I Might As Well Quit This Lousy Wizard Profession

Chapter 177 - 177 166 Dark Sorcerers Apprentice (Requesting Monthly

?Chapter 177: 166 Dark Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Requesting Monthly Votes) Chapter 177: 166 Dark Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Requesting Monthly Votes) The young boss excused himself with a stomachache, asking Mr. Liu to wait a moment and slipped away.

Mr. Liu watched the young boss’s retreating figure with a smile, then turned to Lin An and said, “I understand this kid too well. He must be calling Mr. Cao right now.”

Lin An blinked but said nothing.

Alone with Mr. Liu, he was far from scared of him. Lin An, as he was now, was not the newbie who had just made contact with the supernatural world. He was quite confident in his ability to protect himself.

“Even if Antler deployed its entire force, they wouldn’t find out anything,” Mr. Liu said with a smile and a shrug. “Right now, I’m just an ordinary person.”

Indeed, Lin An could feel it—the emotions of a wizard are intense, very different from those of ordinary people on a spiritual level.

Even so, he remained cautious and put on a puzzled expression, “What are you talking about?”

Mr. Liu walked into the office with a smile, casually closing the door behind him.

“Before those people from Antler arrive, I have a few things I want to talk to you about.”

He walked to the sofa on the side of the office, sat down, and gestured invitingly to Lin An, “Have a seat?”

Lin An raised an eyebrow, looking at the Mr. Liu who was both familiar and unfamiliar, and a smile crossed his face, “Sure, just give me a moment, I’ll boil some water for tea.”

It wasn’t that the Mr. Liu before him resembled the supervisor he had known before.

On the contrary, this Mr. Liu felt more like he had the temperament of Mr. Liu’s Grey Wolf Spirituality.

That Grey Wolf Spirit, with its silky grey fur that flowed like satin, vaguely shimmered with sapphire light. It had the depth and solemnity of a deep pool, with a breeze that brought a casual and light sway to the tranquil water.

Honestly, when Lin An drew the ‘Grey-Blue Hair Portrait,’ he always felt a sense of detachment, feeling that the Grey Wolf Spirituality did not match Mr. Liu at all.

But then considering Chen Xinmi and Miao Miao, himself and the Ugly Head, Chen Shuyun and the fierce giant python, it seemed that spirituality and one’s own nature should not match.

Now looking at the Mr. Liu before him, there was finally a sense—’Ah, this feels right, just like this!’
Perhaps, this was what was called attaining ‘Truth.’
On the level of one’s nature.

Boiling mineral water poured into the teapot, bringing up some froth, which he gently scraped away with the lid, lifting the pot and giving the tea cups a rinse.

The first pour washed away dust and stirred up the tea’s fragrance; the leaves unfurled, and the color of the tea diffused like this.

Upon the second infusion and pouring into the cups, a faint fragrance filled the air.

Mr. Liu picked up the tea cup, sniffed it, took a tentative sip, and then set the cup back down.

Frankly, Lin An didn’t enjoy overly hot tea like this—it wasn’t thirst-quenching at all.

Plus, this stuff was particularly expensive. What he once deemed a luxury like coffee seemed quite affordable to those who indulged in tea.

Take for instance the tea leaves placed by the young boss in Lin An’s office—one pound costing over three thousand. Lin An really couldn’t taste what made it so valuable.

It seemed almost the same as the free tea offered to passersby by old ladies performing charitable acts on the streets.

But strangely, just busying himself with boiling water, brewing tea, and drinking it, the atmosphere between the two quietly settled down.

“You are a wizard,” Mr. Liu reclined on the sofa, looking at Lin An naturally. “I sense the aura of Breathing Skill in you, and I even vaguely detect the scent of the Furnace.”

As he said this, the corner of his mouth curved into a slight smile, “Lu Dexian probably couldn’t teach you to this level. Which is to say, you must have infiltrated the Antler Witch-Hunting Knight Order.”

Lin An looked at him calmly, remaining silent.

Mr. Liu’s fingers lightly tapped on the armrest of the sofa, his face full of a smiling expression, “In that case, I have reason to believe that you are akin to an experimental subject, with Antler using you to test the waters for Lu Dexian.”

“That foolish kid, Lu Dexian, despite his talents, lacks the sense of responsibility of the Antler people.”

“He should have actively taken up his father’s mantle and continued to dedicate everything to generations of Antler’s research. Sadly, Mr. Lu has protected him too well, leaving him with too little awe of the supernatural world.”

Lin An picked up his teacup and took a sip, then nodded to Mr. Liu, “That is indeed how every member of the Antler Witch-Hunting Knight Order perceives themselves—they see themselves as experimental subjects too.”

Mr. Liu was taken aback, thought for a moment, and then said with a sigh of agreement, “Indeed, that’s why I can’t bring myself to resent Mr. Lu.”

He waited for Lin An to join the conversation, but unfortunately, Lin An remained silent.

The atmosphere in the office fell silent once again.

Mr. Liu sipped his tea gently, eventually putting down his cup, “Then let’s cut to the chase.”

“Young man…” He looked intently at Lin An, “I think you understand some things, so you must have this subtle feeling. That is, you and I, we are quite similar.”

