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 traps Wei-ah was placing weren't as elegant as Chen Mu's. He was casually splitting apart a heavy pomelo-wood chair by hand.

Off to the side, Lu Xiaoru's heart was bleeding since that chair sold on the market for 50,000 Oudi.

Of course, Wei-ah didn't know anything about its value. Even if he had, that wouldn't have changed his behavior at all. He took the top of the longest piece of the dense pomelo-wood and nailed it onto a short, sharp stick. He then bent it and hooked a rope onto it, looping the other end onto a mechanism that could be activated. He put the trap behind an outside window with the trigger underneath the window. Anyone coming in through the window would step on the trigger mechanism. Then, the dense strip of pomelo-wood would be released in an instant and sprung straight. Such sudden, explosive power could kill some powerful beasts in the jungle.

Ren Wenzhou’s Counterattack