The Card Apprentice

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

It happened to be the same grade seven card artisans, however, there was an apparent gap between the Big Six and the non-Big Six.

This was the first time Chen Mu saw the six grade seven card artisans. The grade seven card artisans of Big Six were portrayed like knights with sophisticated equipment, however, the six grade seven card artisans in front him on the other hand, appeared to be like the bandits with just simple weapons. The sign of systematic training could be markedly seen from the behavior of the grade seven card artisan of Big Six. It gave people an impression of a regular army when the six card artisans of Big Six stood together. Although the murderous aura of the six card artisans of grade seven in front of Chen Mu was no less adept, they gave him an impression of a gang of bandits from the mountain.

Six pair of eyes were staring at Chen Mu the moment he stepped into the hall, it was as if he was being stared at by six wolves.

However, such level of danger was just a piece of cake for him.

"Have a seat." Chen Mu made a gesture and took the lead to sit down.

The six card artisans did not make any move but stood still with wary eyes. Their vigilance was not at all covered, not only was it aimed at Chen Mu but also at other card artisans beside them.

"You guys want to confer with me, so who will start first?" asked Chen Mu without a preamble.

The expression of surprise appeared on the faces of the six card artisans, as none of them had expected Chen Mu to be so frank and straightforward.

After a while, a blue-eyed card artisan started with a question, "White Commander, we would like to know if you really are the master of the numbered series of cards?"

"I've never said such words." Chen Mu shook his head and said.

One of the card artisans was shocked to his heart, as he realized that the White Commander was an impossible man. The words said by Chen Mu was incredibly skillful, he neither admitted nor denied the sentence. After all, it was a rumor regarding the White Commander was the master of the numerical series cards. The White Commander had never made any disclaim on this issue. Therefore nobody could say that he was wrong in his words.

"White Commander," this time it was a senior card artisan who opened his mouth. He stood up higher and asked with great respect, "What would be the price I have to pay if I need to get a numbered series of card that suits me?"

The question asked by this card artisan was pretty smart. He avoided the question of whether the White Commander was the master of the numerical series cards, he also made it clear that he had no care about that matter. He is just concerned about whether he could get a card that suits him.

"The employment period is three years, you can either choose to take the position of team leader or be my guard," Chen Mu answered him directly.

It was such a loss that Xiaobo wasn't here to witness this, as he would be sick to his stomach! Previously he was exploited mercilessly by Xi Ping when he signed the contract, experiencing a terrible employment period. Nonetheless, his ability back then was far from these grade seven card artisans.

The six card artisans instantly considered in their heart if this was a good deal.

"The card must be a five-star!" blurted one female card artisan who was staring at Chen Mu.

Chen Mu shook his head and said, "Currently there are only four-star numbered series of cards. If you wish to have a five-star card, you can only go for the other cards."

The female card artisan slightly hesitated, as the level of the four-star card was a bit low for them as their perception has already reached grade seven. Nevertheless, they also knew that the four-star cards of the numbered series cards were not any worse compared to the ordinary five-star cards. Five-star cards were not rare for them, but they were obsessed with finding the five-star cards that suited them.

It was difficult for the card artisans without much influences to find a suitable five-star card for themselves. So this was the purpose of their visit.

Their ability alone was insufficient for them to have a grandmaster custom make a card for them. No matter how good was the five-star card, if it was not suitable, it might not even be half as good as a three-star card that was ideal for them. This was why they needed the White Commander so badly.

The price of three years of employment was not too high, it was still within their acceptable range comparing to the time every one of them spent on finding a suitable card for themselves.

"I agree." The first to accept was a card artisan who did not make a sound at all during the discussion. His aquiline nose and sunken eyes gave people a feeling of sinister and ruthlessness.

The rest of the card artisans thought for a while and gave their consent right away. All of them chose to be Chen Mu's guard but not holding any specific position. This, however, was within Chen Mu's expectation. If it was not for these card artisans hating these particular tasks, perhaps they would have already invested in other forces.

Suddenly, an overwhelming murderous aura appeared without any warning and had filled up every inch of the space in the hall.

The facial expression of the six card artisans changed drastically!

