely entangling his refined wrist. His fingers then stopped their swinging, and his index finger pointed ahead. The fine web of amber glowing silk that had been wound around his wrist snaked around his finger with stunning speed.

All of the amber threads kept moving ahead. On the tip of Xiaobo’s index finger, they gathered into a dazzling amber glowing ball the size of a fingertip. Xiaobo only breathed a sigh of relief when the glowing ball took shape.

With no further hesitation, he gave his finger a slight flick, and the amber glowing ball shot straight toward his adversary’s snowflake defensive sphere.

His adversary could tell it was an extremely important move—one that was certainly among Xiaobo’s most awesome fail-safe killing techniques. He became agitated and didn’t dare be the slightest bit careless. Inside the defensive sphere, the silvery snowflakes were floating more slowly, and those amber glowing threads were looking completely stagnant.

The small amber glowing ball accurately hit the adversary’s snowflake defensive sphere. Without any sound or ringing, it sank into the sphere and remained still.

“Ha ha! You’ve caused me a false alarm! I had thought it was some awesome move! Tsk tsk, nothing more than mediocre!” The card artisan then became still more complacent, and his gaze toward Xiaobo was full of scorn and disdain.

Xiaobo didn’t say anything but stared hard at the nearly stagnant glowing ball among the silvery snowflakes. It looked like a small shooting star, emitting an incredibly bright amber starburst.

Seeing Xiaobo’s locked-in gaze, which looked like he couldn’t believe what was in front of his eyes, made the card artisan feel still more comfortable in his satisfaction.

“Ha ha, you haven’t seen anything! Your grandpa has in his hands the Field of Snowflakes, little one! It will be your honor to die by it in your ignorance.” The card artisan was laughing with an incredibly smug expression.

Xiaobo wasn’t paying attention. His gaze stayed locked onto the little glowing sphere, and his eyes suddenly jumped. Retracting his gaze, Xiaobo’s expression returned to normal.

“You’re nuts!” Xiaobo suddenly stuck up his middle finger at the card artisan and said with a sneer, “Play by yourself, Uncle. Your little master isn’t going to play with you anymore. How about a little turtle-jacking? You sure are a funny fellow!”

After saying that, he said to the alert-looking card artisans, “Let’s go. Don’t pay any attention to this idiot.” He was the first to return to the top of the shuttle, but out of the corner of his eye, he did seem to inadvertently watch the glaring amber glowing ball flitting among the silvery snowflakes. The glowing ball was gradually dimming when there was a flash of joy in Xiaobo’s eyes.

The card artisan’s face turned green and then white, only then realizing what he had just done.

Damn! If I go back like this, I’m afraid my position in the association will plummet, and I’ll be ridiculed for coming back empty-handed.

But his card was better at defense than attack, and he was about to be stunned. Although he still hadn’t seen the power of his adversary’s moves, his outstanding flight skill had startled him.

What should I do? Uncertain what to do just then, he suddenly saw that detestable little one looking at him, smiling.

Yikes, now what is he thinking of doing?

He wasn’t paying attention to the amber glowing ball in front of him, which had been slowly dimming. Now, it was brightening. He hadn’t realized since the transformation was slow.

“Right, I forgot to remind you!” Xiaobo looked utterly earnest, which took his adversary aback. He smiled brightly and was extremely gracious as he unhurriedly said, “You really do look terrible wearing that business suit!”

Just as he finished talking, that nearly static amber glowing ball brightened again—as bright as when Xiaobo had just shot it off! As though waking from a dream, his adversary was now paying attention to the strangeness of the little glowing ball, and his expression changed unwittingly.

Hong!

Before he could react, the static amber glowing ball suddenly blew apart and was engulfed in an endless starburst.

Having long been prepared, Xiaobo closed his eyes in the first instant. After a while, he opened them. Xiaobo looked at the huge pit where the card artisan had been and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“Huh, I hate turtles!” he muttered. A look of exhaustion flitted through his eyes. That battle had looked ordinary, but it had actually used up quite a bit of mental energy. To make the time launching that play as short as possible, he had played out his perception to the max.

The Wheel’s Timed Explosion was the name of that trick. He had used the streams of light that swept inside the Wheel at a constant speed as the timer to accurately control the time of explosion.

His adversary’s snowflake defensive sphere was definitely awesome, and it had nearly prevented him from making a move. But the slowly moving amber beams within that defensive sphere had shown him one tiny remaining opportunity. The card his adversary had used must have been able to slow the energy bodies’ speed of motion and take it abruptly to its lowest level. Once most energy bodies lost speed, they lost almost all of their power.

Xiaobo had surmised that his adversary’s card must have limited roles. If one were to use something similar to an explosive style of attack, it couldn’t completely control it—especially an energy explosion. Even though the speed had been slowed so enormously, it still had enough energy to kill someone!

Although his adversary’s card could abruptly take an energy body’s speed to its bottom, it couldn’t make it completely stop. He needed to control time to the smallest unit in order to be effective. Although he had a stunning perceptual acuity, he was still consuming energy. So, he kept talking trash in order to attract his adversary’s attention.

When he saw an arm remaining on the ground, on the wrist of which was a perfectly good apparatus, his spirit was stirred. As he went bolting toward the arm, he shouted, “A few of you, go strip those five guys. Don’t let anything go to waste!”