I Rely on Drawing Cards to Set Up a Persona

Chapter 23.2: Dark Box

Qiao Xingnan put the notebook back into space.
His fingertips moved slightly as he controlled Zero to open the door while he posed on the other side, making sure to make the outsider’s first glimpse of himself dignified and elegant.

The person who came was Howard.

The white-robed man stood at the door, not letting him in.
He followed his master’s arrangement, leaving a little gap so that the other party could see at a glance the emperor sitting at the table in a dignified and majestic posture.

“What is it?”

Howard did not talk nonsense and said: “Tomorrow, the emperor is going to the dark forest and has sent me to invite the Chaos Emperor to join him for a tour.”

Although Howard was serious as usual, he was still somewhat quick-witted.
He knew that while Asrit asked Qiao Xingnan on the surface if he was going, there was actually only one acceptable answer, and that was to go.

He added, “If the great emperor can accompany us, our emperor will be very happy.”

The white-robed man did not seem to care whether the emperor of Arilance was highly pleased or not, as his voice remained cold: “Going to the dark forest, what for?”

In the past years, when the emperor came to the manor, he would take Mo Jin on a hunting excursion to the dark forest, but this time he suddenly decided to take these few unknown people.
Howard always felt that the emperor’s intentions were very deep.

But this guess must not be said, so Howard just said: “The dark forest is the hunting ground of the Utia border city.
Our emperor will go hunting there every year.
The distance is far, but by a magical beast, a day is enough to return to the manor.”

This time, Howard said in detail, but the white-robed man could not decide on this.
He only saw that he had disappeared in the blink of an eye and appeared next to Qiao Xingnan in the next second, saying something in a low voice.

Howard noticed that the dark-haired man sitting in the chair nodded slightly, and he was certain in his heart.

Sure enough, the white-robed man flashed over and agreed to the invitation for tomorrow.

Howard gave a hmmm, and his eyes rested on the suspected Wood race knight.
He paused slightly, then turned around and left the place.

As soon as the room door closed, the posture Qiao Xingnan maintained instantly collapsed.
He rubbed his slightly stiff shoulders and thought carefully.

Whether it was from the tyrant’s intention to invite himself or to brush up on the emperor’s goodwill, it was impossible for him to refuse the tyrant’s invitation.

All that needs to be done now is to refine tomorrow’s script.

Uncle Ster will have to continue pretending to refine magic scrolls tomorrow.
It is impossible for him to follow them, so he only has Zero by his side.

Thinking of this, Qiao Xingnan stood up and patted Zero’s shoulder: “Zero, tomorrow we will depend on each other.”

Zero was used to Qiao Xingnan talking like this every day.
He nodded seriously at the words, and his hoarse voice was full of seriousness: “Zero, protect, master.”

“That’s really reassuring!”

Qiao Xingnan smiled and praised without hesitation.

That being said, he knows in his heart that Zero has no battle power right now.
The [Marionette – Active] skill was still on cooldown, the additional skills are still unknown, and the only thing he can use is the speed boost for running.

This sense of security, to be honest, was not very strong.

But no matter what, the tyrant should not let himself be put in danger.

Thinking of this, Qiao Xingnan was not worried.

But it turns out that until the last moment, one should never be reassured too early, and Qiao Xingnan had not yet grasped the true meaning of the phrase at that time.

Early the next morning, Qiao Xingnan had breakfast and gave Uncle Ster a few instructions.
Then, he took Zero to the gate.
By this time, the tyrant was already standing at the entrance, waiting for who knows how long.

He had two men with him, the two brothers Howard and Ilir.

These two are currently the strongest people in the manor in terms of combat power.

Next to them was a crouching magical beast covered in scaled armor.
It was almost a person high, with horns on the top of its head, thick and long limbs, spouting a snort from time to time, looking much more fierce than the last white giant dog.

A carriage was pulled on its body and outlined with golden patterns, looking distinguished and elegant.

From the outside, the carriage looked very large, which could accommodate even more people inside.
Zero and the two brothers sat outside to drive while Qiao Xingnan sat in the carriage opposite Asrit.
In the spacious carriage, there were only two of them sitting, plus a snake.

In the middle of the two people was a large basin of ice, which was very cool.
The golden python climbing on the arm of Asrit seemed to be very afraid of heat, and it moved nimbly down and coiled itself around the large basin.
It was so comfortable that the tip of its tail was dancing.

When Qiao Xingnan saw the scene, his pretend cold face couldn’t help but smile.

This snake is quite smart.

Asrit noticed the smile in Qiao Xingnan’s eyes, and his eyebrows raised slightly.
He found that when the crook was smiling, although his attitude was still cold, his golden eyes were like sparkling water under the moon.
It made people unable to move their eyes away and wanted to treasure his eyes even more.

Qiao Xingnan suddenly shivered, probably because he was too close to the ice.
Qiao Xingnan subtly moved to the side of the carriage to avoid the cold.

“Qiao, how are you doing with your magic scrolls?” Asrit lowered his eyelids, his long, slender eyelashes hiding the look under his eyes.
His hands teased the snake coiled on the basin, and he seemed to be just asking casually.

“Soon.” Qiao Xingnan’s tone was even more distant and flat: ” Ster has always reassured me.”

Asrit smiled faintly, “Then, I’ll congratulate Qiao in advance.”

