The Card Apprentice Chapter 17

Star Academy was one of Tianyou Federation’s Six Great Schools and it possessed a long history. Furthermore, its founder was the renowned Heiner Vincent. Because of this, Star Academy never fell from the ranks of the Six Great Schools despite being in a decline these few years, although it was now ranked last among them.

The decline of Star Academy was directly related to their system.

Star Academy was divided into an inner court and an outer court. At a certain time period each year, the school would select a few students from the outer court with both excellent grades and innate talent to study within the inner court. The inner court was Star Academy’s most central location and every single person who managed to graduate from the inner court was able to leave a strong mark in history, whether they were Card Creators or Card Refiners1.

However, not only were the prerequisites to enter the inner court extremely strict, graduating from it was equally difficult. It has already been a whole decade without anyone emerging from the inner court, and this was also the main cause of Star Academy’s decline in these few years. As for the other five of the Six Great Schools, not even mentioning the United Federations College at the zenith, even Kuji Temple with its scarce student population was bound to produce one or two students with astonishing talent every few years.

Only Star Academy went for a whole decade without a single person emerging from the inner court.

Star Academy had been relying on the students of the outer court to prop them up these last few years. Only then were they able to support themselves in this awkward situation.

However, the outer court students of Star Academy were still considered to be a lot better compared to the students of ordinary schools. This was why Zuo Tingyi would say such things, immediately ridiculing the words of his egotistical friend endlessly.

It has already been a week since the day Chen Mu went to Gold Avenue, and the Magic Card Billboard created for Uncle Hua was finally completed today.

Chen Mu was rather satisfied with the final product.

The card made from the specially processed bark from a Thousand Cloud Tree appeared a translucent white, and a serene blue construct pattern formed an elegant and complex design on the half-palm-sized card. Chen Mu’s strokes were already rather seasoned, with each line flowing freely.

A single blue orchid as tall as a grown man, with emerald-green leaves, a long and thin stalk, and a pale creamy-white flower, was faintly swaying. Every ten seconds, the orchid flower would spout some multi-coloured particles of light that would change like mist, to form “Uncle Hua’s Grocery Store”, the words shining bright and overflowing with colour.

At night, this blue orchid would blossom, revealing all of its brilliance.

In these last five days, aside from this Blue Orchid Magic Card Billboard, Chen Mu had also made another Magic Card.

This Magic Card was made by imitating the brilliant and peerless Magic Card advertisement he saw at Shuanghuan Card Shop that day. However, because there was such a huge difference between Chen Mu’s ability and the creator of that Magic Card, he was currently still unable to copy such a complex Magic Card advertisement.

Chen Mu’s magic card only imitated one part – that fiery dragon encircling the grave and stern man in black. The image projected by that magic card had aroused Chen Mu’s interest.

Dazzling beauty and fervour represented power and might. This was the three-star Magic Card that was considered a middle-grade battle card, the Inferno Dragon Card. This fiery dragon was simulated with all of its capabilities, and under a Card Refiner’s control, not only could it emit astonishing heat, it also possessed an explosive nature with both flexibility and formidable power. It was favoured by many Battle Card Refiners.

This card that Chen Mu had copied was indeed related to the Inferno Dragon Card, but it was only a one-star Magic Card. In other words, this was not a genuine Inferno Dragon Card at all, rather it was only an Inferno Dragon Mirage Card. This Magic Card was able to produce an extremely lifelike illusion of a scarlet flame dragon, but this illusion was only made of light and didn’t possess any lethal power.

But it had to be said, the illusion of the inferno dragon produced by Chen Mu’s Magic Card was really too lifelike!

This true-to-life inferno dragon, with a realistic yet illusory body formed of layers upon layers of billowing flames, would circle around in the sky when projected, frequently bringing along an abundance of scarlet sparks. Appearing as though it would pick someone up and devour them, its momentum was very terrifying.

Shuanghuan Card Shop’s advertisement had left an extremely deep impression on Chen Mu. Before then, he had never thought that illusions could actually achieve such complexity. This Inferno Dragon Mirage Card was a result of Chen Mu’s impulses.

Nevertheless, this incident let him understand one point: just how far the distance the Card Creator of the advertisement with that set of five Magic Cards was from his own level.

Carrying the Magic Card advertisement meant for Uncle Hua, Chen Mu’s mood also improved. He had very few goals in his quiet life, and this was one of them. Having finally finished it today, he was imagining the pleasantly surprised expression Uncle Hua would have when he saw the illusion advertisement projected by this Magic Card advertisement; his heart was filled with expectation.

He was practically jogging the whole way to Uncle Hua’s grocery store.

The tightly closed door made Chen Mu’s heart clench, and suddenly a vague premonition rose to mind.

He promptly ran to the surrounding shops, found one of the shopkeepers, and asked impatiently, “Hello, how come Uncle Hua from next door hasn’t opened his shop today?”

“Who knows, he hasn’t come in for a few days now!” The shopkeeper raised his head to glance at Chen Mu, replying offhandedly.

Chen Mu returned home, scared out of his wits. From then on, he visited Uncle Hua’s grocery store almost every day, but would return with disappointment every time. Ever since Uncle Hua’s store had closed, it never opened again.

He also went around to the neighbouring shopkeepers to inquire about Uncle Hua’s address, but not a single person knew where he lived.

Chen Mu knew that Uncle Hua might have finally reached the end of his path. In fact, he had already felt a faint premonition about this back when Uncle Hua started coughing incessantly.

This made him feel down-hearted for a considerable time.

The few years of a stable livelihood had created a feeling of unfamiliarity towards the concept of death.

Uncle Hua’s passing away greatly stimulated Chen Mu, though he couldn’t tell what kind of stimulation this was himself. However, he practiced desperately. He practiced the “calisthenics”2 and the card production that he had learned from that mysterious Magic Card. The way he was practicing now was completely different to the way he had practiced before.

He trained day and night, completely losing track of time. He continued until he was tired to the point of seeking death every day, yet he still did not stop. This bitter training seemed a little self-abusive, but he didn’t want to give himself any leisure time. He was afraid, afraid of recalling Uncle Hua, afraid of recalling some matters of the past.

He needed to keep himself busy!

Apart from purchasing the daily essentials, he did not set foot outside. Practicing calisthenics incessantly every day, ceaselessly practicing the manufacturing of Magic Cards, he started touching upon the basics of “resource cards.” Yet he had barely touched upon it, and the abstrusity of Resource Cards still caused him to feel a lot of strain even for just mere basics.

As he saw it, this was a completely new domain that he had never imagined.

While Chen Mu was arduously training, a big affair took place within Dong Shang Citadel.

Chapter end