The Card Apprentice

Chapter 122: Mark Victor’s Twisted Spinning Thorns

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

Chen Mu didn’t reply immediately, but prudently reminded him, “You need to clarify your requirements.”

Bo Wen kept smiling lightly, “Mr. Chen Mu is a professional card maker, and anything you make will be outstanding overall, which will be easy to tell. I only have one requirement, which is that it must be three-star.”

Chen Mu still didn’t immediately agree to do it, as he thought about it for a moment. Then he slowly nodded, “OK, but I will need some time.”

“No problem.” Bo Wen was unexpectedly refreshing. “I’ve always been pretty patient.” Then he showed Chen Mu some courtesy, “Then it’s agreed. I’ll just wait for the good news from Mr. Chen. Here’s my communications card number. Please contact me when you finish.”

Once Bo Wen had left, Chen Mu immediately started researching all sorts of materials about the ‘weak water’ pen set.

‘Weak water’ was made by the famous card master Kuo Haofeng on his fortieth birthday, and the set included seven pens, although it wasn’t clear if any were lost.

Looking at the simple introduction hardened Chen Mu’s resolve to get the ‘weak water.’ Of course, he had heard of Kuo Haofeng’s reputation, but that routine introduction had still revealed a critical piece of information . . . weak water was made on Kuo Haofeng’s fortieth birthday.

Those were the words Chen Mu fixed on. Among the introductory material he’d read about Kuo Haofeng, it had been said that his most famous representative work, the “true fantasy,” had been made when he was thirty-nine years old. Which is to say that the ‘weak water’ had been made a year later, which was doubtless when Kuo Haofeng was at his peak, and would have been the period of his most mature works. And ‘weak water’ had been made to celebrate his fortieth birthday. Without any question a work like that would be a masterpiece among masterpieces.

How would Chen Mu not feel a rush of excitement?

In a flash he decided to put all of his energy into it. No matter how, he was going to get the ‘weak water’ pen set. At that time, he was still using the card-making pens provided with the apartment. Although they weren’t cheap on the market, they were far inferior to a work from a famous master like ‘weak water.’

But after Chen Mu did a finger calculation of how much time he had, his face looked like he was grieving.

He still had to practice! When he thought about his droopy eyelids, and his blank face, Chen Mu felt like Mark Victor’s most likely response would be to go off in a huff if he said that he would temporarily like to break if off. If he wanted to find someone again, it wouldn’t be very easy to find someone else who was an ace like Mark Victor. But when he thought again about that day’s practice from hell, Chen Mu was afraid that he wouldn’t have energy for anything else, much less the kind of work which consumed so much energy and time.

Chen Mu gritted his teeth and hardened his heart in his decision to discard neither of them, no matter what. Not only that, but he needed increase his strength in short order while preventing the Ning family from being clued-in, which would cause a lot of trouble for him. That was all while still having to finish that card and get the ‘weak water’ before he left there.

Splashing icy cold water on his face, Chen Mu quickly cleared his mind. He carelessly wiped his face, and then sat at the desk, where he started to sketch out how he could, in fact, complete the challenge.

Although he didn’t’ know the background of Bo Wen, he could still see that he was a fastidious person. That was not only evident from the way that he dressed, but also from the way he went about things. It naturally showed in his every movement. In Chen Mu’s experience, that sort of person was generally the princeling of a wealthy family.

But Chen Mu very quickly put these distractions to the back of his mind. He was just a card master, and what he could do was to make a sufficiently outstanding card in exchange for that ‘weak water’ in Bo Wen’s hands. Chen Mu had no doubt that Bo Wen did really have ‘weak water.’ It wouldn’t be worth his while to lie about that, with the card always staying in Chen Mu’s hands.

He started to concentrate all his attention on designing what would be for him an entirely new card.

* * *

The Ning family had defeated the Zuo family, and then had occupied Eastern Shang-Wei City, where it seemed that all the people were keeping silent about it. And what people couldn’t get into their heads was that the Star Academy seemed to have faded completely off the very scene which they had once pursued so vigorously. What they were expressing by that time made them seem completely unlike the ones who had started the chaos.

