Dragon Hermit

Another day passed just like that. Once the military training ended, Xia Yan went to Hearthcreek Apartments and bought some barbecue as well as a few bottles of beer for ¥30.

Xia Yan took out the key and opened the door to room 1313, and then, he called out once, “Anyone home?”

Although he was looking forward to the scene of Zhang Shufen or Le Wenqing roaming around in the house in their panties very much, it would be a bit despicable of him to enter inside quietly. Therefore, he called out to them once so it would give the girls time to dress up appropriately, and hence avoid an awkward moment.

“Xia Yan?” Le Wenqing’s voice came through from her closed room.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Mhm, okay.” Le Wenqing acknowledged.

“Have some barbecue, I’m putting it on the tea table,” Xia Yan stated.

“Thanks!”

Xia Yan placed the food parcel and the beer on the table and walked over towards his room. While he was passing by the bathroom, he happened to glance inside and stopped in his footsteps.

Currently, Zhang Shufen, who had donned a T-shirt that revealed her midriff, was sitting on top of the toilet seat. Her fair and slender legs were right before his eyes and were swaying up and down. An article hung on the edge of her foot, and it seemed like it might fall down at any moment.

She was obviously listening to music at a considerably high volume as she had earphones on and was shaking her head here and there, so she had neither heard the house’s door open nor had she heard Xia Yan speak. As a result, she hadn’t closed the bathroom door.

The enchanting scene before his eyes had too much of an impact on a naïve virgin like Xia Yan. Even though he had seen An Xiaoru’s bare body a few days ago, the shock of seeing a beautiful woman using the toilet wasn’t any lesser to him. For a moment, he even forgot to step back.

“Do you want to use the toilet, Wenqing? Wait for another five minutes,” From the change in lighting, Zhang Shufen became aware that someone was standing at the entrance. She believed it was Le Wenqing, so she didn’t even turn her head while saying such words carefreely.

Xia Yan broke free from his reverie after hearing her words and immediately realized that the situation was far from good, so he made a quick and prompt retreat. Only after he escaped into his room after opening the door gently did he discover his rapid heartbeat and his flushed face.

[How do I explain it to her later?] Xia Yan felt worried about it.

Le Wenqing came out of her room wearing a cotton short-sleeved shirt and shorts as sleepwear. When she looked at the bathroom, which had its door open, she immediately recalled that Zhang Shufen was still using it, so she promptly made her way over there, and as expected, she discovered Zhang Shufen doing her business inside.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait for another five minutes, why are you back again? Don’t rush me, I’ll be out as soon as I’m done!” This time, Zhang Shufen could clearly see the person at the entrance, so she told this to Le Wenqing.

Le Wenqing froze for a few seconds and left while holding back a laugh as she didn’t have the heart to tell Zhang Shufen the truth.

When Xia Yan passed by the dressing mirror inside his room, a cloud of invasive undead element rushed out of the mirror and coiled around him. However, it couldn’t come close to his body at all because of the two Horcruxes powers’ repelling it back. Once he passed by it, no more undead element appeared from within the mirror.

If it were an ordinary person, strange things would have happened to them because of the undead element coiling around them after entering the room, and they would be plagued by nightmares all the time.

Xia Yan had no plans to absorb this mass of undead element, as leaving it behind would act as some form of protection for the room.

However, as this mass of undead element was too weak, it could only scare a thief and couldn’t prevent them from stealing things. Therefore, Xia Yan planned to spend some time transforming it later to make his room a forbidden area so others wouldn’t enter it.

The tusk and skeletons were still stacked at the corner of the room. Xia Yan rested for a moment, and after assuring himself that Zhang Shufen must have finished using the bathroom, he left his room.

“Xia Yan, when did you come home?” Zhang Shufen asked in shock while washing her hands when she saw him leave his room.

“Just now,” Xia Yan answered while making his way towards the entrance of the house. He picked up the express package with his name that was on top of the shoe cabinet as he planned to take it back to the dorm room with him. The magician’s attire that he had ordered was inside this package.

Zhang Shufen stared blankly into the mirror for a moment and then blushed suddenly while talking to herself, “What a huge loss, I got seen by a man today for nothing!”

She only needed a moment to recall it properly and realized that the person who stood at the entrance of the bathroom before wasn’t Le Wenqing, but rather Xia Yan. In other words, she had exposed herself!

“I can’t let this guy off so lightly!” She clenched her teeth and entered the hall with a harmless smile on her face.

“Xia Yan, did you see anything just now?” Zhang Shufen sat beside Xia Yan on the sofa and asked with a beaming smile.

“Are you talking about the package? I saw it. Thanks for signing the delivery for me!” Xia Yan stated nonchalantly as he picked up the remote and changed channels aimlessly.

“I wasn’t talking about the package. I’m asking whether you saw anything else?” Zhang Shufen picked up a bottle of beer and opened the cap using her teeth, giving a complete show of her manliness.

“I didn’t!” Xia Yan stated innocently.

“You really didn’t?” Zhang Shufen drank a big mouthful of the beer and squinted at him.

“Haha. Are you perhaps referring to the haunting? I haven’t run into a ghost or any such thing!” Xia Yan continued to act stupid.

“Stop playing dumb!” Zhang Shufen slammed the table with her palm and startled Xia Yan.

“What are you doing?” Le Wenqing came over with a bottle of beer and a bottle opener in hand and said, “Who asked you to leave the door open? It serves you right to get seen!”

Zhang Shufen and Xia Yan blushed together. Xia Yan then waved his hands and said, “No, I didn’t see anything at all!”

