The Card Apprentice

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

That young person was a worker for the explosively popular Elemental Fantasy Platform. He had been specifically sent to Pomelo. The middle-aged man beside him was the general manager of the Zheng De Trading House.

The Elemental Fantasy Platform had some connection with Chen Mu, in fact. Its founder was none other than the low-grade fantasy card club where Chen Mu had been while in Eastern Shang-Wei City. As the inventor of the card receiver, the low-grade fantasy card club had the opportunity to establish the first platform. It was the largest platform in the federation, apart from the federation government's official platform. By that time, the low-grade fantasy card club's influence had shot up many levels from former times.

Bai Zheyuan, the person at the helm, evidently had awesome moves!

The rapid rise of the Elemental Fantasy Platform made competitors sigh for their hopes, and even the Heavenly Federation government's official platform was feeling a lot of pressure. The Elemental Fantasy Platform had always been able to capture the topics of conversation people were most interested in. Their first report was when the Gemini Twins challenged Moon Frost Island to a battle, and nobody had ever been able to break through the frenzied surge that was triggered among the viewers.

How could they let the wildly popular numbered series of cards slip by? They thought up every possible means and used every trick before finally finding a way in. They used the rights to three years of advertising to swap for the Zheng De Trading House's assistance, and they were going to cover the entire affair.

Before long, the seating in the hall was full. The Elemental Fantasy Platform staff member was highly professional and knew what people wanted to see; he kept adjusting the device in his hands, always aiming at the VIPs, like Zu Ning, Jie Yanbai, and so forth.

For ordinary people, the five flourishing districts and the capital were mysterious and something people yearned for. It was said that any town in the five flourishing districts was more prosperous and well-developed than the commercial centers in the ordinary residential districts. They had the most powerful card artisans, the most powerful card masters, the most precious materials, and the most beautiful women…

Of course, that was only how the story went.

The cost of living in the five flourishing districts was so high the citizens of the ordinary residential districts couldn't bear it for sure. People would spend their life's savings just for a single vacation there. But, apart from a few special places, such as the group of temples affiliated with the Bitter Solitude Temple, most of the tourist districts of the five flourishing districts were on their outskirts. Most places within the five flourishing districts required a transit visa, as well as a residential permit. Quite a few people had the lifelong dream of getting one of those transit visas.

Even though Zu Ning and Jie Yanbai were rather well-known in the five flourishing districts, in the eyes of the people of the ordinary residential districts—who were all very interested in them—they loomed as powerful idols.

So, that staff person was familiar with all that sort of talk, though his lense didn't only linger on Zu Ning and Jie Yanbai. He kept cutting over to all the VIPs. The influence of Faya was unfathomable.

Each of the Big Six had sent someone that time, which made a lineup that was quite rare. Watching all the VIPs, the staffer was really excited to be able to personally experience such a huge scene. It was worth dying for!

The auctioneer was right on schedule.

His formal tails, personable style, mild and slightly smiling face, together with his overall cultivated manner and husky, sexy voice, really made it impossible for the people not to have good feelings toward him.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Representing our capable host, Mr. Yang An, I would now like to extend our sincere gratitude to each of you. Ha ha, we appreciate you waiting for so long, but I don't think I need to say anything more about the theme for the evening. As the second auction of the numbered series of cards, we will auction Cards 012 through 022 this time.

"Apart from that, I will reiterate the rules for this auction. This auction will be conducted according to the exchange value of materials for cards, and each bid will need to report the name, appearance, and quantity of the materials. The different exchange values of the different materials will be converted into an overall value to find the highest overall value. If there is a situation where the equivalence of two bidders of materials is hard to determine, the card master affiliated with the hall will appear to determine the final requirements according to the demands of each of them."

That last phrase jolted the spirits of those down below. The card master who had made the numbered series of cards had always been a mystery. Those who protected the confidentiality of the auction house did their work rigorously, and there hadn't been even the hint of any rumors getting out until then.

