The Card Apprentice

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

Taking just an evening, Copper produced the production plan. He spent a whole morning introducing it to Chen Mu, and then went out the door to the low-grade fantasy card club. When Chen Mu asked if he wanted him to come along, Copper directly gave him a blank look.

Being alone in the house, Chen Mu began his daily training, and finished it all without any urgency; from the exercise gymnastics to the perceptual training.

As compared to perception whose improvements didn't manifest themselves, doing the gymnastic exercises made his body look better and better. While there wasn't any increase to his muscle mass, the toughening of his sinews built up a lot of power, and his excellent flexibility made his moves nimbler.

Perception made his six senses still more keen, so no slightest stirring or movement of air could escape his perception. But what Chen Mu felt had developed the most wasn't those things, but rather his ability to withstand pain, since there was no relief from pain while he was training his perception. It could be said that he passed every day in an abyss of water and burning fire.

Being able to see himself get stronger little by little, even though full of pain, he had to grit his teeth and bear it.

His childhood experience made him realize the difficulty of survival, and the importance of strength. What was a little pain compared to those things?

* * *

"Young Master!" The household manager stood very respectfully in front of Zuo Tingyi. He had already been serving the Zuo household for thirty years altogether, and while Zuo Tingyi was extremely polite with him, he always remembered never to overstep his position as household manager regardless.

Zuo Tingyi took his eyes off his book, and seeing that it was the household manager, betrayed an inquiring look.

"There have been some results in the matter of that thorough investigation you asked for last time." The household manager chose his words carefully.

"Oh." Zuo Tingyi put down the book from his hands, and now showing a look of interest, asked, "Do tell."

Taking a look at Zuo Tingyi without moving his head, the household manger said carefully, "We haven't found out who they are, as it's been a long time since they've shown their faces at any of the shops. According to what those shopkeepers said, it was evident that the one selling the card play was being very careful, and showed up with a different look every time. They don't remember so well what he looked like.

"How could that be?" Zuo Tingyi frowned, "Their card play is still on sale."

"We've already confirmed that while their card play is still being sold, they had long ago switched to selling the card play on consignment." The household manager explained.

"Consignment?" Zuo Tingyi murmured, "Why is this guy being so careful?"

It was very unusual for such an ace to make a card play on his own. Was he short of money? How could he be short of money with those kinds of skills? And how much money could you make selling card plays?

"I've made sure that we've received all of the card plays that they've put on sale, and we discovered that starting with the third installment of "The Legend of Master Shi," there is a sharp difference from what came before. All of the cracked copies of "The Legend of Master Shi" have only the content from the third installment on." The household manager methodically reported, "We did an assessment of the market value of "The Legend of Master Shi," and find that it is an investment-grade project. Are you thinking of investing in it, young master?"

"Invest?" Zuo Tingyi shook his head, "No. Keep up the investigation until you find out who is the author of this card play, and everything about him; the more detail the better."

"Yes, sir!" Although the housemaster was still a little uncertain, he would still loyally carry out Zuo Tingyi's orders.

Zuo Tingyi remained lost in thought after the household manager left.

* * *

Two Star Academy students were just then in in the outer reaches, maybe seven hundred kilometers away from Eastern Shang-Wei City. The beasts all around were more and more fierce, and they had to be very careful.

In the impenetrable jungle overgrown with vines, where the air was saturated with humidity, the two of them were on guard, since you could die very quickly if you didn't stay alert in that kind of place. Both of their scores on the 'sneaking through the jungle' curriculum were extremely high, and they possessed sufficient self-confidence.

The two of them were experienced aces, perfectly synchronized in their looking out for one another.

Suddenly, the two of them shared a look, and the vigilance in their eyes deepened. Their footsteps lightened, and the apparatuses on their wrists were in an active state, ready to launch an assault at will.

A few minutes later, two blood curdling mournful screams roused up all the birds in the jungle.

* * *

Chen Mu was leaning over the desk to read Copper's planning book, which he finished after a half hour of careful reading. This planning book had already been checked over by Pei Hang, which is to say that starting now, Copper was already the head producer for the event.

"This is difficult!" Chen Mu was muttering to himself, as he gave his response.

"How about it, can you handle it?" Copper looked at Chen Mu a little nervously since the demands on a card master in his plan were extremely high. It was because of his belief in Chen Mu that he had proposed such a plan. If Chen Mu felt that it was unachievable, then the plan would be declared a failure.

"There shouldn't be any problem!" Chen Mu said after thinking about it. He knew how important the opportunity was for Copper. Provided that his plan could be pulled off successfully, then he could use the results of that success for a lot of benefit later. The Victoria Group wasn't an ordinary firm. The insignia of the Pei household was nearly equal to that of the Zuo family in Eastern Shang-Wei City. If he could successfully pull off such an important event, he would become the most burning-hot producer in all of Eastern Shang-Wei City in a single leap.

Chen Mu had always considered Copper to be extremely talented, wanting only an opportunity. With such an opportunity now in front of him, how could he not help with all his strength?

Having the experience of making two card plays, they were already well familiar with working together. The two of them immediately entered detailed discussions, where Chen Mu might raise his own doubts, and Copper would give an explanation, or revise the plan.

* * *

Wang Ze was looking at the two corpses in front of him with an ashen face. They had been found in the outer reaches. All of the Star Academy students had mournful faces for the two students who had been together with them two days earlier to have died so suddenly in the outer reaches. Their two faces still had the look of terror on them, as though they had seen something horrifying as they were facing death.

The whole room was shrouded in a mournful atmosphere. Having still not returned three days after having been sent out, they had a bad premonition and they all went searching. They hadn't imagined that they would find the two peoples' corpses in the end.

Wang Ze and the others did a brief examination, and apart from discovering two tiny holes, they saw no other wounds. It looked as though they must have been poisoned, although Wang Ze and the others had no way to make an accurate conjecture.

"What will we do?" A student next to Wang Ze asked in a low voice. Although they were both outstanding, they were still basically students, and they would inevitably be unprepared for running into life and death problems.

Wang Ze gritted his teeth and said, "Send them back to the school immediately, and ask for reinforcements. Tell outsiders that they have returned to the school. We definitely have to keep this matter secret, since it would make a lot of trouble if it were to leak out."

Those few people all looked at each other, and then nodded one by one to signal that they'd understood. They were certainly in the middle of carrying out responsibilities and were not on vacation.