Hehe, everyone, don't forget to vote. Thanks~
Chen Mu felt as though he were working through exercises. If these questions were collected together, they could easily fill a One-Star Illusion Card Workbook. The questions came in every strange shape and form, covering more subjects than he could count, and Chen Mu could only pick and choose which ones to tackle. Some were so obscure that he could not even understand what they were asking. Faced with those, he had no choice but to skip them.
If he ever found himself with time to spare, coming here just to work through questions would be a pretty good way to pass it.
"Here." A woman's voice came from beside him, and a bottle of water and several steamed buns were held out in front of Chen Mu.
Chen Mu froze for a moment. Then the hunger he had been ignoring erupted all at once.
"Thank you." Without even stopping to see who it was, Chen Mu grabbed the water and buns and wolfed them down.
Five steamed buns and a bottle of water vanished in two minutes. Watching from beside him, An Xiaoyou felt his heart leap into his throat. Good grief, a powerhouse really was a powerhouse-even at eating steamed buns, he outclassed ordinary people by that much.
Lan Feng was dumbstruck too. Were steamed buns really that delicious? There were no seasonings, no side dishes, no jam...
Ah, two more would have made it perfect, Chen Mu thought, rubbing his only seven-tenths-full stomach. But he quickly put that pointless regret out of his mind.
Time was precious. That woman had made it perfectly clear: she could only guarantee that those items would still be available today. If he failed to earn enough points today, he had no idea where else he could buy those obscure materials. Then the materials he had spent more than two million on would have been bought for nothing.
No. No matter what, I have to earn enough points today! Chen Mu wiped his mouth and turned his gaze back to the large screen in front of him.
A snow-white suit, snow-white leather shoes, a tall, slender figure, and a silver-gray tie that shimmered subtly under the lights. In the entire Low-Level Illusion Card Club, this look belonged to one man alone-there were no other branches of this particular shop. His handsome face could all but sweep every woman off her feet, its exquisite features enough to drive those beauties mad. A faint smile always lingered on his lips, and his eyes were deep and captivating. His manners were gentle and refined, full of a mature man's charm.
This was Bai Zheyuan, the current president of the Low-Level Illusion Card Club.
Bai Zheyuan's story was steeped in legend. He had become an Advanced Card Maker at thirty-two, an honor that was rare even across the entire federation. Under his father's strict demands, he had cultivated impeccable grace and poise from childhood. This had also made him the most dazzling man in Dongshang Guard City, the man of countless beautiful women's dreams.
Of course, that alone was still nowhere near enough to make him a legend.
As a highly sought-after Advanced Card Maker, he had astonished everyone by establishing the Low-Level Illusion Card Club.
Who did he think he was? Master Luo Qi?
Countless people had waited to see him make a fool of himself. For a time, it had also become an extremely hot topic in Dongshang Guard City's upper society.
Yet Bai Zheyuan had silenced everyone with irrefutable results. In its very first year, the Low-Level Illusion Card Club had launched eleven illusion card products. Every one had been a tremendous success, bringing the club enormous financial returns.
In its second year, they had launched twenty-five illusion card products. This had catapulted the Low-Level Illusion Card Club into the ranks of Dongshang Guard City's most powerful groups.
Bai Zheyuan himself had also been named one of the Tianyou Federation's ten most influential figures that year.
Despite its seemingly loose structure, the Low-Level Illusion Card Club possessed extraordinary vitality. They encouraged creative uses of low-level illusion cards. Combined with their well-developed ability to forecast the market, this had forged a vast, vibrant club.
Bai Zheyuan had not visited in person for a long time, because he had discovered that whenever he showed his face at the club, the whole place descended into chaos.
But today, he had come. He wanted to see whether the young man named Chen Mu was really as impressive as Lan Feng had said.
Daring to earn points this way... are kids these days all this capable? Bai Zheyuan sighed inwardly. It had been a long time since he had undertaken any hands-on technical research into one-star illusion cards. After all, he was an Advanced Card Maker. He could not truly devote his entire life to low-level illusion cards.
But he hoped someone with genuinely profound expertise in low-level illusion cards would appear. They needed a technical director, and many people had already come to him with that request. During the first two years after the Low-Level Illusion Card Club's founding, he had personally served as technical director.
Now, most of his time went into his own research and overseeing the club's overall direction, so naturally he could no longer attend to that side of things.
And that project I'm working on...
Hmm? Why is the club so quiet today? A trace of surprise appeared in Bai Zheyuan's eyes. Without hesitating, he strode inside.
The moment he entered the hall, the sight before him stopped him cold!
Hundreds of people formed a dense crowd around a large light screen, their faces tilted upward, their eyes fixed motionlessly on it. Time seemed to have frozen here. There was not a sound, and every one of these Card Crafters stood like a clay statue.
In this scene, so quiet it was almost suffocating, only the large light screen surrounded by the crowd showed any movement. Numbers and words flickered silently across it, sometimes rapidly, sometimes remaining still for ages.
Bai Zheyuan swallowed instinctively.
What on earth is wrong with these people?
Following their upturned gazes, his eyes settled on the light screen, which was not particularly conspicuous in the hall.
The more he watched, the more astonished he became. His understanding of energy principles far surpassed that of these Card Crafters. Almost the instant Chen Mu's answer appeared, he could judge whether it was correct.
Correct... correct... completely correct...
Bai Zheyuan's astonishment grew steadily. This was the first time he had encountered a Card Crafter with such a thorough understanding of low-level illusion cards!
Compared with Advanced Card Crafters, low-level Card Crafters lagged far behind in their knowledge and understanding of energy and its principles. This also severely limited their progress with low-level illusion cards. Once they encountered a question that touched on the fundamentals, they could easily find themselves at their wits' end. But how many Advanced Card Crafters shared his interest in low-level illusion cards?
The young man surrounded by the crowd was not an intermediate or Advanced Card Maker. Bai Zheyuan could tell from his grasp of energy principles. Chen Mu's understanding of those principles was still at a relatively basic level, yet with that level of understanding, he could reach into their very core. Bai Zheyuan had never even heard of such a freak of talent.
Bai Zheyuan could barely contain himself anymore.
(End of chapter)