Chen Mu was thinking.
As far as he could see, the grass-covered area was very different from its surroundings.
There were card scraps scattered everywhere, metal round table-shaped devices, and patterns carved on them. Those pieces of information seemed to be sending him a message.
It was a place closely related to cards.
Cards had first appeared in some religions.
Not one of those religions didn't have a long history, and their inheritance was mysterious and unknown.
In the eyes of the ancients, cards were full of mysterious power, which was a great help to the spread of those religions.
In ancient times, any religion that had flourished for a time or had widespread influence had a very persistent pursuit of cards.
At that time, it wasn't just ordinary people. Even the members of those religions were full of reverence for that mysterious and magical power.
It wasn't until the appearance of Rosenberg that cards became a subject, a comprehensive subject involving energy, composition, perception, and so forth.
Could it be the remains of an ancient religion?
That was the most likely guess Chen Mu felt.
Although he couldn't accurately determine their specific age from those card scraps, Chen Mu felt that they might have experienced more than Rosenberg's time.
Unfortunately, he wasn't an expert in the appraisal of ancient cards, and he naturally couldn't make an accurate judgment.
"Found it!" Alphonso's excited shout interrupted Chen Mu's thoughts.
Alphonso pointed to two places and said to Chen Mu, "It should be here, and there. The marks in those two places are clearly different from the others. As for which one is the starting stroke and which one is the ending stroke, I don't know."
But that was enough for Chen Mu.
Chen Mu turned to Xi Weide and said, "Give me the Blue Moon Gun."
Xi Weide was taken aback, and he rushed to hand it over to Chen Mu.
Everyone looked at each other. Could Chen Mu use the Blue Moon Gun to blast open the round plate?
They saw Chen Mu skillfully dismantle the Blue Moon Gun into a pile of components, and no one knew what he was up to.
The underbrush was quiet again, and everyone stared with wide eyes, but that time their target was Chen Mu.
Chen Mu took out the energy box of the Blue Moon Gun and took a few more components, piecing them together to form a strange structure, which he then connected to the metal round plate.
The first to figure out what Chen Mu wanted to do was Alphonso. He mumbled a few times as though he wanted to say something, but he quickly held his voice back. In the end, he couldn't help but murmur, "So ugly!
Your craftsmanship is still so terrible! "
Chen Mu didn't hear Alfonsol's complaints. He was very engrossed and completely isolated from the outside world.
What he was doing was very simple in principle. Whether it was a card or a card appliance, they both needed energy to be activated.
As long as he provided it with energy, if it was a card appliance, it could naturally be activated.
If it was a card, in addition to energy, it also needed perception as a medium.
Chen Mu had no way of determining whether it was a card or a card appliance. Perhaps it looked more like a card appliance from its shape and composition, but Chen Mu felt it could be another kind of card.
The instant the energy was connected, Chen Mu's heart was in his throat.
What kind of changes would happen to this metal table?
This caused his heart to beat faster and faster.
However, the round metal table did not move at all. It stood there quietly without any changes.
Some of the spectators couldn't help but look disappointed.
Chen Mu's heartbeat returned to normal. Since the first method hadn't worked, he would try the second method.
Under everyone's gaze, Chen Mu pressed his hands against the metal disk and closed his eyes.
The spiral composition of perception in his body began to rotate at a rapid pace under his urging!
Bo Wen and Cheng Ying's expressions changed slightly, as they felt a powerful perceptual fluctuation!
Card artisans were unusually sensitive to perceptual fluctuations, and although they weren't aggressive, their strength was enough to shock the two of them.
The shock in Bo Wen's heart was especially obvious, since Chen Mu's strength had always been a mystery to him. Moreover, each of Chen Mu's stunning performances had been extremely brief, which made it impossible for him to make an accurate judgment.
But this time, he had received a real shock!
Perception was the most fundamental part of a card artisan's strength.
Within the card artisan's professional system, there were two main kinds of grading and evaluation of perception. One was the strength of perception, and the other was the precision of perceptual control.
The standard grading of the strength of perception was divided into ten levels, with each level divided into three levels: upper, middle, and lower.
Bo Wen's perceptual strength was at the lower fourth level, which was quite an amazing achievement for his age.
That had always been something he was very proud of, but that day, that pride had vanished in an instant.
Chen Mu's perceptual strength was at least at the middle fourth level, and might even have reached the upper fourth level. Moreover, Chen Mu was younger than he was!
From the information he had obtained, Chen Mu's age must have been about 17 or 18.
