The Card Apprentice - Fishing in Turbid Water

The sharp-eyed Chen Mu was looking through the window with his eyes tightly focused. He saw a number of suspicious looking people. Although they were mixed in with the crowd, they all seemed to be looking for something.
    

Madam Ning had been getting ready to give Chen Mu her home address just as she saw a frightening scene. In the blink of an eye the calm youth in front of her had abruptly swerved into something fierce, with his whole body suffused in peril. His eyes had become as sharp as needles, with his whole being like a sharp dagger hidden in the dark. That reminded her of those forever wooden-faced guys in the clan, who never smiled or uttered a stray word.
    

She looked at Chen Mu with uncertainty and disbelief, wondering why she hadn’t realized that she might see such disposition in him. She followed Chen Mu’s gaze out the window, but apart from the surging crowds, she didn’t see anything.
    

Was he really a card master? Madam Ning wavered, as she felt her mind in some turmoil.
    

Chen Mu’s mind was racing to consider what he should do, when he caught a glimpse of Madam Ning’s frightened look. He blanked before he realized that Madam Ning had sensed his own strangeness. He loosened his expression, and said softly, “Please don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” He had been very moved by that good-hearted woman helping him just then, and he added, “Get off the train fast.”
    

If there was going to be a conflict, he didn’t want that well-respected woman to be harmed. Madam Ning had never expected Chen Mu to say anything like that, so she was somewhat surprised and hesitated a moment before she quickly parted with Chen Mu and immediately got off the train.
    

Chen Mu had spotted seven suspicious looking guys, which was a far lower number than he would have guessed. If he had seen dozens or even a hundred men, he wouldn’t have been surprised, but only seven for such a large platform was rather few.
    

Chen Mu was positioned near the number one underground platform, with there being five exits altogether for the convenience of passengers, including tunnels that they would have to pass through.
    

Among those seven suspicious looking men, five were defending the area around the exits.
    

The danger he was facing didn’t make Chen Mu lose his senses. On the contrary, when he was under the most pressure he would display extraordinary tenacity and calm. Looking at the crowds, a bold plan was taking shape in Chen Mu’s mind.
    

He watched as Madam Ning disappeared through the exit, which was when the last bit of Chen Mu’s worry disappeared. After going through so many misadventures, it was getting increasingly rare to find such a tender heart.
    

His gaze was turning cold and was as sharp as the edge of a knife. 
    

He turned up his collar and lowered his head, and quietly blended into the crowd.
    

No one had noticed that on the index finger of his right hand hanging down was a crystalline tailless shuttle emitting a lively thrumming sound. He had focused his perception very carefully on the area of his index finger, which was an achievement from that period when his fine control of his perception had so greatly improved.
    

Those tendrils of perception were extremely advantageous for such fine control, which would be very hard to detect by any adversary. Its only shortcoming was that the whole process of taking control was five times longer than his fastest shot, but if it were used for a sneak attack, the shortcoming wouldn’t have much impact.
    

His gaze was concentrated on the suspicious looking man in position at the second exit, and in silence they had locked onto one another. He knew that the reflexes of that kind of professional card artisan were extremely quick, and that he had a very short time. He didn’t dare to be diverted any slightest bit from his hand, as he pointed his finger to the imaginary spot.
    

The man seemed to have felt something as his face changed.
    

“Careful!”
    

His call was sharply cut off by a strange sharp whistling sound. A finger sized bloody hole appeared on his forehead, while his lips squirmed as though he were trying to say something, and his vision went slowly slack.
    

“Ah!”
    

“Someone’s been killed!”
    

The calls were lost among the shrill cries of terrified women, as the entire platform became chaotic. The terrified people ran madly through the exit tunnels.
    

The instant Chen Mu let loose the tailless shuttle, he shrank into the crowd like lightening. He was half squatting in a very strange position and like a fish or like a snake as he drilled obliquely into the crowd. In that sort of situation, ordinary people who were not careful might fall over, which could only have the result of being trampled to death. Chen Mu was like a snake passing through undergrowth, advancing and retreating at will.
    

