Legend of Hidden Dragon

Chapter 7 A New purpose in life

As Miss Smith turned to leave, Tolly immediately followed her, but he was stopped by Luna, the girl in purple.

Tolly was about to talk to Luna about his tattoo, but before he could open his mouth, Luna said something first.

“Have you forgotten who you are? You know the rules, get your ass back in line.”

However, Tolly, whose mind was still in the role of the high school student in his past life, stubbornly assumed that Miss Smith was her classmate, Jenny.

Luna’s words went in one ear and out the other. It seemed that he did not take them seriously. He even began to yell from behind.

“Wait, Jenny! Wait up, Jenny!”

As he said this, he trotted and tried to get closer to Jenny.

What he had done made Miss Smith feel embarrassed in public. Hence, in order to not to attract the attention of the crowd, she said to Luna quietly,

“Never mind, Luna, let him follow you. It’s not decent for us the people from the Duke’s Mansion to yell in public. They will take it as a joke!”

Luna nodded his head and quickly turned to Tolly, saying with a serious look on her face,

“All right! Our lady has said that you can stay behind me. But stop shouting, or you’ll be punished!”

Hearing her words, Tolly seemed to much better behave. He put on a big smile and said in a lower voice,

“Okay, Luna, you are kind to me. Remember the tattoo you’ve made on me? You know, the snake-like dragon has grown up to be a real one.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Tolly?” said Luna, her eyes widened.

“Well, I guess you’ve forgotten it. Anyway, Jenny’s right. I should not have yelled in public. Now I’m going to listen to you and stay behind you. I have to admit that yelling too much will do harm to one’s body and mind, like losing a temper. Besides, if any old grannies around are still in bed, yelling is definitely going to disturb them like hell. I promise I’ll do my best to be an environmentalist.”

“Environmentalist?” Luna asked with a puzzled look. It was the first time she had heard the word since she was born.

“An environmentalist is about being a person who respects nature. For instance, one should never litter around. Otherwise, the rubbish you throw might drop onto some flowers and plants. You know, it might hurt them so much like a rock falling onto your head.”

“Nonsense!” Luna shook his head and replied impatiently.

“And what’s more, one should not talk nonsense, as it’s going to release too much carbon dioxide.”

“Carbon dioxide?” Luna asked with her mouth open wider, “What on the earth is that again? You’ve been talking nonsense that I don’t understand since you got struck by lightning! Have you noticed that, Tolly? I guess you’re mad!”

Tolly smirked and wanted to tell her the truth, but he couldn’t. Heaving a deep sigh, he said nothing and began to walk quietly.

However, the surroundings were not quiet at all. The crowd was all staring at them and whispering.

“That must be Miss Smith! Wow, what a beautiful fairy! If I can have a lady like her as my wife, I guess my life won’t be such a waste!”

“Keep your voice down if you don’t want to get into trouble. Your dream of having her as your wife is just a pie in the sky. You are aiming at the moon!  I can’t believe that you a little ugly toad want to have a bite of a snow-white swan. You know, if I were you, I’d be satisfied if I could get her private maidservant as my wife. Do you see the girl in purple? She’s like a ripe peach! I can simply squeeze the juice out of her with a single pinch. Ha-ha…”

“You are all daydreaming! You guys don’t even have a chance to talk to them. What a shame! To tell you the truth, I sort of envy the guy who was struck by the lightning for having a chance to talk to them. It looks like I’ll have to quit my current job as a private tutor and go to be a servant in the Duke’s Mansion. The job seems more prospecting. Perhaps I can get more salary, and above all, I can get closer to those beautiful ladies.”

“What a brilliant idea！ But if you don’t have any connections there, you’re also daydreaming. As far as I know, no one can get a job in the Duke’s Mansion without a reliable recommendation. Everyone around here knows the guy struck by the lightning is the useless adopted son of Lord Fanta. Do you think you can be as lucky as he is?”

The useless adopted son?

