Chapter Summaries

Chen Mu considered how to obtain the Golden-Spotted Soft Jelly Fungus while imposing harsh training on the Taishu Family’s Card Adepts. After the Card Adepts began to see potential in Taishu Cheng’s fortunes under Chen Mu’s leadership, Chen Mu sent them into a High-Stimulation Simulation Training Room set to one hundred percent realism.

• Sang Hanshui suggested kidnapping Taishu Cheng to force a meeting with Taishu Yong, but Chen Mu chose to seek another approach.
• Wei'a took little Bu Mo to the Training Room while Chen Mu devised an idea inspired by Sang Hanshui’s suggestion.
• Only twelve Card Adepts completed fifty training sets and earned dinner, and the Card Adepts nicknamed Chen Mu Chief Steward White, Sang Hanshui Enforcer, Wei'a Black Ghost, and little Bu Mo Little Monkey.
• Anoki worried about Chen Mu’s harsh methods, but Raphael argued that Chen Mu and Sang Hanshui could help Taishu Cheng regain influence, persuading Anoki to stay.
• After giving the Card Adepts thirty minutes to rest, Chen Mu ordered them to the High-Stimulation Simulation Training Room and set its realism to one hundred percent.

Chen Mu sent Sang Hanshui for a perception analysis as he planned to craft him a replacement card, then left the training building to rent a Card-Making Room. After detecting and evading a Taishu Family pursuer, he entered a shop in East Rui City to ask about room prices.

• Taishu Yong learned that Taishu Ying had recruited four mysterious people, including a warrior-masked Card Adept who had defeated Ma Hu, and ordered Shadow to watch them without alerting them.
• Chen Mu examined Sang Hanshui’s card and analysis report, deciding to craft a replacement that would strengthen him and help conceal his identity.
• Chen Mu sensed a Taishu Family pursuer and led him to a secluded area, where he shattered the man’s Energy Shield before the pursuer escaped.
• Chen Mu changed masks, entered a card-crafting shop, and asked about renting a Card-Making Room.

Chen Mu rented a Five-Star Card-Making Room in East Rui City to design a card for Sang Hanshui, then realized [Little Child] might help him calculate and optimize card structures. He connected his perception to the structure he was designing, causing [Little Child]’s starry sky to change for the first time.

• Chen Mu learned that purple glimmer extract remained in high demand while Bagnell and Jiang Liang used nearby Card Adept groups to give their people combat experience.
• Chen Mu rented a Five-Star Card-Making Room and ordered the materials he needed to make a card for Sang Hanshui.
• Chen Mu examined Sang Hanshui’s perception analysis and decided ordinary materials would be enough to make him a better card without drawing attention.
• Chen Mu reconsidered [Little Child] and realized its purpose might be to calculate and optimize the details of a card’s structure.
• Chen Mu used his perception to simulate the card’s core structure, freezing [Little Child]’s starry sky before it began revolving in a new way.

Chen Mu used [Little Child] to optimize the energy structure of a four-star [Explosive Bomb], producing a complete design refined to its practical limit. When the shop’s staff learned he had bought only one set of materials, an urgent call summoned Janetta and Bernie Tappster to Testing Room 21.

• Chen Mu watched [Little Child] assemble and repeatedly revise the unfinished portions of the card’s energy structure.
• Chen Mu saw [Little Child] complete the structure after forty minutes and memorized its optimized design.
• Janetta asked Bernie Tappster to identify what card a customer’s materials could make, and Tappster guessed [Explosive Bomb].
• Janetta told Tappster the customer had bought only one set of materials, surprising him.
• The testing department’s supervisor called Janetta and Tappster to Testing Room 21.

Chen Mu tested an optimized [Explosive Bomb] at the shop, where its readings and live-test damage stunned the staff. The card appeared to rival a five-star card despite being classified as four-star, leaving everyone questioning its true power.

• Janken examined the first test report and suspected the equipment was malfunctioning because the [Explosive Bomb]'s readings were extraordinarily high.
• Janken arranged a second test in Testing Room 21, where the equipment produced identical results.
• Janette and Tappster joined Chen Mu and Janken, and Tappster reacted with shock after seeing the report.
• A live test destroyed two targets and left a crater roughly ten meters wide, startling everyone in the testing room.
• Janken murmured that the card was five-star-level, and the onlookers wondered whether it could really be a five-star card.

Chen Mu’s [Explosive Bomb] stunned the Testing Room with the power and performance of a four-star card, earning an 8.9 overall score. As Tappster and Janken argued over whether it deserved a nine, Janette discovered the card was marked 029•Explosive Bomb--C.

