The Card Apprentice

Chapter 127: Good Cards and Good Pens

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Mr. Mark Victor.” Chen Mu shouted out just as Mark Victor was preparing to leave. That was the third week after they had entered actual combat confrontation.

Mark Victor looked surprised, as he turned around with a sense of questioning, “What is it?” Apart from asking about things he didn’t understand, it was the first time Chen Mu had called to him after practice was concluded.

Chen Mu presented a card, “This card might be useful to you.”

“What card?” Mark Victor asked as he took it, finding it a little strange. He suddenly thought about Chen Mu’s other identity. He was a little startled to realize that he had been leaving out important information regarding Chen Mu’s identity as a card master, which he hadn’t understood at all.

What kind of ability did Chen Mu have? What kinds of cards was he good at making? What was his position at the base? And so forth. He didn’t have any idea.

“I call it the big mud fish.”

“Big mud fish?” Mark Victor’s expression showed some surprise, “What a strange name.”‘Big mud fish was really a weird name, making it very hard to tell what kind of card it was.

“It’s a jet-stream card.” Chen Mu explained.

“Jet-stream card?” Mark Victor turned it over with interest, examining the big mud fish card, being under pressure now to try this weirdly-named jet-stream card. Then he smiled mildly, “Many thanks.” Although he wouldn’t necessarily use it, it was a nice gesture by Chen Mu.

“Don’t mention it.” Chen Mu turned and left the training room.

Looking at Chen Mu’s back, Mark Victor couldn’t help laughing at such a truly lovable guy. After Chen Mu had left, he put the big mud fish into his own apparatus.

. . . the time was almost up.

* * *

Chen Mu calculated to himself that there wasn’t any room for slip-ups in his plan. He called up Bo Wen’s communications card.

“Hello, Bo Wen? The card is finished, please bring the ‘weak water’ pen set. We can meet in fifteen minutes in the number two comprehensive training room.”

In the number two comprehensive training room the slight smile which Bo Wen always showed wasn’t there anymore. This time it represented his amazement and surprise, “Nice card!”

From its looks, it was an ordinary wavy blade card which could only emit one wavy blade at a time. The wavy blades weren’t moon-white but were a bright red blood color. Each wavy blade was composed of five stacked wavy blades, with greatly enhanced power to achieve a scary destructive value of 611.

In principle, the card was very similar to the layered-blow wavy card, both being composed of layered wavy blades. But Chen Mu had made quite a few improvements with the card that he had designed. The compositions of the wavy blades in the original layered-blow wavy card were all identical. In the card that Chen Mu had made, each two adjacent blades were opposite, which would help them to overlap. Not only that, Chen Mu had also used his knowledge of token composition for his improvements, taking advantage of the computational power of the token composition, which would greatly decrease the time for the layering. That would then greatly increase the firing frequency of the card, thus satisfying Bo Wen’s requirements.

“Nice card!” Bo Wen could no longer remember how many times he had praised the card. As he saw it, for a three-star card to be taken to that extent was already at the limit for three-star cards. If he knew that Chen Mu still had in his hands a tailless shuttle card whose blows could reach 756, who knows how he would feel about it.

“What is this card called?” Bo Wen asked with curiosity.

Chen Mu casually responded, “This card belongs to you and you should name it.”

Bo wen couldn’t help the flash of astonishment which crossed his eyes. In general, the card master would proudly name the card, with few ever being so casual as that. Is that his nature? Or doesn’t he consider the card to be much in his eyes? Bo Wen’s glare flashed under the lights, looking at Chen Mu as though something were on his mind.

He quickly came back to his senses and pondered, “This card with wavy blades like blood and as sharp as can be, will be called the ‘blood sharp card.'” Of course, Chen Mu had no opinion.

Despite Bo Wen’s constant praise, Chen Mu wasn’t very pleased. Even though the attack damage of the blood sharp card could reach 611, that result wasn’t anything to be proud of with the tailless shuttle card in front of it. And moreover, in order to increase the power of the blood sharp card, he had used the finest materials, so that the sharp card represented his highest level to date. But the materials used to make the tailless shuttle card were far inferior. Although they would only be considered ordinary at the base, in his previous opinion many of them would have been considered high-grade materials.

