The Card Apprentice Chapter 336

The sky had darkened completely at that moment . Dusks in the Heavenly Drum Village District were particularly short .

Fifteen hundred card artisans and 300 battle shuttle cars set off for the snow silkworm ravine with great energy . Wen Zuofu was dead set on removing that thorn in his side . Not one of the Dark Fog card artisans sent by him had returned last time . He was rather shocked that the opponent's capabilities were beyond his imagination .

It wasn't that he didn't like the look of those people . If anything was to be blamed, it was their choice of location, which made Wen Zuofu somewhat uncomfortable . The snow silkworm ravine was situated between the Downstream Alliance and the House of Qiao and slightly to the north . If they were to form a union with the House of Qiao, the two would undoubtedly be able to render each other instant mutual assistance .

That was also the main reason Wen Zuofu could not rest until he got rid of them . Moreover, Qiao Fei had paid a special visit to the snow silkworm ravine sometime earlier, which only strengthened Wen Zuofu's determination in removing that thorn .

Therefore, the first thing he did after purchasing the fleet of battle shuttle cars was to lead all of his troops in an overwhelming attack to rid that stumbling block . They would then head over to the House of Qiao . His men needed time to get used to the newly purchased battle shuttle cars . In picking the snow silkworm ravine for his first battle, Wen Zuofu also had some intention of using it as practice .

In his eyes, the little valley would be obliterated instantly in the face of his great army .

The card artisans in his employ were mostly level-five card artisans, though the majority were not originally battle card artisans . Only about 50 or 60 could really qualify as battle card artisans, and those were Wen Zuofu's best men .

Battle card artisans were not numerous in the Heavenly Drum Village District; they were generally found in the military or in the larger card artisan teams . The huge expense of developing a purely military prowess was not something ordinary forces could afford . Such battle card artisans referred to those who had been trained since youth for the purpose of battle .

Their training required long-term investments and also included undergoing a number of actual battles . The assessment for battle card artisans was extremely difficult, ranking as one of the top few out of all the different types of card artisan assessments . Not only did it test for the overall battling capabilities of an individual, but also for their discipline in combat .

Wen Zuofu had spent a fortune but only managed to enlist the services of 50 or so battle card artisans . However, those 50 or so individuals were already a rather formidable force .

Sitting inside a battle shuttle car, Wen Zuofu was high-spirited and smug . He had been worried about the abilities of his men because apart from the battle card artisans, the others had pathetically little experience in actual combat . Now that he had the battle shuttle cars, he felt more at ease in leading them out to war .

Those battle shuttle cars were certainly excellent! Even card artisan teams from the Federation Comprehensive Academy had suffered a heavy blow against them . Wouldn't a mere ravine be captured easily? The only thing that made him cringe was that 40 percent of the final loot had to be given away to that organization . But, then again, to think he could form connections with such a huge organization, perhaps he could eventually expand his territories even farther!

Just as Wen Zuofu was indulging in the wonderful imaginings of the future, the troops had come to a halt .

"Big brother, the snow silkworm ravine is just after turning at the valley ahead," Yi Song said respectfully, pointing to the valley shown on the screen .

Wen Zuofu didn't like being interrupted from his fantasies, but he looked up and glanced at the screen . "Hmm . "

The valley was relatively flat . The hills at the sides weren't that steep, and apart from some random trees, there was no cover . Wen Zuofu instantly felt more assured . It's impossible to have a large contingent waiting in ambush in this sort of terrain . With that thought in mind, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself at having been way too careful . Those people in the snow silkworm ravine are probably still snug in bed .

The troops marched into the valley . As the card artisans activated their energy cloaks, it seemed as though translucent eggshells were lighting up one by one in the darkness . When seen from afar, they looked like drifting stars . Fifteen hundred stars gathered in one place was quite a magnificent sight to behold .

For the sake of concealment, the battle shuttle cars and the card artisans had all been flying close to the ground . The higher one flew, the farther away the enemy could spot them from .

Wen Zuofu was just about to order his men to brace themselves . After that valley and a quick reorganization, the attack on the snow silkworm ravine would be launched .

Suddenly, however, something unexpected occurred!

Without any warning, extremely fine rays of red light lit up beneath their feet, dazzling in the darkness . Every beam was as fine as spider silk, and hundreds of them together formed a gigantic red spider web . The web was so large it covered almost the entire valley .

The first to react were the battle card artisans in the troops . Their expressions changed all at once! With no time to warn the others, they immediately tried to fly up . However, before they could rise into the sky, endless flames had already swallowed them up .

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The whole valley was a sea of fire . The ground shook violently, and the roar of explosions could almost shatter one's eardrums . Nothing could be seen apart from the raging flames of the explosions . No one could hold themselves erect against the shockwaves, and many were blasted into the sky .

Wen Zuofu was dumbstruck .

His guards reacted extremely quickly, protecting him with energy cloaks in the first instant . However, the battle shuttle car was not so lucky . With such intense explosions, it was blown into bits . The powerful shockwaves easily tore the metal into shreds .

Those few embattled guards carried Wen Zuofu gingerly . Shockwaves and blast winds kept crashing against the energy cloak, which was already encircled by flames .

Promptly, carrying Wen Zuofu with them, they flew straight up into the sky .

It wasn't until they were more than 1,000 meters above the ground that they managed to get a break from the shockwaves of the explosions . The color drained from their faces as they glanced down .

The wreckage of battle shuttle cars was striking in the flames, and the hills at the sides had been flattened . The earth too was scorched black . 　

"Card appliances! It must be card appliances!" Yi Song shivered . "How many must that have been? Big brother, we… we've… lost all the battle shuttle cars . " There was a catch in his voice .

