523 Chapter 523 - Who is in the Wrong? (1/2)

On the end of the street, after watching Xi Xiaotian and Broken Water Arrow's figures disappear into the distance, Coco, who was in Stealth this whole time, finally sighed in relief and revealed herself. Soon after, Royal God Call poked his head out from the roof, while War Without Wounds was standing at the corner of the street and had not left completely. On the next street over, Sword Demon took a U-turn to come back.

”How was it?” Royal God Call asked.

”Seems rather successful,” Coco replied.

”I'm not asking about that; I'm asking about those arrows I've shot. Pretty cool, huh?” Royal God Call said.

Coco was speechless.

”B*llsh*t. Is it as cool as my Cyclone? Even Sword Demon was forced to climb up the houses thanks to my efforts. Ha ha! For real though, Sword Demon, would you have been able to escape had that been a real battle and had I not shown mercy?” War Without Wounds patted Sword Demon on his shoulder as he asked this.

”It would be difficult,” Sword Demon answered truthfully.

”Ha ha ha ha!” War Without Wounds laughed gleefully.

”But there's no way I would tell you the position I took while Stealthed.” Sword Demon had saved the truth for last.

”Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” It was now Royal God Call's turn to laugh maniacally.

Coco was in no mood to laugh at these two men's antics. They might have finished their performance, but the entire operation was still ongoing. The more critical component hinged on Xi Xiaotian's solo act. Unable to watch and only able to wait for news to arrive, anyone could imagine just how they were feeling right now.

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Back in the tavern, with the Memory Blackbox Scroll in use, Xi Xiaotian could tell from the rate of her mana consumption with the scroll up that she had about 4 minutes and 24 seconds to maintain the spell and record what she needed. This should be more than enough if everything goes according to plan. As she thought about this, she caught a glimpse of Broken Water Arrow's gaze from the words she had just said. She felt very gratified at this, for she was at least still able to learn a bit of information from the man's eyes.

After all, she still needed to observe the other party's reaction before she could proceed to the next step. In their field of expertise, this was known as 'cold reading'. While the name sounded mystical, the truth was that it was a mix of observation and inference. For example, upon seeing someone wearing a wedding ring, it could be inferred that this person was married; wearing a watch on the right hand meant it was very likely that the person was left-handed, et cetera.

Being able to make inferences and draw information from such details was naturally the highest degree of this skill, and like any other skill, this required experience and practice before anyone could become consummate with 'cold reading'. Plenty of swindlers that had spent decades submerging themselves in their world would be able to boast of this. A twenty something young swindler like Xi Xiaotian often had no lack of innovation or skill, except for the chance to hone her cold reading.

Nevertheless, there was such a thing known as talent in this world. Just like how Gu Fei was talented when it came to kung fu, Xi Xiaotian was similarly gifted when it came to cold reading. Unfortunately, Broken Water Arrow's face, which was covered by a thick layer of paint, was a huge hindrance to the skill, making it seem as if the man had no body language to speak of that she could pick up on. He was seated there, with both arms placed firmly on the table. After raising his glass to Xi Xiaotian the first time around, it never moved again. Maintaining a steady gaze, the man would not even be looking at Xi Xiaotian were he not speaking to her. She knew that he was not trying to avoid eye-contact; rather, he was showing courtesy and respect to her as a woman.

This was the only thing Xi Xiaotian had managed to grasp from the moment they sat down together and she began using her skill at cold reading at Broken Water Arrow. She cherished that exchange wholeheartedly, constantly going over that single gaze he swept her with and tried to guess just what it meant. At the same time, she was sitting there waiting for her mark to respond.

In the end, there was no answer. Broken Water Arrow quietly looked at her with an encouraging glint in his eyes for her to continue talking. She, once again, felt the prickliness of the situation; unable to glean any information from his expression, she could only hope that he would speak more, which would allow her to extract valuable details from. Unfortunately, the man spoke very little, and this made her feel that she was having quite a difficult time maintaining the conversation.

”It is through your outstanding performance in Deep Freeze that caused us to take note of you,” Xi Xiaotian quickly probed, not forgetting that there was time constraint.

”That's nothing,” was the man's even reply.

”Actually, we are also very interested in this plan you guys are enacting,” Xi Xiaotian said.

His eyes! There was a flash of astonishment in his eyes just now. Xi Xiaotian caught a clearer look this time, and the important label she had said to illicit this response was 'you guys'. That meant that there was a group of them. Was Broken Water Arrow surprised because of that label? Xi Xiaotian really wished she could just remove the paint on Broken Water Arrow's face to get a good look of the naked truth hidden behind it.

”Honestly speaking, we're not so greedy to the point of wanting to obtain the both you and the plan you guys have.” She continued to speak along that train of thought. This time, she did not believe Broken Water Arrow would remain impassive.

Sure enough, he helplessly shook his head. ”I have no intention of joining a workshop. As for the plan, I feel that there's been some sort of misunderstanding here.”

”Oh? Is that so?” She did not say much. It had already taken quite a lot of effort from her to get Broken Water Arrow to open up and talk this much.