Chapter 1767: Daggers and Cards

"Besides the core, do the other things in the circus infected by the Descent need to be dealt with?"

Xia De asked again, and Miss Miss Difa thought for a moment:

"If they aren't moving, we don't need to bother with them. Go find the Seer—the Young Lady instructed us to focus on this matter; perhaps she foresaw that the circus's Descent core could have a tremendous impact on what comes next. After all, she's a Seer—she might know something."

Xia De, however, suspected that the Great Witch of Time had foreseen the return of Rast Edwards.

The tiger's corpse was burned on the spot; only after confirming it was fully consumed did the maid girls return with Xia De to the circus camp.

After a brief departure and return, the camp showed little change. The only notable thing was that the magician, who had just been practicing throwing darts on the low wooden stage, now had his head rotated one hundred eighty degrees backward, practicing his throws in the highly difficult posture of facing away from the target.

As for the original target, it had become a living person pinned by fifteen steel nails through his body and limbs—by appearance, he seemed to be the magician's former apprentice.

The boy, no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, was frozen in a comical stance: standing on his left foot with the right foot raised, a red apple balanced on his right foot, each hand, and the top of his head. His eyelids were propped open with matchsticks, his mouth sewn shut with fine thread; he could only stare in terror at the magician with his head turned backward. Several daggers were already embedded in his body, all carefully avoiding vital points.

On the afternoon of the seventh, the weather in town was terrible, yet all of this occurred under glaring sunlight—but except for Xia De and the girls before him, the others in the camp appeared utterly blind to the scene before them. Even with the sun's faint warmth, a chill ran down their spines.

The strange magician had not provoked the group, yet Xia De still halted. He looked at Miss Miss Difa; the white-haired girl's large eyes met his gaze:

Then the playing cards flew backward, while four daggers swiftly chased after them from the front. Relying on their numerical advantage, they blocked the cards' path; the cards thus flew lower, colliding repeatedly with the daggers above their heads.

"The target is the apples. Eight throws—all must hit to win. If you lose, you stay as my apprentice or my target."

His gaze held deeper meaning; Miss Miss Difa on the stage smiled, knowing what Xia De intended. Meanwhile, the peculiar people in the camp were drawn over—they clearly saw nothing of the truth, believing only that a young outsider wished to challenge the circus magician. The crowd erupted in cheers, utterly unaware the target was a living person.

"You want to try too?" "Money!"

This time, the daggers struck the spinning cards with no less force than before—friction sparked flames, drawing another round of cheers and applause.

"He's the one to decide..."

Xia De was deeply curious: what exactly did these peculiar people see?

The magician's head rotated another one hundred forty degrees, now facing forward again. He stepped away from the red line beside the stage, yielding his position to Xia De.

Amidst the crowd's cheers, clapping, and encouragement, the cards and daggers clattered together on the stage, the boy's soul clapping excitedly—he looked miserable. Miss Miss Difa and the two other maid girls wore smiles; even the girl turned into the target couldn't help widening her eyes at the astonishing spectacle... though she couldn't look away.

Xia De exhaled in relief, first dispersing the gathered crowd, telling them he wouldn't stay at the circus. He was just about to help the girl still pinned there treat her wounds when he noticed that among the seven apples, the eight that had been pierced by the cards had rotted into white powder—finally, the one untouched apple turned brilliant gold and rolled gently to his feet. "You won."

The magician, now facing forward, raised both arms, two daggers pinched between each finger, already poised to throw. He stared at Xia De, clearly waiting for Xia De to move first.

"What are the rules?"

Xia De glanced at the magician's head orientation, now temporarily restored to normal, and understood: this place, like the 【Fishbone Pirate Ship】 he and Princess Lei Lei Qianya had once encountered, tended to assimilate anomalies into itself.

"No. But if I win, I want this."

The magician, head facing forward, one eye bleeding, nodded, stepped off the stage, and sat on a bench beside it in the sunlight, head bowed motionless—as if crushed.

Xia De asked calmly.

The young lady blinked at him, then thought for a moment: "I see."

The magician answered; Cha Mao nodded and took a step back.

The wooden stage creaked loudly—"Should you save me?"

Suddenly, the magician flung a dagger toward Xia De's brow—but Xia De caught it effortlessly. He weighed the heavy dagger in his hand, gazing at the young man seventy paces away; the man's face bore a mixture of terror, pleading, and despair. "Good!"

