A sallow-faced youth was sitting cross-legged in the hallway, frowning in deep thought, which was rather attention-grabbing in that place.
Everyone who walked past him was looking at Chen Mu in astonishment.
The card masters and card artisans who showed up there had great power, so their social status was quite high. Under such an atmosphere, to suddenly see such a bold and unrestrained guy like Chen Mu, it was only natural that their gazes would be a little strange.
Chen Mu didn't care about such gazes.
Thinking back to how he had been treated as a beggar at Eastern Wei Academy, he was naturally used to such gazes.
And he didn't have the time to pay attention to those gazes, since he was thinking hard about what it was that had triggered his inspiration.
If he didn't think of such a flash of inspiration, the longer time went by, the less likely it would be to think of it again.
So, he didn't dare to move, not daring to make the slightest movement. He wouldn't move until he thought of it.
What had he been looking at to give rise to that feeling?
Chen Mu carefully recalled every detail of the time.
He remembered the rhythmic contraction and contraction of Mark Victor's spiraling thorns, which gave the feeling of breathing.
Yikes, breathing!
Yes, that's it!
He suddenly remembered that it was that feeling that had drawn his attention.
But why had it drawn his attention?
His mind kept replaying the scene from that time, recalling the rhythmic contraction and contraction of the energy thorns.
Wait a minute!
Rhythm … contraction …
What was that?
A word suddenly jumped out from the depths of his mind. Vibration frequency!
Chen Mu's eyes suddenly lit up, knowing what he was thinking.
Breath control, which he hadn't been able to find a breakthrough for so long, suddenly let him see a glimmer of light.
The spiraling structure of the energy thorns. Wasn't that the kind of structure that he had racked his brains for couldn't think of, a structure that had both rotation and vibration?
When he had been studying breath control, he had been blocked by that step, unable to move forward.
He had never been able to find a suitable structural model.
That discovery made him overjoyed, and he quickly got up and walked back to his room.
He needed to carefully consider whether or not it was feasible.
At two o 'clock in the evening, Chen Mu was sitting in front of a desk, on which was a pile of paper with drawings.
He had carefully analyzed the structure of the spiral spring, and had finally determined that it was very close to the structure of his own perceptual vortex, and that he would only need to make a few minor changes.
This degree of modification would not be dangerous. This was the conclusion he came to after repeated deductions.
To do or not to do it?
Chen Mu finally decided to do it!
He was very clear that Mark Victor had imparted to him all the techniques of a close-combat card artisan, but it would be impossible to rely on that to leave the base.
It would probably take several years for him to become a qualified, or perhaps an outstanding, close-combat card artisan. In other words, he would still have to stay there for several more years.
As for how many years, he wasn't sure.
But the problem was that as long as time went on, the matter of him learning to be a close-combat card artisan certainly wouldn't be concealed.
If he attracted the attention of the Ning family, even if he could become an outstanding close-combat card artisan after a few years, he would never be able to escape the base.
He was sure that if the Ning family wanted to detain someone, even someone as strong as Mark Victor would have a very small chance of escaping, not to mention himself.
Although Mark Victor had said again and again that Chen Mu could grow into an even more outstanding close-combat card artisan than he was.
But Chen Mu didn't quite believe it. If he had even half of Mark Victor's power, that would already be outstanding.
More powerful than him. Oh, wait until I'm forty, if I'm still alive then.
So, it would basically be impossible to escape the base by relying on the skills of a novice close-combat card artisan.
But what Chen Mu really considered his secret weapon was the method of breath control that had given him hope.
But then he was hindered by the problem of the structure of the perceptual vortex, and had no choice but to put it aside for the time being, turning to look for other methods.
He hadn't thought that there would be light at the end of the tunnel, and that learning the skills of a close-combat card artisan would give him inspiration.
Could there be anything more wonderful in the world?
Adjusting his perception took a lot of effort from Chen Mu.
It was a good thing that his perceptual control had improved quite a bit, and it took Chen Mu two whole hours to adjust the perceptual vortex.
During those two hours, he was completely focused on adjusting the composition of his perception.
That was the first time he had taken the initiative to make adjustments to the perception in his body. Even though the main composition of his perception hadn't changed much, he was still very careful not to make the slightest mistake.
