Chapter 422: Chapter 286: Tracey’s Heartfelt Feelings
“Trill, you mustn’t go,”
Viscount Harrington called his daughter’s nickname sternly.
“Yes, my sweetheart, magic is very dangerous. Just sit quietly in your chair and watch the performance,”
Madam Harrington pleaded by her side earnestly.
But at that moment, Tracy was completely spellbound by the magician on the stage; a blush crept over her face as the idea of rebellion sparked within her for the first time.
She had always been under strict control by her father, but Tracy had a side that her father didn’t understand. She longed for freedom, yearned for an unfettered life, and worshipped the brave women in the stories who pursued their true selves. She dreamt of one day being like them.
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So this time, she didn’t heed Viscount Harrington’s words and instead lifted her dress and ran onto the stage.
Chen Lun disregarded the “murderous” look from Viscount Harrington and revealed a polite smile.
“What a brave lady you are. May I know your name?”
He asked with a gentle voice.
“Tracy… Tracy Harrington, Mr. Jack, you may call me Trill,”
the young girl said bashfully.
The audience below was extremely shocked; that was Viscount Harrington’s daughter!
If anything were to go wrong with this performance, surely Viscount Harrington would be furious…
Hoyle, backstage, couldn’t help but take a deep breath, his heart leaping to his throat, silently praying that Mr. Jack would perform flawlessly.
“Alright, Miss Trill, please stand over here.”
Chen Lun chuckled lightly, leading the girl to stand in front of a life-sized wooden board.
Tracy looked up closely at the magician before her and found him even more handsome than she had imagined, her heartbeat quickening uncontrollably.
The flush on her face was so intense it seemed as if it might bleed.
His voice was also incredibly pleasant, sending Tracy into a light-headed daze.
Next to Tracy, Corvey, three misshapen dwarfs, and the Selena sisters each leaned against a wooden board.
Chen Lun stepped back twenty meters, waved his hand, and a small knife appeared between his fingers.
“The next act will be very thrilling; it’s called ‘The Next Piece of Meat on the Chopping Board’!”
As he spoke, he threw the knife into the air with a flick of his hand.
There was a sharp whizzing sound.
All eyes in the audience turned upward, just in time to hear a ping and a clear, crisp burst.
A lightbulb on the ceiling was instantly shattered by the thrown knife, plunging the light into darkness.
The audience let out exclamations.
“Oh! That’s too dangerous!”
“What if there’s a mistake? These people could die, couldn’t they?!”
Madam Harrington became restless, urging her husband beside her, wanting him to stop the performance and pull their daughter back.
But Viscount Harrington, with a darkened face, forcefully suppressed his anger and did not rise from his seat.
He was an aristocratic leader who cared deeply about face and dignity. Although he was quite fond of Tracy, his daughter, he would not step on stage to pull her away in front of everyone.
Such impolite behavior was like that of a clown.
Viscount Harrington couldn’t do it, and he didn’t want to.
“Just let her make a fool of herself! If something happens, it’ll be her own fault!”
Viscount Harrington said coldly.
His wife almost burst into tears of desperation but couldn’t defy her husband.
At the same time, she knew that this was just the kind of man Harrington was. When the Viscount said something, it was final; no one dared to argue with him.
The performance then began.
The audience saw the magician in black flick his wrist, and four throwing knives appeared between his fingers, which he made a point of showing to the audience.
Then, without looking back, he casually threw them.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The four knives traced a straight line, landing firmly in the wooden board just next to Miss Tracy’s cheeks and beside her arms at her chest, embedding deeply into the wood; yet she was wholly unharmed.
An uproar followed.
“So shocking!”
“My Sun!”
“That’s even more precise than an archer!”
Tracy, initially lost in sweet thoughts about the magician, startled by the flying knives, felt her heartbeat pound faster, her blood rushing to her brain. Hearing the powerful thumps close to her ears and the vibration of the knives embedded in the board, she jumped with fright.
This was the closest she had ever been to death in her life.
Yet, for some reason, after the initial fear and panic, she found herself feeling a deeper admiration and reverence for the tall, handsome figure in black.
Amidst the gasps from the crowd, Chen Lun’s hands each produced three more throwing knives, and he flung them backward.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…!
A series of muffled thuds, followed by piercing screams.
“Ah! Ah!!”
“Ah…!”
Each of the hands of Corvey, the dwarfs, and the sibling flowers had a knife nailed into them, blood streaming out.
The audience was petrified by this sight.
“Is… is this a mistake?!”
“Too horrific! They’re all bleeding and screaming!”
Chen Lun turned around, showing an “astonished” expression, then explained:
“Ah… Sorry, my hand slipped.”
He walked straight up to Corvey and the others, pulling out the knives one by one, provoking another round of cries.
Chen Lun, looking at the few who had been shocked into sobriety by the intense pain, showed a spine-chilling smile. With a wave of his hand, a fleeting green glint imperceptible to others vanished in a flash.
The wounds on Corvey and the others miraculously disappeared without a trace.
Then he turned and bowed slightly to the audience.
“Those injuries are gone! It was all part of the act… Gave me quite the scare!”
“So realistic, I was completely fooled!”
“A magician who doesn’t deceive isn’t a good magician!”
“An unbelievable performance!”
The fear on the faces of the audience members instantly gave way to excitement; they clapped frantically, and many stood up, shouting Jack’s name at the top of their lungs.
