The Card Apprentice

With his simple and yet full life, making progress every day, that sort of happiness really made Chen Mu delirious.

Following the story as it developed step by step, the price for the “Legend of Master Shi” got higher and higher the more it was cooked. Copper had already stopped showing himself in public, and put out the card play on the open consignment market, from where its popularity would later spread. The shopkeepers and students would rush over in droves to the open consignment market to camp out when they got the news. They improved the safety factor by quite a bit that way, since it was nearly impossible to find any sellers in the consignment market. And what was most important was that the method of marketing could greatly increase the price. Neither Copper nor Chen Mu ever thought that they were making too much.

Regarding the manipulation of perception, Chen Mu was already flexible beyond compare, which led directly to a large increase in his productivity. That enabled them to complete three hundred card plays in a very short period of time, until Copper was calling him the card-making machine.

After he had finished making the card play, Chen Mu was still diving headlong into the simple water world, and struggling with the water grass. By then he was able to free himself from the entwining of eight stands of water grass. Even he felt the quickness of his bursts to be amazing, nothing short of a cheetah. In particular, his bursting speed was as fast as lightning within three meters, with his body exceeding the speed of his mind.

The scope of his perception had already extended to four and nine tenths meters, leaving only a tenth of a meter. But this tenth of a meter seemed unattainable, with never a fraction shorter. Having gone through a lot of introspection last time, he set his attitude straight, and didn’t worry. It was only an unwinding game having no shred of urgency.

What good would worrying do? He would do what he could do, and the results would be for the best. But if it were really like that, the results were not likely to satisfy him, or to be more clear, that wasn’t his kind of result.

* * *

“Have you already finished it?” Wang Ze asked to a room full of Star Academy exchange students. According to timing, they should return soon to the Star Academy, but they had sought out the administration of Eastern Wei Academy to request an extension on the time for the exchange. Eastern Wei Academy was naturally very welcoming and immediately agreed.

Yin Chenjiu pushed up his glasses and nodded, “All finished. It’s already been sent to the school. I think it’s been received for a while now.” and then immediately asked with a little hesitancy, “Team Leader, what are we really looking for? Which is to say, what are we doing? To tell the truth, I feel like this school is really too ordinary, and the students are too weak. Staying here doesn’t have any value.”

Other students showed expressions of deep sympathy. They were all outstanding students, for whom doing this kind of meaningless activity was hard to take.

The look in Wang Ze’s eyes sharpened precipitously, as he said in a deep voice, “I know you have your suspicions, but this is not something you should ask about. You should understand that we didn’t come here to hike and swim and sightsee.”

Just then the apparatus on his wrist suddenly sounded, and he saw that it was the president of the Academy. The president was calling him now about the information they’d only just sent? Could he have found something?

Taking a deep breath, he took the communication. The president whispered a few words, and the normally calm Wang Ze’s face suddenly lit up with joy. After the communication was completed, Wang Ze told the long awaited news that he had gotten from the president.

The exchange student dorm immediately broke into cheers such that the Eastern Wei Academy students who were passing by turned their heads showing looks of astonishment.

The year 3485 in the orthodox calendar was destined to be a glorious year for Star Academy. Celebrated for their conservative ways, the Star Academy was changing its tactics, and was starting to move out from the Star Academy. This little known Eastern Wei Academy had made it into peoples’ sights because of the Star Academy.

It had also been that fall that there was that other big event which had caused a stir in the entire federation, and that time too the leading role was played by Star Academy.

After ten years, the Star Academy finally had someone coming out from the inner academy. Once that news was out, it was like the latest blockbuster, causing a shock such as the federation had never experienced. For ten straight days, the news was all about the affair. The stock of any companies which touched the Star Academy at all shot wildly up.

Everyone knew that the Star Academy which had been asleep for ten years had finally awakened.

But as soon as the news was out, the Star Academy toned it down immediately. No matter how people had heard about it, no-one could find out who the genius was – who was the only one to come out from the Star Academy’s inner academy for ten years. There were even some people who suspected that the news was fake, but the faces of the Star Academy students all full of excitement, proved that the matter hadn’t been fabricated. The Star Academy that had already been mystical and outstanding in people’s minds, became still more mystical.

Very soon, as though pressured by Star Academy, the other five of the six great schools all responded. No matter whether it was the always radical Desert Camp, or the ever-moderate Central Repository of Classics and the Comprehensive Federation Academy, or even the almost isolated Bitter Solitude Temple in the outer reaches, or Moon Frost Island, they all put out a series of responses.

There was an endless stream of activity, while the one thing which remained the same was their high tone.

The vying for power among the six made the behavior of the other schools surprisingly consistent. They were all looking on with a cold eye, all still unqualified to enter that muddy water.

The one who benefitted the most from the affair was Eastern Wei Academy. They were originally nothing more than an ordinary school, but their reputation had made a splash, since the Star Academy was known by so many people.

Still, this had utterly no meaning for Chen Mu and Copper. Chen Mu was drilling into the simple water world with his whole being, while Copper was in the middle of his headaches with the next installment of the “Legend of Master Shi” script. Although Copper thumbed his nose at the world, when he was writing the script he wasn’t a bit lax.

Chen Mu’s entire body was wrapped in water grass, looking remarkably like a green coconut. This was already his final trial, with nearly all the water grass in his vicinity wound around him, binding him tightly. Under those conditions, you wouldn’t say he was trying to free himself, since even to bend a finger was not a simple matter.

Chen Mu had already failed three hundred and fifty-two times at that final trial, but he had almost gotten free the last time. Who knew that at the final juncture he would heave a sigh of relief and fall short by a basketful.

He rested for a half hour to restore his energy, and then was about to enter the three hundred and fifty third attempt at the final trial.

With his two legs firmly planted, and his body slightly bowed, because there was too much water grass on his body, he basically couldn’t see the arc of his spine.

He gave a sudden burst of power to his feet, shooting forward abruptly, and watched himself plant his head in the dirt. Then Chen Mu suddenly straightened his body and shot up like a spring, like the head of a snake, while his lower back snapped backwards.

Chen Mu’s waist and backbone were like a fully sprung spring, incredibly pliable, while his two feet were still firmly in the sand, with his two legs bent forward and his back leaning back, incomparably weird. Then in that small space, the power of the water grass was suddenly weakened by quite a bit, finally giving Chen Mu the slightest bit of space.

Holding back his groan, Chen Mu finally released his hands, while his back, which had been bowed like a fully extended spring, sprang forward like a flash of lightening.

A bow, a crook, and a spring, the abrupt release of energy was terrifying, and at the same time, Chen Mu’s two legs were also releasing energy. How could the water grass stay bound? Most of the water grass was released in that way by Chen Mu, who continued to writhe strangely like a fish, shedding the few remaining strands of water grass which remained on his body.

This burst of energy was really fierce, and Chen Mu had no way to control it when his whole body shot up like an arrow, and landed head first in a sandbar.

Without waiting for him to extricate his skull from the sandbar, that old voice sounded by his ear.