“We are both wizards mingling in the Witch-hunting Knights, both searching for our own paths. We learn witchcraft, we practice the Breathing Skill, we learn the Furnace. We move between the worlds of wizard and knight…”

“I was born a few years earlier, mastered the methods of the Breathing Skill Furnace, learned a lot of witchcraft, and started to figure things out, creating a name for myself in the wizard world, establishing my own witch organization right under the noses of the Witch Hunter Knights.”

“I provided shelter for some people, and used others.”

“I have shown kindness to this world, but also had moments of ruthless cruelty when I was willing to do anything.”

“Looking at you now, I inexplicably feel like I’m looking at my younger self.”

“I think, the person who understands you the most in this world should probably be me.”

Mr. Liu watched Lin An with a smile, “So, are you interested in becoming the apprentice of a Dark Sorcerer like me?”

Lin An was stunned for a moment, as he hadn’t expected Mr. Liu to say this.

After a period of silence, he shook his head, “I already have a master!”

Mr. Liu laughed out loud, “That’s the spirit, ha, I too was once captivated by Mr. Lu’s charisma, agonizing over the choice between wizard kindred and the idol I admired.”

He shook his head with a sense of nostalgia, “You think about it. No one understands better than me how a wizard should balance between witchcraft and the Furnace, nor does anyone know better how to establish a witch organization on the knights’ territory.”

“All this, I can teach you.”

Lin An pursed his lips, picked up the hot water kettle to add water to the teapot, refilled the tea for Mr. Liu and himself, then lifted his head to look seriously at Mr. Liu, “Why?”

Everything has a reason!

No one does something good for you without a reason!

Lin An knew this.

“Two reasons,” Mr. Liu said, lifting his tea cup with a relaxed posture, “First, my path of cultivation has encountered some problems, and to advance further, I need to conduct some experiments. I need an apprentice to test my new theories.”

Lin An remained calm, “So, you want me to be your test subject?”

Mr. Liu shrugged, “Isn’t everyone? I had to do it in the past, and am still doing it now. Learning is sequential; I can teach you a lot, and that’s what you’ll gain. As for whether or not your path will be successful, that depends on you.”

“Wizards are monsters of the mind, after all, with each person’s mental power so different, a method that doesn’t work for one might just work for you.”

Lin An shook his head inwardly. He already had a master, and the path of cultivation that Mr. Cao had laid out felt right to him intuitively; he didn’t need to take any more risks.

In this desperate supernatural world, a slight mistake could lead to a dire end.

No one has a second life to experiment with.

A mistake meant death.

Even Mr. Liu, who could create a doppelgänger, probably couldn’t use a clone for experimentation, or else he wouldn’t be needing him.

“The second reason,” Mr. Liu continued without waiting for Lin An’s response, “I can teach you how to build your power. In fact, I need the people from the ‘Mad Warlock’s Hollow’ who practiced Dark Witchcraft. As for the others who still refuse to touch Dark Witchcraft, they’re of no use to me.”

“I can give you a list, tell you each person’s capabilities, needs, and the problems they need to solve, so you can easily recruit these people under your command.”

“Although I have no use for those people, I never drove them away. After all, other than me, they have nowhere else to go. Consider it a good deed, providing them shelter casually.”

“Maybe in the future, due to some encounters, they’ll choose to start practicing Dark Witchcraft, and then they’ll be useful to me again.”

Lin An frowned slightly, “What’s in it for you doing this?”

“Sure there is,” Mr. Liu spread his hands, “As everyone knows, the ‘Mad Warlock’s Hollow’ organization has fallen, and the leader ‘Kapok’ has died. It’s just the right time for me to move into the shadows. At this moment, I need someone to stand in front for me, to intercept the Witch Hunter Knights’ every move against the witch organizations for me.”

No, I’m not asking you.

Lin An kept a calm expression as he looked behind Mr. Liu, towards the stone arch entwined with tree roots.

The roots formed a grim face, “I got screwed over by someone, that Eyeball Witch Monster lured the Witch Hunter Knights to me, using me to divert their attention from him on the Knights’ list.”

“And that wizard with the Black Cat and Zou Yu Transformation Skill, even teamed up with my niece Chen Xinmi to kill me? I don’t dare trouble Chen Xinmi, so am I supposed to be afraid of that transformation wizard too?”

“He even hid in my Tree Hole Organization, disguising himself as the ‘Little Rabbit’ wizard, and he actually deceived me too!”

“That wizard with the Black Cat Transformation Skill, and the one in the semi-Sorcerer Zombie state, the ‘Eyeball Witch Demon’ wizard…”

“Damn it, since when has Shenhou City seen such a powerful witch force secretly growing so big right under my nose!”

“They won’t be satisfied with obscurity, they’re going to slip up sooner or later, I know it, I know it!”

“Now that I’ve gone into hiding, I’ll just watch them play, heh, watch this witch force fight to the death with the Antler People, and it would be even better if they drag both Chen Xinmi’s Wizard Association and the Witches’ Assembly into it!”

“When the time comes, I’ll suddenly hit them all at once, heh heh.”

“The wind’s tight, time to lay low! Lin An, I need you out front, and also to gather some information from the Antlers and the Witches’ Assembly on my behalf.”