The Card Apprentice

Wei-ah was like a gust of wind. It was hard to spot him with the naked eye. Wherever he went, the sound of bones cracking can be heard like chords in a symphony. The cardless sects who were blocking his way reacted as if they were hit by a shuttle; they flung out in succession!

It was entirely appropriate to use the word “rampage” to describe Wei-ah. If one looked down from the sky, one could see that Wei-ah was advancing in a straight line!

From where he started to where Chen Mu was, it was the shortest and straightest route. He didn’t need to consider the number of enemies, he didn’t need to consider the steep terrain, he didn’t need to consider being flanked, and he didn’t need to make a feint, because he was Wei-ah!

He was the strongest of the cardless sect disciples in the world; no one was on par with him. Even top aces like Sue and Yangshan Fei could only yearn for his strength.

Yangshan Fei, a battle mania, had ignited a new excitement in him. His eyes were red, and his whole body was shrouded in an electric net. He was like the legendary God of thunder! The violent thunder and lightning were obedient in his hands; he could knead them into any shape at will. Any cardless sect disciples hit by him was electrocuted and turned into a burnt corpse.

Even in such a melee, Sue was graceful and calm. Ten fingers flickered with 10 different colors of light. Her slender fingers moved dexterously as if under the fingers, there were transparent piano keys. Unlike Wei-ah’s blunt violence and Yangshan Fei godly control over lightning, she was simply graceful. The enemies she killed looked like they had fallen asleep; there were no visible wounds.

Little Bu Mo’s fighting style was handed down from Wei-ah; his style was neat and on point, as sharp as a knife, paying attention to efficiency, and had absolutely no excess strength. The baby faced Bu Mo regained his composure. Little Bu Mo’s strength was much less than that of Wei-ah’s superhuman power. Therefore, in order to remedy that shortcoming, he accelerated his attack frequency. That made his attacks look more illusory.

All four were top-notch masters. Although they were the minority, their sudden outburst of combat power was extremely intimidating. For quite some time, no one could stop them.

Chen Mu, who had survived from countless bloody battles, discovered the subtle changes of the fight immediately. He saw Wei-ah, who was dashing over to him!

It was as if time had stopped at that moment.

Suddenly joy exploded out from the deepest part of his body, like an electric current passing through his whole body. Every pore seemed to open at the same time. All of his tiredness and pressure disappeared.

“I’m back!”

Floating in the sky, Chen Mu with his arms opened, shouted willfully, “I’m back! I’m back! I’m back!…”

In the vast ash stratum, his voice traveled into the distance. The king of the jungle had announced his return, and his pack hollered in response.

“Kill!” Xiaobo yelled with his hoarse voice. With his uniquely cold and murderous spirit, the long silver hair behind him was like a brandished silver blade! His tall figure and charming face, like a deeply submerged thousand-year-old ice, exuded a piercing coldness.

“Kill!” Sang Hanshui’s growl seemingly burst out from the depths of hell; he completely abandoned his usual calmness and restraint at that moment. He had an unprecedented insane will to fight, like a tenacious beast without restriction—with the most primitive and instinctive killing intent!

Flat Eyebrows was shuttling around the battlefield in a ghostly manner. Compared to the past, the style of “Night of the Cross” he recreated in that battle was no longer stiff and choppy. He was like a king walking in the dark, calmly harvesting his enemy’s lives.

When Lu Xiaoru heard Chen Mu’s voice, she surpassed the limits of holding back her emotions; she finally broke out in tears. A fair and plump arm raised high up in the air.

“Kill!” The word she uttered revealed her unyielding faith! She would fight tooth and nail to win the battle! She took the lead in entering the battlefield.

“Kill!” Lucky Xi’s emotions stirred, and he couldn’t help but follow suit and spit out the word!

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” The two with their usual ferocity, Crow Feather and Zhu Heng, bolted into the enemy’s formation with their sinister expression.

The sudden entry of those teams threw the battlefield into greater chaos. The large-scale bombardments by card artisans were a dreadful thing. Just based on what one sees, their attacks were far more destructive than the cardless sects.

The reason why the cardless sects could battle with card artisans was because of the unique environment in the ash stratum. If card artisans weren’t afraid of the incoming storms, the sky would become their best fortress. The overwhelming attacks from the air gave the cardless sects on the ground nowhere to hide. If the cardless sects chose to escape at that instant, the outcome of their battle would be hard to tell. Cracks were not a suitable environment for card artisans to battle but were the most advantageous terrain for cardless sects. Too bad, they didn’t retreat.

Billions of ear-piercing sounds from Airskills filled the air and increased the fear and uneasiness in others. The cardless sects wanted to use that approach to resist power-card attacks. When the two powers collided, the shock wave produced moved like a hurricane; it took off in all directions.

Chen Mu floated quietly in the sky. He had never seen so many cardless sects using Airskill at the same time, and the scene was breathtaking.

