Dragon Hermit

“That’s indeed something related to history, but doesn’t it fall in the domain of art even more? Why didn’t you apply to the University of Arts then?” Qi Ziyu asked in return.

“Ehhh…” Xia Yan hesitated for a moment, but since he didn’t want to lie to her, he answered honestly, “My Master said that the seniority of the professors who teach carving in the University of Arts are unqualified to teach me because their seniority ranks too low and they are too weak in strength. Hence, he advised me to study history.”

“Ah?” After a moment of astonishment, Qi Ziyu chuckled at him, “Your master must be very formidable then. Is he a grandmaster of carving?”

“Ehhh… Actually, I also don’t know if he is one, but he is extremely formidable!” Xia Yan answered.

“If you produce something in the future, you have to give me one of them then!” Qi Ziyu added and subconsciously moved closer to him a bit. Xia Yan noticed this and silently moved a bit further before nodding, “All right. Just say a word to me in the future if you want something crafted.”

“It’s a deal then!” Qi Ziyu offered her right hand with a smile on her face.

Xia Yan observed her flawless, fair hands for a few moments and reached out to gently shake hands with her, “It’s a deal!”

The two of them shivered slightly the moment their palms touched each other. Xia Yan felt a numb sensation in his palm, and it almost seemed as if a weak current had traveled through his arm with lightning-quick speed and charged into the magic tower within his mind before dissipating. In the next instant, an extremely pleasant sensation surfaced within his brain and brought him to the zenith of euphoria.

On the other side, Qi Ziyu also experienced a similar sensation, and the sudden pleasure caused her face to blush instantly.

“What happened… just now?” Xia Yan asked blankly.

“Maybe it was static electricity?” Qi Ziyu reasoned.

“Yeah, it must have been that!” Although he agreed with her on the surface, he didn’t believe that was the case. It was early in the morning, and the air beside the lake was filled with moisture, so it couldn’t have been static electricity. Moreover, there has never been a case where someone felt pleasure because of static electricity.

[It felt pretty nice. It would be great if I could experience it once again!]

Xia Yan sneaked a peek at Qi Ziyu and discovered that she was also looking at his face with a flushed face. The two of them quickly turned their heads away in embarrassment when their gazes interlocked with each other. After that, Qi Ziyu stood and spoke to him with her eyes facing downwards, “I… should be returning to the dorm now!”

“O-Okay… I also have to return!” Xia Yan stuttered while replying as he was still feeling a bit flustered.

The two of them suddenly looked towards another side of the lake when they heard a snapping sound and discovered someone with a DSLR camera in hand moving there.

[What’s going on?] Xia Yan couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, [Did someone come out to take a snap of the sunrise? They must really love photography!]

Qi Ziyu’s expression, on the other hand, turned unsightly as she expressed her displeasure, “These damn paparazzi!”

[Paparazzi?]

Xia Yan finally came to a realization, [Am I… going to appear in the celeb news and gossip?]

[Can this be considered as my debut in the world of celebs?]

Even though he had been discovered, the paparazzo was in no hurry to leave. He continued taking a few more snaps, after coming to the conclusion that he wouldn’t obtain any other juicier photographs, he waved his hand at Xia Yan and Qi Ziyu before leaving merrily.

“This won’t affect you, right?” Xia Yan asked worriedly.

“It doesn’t matter since this is nothing. At worst, it would become a love affair,” Qi Ziyu replied.

“That’s good then!” Xia Yan felt a little relieved now and said ruefully, “The showbiz industry is really full of murky waters that are no good to wade through!”

“Yeah. Fortunately, I’m doing it just for fun, so I don’t care even if the media writes such things about me,” Qi Ziyu stated.

“Well, there’s nothing much to write about since we were just…” Xia Yan suddenly heard a shocked and furious voice from behind when he began speaking, “Ziyu, who is he?”

A hint of helplessness and revulsion appeared on Qi Ziyu’s face when she heard this voice, so she answered it without even turning her head back, “Xie Zheng, why are you here?”

Xia Yan turned his head back and saw a tall, young, short-haired man standing a few meters behind them. He was dressed in a prim and proper manner with a suit and glistening leather shoes. A pair of gold-rimmed spectacles rested on the bridge of his nose, and at a first look, he appeared just like an elite intellectual. He was the picture-perfect template of a man with wealth, height, and looks that could invoke the feelings of love in a woman with a single glance.

