Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2688: Chapter 2689: Performance

The staff stood upright on the path of the void without any support.

Meanwhile, Angel closed his eyes, displaying an expression of serene contemplation.

At first glance, Angel seemed to be "fishing," sitting there as if waiting for the fish to take the bait. But in reality, Angel was already searching for excuses in his heart: if the Wood Spirit ultimately did not appear, how should he bluff others into thinking he actually found it? Rather than creating an empty spectacle?

After all, it’s just one side of the story right now.

Troubling, so troubling.

"Does the will Master spoke of mean whether the Wood Spirit is willing to appear itself?" Kaier murmured.

"That should be the case. His actions are entirely..." Dox paused, hesitating whether or not to voice the words stuck in his throat, "has his brain been parasitized by sandworms?"

Not saying it made him feel stifled, but saying it might hinder his "friendship" progress.

While Dox was torn, Vay beside him remarked wistfully: "Master has already found the Wood Spirit, yet he still considers respecting its wishes. If the Wood Spirit doesn’t want to appear, I’m sure he won’t force it... How gentle he is."

As soon as Vay finished speaking, Dox looked at him with surprise, staring with a skeptical expression as if wondering, "Are you speaking sincerely?"

However, Vay completely ignored Dox and continued with similar sentiments.

Dox: "When you can praise someone, remember back at the edge of Chen Chi World, I got my skin scorched saving you from the Evil Fire. How come you didn’t say I was gentle back then?"

Vay: "Don’t exaggerate. It was only a minor burn on your back. How did it become a full-body scorch? Besides, you’re of the bloodline side. Didn’t you recover not long after?"

Dox: "You call its fiery spray a ’minor burn’? And what do you mean by ’not long after’; it took me half a year to heal fully."

"Half a year isn’t long." Vay looked away, muttering somewhat guiltily.

Dox was infuriated, contemplating taking Vay back to Chen Chi World to have the Evil Fire give him a "minor burn" to observe his reaction.

This is just too double-standard!

Vay probably realized he might have gone too far; no matter what, Dox had saved him... He had repaid the favor through various means over the years, but talking like this was indeed inappropriate. He remained silent, neither retaliating against Dox nor continuing his commentary on Angel, merely diminishing his own presence quietly.

On the other side, the Wise Sovereign, having listened to Vay and Dox’s conversation, originally intended to analyze their relationship and the intel revealed. But reaching the analysis step, Vay’s initial words echoed in his mind: Master has already found the Wood Spirit, yet he still considers respecting its wishes... How gentle.

The Wise Sovereign couldn’t help but feel his thoughts diverging. Was he truly respecting the Wood Spirit’s wishes, or merely putting on a show for himself?

The Wise Sovereign leaned towards the latter. He understood well that the Wood Spirit couldn’t be easily swayed, and such actions, aside from self-soothing, served no real purpose.

If not meant to sway the Wood Spirit, then was it all a performance for himself? After all, the Wood Spirit is his acknowledged student; what he did was still plausible.

The Wise Sovereign didn’t hold much aversion to such manipulative thinking. Angel’s willingness to "perform" in this manner actually indicated his intention to improve the adversarial relationship. Perhaps this "variable" piece could serve him, not necessarily entirely, but at least to some extent influence his decisions.

With this in mind, should truly adverse variables emerge, he would have time to prepare as a response.

The Wise Sovereign, at this moment, even began simulating how to maximize the use of Angel as this chess piece.

But when he snapped back to reality, a voice subtly emerged in his mind:

"Can a chess piece influenced and controlled be truly called a variable?"

A variable is "unknown," where occurrences are immeasurable, deserving of the term ’variable.’ If Angel truly could be controlled, bowing his head to him, this seemingly deviates from the category of a variable?

The Wise Sovereign’s thoughts were turbulent, his expression shifting continuously, sometimes frowning, sometimes composed, sometimes doubtful, and at times pondering, revealing the intensity of the mental gambit within.

If Angel knew the thoughts of the Wise Sovereign, he might feel fortunate that he hadn’t bowed to him.