• [Explosive Bomb] excelled in testing, and Chen Mu reflected that [Little Child] had pushed its design to the limit.
• Janken’s final report rated [Explosive Bomb] four stars with 4551 damage, a maximum firing rate of 10 shots per second, and an overall score of 8.9.
• Tappster called the score too low and argued that the card’s unprecedented significance deserved at least a nine, while Janken defended his evaluation.
• Janette took the card from a staff member and spotted the inscription 029•Explosive Bomb--C in its lower-right corner.

Janette recognized the mark on Chen Mu’s [Explosive Bomb] as belonging to the famous Digital Series Cards and suspected he was their mysterious creator. She treated him as a master, but Chen Mu declined to sell the card or accept commissions, leaving Janette hoping he would return to her shop.

• Janette saw the [Explosive Bomb] card marked 029 and concluded Chen Mu might be the creator of the Digital Series Cards.
• Janette escorted Chen Mu to a celebratory dinner, where she noticed he seemed young and tried to win his favor.
• Janette gave Chen Mu a gold card offering thirty percent off and proposed selling the [Explosive Bomb], but Chen Mu said it was a gift.
• Chen Mu declined Janette’s offer to commission cards, explaining that he was focused on obtaining the Golden-Spotted Soft Jelly Fungus and improving his combat strength.
• After Chen Mu left, Janken and Tappster questioned Janette, who kept her suspicions to herself and hoped the gold card would bring him back.

Chen Mu discovered that a powerful masked Card Adept was following him and stopped running after realizing the man could have killed him but had not. The stranger asked Chen Mu what grudge he had against the Federation Comprehensive Academy, leaving Chen Mu to consider the source of his hostility.

• Chen Mu changed back into his white mask and black-lined disguise after leaving the shop.
• A mysterious Card Adept followed Chen Mu, and Chen Mu tried to escape by flying at high speed through the city.
• Chen Mu suspected the pursuer was the mysterious expert who had followed him from Zha'erqian City, then concluded the man meant him no immediate harm and stopped to face him.
• The masked old man appeared and asked Chen Mu what grudge he had against the Federation Comprehensive Academy.
• Chen Mu wondered whether his dislike came from the Academy's treatment of him in Luoyou City, Tang Hanpei's methods, or the Six Great Academies' abuse of power.

Chen Mu met the masked Card Adept Xize, who revealed that the Federation Comprehensive Academy backed Heavenly Pattern and warned that Chen Mu’s perception training had hidden dangers. Xize offered to fix Chen Mu’s perception and teach him skills if he defeated Tang Hanpei, leaving Chen Mu stunned to realize that the supposedly dead legendary enemy of the academy had found him for reasons he still did not understand.

• Chen Mu rejected working with the mysterious man, and the man questioned what he wanted from life before easing his killing intent.
• The man told Chen Mu that the Federation Comprehensive Academy was behind Heavenly Pattern, helping Chen Mu make sense of the forces opposing Frostmoon Cold Isle.
• The man examined Chen Mu’s perception and warned that its self-taught training method had serious hidden problems.
• The man offered to repair Chen Mu’s perception and teach him skills in exchange for defeating Tang Hanpei.
• The man identified himself as Xize, and Chen Mu recognized him as the legendary Card Adept associated with the Physical Refinement Principle.

Xize tested Chen Mu with overwhelming killing intent and explained that he wanted Chen Mu to confront Tang Hanpei because Xize himself could no longer defeat him. The chapter ended with Xize insisting that Chen Mu might still be able to win.

• Rong Ming ordered the Guard Bureau Card Adepts not to provoke the masked men and to investigate their identities.
• Xize threatened to expose Chen Mu’s practice of the [Physical Refinement Principle] unless Chen Mu agreed to face Tang Hanpei.
• Xize overwhelmed Chen Mu with killing intent, but Chen Mu endured it and instinctively trained his perception through the Extreme Training Method.
• Xize stopped the attack after Chen Mu proved more resilient than expected, and Chen Mu realized his perception had grown slightly.
• Xize revealed that age and old injuries had left him unable to defeat Tang Hanpei, then told Chen Mu that he might be able to.

Xize taught Chen Mu how to improve his Perception and gave him a card containing his insights, in exchange for Chen Mu challenging Tang Hanpei within five years. Chen Mu returned to the building and gave Sang Hanshui an Explosive Bomb card, whose test produced a prolonged barrage of blasts.

