In the town square, Ren Xiaosu wanted to leave immediately at first. However, the magician’s words made him stop in his tracks. He turned around and saw Li Shentan standing in the crowd with a card deck in his hand. He had suddenly stopped his performance he was putting on.
The crowd around Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu casually pulled his hood up so fewer people would remember his appearance.
When Li Shentan saw Ren Xiaosu stop in his tracks, he smiled. “Hang around for a bit and let me finish showing off my magic.”
With that, the crowd turned back to look at Li Shentan. They saw the playing cards in Li Shentan’s right hand suddenly surge into the sky like a water fountain. Although he only had one deck in hand, the cards hovering above everyone’s heads and spinning around in the air enshrouded everyone underneath it.
Slowly, the cards converged like a whirlwind and headed towards Li Shentan.
The crowd let out a cry of surprise. They could no longer tell whether this was a magic trick or a magic spell, nor could they figure out what was causing the cards to spin around like that.
The dazzling whirlwind of cards finally enveloped Li Shentan, and the onlookers could no longer see his figure. All they could see were the cards spinning around rapidly.
Li Shentan, surrounded by countless cards, said with a smile, “Three… two… one!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the whirlwind of cards dropped to the ground. And Li Shentan was nowhere to be seen!
The crowd immediately cheered. They had never seen such amazing magic in their lives before.
Furthermore, everyone witnessed the magician disappearing into thin air despite being in such close proximity!
A girl screamed, “Cool, that was so damn cool! I’ve fallen in love with that magician! This must be real magic, right!”
Li Shentan had been performing magic in Luoyang City for quite some time now. Due to his amazing magic tricks and handsome appearance, many girls had become his fans. Even before night fell, a lot of people would already be waiting in the town square for his performance to start.
Meanwhile, Li Shentan never disappointed his audience either. His magic tricks were never repeated, and the audience could not even tell how he pulled them off.
Ren Xiaosu frowned. Even he was unable to tell how Li Shentan did that.
At this moment, Li Shentan’s laughter pealed from behind him. “How did you like my trick?”
Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Li Shentan, “How did you do that?”
“It was just misdirection,” Li Shentan said with a humble smile.
But Ren Xiaosu knew it was definitely not as simple as misdirection. He just did not understand why Li Shentan would appear in this place. Moreover, he was clearly a legendary supernatural being, yet he liked doing street magic so much.
Li Shentan glanced at Zhou Yingxue, who was standing next to Ren Xiaosu. However, he did not ask Ren Xiaosu anything. Instead, he seemed to have thought of something and said, “Oh yeah, come with me. I have something I want to give you.”
Then Li Shentan led the way to a small park next to the square. It was where many of the stronghold residents strolled.
Li Shentan was walking at the front and did not seem worried that Ren Xiaosu would just leave.
When they got to a place where there was no one around, Li Shentan took out a black cloth and threw it onto the grass. This action took Ren Xiaosu by surprise. What was Li Shentan up to?
Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, “Let me show you a trick.”
With that, he blew the black cloth before lifting it up again. All of a sudden, a large pile of gold bars were lying on the lawn!
“This is for you.” Li Shentan smiled happily and said, “Do you like it?”
Zhou Yingxue’s eyes widened, but Ren Xiaosu, who had always been greedy, remained still. He only frowned and asked, “What do you want?”
“This was stolen from the Zong Consortium, but I wasn’t the one who robbed them. It was a supernatural being named Wang Congyang who did it,” Li Shentan said with a smile.
“Wang Congyang? Who did he rob?!” Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like there were some very important details behind this.
“I think it was stolen from a brigade commander of the Zong Consortium. At that time, Wang Congyang drove his little train and knocked over the brigade commander’s vehicle he was using for transporting away his assets. After that, he took half the gold while I took the remaining half. I know you like these things, so I kept it especially for you,” Li Shentan explained with a smile. “I didn’t lay a finger on any of it. The money for our daily expenses is all earned through my magic shows.”
Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood something. Their Razor Sharp Company had once encountered the pursuit of an armored brigade within the Zong Consortium’s territory. No one could understand why the armored brigade did not head to the battlefield at the front line and instead ran back to the Zong Consortium’s territory to chase after them on his steam locomotive.
He realized now he had also taken the blame for Wang Congyang once before.
They were not fucking chasing after him at all. It was just that when the brigade commander saw the steam locomotive, he thought it was Wang Congyang driving it. As such, he pursued Wang Congyang to try to get his assets back!
Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Maybe he should not be using the powers he had copied from others so recklessly.
However, Ren Xiaosu still did not accept the gold bars. To be honest, he did not really want to have any dealings with Li Shentan, because it was extremely dangerous for a normal person to deal with a lunatic. You would not even be able to imagine what the other party might be planning by offering you the gold.
Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and asked, “Where’s that little girl who’s always with you?”
Ren Xiaosu was asking about Si Liren. Didn’t those two used to be inseparable? As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu even looked up into the sky to see if Si Liren was floating in the air again.
Li Shentan explained, “Oh, she’s been really into romance novels recently, so she doesn’t come out anymore.”
“Why did you come to Luoyang City?” Ren Xiaosu asked again.
Li Shentan said with a smile, “Because this place is more suitable for people like me who perform to make a living. Don’t you think the residents of a stronghold like Luoyang City are much ‘livelier’ than the residents of the other strongholds? I feel really stifled when I’m in the other strongholds, like I’m waiting for the consortiums to skin me alive even when I’m sitting at home.”
Zhou Yingxue remained standing behind Ren Xiaosu without saying a word. She knew it was not the time for her to speak. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was watching Li Shentan very carefully. He always had the feeling that Li Shentan’s motives were not that straightforward.
Could Li Shentan have been purposely waiting here for him? But that didn’t make sense either. He had only come to Luoyang City by chance.
Ren Xiaosu then asked, “What are you planning to do in the future? Put on magic shows in Luoyang City?”
“No, no, no.” Li Shentan said with a laugh, “I’m waiting for a miracle to happen.”
It was Li Shentan who ended the conversation first. He said, “It’s getting late. That little girl is still waiting for me to bring home sweet potatoes for her to eat. I’ll leave the gold here. If you want it, you can just take it with you. If you don’t want it, I can’t do anything about that. We’ll definitely meet again. Oh right, I suggest you make a trip to Qinghe University. There could be a reward waiting for you there.”
After that, Li Shentan turned around and left without any hesitation.
His behavior was predicated on his whims.
