The Card Apprentice - 421 Ma Hu
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421 Ma Hu

Angie, who always had a calm and seasoned expression, flushed unusually red as he stammered, "Fifty-eighth."

"Fifty-eighth…" Chen Mu said thoughtfully, "It must have been hard." Although he didn't know the level of difficulty for the so-called Dongrui Playoffs, he wasn't so arrogant to think it would be easy to go from 58th to fourth.

"There are 60 teams altogether," added Tai-shu Ying, who was following behind. Jiang Ling was covering her mouth and snickering. Tai-shu Ying looked quite displeased as she muttered, "What do you mean 58th? It's third last! Because of that, Grandpa taught Daddy a lesson. Hmph. Ma Hu is just a big-chested, muscle-bound guy with no brains!"

Angie turned green and rushed to correct her. "Being big-chested without a brain refers to women, miss."

Tai-shu Ying justified herself. "Isn't Ma Hu big-chested? His bulges so much that it's bigger than Aunt Mary's. Wouldn't he be called big-chested without a brain to have such a big chest and to be that stupid?"

Jiang Ling was already bent over laughing, nearly rolling on the ground. Chen Mu couldn't hide his smile either.

"You really have to help Daddy get a good ranking this time, Uncle White Mask! Hmph! Don't be fooled by those guys!" Tai-shu Ying was clenching her little fists with indignation.

Chen Mu smiled without saying anything.

The party arrived at the training area. The Tai-shu household was worthy of being called wealthy overlords. All of the facilities in the training area were quite advanced, well beyond Chen Mu's training field in the ravine. The training area had many specialized training rooms, such as a strength training room, a flight training room, and a shooting training room.

Still, there wasn't a person to be seen in that advanced training room.

Chen Mu found it strange. "Don't they normally have to train?" That situation would never happen in the ravine, where things would always be in full swing on the training field no matter what time it was. There would be card artisans doing additional training on their own initiative even in the middle of the night there. Chen Mu hadn't seen a single person since the time he entered that place.

"The boss has a lot of work to do every day and doesn't have time to come watch over them." Angie felt his face burning.

"Daddy doesn't understand." Tai-shu Ying once again cut through things unceremoniously, not feeling at all that she had said something wrong. "Daddy hasn't liked to fight since he was small, and he doesn't have the least bit of masculinity."

"How can you talk that way about your father, miss?" Angie's expression showed how upset he was.

"I'm only telling the truth," Tai-shu Ying said impa.s.sively.

If anyone else had spoken so badly about their boss, Angie would have immediately argued with them. Since the one talking that way was the mistress, however, he could only smile bitterly.

Ling Ling smiled still more, though she quickly caught the look in Tai-shu Ying's eyes. "What are you so happy about?" Tai-shu Yang asked harshly.

"Tsk. tsk. I wonder what sort of expression Uncle Cheng would make if he heard such talk."

Tai-shu Ying shrugged. "I think he would almost certainly agree."

Chen Mu thought he'd heard clearly. The third son of Tai-shu Yong wasn't so interested in managing card artisans, so that card artisan called Ma Hu would normally be responsible for it. But it was obvious Ma Hu had no ability in that regard and was too lax toward those card artisans.

Since he couldn't think of any better way to see Tai-shu Yong, his best way would be to get through the predicament he now faced. It was a good thing he had such top-notch aces as Bogner and Jiang Liang under him, so it wouldn't be as hard for him to face the issue.

"Order them to gather in five minutes," Chen Mu said calmly to Angie.

Before Angie could give the orders, Chen Mu turned around and said to Sang Hanshui, "Prepare for battle. If someone disobeys, knock them down."

Sang Hanshui nodded to show that he understood. Angie's heart skipped a beat. It looked like that gang would be going through some suffering.

"Don't be too hard on them, so you don't kill anybody," Chen Mu told him, ever calm.

Angie and the rest went cold. They were used to easy lives, so the sentence "Don't kill anybody" gripped them with fear. Only Tai-shu Ying was excited. "Right! Hit them hard. If you kill someone, it won't matter! I've never liked the looks of that gang of tras.h.!.+"

The five minutes went by, and no one had arrived. The expression on Angie's face was pretty ugly, and he was especially embarra.s.sed to have the little mistress of the Jiang family looking on.

After a full ten minutes, some card artisans finally started to arrive sporadically. Some of them had seen Chen Mu and his group, and their faces went white. Those who hadn't seen them looked at them strangely. Of course, they recognized Angie, but what was the mistress doing in the training area? Yikes! There was also a pretty girl there! Quite a few of them were looking at Jiang Ling with bright eyes.

Jiang Ling kept smiling as though she didn't notice. The stalwart beside her gave out a cold groan. If there weren't still a few people next to him, he would have long since taught those s.e.x-crazed guys a lesson.

There were more and more card artisans, one of whom was brazen enough to come up to Angie and say, "What's going on here, Master Angie?"

Angie felt that he was losing face in front of those guys, so of course he didn't have a happy expression as he said coldly, "Stand back! There will be an announcement in a while!"

The card artisan retreated resentfully, though the group became immediately more calm once everyone knew Master Angie wasn't in such a good mood and that it wouldn't be the best time to make trouble.