While in the sky, he looked at everyone quietly. Suddenly, he felt conflicted, and all sorts of feelings welled up in his mind. He didn’t even know what he was feeling; there was joy, loss, relief, but also confusion. But soon, he cleared his head. The cruel battlefield below reminded him of where he was.

Airskill and small-scale combat capability had always been the most potent weapon against card artisans for cardless sects. However, it was on the condition that they had the right environment. At that point, however, even as the storm was approaching, all the card artisans in the air were frantically attacking! It was a landslide victory.

Combinations of Airskill blocked almost all of their initial attacks. But soon, the cardless sects from Mohadi Domain began to suffer from massive casualties.

For card artisans from Eastern Wei, group attack was a compulsory course for them, and they were extremely familiar with it. But for the cardless sects from Mohadi Domain, they never had any precedent of using Airskill for group attack. They relied on themselves, and most were struggling.

Collaboration triumphed over a lack of collaboration, and excellent collaboration triumphed over inadequate collaboration; this was the core belief behind group attacks.

Cardless sects from Mohadi Domain were showing signs of defeat. An attack from the masses could overcome individual aggression. But if one had the advantage in terms of scale and formation, it would often make the opposing side lose their courage to fight.

In terms of commanding, Chen Mu wasn’t as good as Bogner, and even Jiang Liang was better than him. But after all those years of battle, the basic principles became apparent for him.

When he discovered their signs of defeat, he commanded without the least bit of hesitation, “Kill!”

He took the lead in attacking the enemy! When the others saw him, they immediately followed him and killed more enemies under his cover.

“King, bad news… bad news…” his subordinate’s voice was filled with fear.

“What’s wrong?” King unpleasantly replied.

“They’ve failed…”

“Failed?” King was in extreme exasperation but laughed instead, “Ha, those bunch of idiots. They can’t even take down a person?”

“We were attacked by a large number of card artisans all of a sudden. We couldn’t resist their attacks. They were retreating…” the subordinate looked pale.

“Card artisans?” King suddenly came around; he knew that it must be that group of card artisans that they had been looking for.

The criticality of the situation finally dawned on him. A strong man, no matter how strong he was, he was only a person. If there were a team of card artisans, that would be dreadful. Their defeat might be pervasive once the group reaches his base…

King had an epiphany. He had a fiery glare as he commanded, “Inform all tribes to get ready to defend and warn the defeated soldiers to retreat along both ends. For those who dare cross our defensive lines, shoot to kill!”

“This…” the subordinate’s expression twitched a little.

“What are you waiting for?” King shouted. The tribes that received the orders dared not delay a moment and immediately entered an alert state.

The Royal Court built their base on a large flat open fissure with seven tribes scattered around in heavily guarded layers defense. All of the soldiers in this defensive perimeter entered their combat position.

Boom, Boom, Boom!

The earth shook as if countless wild horses were galloping. The faces of those experienced soldiers changed slightly. They knew that it was the sound of many people running.

“They’re here! Prepare for battle!” The captain on the forefront was pale, but he tried to calm down and issued orders.

Who could have imagined that their layers of defense couldn’t block their enemy’s pace at the different bases!

More and more soldiers fled, and the enemy was like a wolf pack, desperately chasing after the panicked sheep. They had received information that the enemy didn’t attack the majority of their bases, but rather their people—who had completely lost their senses—did. The rumble grew louder and denser.

The captain on the forefront had a face drained of blood. He stared at the corner of the crack in front of him without blinking. When the first deserter appeared, his pupils contracted sharply and commanded, “Prepare for battle!”

At the same time, hundreds of soldiers in front shouted at the top of their lungs, “King’s orders, those who dare to cross the defensive line, shoot to kill!”

Another group shouted desperately, “Retreat from the sides! Retreat the both sides!”

The deserters in front were fearful, and they could only shout, “Help! Help!”

The captain desperately restrained his fear and acted against his conscience. He closed his eyes, raised his hand, and ordered violently, “Those who dare to cross the defensive line; kill!”

The soldiers who were ready for battle threw their javelins at the same time. In order to resist card artisan’s attack, the soldiers at the forefront were elites.

The 500 elites threw out 500 javelins with extraordinary strength. The sharp shrill covered all the other sounds and plunged into the rout.

Sharp javelins splattered blood all over, many javelins pierced through several bodies in succession. They blocked the routed troops from entering; there were 50 meters of no-man’s-land between them. The routed troop stopped moving forward, and they looked at the countless bodies falling into pools of blood in disbelief.

“King’s orders, those who dare cross the defensive line, shoot to kill!” That shout was without emotions, and those deserters finally sobered up.

“King’s order! Retreat from both flanks!”

Those deserters regained their sanity but hesitated for a moment. Soon, like a flood hitting on a reef, they escaped in two groups and ran along both sides.

At that point, no one noticed that Bogner had arrived quietly with his team on the flank of the base in Mohadi Domain.