The numbered series of cards had made people's eyes turn red as never before, and for Madam Zhi Lian to personally bid sky-high for Card 007 spread that card master's fame to the extreme. That also led to a few situations where people didn't know whether to laugh or cry, such as during the appearance on the market of a large quantity of fake numbered series cards, or every day someone incessantly calling himself the one who'd made the numbered series of cards.

No matter how much fame and noise there was, that card master never appeared. His identity was one of the hottest topics of discussion on the platforms.

People gave Chen Mu all sorts of nicknames, such as the numbered card master. Some simply called him the mysterious card master. Among the nicknames, the mysterious card master seemed to be the most widely accepted.

In the polling done by the Elemental Fantasy Platform to ask what everyone's strongest impression of the card master of the numbered series of cards was, "powerful" and "mysterious" were the two items that accounted for 75 percent of the results.

"Powerful" and "mysterious" were both undoubtedly distinctive. Not only was he himself unusually mysterious, the numbered series of cards was just as much so.

Apart from 007, quite a few people could smoothly recite from memory the performance parameters of the other ten cards among the 11 that had appeared by then. Among those 11 cards, however, only two of them had results everyone had seen. One was 007, with the incredible number of images of Jiao Si's demonstration nearly flattening the record number of images set by the Gemini Twins' challenge of Moon Frost Island.

The other card, which was 010, was won at auction by the commander of a troop of card artisans. While showing off the card when he was drunk, it was secretly shot by an enterprising person. It was then sold to one of the platforms, where it was widely reproduced.

No one knew who had won any of the other cards, and those who did get them all regarded them as treasures. So, even though the topic of conversation about the numbered series of cards was hot, the actual cards remained mysterious. That was also why the nickname of mysterious card master was so universally recognized.

But, no matter what people called him, it all still demonstrated their curiosity and adoration of him. So, when they found out they might see that mysterious card master, there was a lot of commotion among those below for the first time. Quite a few of them looked excited.

The auctioneer astutely noticed the mood of the crowd below and smiled lightly as he continued on to say, "This being our first time to try this kind of auction, please forgive our any oversight. Just to add some clarification, I myself have 25 years in the materials trading industry, and I am specifically certified as a master of high-grade materials. If any of our friends have objections to the subsequent valuations, they may raise them on the spot, and I will explain the valuation in detail. Thank you."

The auctioneer bowed to the audience with his hand inclined behind him. He said in a bright voice, "We are about to see these 11 cards!"

At the same time, there suddenly arose behind him 11 square columns, on each of which was placed an open, natural silk velvet black box. One of the cards was placed in a bracket on the velvet in each box, facing the audience. Eleven fine, bright beams of light then suddenly shot from the ceiling, each of which illuminated one of the card boxes.

Under the lights, the natural silk velvet was suffused with an exquisite, shiny black sheen, and the complex patterns on the cards' surfaces were as bewitching as works of art. There was a series number below each card to show its identity.

There then appeared the second bout of commotion since the auction opened.

* * *

Chen Mu was sitting in his room when a loud ding-dong came from outside.

After he had gotten the money from the fatty, Bogner impatiently urged Chen Mu to find a new place to live. So, Chen Mu had taken Bogner shopping around Pomelo for two days until they finally found a pretty good private manor in the eastern part of the city. The manor occupied an extremely large plot, which was fully 1.5 square kilometers.

The large battle that had occurred in Pomelo some time before had made the owner of the manor feel it was no longer suitable to live in, and he was getting ready to move to a different city. Seeing that Chen Mu might want it, he directly made a deal for 70 million Oudi.

That was still a low price. After all, to be able to have such a large manor in Pomelo had already become pitifully unlikely. Being at the edge of the city, it was surrounded by woods. That made transportation a little inconvenient, which could have been why the manor was so cheap. In the middle of the city, never mind a manor; 70 million wouldn't even buy an ordinary seven- or eight-story building.

