The Card Apprentice

Chen Mu did not know the Shadow Bee mentioned by the Demonic Woman, but now he clearly witnessed the little fella’s terrifying attack power. Moreover, it was so strong, it could make the Demonic Woman anxious. Its lightning speed alone was enough to strain Chen Mu’s nerves.

Suddenly, his vision was a blur, and the creature disappeared from his sight again, shocking Chen Mu. He subconsciously moved his body. Almost at the same time, a flash of light struck at the position he stood a moment ago.

So fast! A chill ran through Chen Mu’s heart. If it weren’t for his breakthrough just now, being alerted by State Zero, he would definitely have been beheaded by that flash of light! Before entering the Federation, it was quite rare for him to be threatened by a wild creature, even deep in the jungle.

He would never have thought that the first creature he’d meet in Hundred Depths would be so dreadful! He was now compelled to believe what the Demonic Woman said, that no one would be able to get out from Hundred Depths. The Shadow Bee was several times faster than the Wavy Snow Bat, which was well-known for its high speed.

It was too fast! Another flash of murderous light struck just short of Chen Mu’s chest. The chilling killing intent made his hair stand on their end. Then, the creature disappeared from his vision once again.

Ding! The Demonic Woman finally attempted to attack the Shadow Bee. She rolled the black vines on her hand into a ball to block its attacks. Chen Mu had just recovered from his shock. At this very moment, he felt that he was only one step away from death as if he literally rubbed shoulders with the reaper.

Ding Ding Ding! The Demonic Woman was thrown into panic as her black vines were unable to keep up with the Shadow Bee’s terrific speed. Her life was at risk many times. Chen Mu was concentrated as all of his random thoughts and fears disappeared. The only thing that left in his vision was the afterimage of the Shadow Bee, which could hardly be seen.

Perhaps due to his attentiveness, Chen Mu realized that he was able to keep up with the Shadow Bee’s speed under State Zero! But its speed was still incredibly fast! Although he could keep up with its pace, he was still unable to attack it. Energy forms are usually known for their speed; however, he was still inferior to this creature born for speed.

He no longer hesitated, or rather, he had no leeway for hesitation anymore. This scary creature could attack him numerous times every second. He had never seen such a high frequency of attack before.

Go Cage of Thousand Cuts! At that moment, the black and white energy beads appeared floating around the air. At the same time, blazing light and numerous light beams crossed perpendicularly, forming a fine cage of light! The cage of light was so tight that there was very little distance between each light beam. Chen Mu had created a record-breaking number of light beams! The more light beams he created, the finer the cuts were. His killing intent was boiling!

Chen Mu had given his all! He didn’t dare to hold back any of his power! The cage of light was floating in the air, as if it was weaved using many fine gold wires, just like an exquisite artwork. There was a creature the size of half an adult’s fist being trapped inside the cage of light. Its body was penetrated by numerous light beams. Only now did Chen Mu saw the Shadow Bee’s full body. It was larger than the common bees. Its whole body was coated in a shiny black metallic surface. What most threatening was the weapon at the end of its body! Different from the stingers of other bees, its stinger was dark and thin, approximately seven to eight centimeters, which made it look unusually threatening and ferocious.

Slap! There was a slight noise, and the Shadow Bee was sliced into several parts, falling to the ground. Both of them looked at each other in relief from avoiding death. “Are there many creatures like this inside?” Chen Mu was trying to sound as calm as possible. The Demonic Woman was gasping. Though the battle just now only lasted for a short time, her stamina and mental strength were greatly exhausted. After bringing her breath back to normal, she explained slowly. “Shadow Bee ranked 17th most dangerous in the Hundred Depths’ Bestiary of discovered beasts.”

“17th…” Chen Mu swallowed hard. The Demonic Woman looked at Chen Mu, “What’s worse is that they live in groups.” Then, she added quickly, “No one had visited the interior of the Hundred Depths before, so no one knows what exactly is here.”

Chen Mu was speechless. This terrifyingly fast killer lived in groups! And it was only ranked 17th in the Bestiary? Gosh, doesn’t that mean that there would be at least 16 creatures that are more difficult to deal with waiting for them? The Demonic Woman was still emphasizing the fact that they were still inside the Hundred Depths, which had numerous unknown and scary creatures that were not yet listed in the Bestiary!

In other words, they could face 16 types of even more powerful creatures! Chen Mu looked even more ghastly than before. “What a scary place!” Chen Mu released his frustration with a shout as he could no longer stay calm.

* * *

Seven days later.

Chen Mu was tending to the wounds on his body carefully. There were approximately seven to eight cuts on his chest and back. Some of the cuts had started to scar while some were still dark red with blood. However, his face was stone cold as he became used to getting injuries across the several battles in these few days.

