The Card Apprentice

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

The monochromatic energy beads floated around steadily, like the sands in a river of

stars, moving along with the ebb and flow of the waters. It was like the black and white

pieces on the Go chess board, silently shifting their arrangement.

Chen Mu shut his eyes once again. The breathtaking battle between Wei-ah and the

Bronze Masked Man just now has affected his state of mind. The scenery in his eyes

regained its color. This was bad news to him. Keeping his eyes shut wasn't a

compulsory condition to enter into State Zero. But for a beginner like Chen Mu, this

helped him to enter the condition faster by reducing the distractions of his environment

on him.

Caesar, however, could not only keep his eyes open, but could enter State Zero in the

quickest time no matter when and how terrible the environment is.

The monochromatic world became clear once again. A clear perception re-emerged

from the bottom of his heart.

Seven of the remaining eighteen guards has returned to normal. In just an instant, the

position of these seven people were marked clearly in his heart. Naturally, his strong

intuition has reappeared.

Three of the seven alerted him the most! This time, Chen Mu trusted in his State Zero

intuition without a doubt.

His body suddenly shifted left, his right foot tapped on the ground. In a blur, he

disappeared and re-emerged five meters to his left. The card artisans felt a blur of vision

when their opponent disappeared.

"Be careful!"

"Look out!"

The card artisans who regained their consciousness lets out shouts of warning one after

another.

Without using a jet stream card, Chen Mu's perception only needed to maintain his

State Zero and control Bipolar. This greatly increased his control on Bipolar. Usually,

any adept card artisan could control two cards at a time, a jet stream card, along with a

battle or power shield card. This was the main fighting style adapted by most card

artisans.

And some top card artisans could even handle three cards at once. For example, Tang

Hanpei, Jiao Si, Caesar, and the Bronze Masked man before him could do this. This

meant that their control on perception has reached a terrifying state. But in an actual

fight, rarely anyone uses three cards at the same time. The more cards in control, the

weaker the power of each individual card. If they can't defeat someone with a card they

are good at, adding another card won't help much anyway.

Without using Big Mud Fish, Chen Mu's control on Bipolar increased dramatically!

He appeared beside a melee card artisan like a ghost, his right palm chopped at his

opponent's neck without a sound. The card artisans around them reacted quickly as

well, the nearest let out a loud cry, and a tuft of white energy threads popped out of his

hands.

The snow white threads of energy as thin as hair zipped quicked toward Chen Mu!

This card artisan's eyes were wide open with anger while controlling the thin threads!

This was his card — Coil. Coil did not have much raw power, its destructive power was

pitiful, even. But as a four-star card, it has its unique points.

Coil releases countless white threads, every of them sturdy as steel. Once they capture

an enemy, any struggle is futile. Even if it couldn't capture the enemy, the tiny threads

could limit the enemy's movement severely, creating opportunities for allies. In fact, he

became one of the Lady's guards because of Coil's unique characteristic.

When he saw Chen Mu's hand almost chopping at the neck of the card artisan in front

of him, the tuft of white threads immediately exploded and spread out into a giant web,

capturing Chen Mu and the other card artisan.

Got him!

All of the card artisans were overjoyed. They were confident in their comrade's white

threads. The hairlike thin white threads are not to be looked down, as each strand could

hold up to 200 kilograms of weight. Swiftly, all of the melee card artisans made their

move, surrounding Chen Mu almost the same time.

But Coil's controller's expression change quickly, color was drained completely from his

face!

In his web, there was only one person — his comrade!

He looked up and saw his comrades around him, about to attack the web, a buzz rang

in his head, and blood rushed into his brain! He opened his mouth to shout and warn

them, "Be care…"

But before he could finish, a bright light surrounded them instantaneously!

"Go Cage of Thousand Cuts!"

Uncountable rays of light appeared without a sign around them. These rays of light,

without exception, has a white energy bead on one end, and a black energy bead on

another. The tightly packed light beams intersect like a web, completely surrounding the

melee card artisans.

The energy bodies that were just activated made the card artisans turned pale

immediately! The thin and straight beams of light of different lengths were criss-crossed

all over the place. Even under the lights they seemed blindingly bright! The newly

activated battle energy bodies stopped them from activating their power shield cards!

The area surrounded by the web of light rays brightened in an instant, and immediately

dissapeared!

The card artisans stood still like trees, maintaining their positions just now. Their

expression was frozen, full of fright and fear…

Puff!

A pillar of blood spurted out from a card artisan's shoulder.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle!

As if accurately coordinated, all the card artisans within that area were like punctured

balloons, a dozen streams of blood shot out from their bodies at the same time. Time

seemed to have stopped at this moment. A dozen eyes witness the blood spurting to

the air, dying it red.

