Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2751: Emperor’s Embroidered Uniform Guards

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Zhongguo (China), Liaodong Province, Shuntian Prefecture, Shenyang City

”What’s that?” Reven asked her twin, Coryn, startled by the rustling in the bamboo trees, as if someone was moving around them. That should have been impossible. The entire domain was packed with overgrown bamboo, leaving no space for anyone to move through.

The rustling only grew clearer. Whatever was moving in the bamboo wasn’t heading straight to them, but it was slowly circling them. It felt deliberate, like a predator testing the waters, the way a shark circles its prey before the strike.

”How are they doing that? There’s barely any gap between these bamboo trees,” Coryn said, trying to wiggle through the tight cluster holding them in place, as if testing whether there was some trick or technique for slipping through them and moving around them.

”I don’t think they’re moving between the bamboo trees,” Reven said slowly, trying to piece it together. ”I think they’re moving through them. Literally through them.”

She glanced around with the corner of her eye at the thick bamboo pressing in from every side. Normally, the guards who had entered this domain with them would have been trapped just like the two of them. But they weren’t. That meant they had some kind of privilege or chivalry that allowed them to move freely through the cluster of bamboo trees.

To make matters worse, in their current condition they couldn’t use their Chivalry on the air to create the explosive force they normally relied on. Meaning, they were sitting ducks, pinned in place by the tight stalks, waiting for the hunters to come and finish them off.

Feeling the approaching presence draw nearer, Reven made her decision. Rather than remain separated, she withdrew and returned to their shared body. The transition was seamless. Coryn felt the shift instantly, their shared awareness sharpening as Reven’s thoughts and senses settled into alignment with hers.

With Reven fully reintegrated, the twins prepared themselves to meet the incoming threat head-on, having deployed their mental field in sensory mode rather than defensive, focusing all their strength on finding their enemy instead of strengthening their defense.

’Now, Coryn!’ Reven shouted internally as her senses caught the enemy closing to within a meter. It was the signal they had agreed on.

The moment she felt her sister’s cue, Coryn acted. She used their Chivalry on every bamboo stalk within a two-meter radius around them, forcing the similar cells of each stalk to continuously merge into one cell.

The fused cells began to swell. Pressure built. Transport within the tissues collapsed. The weakened cell walls could no longer hold. One by one, the cells burst, the tissues breaking apart from within. In a second, every bamboo tree within two meters of them disintegrated.

The old man with the gray hair and beard, the same one who had thrown them into this domain, was forced out from within the bamboo as well, landing inside the two-meter circle they had cleared.

Before he could react or slip back into the stalks, Coryn and Reven struck together. They used their chivalry on his body, breaking past his mental field, forcing similar cells of his body to fuse into single, oversized ones.

Just like the bamboo tree’s cells, the fused cells began to swell. The pressure inside them spiked, the weakened cell walls failed, and his tissues collapsed in a chain reaction. His body disintegrated before he could escape.

A moment later, the twins found themselves standing back on the rooftop, facing the guards again. This time the guards looked disorganized and one member short. Several of them were badly burned.

Coryn and Reven could see the fear and dread on the guards’ faces, yet they still stood their ground, ready to fight to the death. The desperation and resolve in their eyes made it clear they were only doing their duty.

The twins understood there was nothing to gain from fighting them. So, instead of engaging, they conjoined the air beneath their feet with their chivalry and used the repulsive force from it to shoot forward at insane speed, ignoring the guards as they rushed toward the palace’s inner court, following the voice that was calling them.

’Coryn, watch out!’ Reven shouted in alarm, seeing an anomaly in space through the combination of their chivalry’s twin vision and mental field. Her twin reacted instantly. Mid-sprint, Coryn used their chivalry on the air in front of them and forced themselves backward.

The space where they had been a fraction of a second earlier twisted violently. The air warped, collapsing into a distorted pocket that swallowed everything within ‌it. A moment later, the distortion stabilized. The space returned to normal, spitting out scattered scraps of whatever it had consumed.

A slow series of claps echoed through the gallery leading to the inner court of the Palace. From the shadows stepped a handsome man dressed in golden silk embroidered uniform. He revealed himself to the twins with an amused smile, saying, ”Bravo, Redhair. You are the first person to evade my attack. No one has ever broken free from its suction and escaped. I have to commend you for making it this far, but this is the end of the line for you.”

His gaze settled on them with open curiosity and interest as he asked, ”I’m Xie Chen, the seventh captain of the Emperor’s Embroidered Uniform Guard. What is your name redhair?”

”Great, finally someone who can speak our language,” Coryn sighed in relief. Then she introduced themself. ”Corey the Second. You can call us Corey.”

”Corey?” the man repeated thoughtfully. The name stirred a memory from the last time it had been mentioned within the palace walls. An image surfaced in his mind, one that seemed to overlap with the figure standing before him.

Without realizing it, his palms began to sweat. Snapping out of it, he studied them more carefully and asked, ”Are you from the Kingdom of Scots? How are you related to their royal family?”