The Card Apprentice

After completing his annotations, Chen Mu finally settled on the new scheme. He called his method of training the snow pit method. Even such a person as Jiang Liang was pretty indifferent toward that name.

Chen Mu didn’t care about the name. The results were what mattered.

He planned to promote the snow pit method when Borna and his group completed their project. Jiang Liang was its first beneficiary; his perception had already been restored to its prior level. That was when everyone discovered that his original perceptual ability had reached the top of the fourth level, only a notch below the fifth level. Thinking about it, Jiang Liang’s injury was several years ago, which meant he had such an ability that long ago. Such a talent would be considered a gem anywhere.

Seeing his rapid advancement, the rest of the card artisans were red-eyed with jealousy. Excellent methods for training perception had always been the never-disseminated secrets of well-known academies, and only truly core talents would ever touch them.

Only talents who had demonstrated excellence would have the opportunity to follow those methods, according to the school administration’s arrangements. The talent of the card artisans under Chen Mu was perfectly ordinary. How could they have the chance to even come close to such excellent training methods?

No wonder they were so jealous. But apart from being envious, no one would dare to even hope for it. Jiang Liang had already stood out to the captains for his extraordinary talent. Although he didn’t say much, he did have a lot of prestige.

The rest of the card artisans worked on their training even harder, hoping to more quickly improve their own perception.

Borna’s engineering project was incredibly huge. From considerations of safety, after completing the base’s ice houses, they put all of their energy into building the defenses. For example, there were the Starfish Fortifications, which had outstanding power and were especially suited to the stationary battle tactics of the card set. In an abundance of caution, however, Chen Mu specified to Borna that he be sure the appearance of the Starfish Fortifications was camouflaged.

Borna cleverly put them on two mountain peaks and piled the upper sections with layers of disguises, on top of which snow was piled. It looked no different than an ordinary mountaintop from a distance.

“Chief! Chief!” Xiaobo was shouting as soon as he got back.

Chen Mu raised his head in irritation from his discussions with Jiang Liang. He took a glance at Xiaobo before throwing himself back into the discussion. Xiaobo immediately crumpled after that mere glimpse from Chen Mu and just sat down with a look of frustration. He was still pretty wary of that chief. On the one hand, he was his boss; on the other, the boss’s fists that day had made a deep impression on him. Once that boss of his got angry, he would make use of his fists! When he thought of that day, he felt pain all over his body.

After more than ten minutes, Chen Mu finished his discussion with Jiang Liang. He then walked over to Xiaobo to ask, “What is it?”

Xiaobo rushed to stand. With a face full of excitement, he said, “We encountered an ambush on the road, Boss. I wiped them all out. I also seized their cards. Right, this Field of Snowflakes is quite interesting. It can make the speed of energy bodies that enter its range of control drop to an outrageous extent. I nearly bit it. Luckily, I’m handsome and formidable, very decisive…”

Chen Mu wasn’t paying attention to Xiaobo’s prattling on. He opened his communications device, directly calling Bogner over.

“What’s up, Boss?” Bogner was huffing and puffing from running over.

Chen Mu pointed to Xiaobo. “He was ambushed on the road.”

Bogner’s expression shifted, and his gaze turned dark. “It looks like someone can’t wait.”

* * *

The Downstream Alliance was composed of 35 small forts—the biggest power in the Pascal Region. The second was the House of Qiao, composed of 27 small forts. There were another five or six powers that had more than ten small forts.

“What?” Wen Zuofu’s expression had turned ugly. His unhappy gaze was fixed on Yi Song in front of him, who was drenched in sweat. “His eminence of Western Guard was killed?”

“Yes, sir!” The sweat on Yi Song’s brow was dripping uncontrollably as he responded in a trembling voice. “I sent Western Guard along with five card artisans with level-five perception to do a little probing, big brother. I never thought they would be killed as soon as they showed their faces.” He then cautiously raised his head. A glimpse of the chief’s steely expression made Yi Song scared to breathe, but he knew he needed to present the chief with all the intelligence he had. So, he hardened himself to say, “Western Guard’s chief’s corpse was never found. All that was left was his arm, while the other five were wounded in their throats with a single fatal blow. In addition, they…” Yi Song hesitated, not knowing whether he should say what he was about to say.

“What about them?” Wen Zuofu’s tone had deepened.

“They… They…” Meeting the chief’s dark gaze, Yi Song shivered before unconsciously letting loose the words, “Everything was stripped from their bodies.”

