Dragon Hermit

Both Xia Yan and Liu Mo slowed down their gait taciturnly at the same moment, but they didn’t stop walking. The same thought was running in their minds right now, that no matter whether they end up fighting or not, they absolutely could not show fear on their faces.

“Xia Yan, what are you singing?” Zhao Qiang was walking to the left of Xia Yan and could hear him mutter to himself. This made Zhao Qiang remark internally that Xia Yan had a strong mental fortitude.

Xia Yan glanced at him, but said nothing, and continued chanting in a low voice. As his voice was pretty low, only his companions could hear it.

“What is Xia Yan doing?” An Xiaoru whispered towards Anna.

“I’m not sure. Even though it’s my first time hearing the song he is singing, it does sound pretty mysterious!” Anna answered.

“It sounds like a foreign language; do you know which country’s language it is?” An Xiaoru asked again.

“I can’t make it out, so it’s definitely not a widespread language!” Anna answered.

“Is this guy perhaps feeling nervous and using this method to deal with the pressure?” An Xiaoru asked doubtfully.

Xia Yan did not notice the girls’ whispers as he was focusing on chanting the spell as fast as he could. A dozen or so seconds later, he finally finished chanting the spell, following which, a trickle of blue magic power left the magic tower in his brain and amassed into a faint ball of light at his fingertip.

This ball of blue light wasn’t that eye-catching under the intense sunlight, so no one took notice of it.

Xia Yan flicked his finger lightly and sent the ball of light flying into Liu Mo’s head quickly. As this had happened so quickly, even those with pretty good eyesight were not able to notice this miniature ball of light.

Liu Mo lost his vision for a moment, and following that, he lost his footing too and fell down to the rugged track on the ground, screaming out loud in pain.

“Hiss——” The entire crowd drew in a cold breath of air in tandem as the fall looked pretty painful even to them.

Liu Mo crawled up quickly, and after sensing a slight pain from his knee and elbow, he bowed his head to check for injuries and discovered abrasions on both locations. He could tolerate the pain, but such an ugly display before 200-300 people had made him feel utterly ashamed.

“Damn it! It’s all because of that bastard!” Liu Mo naturally placed all the blame on Xia Yan, “I have to teach him a good lesson!”

While he was having such thoughts, he lost his balance and slipped again. It was almost as if a banana peel had been placed under his feet. However, Liu Mo didn’t fall down this time as he waved his hands and tried hard to maintain his balance. Unfortunately, his actions were all futile since he fell down to the track again two seconds later. And this time, he even landed on his butt.

Liu Mo’s throat issued a guttural groan as he couldn’t even scream after falling down this time.

[What kind of game are you playing?] All the students began laughing, [You just crawled up, and you’re falling down again, is there a need to act so comically? Others crawl up from the place they fall down, but you keep falling down from the place you crawl up.]

Liu Mo was stupefied by the situation. He could naturally hear the jeers from the surroundings, and they made him feel like he was standing bare naked in the middle of the crowd.

Still dazed, Liu Mo endured the pain from his butt and got up. He then subconsciously took a step forward, but the moment he did so, he screamed mournfully in his heart, [F•ck!]

His foot seemed to have kicked a stone, following which he uncontrollably fell down again…

“Ouch!”

“Hiss——” At least a hundred people helped Liu Mo yell in pain. It was a rather subconscious reaction as none of them had done it intentionally. After watching him fall down thrice consecutively, they really felt like it had happened to them personally.

“He’s crying!” A student nearby shouted out loud as he pointed towards Liu Mo, who was lying on the ground right now.

As expected, when Liu Mo raised his head dazedly, a drop of tear trailed down his cheeks.

“He’s so pitiful!” A girl stated sympathetically.

“He’s actually crying after falling down. Is he really that weak? From his tall and hunky looks, I thought he was a tough guy, but he’s just like a bottom, crying after just falling down once.” Someone from the crowd stated in disdain.

“It wasn’t once, but thrice, and that too in front of such a huge crowd. If it were you, you would also end up crying!” Someone else retorted to defend Liu Mo, but he had no gratitude for them at all. Right now, his sole wish was for a hole to pop up in the ground so he could hide in it.

[Can someone please tell me what the f•ck is going on here?]

Liu Mo could only curse internally in such a manner.

“Liu Mo, what’s wrong?” His two friends finally recovered their senses and rushed forward to support him, “Are you all right?”

“I’m… fine!” Liu Mo looked down to check the ground carefully and confirmed there was no banana peel or stone in front of him. Although his legs hurt, they had not lose strength, so he threw off his friends’ arms and prepared to continue walking forward. In the next moment, his left foot kicked his right foot, and he fell down magnificently for the fourth time.

The crowd turned silent as none of them were ready to take what they were witnessing as facts.

As the saying goes, bad things don’t happen more than three times. Falling down thrice was already pretty unbelievable, but he had now fallen down for a fourth time. They were on the drill ground, not an ice rink, so it was pretty weird for such a thing to happen again and again.

“Is he doing it intentionally?” Someone suddenly stated.

“Yeah, he must be doing it on purpose!”

“Seems to be the case. Else, how could someone trip and fall continuously like that? Perhaps he’s afraid of getting punished after the fight, so he’s deliberately using such a method to injure himself and gain the upper hand.”

“That can’t be possible, right? He could just walk away from the fight, so why would he deliberately make himself trip and fall down?”

