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 scholars at the Federation Comprehensive Academy were disconsolate in their grief. Even some of the professors were watching Jie Yanbai with fear showing on their faces.

Jie Yanbai was still looking bedraggled, but the gazes of everyone looking at him were now full of horror and shock.

"You lost." Jie Yanbai's eyes sparked, and he spoke in a low voice. In sharp contrast, Dou Bo's face was like the ashes of the dead.

Touching all the terrified gazes, Jie Yanbai felt unspeakably carefree. Although his time at the Central Repository of the Classics hadn't been so satisfactory, he still had deep feelings for the place. Even though he was a comparative stranger to the master, there were still people in the school he cared about. He was friendly with the teacher who had passed along the legacy of the Rouged Finger to him, but as to Mi Xiaqing, who was killed by Tang Hanpei…

Non-Human Skills