After a full 20 minutes, a big bruiser strolled in late. That big guy was nearly two meters tall and very fat, standing there like a mountain of flesh. Chen Mu then finally understood why Tai-shu Ying would stick to calling him big-chested and dumb; his chest really was exaggerated, as though there were two big b.a.l.l.s of flesh hanging on it.

That was then Ma Hu.

Ma Hu called out from a distance in a booming voice, "Why are you in such a hurry, Master Angie? I'm just in the middle of something critical! You calling me out just about busted my b.a.l.l.s!"

When the rest of the card artisans heard that, they couldn't stop laughing, knowing who was there. The faces of Tai-shu Ying and Jiang Ling both went cold.

Angie was enraged. "How dare you talk like that in front of these girls, Ma Hu?"

"Aiya! I didn't see that there were girls here!" Ma Hu acted out his grievance. Tai-shu Ying's gaze was dark as she stared hard at Ma Hu. Tai-shu Cheng's power was far from that of his two older brothers, and there were pitifully few card artisans wanting to depend on him. Ma Hu was the strongest among them. There had been many times when Tai-shu Cheng had been rather indulgent toward the rest of them, which then led to Ma Hu becoming increasingly arrogant.

"The boss's new command is that everyone will take orders from this gentleman, starting today." After saying that, Angie retreated off to the side to look on coldly.

Ma Hu snorted and swaggered over to Chen Mu, saying with disdain, "What are you, little one? What are you doing wearing a d.a.m.ned mask?" While he was talking, his hand was moving toward Chen Mu's face to take off the mask.

"Break his hands." Chen Mu's eyes were suddenly overflowing with chill as he spat out those words without wavering.

Having long since prepared, Sang Hanshui didn't hesitate to wave his hands, and two red b.a.l.l.s of energy went flying toward Ma Hu's hands. Chen Mu hadn't said which hand, so Sang Hanshui simply wasted both of them. He had long since formed a bad opinion of that fatty.

Ma Hu's face changed dramatically. He basically did have some ability; otherwise, he couldn't have taken on the management of those guards. That obese body suddenly fluttered and actually took on the sense of being light.

Seeing that he would dodge those two glowing red b.a.l.l.s, a cold smile flashed through Sang Hanshui's eyes. Without the least movement on his part, the red b.a.l.l.s suddenly turned and increased their speed, always keeping Ma Hu's hands as their target.

Ma Hu then knew he would kick the bucket, and his eyes filled with terror. The speed of those glowing red b.a.l.l.s was too fast! Before he could react again, they hit his arms with a pow.

Sang Hanshui had never been kind-hearted, and he was upset by Ma Hu's arrogance, so his moves were even more ruthlessly hot. If Chen Mu hadn't just given his instructions not to injure them fatally, he would have just killed him.

"Aaaah!" Ma Hu screamed as both his hands were broken at the wrists and mutilated, showing two ghastly, cut-off bones. Ma Hu was writhing on the floor in pain, screaming, as the blood gurgled out from his hands and went all over the floor.

Those guys wearing the masks were ruthless and hot types, after all! Angie's face went white, though he was inwardly rather glad the mistress hadn't enraged those guys that much before. Otherwise, the results would have been unimaginable!

Jiang Ling's face was drained of color, never having seen such a b.l.o.o.d.y scene. The stalwart's eyes brightened beside her as he stared hard at Sang Hanshui, who had made the move. Only Tai-shu Ying wasn't the least big scared; on the contrary, she was strangely excited.

Ma Hu's screams echoed to make the scalp go numb in the calm training field. Taking a look at Ma Hu, Chen Mu took a couple of steps forward and kicked him lightly with his right foot, placing an accurate kick to the back of Ma Hu's neck. That made the screams rattle to a stop. The card artisans, who had just been so full of laughter, were scared silent, losing all the color in their faces and looking terrified at Chen Mu's group of four.

"I am very sorry, but you all got here late." There wasn't the least fluctuation in Chen Mu's voice, and his eyes showing through the white mask were totally indifferent. "You will have to be punished for that. You'll do 50 repet.i.tions of Cla.s.s B, Level 115 full tactical training. The last ten to finish won't get any dinner."

The card artisans looked at one another. Suddenly, without knowing who started it, the card artisans were like frightened rabbits as they scattered and jumped with desperate speed into the training room.

The Cla.s.s B, Level 115 full tactical training wasn't a difficult training, but 50 sets was a terrifying number. Ninety percent of the card artisans didn't think they could complete that many, but no one dared to object. Ma Hu, who was still rolling on the floor, reminded them that the four masked men in front of them were butchers with no humanity.

To argue with butchers was to look to die.

Chen Mu then said to Angie, "Take him away for treatment."

Angie rushed to call over some men to drag the unconscious Ma Hu away. Chen Mu took a look at Tai-shu Ying chomping at the bit, and he simply a.s.signed a job to her. "You go supervise them."

"I like that!" After she said that, she ran off in a puff of smoke. Worried that something might happen to Tai-shu Ying, Jiang Ling glanced at Chen Mu and then followed her, along with her bodyguard.