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

<p>Just as Bo Wen was about to question himself, Chen Mu executed a fish-flop, carving a marvelous trajectory in midair like a fish belly. That was also a highly skilled midair tactical maneuver having a difficulty level of 70. Bo Wen was utterly dumbfounded.</p>

<p>Multi-level tactical maneuvering refers to combining several midair tactical maneuvers into a coherent whole. If there were two such maneuvers, they would be called double-level tactics, and if it were to include three, that would be called a triple-level tactic by analogy. Although Bo Wen wasn't a close-combat card artisan, he still had some basic understanding. If a double-level set of tactical maneuvers included two maneuvers with a difficulty level of 60, then the level of difficulty for the overall set would be far more than a single maneuver at the level of 70. So, most of the card artisans who deployed multi-level tactical maneuvers only included several simple and very low-level midair tactical maneuvers.</p>

The Best Breath Control (II)