And right now, this young man, Xie Zheng, wore a furious expression on his face as he stared at Xia Yan, almost as if Xia Yan was a debtor who owed him money.

“Ziyu. I asked you, who is he?” Xie Zheng stepped forward in massive strides and asked once again with a raised voice while pointing at Xia Yan.

“What does his identity have to do with you?” Qi Ziyu stood up and turned around to ask in return with a frigid tone, her face bereft of any emotions.

“What does have to do with me, you ask? Did you forget your identity?” Xie Zheng screamed at her menacingly.

“As long as I haven’t agreed to it, that identity means nothing at all,” Qi Ziyu raised her willowy brows and attacked back.

[Did I just get implicated here?]

Xia Yan felt somewhat speechless as the scene before him felt a bit familiar to him. It resembled the insanely dramatic storylines within a good deal of s, so Xia Yan wondered whether this Xie Zheng was Qi Ziyu’s fiancé.

Xia Yan felt his heart sting when he had this thought since he didn’t really have a good impression of the word ‘fiancé.’

“Ziyu, Aunt Qi decided on our matter fifteen years ago!” After seeing that Qi Ziyu was not backing down, Xie Zheng softened his tone a little, “I’m the best candidate for you, and we have also known each other since childhood. As childhood sweethearts, shouldn’t we be getting together?”

“Sorry, I was only three years old fifteen years ago, so I don’t plan to take responsibility for something my mother said back then. If you want, I’ll ask my mother to compensate your Xie family,” Qi Ziyu stated icily while shaking her head.

“As for the words ‘childhood sweethearts,’ don’t you dare say that. We just met this year for the first time since finishing kindergarten, so I didn’t even remember you!”

[You call such a relationship childhood sweethearts?] Xia Yan couldn’t help but chuckle when he heard this, and this caused Xie Zheng to glare at him viciously, “Who are you?”

“Ultraman,” Xia Yan stated.

“Pfft!” Qi Ziyu also began laughing.

Xie Zheng’s expression turned unsightly, so he stepped before Xia Yan and slapped Xia Yan’s face. This slap packed quite the force as whooshed through the air audibly along with his scream, “You’re courting death!”

“Xie Zheng, don’t you dare!” Qi Ziyu cried out in alarm and reached out to block Xie Zheng’s arm, but there wasn’t enough time for her to do that.

Xia Yan’s gaze focused, and he leaned back instinctively. As the fitness of his body and his reaction speed were much higher than an ordinary person’s, he was able to avoid this sudden and heavy slap with much ease. It just flitted past the tip of his nose without harming him much.

And when the wind from the slap smacked him in the face, his expression sunk.

Xia Yan could comprehend that Xie Zheng had acted impulsively as in all fairness, he too might have done the same if he were in Xie Zheng’s place, However, understanding it and accepting it were two different things. Since Xie Zheng wanted to intimidate him, he had to give a proper response to it.

Xia Yan had already begun chanting the Vampiric Curse spell the moment he had dodged the slap. The amount of force and speed Xie Zheng’s slap packed in it was not something an ordinary human could achieve, so Xia Yan doubted that he might have practiced some fist fighting arts. If they were to fight, Xia Yan would undoubtedly suffer a loss due to his lack of skill. However, with the Vampiric Curse buffing him with a strength higher than ordinary humans on several orders, skills didn’t mean anything in front of him since he could take down Xie Zheng with a single slap.

[He managed to dodge it?] Xie Zheng blanked out for a moment after realizing he had missed since he never expected that an ordinary university student would be capable of avoiding a slap of his which packed around 70 percent of his strength.

“Xie Zheng, you’ve crossed the line!” Qi Ziyu’s palm also arrived at this moment and slammed into Xie Zheng’s arm with a loud and clear voice.

Xie Zheng grunted and withdrew his hand immeidately. Xia Yan could clearly see that the location where Qi Ziyu had struck him had turned red, and a palm print had also appeared there.

[Qi Ziyu actually has such strength?] Xia Yan felt shocked. Even if he could chalk up Xie Zheng’s strength to the fact that he might have practiced some fist fighting arts, Qi Ziyu was a singer and just an eighteen-year-old girl. A slap from a girl in her late teens was as good as a tickle, so rather than calling it smacking, it might as well be called throwing a tantrum. So the situation that Xia Yan had witnessed shouldn’t have happened at all.

Xia Yan felt like his understanding of the world was being overthrown. [Do all the wealthy folks like practicing martial arts these days?]