Once the perceptual strength had reached the third level, he would be considered a mid-grade card artisan, and once he reached the fourth level, he would be considered a mid-grade ace.
The fourth level was a watershed, and if one didn't reach the fourth level of perceptual strength before the age of 30, that would mean that the card artisan's development potential wasn't optimistic.
Just like card masters, making three-star cards was a watershed for them, and five-star cards were another watershed for them.
Bo Wen knew very well that there weren't many card artisans in the entire Eastern Ning family whose perceptual strength had surpassed the fourth level.
And those card artisans whose perceptual strength had reached the fourth level were basically all over 30 years old.
High-grade card artisans were certainly popular, but the most popular were those who were young, but had outstanding talent and great potential. Those were the real targets of the rich and powerful families.
Bo Wen knew that if the news got out that Chen Mu had reached the middle fourth level or above at the age of 17 or 18, he would never be able to kill him, nor would he dare.
When the time came, countless rich and powerful families would flock to him, brandishing countless Oudi and offering coveted positions to recruit that genius youth with limitless future.
In the eyes of those rich and powerful families, such a genius youth would be a lot more valuable than a local rich and powerful family like the Eastern Ning's.
Countless precedents had proven that a card artisan's potential was directly related to the age at which he had reached the fourth level. A genius who had reached the fourth level before the age of 20 was one of the rarest and most precious resources in the world.
Up until then, the fastest known record in the Heavenly Federation for reaching the fourth level of perceptual strength had been set by Tang Hanpei of the Federation Comprehensive Academy ten years ago, when he was 17 years, four months, and 15 days.
Tang Hanpei, who had set that record, had already become one of the most outstanding young aces in the entire Heavenly Federation. He was a representative of the Federation Comprehensive Academy, and had incomparable influence.
The unremarkable youth in front of him turned out to be a genius youth on the same level as Tang Hanpei.
Bo Wen saw Tang Hanpei's shadow in Chen Mu, and if... if Chen Mu were to grow into someone as awesome as Tang Hanpei, then that day's enmity would be enough to make the Eastern Ning's disappear from the Heavenly Federation.
Bo Wen had just broken through to the fourth level that year, and he was 20!
That achievement had not only filled his family with expectations for his future, but it had also made him proud.
Compared to Chen Mu, however, he still fell quite a bit short.
Bo Wen's proud heart had been smashed to pieces when such a legendary genius had appeared in front of him.
The night of the cross actually had such an outstanding genius, which made Bo Wen feel jealous and helpless.
If the Eastern Ning's had such a genius with such unparalleled potential, then it would be possible for them to enter the ranks of the true rich and powerful.
But why the night of the cross?
If it had been any other power, he would have done everything he could to recruit him, and he would have drawn that genius into the Eastern Ning's without hesitation, no matter how much he would have to spend.
But that was impossible!
A murderous look flashed through Bo Wen's eyes.
Wei-ah was also aware of Chen Mu's perception, and his face remained expressionless, though a strange look flashed through his eyes.
But when he raised his head, he inadvertently saw the murderous look in Bo Wen's eyes.
Although Cheng Ying had also felt the fluctuations in Chen Mu's perception, her perceptual strength was only at the mid third level, which made it impossible for her to judge Chen Mu's power.
Some philosopher had said that the unknown was always awe-inspiring, and Chen Mu's already lofty figure in Cheng Ying's mind immediately became even loftier.
Chen Mu didn't have any perception of the movements of the people around him, and he had compressed the range of his perception to a very small area, just enough to envelop the disk.
The benefit of sacrificing the range of his perception was that the precision of his perception had reached an unprecedented height.
He hadn't used his perception in that way for a long time, but he wasn't out of practice that time. On the contrary, he felt that he had made progress.
That kind of progress wasn't because he had become more skillful in his operations, but because the strength of his perception had slightly increased.
All of the engraved lines floated clearly in his mind, and he could even "see" that there was still a little bit of dirt left in the engraved lines.
He also sensed that the amorphous energy from the energy box seemed to be blocked by something as it slowly flowed toward the metal disk.
Chen Mu understood that meant the energy emitted by the energy box still couldn't make a connection with the metal disk.
The situation in front of him was like an apparatus, with an energy card and a fantasy card placed separately and already activated. But without the control of perception, the two of them wouldn't be able to make a connection and release an attack.
What Chen Mu needed to do was to use his own perception to make the connection between the two.
He had found the two engraved marks that Alfonso had pointed out, which were different from the rest, and they were the key to solving the problem!