Their flesh froze in horror and they could not move at all! The power of this murderous aura was so strong as if it was real. They felt as if there was a pair of eyes staring at them in the dark, and their lives might be taken at any time. They had gone through numerous hardships in real combats to reach their current level. Even so, they had never experienced such intense, terror, and oppressive murderous aura!

This murderous aura was so strong, just like some viscous liquid wrapping them very tightly.

None of them dared to move a finger. They had no doubt that any subtle movement might trigger a thunderclap of the murderous aura!

They stood stock-still, the blood had drained from their faces, and their shirt was drenched with sweat and it felt as if time had stopped at this moment.

They had no idea how long it had been going on, some card artisans even started teetering.

"I hope we can cooperate together."

The sound of footsteps gradually faded, the murderous aura had disappeared entirely after the sound of the door slamming.

The murderous aura disappeared as fast, as if everything was just their illusion. But the drenched shirts and the stiffness in their bodies reminded them of what had happened just now.

The six card artisans fearfully looked at each other, all of them scared to death

"Was that the White Commander?" a card artisan asked with a hoarse voice.

"I don't know," another card artisan shook his head and said.

"It was someone else!" the one talking was the card artisan with blue eyes. His face was pale with fear, but affirmatively, he said, "Nonetheless, I did not notice him."

The words sounded a bit contradictory, but no one retorted him. Their hearts stirred once again.

The hall was so spacious, there was no place to hide. How could this person manage to get away from their sight? They are grade seven card artisans! That person could escape from the perception of six card artisans of grade seven in an open space without any hiding spot. If they did not experience it themselves, they would not have believed that there was someone so powerful and incredible in this world!

There was another top master who was far beyond their abilities besides the White Commander.

This caused them to realise that they were not indispensable.

Chen Mu placed great emphasis on these grade seven card artisans, but he did not think they were his most trusted power. Instead, those ordinary card artisans deserved more trust. They had gone through tough training, and the role they were able to play was far beyond these grade seven card artisans. These grade seven card artisans were defiant and unruly; they would not perform well if they were put into battles.

Most importantly, he did not have time to entertain these grade seven card artisans. He still had many errands to run, but to ensure these arrogant grade seven card artisans were well behaved, he had asked Wei-ah to deter them. Now it seemed like the effect on them was pretty good!

Time, he had too little time!

For example, the problem of training ordinary card artisans was already a handful. Both Bogner and Jiang Liang were not here, so he had no one to discuss with. He could only take the training plan drafted by Bogner earlier on and attempt to make some changes to it.

The quality of the recruited card artisans this time was much higher than those in Tai-shu family previously. However, this was actually the real headache for Chen Mu.

The average of the perceptual strength of these card artisans was grade six and above, and their quality was indeed higher. But in corresponding to this, they had already formed their own way of fighting. It was undoubtedly challenging to make any changes to them at this stage.

This problem had never crossed Chen Mu's mind previously.

Nonetheless, this problem was inevitable. It would be impossible to dismiss the recruited card artisans and start over with some lower level card artisans again. Chen Mu was staring at the training plan in front of him drawn up by Bogner for him previously.

Thinking about it, all at once, he realized that this was not something terrible, as it would be impossible for a large-scaled equipment card set. On one hand, to equip a card set under the supervision of the Big Six would make him a target. On the other hand, he did not have the time to make so many cards again.

Chen Mu made a decision. What he could do at the moment was to increase their combat literacy and turn them into a real efficient combating troops.

Moreover, he was not totally helpless regarding the personal combat power of these card artisans.

One of the critical reason why the ordinary card artisans were inferior to the card artisans of the Big Six was that there were too little materials for them to refer to and learn from .

In Chen Mu's hands were a few sets of legacy from the Federation Comprehensive Academy . Although these legacies could not be used by the card artisans directly, there was still room for reference. The conflict between him and the Federation Comprehensive Academy was undeniable, as both sides were incompatible like fire and water. Anyway, he wasn't really bothered by it.

He decided to publish this set of legacy to the troop later on, allowing anyone to learn from it. However, this would be done in the future. Now what he needed to do was, to allow these people to get use to team combat. Bogner once said this would be the essence to determine the strength of a combat troop. Bogner was just casually speaking back then, but Chen Mu could remember it very clearly.

Sang Hanshui was dragged out by Chen Mu and was appointed as the Chief Military Instructor. Previously the card artisans in Tai-shu family were trained by him. Chen Mu sensed that Sang Hanshui could do it better than himself, he might as well hand over the amended training plan to him.