And that student who was said to be the first in ten years to come out from the inner academy hadn’t been heard from, no matter how much people asked around. There wasn’t any way to find out any news about her. If it weren’t for the Star Academy never having taken advantage, that news would have been considered fake news. But Star Academy had always been secretive. When you added to that their great reputation the situation would definitely look strange, though no-one doubted the truth of the matter.

At the same time something else was causing a sensation in the Heavenly Federation, that time from the Desert Camp which was another of the six great academies. A pair of offspring from the Su clan of Xing had simultaneously surmounted the most difficult assessment ever established by the Desert Camp. The so-called ‘hellish nightmare’ exam had only been passed by seven students in all history. And all those seven had become distinguished and strong in the history of the Heavenly Federation. That was also the first time that it had happened at the Desert Camp that two students in a single year had passed the ‘hellish nightmare’. And even more importantly, Su Wei and Su Hu were brothers who had grown up together, each as bright as the other, having been called the twin stars, or Gemini. When they acted together, it was more than double the power.

For three such first-rate powerhouses to appear in one year was news that inspired everyone.

* * *

In the Ning family training room.

* * *

“Not bad, you completed it quite well.” It was the first time that Mark Victor had ever expressed satisfaction. The practices that he had prepared for Chen Mu during that time had been extremely harsh, and he hadn’t cared if Chen Mu could finish them or not. There were quite a few times when Chen Mu was so tired that he didn’t even want to move his finger, but he would always grit his teeth and tough it out.

Chen Mu was very clear about one principle; what he was doing then was for himself. It was for him to get his freedom, for him to be able to leave that place, and for him to be able to live a better life.

If he weren’t diligent, or if he didn’t do his utmost, the only one who would suffer in the end would be himself. The training was extremely rough, to the point where he would often feel that Mark Victor seemed to be pushing him to his extreme limits. But no matter how much harder it got, he would always do his utmost to complete the exercise.

Chen Mu wasn’t mistaken in what he thought. Mark Victor really was trying to find out where his limits were. But what Mark Victor hadn’t considered was that every time he seemed to have discovered Chen Mu’s limits, Chen Mu would indomitably crawl back up again. It wasn’t that he didn’t see Chen Mu gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, but he just wanted to see where that young person’s limits actually were. Every time he made a guess, it would be overturned, and then Mark Victor would be stimulated again. He was really stunned, that being the first time he had run into such a tough and tenacious youth.

If it could be said that Mark Victor didn’t know where Chen Mu was going when they started, he was by then already completely certain that the sallow-faced youth would certainly become a famous powerhouse.

The reason he dared to make that kind judgement wasn’t because of Chen Mu’s outstanding physical qualities, or because of his stunning comprehension. It was, rather, his firm and indomitable heart. Every time he was challenged to his limit, and was exhausted to the point of shaking, he would struggle crawling right back up and finish the tough exercises without needing any urging. That was enough to move Mark Victor.

If one wanted to become a powerhouse, one needed to have the heart of a powerhouse. There was no doubt that the youth had that quality.

Mark Victor did everything he could to arrange every one of Chen Mu’s trainings with no slacking off, never holding back a single one of his tricks-of-the-trade as he transmitted them all to Chen Mu.

He was paid back by Chen Mu’s stunning progress.

It really was too amazing! During that time, Chen Mu had broken his own record nearly every day; no matter what kind of training, the scores always shot higher. What he was doing during that time was all basic training. For a close-combat card artisan, basic training was mostly physical training and movements, which were extremely dull and tiring. But Chen Mu never complained, not really liking to talk while he was training, and only opening his mouth when there was something he wasn’t sure about. What surprised Mark Victor was that even with such dull training, Chen Mu threw himself into it with all his concentration. He sometimes even had the illusion that Chen Mu enjoyed the training.