The smarter the person, the more they contemplate. The more they contemplate, the less they trust others.

For such individuals, maintaining a terrifying balance often leads to more efficient cooperation. If one blindly leans towards them, without observing for hundreds of years, they won’t easily trust others.

This reveals why the Wise Sovereign chose the Wood Spirit as his student.

Apart from certain empathetic reasons, the Wise Sovereign chose the Wood Spirit as a student largely because he grasped all trajectories of the Wood Spirit.

In the beginning, the Wood Spirit was a clean slate, purely unmarked, only this level of purity did he understand fully, only then could it earn his unconditional trust.

Despite the Wood Spirit possessing many flaws, the Wise Sovereign still hasn’t abandoned it, due to this very reason.

The Wise Sovereign assumed he had captured all information about the Wood Spirit, yet he solely overlooked one aspect—the essence of the Wood Spirit.

It wasn’t that he didn’t seek the essence of the Wood Spirit, but the Wood Spirit’s non-compliance. The Wood Spirit’s talent posed considerable difficulty for the Wise Sovereign to discern its inner nature. Coupled with it being his own educated student, despite the Wood Spirit having rebelliousness now, he couldn’t act against it.

This led to the Wise Sovereign never truly understanding the source of the Wood Spirit.

Adding to this, the Wise Sovereign observed the Wood Spirit’s transcendent nature emerged only post-spiritual body creation, indicating its essence was quite mundane, possibly a common plant or an artificial wooden construct.

Regardless of which, the Wood Spirit’s essence seeming ordinary likely belonged to a mortal or a very low-level apprentice. For such individuals, the Wise Sovereign wouldn’t excessively focus, with a high probability they are deceased.

Considering various factors led to the Wise Sovereign disregarding the essence of the Wood Spirit. But he didn’t anticipate the Wood Spirit’s essence’s owner had once been a very low-level apprentice, but possessing extraordinary talent, after hundreds of years, had become one of the top Wizards in the Southern Domain.

The Wise Sovereign further didn’t envision the student of the Wood Spirit’s essence’s owner coincidentally arriving here.

This could be viewed as an oversight on the Wise Sovereign’s part. Yet when the finale comes for review, the Wise Sovereign would likely acknowledge this oversight, as it was simply too coincidental, too unconventional. Even knowing the outcome, it’s challenging to address such an oversight.

Nevertheless, the Wise Sovereign presently is unaware all is predestined, still thinking Angel’s behavior is staged for him to witness.

Indeed, Angel was performing, but his performance wasn’t directed at the Wise Sovereign, but at the "audience."

Though knowing the Wood Spirit was nearby, unable to locate its whereabouts, with the Wood Spirit not contacting him, he was helpless.

Yelling here would be futile and would only result in embarrassment. Thus he openly adopts a "willing fish to take the bait" posture, everything dependent on the Wood Spirit’s decision.

And this is also the only thing Angel can do at the moment.

Whether the Wood Spirit will appear, Angel doesn’t know, but he thinks it’s highly unlikely.

Although the Wood Spirit proactively contacted him out of respect for Sanders, Sanders is just the former master of the Wood Spirit. Whether there is any real emotion is uncertain.

The Wood Spirit hasn’t truly met Sanders since it gained Spirit Intelligence.

In Angel’s mind, even if Sanders were to come here personally, the Wood Spirit might not show up. He is merely Sanders’ student, so it’s quite normal for the Wood Spirit not to appear.

This is why Angel has already started preparing his explanations, thinking about how he should "perform" later, to make everyone understand that he truly discovered the Wood Spirit and is not just putting on a show.

"Right, earlier Vay said I was respecting the Wood Spirit’s free will... maybe I can start from there." Angel pondered in his heart, considering whether to enact a similar scenario.

Only, respecting the Wood Spirit’s freedom of choice, might this be a bit too much? From the information on the holographic tablet, it can be done on Earth, because as long as the issue is elevated to a matter of values, it can make the ignorant populace empathize. Coupled with a slow technological development phase, Earth is relatively peaceful, with many people idling and organizations stirring things up, along with an advanced information network, making it more convincing.