• Xize offered to teach Chen Mu about Perception if Chen Mu agreed to challenge Tang Hanpei at the Federation Comprehensive Academy within five years, and Chen Mu accepted regardless of whether he won.
• Xize spent two hours explaining Chen Mu’s Perception and its hidden problems, then gave him a card containing insights from his years of study.
• Xize departed before Chen Mu could ask about the Golden-Spotted Soft Jelly Fungus and the Green Line, leaving Chen Mu to reflect on their agreement and his need to grow stronger.
• Chen Mu returned to the building and gave Sang Hanshui the Explosive Bomb card to test.
• Sang Hanshui used the card in the Shooting Training Room, causing repeated explosions that shook the floor for five minutes before he emerged soot-blackened and declared that it felt amazing.

After adjusting his perception, Chen Mu had to decide how to respond to the Luo Family’s demand for combo card technology. He refused to reveal it and left negotiations to Xi Ping, then learned that Xiao Bo had emerged from seclusion.

• Sang Hanshui trained the Card Adepts while testing his powerful new [Explosive Bomb], frightening them into following his orders.
• Chen Mu spent five days adjusting his perception under Xize’s guidance and finished with it more obedient and comfortable.
• Bagnell told Chen Mu that the Luo Family, led by Vivi, wanted to buy their combo card technology.
• Bagnell warned against selling the technology, while Xi Ping cautioned that refusing might provoke the Luo Family or attract other powerful groups.
• Chen Mu refused to share the technology and proposed offering First-Generation Combo Cards, with Second-Generation cards possible if the Luo Family could provide Golden-Spotted Soft Jelly Fungus.
• Bagnell and Xi Ping told Chen Mu that Xiao Bo had come out of seclusion.

Chen Mu studied Xize’s perception techniques, then learned that the Luo Family and the Snow Silk Worm Card Adept Corps had formed an alliance. As he prepared to attend a banquet hosted by the eldest young master, he gave the costly X300 Combat Suit prepared for him to Sang Hanshui.

• Bagnell told Chen Mu that Xiao Bo had emerged from seclusion and was coming to find him after watching his fight with Jin Yin and Dang Han.
• Chen Mu studied Xize’s Illusion Card, learned about Xize’s methods for using perception, memorized its contents, and destroyed the card.
• Xi Ping informed Chen Mu that the Luo Family and the Snow Silk Worm Card Adept Corps had allied, with the Luo Family buying their First-Generation Combo Cards and ordering purple glimmer extract.
• After leaving the Training Room, Chen Mu was invited by Xu Jia to accompany the third young master to a banquet hosted by the eldest young master.
• Chen Mu declined Xu Jia’s suggestion to bring Sang Hanshui to the banquet and asked her to pass the X300 Combat Suit prepared for him to Sang Hanshui instead.

Chen Mu gave Sang Hanshui the X300 and accompanied Taishu Cheng to a banquet where he learned about the powerful aides of Cheng’s elder brothers. The gathering began with Taishu Cheng reuniting with Taishu Zheng, and Taishu Shen arrived soon after.

• Chen Mu gave the X300 combat suit to Sang Hanshui because it would not interfere with Chen Mu’s sensitive perception.
• Rong Ming learned that Taishu Cheng planned to attend the banquet and decided to go so he could cultivate his acquaintance with Chen Mu.
• Chen Mu, Xu Jia, and Taishu Cheng traveled to the banquet, where Xu Jia warned Chen Mu about Huo Jiang and Baluojia.
• At the banquet, Taishu Zheng greeted Taishu Cheng and praised Chen Mu, while Huo Jiang stood beside him.
• Taishu Shen arrived and joined the exchange with a sardonic remark to Taishu Cheng.

At Taishu Zheng’s banquet, Chen Mu accompanied Xu Jia while Taishu Shen and Baluojia sized him up. Meanwhile, Luo De revealed that Taishu Zheng had invited Tan Yuwen, and his teasing of Jiang Yu ended when he spotted someone behind him.

• Taishu Shen mocked Chen Mu’s mask, while Taishu Cheng traded barbed remarks with his brother and sent Xu Jia to show Chen Mu around.
• Xu Jia escorted Chen Mu through the banquet, where he found the gathering boring and admitted he was nervous about her holding his arm.
• Luo De and Jiang Yu complained about the Taishu brothers before Rong Ming joined them and asked what they were discussing.
• Luo De revealed that Taishu Zheng had invited Tan Yuwen, prompting Jiang Yu to grab him by the collar in excitement.
• Luo De looked past Jiang Yu, suddenly froze, and stood rooted to the spot.