Pow!

“A**hole!” In his rage, Wen Zuofu had dashed his most cherished tea pot to the ground. Shards hit Yi Song in the face, which really hurt, but he didn’t dare to flinch from the pain as he lowered his head in respect.

Wen Zuofu’s expression was terrible, and his cheeks were quivering, his eyes about to spit fire. Yi Song was too scared to budge.

After a full half hour, Wen Zuofu had gradually calmed.

“I never thought some awesome character would actually come here. Humph. Who could have thought there would be one or two aces who might try to make an enemy of me? They’ve really underestimated Wen Zuofu. Pick ten from the Dark Fog Group. Remember that your goal is to harass them, and if you have a chance, wipe them out. If you don’t, make them nervous, so they all feel insecure. Humph. Once they can’t resupply around here, I don’t think they’ll be able to survive!” For Wen Zuofu to be able to occupy that geography, of course he didn’t waste anything. Within an instant, he had thought of something crafty.

He’d previously run into quite a few such adversaries, who often had one or two aces watching over them, with the whole group having some power as well. But such adversaries had all been put under his foot already. There was nothing new about it, and he was utterly effective with that peculiar sort of adversary.

I want you to count staying alive as worse than death! Already short one ace, there was a ferocious glare in Wen Zuofu’s eyes as he ground his teeth.

Yi Song was happy. “Big brother is a wise and great tactician, after all! Once we do this, they’ll have a hard time resisting, and they will end up worshipping at your feet!”

The chief had been bloodied that time. There were only a few dozen in the Dark Fog Group, of which big brother had pulled out ten, paying special attention to that small gang. Every member of the Dark Fog Group was at a skill level not below that of Western Guard. Moreover, they had received the strictest guerilla training, and none were more suited to that action.

Encouraged by Yi Song, Wen Zuofu felt a lot better. He had overcome quite a few adversaries by virtue of that play. They were a long way from any city, and resupply was no simple matter. Once they were harassed that way, it would be easy for some accident to happen.

Yi Song’s sucking up hit the right spot. Wen Zuofu had already started to fantasize about leaving that damned gang of card artisans no place to go and finally creeping in front of him to beg for mercy.

Good lord, what could be more wonderful than that?

* * *

Borna was rubbing his hands, a little proud of himself. “Honorable Boss, your eminence, we have already completed the engineering project. I believe you might be pleased. Under your magnificent radiance, Borna has certainly been able to build the most outstanding structure in human history!” In the end, Borna still hadn’t forgotten to kiss some a**.

Xiaobo was looking at Borna with derision, evidently having forgotten his own sickening a**-kissing.

Chen Mu had none of the manner of an inspector, and he nodded at Borna. “Thank you for your diligence.” Then, he turned to Bogner and said, “Station everything inside, and pay attention to the defenses.”

“Yes, sir, Boss!” Given that the boss had personally ordered something, he naturally didn’t dare to be careless. Since Xiaobo’s ambush, everyone clearly understood it wasn’t safe there!

In the ravine was a group of spherical buildings like bird’s nests, which were the results of Borna and his team. He called it the Valley Nest. It could hold about 5,000 people to live and train. On the cliffs on both sides was a continuous fortress, all hidden under a thick layer of snow. The cliffs had undergone hardening for safety, so any explosion like the one they feared last time wouldn’t cause the whole mountainous area to collapse.

The completion of the Valley Nest allowed Chen Mu to breathe a sigh of relief. That also meant they would have complete defensive capabilities. By relying on the mountains and the Starfish Fortifications, they had greatly increased their security.

It had come time to carry out his plan!

All the card artisans were in front of Chen Mu. They watched their boss with a lot of curiosity. He would seldom give orders personally to their gathering unless Bogner wasn’t present. They liked to call Bogner the head and Chen Mu the boss.

But no one dared to break the silence to say a thing to Bogner, who was among them, not like the one in charge of life and death as he normally was. The boss seldom managed things, but that didn’t mean he lacked for prestige in their minds.

The mysterious boss and his mysterious power had always enabled them to bring about miracles. That feeling wasn’t like the daunting feeling of Bogner, who was also beloved. This was a kind of subconscious obedience, even despite the fact that the boss was so young.

Looking at Jiang Liang respectfully standing to the boss’s side, some among the gang of card artisans had already faintly guessed the gist. Many of them were exhibiting uncontrollable excitement, though having already been branded to their bones with discipline, kept themselves orderly.