Fang Xiang

This is both a work of science fiction and an exploration of the meaning of life, love, literature and art. Brainpower is no longer the main ingredient for being human in this far distant future world.  Spirituality, physical balance, and diligence all come together as integrity for Chen Mu, the Card Apprentice.  The cards which Chen Mu masters in his own scrappy way, distill all the powers of the cosmos –  human and nonhuman –  into something that is not a book, not technology, and neither art nor magic, but is these and more.  Learn about these strange cards, which can embody everything you might imagine for the future of technology, but also a future beyond technology which promotes the best, and sometimes the worst, from mankind’s past.

The Card Apprentice

The moon-shaped rippled blade didn't meet with any obstructions while sinking into the thicket.

While the group of people were in the midst of astonishment, not knowing what was going on, there was suddenly a dramatic quaking at that place in the thicket, and a blue-green python as thick as a leg was writhing in pain on the ground, leaving a trail of blood from its seven-inch nest-hole.

Each of the Eastern Wei Academy students stared dumbly, not able to believe that they were looking at a big writhing python, and even the Eastern Wei Academy teachers showed fear on their faces.

But the most stunned was certainly Hong Tao. Hong Tao had always thought of himself very highly, but he then knew that there were men beyond men. He could see very clearly that there wasn't only one trail of blood, but that the moon-shaped rippled blade had pierced right through the entire snake, leaving two symmetrical blood trails.

The First Card Play (3)