At a banquet in East Rui City, Chen Mu, posing as Chief Steward White, drew the attention of Rong Ming, Jiang Yu, and Luo De. The gathering ended with Rong Ming inviting him to his daughter’s birthday, leaving the other guests wondering about his true background.

• Xu Jia explained to Chen Mu that Luo De and Jiang Yu were heirs to powerful East Rui City families, while Rong Ming was a level-seven perception master.
• Chen Mu planned to greet the important guests, but Xu Jia warned that their social rank made approaching them inappropriate.
• Rong Ming approached Chen Mu and warmly greeted him as Brother White, surprising Jiang Yu and Luo De.
• Jiang Yu and Luo De joined the conversation, and Chen Mu won them over with a joke about his mask and clothes.
• Xu Jia realized that the influential men were cultivating Chen Mu’s company and questioned his identity.
• Rong Ming formally invited Chen Mu to his daughter’s birthday, and Chen Mu accepted as the group headed into the banquet hall.

At Taishu Zheng’s banquet, Rong Ming seated Chen Mu beside him and later welcomed singer Tan Yuwen, whose arrival thrilled the guests. As Taishu Zheng began introducing the attendees to her, his awkward pause over Chen Mu drew Tan Yuwen’s attention to him.

• Rong Ming moved Chen Mu and Xu Jia to seats beside him, prompting Taishu Zheng to grow suspicious of Chen Mu’s connection to Rong Ming.
• Taishu Zheng turned off the lights and revealed Tan Yuwen arriving by boat after she sang for the guests.
• Tan Yuwen entered the walkway and took the seat of honor, while Chen Mu’s excitement faded as he thought of his friend Lei Zi.
• Taishu Zheng toasted Tan Yuwen and began introducing the guests, but his hesitation while gesturing toward Chen Mu caught her notice.
• Tan Yuwen followed Taishu Zheng’s gesture and looked at Chen Mu.

At a banquet, Taishu Zheng provoked the gathered Card Adepts by praising Chen Mu as Chief Steward White, but Xu Jia smoothly defused the tension. Rong Ming then recounted the legendary reputation of Tan Yuwen’s uncle Mei Ji, while Xu Jia’s teasing left Chen Mu flustered and drew Tan Yuwen’s attention.

• Tan Yuwen met Chen Mu, masked as Chief Steward White, and chatted warmly with Xu Jia, who described herself as his companion for the evening.
• Taishu Zheng praised Taishu Cheng and claimed that few in East Rui City could threaten Chen Mu, provoking the gathered Card Adepts.
• Xu Jia praised Huo Jiang, Baluojia, Jiang Yu, and Luo De’s men, easing the tension at the banquet.
• Taishu Shen revealed that Tan Yuwen’s uncle was Mei Ji, and Rong Ming described Mei Ji’s standing alongside famous figures such as Xize and Gu Li.
• Xu Jia whispered that Tan Yuwen was a virgin, causing Chen Mu to nearly spit out his wine and making Tan Yuwen notice his reaction.

Tan Yuwen described the suffering she had witnessed across the Federation and established the Rain Character Fund, raising 101.9 billion Odi at the banquet. The evening ended with a challenge tournament for her bracelet, and Chen Mu decided he would win it as a gift for Lei Zi.

• Tan Yuwen told the guests about the misery caused by war and vowed to devote herself to helping people in need.
• Taishu Zheng announced the Rain Character Fund, and the guests pledged donations that totaled 101.9 billion Odi.
• Tan Yuwen thanked Chen Mu for his donation, while Xu Jia matched his one-billion-Odi contribution.
• Taishu Zheng announced a challenge tournament, with Tan Yuwen’s bracelet as the prize, prompting Jiang Yu and Luo De to summon their strongest Card Adepts.
• Chen Mu decided to win the bracelet for Lei Zi.

At the Taishu Family’s challenge match, Chen Mu faced Baluojia in the opening bout. Chen Mu struck first, but Baluojia’s roar shattered his attack and left him disoriented and vulnerable.

• Taishu Zheng prepared an expensive Competition Arena with an Energy Shield for the matches.
• The Taishu brothers discussed the bracelet and discovered that Chief Steward White had entered the competition.
• Chen Mu moved away from the crowd around Tan Yuwen while Rong Ming expressed confidence in his fighting ability.
• The schedule paired Chief Steward White against Baluojia in the first match.
• Chen Mu entered the arena and attacked Baluojia before he could finish his greeting.
• Baluojia roared, shattering Chen Mu’s blue-green attack and disrupting his control of his body.