Moreover, the facilities in the manor were rather complete, such as the training ground Bogner had been so concerned about. Because the son of the person who had lived there was a card artisan, not only were the training facilities complete, but they were utterly advanced, which also rather pleased Bogner.

The manor bordered the Outer Reaches, and to prevent the wild beasts from attacking, its defensive facilities were done pretty well. That point could be seen by the fact that Bogner didn't just tear it all down.

Chen Mu and Wei-ah moved over immediately, while Heaven's Wings remained where it had been. Chen Mu simply turned all its affairs over to Bu Qiangdong, who had long since demonstrated his ability by his practical actions.

The first thing Bogner did when he brought everyone in was ask Chen Mu for money. In his eyes, the existing protection could only be considered barely adequate, and he needed to carry out transformations to the entire manor. Chen Mu readily turned over the rest of the money to him.

In the blink of an eye, the manor was entirely unrecognizable.

The beautiful gardens were rudely swept empty, although the grass was kept. But the height of the turf couldn't exceed 15 centimeters. Never mind hiding someone; at that height, even rabbits couldn't hide. Chen Mu had seen with his own eyes how carefully they placed all kinds of small card appliances, which were about the size of pigeon eggs, in the underbrush. They basically couldn't be detected, and some of them were even half-buried in the dirt.

Within half an hour, the unobstructed lawn was transformed to where danger lurked all around. Not only that, the original grove surrounding the manor was flattened with a violent explosion that totally fried it. The trees within a range of one kilometer around the manor were all destroyed. Bogner didn't even leave their roots alone; not only did he dig them all out, but he leveled the ground and planted more turf.

Of course, how could there not be something placed in it, given Bogner's style?

Bogner then pulled out a building plan to seek Chen Mu's opinion. Chen Mu immediately signaled that Bogner was fully in charge.

So, 20 minutes later, Bogner brought in a large gang of workers to the manor to carry out some large-scale construction! Chen Mu had heard their signal to start working. Those workers weren't any ordinary people; they were exclusively card artisans. What they were good at wasn't battle, but rather construction.

Watching them work, Chen Mu saw quite a few novel scenes.

The energy body emitted by the card one guy was using could precisely blow out all kinds of shapes in the ground. Square, perfectly round, triangular… Chen Mu even saw him blowing out a hole one meter deep and in the shape of a five-point star. Its bottom was flat and its walls shiny. Apart from that, he also doubled as a hole driller.

Another one specialized in cutting. He could cut out whatever shape Bogner needed from any material, whether it was alloy or rock. What really expanded Chen Mu's horizons was that he actually had ten different models of cards. Apparently, different materials required different energy bodies emitted from different cards before they could achieve the best results.

The job of another one was to weld several alloys together. He was carrying the most things with him, some of which were powders and some liquids, all stored in numbered reagent tubes. He would first cleanse the area to be joined. He then prepared the reagents and powders he'd brought with him and used his own card to heat the places to be joined to a high temperature. The parts could be seen melting together at a speed visible to the naked eye, with the high heat emitted beyond compare. It was said that after such a process, the joined places outperformed the rest of the piece.

Even more of them specialized in manipulating all sorts of specialized card appliances.

Chen Mu was actually in the middle of a full-swing construction site. Although the door was closed, he still could feel the earth shaking.

But his attention was completely focused on the receiving device the fatty had sent over. He could see the entire auction hall and the entire process with his own eyes, and he would determine the final results of the exchanges.

The auction of 012 didn't make any big waves and earned a nice batch of materials.

However, the action of 013 went straight to the climax, and the somewhat impatient crowd burst forth with all its passion. Everyone understood that the among the second batch of the numbered series of cards, 013 was doubtlessly the most valuable and powerful card.

The scene that followed left Chen Mu staring with his mouth wide open.