The Card Apprentice

Mohadi Domain.

Benji was casually watering the flowers in the backyard. His murderous aura had faded, and he was just like any other ordinary person.

“My Lord.” A voice came from the shadows in the corner, “There is news from the ash stratum. The army is suffering from the attack by an unknown card artisan, and there are a lot of casualties. The House of Suiwei and the House of Xiu had the most losses.

“Oh.” Benji put down the kettle in his hand and took his time to ask, “Card artisan? Then, the Heavenly Federation is a step ahead. That’s interesting. How about the king? Is there anything strange lately?”

“The king doesn’t seem to be in a hurry, but very laid-back. He even has the time to instruct the chef in making a dish called Qin Xiang noodles. The king seemed to be very interested in the matter of the Heavenly Federation. He would personally examine the materials seized from the enemy.”

“Qin Xiang noodles?” Benji’s eyes twitched and quickly replied in a flat tone, “Very well, you are excused.”

Benji’s face was unreadable as he stood in the yard. A gust of wind blew by him, sending a chill down his back. Unconsciously, his back had become thoroughly drenched. He had always doubted what Wei-ah had said to him. So when he came back, he stayed behind closed doors and was secretly investigating the matter. There was little progress, but today, he was finally certain that Wei-ah was telling the truth.

The king had been impersonated.

Perhaps others may not know about the Qin Xiang noodles, but Benji had tried it at the Heavenly Federation, and it left a deep impression on him. The king had never been to the Heavenly Federation, and the messenger of the Desert Camp was under his reception. The king couldn’t know about the Qin Xiang noodles, let alone its recipe. After zoning out for a while, he raised his head and started to walk out as if he had made up his mind.

Under the gray sky, Chen Mu walked along the cracks carefully. He had a huge parcel on his back, which made him look like a snail, but he was much faster than a snail. The surrounding scenery had the unique features of the ash stratum, and it was a dead silence without vitality. There were only gray skies, arid air, and the crisscrossing cracks!

This was the ash stratum!

He was so excited when he first entered the ash stratum. Every once in a while, he would use thousand-kilometer to try to contact the Big Crack Base. However, there was no reply so far. Without much thinking, he knew that he was still a great distance away from the Big Crack Base. He just hoped that the direction he was heading to was not wrong, as there was no way to distinguish directions in the ash stratum since it was vast and boundless. The numerous cracks were like an underground maze. The forks were abundant, and there were large and small cracks crisscrossing to form cobwebs shapes.

All he carried on his back was the dry food he bought at the House of a Hundred Depths. It was a type of plant tubers containing very high calories. It was storable and was small in size. Aside from the slightly bad taste, it had all the qualities of good dry food. He didn’t know how long it would take to locate Bogner, so he carried enough rations to last him for three months.

As for water, he need not worry about it, as a condensate card could easily fix his problems. In spite of the arid air in the ash stratum and the card’s low efficiency, it was viable, because his need for water was not high either.

He stopped in his tracks and activated the thousand-kilometer card, but there was still no response which left him feeling slightly disappointed.

Could it be that he went in the wrong direction?

This was a genuine possibility, and could be potentially fatal!

A gust of wind blew across. His ears responded; his face suddenly looked surprised.

There was someone! He heard voices! Unable to oppress his ecstasy, he ran without hesitation in the direction where the sound had come from.

At the thought of meeting Bogner right there, his mood could no longer remain calm. His heart started beating faster, and excitement surged through every cell in his body. The noises became closer and closer, and the anticipation in his heart grew even stronger.

It was right in front!

The incoming sound was now crystal clear, right at the junction of the crack in front. He couldn’t help but speed up, like a bolt of lightning, heading towards the junction.

“I’m here…” He was about to shout, but his pupil contracted all of a sudden, the words stuck in his throat.

There were five of them, walking along the cracks with vigilance. When they spotted Chen Mu, all of their expressions changed. They cried and sprang towards Chen Mu at the same time!

The cardless sects!

As the five moved, Chen Mu took a glance at them. His face sank. Besides Wei-ah and Little Bu Mo, there wouldn’t be any pure cardless sects in the Big Crack Base. Not to mention he couldn’t understand a word they said when they talked, obviously it wasn’t a language widely spoken in the Heavenly Federation.

Unless…

He immediately had a bad feeling, and the intent to kill arose in his heart. He was extremely familiar with the skills of the cardless sects as the one who taught him was one of the best—Wei-ah. Even until now, Chen Mu believed that Wei-ah was the strongest of the cardless sect in the world; there was no other like him. Together with the skills from years of continuous killing and training in the abyss of the Hundred Depths, he was very different from the other cardless sects.

