The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu felt that if he were to gather up all of the problems he’d completed while he was doing them, it would seem that he could compile a “One-Star Fantasy Card Problem Set” volume. Chen Mu only chose to do the ones which were unusual, and which addressed a variety of aspects. Some of them he couldn’t even understand, and he would have no choice but to skip those.

Some day if he had the time, it wouldn’t be a bad way to pass the time to come down there specifically to solve problems.

“For you.” Came a woman’s voice from beside him, when a bottle of water and some steamed buns appeared in front of him.

Chen Mu was surprised at first, though that was followed by his neglected hunger bursting right back out.

“Thanks.” Chen Mu wasn’t looking to see who it was, and wolfed it all down.

Five steamed buns and a bottle of water gone in two minutes made An Xiaoyou, who was to the side, a little jumpy. Wow, a strong person was really a strong person. Even eating steamed buns, he was that much stronger than most people.

Lan Feng was also dumbfounded, wondering if steamed buns were all that tasty. They didn’t have any condiments, no side dishes, no jam . . .

Ah, if only there were two more, it would be perfect, Chen Mu was feeling as he rubbed his belly which would take seven rolls to fill. But he quickly put that pointless thought to the back of his mind.

Time was precious. Just then that woman had said very clearly that she could only guarantee that the materials would be there for the day. If he couldn’t earn enough points that day, then who knows from which back door he could get these materials. And all those materials he had already spent two million on would have been bought in vain.

No way! Whatever happened, he would have to earn enough points today! Chen Mu wiped his mouth, and turned his gaze back to the screen in front of him.

Tall, with a snow-white suit and snow-white shoes, and wearing a glistening silver necktie which sparkled delicately in the lights, there was only one person who dressed like that in the entire low-grade fantasy card club, full stop. With a handsome face that could nearly crush all the women, refined enough to drive all the pretty girls crazy, always lightly smiling, and with deep charming eyes, he carried himself with cultivation and refinement, full of the charm of a mature man.

This, then, was the current president of the low-grade fantasy card club, Bai Zheyuan.

To speak of him invoked the stuff of legends. He was already a high-grade card master at thirty-two, where in the whole of the Heavenly Federation there weren’t many who had achieved that kind of honor. According to the strict demands of his father, he was brought up to have impeccable grace since he was very young. That made him into the most dazzling man in Eastern Shang-Wei City, and the lover of many pretty girls’ dreams.

Of course, if that’s all it was, it would hardly be the stuff of legends.

To become a super-hot high-grade card master, and then unexpectedly to set up the low-grade fantasy card club. . .

. . . Who does he think he is, the famous Master Luo Qi?

At that time, jokes about people waiting to have a sighting had become the hot topic among the high society of Eastern Shang-Wei City.

Bai Zheyuan had an irrefutable way to keep everyone’s mouth shut. The low-grade fantasy card club had put out eleven fantasy card products during its first year, each one extremely successful, which made the low-grade fantasy card club of great economic benefit.

By the second year, they had launched twenty-five fantasy card products, which catapulted the low-level fantasy card club into one of the most powerful firms in Eastern Shang-Wei City.

Bai Zhenyuan himself had been selected as one of the top ten most influential people in the Heavenly Federation that year.

The loose structure of the low-level fantasy card club gave it an exuberant vitality for them to encourage the creative uses of low-grade fantasy cards. Add to that their terrific ability to forecast the market, and you have that huge and vibrant club.

It had been a long while since Bai Zhenyuan had been there himself, since he’d found that if he were to show himself in the club, things would become a little chaotic.

But today he wanted to see for himself if that young fellow called Chen Mu was really as awesome as Lan Feng said he was.

Were all the kids those days as incredible at daring to earn points that way? Bai Zheyuan sighed; it had been a long time since he had engaged in any specific technical research on one-star fantasy cards. He was a high-grade card master after all, and couldn’t really use up his life on low-grade fantasy cards.

But he was hoping that someone actually well-versed in low-grade fantasy cards would appear, since they needed a technical director, and many people had already brought up that kind of request with him. For the first two years, he had taken the responsibilities of technical direction upon himself.

Now that most of his time was spent on his own research and the overall direction of the club, he naturally couldn’t pay attention to those matters.

And then there was that program on his hands.

Hey, why is the club so quiet today? Bai Zheyuan looked a little surprised, and without any hesitation, lifted his feet and walked inside.

Once he got to the great hall, he was struck dead!

A dense mass of hundreds was crowded around a large-scale glowing screen, lifting their faces and staring at it, motionless. Time seemed to have stood still in there, where there wasn’t a sound, and all of those card masters looked like clay figures.

In that calm and nearly suffocating scene, there was only a crowd of people around a large-scale screen where numbers and words jumped noiselessly, sometimes quickly and sometimes with nothing happening for a long time.

Bai Zheyuan gulped unconsciously.

What is actually going on with these people?

His gaze followed the lifted gaze of everyone else, falling on that screen in the great hall which wouldn’t otherwise have attracted any attention.

The more he watched, the more astounded he was. His understanding of energy rules was much more advanced than those card masters, and he could tell as soon as it was posted whether Chen Mu’s response was right or not.

Correct . . . correct . . . all correct . . .

Bai Zheyuan’s sense of astonishment grew greater and greater. This was his first time ever running into a low-grade card master with such penetrating understanding.

The low-grade card master fell far short of the high-grade card master with regard to the rules of recognizing and understanding energy, which really stood in the way of the low-grade card master’s advancement. It was easy for them to feel helpless in the way of comparatively crucial issues. So why would any high-grade card master like him be interested in a low-grade card master?

That this young fellow surrounded by a crowd of people was not a high-grade card master was evident to Bai Zheyuan from his knowledge of the rules of energy. Chen Mu’s familiarity with the rules of energy was still at a relatively basic state, but he had never heard of such a freak who could touch the core of the energy rules from that kind of knowledge.

Bai Zheyuan could hardly contain himself.