The Card Apprentice

Chapter 73: The Seductresses

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

The girl called Sister Phoenix caught up huffing and puffing, yelling, “Where do you think you’re going, little fellow?”

Ya Ya laughed, but she couldn’t figure out how Sister Phoenix could be interested in that parvenu. Still, he could be high-class to be able to dress like that, she laughed to herself.

Her gaze suddenly turned toward Chen Mu’s wrist apparatus. She abruptly started to laugh, and couldn’t stop once she’d started, just holding her belly and laughing to the point that she couldn’t stand up.

This kind of tinkling laughter set off an explosion in Chen Mu, who was already on the verge of exploding. As furious as he was, he kept calm, coldly staring down the two in front of him.

“Ya Ya, what are you laughing at?” Sister Phoenix was a little unclear about what was going on.

Holding her stomach with one hand, and pointing at the apparatus on his wrist with the other, Ya Ya was still bursting with laughter.

When Sister Phoenix saw it, she chortled with glee, “Ha ha, clodhopper, you go! Buying a woman’s apparatus, Yee, ha ha!”

Chen Mu remained unmoved, and asked calmly, “Excuse me?”

The two girls were bursting out laughing, beside themselves, and not paying attention to Chen Mu.

Seeing how things were, Chen Mu kept straight on walking without so much as a thank you. Then the two were standing right in front of him. Even though they still couldn’t stop their wild laughter, they were still blocking Chen Mu’s way.

Chen Mu remained calm, not changing his expression in the slightest, and if anyone had been watching closely, they would have found that his pace hadn’t changed at all.

The two parties got closer and closer, with Chen Mu having no intention to stop, leaving less than half a meter between them.

The two girls had started to contain their laughter. They had no fear about that kind of situation, knowing that Chen Mu wouldn’t do anything in front of so many onlookers. Sister Phoenix was deliberately pushing out her nice breasts, and making a provocative expression. Her breasts were still bouncing dramatically from the laughter, and full of allure.

“Come on if you can, little guy!”

Chen Mu remained mute, looking indifferent, and not slowing his walk.

“Ai ya!””Ai ya!” Two delicate cries sounded at the same time, calling the attention of the students all around. Chen Mu had bumped into the two of them, and they had fallen to the ground at the same time, now sitting there with injured looks.

Chen Mu’s expression hadn’t changed, as he kept going with indifference, with no change to his pace at all. Without really looking, he saw the two girls on the ground.

“Treating a pretty woman like this is really over the edge, classmate!”

Although standing up for the weak would be a cliché, the probability of that happening was pretty high, and if the one being saved was a pretty girl, the probability would go straight up another order of magnitude.

Chen Mu coldly looked at the person blocking his way. He could see from his ID tag that he was a second-year student in the card artisan department.

Paying him no mind, Chen Mu kept walking ahead. This gallant scholar had spread open his arms, and was looking at Chen Mu with disdain. He was a full head taller than Chen Mu, and his body looked a lot more powerful. He was a seriously muscular man.

With the one not yielding, and the other not stopping his steps, the two bumped right into one another without any flourish.

Bam Bam Bam, the gallant male was hit as though by a shuttle car, and bounced off to the side, unsteady on his feet, unable to stop his body, finally plopping to his butt on the ground.

Right in his stunned gaze, Chen Mu swaggered away. After which no heroes dared come forth to rescue the maidens.

The muscular man sitting on the ground reacted with a red face through and through, until Chen Mu could no longer be seen.

Getting back to the dormitory, Chen Mu went directly to the bathroom, and turned on the cold-water faucet.

After drenching himself with icy cold water, he gradually calmed down and regained his poise.

Thinking about what he had done that day, he couldn’t help a series of sneers to himself. He really was still too young after all, if that was how easy it was to lose his control. It was too dangerous! He couldn’t help doing some self-examination.

Poise! He must always remain poised! He kept warning himself over and over.

Allowing the icy water to cascade over his face, with the drops falling along his body, his thinking also gradually started to become clearer.

He had been under too much pressure for a while, and he lacked the control to match it. And he was very clear that before he could get used to that kind of pressure, there would certainly be another time when he would lose his control.

He felt changed by what had happened that day. He didn’t know if it was because he had been infected by the demonic woman recently, but his temperament had gotten a little bit ruthless.

He didn’t like that at all.

Chen Mu was restored to normal after he’d finished washing. Drinking some Blue Cloud Flowing Water, he carefully considered whether there was anything improper about his behavior those last few days. You could call what he was doing just then his job. There was no one to guide him about what he should be doing, only having his own incessant self-examination and self-correction. The only thing he could rely on was himself.

Thinking over his temperament, and then thinking about his current identity, he quickly found some correspondence. Because of his taciturn temperament, if he was to act as a flamboyant parvenu, it would be very easy to seem a little artificial, and reveal some flaw.

But who said that a son of the nouveau riche had to advertise himself? No, it would be more suited to him to act as an uncommunicative upstart kid, who doesn’t ordinarily like to talk, but who has been contaminated by some of the parvenu vices. And if his temperament was eccentric, what did it matter?