Hearing Asrit say so, Qiao Xingnan nodded with no hint of reserve.

It seemed that because the cold basin was too comfortable, the golden python’s tail was still moving incessantly, and Asrit soothed the snake with a hitch.

The other party really seemed to like his golden python, Qiao Xingnan’s eyes unconsciously fell on the hand of Asrit teasing the snake.
The tyrant’s hand is very beautiful, with well-defined joints, long and slender like jade.

In the next second, he saw this beautiful hand slowly and forcefully squeezing the golden python’s shaking tail.

The snake, which had been relaxing, popped up in pain.

F*ck, it looks like it hurts.

Qiao Xingnan was taken aback, his eyes widened on his cool, delicate face, and his golden eyes became even more eye-catching.

Asrit looked into his beautiful eyes and reassured compassionately, “Don’t be afraid, Qiao, I’ll correct Mo Jin’s bad habits.”

The golden python hissed a threatening sound, and its green eyes looked straight at Asrit, revealing its sharp teeth.

However, it immediately folded back under Asrit’s flat gaze.

The corners of the tyrant’s mouth gradually rose to a smile: “You are a snake, not a dog.
Let me see you wagging your tail again, and I’ll cut it off for you.”

Qiao Xingnan: ……

Oh my, it’s a little scary.

Snakes cannot understand human language, and that is its habit, so how can it change? If not because his status was not much different from the snake, Qiao Xingnan really wanted to say a good word for his snake brother.

However, Mo Jin unexpectedly could understand human words, and instantly, it did not wag its tail or open its mouth.
The snake collapsed on top of the ice basin and pretended it was dead.

When Qiao Xingnan saw this, he realized that this snake was not ordinary, but then again, the emperor’s snake must be different from the usual ones.

Under the threat of the tyrant, Mo Jin behaved all the way, while Qiao Xingnan on the other side also tried his best to maintain the emperor’s temperament.

“Its name is Mo Jin?”

Qiao Xingnan wanted to ease the odd atmosphere and brush up on the emperor’s goodwill by taking the initiative to ask a question, but his posture was still as usual.

To Qiao Xingnan, Asrit had a good attitude.
He nodded and smiled, “That’s right.”

To be honest, although this snake is very peculiar, but for some reason, it always gives Qiao Xingnan a silly feeling.
Based on his impression of Mo Jin, he pondered for a while and politely complimented, “It’s very good-looking.”

Asrit’s green eyes flashed with approval.
Just as he had said to the Lotus clan leaders, Asrit also told Qiao Xingnan: “It’s just this skin that looks good.”

This was what Asrit thought to be true from the bottom of his heart.

The dark forest was far from the manor, but because of the giant horn beast fired up to move, the group soon arrived at the entrance of the dark forest.

Qiao Xingnan had never heard of the dark forest.
There was no memory of this place in the original body, and he only thought it was a forest like the back of the mountain.

As a result, once he got off the vehicle, Qiao Xingnan was frozen.

The dark forest in front of him was just as its name says, it was a dark forest.
The trees were dark green, the sky was filled with dark clouds from the entrance of the dark forest, and insects and beasts could be heard faintly.

Qiao Xingnan could even see a soccer ball-sized colorful alien insect similar to a large spider in the rainforest hanging at the entrance of the dark forest.
In the corners of his eyes, he could even see black shadows suddenly scurrying past.
He did not know what they were, and he gulped lightly, and his heart was raised instantly.

It was too early to be reassured yesterday.

Qiao Xingnan was a little speechless.
Didn’t he say he was coming out to play? What are you doing in such a scary place, playing with bugs?

A bite from this kind of bug will kill you, right?

He pretended to be calm and glanced to the side.
The golden python climbed up the arm of Asrit.
By his side, Ilir and Howard had their hands pressed on their swords with very calm expressions.

Qiao Xingnan untraceably glanced at Zero, whose control skills were still on cooldown, and looked at the corner of his robe.

It is certain, the two of them came to send their heads.

No matter how calm he was, Qiao Xingnan couldn’t help but doubt his previous judgment.

Could it be that the tyrant did not have the slightest concern for their mysterious identity and, coupled with the loss of patience to try, was ready to finish them off in this dark forest?

Asrit’s golden hair in such a gloomy environment of the dark forest actually looked a little warm.
He did not realize that the person he wanted to test was ten thousand percent opposed to entering the dark forest in his heart.
After all, there was really nothing scary here in his opinion.

“Let’s go.”

Like a demonic whisper ringing in his ears, Qiao Xingnan’s expression was calm as he looked at Asrit: “Why do you want to come here.” The voice carried a hint of displeasure and a tremble that no one could detect.

Asrit was stunned, he looked at the eerie and frightening scene that seemed to be mixed with a strange cold wind, and for a moment, he did not understand what the other party meant: “Is there something wrong with this place?”

There’s nothing right about it, okay?

Qiao Xingnan’s tone was stable: “Dirty.”

The kind of dirty that would come up with dirty things.

Astrid only understood the surface, and he had a smile in his eyes: “Not dirty, it’s interesting, there are fruits inside that Mo Jin can eat.”

Qiao Xingnan instantly understood, so it was an adventure for the pet.

He stood still with his eyelashes slightly drooping.

Whether for the sake of the persona or to brush up the goodwill, no matter how fearful, he must go in.