He gave all the weapons he had acquired from the abyss of Hundred Depths to Zara and didn’t keep anything for himself. He rarely took any action either; his figure was still ghostly like smoke.

The faces of the five people opposite him were horrified. Chen Mu wore the demonic ghost-faced flower on his face, coupled with devilish movements and his murderous aura; he was like a deadly blade.

One of the five people retreated without hesitation, while the other four pounced on Chen Mu! They were fierce with a tenacious will, and even Chen Mu couldn’t help but showed a little admiration.

The five people had already judged that they were no match for Chen Mu and quickly made a decision. The man that ran off should be going back to notify his leader, while the other four men were responsible for intercepting him, creating an opportunity for that one companion. The expressions of these four people were surprisingly unified – desperation!

Elite, these were absolutely elites! The counter-response was clean, and they had a will that did not fear death. Only elite teams could have such an execution.

He admired them in his heart, but his murderous aura grew stronger. Being in the same ash stratum, Chen Mu could naturally sniff out danger from the group of men that appeared. Although he didn’t know how Bognor was doing, the presence of these people would undoubtedly pose a threat to them. He did not choose The Eternal Night due to his intent to kill. Foggy Gauze opened silently.

The training of cardless sects was arduous, and their wills were incredibly strong. However, how could the Foggy Gauze that could even defeat Wesley lose to the few cardless sects who were a few levels lower?

With Chen Mu at the center, it was as if a small stone was thrown into the calm water; ripples that were invisible to the naked eye spread outwards.

The four people who pounced on him instantly slowed down, and their ferocious expressions changed into one of confusion. The pale light gently sped through the four men.

Choke!

The bodies of the four men went out of control. They were like four sandbags gliding seven to eight feet in the air before slowly falling to the ground; Their breathing stopped. Their heads were elongated, and their necks were strangely twisted with the middle part caved in. The weirdest thing was the expressions on their faces. They were all dazed as if they had died without feeling any pain.

Chen Mu looked cold. Without stopping, his figure drifted to the back of the enemy who had turned back to notify his leader. He wanted to see who it was.

His expression gradually turned grimmer. He regularly encountered new teams along the way. In four hours, he encountered as many as two hundred enemies! All these enemies that he had met all ran in the direction of where the five people appeared. It was evident that their goal was to reinforce the others. These support forces were all cut off midway by Chen Mu.

He didn’t hold back his power at all; the tactics he used were all fatal! No one could withstand his methods! If the Foggy Gauze existed in physical form, it would already have been soaked in blood. If he were to kill these enemies by relying on pure cardless skills, he would have needed much more strength. However, he had unleashed the full potential of the invisible and gentle Foggy Gauze. His look was getting colder, and his intent to kill became stronger.

The strength of these cardless sects was nothing to him, but they were not any weaker than his subordinates when he had left the Big Crack Base. He started to worry about Bogner. In such a small area, he had met two hundred people in four hours. The number of enemies he estimated to was frightening! However, he did not panic. In the consecutive years of killing in the Hundred Depths, his mind toughened to an unimaginable extent.

The teams who Chen Mu encountered halfway were soon startled by his ferocious tactics. He was like a killing machine that was tireless and had incomparable precision—harvesting lives indifferently. He gradually advanced, the bodies left behind by him laid around in strange positions.

Some people ran off to report back to their leader. At first, only those who were responsible for sending back the information left the battlefield. However, these enemies soon realized that as long as they turned and fled, Chen Mu would not kill them. This discovery immediately sent the other party’s morale plummeting. The number of people who turned around and fled for their lives soared. The team that ran was increasing in size, and the scenario of hundreds of people fleeing was extremely vivid.

Thus, a bizarre scene formed among the cracks. A large group of people ran for their lives up ahead and was followed by a few individuals behind. It looked like a lion casually chasing after a flock of sheep. There was a team of about 200 people ahead, and it was bigger than any other group. The leader was tall and burly, with a bald head and fierce eyebrows. He stood there like a giant tower.

“All of you stand still! What are you panicking for?”

The bald man frowned, his face was ferocious as he screamed at them. His voice was thunderous and exploded in their ears. The crowd was shaken, stopping in their tracks consciously. These exhausted cardless sects were all happy when they saw who it was, as they all rushed to give their reports noisily.

After listening to a couple of sentences, the bald man immediately understood what was going on. He snorted fiercely, “One man actually scared you bunch of useless creatures to this extent. Go back and wait for your punishment.” With that, he went straight pass the team and stood there to wait for the enemy. The subordinated saw this and hurriedly followed him. Those of cardless sects who fled didn’t dare to escape anymore, but they were terrified of Chen Mu after the massacre. They huddled fearfully behind the bald man.

Chen Mu soon discovered the gigantic bald man that was awaiting him.