The Card Apprentice

Chapter 80: Poverty is Just a Word

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

Chen Mu stayed home an entire three days to recuperate. It was also his first time to cut a class at Eastern Wei Academy. The injury to his back was a small matter – the big problem was still his perception. It wasn’t until the third evening that he felt some stirring with his perception. That both thrilled him and filled him with concern.

He still hadn’t found out that there were wanted posters pasted in every corner of the city, on which a picture of his former self was conspicuous. In the declaration, he had been successfully transformed into an impoverished evil insanely murderous criminal, with four lives on his hands, who would kill women and children.

There hadn’t been that sort of big news event for a long time in Eastern Shang-Wei City. Everyone felt insecure, such that parents wouldn’t dare let their children go out by themselves.

At the top was posted a large bounty to get the attention of numerous card artisans.

Chen Mu let out his breath inside the simple water world, as he very carefully cultivated his pitifully tiny perception. The aftermath had been very serious from that last time when he had catalyzed the tailless shuttle with all his power. He was left with only a third of his previous perceptual ability, only a little bit better than it was before those twelve cards.

But with his injuries a little better, he decided to go to school. Knowing very well how rare his opportunity to study was, he didn’t want to waste his time in bed.

He saw the posters as soon as he went out the door.

He strangely felt no indignation, as though he’d coolly seen something without the slightest connection to himself. He calmly walked past the posters, not having had naive thoughts about life for a long time. It wasn’t strange to him that the Zuo household would go to such an extent.

It was an excellent likeness of the way he used to appear that had been used. The capacity of the Zuo household was clearly adequate such that not only could they uncover everything about the person that he was, but they could also open the channels of the garrison to issue the posters.

Looking at the bounty on the top of them, he knew that there would be untold numbers of card artisans, as well as criminal types, searching for him like crazy. And having already crowned him as a convicted murderer and killer of women and children, the call was really too sinister. He was like a rat on the street with no place to hide.

Too bad they probably hadn’t considered that he had become an entirely different person. He sneered to himself, while still cautioning himself to be careful not to reveal any tracks.

Returning to the classroom, there were only a few students scattered about the room. They all acted as though they hadn’t seen Chen Mu enter the room. Only the classmate called Ya Ya showed some astonishment in her eyes.

What was the meaning of that astonishment? Chen Mu worked that over in his mind as he sat down. Skipping class was a common occurrence in that class section, but there were some raised eyebrows at Chen Mu, who was normally so diligent about class.

The teachers had also unconsciously started to pay attention to Chen Mu. After all, he was one of the few students in this class section who was interested in studying. While the teaching level wasn’t too bad, teachers were generally chosen for the sponsorship section because of some issue with their disposition and character.

They could really get beaten up at the beginning. The lousy behavior of those students would simply cause anyone to bristle. Skipping class, sleeping, chatting, eating every kind of snack . . . there was nothing they hadn’t thought of or wouldn’t dare to do. But just when they were getting discouraged, it was something of a surprise to have someone diligent about attending class every day appear among the students.

And when they found out that Chen Mu had a pretty good foundation, along with comprehension that wasn’t so messed up, some of their enthusiasm was restored. It felt as surprising as finding an oasis in the desert. Several teachers quickly planned to focus on Chen Mu’s development.

Chen Mu’s foundation wasn’t really that good. Before he had gotten into more systematic study, he had only gained extremely fragmentary knowledge. Chen Mu immediately felt that he was gaining a lot from the teachers’ earnest instruction.

He had never blended in with the other students’ affairs, only quietly studying. And the classmates in the section were rather wary of him, in view of the blow he’d previously dealt. Nobody wanted to provoke him. Even sister Phoenix, who was known as everyone’s big sister in the section, became docile every time she saw Chen Mu’s domineering look.

Chen Mu was very careful to conceal his strength, not wanting to draw anyone’s attention. So, he did all his homework in only a satisfactory manner, which disappointed those teachers who’d placed high hopes in him.

During the first year of instruction, they would even be taught about making simple three-star fantasy cards.

Chen Mu quickly realized that the difficulty of making those three-star fantasy cards was far lower as compared with the same kind of three-star tailless shuttle card. When he experimented with making all kinds of three-star fantasy cards, their power was far below that of the tailless shuttle card. Their only good feature was the low cost of their production. But Chen Mu still spent a lot of money on them.