Spending so much time with the swordfish training lately had given him unbelievably quick reflexes, and he could always find some hairsbreadth of time to get through some narrow space, dodging among the trampling feet.
    

“Damn!” The guy who was in the lead position couldn’t help cursing. Because of the disturbance in perception, he had immediately spotted Chen Mu the instant he released the tailless shuttle. But Chen Mu had drilled into the crowed without waiting for any reaction.
    

People were rushing everywhere, and they hadn’t yet found Chen Mu. They simply hadn’t thought that Chen Mu could be crouching along. Although card artisans might be somewhat stronger than ordinary people, they could be just as easily be trampled to death in that kind of chaotic scene.
    

The people ran crazily toward the exit tunnels like a tide of water flooding them, with terror written all over their faces. The five remaining men didn’t dare to block them. Although they were card artisans, and although they deployed powers beyond what ordinary people had, if they didn’t stop themselves from trying to block the tide of people crazed with terror, they would be torn to pieces by those people who were already out of their senses.
    

They could only watch as the crowd rolled up everything around it like a surge of water rushing by. They had never thought that Chen Mu would make his moves so brazenly, in the light of day. They had utterly descended into a passive state, and could only watch, trying to find Chen Mu among the crowd without any success.
    

The lead card artisan was nailed still in the middle of the crowd, when his expression transformed. Seven of them were after one person, who was supposed to be a novice. To go back with nothing after losing a man would be enough to thoroughly humiliate them in the clan.
    

Damn! What kind of an idiot would call him a novice? He was clearly an ace, taking advantage of his surroundings, grasping the timing, without leaving a crack to get through!
    

He suddenly felt something wiggling under his feet. He looked down and froze.
    

While he had shrunken his body to shuttle through the crowd, Chen Mu really hadn’t seen what was going on around him, though he was staying as alert as he could. But he had never imagined that he might run into the feet of his adversary.
    

He saw that the apparatus on the man’s wrist had been activated like a spark from a flint, and that he could fire at will. Without really thinking, Chen Mu shot up from the ground smashing hard into his adversary’s chest.
    

This man had been enlightened in an instant and wondered to his endless regret how he could have frozen at such a desperate moment.
    

He had just been going to fire when everything went dark.
    

Pow! Chen Mu slammed into his chest, using his whole body’s strength! His explosive bursting power which had been enough to free him from the entanglement of the water grass had all crashed into the man’s chest.
    

He seemed like he had been hit head-on by a shuttle car coming at him full speed, as he flew up like a sandbag horizontally. All the people in his way fell like dominoes, as he crashed over a wall of people, leaving a clear passage for Chen Mu.
    

He lay sprawled on the floor, not making a move, with the apparatus on his right hand cracked open and shooting sparks. All the uncontrolled energy in the apparatus was shooting out rays of light.
    

Chen Mu didn’t have time to check, as he rolled his whole body back, and then plunged right back into the crowd like a fish and disappeared.
    

Hsiu, hsiu, hsiu! Duo, Duo, Duo!
    

Three dark red rays and three wavy blades almost simultaneously hit the spot where Chen Mu had just been.
    

“Boss! Boss!” the rest of the card artisans were calling out.
    

Bam! A huge explosion was their response. A ball of red churning flame was leaping up from where that card artisan had fallen, ruthlessly swallowing up some of the travelers who couldn’t run.
    

The use of power cards was very safe, and they wouldn’t generally explode. But under certain conditions, such as when the energy that was being channeled out had lost its control, an explosion could occur. The power cards used by card artisans were all high capacity power cards, which would have terrifying power if they were to explode.
    

The crowd had become even more chaotic, with shrill screams everywhere, as everyone was squeezing toward the exits. If one were to say that Chen Mu just then had triggered the crowds ferment, then the explosion had driven the disturbance to a climax without any doubt.
    