One was a card made from ordinary materials which achieved a damage value of 756.

The other was a card which Chen Mu had made with the highest-grade materials that he could think of, which had a value of 611.

If the level of the two were to be adjudicated to explain his level compared to the level of the card master who had designed the tailless shuttle card that year, who knows how many levels he would fall short. So that even though Bo Wen had kept praising the blood sharp card for how outstanding it was, Chen Mu hadn’t been moved. That then made Bo Wen admire that sallow-faced nondescript youth even more. To be faced with admiration and still not be proud was not an easy thing for a teenage youth.

Chen Mu didn’t intend to waste any time, and he asked directly, “What about the ‘weak water’ pen set?”

Bo Wen looked at Chen Mu with a smile that didn’t look like a smile, never having run into someone so direct in his speech. Those that he was in touch with all rambled on in a mixture of truth with falsehood. Although he was pretty full of schemes himself, he rather liked such an upright person as Chen Mu, even as he was constantly scheming about how he could recruit Chen Mu to join the Eastern Ning’s.

Seeing that Bo Wen wasn’t saying anything, Chen Mu couldn’t help frowning, “Is there some problem?”

Could something have gone wrong? Chen Mu’s heart skipped a beat.

Under the snow bright lights if wasn’t clear if it was a change in the mood, but an almost imperceptible dark glare glinted through Chen Mu’s eyes. As an after-effect of his breath control training during that time, whenever he ran into danger or some other stimulus, he would often tend subconsciously to modulate the frequency of his perception toward the frequency needed for breath control. They would sometimes correspond, putting Chen Mu immediately into the state of breath control. But it would be for a very short time – usually one or two seconds – after which he would immediately come out from the state of breath control. It was a subconscious action, that couldn’t be maintained, while at the same time it didn’t have any side effects.

Chen Mu’s temperament suddenly changed because of it, with the atmosphere seeming to have chilled all around him, with a gloomy glint to chill the heart. The strong contrast from before to after hit Bo Wen hard, and he couldn’t imagine how that youthful card master with nothing at all special about him could so suddenly have such a cold and severe side.

He then suddenly remembered that Ning Peng had said that Chen Mu had killed card artisans from the Zuo family. Of course, Zuo family card artisans weren’t anything to him, but Bo Wen sensed something unusual in it as regarded Chen Mu’s card master identity.

He regretted a little bit that he should have looked more carefully into that elusive youth’s actual underpinnings. He had Previously been restraining himself from investigating Chen Mu’s precise details, not wanting to alarm the Amay Ning’s. If they were to discover Chen Mu’s actual worth, then his own scheme would come to nothing, or run into a rather large obstacle.

Because of the angle, Bo Wen had clearly caught the dark glint which floated through Chen Mu’s eyes.

What was it? Bo Wen was really startled that the eyes could change color like that. But it was familiar to him, as though he had seen it somewhere before. Although it hadn’t lasted long, he was certain that he had seen that dark glint, and that it hadn’t been some illusion from something floating in his eye.

He felt as though he’d seen that kind of dark glint before, but he couldn’t remember when it had been.

Stopping his imagination from running wild, he smiled mildly and said with a breath of fresh air, “How could there be? I have earned my trust very diligently.” Then he took out a light lavender colored velvet bag from his chest pocket.

That fine velvet cloth pouch was about the size of a book, on the end of which was a special tri-colored twisted cord to close it.

“This velvet pouch is made from purple civet fur, and it repels water, is extremely soft, and is very secure. Ordinary daggers can’t penetrate it. The tri-colored silk cord on the mouth of it is made from indigo cane, golden hemp, and brown spider silk. Ha ha, the bag itself is not so cheap, and only a high grade wavy blade card could cut it.”

