At the side of the ravine, in an old empty cave, a clear voice suddenly echoed out.
"Thousands of pear blossoms bloom!"
Under the moonlight, a youth wearing a peaked cap walked out of the cave. There was another skinny youth with a look of cold arrogance on his face walking beside him.
Not far away, the figure of a masked female also shimmered in and out of existence.
Xu Nan cast a puzzled glance at the youth. The youth revealed an apologetic expression. "Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intentionally interrupt your spellcasting.
"It's just that your recital of the poem was too smooth, hence I couldn't control myself and recited the next line…"
His mouth was then covered by the skinny youth.
"Quiet." His expression was calm as he continued, "Stop talking nonsense. Zhao Wen is planning to cast [Powerful Thunderstorm]. He wants to punish them as an example to us.
"Remember, you are already a qualified job-holder. In the future, you have to become an expert that stands above ten thousand people and have the bearing of an expert like that. There's no need for you to converse with such trash."
These words were spoken by him as though they should be by rights. The young man's gaze revealed an expression of being wronged, but he didn't dare to rebut.
As Zhao Wen recited his spell, terrifying dark clouds gathered in the sky above.
In the thick clouds, the powerful wind and lightning elements fused together. At most, the spell would only need over ten seconds to send down thunderbolts, razing this very land to the ground!
Just like what the skinny youth said, Zhao Wen wanted to show them an example of what would happen if they crossed him.
The three other individuals who bought the entry tickets had long since arrived, but they just didn't show themselves. Most probably, all of them had plans in their hearts. When Xu Nan's group coincidentally appeared, Zhao Wen naturally wanted to show how powerful he was as a mage!
After all in the Puluo World, other than the gods, mages were publicly acknowledged as the strongest class!
"Don't blame me for being ruthless. Those who disrupt this daddy's business have to die!"
Zhao Wen's eyes flashed sinisterly. His recital was about to conclude.
Zhang Yingluo brandished her saber and slashed apart three of Zhao Wen's scarecrow avatars. She finally locked onto Zhao Wen's real body.
However, everything seemed to be too late.
At this moment where immense peril hung upon, Xu Nan completed the casting of his secret art - Soundless Howl!
This secret art could be used with speech as a medium. He successfully cast it!
The time needed to finish casting it was roughly about 10 seconds!
"This secret art is extremely suitable for cunning warlocks to use!"
Xu Nan heaved a sigh of relief silently. He then continued reciting in a loud voice.
"...Thousands of pear blossoms bloom!"
The youth wearing the peaked cap jumped excitedly. He pulled the skinny youth's hand. "Brother, look! I recited it correctly!"
The skinny youth was speechless.
At the next second, a scene that caused everyone to reel in shock appeared. The last syllable in the spell needed to complete the [Powerful Thunderstorm] wasn't pronounced. His voice actually stopped suddenly!
Very soon, the mist cloaking the ravine's entrance faded, and the dark clouds in the sky also thinned. The wind and storm elements in the sky became much more unstable.
Zhao Wen's weak figure finally appeared. His entire expression was ashen, and it was as though there was a fishbone stuck in his throat. Even before Zhang Yingluo rushed up and slash him, he already knelt on the ground and was coughing out large amounts of blood by the mouthful!
"What a powerful poem!" The youth with the peaked cap was stunned.
The tall and skinny youth revealed an unprecedented solemn expression. "Bard's soul destruction melody? But there's no music?"
"You, you, you…"
As Zhao Wen knelt on the ground, coughing blood, he was glaring fixedly at Xu Nan. That gaze of his caused Xu Nan to feel extremely uncomfortable.
Zhao Wen's entire body showed symptoms of magic running out of control. Because of [Soundless Howl]'s effect, the level four spell [Powerful Thunderstorm] he wanted to cast was forcefully interrupted.
Without the proper guidance of a teacher, not every mage could withstand the backlash of a spell.
For example, now.
Xu Nan's hands were holding back Zhang Yingluo and Qin Lele who wanted to go forward for a look.
A large amount of weak electrical flows appeared on Zhao Wen's body. His features started to blur.
Sizzle~
All the spells covering the ravine's entrance dissipated, revealing an incomparably shiny teleportation gate not far away.
Rumble~
A bolt of thunder with the size of a finger descended from the sky, directly striking down at Zhao Wen. Zhao Wen's body stiffened. He trembled a little and directly fell into unconsciousness.
The dark clouds in the sky finally dissipated. Not far away, daybreak came. Dawn had arrived.
Qin Lele cast a shocked look at Xu Nan. "The poem you recited is so powerful! But why does the youth wearing the peaked cap also know about this spell? I've never heard about it before."
Xu Nan spoke with dissatisfaction, "Have you not read this poem before in our Chinese language textbook? Student Qin Lele, have the nine years of education you've been through been wasted on you?"
Qin Lele had a look of shame on her face. "I always feel tired when I read ancient poems, so tired to the point where I wanted to sleep."
Zhang Yingluo looked at Xu Nan. "But why did he get defeated so easily? If I didn't see it wrongly, he was suffering from a serious backlash due to his failure to finish the spell, right?"
