The Card Apprentice

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

If one wanted to learn about fantasy card advertising, the best place to go was the most bustling commercial street of Eastern Shang-Wei City - Golden Street.

Golden Street was one of Eastern Shang-Wei City's most ancient streets. It already existed before Eastern Shang-Wei City was established, and by then it had also become the commercial center for the whole city. Among the forest of buildings along Golden Street, people flowed like the shuttles of looms, and practically all of the top business establishments had one of their stores there. If one were wanting to inspect fantasy cards, that would be the perfect place to be.

All the stores there, even the small ones, had fantasy card billboards. Especially at night, the beautiful radiance from the fantasy card billboards made it seem like being in a childhood fairy-tale world. Whether locals or tourists from elsewhere, everyone really liked the night scene on Golden Street.

Still, after thinking carefully about it, Chen Mu was stunned to realize that it was apparently his first time coming to Golden Street.

One of the local signs along Golden Street prohibited vagrants and beggars from entering. Later, when Chen Mu became enthralled by the study of cards, spending time strolling along the street never made it into his schedule.

So many people!

That was his first feeling on entering Golden Street. A tide of people surged, and one had to be careful walking or else it would be easy to bump into someone. He wasn't so used to that.

Anyhow, he quickly turned his attention to the fantasy card billboards all around.

Ample breasts, narrow waists, big butts, clear eyes, white teeth and red lips, words of lust hanging, a seductive look. What made Chen Mu a little puzzled was that he didn't expect most of the billboards that he saw to show illusions of beautiful women. Those beautiful women were either standing up straight, or bending over in a come-on posture, or had a partly concealed cleavage going along with an enticing look. Truly provocative.

Whether it was intentional or not, he even saw that quite a few pedestrians would pass their hands through the illusion of the beautiful woman's breasts when they walked by them.

Chen Mu was dumbfounded. Could it be that this was what was then popular?

Continuing to walk ahead, when he came across those advertisements with illusions of beautiful women, as soon as he saw them, Chen Mu passed by. But he quickly discovered that the larger the establishment, the more high-quality the fantasy card advertisements were, with more creativity going into them.

Like the fantasy card advertisement he was looking at just then. The illusion that it emitted was extremely big, and two stories tall.

Chen Mu stood dumbly at the door of that store, and completely forgot himself while looking up and not being able to take his eyes off the illusion emitted by the billboard.

* * *

As the city's night-sky descended, the lights on the many tall buildings were splendid.

A man dressed in black and having a very serious and stern look, stood on the topmost part of a tall building, gazing coldly ahead.

In a secluded corner of the murky streets, a blind gentleman raised his head as if to observe, his vacant eyes pointing straight into the ends of the heavens where nothing existed.

The houses were dappled with moonlight. A woman wearing skintight brown leather clothes was gently wiping clean the card in her hand, when she suddenly lifted her head.

One after the other, whether mature or young and tender, beautiful or ugly, faces flashed into being.

And at that moment music abruptly intensified. Looking down from the sky, ribbon after ribbon of shadow leapt unceasingly between the buildings. The agility of those people, was nimble in the extreme, and not one of them was without a grave and dignified look on their face. The intensive drumming fading-in at that moment made people's hearts suddenly tighten still more.

There were more and more people, all of them running like the wind in the same direction.

Hong!

The roar of beast that Chen Mu had never heard before. A simple whistle. Sound quaked to the four corners. A roar as though responding to that sound. A heaven-shattering beastly squeal, equally huge, hit one in the face, assaulting the senses.

From outside the city, wild animals from all over the fields came charging in frantically like a tsunami.

Those people running at their limit ran even faster.

Finally, the two sides crashed together!

A blazing fiery dragon, a cold clear moon-shaped rippled blade, a glittering meteor shower . . .

One after the other, they appeared in this space, colorful light and darkness, complicated and indistinct, dazzling peoples' eyes. Intense collisions, countless rays of light surging, shattering stars, lighting up the night. Fighting so fierce that it nearly took one's breath away.

Men in black everywhere, a blazing fiery dragon circling around, dancing in the wind. Whenever it took a battle posture - ready for a mighty dive, sometimes distracted by the sounds of the explosions - it would have the look of a war god.

And the woman dressed in skintight brown leather clothes quickly and nimbly dodged the wild animals' attacks. At the same time, with both hands, unceasingly slashing with the steely-blue moon-shaped shaped rippled blade, every strike hitting its mark, the elegance of her grip incomparable.

The blind man was upright with a bamboo cane, shuttling back and forth like a ghost through the herd of beasts. Every time the bamboo cane lightly tapped on the ground, several hundred floating points of light would appear behind him. When the cane lightly tapped again, those lights would fly off whistling in some certain direction. Penetrating the wild animals, leaving long trails in the night sky like a meteor shower.

* * *

There was no doubt that mankind would prevail by the end of the battle. The last close-up was of the cards in the apparatuses in these heroes' hands. Then that store's logo - a pair of hoops.

It was really too captivating and dazzling!

Chen Mu couldn't help his mind being full of accolades. He could tell that the billboard wasn't very high-grade, and had only two-stars. But its content was rich, and the characters and constructions were all extremely life-like. What really drew the accolades were the visuals in the special effects and the extreme intensity of the clashing forces.

It was a successful billboard; it really drew you in.

Chen Mu could guess that a billboard like that would be very expensive. Although it wasn't a very high-grade fantasy card billboard, the degree of difficulty in making it was quite high. Its content was rich, and a one or two-star fantasy card certainly couldn't hold that much content. It must have included at least five fantasy cards, but their fusion took off seamlessly. If he weren't a card master, it would be hard to tell.

That place certainly brought out the capable people! Not everyone could make a two-star fantasy card which could reach those heights, or at least Chen Mu knew that he was a long way off himself. So, his visit would be considered a learning experience.

* * *

The Two Hoop salesgirl was baffled. The one standing by the door seemed to be watching the billboard, although he had been standing at the doorway for half an hour. The billboard had been made two years earlier at great expense. At the time of its release it caused a sensation in all of Eastern Shang-Wei City, and her heart was still full of pride. Every day the doorway had been surrounded by layer upon layer of people, all there to see the advertisement. From that year, the store's business volume began to increase at an astonishing rate.

But without paying attention to still better advertisements, once it had been out for two years, people started to lose interest in it. The people coming to see it gradually grew fewer and fewer, until there weren't likely to be any by then. The people on top had originally planned to swap it out, but by that year the card-master who had made it had already died. They also looked for some other famous card-masters, but their results didn't come close to his. So, they never changed it. What made the young lady so proud was that there was surprisingly still someone interested in the billboard. A rare animal!

After a while, that strange youth was still blankly watching the billboard. The salesgirl felt that if someone stood there as long as he did it would have an effect on business, and she intended to take the initiative.

"Hello, may I ask what it is you would like to buy?"

Chen Mu came back to his senses and shook his head. "I don't need anything." He understood the salesgirl's meaning and turned around and left without saying anything.