His life quickly calmed down, and he could devote himself to his studies every day. His perception was also in the process of being restored, although progress was very slow. In two months, it had only been restored to two thirds of its previous level.

The demonic woman had still not appeared. Chen Mu had already decided to put that matter aside, since it wasn’t helping him to think about it any further, so why bother?

It was a strain to manipulate the tailless shuttle card given his current perception.

Although it had been very basic training, he never skipped the training that the demonic woman had given him. That bitter battle had made a principle clear to him, that no matter what the capacity, something will only exert great power if it is used properly.

But given the situation with his perception, he could only pay attention to other things.

He had already practiced his dodging and evading to where there was nothing he could do to improve it, and it would be extremely difficult to make any further progress. The demonic woman had not imparted to him the higher-level skills.

So, for a variety of reasons, he made the swordfish challenge his main objective.

His perception had shrunk a lot from before, which also forced him to react more quickly. If he wanted to get past the swordfish challenge, he would have to be stronger in demanding control of his physical strength and speeding up his reaction time.

But the perilousness of the swordfish challenge doomed it from having any means for daily practice.

After some deep thinking, Chen Mu decided to make a simple section of the simple water world for his daily practice. He dubbed it “swordfish training.”

For him, it was a challenge like none he’d had before. He needed to analyze every function of those twelve cards, and he needed to consider every function of the mysterious card, along with the connections among them and so forth.

After class, Feng Zi-ang called out to Chen Mu.

“I’ve looked over all your recent classwork, and it was all completed quite well.” Feng Zi-ang was smiling, as this was the only student in the class that he would smile at.

Seeing that Chen Mu was paying respectful attention, Feng Zi-ang opened up, “Don’t be nervous. I’ve only come to say hello. It’s also getting to be time for the promotion exam. Although it’s still a little early for you, it wouldn’t hurt for you to try it, to get a feel for the promotion exam.”

The so-called promotion exam was the exam to advance from freshman to upperclassman. Chen Mu was a freshman, and if he didn’t take the promotion exam, he would remain a freshman.

Feng Zi-ang gave him a fantasy card, “This includes a description of all the intermediate card making tracks, as well as the specific requirements for assessment. Take a look when you have the time.”

The freshman year curriculum imparted only foundational instruction, without any difference among the sections. When one got to the intermediate group, subdivisions showed up in the disciplines. You would have to apply for the promotion exam for the branch that you wanted to study. While there were no requirements to submit the application, since the exams were extremely difficult, there weren’t many who could pass them.

By the intermediate grades, each student wouldn’t only be able to select a single disciplinary track, with many of the stronger students selecting two or three, or even more.

But as far as a student who’d only been studying for a few months was concerned, it wasn’t practical to take the promotion exam. That was why Feng Zi-an only wanted to give Chen Mu a sense of the exam.

Chen Mu nodded his understanding as he took the fantasy card.

He’d run into a lot of trouble making the “swordfish training.” Among all the twelve cards there was only one which had any connection to the swordfish training, in addition to the water environment card and the token card, making three cards altogether.

The difficulty to make those three cards wasn’t so high for Chen Mu by then. And the materials weren’t hard to resolve. His problem just then was how to combine them into an organic whole.

The mysterious card was the most effective for the simple water world, and he only had one of those.

Making the three cards again, Chen Mu’s perception was completely different from the last time. There were many aspects which had been murky toward which he had a new experience, and the entire process of making them was as smooth as flowing water, completed in a single breath.

It taxed Chen Mu’s thinking to know how to combine the three cards into an organic whole. He kept experimenting until he very quickly had to cut off the experimentation, since he was facing a different problem.

Money!

Chen Mu was so engrossed in his research during that time and was spending so much on card making, that before he knew it there wasn’t much money left. The money cards were all left behind by the demonic woman, and Chen Mu had very uncourteously spent them all.

Without money, he had no way to continue his research. And the only thing that he had that was worth any money was the villa.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to sell the villa. Although he didn’t mind going back again to live in subsidized housing, that wouldn’t have been the end of his problems. How would the demonic woman find him if he moved? And if he sold the villa, the disguise he was wearing just then would become his perpetual identity.

Chen Mu went right back to his origins after that time of not needing to worry about money. And he could no longer make money by making fantasy cards, and he couldn’t go to the low grade fantasy card club.

That really was a nerve wracking problem!