Sang Hanshui could deeply feel Chen Mu's trust in him, so he immediately gave his full effort. Some more, he was experienced. Now he could handle it with ease and get the hang of it very fast.

On the other hand, those young card artisans with remarkable talent but poor in their ability were handed over to Xiaobo. If Xiaobo could receive a praise from Jie Yanbai regarding his personal combat power, then it would be no problem at all for him to teach these bunch of kids.

As for Chen Mu, he was not left behind. Not only that he needed to make cards for the grade seven card artisans, but he also had to improve his knowledge on strategizing.

Up until now, all of the plans could be said to be perfect. However, the unsettling feeling in his heart caused him to always be on guard. He never once thought of himself as a genius. Everything that has done by him could not even be considered as a strategy. It was merely from calculating as much as possible.

In Chen Mu's eyes, compared to making cards, the difficulty of planning a strategy was too high. Most of the things he came across would only bring him confusion. Each time he encountered such problems, he could not help thinking how nice it would be if Bogner was here.

He increasingly felt that Bogner had great strength in this aspect, it is just as how powerful Wei-ah was with the element of cardless sects. This also boosted his confidence in Bogner. He believed that Bogner would not easily be defeated!

Other than that, he also needed to keep a close eye on the training of those card artisans continuously. Without Bogner, Chen Mu could only make the amendments to the training plan all by himself.

Those days were so productive and meaningful! Chen Mu could not help but fill with emotions as his eyes turned bleary red.

He only slept for two hours daily. His schedule was extremely packed as everything was needed to be done by himself. Now he could relate to the benefit of practicing the cardless sects. He might have exhausted to death if he did not have a strong and healthy body!

This was the hardest period for the first time ever.

What surprised him was, even though there wasn't much time left for training, his perception actually increased a lot and had a breakthrough, upgrading to grade seven.

However, the excitement of his breakthrough did not last long, as he was distracted by an overwhelming incident.

Chen Mu returned to his room, dragging his fatigue body behind him. Qiu Shanyu was engrossed in watching the fantasy card receiver.

Suddenly Chen Mu stopped dead in his steps, his attention had been attracted by the image and sound on the screen.

"Good evening to our dear audiences! We have been struggling to find the answer in these few days. How could the weak White Commander completely wipe out the Big Bad Wolves of the Federation Comprehensive Academy? This problem has been bothering us throughout, even though we have offered a reward of sky-high price, still we achieved nothing."

The host was expounding with a regretful tone.

This was the first time Chen Mu witness someone discussing him, somehow he was slightly curious about it.

The host on the screen changed his tone of voice and said, "However, this is the day the answer will finally be revealed! All of you will never expect who is the person that is revealing the answer! It was quite hard to believe when we first received the answer. We have never expected that our show could alarm this bigwig!"

Obviously, the host was slightly excited.

"He is the most outstanding tactical genius from the Star Court, the oldest academy among the Big Six - Lord Rossiji! He, the genius who has always occupied the top of the rankings, was extremely interested in this question. And he indeed was the top tactical genius of the Heavenly Federation, as he was the first to give his analysis!"

Chen Mu stood in amazement. He had heard the name of Rossiji, the greatest tactical genius in the Star Court, who was also the most eye-catching star in Star Court. He did not expect such a genius could actually have the time to be interested in a show on the receiver platform.

Qiu Shanyu had noticed Chen Mu's presence, and couldn't help herself, "Never would I have expected, that there comes a day when you are acknowledged by Rossiji."

Chen Mu ignored her as his eyes were fixated on the screen.

"The next program which is about to start, is the personal analysis by Mr. Rossiji. We have already obtained his consent to play the following sound recording. Probably the White Commander is the only one who can conclude whether or not the analysis of Mr. Rossiji is the truth. However, there is finally a light to the tunnel, a solution to the problem that has been bothering us. We would like to thank Mr. Rossiji for taking time out of his busy schedule to participate in our show!"

The host disappeared on the optical screen.

All audiences were holding their breath, including Chen Mu. He also would very much like to know how a tactical genius who can surpass Song Chengyan make an analysis.

However, the first sentence out of Rossiji was totally out of everyone's expectations.