The Card Apprentice - Chapter 28
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Chapter 28

The crescent-shaped blade pierced through the bush without any difficulty.

Right when everyone was still confused, the bush suddenly shook. A blue snake, the size of a human calf, was struggling vigorously. Seven cun's[1] away from its head was a tiny blood string.

The disciples of the DongWei Inst.i.tution were dumbstruck; they looked at the grappled snake in awe. Even the instructors couldn't have hid their thoughts.

However, the one who was the most astonished was Hong Dao.  Hong Dao had always appreciated himself. Only now did he understand what was called no matter how good you thought you were, there would always be someone out there that was better. He clearly saw, that there wasn't only one blood hole on the snake's body. It was two symmetrical blood holes. That crescent-shaped blade had pierced through the snake's entire body.

Were the Six Great inst.i.tutions really that strong? Waves arose in Hong Dao's heart.  Although the Stars Courtyard was ranked last among the Six Great Inst.i.tutions, a random disciple could have still been this terrifying!

The disciple slightly fixed his gla.s.ses, as if what he just did was just a minor, insignificant thing.

Chen Mu laid out the ten completed Cards in front of him. Numbers from one to ten were written on the corner of the Cards.  Satisfaction could be seen on his face. How could it be any better than this? He not only succeed in making those Movie Cards but also lowered the number of Cards from thirty Cards in the initial plan to only ten Cards. Hence, the costs for making them was only one third compared to before.

Regardless of being able to finish the Movie Cards, he was even more satisfied with the final results.  Currently, he was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with interests in these magical Token Cards.  Being able to compress the contents of the thirty Illusory Cards into ten Cards was enough in proving how miraculous it was. However, none of the ten completed Cards were Token Cards. They were all Illusory Cards. In fact, the knowledge about the Token Cards inside of that mysterious Card had reached an extremely high level.  What Chen Mu had learned till now could only have been considered as the basic knowledge of the Token.

Such little knowledge could already have resulted in such effects.  Chen Mu was also looking towards to knowing if one day he could have had been able to have used a completed Token Card, how intimidating could the results have been?

Lei Zi looked at Chen Mu as if he was some kinds of alien, "Wooden head, how did you do it?"

"It'll be kind of hard to explain." Chen Mu said while taking a gulp of water.

"Then forget it." Lei Zi hurriedly changed his voice. He understood Chen Mu well.  In his eyes, Chen Mu was a fanatic about the Card's techniques. If it was complicated for Chen Mu, then to him, it would have been some heavenly stuff.  It would have been painful in hearing Chen Mu earnestly explained a matter that he knew nothing about.

He didn't even bother about how skillful his technical abilities were. He only cared about the Movie Cards' quality.

"There's nothing to complain, absolutely nothing!" Lei Zi constantly complimented. His two giant circle earrings were swaying side to side, his face was filled with satisfaction, "This is the best set of Movie Cards I have ever seen! Wooden head, your skills are unbelievable! Well of course, needless to say about my script." He didn't really exaggerate. No matter if it was the images or the plot, there was nothing to complain about this set of Movie Cards.

The images followed a realistic style, with suitable lighting layout along with coherent and emotional story line had made the set become even more captivating and engaging.

He abruptly stood up, hands rose up to the sky and face was full of arrogance, "Wow haha, the time we – Mu Lei the heroic couple, conquer the Movie Card's world has come!"

Seeing Lei Zi's excitement, Chen Mu was also feeling quite happy. However, he still reminded LeiZi,  "Right now you need to think about how to sell them.  Ah, the Sound Cards as well." The Sound Cards had required an expert to make them, which Chen Mu couldn't make.

"Haha, just leave these to me." Lei Zi expressed a face saying that he had prepared all of these.

The two of them immediately started working. Chen Mu started working on the Movie Cards out of the remaining drafts, and Lei Zi was in charge of the Sound Cards. Moreover, they needed to find a place and sell those finished Movie Cards.  They were both stone-broke right now. If they couldn't sell the Movie Cards, they would have soon fallen into a situation of not having a single grain of rice left.

Chen Mu was way faster than Lei Zi. Using the experiences he gained in the first set; he rapidly created more Movie Cards.  Chen Mu didn't know whether it was because he had been regularly using it or not, but as time pa.s.sed by, his Perception skill had been much enhanced, as he had become even more nonchalant.  Now, he just needed one day to finish his set of ten Cards.  Finally, Chen Mu was able to create the five sets of Cards in only one day.

The cost for each set was three thousand Odi. On average each Card would have cost around two hundred Odi.  The most expensive were the Sound Cards. Each of them was eight hundred Odi. The gorgeous and delicate packaging costed a total of two hundred to make.  According to Chen Mu, they would sell a set of Movie Cards for about three thousand to four thousand Odi. They would have made a huge amount of money with that.  He didn't expect that Lei Zi was even greedier than him. He had intended to sell each at a price of ten thousand Odi. Chen Mu was startled, he doubted that they could have sold it at this price.  However, Lei Zi had said this was the market price.  Could it be that this Movie Cards profession had such huge profit margin? He had forgotten that they only had ten Illusory Cards, a common set of Movie Cards usually consisted of at least thirty to fifty Illusory Cards. This was one of the main reasons why they could have had such a profit.

However, it was even more unexpected to him that Lei Zi had sold five sets in just the first week. That meant that they had gained thirty-five thousand Odi in a just week. This speed had made Chen Mu become speechless.

Such inedible entertainment stuff could have been sold at this price, how unexpected.

On the second week, Lei Zi had sold another ten sets, and gained seventy thousand Odi.

Chen Mu was confused, "Where did you find that many people who treated money like trash like that?"

Lei Zi scornfully looked at Chen Mu, "Whether it's good or bad, I have been in this business since forever. There is no way that I don't even know a single person, isn't it? You think everyone is as dest.i.tute as us? What they are chasing after is mental satisfaction, you understand? To them, ten thousand Odi is only worth a meal.  Moreover, the kind of love in “Fortuitous Encounters” is a perfect mental pill for the mistresses of those wealthy people. We call this manufacture on demand.  Didn't they say that mentality is priceless? If we sell it at a low price, then aren't we despising their mental worlds?''

Chen Mu didn't say a word.

After the excitement, in the beginning, Chen Mu had soon developed into a habit. Finally, the remaining meaning of these only lay in those numbers now. After two months, they had sold a total of one hundred and fifty sets of “Fortuitous Encounters” and gained around one hundred thousand Odi.  Dividing it in two, both of them had each received about fifty thousand Odi's.

The two of them had never seen such huge amount of money. In such a short amount of time, it was just either that I was looking at you, or that you were looking back at me.

"I … We are rich now!" Lei Zi was happy to the extent that he stuttered. His eyes were sparked with the light from the money.

Different from the calmness on his face, Chen Mu's insides were shakened. Having these fifty thousand Odi, he could have ensured his living quality for a long period.  He also knew how much it would have cost for such a stable life.

The consumption rate of one hundred and fifty sets had satisfied Lei Zi, not even needing to mention Chen Mu.  According to Lei Zi's calculation, this consumption rate was not too bad. After all, they hadn't come from a proper corporation; they didn't have any trading lines.

"Wooden head, I intend to go travel for a while." Lei Zi suddenly bursted out a sentence after he had calmed himself down.

[1] Chinese's unit of measure. 1 Cun = 3.33 cm.