Seeing the Y09 he'd taken down, Chen Mu's heart was full of joy.
A person's power was like water in a bucket. Every time he failed, the water level would actually rise a tiny bit. But in the eyes of an average person, that tiny bit was so minuscule that most people would overlook it.
When the number of failures increased, people would often develop the illusion that their efforts weren't being rewarded, and most people would become discouraged.
One thousand six hundred and eleven failures, one thousand six hundred and eleven tiny bits, all gathered together to help Chen Mu break through that barrier.
What made Chen Mu even more excited was that after he'd dealt with Y09, his power seemed to have increased quite a bit.
The process of taking down the energy blocks afterward was extremely smooth, and most of them were done in one go, succeeding on the first try.
Even if he came across an energy block with a difficulty similar to Y09, he could easily take it down after a few tries.
That made Chen Mu both excited and surprised, and he even wondered if it was an illusion.
After spending only half a day, the model built with the energy blocks was already more than half complete, which was the complete opposite of the snail's pace from before.
The workload was half done, and the model could be seen in its embryonic form.
Chen Mu had originally thought the model would be a fortress, but when he personally built it piece by piece, he had a completely different feeling.
That feeling became more and more intense as the number of energy blocks increased.
By the time the model was 80 percent complete, Chen Mu had already guessed that it would be a kind of energy composition.
As for what that kind of energy composition was used for and what characteristics it had, he still couldn't see it.
No one could say for sure how many kinds of energy compositions there were. Never mind Chen Mu, even Rosenberg and Heiner Van Sant couldn't say for sure.
Every mid-grade card master needed to master hundreds of kinds of energy compositions, and they were proficient in only a dozen or so, or even fewer.
Grandmasters like Madam Zhi Lian knew even more kinds of energy compositions, but their real power lay in being able to change and optimize energy compositions to make them more perfect and efficient!
Their understanding of the rules of energy had already far surpassed that of ordinary card masters.
From the time Rosenberg had proposed the card theoretical system until that day, after countless grandmasters' development, the current card theoretical system was already completely different from what it had been at the beginning.
Among them, there were newly developed theories, and there were also a lot of ancestors' knowledge that had been lost to the long river of history for all sorts of reasons.
That kind of situation was especially serious in the era of the sects.
It was only after Heiner Van Sant's death that the situation was greatly improved.
The chaotic era of the sects had ended, and what replaced it was the beginning of the era of the academies. All kinds of standard systems were established, especially for the cultivation of card masters and card artisans. The academy-style cultivation made most of the theories afterward completely preserved.
Many of the things from before, especially the founder of the card theory system, Rosenberg, had disappeared without a trace.
That was the common pain in the hearts of every generation of card masters. Even the other great master, Heiner Van Sant, had spent a lot of energy in his life hoping to collect all of Rosenberg's scattered treasures. Unfortunately, the results were minimal.
Even so, the theoretical knowledge in the Star Academy's library was far richer than that of the other five.
It was said that the Star Academy had some old pedants who specialized in studying ancient card masters. Their theoretical knowledge was so rich that it was scary.
But our poor Chen Mu was undoubtedly outside the academy system.
He hadn't gone through any specialized study, and the energy composition he understood wasn't even a quarter of what an ordinary mid-grade card master knew.
He couldn't be said to be proficient in any of the energy compositions that he knew.
He relied more on the Token Theory to optimize those energy compositions. That wasn't because he had a deep understanding of the rules of energy, but because the Token Theory was really too powerful.
He had never seen the energy composition model in front of him.
It looked like a strangely shaped fortress, composed of 266 energy blocks, with a very stable structure.
He hadn't studied the analysis of energy compositions, and he had no way to determine its specific performance.
But he had his own way of analyzing it, which was to use the Token Theory to analyze it.
The results of his analysis surprised him. The perfection of that kind of composition far exceeded his imagination, even exceeding the degree of optimization of the Token Theory he had grasped.
But he felt relieved when he thought about it. The Token Theory was the core content of the mysterious card. Since the energy composition appeared in the mysterious card, how could it not have been optimized by the Token Theory?
It was clearly a kind of perfect energy composition.
In the world of card masters, there was a saying that composition determined everything.
A kind of excellent energy composition would certainly demonstrate excellent performance.
But Chen Mu was in a bit of a dilemma.
All of the cards he had made before, without exception, had precedents to follow.
Like the tailless shuttle card and the folding Yanbo card, they were so detailed that every step was clear. What he needed to do was to follow the steps to realize them.
The others, such as the raining shuttles card and the numbered series of cards, all had reference objects.