“How else can you explain his…”

“I don’t know how to explain it too!”

“Why isn’t he getting up? Did he break a bone from the fall?”

“He would be screaming in pain already if that had happened. Look at his quivering shoulders, perhaps he’s crying again.”

“He’s really crying!” Soon after, the students nearby could clearly see Liu Mo’s constantly shaking shoulders, and also hear his faint weeps.

Falling down four times continuously had forced this tall, muscular Taekwondo practitioner to cry. Liu Mo had fallen down plenty of times in the practice hall, and each time, he would get up with a smile on his face as if nothing had happened. However, it was different now as he had tripped and fallen down so many times under everyone’s gaze. The pain his body felt didn’t matter, but the humiliation that attacked his senses again and again because of the crowd ended up making him sob.

“Everyone, please bear witness for me. I haven’t fought at all, so he isn’t crying because I hit him!” While everyone was gasping in amazement, Xia Yan seized the chance to proclaim this in a loud voice, as he couldn’t allow the punishment to fall on his head in any case.

“Don’t worry, we’ve all seen it. He fell down on his own!” Someone shouted back loudly.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Xia Yan bowed towards the crowd while cupping his fists and said with a smile, “I shall retreat first since we cannot go forward with this fight. Everyone, please continue watching the show, there’s no need to be polite!”

Saying so, he turned around and left.

Zhao Qiang and Qin Jian also followed behind while chuckling. As for the four girls, they all sighed with relief and also withdrew firmly.

Just after they had left the ground, someone else had rushed over. The crowd of students was planning to disperse too, but after seeing this person, their eyes lit up, and they decided to stay a while longer.

“Zhou Yi is here!”

“Of course, he would come. Liu Mo is a member of the Taekwondo Club, and Zhou Yi is the president of the club, so it wouldn’t make sense if he didn’t come!”

“Liu Mo, what happened here? What’s wrong with you?” Zhou Yi reached out to help Liu Mo stand up and asked in an anxious voice.

“It’s that freshman, Xia Yan…” Liu Mo raised his head, and as expected, his face was covered in tears, and even the dirt on the ground had become a bit wet. He couldn’t have looked anymore miserable.

“Xia Yan?” A cold gleam flashed through Zhou Yi’s eyes, “That’s perfect. I also have a debt to settle with him!”

☠☠☠

“Xia Yan, what happened to Liu Mo just now?” An Xiaoru questioned while taking a sip from the can of pop inside a soft drinks store outside the campus.

“I have no idea,” Xia Yan shook his head.

“Didn’t you do something?” Anna also questioned him.

“Beauties, did you see me touch him at all? He obviously fell down on his own because of his carelessness, okay?” Xia Yan complained.

“You can say that, but my sixth sense tells me that Liu Mo tripping and falling down is definitely related to you!” An Xiaoru stated.

“You should trust what you saw with your eyes,” Xia Yan stated sincerely while looking into her eyes.

“Yeah, right!” For some reason, being watched by him made An Xiaoru feel a bit nervous.

“Oh, yeah. Xia Yan, what were you singing before? It sounded pretty mysterious. Can you sing it for us again?” Anna asked suddenly.

“Sing?” Xia Yan felt stunned, “I never sung anything!”

“I clearly heard you singing something before Liu Mo tripped and fell down. The others also heard it, so do you even need to hide it?” Anna stated resentfully.

“Eh…” Xia Yan finally realized that Anna was talking about the magic spell he had chanted. Of course, it wasn’t something that could be sung recklessly, so feigned calmness and said, “Perhaps I did it subconsciously because of the nervousness. I really can’t remember it!”

“Yeah, right. I never saw you show any nervousness at all!” Anna scoffed in disdain, but she didn’t bring it up again.

Xia Yan sighed in relief internally. Anna was a very intelligent girl, so she would certainly keep a watch on him if she were to link him with the masked man who had helped them. And that would increase the chances of him getting found out.

“Anyways, I feel great watching the show just now. Those four falls… tsk-tsk, maybe even the Heavens detest that scoundrel?” Qin Jian stated.

“This is the only explanation that makes sense!” Zhao Qiang commented with a deadpan face.

“Thank you, Cousin!” Xiaoyu picked up a can of pop and handed it over to Xia Yan, “Here’s a toast to you, hehe!”

“Let’s all do it together!” Zhao Qiang fussed up.

“Cheers!” The seven cans of pop bumped with each other.

Xia Yan witnessed Zhao Qiang use his pinky to scratch Wang Yi’s finger when the cans bumped into each other, following which a blush appeared on her face. Then, she rolled her eyes towards Zhao Qiang charmingly.

Xia Yan knew that the moment the first person from C402 would graduate from being single was approaching closer.

[Who should I pursue?] The moment this thought appeared in Xia Yan’s mind, he took a subconscious glance towards An Xiaoru, and this left him slightly startled. [Shouldn’t I have looked at Xiaoyu first?]

And now, for some reason, he recalled Liu Xue’er again in his mind.

[Impossible!]

Xia Yan fell into self-doubt, [Could it be that I have the potential to become a playboy?]

[Xiaoyu is so affectionate towards me and just a step away from confessing, so why did I look at An Xiaoru, while thinking of Liu Xue’er? This doesn’t make sense. How can a good and innocent young man like me act so greedy?]

[But… why do I also feel like there’s nothing wrong with doing that?]