They were shocked silly! They have went through countless battles, but never have they

seen such a bloody and horrible spectacle! A deep chill ran through their spines. At that

moment, their entire bodies were frozen, not heeding to their commands! Still in shock,

the Lady looked at the bloody mist in the air. And when she looked back down at the

card artisans, there was already a river of blood flowing beneath them.

And Chen Mu suddenly appeared behind that area.

When he was about to chop at that card artisan, all his strength was actually focused on

his legs!

His intentions were to attract just one or two card artisans, creating a hole in the

enemy's formation. But being in State Zero, he was stronger than usual. When he

realized the card artisan behind him activating the white threads, six other card artisans

were moving as well. So, he made some adjustments during his execution.

When the white threads shot out in an explosion, Chen Mu was long ready. He used the

energy stored in his two legs, evaded the web and arrived behind the card artisans.

Then, he activated the Go Cage of Thousand Cuts, creating this horrific result.

Under the mask, the Bronze Masked Man twitched a little.

He could not imagine Qiao Yuan's improvement to be this quick, as if he became a

different person! It was the same Go Cage of Thousand Cuts, but Qiao Yuan's

application was much stronger than last time. In just a short moment of battle, the

combat intuition Qiao Yuan displayed shocked even him!

A cardless sect fighter that equaled his own strength, along with the strengthened Qiao

Yuan, this will be a long night…

With the corner of his eyes, he took a glance at the card artisans. In the blink of an eye,

half of the twenty fell. The damage on the morale of the remaining ones could only be

described as destructive. He noticed the paleness of their faces, and the fear in their

eyes.

This was the first time he felt uneasy.

This can't go on, I have to finish this quickly!

When the Bronze Masked Man wanted to fight with all his strength, Wei-ah

unexpectedly made the first move!

If State Zero Chen Mu is an artificial intuition, Wei-ah's intuition is like a wild beast's

instinct, a terrifying instinct! Chen Mu understood deeply about this.

When the Bronze Masked Man affirmed his determination, Wei-ah noticed it!

And he made his move!

The two kept each other at bay. While Wei-ah dished out his air bombs out unceasingly,

the Bronze Masked Man's snowflakes kept on increasing.

Wei-ah suddenly froze his body mid air, his eyes locked onto the Bronze Masked Man

nonchalantly.

The right fist that he pulled back to his chest turned into a lighting quick blow aimed at

the Bronze Masked Man!

The high speed movement of his arm created a turbulent airflow. If one were to see this

in slow motion, they could see the air in front of Wei-ah's fist taking shape, an air bomb

was about to be launched!

However, before it could be sent out, Wei-ah punched at the same spot the second

time!

This time, his fist was even quicker. The surrounding air gathered in front of his fist by

the pull of the fist's insane speed. A second air bomb! This second air bomb pressed

against the first one under Wei-ah's second fist's immense pressure!

Before his fist's afterimage could disappear, he threw a third fist!

It was quicker than the first two!

Bang! The third air bomb was forced between the first two air bombs, a sound like the

crisp crash of a power shield was generated!

The Bronze Masked Man finally revealed his fear in his eyes.

He did not have time for other things, he immediately invoked his jet stream card. At the

same time, his five fingers were locked into a fist.

Ding! The bell rang again! He could feel his state of mind change. The ring this time was

not as clear and unhurried, but extremely hasty!

The Snowflakes flying all around the sky disappeared, and a rhombic crystal power

shield appeared before him. Encase in the middle of the shield was a snow white peach

flower.

Thunk!

The deep thunk that sounded like a thunder made everyone feel like throwing up. Chen

Mu was going to launch his attack, but he was shaken as well. So, he gathered his

perception by force! The Go Cage of Thousand Cuts he launched just now has spent a

huge amount of his perception. He did not have much left, so he must use them

carefully!

An expression of torment flashed in the Lady's eyes. This loud noise must have hurt her

severely, being a non-combatant.

She supported herself by the wall weakly, her back bent, her body shivering.

In a battle between two extremely powerful fighters, even their aftershocks could be

deadly to a normal person.

The transparent power shield was immediately blown into smithereens, returning to its

former state of Snowflakes, floating in the air. The Bronze Masked Man was pushed a

few steps back. His eyes showed his agony. The Snowflakes continued to dance in the

air, but they no longer seemed dangerous, but rather quite powerless. Wei-ah's blow

has shattered all the thin perception links between them!

The Bronze Masked Man could regain control of them, but it would take some time.

How could Wei-ah, who has finally regained control of the fight's tempo, allow him this

luxury?