That time, Chen Mu was facing a strange kind of energy composition that he had never seen before.
If he wanted to know its use, the simplest and most practical way would be to make it.
But if he wanted to make it, he would immediately face even more direct problems.
What kind of materials would he need to use?
What kind of materials would he need to deal with?
What kind of composition would he need to use to achieve the effect he wanted..
He felt at a loss like never before, and the disadvantages of his weak foundation were completely revealed!
The other way was to analyze it according to theory, but the possibility of that was even smaller than making a card.
The greatest pain in life was to have a mountain of gold in front of you and not be able to take away even a grain of it.
That was how Chen Mu felt then. A kind of perfect energy composition was placed in front of him, but he didn't know where to start. He didn't know how to make it into a card!
With his chest so tight, Chen Mu simply threw all his energy into building the model. He had finished one, but there were still four.
He was curious about what the other four models were.
The energy composition?
Or something else?
Butchie and Hugo were talking about the Central Island Firm.
The two of them had some doubts in their minds, not quite understanding the attitude of the organization.
Looking at the Federation Comprehensive Academy and the Central Repository of the Classics, one was led by Zu Ning, and the other was led by Jie Yanbai, both of whom were overbearing characters.
Although Hugo was strong, he was still a hair's breadth below the two of them, not to mention Butchie.
If the organization were interested in the Central Island Firm's technology, they would have sent more powerful backup.
But there was no movement from the organization, which made them puzzled no matter how they thought about it.
The Beard rushed into the room like a gust of wind, his face full of excitement.
"You're all here!
That was great!
Good lord, guess what I've discovered? "
The two of them stopped and looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
The Beard had always been calm, and it was their first time seeing him so excited.
"You've discovered that your hemorrhoids have healed?" Butchie turned to the side and asked earnestly.
The Beard's laughter abruptly stopped, and his smile froze on his face into a very strange expression.
When Hugo saw that, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.
The Beard was furious, but he didn't fly off the handle. The female T. rex wasn't someone he could provoke.
Looking resentfully at Butchie, the Beard quickly got excited again. "Based on Butchie's reminder last time, I went to investigate the relationship between Cao Dong and Yang An.
I never thought there would be such a shocking discovery! "
Butchie and Hugo's expressions immediately turned serious.
"At Ren Wenzhou's banquet, quite a few people saw Yang An and Cao Dong talking for a long time, and some people vaguely heard something about cooperation.
Not long ago, Yang An got a batch of pretty good materials. The numbered series of cards must have been made from those materials.
Not long before the auction was held, quite a few people saw with their own eyes Yang An and his subordinate steward, Xi Ping, at the auction house with Cao Dong.
Then, not a few days later, the numbered series of cards appeared. "
Butchie and Hugo's eyes lit up as they listened.
"If you say one of them is a coincidence, there can't be so many coincidences.
Putting all this information together, I can confirm that Cao Dong was the one who made the numbered series of cards! "The Beard was absolutely certain, and his face was flushed from his excitement.
Taking a breath, the Beard's excitement didn't diminish in the slightest. "What's good for us is that the other powers still haven't gotten the news.
It's entirely possible for us to snatch Cao Dong away before they can find him! "
Hugo calmly asked, "What about the power at Cao Dong's side?"
The Beard laughed. "That's the most important thing. I've already checked. There's only one high-grade card artisan at Cao Dong's side. I believe Butchie can handle it by herself!"
Butchie remembered the scene when she arrived at Heaven's Wings that day, and she couldn't help but stand up. "I remember. Right, Cao Dong has a high-grade card artisan at his side, and his power should be about the same as mine!
It's a female card artisan! "
"Her specific location?" Hugo asked in a deep voice. His gaze was as deep as the sea, and his silver mask was flashing a demonic light.
"I've checked it out!" the Beard rushed to say.
"Butchie will go with me, and we'll bring five more aces!
Not only do we have to snatch him away, but we also have to avoid attracting attention! "
A glimmer of excitement flashed through the Beard's eyes, though he still had some misgivings. "We still haven't checked out Yang An's background. If we anger Yang An and provoke Jiao Si, that would be a little troublesome!
Shouldn't we check it out before we make our move? "
"Speed is precious in war. We have to make our move before anyone can react!
If we clean our hands and feet, it won't be easy for anyone to find us. "Hugo said proudly," Even if Jiao Si comes, what can he do?
He alone, plus the Origins Academy, can he contend with us? "
The Beard thought about it and felt he was worrying too much.
Hugo immediately got up and took a look at Butchie. He then said in a low voice, "Let's go!" Butchie, who had long since counted, followed closely behind without any hesitation.