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

Walking into the room where the 20 card masters were, Chen Mu was taken aback. He saw countless energy cards piled on a table and randomly picked one up. Four-star! He picked up another one. It's a four-star! Four-star! Four-star...

All the cards on the table were four-star power cards! He thought again about how he had doubted whether they had the ability to make four-star power cards. He felt immediately embarrassed.

Those guys really had professional spirit! Chen Mu praised them to himself, never having seen such diligent high-grade card masters. Looking at the small mountain of four-star power cards on the table, he could imagine how efficient and hard-working those card masters were!

Preparing for War (VI)