However, now wasn’t the time to ponder about these. Xia Yan continued chanting the verses of the Vampiric Curse spell in a low voice. Although they could hear it faintly, it wasn’t that clearly audible to them. Moreover, they weren’t paying that much attention to Xia Yan right now.

“Xie Zheng. You dare to attack my classmate?” Qi Ziyu stood in front of Xia Yan and glowered at Xie Zheng in anger.

“Ziyu, you actually hit me for this mediocre kid?” Xie Zheng made an incredulous expression as he covered his arm and delivered a clichéd line from TV dramas.

“Xie Zheng, leave right now and don’t appear before me ever again!” Qi Ziyu stated frigidly.

“All right. I’ll leave then!” Xie Zheng’s expression changed, and he gazed towards Xia Yan with resignation, “Kid, can you only hide behind a woman?”

“Death’s Blessings — Vampiric Curse!” Xia Yan finished chanting the spell, and an egg-sized black sphere entered his body from behind, filling his entire body with strength.

“You’re right,” Xia Yan stepped forward from behind Qi Ziyu and smirked, “But do you believe you can just get away scot-free after slapping someone?”

“Hoh? What do you plan to do then?” Xie Zheng jeered in anger.

“Since you slapped me once, I’ll just slap you back twice. That’s fair, isn’t it?” Xia Yan went around the bench and walked towards Xie Zheng.

“That’s fair. Come then!” Xie Zheng sneered.

“Xia Yan, don’t act impulsively!” Qi Ziyu advised him with her brows slightly furrowed. She knew Xie Zheng was pretty strong, so she feared that Xia Yan would suffer a loss.

“I’m not acting impulsively. I’m just getting a tooth for a tooth, that’s all,” Xia Yan stopped a meter away from Xie Zheng before raising his right hand, and at the moment he finished speaking, he slapped towards Xie Zheng.

“You’re really courting death!” Xie Zheng’s pupils contracted as anger surged within him. [How dare an ordinary university student like you have the nerve to hit me?]

Even if Qi Ziyu was present here, Xie Zheng had no plans of holding back again. He was planning to send Xia Yan to the hospital today. Thus, he lifted his left hand to block Xia Yan’s palm, but the moment their arms met each other, he felt a tremendous force that made his expression morph instantly.

Xie Zheng’s arm was blown back like a bicycle hit by a car and slammed into his own chest. He lifted his head instinctively and felt a stinging pain as Xia Yan’s fingertips had still grazed past his face.

A trail of blood appeared on Xie Zheng’s fair and handsome face, and blood seeped out from the cut.

Only Xia Yan’s middle finger had grazed his face since he had dodged very quickly. If he had really taken the slap, he would have undoubtedly lost a few teeth, and his face would have swelled up too.

Xie Zheng touched his cheek with his palm, and when he saw the blood, he felt shocked and furious. At the same time, he also felt afraid. [Is this mediocre kid a martial artist too? He… is too strong! I won’t be able to defeat him!]

Xia Yan also felt shocked by his own strength. Fortunately, Xie Zheng had dodged his slap quickly, or else misfortune would have struck him if the slap injured Xie Zheng grievously.

However, he had no plans to stop now. Since he had he would slap twice, he had to keep his word. [I’ll just use less strength with the next slap,] he thought.

And then, without a moment of hesitation, Xia Yan slapped Xie Zheng once again with ease. He only used 30 percent of his strength this time, but it was still pretty fast. As Xie Zheng was still in a daze, his head got whacked aside suddenly after getting slapped really hard, and his gold-rimmed spectacles flew off far away before sinking into the lotus lake.

“ARGH!” Xie Zheng lost the demeanor of a man from high society and screamed loudly while holding his cheek, “Bastard! I’m going to kill you!”

By the time he lifted his head, blood was already trickling out from his mouth, and his cheek had gained the clear mark of a slap.

“So only you are allowed to hit me, while I am forbidden from retaliating? What a joke!” Xia Yan stated calmly while retreating a few steps back in fear that Xie Zheng would take desperate action.

“Stop talking to him. Let’s leave!” Qi Ziyu’s expression also didn’t look that good. She gave Xie Zheng another glance with the intent to say something, but she refrained from saying it in the end and pulled Xia Yan’s hand to leave. Xie Zheng’s eyes filled with viciousness as he watched their backs as they left side by side.

“Xia Yan, you’re so dead!”