The Card Apprentice

Two men moved stealthily along the shadows of the crevice. They were swift, yet they excelled in hiding their bodies by staying under the shield of the shadows throughout their operation. They moved agilely and silently, like phantoms. Two more figures were behind them, one of them with a dark golden mask on while the other was a boorish man.

There was a teen, seventeen or eighteen years old, with a petite round face and thick snow-white eyebrows that were especially outstanding. His small eyes were constantly alert as he concealed himself within the shadows. Next to him was a man with an expressionless face who stood still like a rock within the shadows. Little Bu Mo frowned as he showed a sign of confusion. Beside him, Wei-ah remained expressionless.

Behind the two of them, Sue and Yangshan Fei were flying steadily. They were used to working alongside Wei-ah and Little Bu Mo; it had become the norm in recent years. In the beginning, Sue and Yangshan Fei were against such cooperation, but they quickly realized that although the intensive fights were very tiring, it greatly benefited them by improving their skills significantly. Since then, they became more enthusiastic.

Four of them were divided into two groups, Wei-ah with Little Bu Mo, Sue with Yangshan Fei.

“Boring, boring, boring!” Yangshan Fei sang off and on; his vocals were off-putting.

Sue’s eyes, exposed through the silver mask, unexpectedly opened as she exclaimed, “This isn’t right!”

Yangshan Fei’s singing abruptly stopped as he asked innocently, “Not right? What isn’t right?”

With caution in her eyes, Sue said, “We have been traveling for so long today, but we have yet to encounter even one enemy. This isn’t right!”

“What is wrong with this? Ha! They must be afraid of getting beaten by us!” Yangshan Fei grinned.

Sue remained serious, as she shook her head and refuted, “No. They had mobilized their troops.”

Yangshan Fei got excited and chuckled. “Hah! I just happened to be restless these days. Those two blockheads ahead were mental, and we didn’t even get to warm up. Haha, I can finally fight my best today!”

Su looked afar and murmured, “I’m afraid that a fight will be inevitable today.”

Wei-ah’s gaze was wandering when all of a sudden, he dashed forward. Little Bu Mo quickly followed after him, as well as the two behind him.

* * *

In another crevice.

A sloppy, silver-haired man shouted while his hands were on his hips, “Pull yourselves together! I will be bringing up the rear, so whoever dishonors me will—heh heh!”

Everyone in front of him was aged eighteen or nineteen. These youths were sitting lazily on the floor, just like the silver-haired man. They looked like a mob as their outfits were random and disorderly. However, someone observant enough would have noticed that although they seemed lazy and casual, they were all in a position that would allow them to battle at any time. The pickets, sentries, and ambush spots were faintly visible.

The scale of the Youth Guards was much more extensive compared to how it was before Chen Mu left. These youths were filtered and selected from Eastern Wei. Each of them was extremely skillful and talented. Additionally, they had been training earnestly under the influence of the persevering atmosphere within the Eastern Wei, resulting in rapid improvement in their skills.

According to the evaluation conducted by several prominent organizations, among existing forces, the Eastern Wei was taking the lead on the development of its second echelon, leaving the others far behind. Many people doubted such a result. The other five in the Big Six were a long way ahead in terms of their history of establishment and the number of facilities. However, they never would have expected a rising force, such as Eastern Wei’s second echelon of Youth Guards, to appear and even precede them.

However, these evaluations were not made based on capability. In terms of skill on average, the Comprehensive Federation Academy in the Heavenly Federation would be ranked first, whereas the Youth Guards could only place third. Nevertheless, when determination, something that had always been neglected in the past, was factored in. The Youth Guards were all evaluated to possess a determination level of “Steel”. To be assessed as steel was the pride of the Youth Guards, as well as the most outstanding trait of Eastern Wei.

Even with the most outstanding General Staff Unit of the Federation, the Eastern Wei had been through failures during the expansion in recent years. However, no matter the difficulties faced, Eastern Wei never faltered. It was even pretty common for them to turn the tides when at a disadvantage. Those who seek to join Eastern Wei would have a more reliable experience on this.

The Youth Guard has then become the most sought-after career for the youngsters. However, it was not easy to be qualified as part of the team. To become one of them, one must first experience being part of the different echelons within the Youth Guard. Nonetheless, countless outstanding teenagers compete fiercely to secure themselves a spot in the Youth Guard annually.

The silver-haired man seemed to be dissatisfied with the youths in front of him. He sneered. “Hmph! Last week’s outcomes were embarrassing! It was worse than the Birdeyes! Back in the day, when I battled against the Federation alongside the boss, that Birdeyes did not even exist. He was too lousy to be mentioned in the same sentence as me. You might not care about your dignity, but I do!”

The youth card artisans trembled as they learned that they would all be doomed if their commander were to get mad. They boosted their morale and shouted things like, “Boss-man, this time around, we will show them some of our true strength!”

“We were dozing off last time. Heh, we’re no scaredy cats, we’re tigers!”

“How dare these fellas try to compete with us? Hmph! We will punch their shiny teeth through the back of their skull!” The sounds were disorderly, like the shouting of ruffians.