His thinking quickly became clearer. Seldom speaking also had a good point, that it wouldn’t be so easy to make mistakes, or to reveal flaws.

He was glad just then to have discovered the problem early, since otherwise, once he’d made an impression in other peoples’ minds, any more changes he might want to make would be too abrupt.

Having solved a fundamental problem, his mental pressure was relieved quite a bit. Then he remembered his having picked out a lady’s apparatus, which made him not know whether to laugh or cry. Thinking back on it, he only just then realized the meaning of the salesgirl wanting to say something and then stopping herself when he bought the apparatus.

He’d spent 900,000 Oudi on that card reader, and if he were to just toss it aside it would be too spendthrift. Although it wasn’t his money and he had no need to economize, he still wasn’t used to being so wasteful.

When he first used it, Chen Mu gritted his teeth, and went ahead and put it on his wrist, though he assumed that it would become a joke. That was how he made a little fun of himself.

Although the apparatus looked flashy and fake, it was quite a bit higher grade than the one he had before. Giving it a little try, no matter if it was the feel or the responsiveness, it was a lot more powerful than the basic one he used to have.

It had three card slots, so in addition to the power card and the tailless shuttle card, there was still another slot. He stuck the mysterious card in that one. He’d bought a four-star power card this time, since with the quantity of money that the demonic woman had given him, he didn’t need to economize on those.

Putting in the tailless shuttle card along with the four-star power card, Chen Mu experimented with activating the tailless shuttle card. The crystalline and clear tailless shuttle once again appeared on his index finger, faster by four tenths of a second! So, the higher grade goods weren’t the same after all, Chen Mu sighed to himself.

Not ever having had any requirements for the looks of a card reader, he didn’t mind at all that it was a woman’s model since its outstanding performance immediately made him very happy. This was also in line with his usual standard; if it works, then it’s fine!

* * *

In the exchange student dormitory there were only the three of them, Wang Ze, Yin Chenjiu and Qing Qing.

“I’ve only gotten very limited information. Block-Cop were extremely cautious, and didn’t leave any threads. But there was something that I consider to be of value. Both the first card play “Chance Encounter” and the second card play “The Legend of Master Shi,” were marketed in a range centered on Eastern Wei Academy.” Yin Chenjiu related the information he had heard.

Qing Qing and Wang Ze both looked contemplative.

Yin Chenjiu pushed up his glasses, and with his intelligent profile radiating a special kind of intrigue, “I suspect that these Block-Cop are very likely inside Eastern Wei Academy! Or that they are in the vicinity of Eastern Wei Academy; certainly not far from here. I really can’t understand why they would only market the card plays at Eastern Wei Academy otherwise.”

“That’s very possible.” Wang Ze nodded his head, endorsing Yin Chenjiu’s conjecture.

Chen Mu probably hadn’t considered how such marginal matters could so unexpectedly line up like that.

Yin Chenjiiu wasn’t looking smug because of Wang Ze’s endorsement, on the contrary, he was sneering, “There are still a lot of things I can’t understand. Why did Block-Cop make card plays? And why were they so careful? And why didn’t the later parts of the second card play “The Legend of Master Shi,” use this particular composition any more? And further, why did they suddenly cut it off?”

“Putting aside these questions, Bian Yun’s results still haven’t come out, but it will certainly be an incredible invention. What we have to consider for the moment is how to find Chen Mu.” Wang Ze said.

“What about holding a card making competition.” Yin Chenjiu responded quickly, “But the biggest problem will be how to lure him into participating.”

Wang Ze said smilingly, “All we have to do is to ask Bian Yun. That guy will certainly know what it is that card masters like, or what they can’t refuse.” Wang Ze then suddenly thought of something, and said, “Keeping tomorrow’s plan as normal, it might be good to look into what’s really up with those bugs.”

The two of them smiled at each other. Qing Qing hadn’t said anything all along, maintaining her contemplative look.

* * *

Chen Mu came out again from the simple water world, covered in red welts, and looking terrible. While it was somewhat painful for him to inhale the cold air, he was looking quite excited.

It was his second swordfish challenge, and although he’d been defeated, he was able to glimpse some hope for winning. The time he’d spent practicing dodging and evading hadn’t been wasted, since he could now hold out until about seventy swordfish were launching an attack at once.

The swordfish challenge was an extremely dangerous challenge, which was easily seen from all the welts on Chen Mu’s body. He’d been stabbed a few dozen times, and his whole body was covered in welts, which hurt when he touched them. The more you could hold out against the swordfish challenge, the more dangerous it got. It was enough to make Chen Mu’s blood run cold to think about the feeling of a few hundred swordfish stabbing him at the same time.

There were two important reasons which summed up why he still couldn’t successfully complete the challenge.