The whole process had gone quite smoothly, and the perceptual vortex was very tame, with each of his adjustments coming in handy.
But in order to make the composition even more perfect, Chen Mu had made very fine adjustments, not letting go of any trace of perception.
After two hours, the perceptual vortex in his body had been completely replaced by the spiral spring composition.
What amazed him was that once the spiral spring perception had been formed, it had automatically started to move.
It rotated horizontally at high speed, while the spiral spring vibrated up and down at the same time.
That made Chen Mu very excited, and he didn't feel the slightest bit tired.
He struck while the iron was hot, and started to practice breath control.
Whether or not the spiral spring perception would succeed would depend on whether or not he could practice breath control, which had been his original goal.
The way to practice breath control was very simple, which was to keep the perception at a specific frequency of vibration.
Its requirements were quite demanding, and it needed to be absolutely stable and constant in the process of vibration.
That was an extremely difficult requirement.
Not only that, but the vibration frequency of breath control was rather strange, which always made Chen Mu feel very uncomfortable.
Every time the frequency touched that value, Chen Mu would feel a very strange feeling.
But the fluctuations would immediately make that feeling disappear, as though it had just been an illusion.
From that, Chen Mu could confirm that breath control had very demanding requirements for the precision of the vibration frequency.
That stuff really wasn't easy to practice!
Chen Mu's body suddenly shook as he was sitting cross-legged on the ground!
After countless adjustments to the frequency, the vibration frequency of the perception in his body had finally completely matched that strange value.
An extremely fine perception suddenly emerged from the center of his spiral spring perception, and it quickly followed his spine and drilled into the back of Chen Mu's head.
A chill abruptly spread through Chen Mu's entire brain.
Dark and cold, Chen Mu felt as though he had suddenly stripped away all his emotions.
He opened his eyes and slowly scanned all around him, with every nook and cranny in his eyes, and the darkness didn't affect him in the least.
According to common sense, he should have been surprised. Although he had constantly tried to adapt himself to the darkness, there had never been a time when he had so thoroughly melted into it.
No, it was as though he had been born for the darkness.
But he wasn't surprised, and he wasn't surprised. He felt as though he were an ice-cold machine, or as though he had nothing to do with someone who was coldly examining him from the side.
His heartbeat started to slow down, and his body temperature started to drop. His body's vital signs were constantly weakening.
He could feel every little change in his body very subtly, and he discovered the green thread in his body, which was quietly lying dormant in his flesh and blood. From his hands to his feet, he could see that hair-thin green thread in every muscle.
The only thing that hadn't changed was the frequency of the vibration of his spiral spring composition.
Slow … steady … like the gears in a clock, with perfect precision.
He understood that he had entered a very strange state.
Although his body's vital signs were ceaselessly declining, he didn't feel any discomfort. On the contrary, he felt that his strength and explosive power had increased to a certain extent.
He deftly stepped over the scattered raw materials on the ground, each step extremely precise, giving the feeling that each step had gone through extremely precise calculations.
His control of his body had reached a rather shocking level, and he seemed to know the condition of every muscle.
But before his feet could touch the ground, the scene in front of him suddenly shook.
The last thought in his mind was: 12 seconds!
Endless darkness drowned him.
After who knew how long, Chen Mu finally woke up.
But before he could get up, a strong feeling of vomiting rose up in his chest, and he couldn't hold it in any longer and started to vomit.
That vomiting lasted for a full ten minutes, until Chen Mu almost threw up all his bile.
What a powerful side effect!
Without waiting for him to sigh, he couldn't help but vomit again.
After ten minutes, Chen Mu finally stopped vomiting.
He got up with a bitter smile. The room was a mess, and the air was filled with an unpleasant smell.
As far as he could remember, he hadn't vomited for a very, very long time.
What terrifying breath control!
As soon as he thought of those 12 seconds, when he had been like a machine, without any emotion, Chen Mu felt a bone-piercing chill.
It didn't take much effort to carefully recall every detail of what had just happened.
He didn't know if it was because of breath control, but every detail of those 15 seconds was crystal clear in his mind.
He hadn't thought that when the frequency of his perception was adjusted to that point, there would be such a shocking change, which was completely beyond his expectations.