The silver-haired man was not bothered. Instead, he seemed pleased. His waist-length hair swayed by the breeze, and his unbridled words spread far far away. “F*ck, get rid of ’em!”

Everyone shouted with a murderous spirit like packs of wolves, “Get rid of ’em!”

* * *

At an extremely narrow crevice 250km away from them.

Sang Hanshui’s iconic bird eyes flickered. As the previous deputy of Chen Mu, he had a very high reputation in the Eastern Wei. He gazed attentively at the movements of the silhouettes afar, lost in his thoughts.

“Maneuvering troops?” Sang softly murmured. Ever since being reorganized into Wooden Battalion and the Hunters, Xiaobo and himself voluntarily requested to be transferred to the Youth Guards after the captains got familiar with their respective teams. Then, the Youth Guards were divided into two groups, one led by Sang and the other by Xiaobo.

Behind him, 1000 youth card artisans stood solemnly. The first team gave a completely different impression than all the other Youth Guards. They were strictly disciplined and could be said to be the model of the card artisans. Every one of them was serious and reserved, with a neat set of battlesuit on each of them. They acted efficiently, without any hesitation. They were in perfect formation, even just sitting.

There must have been some unforeseen events! Sang pondered in his mind. He had been through countless battles as one of the two great commanders of the Youth Guards and was very sensitive towards the changes on the battlefield. After making his decision, he turned over and clapped.

All card artisans who were resting stood up immediately in unison.

Sang nodded satisfyingly, and gently said, “Everyone did great last week. However, Second Team will definitely try their best to retaliate after last week’s total loss. Despite not having good discipline, that was only a result of them being misled by a certain malicious person. Their overall performance is not to be underestimated. Hence, this week, we have to pull ourselves together so they can’t take advantage of us.”

“Yes, sir!” all card artisans answered in unison.

“Good.” Sang nodded. His bird eyes shone coldly, then he waved his hand, “Let us begin.”

The youth card artisans advanced towards the crevice silently, like a torrent.

At a broad crevice, there had just been a fierce battle as corpses were everywhere. A group of people was resting while acting as if the dead bodies around them didn’t exist.

“Heh, they are all cardless sects. Unfortunately, they are nowhere close to Wei-ah’s skills.” said a curvy card artisan whose breasts almost burst from her battle suit. The card artisans around her were all drooling, but no one dared to fix their eyes on those assets.

Lu Xiaoru had a bad temper. She had the right to say what she said. There weren’t many people who trained under Wei-ah at that time. Although the flat eyebrows who was standing beside her didn’t speak, the rock-like face showed a rare sign of approval.

The guarding team was reorganized into the Guard Camp. They had initially been attached to the Hunters, but they were now assigned back to the Big Crack Base. Lu regained her post as the commander, while flat eyebrows acted as a deputy commander. The calm and intelligent Lucky Xi was the third most important person, acting as a strategy adviser whereas barbarians like Crow Feather and Zhu Heng could only be the muscle of the group.

Nevertheless, the current Guard Camp was much more active than it was back in the days. This could be seen from the number of Grade Seven card artisans there. Other than the pioneers, everyone else was Grade Seven. The pioneers were still powerful as they possessed perceptions of level six, plus the custom-made cards and Card Insertions given by Chen Mu to them. Flat eyebrows, on the other hand, topped the army with the technique of Cross coupled with Breath Control. Other than Wei-ah, no one had succeeded in defeating him till now. Although Lu Xiaoru was less capable than flat eyebrows in terms of combat ability, there was a unanimous agreement for her to take up the position as a commander.

“Something’s fishy,” said Lucky Xi while adjusting the golden-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose. He added, “This is the third team we’ve met, looking at the directions that they were heading towards, all of them were returning.”

“What is the problem?” Lu asked. Amongst everyone in the camp, Xi’s judgment was always the most accurate.

Lucky Xi showed a note of contemplation on his face, “If it was only one or two teams, it could be a coincidence. However, it is impossible to meet three teams that were returning consecutively within such a short period by coincidence.”

Lu seemed discontented and said, “Just say what you want and stop beating around the bush!”

Lucky Xi, helplessly, said, “The enemy may be gathering their troops,”

“Gathering troops? Gathering troops for what?” Lu questioned in confusion. Suddenly, her expression changed, “Could it be that they’ve found out the location of our base camp?”

“Impossible!” Xi shook his head and denied. “The location of their base camp is very far away from where we are, plus there aren’t traces of the enemy near our base camp recently. It is impossible for them to get through all of the hidden guards silently.”

“Then, why are they gathering troops?”

“I don’t know either,” Xi shook his head, but said with an assuring tone, “Maybe there were some unknown changes. That is why they couldn’t help but gather their forces.”

Lu Xiaoru’s eyes lit up and said with excitement, “Isn’t this our chance then?”

Lucky Xi grinned, “It is still too early to tell, but we can go and take a look.”

The others then got up from their seats with an excited expression. The violent Crow Feather and Zhu Heng even clenched their fists and clenched their jaws. They could not wait to be in a fight.

Flat eyebrows had long disappeared from where he was. Lu was not at all impressed since she was used to it. She waved her fair arms as she commanded, “Go!”