But this is not Earth, there’s no efficient intelligence network; talking about respect for freedom and human rights would probably make people think he’s lost his mind.

Thinking like this, addressing this topic might just evoke laughter. So how should he act?

Angel falls into contemplation again.

Of course, in the eyes of others, Angel still maintains his image of wisdom and insight. But after a long time with no activity, it still raises doubts.

"Are we being played by him?" Dox muttered softly.

Because Angel maintained this pose for a long time without any response. Not just Dox, even Vay was feeling hesitant.

"Should we call the master?" Kaier suggested.

"If the master is busy, won’t we be disturbing him?" Vay hesitated.

Dox replied irritably, "Does he look busy? Don’t be fooled by his appearance; his heart is black."

After Dox finished speaking, he directly nudged Kaier, "Go wake him up, tell him if he really can’t find the Wood Spirit, then hurry up and switch the person. Don’t waste time."

Vay: "... Why don’t you say it yourself and make someone else say it."

Dox replied earnestly, "We’ll meet again in the future, let’s leave some face for each other."

Kaier was ready to step forward but paused upon hearing Dox’s words. Dox wanted to save face, does that mean he shouldn’t?

Moreover, according to Dox’s meaning, waking Angel would bring dislike, and Kaier didn’t want that!

Kaier’s situation instantly became one of dilemma, his face full of a desire to cry without tears.

Perhaps hearing Kaier’s inner voice, or maybe because the performance was almost complete, after standing still for five minutes with eyes closed, Angel finally opened his eyes.

Pretending to glance around, confirming the surrounding area was empty, Angel sighed, "It seems you still don’t want to go out with me, alright then, I respect your choice..."

Angel emotionally uttered these words, from the initial helplessness and disappointment to the later solemnity, all were expressed very well.

However, Angel’s regret was that he couldn’t think of another scenario.

In the end, he chose to enact the "respect your freedom of choice" segment.

Mainly, he did indeed waste too much time here, there was no time to think of another scenario. If he was actually doing something, even if it didn’t succeed, it would be fine. But he hadn’t done anything at all, purely wasting time, even with a thick-skinned face, it felt embarrassing.

Furthermore, this segment was already paved by Vay, so Angel performing it, even if the values seemed discordant, at least it gave others a chance to pre-adapt.

Most importantly, Angel hadn’t forgotten he was currently guest-starring as a "Streamer".

Once the live broadcast ended, and the curtain falls, he becomes the usual Angel again. As for any acting, value discrepancies were just for the broadcast effect, having nothing to do with Angel himself.

After building up enough psychological preparation, Angel finally gritted his teeth and began performing this segment.

Emotional perception made Angel’s acting range broader and more genuine. Even though he didn’t perform with tears streaming, the feeling of helplessness was still very infectious.

If the Wizard Mu Ying from Extinguished Torch Academy were here now, they’d probably be moved by Angel’s acting.

Angel didn’t say much, his emotions were restrained and just enough.

Then, at the final moment of the performance, according to Angel’s own live broadcast setup, he was to sigh then walk away.

Ideally, others would watch as his figure moved into darkness, gradually disappearing, enhancing the dramatic effect and stimulating imagination.

However, when Angel truly turned with a flick of his sleeve, he didn’t notice that the distant noise suddenly ceased.

Everything became quiet.

Until Angel walked over a dozen steps, noticing not a single audience member gave feedback, even the anointed best audience member, Vay, didn’t make a sound, leaving Angel in doubt.

Could he have performed incorrectly? Not deep enough? Or maybe the scene was overdone, so others couldn’t empathize?

With a trace of trepidation, Angel paused, ready to "re-shoot" a backward glance scene.

Though such backward glance scenes are typically for indecisive characters, he reasoned that it was a live broadcast, all explanations are up to the Streamer, unrelated to Angel.

With this in mind, Angel adjusted his emotions, let his expression return, then without warning, executed a sudden backward glance.

Angel was prepared to say "re-shoot" lines, but after turning his head, he was completely stunned.

Because, at some point, a wooden figure nearly as tall as him appeared behind him—

A Wood Person!