Mark Victor knew how Chen Mu had passed his youth, and about how he had put all of his time every day into making one-star power cards. That kind of work was dull, but he never chose to slack off. On the contrary, he needed to control his feelings to put himself into a state of extreme concentration. Because if he didn’t concentrate enough, the rate of rejects would be high. To reduce the failure rate, he had learned early on how to enter that state of concentration very quickly.

Or to put it a different way, he had become accustomed to boredom early on.

Mark Victor wasn’t fussy about Chen Mu completing his trainings during that time. Apart from his hard working and tenacious spirit, Chen Mu’s physical state was surprisingly good, being able effortlessly to complete very difficult movements. He seemed to be a natural-born close-combat card artisan with outstanding physical conditioning, sharp reflexes, a reserved disposition, and the ability to endure hardship. Mark Victor saw in him all the excellent qualities that a close-combat card artisan would need.

The only thing that he regretted was that Chen Mu didn’t seem to be good at communicating, preferring to immerse himself alone in his bitter training. That wasn’t such a good trait for a card artisan, where the skill of fitting into a team was an important skill to have. At that time, it was also an important technique.

It gave Mark Victor a headache thinking about how to make Chen Mu learn to communicate.

Chen Mu didn’t realize that Mark Victor had been giving himself headaches about his socialization, with his progress being so fast that he even surprised himself. It was the first time he had ever wondered if he might be naturally inclined to be a card artisan. It was a good thing for him that he had found Mark Victor, since although most of what he had been doing was basic training, the tricks-of-the-trade that Mark Victor had transmitted were extremely useful. And the most important thing was that he felt that the power latent in his body had quickly surged after experiencing these dull-seeming trainings. By that time, the speed of his reaction, his physical coordination, and his midair balance were all a lot better than before.

According to what Mark Victor said, basic training was a long-term process, and his current ability was barely enough to pass an exam. Still, Mark Victor’s idea was that since basic training was such a long-term process, it should be practiced slowly.

Starting that day, he started to pass along some concrete skills to Chen Mu.

“Every card artisan chooses a card to specialize in. But there aren’t many types for a close-combat card artisan. In practical terms, most close-combat card artisans have a hard time being picky about fine works that are hard to get.” He took a look at Chen Mu, and then continued, “Naturally, for you that wouldn’t be a problem. But you should still choose some kind of card to direct your specialization.”

Chen Mu understood what Mark Victor was saying.

From the lowest to the highest, there were a lot of cards. And a card artisan might use quite a few throughout his lifetime. For example, in the category of wavy-blade cards there were quite a few types, while they all had roughly similar features. A card master’s power was always increasing, and as his power increased it becomes easier to adapt to a higher-level card. So, the good thing about choosing a card type to specialize in was that one could more easily adapt to a new card when the time came.

Theoretically, so long as one had enough power, a low-level card could still release the same large amounts of power. But the higher the level of the card, the more outstanding its capabilities would get.

What category would the bipolar thunderball card fall into? Chen Mu felt a little awkward.

“I won’t waste words on this issue. Since you’re a card master, you must have a lot of good cards. Let me demonstrate my fighting style.” Mark Victor spoke very blandly, while still showing unquestionable self-confidence.

Without Chen Mu having seen how he activated his apparatus, it lit up on his left wrist.

My card is called the ‘twisted spinning thorns.’ Once he had spoken, light-gold thorny energy vines as thick as an arm appeared all around his body. These energy brambles looked like a large python surrounding Mark Victor’s body, circling up layer upon layer, protecting Mark Victor inside. On the surface of the light-gold energy thorns were a number of irregular lightning-like branches, at the tip of which were many sharp points.

Chen Mu was examining Mark Victor’s twisted spinning thorns with a lot of curiosity, that being the first time he had seen a card like it. That energy creeper winding around Mark Victor looked remarkably like a python. It’s “head” was shaped like a spear, and the highly compressed energy was nearly all to the point of being a physical embodiment, as clear as a crystal, with the edge of the knife displaying a terrifying glow. The coiling “snake body” then formed into a spring-like form, slowly spinning, and giving the feeling that it was rhythmically extending and contracting.