Wen Zuofu had finally recovered from the shock and realized the fleet he had spent his last penny on had been wiped out without even firing one energy body . The more he thought of it, the angrier he became . He was in a fit of rage and shaking all over, yet he could not make a single sound . 　

Indeed were they card appliances . Jiang Liang had gritted his teeth and deployed all the card appliances available in the ravine . He didn't even save one from the military card appliances bought from Xiao Liqian previously . Hertha had spent a whole hour laying them out .

As for those beams of red light, they were a skill of Hertha's called "Serial . " It allowed the randomly placed card appliances to form a whole, so all of them could be detonated at the same time . The impact would then be 20 percent more powerful than their individual impact added up .

Hertha had just learned the skill a few days ago . If it hadn't been for the snow pit method, his perception wouldn't have been strong enough for him to acquire it . Having seen the strength of his skill for the first time, the usually reticent Hertha couldn't help but look proud and smug .

The power of military card appliances was stronger than those on the market many times over! The roar of explosions could be heard near and far .

In the sky, hard-pressed card artisans were everywhere . Since the 1,500 card artisans had kept their energy cloaks activated the whole time, the explosions didn't cause many casualties .

With faces full of fear, the card artisans looked at the valley, which was almost red from burning . Not one of the battle shuttle cars was spared . Metal was as fragile as paper in the face of such explosions .

The sudden explosions rendered the card artisans dumbfounded . Only the 50 or so battle card artisans remained clear-headed .

In the intense heat, even the air seemed a little twisted and bent . It was impossible to see clearly .

They had had plenty of actual combat experience and understood the intention of their adversary . Their adversary must have gotten wind of the battle shuttle cars and thus set such an elaborate trap for them . Card appliances could do little harm to card artisans with level-five perceptual strength such as themselves, yet the adversary had spent an astonishing amount of them . There could have been only one goal—to destroy the battle shuttle cars first .

"Be careful . They must have prepared some other moves," one of the battle card artisans said, reminding his companion . The shockwaves from the explosions had messed up their formation . They needed to reassemble, but that of course only applied to battle card artisans like themselves .

Just as the words left his mouth, shouts and yells sounded from across the sky . The two turned, only to see people continually falling from the sky .

Oh no! Their expressions changed slightly . The sky was filled with energy fluctuations . The two battle card artisans couldn't distinguish which came from their own people and which came from the adversary .

"A bunch of greenhorns!" his companion couldn't help but curse . He wasn't completely wrong, either . With such chaos all around, the card artisans firing energy bodies were actually enabling the real enemy to hide in plain sight .

"Leave them be . Let's gather our own people first and not give anyone any chances," the battle card artisan said in a low voice . They couldn't care less about the life or death of the ordinary card artisans . In their eyes, the ordinary card artisans in a contingent were merely cannon fodder and not fit to be their companions .

* * *

At that moment, Chen Mu was strangely calm . He was flitting about in the darkness like a ghost . Making the best use of the big mudfish card, he moved about with ease among the crowd . Darkness gave him the best cover . The energy cloaks of his adversaries looked so striking in the dark that he could find his targets with no effort at all .

He approached a card artisan noiselessly and saw his entire back clearly through the energy cloak . Gently, he raised his index finger . A tailless shuttle was spinning merrily .

Before that card artisan became aware of him, Chen Mu had already touched the energy cloak with his index finger with the speed of lightning . Ping—crisp and sharp, the energy cloak shattered instantly .

The card artisan was startled . Just as he was going to react, he felt a pain at the back of his neck and lost all consciousness, plummeting down head first .

After a few more card artisans were finished off in a similar way, the others began to stir . By the time Chen Mu had gotten rid of another ten or more, the situation was completely out of control .

Fear was spreading among the card artisans . They started being on their guard against everyone around them, and some of the chicken-hearted ones even unconsciously activated their own energy cloaks . The situation became chaotic immediately . In the darkness, energy bodies were flying everywhere . They did not know where nor whom the enemy was .

The difference between the professional and the amateur was now obvious . Even though the card artisans were each capable in their own right, their discipline in combat was too poor, which gave Chen Mu opportunity .

Sensing every minute change in the jet stream card, Chen Mu's figure appeared increasingly eerier . Watching the energy bodies occasionally flying by in the sky, he had an idea . He stopped getting close and used tailless shuttles to attack from a distance . He especially picked on the card artisans who were farther away since the nature of tailless shuttles was quite different from that of other energy bodies .

For ordinary energy bodies, the shorter the distance, the larger the impact . However, tailless shuttles were the opposite; within the maximum range, the longer the distance, the larger the impact .

In order not to be noticed, Chen Mu wasn't using his perception in locking on but was gauging visually instead . In that way, it would be even harder to detect him .

The energy fluctuation caused by releasing a tailless shuttle was already trivial in itself . Coupled with the fact that Chen Mu didn't even use his perception to lock onto targets, the chance of discovery was minimal . By the time they did discover something, the tailless shuttle was already too close for them to respond .

Chen Mu flitted about amongst the card artisans, releasing a tailless shuttle every now and then . In the sky, the shattering of the card artisans' energy cloaks was unceasing . The screams of their companions were constantly agitating the nerves of the remaining card artisans .

One by one, the stars extinguished . Who's next? Me?

Chen Mu was not very well-off, either . To avoid being discovered, he had to make his flight path as unpredictable as possible . Likewise, he hadn't been using an energy cloak . Flying without an energy cloak in such weather, his face was numb from the cold .

Seeing the increasingly chaotic situation in the sky, Chen Mu drifted downward without a sound . Unprotected by an energy cloak, a mere blade was enough to kill him . Besides, his mission was accomplished . Once on the ground, with a few leaps and bounds, he vanished in the snow .

At that moment, Wen Zuofu had finally recovered from his shock .

Chapter end