The magician preparing to throw his daggers remained motionless, his head rotating one hundred forty degrees back to its original position, now staring at Cha Mao. Blood streamed from his eye socket; the gaze itself now produced a sensation so sharp, Xia De felt the sting of a blade tip piercing his skin.

Xia De, controlling 【Origin·White Darkness】, sensed immense power attempting to deflect the cards' flight—but to him, the 【Cards of Ever-Changing Phenomena】 were as natural as his own limbs. Ultimately, the cards, clattering incessantly against the daggers, still struck the apple on the girl's right hand; the deflected daggers embedded themselves in her left arm, becoming yet another "decoration."

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! "Huh?" "Not enough!"

"Because Giles will praise you!"

"The circus used cards last time too!"

The card pierced the apple on the target's left hand—Cha Mao's first card hit. The crowd murmured applause—among them, Lady Rast Edwards whispered that this was far duller than throwing daggers.

Amidst the chaotic cheering, Xia De gripped the eighth card, glancing sideways:

He lowered his voice slightly: "Again!"

As Xia De walked forward, he pinched the dagger's tip as if to throw—then stopped:

He pointed at the young target; the magician thought for a few seconds, then nodded:

"Done."

Daggers clashed continuously with the cards; the cards, possessing the trait of indestructibility, ultimately prevailed—and clearly, Xia De's card control was superior. After seven minutes of intense exchange, the cards seized their moment, slipping through the encirclement of four daggers to pierce the apple atop the girl's head. As 【Origin·Knowledge】 hummed incessantly, it signaled Xia De's eight throws had all hit their targets.

Another round of applause and cheers erupted on stage; those who had witnessed the mundane performance murmured praise for the young man, even tossing coins onto the stage. To test whether the crowd would automatically filter out anything unreasonable, Xia De used a spell to guide a coin into his pocket—no one reacted with surprise.

Xia De said nothing; the seventh card slipped from his hand. Almost simultaneously, the seventh dagger flew horizontally—

"Why?"

The girls before Miss Miss Difa laughed again, and "you" chuckled softly beside Xia De's ear; he felt his ears grow warm. Yet he did not immediately approach, but asked the floating Rast:

"Save me! Save me!" "Too dull!"

The magician, head facing forward, nodded again. "Even if you're going to cheat, at least disguise it a little."

As he spoke, the eighth card flew from his hand. Instantly, four daggers shot in from the sides, flashing silver as they clashed with the card—while Cha Mao, who had previously made the card glide as if truly thrown, now manipulated it to trace a simple figure-eight in the air.

Cha Mao said to the magician, waved his hand, and the eight cards flew back into his grasp. Then he pointed at the girl, relieved on the target:

It seemed that among the living members of the Edwards family, and among the dead Edwards, there were still those who stood against Xia De.

"Apprentice or target..."

Cha Mao smiled, drew his own deck, flipped the first card, and tossed it casually—it spun horizontally through the air. But instantly, another silver flash appeared—the magician hurled a dagger at Xia De's card.

"Daggers are too simple. I prefer something more challenging. How about throwing cards?"

The magician's hoarse voice asked:

Though the apples were not large, even at this distance, let alone doubled, Xia De could not possibly miss.

Xia De told the maid girls not to move; he himself walked toward the high stage and leapt down. The wooden stage seemed like two separate worlds—once he stepped onto it, the entire world appeared draped in a gray filter; a cold, oppressive sensation surged instantly from his soles to his chest. Yet Xia De also sensed that anything happening on the stage, as long as it didn't create too much noise, went unnoticed by the assimilated ones—yet for that very reason, he could not fully unleash himself as he had when fighting the tiger.

Even though he knew he was cheating, Xia De still couldn't help being startled:

"Master."

"Can't I use daggers?"

The frightened expression beneath the target's aged face slightly faded—it must be the playing card; at worst, I'd only get hurt. The onlookers on the stage murmured faint applause, disappointed that such a dull spectacle could be seen for mere coins.

"Damn!"

"As agreed, I'm yours!"

The flying dagger moved extremely slowly, gliding smoothly past the playing card Xia De had thrown, then snapped cleanly into two pieces, clattering down onto the stage, even striking the silent crowd—but no one paid any attention.