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

Chen Mu was naked as he kept washing his clothes which were about to turn to rags. To leave no trace of the scent of blood, he kept on scrubbing them to where the clothes that had already been tattered didn't look like clothes anymore. And he still wasn't satisfied, as if he seriously wanted to scrub them into a pulp. Perhaps because of the stimulation from the cold water, Chen Mu had started to recover his strength a little, and his depleted perception was starting to revive.

Chen Mu had kept up his guard while struggling with his clothes and he suddenly seemed to see a dark shadow flash in the water not far away. In the pitch dark of the forest if it weren't for the reflection off the water and the recent enhancement of his facility in the dark, he certainly wouldn't have seen that dark shadow.

He quickly stopped his activity and looked alertly at the creek while almost unconsciously activating the bipolar thunderball card.

The Dangerous Jungle