Xu Nan explained guiltily, "Maybe...maybe when I was reciting the poem, it invoked some memories in his mind and he got distracted for a second, leading to the failure of his spell."
"It makes sense!" The youth with the peaked cap couldn't help but applaud. "Poems have the ability to stir one's soul. This poem was very well-written, so it's only to be expected that Zhao Wen would be moved when he heard it. Maybe, he had wanted to recite the verses together with you and he might have screwed up his own incantations due to this!"
Xu Nan wanted nothing more than to directly give this youth the best assistance award. Because the moment he spoke, the system notified him that he had completed the mission.
This proved that his mission [Achieve one aim's by underhanded means] had been successfully completed. At the very least, as of now, no one suspected his identity as a bard!
[You obtained 5 shameless points!]
[You obtained 1 extra free stat point!]
Xu Nan's eyes were brimming with tears of excitement as he added this extra point to his charm stat!
On his character card, the value of his charm stat refreshed and finally jumped from 19 to 20!
[Your charm value has reached the Supreme Domain, you gained Supreme Charm!]
[Supreme Charm's supplementary specialty - Universal Attraction]
[Universal Attraction: Your charm contains attractiveness to all creatures in the world]
This supplementary specialty, Universal Attraction, naturally was just an extra specialty in the passing. Xu Nan already felt a headache due to [Radiant-look], and now another [Universal Attraction] had arrived. It didn't make him feel happy at all.
He believed that as long as he activated [Radiant-look] and [Universal Attraction] as he went to the shopping mall or took a walk around the movie theaters and gyms, it might be hard to say if he could return alive. This was especially so for gyms. When Xu Nan thought about his own body covered in sweat while radiating charm, he couldn't help but shiver.
What he minded more was the hastening of bloodline awakening's speed brought about by Supreme Charm!
To warlocks, the charm stat was their most important main stat. After obtaining Supreme Charm, the bloodline awakening speed would be twice as fast. Thus, maybe he no longer needed to do shameless things and he could solely depend on the speed of his bloodline awakening to gain strong power!
...
No matter what, just a poem recited by Xu Nan had easily beaten a powerful mage apprentice. This had become an undisputed fact.
No matter how much suspicion Zhang Yingluo and the skinny youth had in their hearts, they understood this wasn't the time to pursue it.
Why? Because everyone saw that when the mage Zhao Wen turned unconscious, the teleportation gate began to tremble!
"Damn, you made Zhao Wen faint. The originally unstable teleportation gate might vanish because of this now!"
The tall and skinny youth stared at Xu Nan. "We spent a huge amount of money for this chance to enter the Puluo World!"
The youth in the peaked cap nodded. "My elder brother is right. We had to spend all our family fortune before managing to purchase two entry tickets."
"You have to take responsibility for this."
The person he was looking at was none other than Xu Nan.
All of a sudden, the masked female appeared at Xu Nan's side silently. Her voice contained a slightly hoarse charm. "I've also bought an entry ticket. You have to take responsibility."
Her words were concise and comprehensive. Her tone seemed flat but Xu Nan sensed the smell of danger from her.
Zhang Yingluo glanced at the three of them. "You three should be job-holders, right?"
"Why do you all want to go to the Puluo World? Isn't Earth very good?"
The youth with the peaked cap bitterly smiled. "I fell out with my family, and my elder bro brought me along as we fled. If we don't flee into the Puluo World, I will be captured and have to be imprisoned for several years. My elder bro also has to get married to an unreasonable woman…"
His mouth was once again covered by that tall and skinny youth.
"How many times have I told you? You have to be more subtle, stop chattering the moment you meet someone." He angrily berated, "Chang Fengqi, if you are still so silly, I will leave you here alone on Earth!"
Chang Fengqi immediately hugged the tall and skinny youth's leg. His eyes brimmed with tears, and he looked extremely pitiful.
The skinny youth actually had a soft heart despite his fierce demeanor. He sighed and patted his younger brother on his head and replied Zhang Yingluo in a heavy voice,
"Even if we want to go to the Puluo World, what does it have to do with you?"
Zhang Yingluo pondered for a while before she took out a strange-looking identification. "It actually has something to do with me."
"I'm from the [Thousand Awn Agency]... and H City's jobholders are under our department's jurisdiction.
"Junior brother Xu Nan, Student Ah`Kun, I apologize for keeping you guys in the dark for so long…eh?"
Just when she wanted to explain her identity to the two of them, she discovered Ah`Kun and Xu Nan had already run over to the teleportation gate for some reason!
"Can you guys handle this teleportation gate?"
The masked female disappeared from her location and appeared mysteriously beside them.
Xu Nan gingerly touched the teleportation gate, and it suddenly let out a peal of creaking laughter.
In the next second, a piece of paper that was a complicated contract appeared before Xu Nan. Xu Nan touched it and a strange feeling flooded his mind.
And at this moment, Zhao Wen finally regained consciousness. When he saw this scene, he roared angrily, "Don't touch my teleportation gate!"
"I'm going to kill you all!"
His voice was dry and hoarse; he was in hysteria.
Xu Nan quietly sensed the information that was channeled into his mind. After that, he opened his eyes and revealed an apologetic expression.
"Apologies. This is my teleportation gate now."
...