The best place to see Illusion Card billboards was Gold Street, the busiest shopping street in Dongshang Guard City.
Gold Street was one of the oldest streets in Dongshang Guard City, dating back to the city's founding. It had since become the commercial heart of the entire city. Towering buildings lined the street, streams of people wove back and forth, and shops were everywhere. Almost every top merchant had a store here. There was no better place to study Illusion Cards.
Even the smallest shop here had an Illusion Card billboard. At night in particular, the beautiful light they cast transformed the street into a world out of a fairy tale. Locals and visitors alike loved Gold Street's nighttime scenery.
But after thinking it over, Chen Mu realized with some surprise that this seemed to be his first visit to Gold Street.
As one of the city's showpieces, Gold Street barred vagrants and beggars from entering. Later, Chen Mu had devoted himself to studying cards. Shopping and spending money had never figured in his schedule.
So many people!
That was Chen Mu's first impression upon entering Gold Street. The crowds surged around him, and he had to watch his step or he could easily bump into someone. He was not quite used to it.
Soon, however, he turned his attention to the Illusion Card billboards outside the surrounding shops.
Full breasts, slender waists, rounded hips; bright eyes, pearly teeth, red lips; enticing glances that seemed on the verge of saying something, yet held back. To Chen Mu's puzzlement, the most common billboard projections were actually beautiful women. Some stood gracefully, while others bent forward in welcoming gestures. Their tantalizing glimpses of cleavage, paired with seductive expressions, were undeniably alluring.
He even saw quite a few passersby deliberately-or seemingly accidentally-reach through the projected beauties' breasts as they walked past.
Chen Mu was speechless. Was this what was fashionable now?
Chen Mu kept walking, giving those advertisements featuring beautiful women no more than a passing glance. Soon, though, he noticed that the bigger the business, the more creative and finely crafted its Illusion Card advertisement was.
The billboard he was looking at now, for instance, cast an enormous projection, a full two stories high.
Chen Mu stood transfixed at the entrance to the store, his face tilted upward and his eyes fixed on the billboard's projection, oblivious to everything around him.
The view looked down from the city's night sky onto a forest of brilliantly lit high-rises.
A stern-faced man in black stood at the very top of a tall building, gazing impassively ahead.
In a dark street corner, a blind man raised his head as though sensing something, his hollow eyes turned toward the empty horizon.
In a room bathed in moonlight, a woman wearing a tight brown leather outfit was gently wiping a card in her hand when she suddenly looked up.
Faces flashed past one after another-mature and youthful, beautiful and ugly.
The music abruptly grew tense. Seen from overhead, dark figures leaped from building to building, every one of them extraordinarily agile, every face solemn. The rapid drumbeats in the score made the listener's heart clench.
More and more people appeared, all racing in the same direction.
Roar!
It was the roar of a beast Chen Mu had never heard before, a deep, powerful bellow that shook the surrounding wilderness. As though answering it, a heaven-shaking chorus of bestial cries surged toward him like a monstrous wave.
Outside the city, beasts blanketed the wilds, charging headlong like a raging flood.
The people running with all their might picked up still more speed.
At last, the two sides collided!
Blazing fire dragons, cold crescent-shaped wave blades, dazzling meteor showers...
They appeared in that space one after another, their intricate, shifting interplay of color, light, and shadow overwhelming the eye. Their violent collisions scattered countless glittering fragments, lighting up the night. The ferocity of the battle was almost suffocating.
A blazing fire dragon wheeled around the man in black. Each of his attacks struck with tremendous force, sometimes accompanied by explosions. At that moment, he was like a god of war.
The woman in tight brown leather nimbly dodged the beasts' attacks while her hands continually swept out pale blue-white crescent wave blades. Every strike found its mark. She looked impossibly dashing.
Leaning on a bamboo staff, the blind man slipped through the beasts like a ghost. Each time his staff tapped lightly against the ground, hundreds of points of light appeared out of thin air behind him. With another gentle tap, they whistled off in one direction, piercing through the beasts and trailing long tails of light through the night sky like a meteor shower.
Without question, the battle ended in humanity's victory. The final close-up, however, focused on the cards inside the Wrist Devices on the heroes' wrists, bearing the store's emblem-the Twin Ring Card Shop.
Absolutely dazzling!
Chen Mu could not help marveling inwardly. He could tell that this Illusion Card billboard was not particularly high-grade; it was only two-star. Yet its content was extraordinarily rich, and the people and buildings in the projection were remarkably lifelike. Most impressive of all was the powerful visual impact of its special effects.
This was an exceptionally successful Illusion Card billboard, and tremendously compelling!
Chen Mu could guess that a billboard like this had to be very expensive. Although its grade was not particularly high, it was extremely difficult to make. Its content was so rich that a single two-star Illusion Card could never hold it all. It contained at least five Illusion Cards, but the transitions were seamless. Anyone who was not a Card Crafter would have a hard time noticing.
The world really did keep producing remarkable talents! Not just anyone could achieve this with two-star Illusion Cards. At the very least, Chen Mu knew he was still a long way from that level. This visit had certainly broadened his horizons.
The saleswoman at the Twin Ring Card Shop was puzzled. The person outside had actually been standing at the entrance for half an hour. He seemed to be watching the Illusion Card billboard. A fortune had been spent on that billboard two years ago, and its debut had caused a sensation throughout Dongshang Guard City. Even now, recalling those glorious days filled her with pride. Every day, people had gathered outside in ring after ring, all to watch the advertisement. That very year, the store's sales had begun climbing at an astonishing rate.
But no matter how good an advertisement was, people lost interest after seeing it for two years. Gradually, fewer and fewer people stopped to watch, and now no one did at all. Management had originally planned to replace the billboard, but the Card Crafter who had created it had passed away. They had approached several other famous Card Crafters, yet none of their results came close to this one, so it had never been replaced. What struck the saleswoman was that someone was actually still interested in this billboard. He was a rare creature indeed.
A while later, the strange young man was still staring blankly at the Illusion Card billboard. The saleswoman felt that having someone stand at the entrance for so long would affect business, so she decided to take the initiative.
"Hello, is there anything you'd like to buy?"
Chen Mu snapped out of his trance and shook his head. "No." He understood what the saleswoman meant. Without saying anything else, he turned and left.
**********
There will be another update at midnight tonight.
(End of chapter)