Chen Lun ignored the pleading looks from Corvey and the others, continuing to control them with “Mermaid’s Song.” The few could only watch helplessly as the terrible magician turned and walked away, while they lost control of their bodies and fell into confusion once again.
Chen Lun returned to the edge of the stage, distancing himself from the guests.
The throwing knives reappeared in his hands; facing the audience, he smiled and continued to throw without looking back.
The knives aimed at Miss Tracey all traced her body contour perfectly.
Each knife buried itself in the wooden board.
At the same time, like Cupid’s arrows, they also struck her heart.
Tracey was no longer afraid; her complexion turned shy, and her eyes shone brighter.
However, the knives thrown towards Corvey and the others perfectly struck them each time, whether on the palms, the wrists, the shoulders, or the thighs.
Amid the bloodshed, each time they would awaken from the acute pain, only to succumb to hypnosis amidst screams of agony. Then Chen Lun would heal them, and the audience would smile, savoring the “deception.”
The audience even praised the “acting” skills of Corvey and the others as superb, portraying the pain of being struck with vivid intensity.
They truly belonged in this profession.
Once again, pain arrived, and Corvey and the others screamed incessantly.
The audience was thrilled, clapping vigorously.
But the gazes of Corvey and the others held numbness and dullness; their pupils revealed a deep-seated fear and reverence, reflecting the image of the young man in black and his smile, which seemed like a devil walking among mortals.
They did not want to suffer like this anymore!
They wanted to shout, to cry, even to curse hysterically!
But they could not.
Until the wounds on their bodies once again healed.
But the emotional scars left in these people’s hearts could never heal. Like tattered, hole-ridden flesh, they would completely rot inside the shell, dragging them toward the abyss of madness.
Tracey stepped away from the wooden board filled with knives, and Chen Lun pulled her to the center of the stage, snapping his fingers.
Snap!
The knives on the board pulled out by themselves, swirling above their heads as if controlled.
Finally, the sky suddenly erupted into a “rain of knives.”
In the eyes of the astonished audience and Tracey, Chen Lun, holding Tracey’s hand, casually danced in the “rain.”
The flying knives passed by them, the magician and the noble young lady always avoiding harm; not a hair on their heads was touched by the blades.
Eventually, the floor was studded with small knives, like a carpet dotted with iron nails.
Chen Lun and Tracey stood amidst them.
He bowed to the audience with his hand on his chest, and the curtain followed, closing the stage.
For several dozen seconds, the audience was plunged into silence.
Then.
The whole place erupted again!
*
*
*
The magic performance at the City Garden Grand Theater had achieved an unprecedented success.
The audience who witnessed the show spared no effort in sharing their experience with friends and family, elevating the magician named “Jack” to the skies.
And every person who heard the rumors would invariably show an incredulous expression, which then turned into skepticism, sparking a verbal battle with the storyteller.
But as the matter fermented, many skeptics chose to half-believe, due to the sheer number of admirers—who were largely of considerable status and reputation—making their words more convincing.
The reputation of City Garden soared like a rocket, threatening to surpass that of Peacock City’s premier theater.
Yet Hoyle’s current mood was extremely complicated.
He had discovered that the performing troupe in the theater—the Magician Corvey, the deformed Dwarf Group, and the sister duo—had all gone mad after taking to the stage as guests.
They lost their human Sanity, completely becoming lunatics. Since they could no longer communicate normally or continue performing, they had to be sent to the psychiatric hospital in Peacock City for treatment.
Hoyle knew that this was most likely the handiwork of Mr. Jack.
Through the broken rope on stage, Hoyle quickly found several theater staff members. After some threats and temptation, he successfully extracted the conspiracy of Corvey and others with his two older brothers.
Originally, Corvey and his team had only planned to sabotage this performance, but later Garderson and Lance got in touch with them, offering benefits and promises to escalate the “performance accidents,” completely ruining the theater’s reputation.
Afterwards, Corvey and his team would receive a large sum of money and leave Peacock City.
Hoyle was both shocked and frightened.
He was determined not to expose Mr. Jack. He was even grateful for everything he had done for the theater.
As for the fate of Corvey and the others, it was all self-inflicted!
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But now, Hoyle found Mr. Jack more mysterious than ever.
He thought of the “Mystic Realm and Transcendents” his father had once mentioned to him, but he did not dare to confirm it, choosing instead to silently guard this “secret” in his heart.
A few days after the performance ended.
Hoyle received another shocking piece of news.
His two good brothers, Garderson and Lance, had a sudden illness during a party at home and turned into lunatics. The incident alarmed the other siblings and even caused his father’s furious outburst.
“Mr. Jack, did you do this too…?”
Hoyle grew nervous.
*
*
*
“Of course not.”
Chen Lun smiled at the girl, Tracy, in front of him.
The daughter of Viscount Harrington had come alone to the vineyard to find him and asked if he was very busy.
“Since Mr. Jack is free now, I would like to invite you out… erm, I heard from Mr. Hoyle that you are new to Peacock City, you must be unfamiliar with it. I thought I could give you a tour around town, I know lots of fun places.”
Tracy extended the invitation in a very ladylike tone.
She was dressed beautifully today, wearing her favorite pale yellow gown, complemented by a hat without a brim, two long braids trailing from the back of her head, and carrying a delicate parasol in her hand.
Chen Lun showed a polite smile.
“Of course, I would be delighted, Miss Trill.”