The Card Apprentice

Having gradually gotten used to the strange environment, Chen Mu could already move about rather freely in the simple water world. It was especially the water pressure. The first time that he gone there, he felt as though he were about to be squished open by the terrifying water pressure.

Under those conditions, he reduced his breathing rate to once every minute, which was not a very simple matter. Still, Chen Mu did it. A nice side-benefit of adopting the deep breathing was that he could greatly reduce his heart rate, and easily enter into deep meditation.

By that time, Chen Mu could enter the deep meditative state rather easily, requiring only about two minutes.

Even better, it was only a ‘Simple Water World,’ and never mind breathing, if it were real, it could kill you!

He didn’t have enough experience to really know how far his perceptual strength had grown. He only knew that with his current perception he could sustain a whole day’s worth of card play making without becoming exhausted.

Still, he wasn’t yet able to extend the scope of his perception to five meters. He had no way to make his perception extend the last half meter beyond the four and a half that he could achieve. It was as though he would lose touch with his perception if he were to extend it any further.

Chen Mu surmised to himself that it shouldn’t be a matter of the strength of his perception, but since there was nothing recorded in that mysterious card, he could only muddle along by himself.

He wasn’t really worried about it, since his current perception was enough for him to do quite a few things which he would never have imagined doing before, such as learn a few different cards; like jet stream cards, or heating cards, or fog cards and so forth.

The classification of cards was a headache for everyone, whether in the Heavenly Federation, or the House of a Hundred Depths, or the Mohadi Region. For a lot of the cards, it was very difficult to put them into some certain category.

The first one that Chen Mu learned was the heating card, which was one of the most commonly used cards. A hot pot was a utensil that every household needed. At its core was the simple heating card. It was also among the cards carried by any card artisan who wanted to go frequently to the outer reaches, where the heating card was also one of the essential cards. It would enable them to eat hot food under any conditions, without having to look for tinder to start a fire. It was also used for heating when it got cold.

What had once been the arcane language of card makers then seemed understandable at a glance. Chen Mu got on top of it very quickly, and using only two days, he had already made his first one-star heating card. And by the third day his one-star heating card had already become quite perfect, with a much better power-utilization rate. Chen Mu straight away opened his hot pot and replaced the heating card with the one he had made himself. It worked well as soon as he tried it, so that even Copper was amazed.

That made Chen Mu immediately fascinated with transforming all of the things in his house. The fresh food cupboard’s cooling card, the lighting card . . . he even excavated the one-star jet stream card which he had originally thought so useless, and made it useful. Although the jet stream from a one-star card wasn’t very powerful, it was perfect for a cooling breeze.

Wherever a card was being used in the house, Chen Mu would be able to find a book about it, and do it himself. After he had satisfied himself with what he could make, Chen Mu bought a large quantity of books such that his house became mostly materials and books. Chen Mu benefitted greatly from the foundational knowledge that he had learned from that mysterious card, especially regarding the principles it expounded upon. For these few days, he was no longer only dealing with fantasy cards, since in principle those weren’t essentially any different.

It was all thanks to the mysterious card that he was able to get to work so quickly.

Knock knock knock, sounded someone at the door.

“May I inquire if Mr. Chen Mu is at home? I have a delivery for you to sign for.”

Chen Mu was taken aback. That was the first time he had received anything other than bills.

Opening the letter, it was a blue bordered white card, about a half a palm in size, looking like hand-crafted ivory, and feeling very fine.

Low-Grade Fantasy Card Club Membership Card.

On its surface were several ancient script characters, which it took Chen Mu a while to decipher. On the top right corner of the card was a very faintly glowing number, showing the number ‘zero.’ And on the lower left corner a code was engraved in shadow.

“Don’t consider this to be some high-class material.” Copper said in a roundabout way after looking up to see, “This membership card isn’t worth anything. What is worth something are your contributions, which are now at zero, and even if you carelessly threw it on the street, no-one would pick it up.”

“Contribution level?” What use is that?” Chen Mu wasn’t just asking, since he felt a little ashamed, having thought just then that this card was rather valuable.

Copper stretched himself lazily before saying, “This is the method that the club has adopted to encourage people. Haven’t you realized how low the threshold for entry to this club is? To select those with real ability, anyone who has an interest in the club’s business makes a contribution in order to have a say.” Seeing that Chen Mu was looking at him helplessly, Copper shrugged off any responsibility, “Don’t look at me. I only know so much. Take a look for yourself tomorrow. Why would you ask an outsider like me?”

Low-Grade Fantasy Card Club

It was Chen Mu’s first time going there, and he was unconsciously sizing up the building. Just having such a tall building in a central location of Eastern Shang-Wei City was enough to make the club’s power clear. What drew Chen Mu’s attention most was the exquisite fantasy card illusions floating outside the building’s walls, which were constantly transforming, sometimes covering the sky with cold ice and snow, and sometimes filling the eye with green droplets.

It was more than a person could take in, and there was some helpless surprise in Chen Mu’s shining eyes. With their realism, he couldn’t help comparing those constantly transforming illusions with that advertisement he had seen that time at the Two Hoop card shop. Of course, that was not the first thought which passed through Chen Mu’s mind. His first thought was to wonder how much it would be worth to be able to make a fantasy card which put out such an exquisite illusion?

So, this really was a place of hidden talent, crouching tigers and hidden dragons. He didn’t know who had made those fantasy cards, but whoever could make illusions as realistic as the ones emitted there was really some kind of fantastic person. Considering his own current ability, it would be hard for Chen Mu to do it.

Restraining his curiosity, Chen Mu stepped into the big building.

The scene around him completely transformed as soon as he entered the building.

In front of him was all dark, with only constellations filling the sky, making unexplainable movements, as though he had suddenly set foot into a starry cosmos. All around his body was an endless void in all directions, with unquantifiable constellations as vast as the seas, until even the ground under his feet didn’t feel real. What a shock it was! Having never experienced a scene like that, Chen Mu’s eyes were suddenly shining with incomparable wonder.

“Welcome to the low-grade fantasy card club,” came a very soft female voice from behind Chen Mu.

Chen Mu quickly regained his senses, and turned around to look, where there was a professionally-dressed pretty woman with short hair standing behind him.

“This is the ‘evolution of the constellations’ fantasy card, which is said to be the work of the great master Chemosich, who had extremely deep accomplishment in the study of the stars. It later fell into the hands of the club president, who decided to place it here. Everyone who sees it for the first time is startled by it.” She hid her chuckling in a charming manner.