“Le Wenqing, you are so dead!” Zhang Shufen pounced towards Le Wenqing with a scream, and after playing around for a while, the girls sorted out their clothes and sat down properly again.

“Are you going to sleep here tonight?” Le Wenqing asked while munching on potato chips.

“I just came here to get the package. I won’t be staying over since the military training isn’t over yet!” Xia Yan answered.

“Wenqing, can’t you phrase that better? What’s with that ‘Are you going to sleep here tonight?’ It almost sounds like you’re asking your boss whether he’s staying overnight,” Zhang Shufen stated while crunching on the crispy bones.

“Shut up! It’s not like I had my butt seen!” Le Wenqing snarled back.

“Le Wenqing!” Zhang Shufen screamed.

[What a passionate mood here…] Xia Yan thought.

After having some food, Le Wenqing seemed to recall something suddenly and asked, “Xia Yan, I heard your dorm room formed a fellowship with H504?”

“Even you know about it?” Xia Yan asked in astonishment.

“No kidding! We are also students of Sihe University, okay?” Zhang Shufen blew towards the mouth of the beer bottle and asked, “How did you hook up with the girls from H504? Be careful not to get eaten by that vixen Anna!”

“Anna is actually not that bad a person,” Le Wenqing stated.

“Even so, she is still a vixen,” Zhang Shufen commented.

The trio dined on the barbecue and had a beer together. Le Wenqing didn’t eat too much and only had half a bottle of beer. Zhang Shufen, on the other hand, showed no signs of intoxication even after drinking three bottles of beer and also finished up the other half of Le Wenqing’s bottle.

As they were all youths and from the same university, they quickly became friends with each other.

“It’s not like you have boyfriends, so why have you rented a place outside?” Xia Yan asked a rather personal question once they had become familiar with each other.

“Because the women in the dorm have no dreams they pursue,” Zhang Shufen answered.

“What are you pursuing then?” Xia Yan asked inquisitively.

“Something which you wouldn’t understand!” Zhang Shufen waved her hand carefreely, and this made Xia Yan even more curious about it.

“She’s a fake fortune-teller who is cultivating magical Dao arts,” Le Wenqing revealed her background.

“Dao arts? Is it real?” Xia Yan asked in surprise.

“Of course, it’s real. Do you want this Daoist to show you magic then?” Zhang Shufen proclaimed.

“Just ignore her, I told you she’s just a fake,” Le Wenqing stated.

Xia Yan, however, believed it. If it were before, he definitely wouldn’t have believed it, but he had his own magic now, it wasn’t strange for someone else to possess magical Dao arts.

If Zhang Shufen didn’t actually possess any Dao arts, it would have been impossible for the two girls to live in this apartment room so safely. The undead element inside the mirror couldn’t differentiate between people, so they couldn’t have been unaffected by it since they would have at least entered the master bedroom once. Hence, he was sure that Zhang Shufen must have used Dao magic to eliminate its effect.

It also made him wonder why she hadn’t purified the mass of undead element straightforwardly.

“Hey, Xia Yan. You don’t really believe her, right?” Le Wenqing swayed her hand before Xia Yan’s eyes.

“Of course, I don’t. Hahaha!” Xia Yan laughed out loud.

“Tch! Don’t believe it then, but you’ll have a whole new level of respect for this Daoist sooner or later!” Zhang Shufen proclaimed.

After finishing dinner, Xia Yan picked up the package and left the apartment room. After descending down the floors, he called Hou Xiaotian’s number and said, “Xiaotian, my friend will be coming over to your place to treat Uncle Hou again.”

“All right!” Hou Xiaotian acknowledged excitedly.

“Well then, I’ll be waiting for the good news,” Xia Yan then hung the call.

Xia Yan opened the package at a corner in the district where Hou Xiaotian and his father had rented the house. He took out the sheet inside the package and threw inside the trash can after tearing it into pieces.

A few minutes later, a man donned in a magician’s robe and hat pressed the bell of a certain house’s door.

After hearing the bell, Hou Xiaotian rushed over to open the door and saw a man wearing a black magician’s robe and a huge hat standing outside. The man had covered most of his face, so it wasn’t possible to discern his identity. This man entered the house and turned off the lights in passing.

If Hou Xiaotian had seen this attire somewhere else, he would have believed they were a cosplayer. However, he knew that the person before him really had special abilities and could possibly be a real mage.

Only, it was pretty apparent that this magician’s robe was brand new as it still had the scent specific to new clothes, and also seemed like a product from Taobao.

This person had worn informal sportswear of a bigger size last time, so Hou Xiaotian had easily guessed that this enigmatic man didn’t need to hide his identity before treating his father. In other words, he had specially bought these clothes to hide his identity this time to treat his father.

After comparing this enigmatic man’s height with his memories, Hou Xiaotian was almost sure that this man was none other than Xia Yan!

If Xia Yan knew that Hou Xiaotian had already guessed his identity, he would have definitely cursed the movies, TV shows, and comics for misleading people. Superwoman just needed to change into their hero dresses, and people couldn’t make out their identity while Superman could trick Lois with just a pair of glasses. This was really too nonsensical.

Naturally, Hou Xiaotian couldn’t have made out Xia Yan’s identity if it weren’t for them being acquaintances as this black magician’s robe was a pretty solid disguise. Even if someone used advanced equipment to map out the skull’s shape, it would have all been useless as the hat was large enough to fool it.

People in their late teens always believed they were infallible, and Xia Yan was no exception to this. Although he was already a novice undead mage, he was still just a university freshman, that’s all.

“Thank you for the treatment, please come inside!” Hou Xiaotian welcomed Xia Yan inside. His father was already sitting in the hall, waiting there with worry and hope.

“Hello…”