Chen Mu didn’t dare to stoop his body that time. There was so much power pressing around him that even standing still was hard to do. If he were to fall over from a lack of caution, Chen Mu was certain that before he could stand up, countless peoples’ feet would have trampled over his body.
    

It was all he could do to keep his balance.
    

But in that chaotic scene, those five remaining card artisans could also only look out for themselves. They were basically mixed up into the crowd, and with the crowd in such a riot, they couldn’t control their own bodies and could only move with the tide of people. No one could go against it upstream by that time, which wouldn’t have been any different from looking to die.
    

Seeing the crowd of terrified travelers near them, they knew that it was less and less likely that they could grab Chen Mu. They were being forced by the crowd through the exit. They wisely chose to protect themselves, as by that time they couldn’t even fly if they wanted to. They were still afraid that their feet would leave the ground, with them squeezed until they lost their balance, and then the inevitable result.
    

After getting through the five exits, the crowd had gathered together again, with everyone running desperately forward. The screams in the passageways and the tromping of feet were thunderous. After running a hundred meters, they ran into the travelers exiting from the other platform.
    

Everyone was running in a massive panic with astonishing noise and momentum. In their foolishness, some of them knew perfectly well what had happened, while the people running out from the other platform kept running ahead.
    

Looking at the pandemonium in the passageways, the five remaining card artisans knew very well that they had lost the action.
    

Their adversary was just too cunning, using people as a shield and deliberately creating the pandemonium.
    

Of course, one important factor was that they were in Amay City and didn’t dare deploy too many people.
    

The Zuo family had always very carefully maintained good relations with their neighboring Ning household. There basically weren’t very many Zuo family people stationed in Amay City, and they had pulled together only a small team that time, so as not to draw the attention of the Ning household.
    

They had assumed that their adversary was a novice, and they certainly never thought that Chen Mu’s reaction and response would be so fast and effective. But that wasn’t the only thing which caught them by surprise. Their adversary’s blows had come without any warning. They were all seasoned veterans, and they hadn’t detected any fluctuations within the scope of their perception, and not one of them could tell when their adversary was getting ready to attack. When they discovered that their partners had been locked in, they had only just found out after it was already too late.
    

Chen Mu easily walked out of the station. Apart from his clothes being a little wrinkled, he had remained completely clean. He had a natural expression, while his eyes occasionally betrayed his vigilance. The station exit had already become chaotic, with countless people still running out, many with looks of terror, though still more of them were just confused. But none of them slowed their pace.
    

Chen Mu was very satisfied with that action of his. The results of the battle were enough to make him proud, having successfully escaped from seven professional card artisans while killing two among them. He still didn’t know that the card artisan that he had smashed down toward the end was the leader of these seven, as well as being the emissary of the Zuo family in Amay City.
    

For such a high-ranking card artisan to be killed at the hand of the unknown Chen Mu acting on his own, who knew what those under him must have felt.
    

There had already been quite a few highly ranked card artisans killed at Chen Mu’s hands; Yu Xin, Daniel, plus the one just then; already over three. If it had been a battle of one against such impressive adversaries, any among the three could have killed him many times over.
    

By then Chen Mu was starting to understand what the demonic woman had said, that while there are many ways to kill a person, some of the simplest ways are the most effective. If he hadn’t used his explosive power just then when he ran into that card artisan but had chosen to use the tailless shuttle card instead, the one dead would certainly be him.
    

The reason that the apparatus on that card artisan’s wrist could explode was that the energy from the power card in the apparatus had already gone through the fantasy card to be formed into some particularly composed energy body. But when control was lost afterward, it exploded. Which is to say that the card artisan had used the only measure he had left, which was to shoot.
    

And as far as he himself was concerned, if he hadn’t had the impulse to smash as soon as he moved, but had deployed the tailless shuttle card, he would have been many times slower than that card artisan.
    

Fortunately, he had enough brute force and chose the most appropriate means, which was crucial.