“Were all the materials collected?” asked Chen Mu to the Demonic Woman while he applied medicine to his wounds. This was their temporary camp. Chen Mu put all his belongings here as he didn’t worry about losing these items.

“Yes, everything is here,” said the Demonic Woman, pleased. Chen Mu revealed a relieved face. He got some of the wounds on his body while he was helping the Demonic Woman to collect the materials. Since they were trapped in the Hundred Depths together, they have no choice but to help each other to survive. This had made their relationship better as the Demonic Woman was willing to help tend to Chen Mu’s wounds. Yet, it was limited only to his back, which he couldn’t do by himself.

The reason he helped her to collect the materials was to use the Painted Graphistemma that he collected in the wind rift. The Demonic Woman’s black wine was comparatively weak while facing the wild creatures here. She needed stronger weapons urgently. The Painted Graphistemma would be able to meet her needs. However, they needed more materials to make it into a card. Fortunately, though there were many ferocious creatures in Hundred Depths, precious materials were readily found.

The Demonic Woman used her perception whenever she used her black vine. Chen Mu knew about this when they first met. He still remembered when she converted a card into a thin filament. It seemed like magic to him then. Now only he realized that it was actually just a different type of card.

The earliest card technology used in the House of Hundred Depths actually originated from the Federation. Throughout the years, the wise people among them had successfully developed a unique card system. Now, their card system was far better than the Van Sant System, which was popular in the Federation. This was most likely due to the unique environment of the Hundred Depths.

Although Chen Mu was here only for a few days, he had keenly noticed the difference between the two systems. Especially in terms of materials, the Hundred Depths were blessed with rare materials. Since they were dependent on geothermal energy instead of light energy, the depths consisted of numerous fine channels similar to a grid of veins. It was the presence of such channels that made them easily affected by perception.

The perception of the Demonic Woman was not too strong. In the Federation, she would only be regarded as a lower-grade card artisan. However, she was able to fully control the black vine on her hand, as if an extension from her body. She could not only control its power, but she knew how to use perception to support her control. To a certain extent, her vine was like Chen Mu’s Power Gloves. What made them different was that the former occurred naturally while the latter was artificial.

Combining her exceptional technical skill and excellent speed, as well as her talent in utilizing the dark element, she was an absolute terror. What amazed Chen Mu the most was the Demonic Woman’s incredible skills. It was totally different from Wei-ah’s style of the cardless sects, hers was even more versatile and unpredictable, and it did not focus on power. One similarity between them was that these skills were accumulated over the generations to compiled into a complete system.

The Demonic Woman was in deep concentration. She soaked the Painted Graphistemma in different types of liquids patiently. It seemed like a traditional method, but in Chen Mu’s eyes, there was not much difference between this method with his way of treating the materials in card-making. It was a process that required a lot of patience. A total of 15 days was spent on treating the materials and included 31 treatment methods in the process.

When Chen Mu carefully observed the Painted Graphistemma, he was shocked to realize that the Painted Graphistemma had a naturally patterned structure. In other words, it was a natural card appliance! The procedures applied to it were only to enhance its performance. Chen Mu was amazed by his discovery.

To him, the Hundred Depths was really a utopia. However, the existence of these natural card appliance had left the card system in the Hundred Depths relatively primitive. They didn’t need to study better patterns as they were already blessed with natural resources. They only needed to utilize the resources well.

The only thing that stunned Chen Mu was the ability of the Demonic Woman to convert it into a card. It seemed like a magical conversion, and it amazed Chen Mu. It was regretful to say that the conversion was beyond his knowledge. When he asked the Demonic Woman, she also didn’t know the methodology behind the conversion. It was passed down to her from generation to generation. Chen Mu was suddenly amazed by the unique wisdom of the previous generations. He daren’t underestimate them any longer.

With the Painted Graphistemma, the Demonic Woman was like a tiger with wings, she became much stronger. Both of them carefully attempted to explore the outside of the Hundred Depths. During the journey, they were involved in many battles. However, they had no choice but to fight to get out of this place unless they wanted to stay in this place for their entire life.

Neither the Demonic Woman nor Chen Mu was willing to do so! Killing was the only option for them to survive here. They had to keep battling so that they could survive and get out of the place. By day 30, they had moved forward by a lot. There were many new injuries on Chen Mu’s body, but he has gotten used to this. Now, he looked fiercer and more murderous, as if a gleaming sword out of its sheath revealing its sharpness.The Demonic Woman stood beside Chen Mu quietly, the Painted Graphistemma curled on her body like a snake.