One was that he still wasn’t proficient enough with his dodging and evading skills. In particular, he was still not good enough at being able to fuse his skill with releasing power underwater with the dodging skills that the demonic woman had imparted to him. The other factor was that he still didn’t have enough perceptual power. Four and nine-tenths meters was a blink of the eye as far as the swordfish were concerned. If his perception were to grow just a little bit more powerful, it would not only enlarge the scope of his perception compared to now, but his perception would become much sharper within that scope.

That evening was very painful for Chen Mu. He didn’t sleep all evening, since as soon as he lay down his whole body felt like he was being stuck with needles, giving him no way to sleep. Even sitting was painful, with his butt having been hit quite a few times. Only the soles of his feet hadn’t been stabbed, and so he could only stand in the dark corner, never knowing how he had ever fallen asleep.

When he woke up, it was daylight and his red welts had faded somewhat, though it was still faintly painful. Today was the new student convocation, which was a mandatory activity.

After he’d washed and gargled, he ate a little something and went out the door.

The campus was already crowded with students who were reading books or doing their exercises everywhere. Looking at them enviously, Chen Mu increased his pace. The new student convocation was in the grand auditorium, and when Chen Mu entered, not very many people were there.

The numbers started to increase after about half an hour.

Chen Mu saw Sister Phoenix and Ya Ya, who were in the same class-section with him. Not wanting to cause any trouble, Chen Mu acted as though he hadn’t seen them. The two were surprisingly well-behaved that day. Apart from Sister Phoenix giving him the evil eye, Ya Ya was dodging him with her gaze.

Chen Mu looked calm, with a level gaze. He simply sat to the side to avoid contact with them. It was just that as soon as he sat down, it was like sitting on a mat of needles, and he had to willfully maintain his calm look.

It was really torture! Chen Mu only hoped that the convocation would finish early, since sitting in the chair the pain coming from his back and butt was extremely uncomfortable.

He had to shift his attention to sizing up the students around him. He was sitting to the far left of his class-section’s designated location, and to his left were the freshmen from the card artisan department. Looking them over, Chen Mu was immediately struck by a few.

Those few were scattered among the students, none of them raising their eyes, but Chen Mu could smell a very subtle danger coming from their bodies. Ever since he ran into the demonic woman, Chen Mu had found his perception to have become quite a bit more sensitive. He didn’t know what it was that gave him the feeling of danger, but he could vaguely feel it.

In an instant he knew where those people had come from.

Even a newcomer like the demonic woman was aware of an unusual smell from the Star Academy’s activities, where others were too quick to justify their suspicions. Those people were likely part of a different power.

He had never been clear about what the Star Academy’s purpose really was. If they were planning something, it should be advanced in secret, and not at such a high-profile activity! This was what puzzled him the most.

Enough! It wasn’t something he had to think about anyway, since no matter how you looked at it, he was an out-and-out rookie who certainly couldn’t consider himself to be in any position to see the decisive moments clearly.

Because he had discovered that his gaze was attracting some attention, he pretended to inadvertently take it back. He was inwardly awed at how acute the perception of those guys was.

Strenuously restraining any idea of wanting to turn around and look some more, Chen Mu carefully and diligently made himself become more natural.

What he was wearing naturally made everyone who saw him show a look of contempt. The two seats beside him both remained empty, with no-one wanting to sit near him.

His whole mind was on those card artisan department students not far away. He didn’t know if it was because of some provocation, but his perception was brisk that day, with everything around him very sharp in his mind.

That kind of perception was amazing!

Without needing to turn around, he could sense Sister Phoenix and Ya Ya gazing at him from behind. He could even sense when his classmates were taking of their shoes, and how the air was moving next to him.

Immersed in that world, he hadn’t been paying any attention to the tedious opening speech which had already started at the podium.

The Star Academy students were sitting not far away from the card artisan department.

Taking a look at the Eastern Wei Academy President who was endlessly gushing along just then, a student to the side of Wang Ze nodded his head.

This male student was extremely tall, about two meters, and was quite skinny, with long arms and legs, making him look like a bamboo stalk, and making people feel that he could be blown over by a gust of wind.

This bamboo-stalk student smiled slightly.

The apparatus on his lowered right hand abruptly emitted fine white rays of light. Intentionally or not, the Star Academy students had surrounded the bamboo stalk student, blocking that nearly invisible light.

An approximately fist-sized very fine and light glowing ball was positioned roughly ten centimeters away from his face, and the bamboo stalk student’s faint smile had disappeared from his face, replaced by a grave look. There was a flash of light from under his nearly held-shut eyelids.

The small white glowing ball suddenly grew with astonishing speed until it filled the entire auditorium in less than a second.

There was suddenly a series of restrained cold groans bursting out from the card artisan department, where several people had sat straight up in a flurry, looking on guard. This was while most of the students hadn’t sensed a thing; those chatting kept chatting, and those sleeping kept sleeping.

Some of the teachers on the dais showed a few bursts of light. The President only fluttered his eyelids as he kept talking, continuing his lecture as though he had felt nothing.

Chen Mu’s coloring made a little change!

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