Then Bo Wen opened the bag and removed a purse which he gave to Chen Mu.

The purse was made from some unknown natural blue leather, on top of which were iridescent blue scales whose mesmerizing light was like rippling water. Opening the purse, there were seven differently sized card pens of various types inserted neatly.

Pulling out the first pen, which was a slope-bladed pen which could gently transmit perception to its tip, it suddenly conveyed a strange sensation. His perception had directly touched the pen tip, and he immediately sensed the perception like flowing water, divided into many streams, with each fine stream of perception like a tiny stream of water, flowing smoothly around the tip of the pen.

“A fine pen!” A pleasantly surprised look appeared on the normally wooden face of Chen Mu. The circulation of perception to the tip of the fine pen showed in its fine intervals why the pen had been named the “weak water” pen by Kuo Haofeng.

Bo Wen was looking at Chen Mu all smiles, having seen how much he liked the set of pens. He would be easy to handle so long as there were things he liked. He felt that compulsion wouldn’t be useful for a card master at Chen Mu’s level, since he would have to serve willingly to realize his highest value. If he wanted to claim Chen Mu for the Eastern Ning’s, he would have to consider Chen Mu’s opinions.

Seeing Chen Mu liking the “weak water” so much, that stone dropped from Bo Wen’s heart. He was no longer worried about Chen Mu liking it, but rather about what he wouldn’t like. Among collections in the whole of the Eastern Region, the Amay Ning’s were clearly not among those who could compare.

Chen Mu tried each of the pens and was extremely satisfied. The work of the master was indeed a masterpiece. Whether it was the feel in the hand or in any other aspect, they were far beyond anything ordinarily on the market in the way that they worked. And the “weak water” could help the card master to more effectively control his perception so that with the help of that pen set he would even be able to attempt the challenge of making four-star cards, though that would be something for the future. Still, it was always hard to find a chance to boost your skills under ordinary circumstances.

But Chen Mu was still sober and restrained knowing that one couldn’t rely on great tools overly much.

He very gingerly received the “weak water” pen set, and then the two of them said words of parting and he turned around to leave the training room. Bo Wen didn’t hold him back as he smiled at Chen Mu’s departure.

The smile which never left Bo Wen’s face suddenly disappeared when Chen Mu’s figure had passed through the door of the practice room, and his spring-like gaze became instantly icy.

He didn’t leave the practice room right away but lowered his head to think. He was attending to every smallest change in Chen Mu leading up to that sudden glint in Chen Mu’s eyes, which had been like a thorn to his heart, making him feel very uncomfortable.

Bo Wen was very calm and had a lot of confidence in his own judgement. He was brooding on what it was that was so familiar about it.

But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t come up with who among all those that he had encountered had ever shown that kind of phenomenon. If he really hadn’t seen it, then it must have been from some ancient records. Something that all the offspring of the Eastern Ning had to experience was to browse through the annals of the clan, which he had done since he was small as someone regarded as the successor to the Eastern Ning’s.

It must have been in the records or in the annals. There was a detached look to his gaze while he was rapidly turning that over in his mind.

Having his head down all along, his expression finally changed.

He raised his head, with an oddly pallid look on his face as a look of panic flashed through his eyes. He soon realized that he was losing his remarkable self-control. He closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths, and finally calmed his surging heart.

He activated his apparatus and called up a number on his communications card.

During the over ten seconds that it took to make the connection, he felt an anxious impatience that he would ordinarily never feel, given his patient nature. When the other party finally responded, and the screen popped out in front of him, there appeared a sleepy-looking young woman.

“You’re still not asleep by this hour, brother?” That was Bo Wen’s younger sister Ning Jia. She was wearing a loose white nightgown, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

“Jia Jia, go to the book collection right away.”

“I’m so tired, brother, let’s do it tomorrow, OK? To ask someone to go to the library pavilion so late! I need my beauty sleep!” Ning Jia was cranky in her sleepiness.

“Go now!” Bo Wen was agitated, and his voice had become more stern than it had ever been.