Tolly was totally confused, for the words had never flashed into his mind before. He pulled out all his stops to search for more information about it from every corner of his mind, but there was no trace of them at all. Obviously, the crowd was just shooting bullshit. The previous owner of Tolly’s body hadn’t been high up on the top rung of his social ladder as the adopted son of Lord Fanta.

However, Tolly was very pleased with what they had said about the useless adopted son. They were elevating him to a higher social status since the mass media could always exert a huge influence after all. Perhaps one day he would truly be able to get to that level and become the adopted son of Duke Charles Smith!

‘Who knows! Just let guys like Joseph eat their hearts out.’

And at the time, he didn’t hate to be a servant in the Duke’s Mansion. He even began to enjoy being it, for he found it was even more competitive in the job market here on Goldearth than the planet where he had used to live in his past life.

To his surprise, it would be so difficult to become a servant in the Duke’s Mansion. There were so many people out there waiting in line for such a teeny job. It was unbelievable!

The guy who had just said that he was a private tutor must at least be a college graduate if he were living on Earth. Even he wanted to work as a servant in the Duke’s Mansion.

‘Holy shit! What a rat race here on Goldearth!’

On Earth, Tolly was just a high school student, but as a servant here on Goldearth, he felt he was much better than a college graduate. Hence, there was no reason for him to feel sorry for being just a servant here. He told himself he had to lead a better life here than on Earth.

The more he thought about it, the happier Tolly was. He couldn’t even contain his excitement. A big smile crept over his face, revealing his eight teeth which were so white and shiny that they would blind others.

However, the words “adopted son”, like a needle, pricked into Joseph’s heart deeply.

He thought to himself that if Tolly the scumbag became Duke’s adopted son, it would be a disgrace for him to have such a loser strutting his stuff before him. And what if Miss Smith was coaxed by his glib tongue into making a wrong and irreversible decision on impulse? Then a rose might be in the hands of a bastard.

By no means would he allow a beauty like Miss Smith to be in the hands of a beast unless he was the beast himself.

As he was thinking, Joseph got angrier and angrier. Finally, the volcano inside him erupted so violently that he could even spurt fires through his eyes, which he hoped would burn Tolly into ashes in a minute.

However, he quickly calmed himself down and sneered, for he had already taken some secret actions.

‘Wait and see, you scum! The lightning didn’t strike you to death, but you won’t be lucky next time.  You’ll have new trouble soon! VERY SOON!’ Joseph whispered, giving Tolly a vicious look.

Not very long, Miss Smith got into a carriage—the best transport in this world. The carriage was well decorated with strings of beautiful little beads on its four corners of the top.

As Tolly felt bored when going along, he decided to strike up a conversation with Luna again. Yet, Luna cast him a contemptuous glare and then proceeded to get into the carriage, too. Tolly did want to get inside, too, but apparently, it would be inappropriate to do so.

‘If I become the adopted son or even the so-called useless one, I guess I’ll have the privilege to get into that carriage. Of course, even if I can’t be the useless adopted son, to be a useless son-in-law is not bad! Ha-ha!’

‘Oh, No, no, no! Why the useless son-in-law? I’ll get rid of the word ‘useless’.’

His lips curved into a big smile once more. It had only been an hour since he had arrived in this world, but he had already established his new goal in life. How amazing it was to find a nice goal in such a short time in a world where most people did nothing but let fate run its natural course!

Tolly walked immediately behind the carriage, trying to eavesdrop on what the girls were talking about inside, but to his surprise, he heard nothing. Though looking like an ordinary carriage, there were actually thick soundproof curtains inside, so even if they blew trumpets inside, no sounds could be heard.

Tolly also noticed that the road the carriage went along was by no means flat. Every now and then small stones came into his sight, which would jolt the carriage a lot. Yet, when the carriage bumped on the road, some golden glow would appear around its wheels. Could it be the purported runic formation?

The word ‘runic formation’ was something Tolly had learned from reading web novels back on Earth. He had never thought that he would actually see it for real. If he was not wrong, the runic formation on the wheels had a shock-absorbing effect. Needless to say, the wisdom of the ancients had long been underestimated, for they could use runic formations to achieve the effects that could only be made with the high-tech gadgets on the planet of Earth.

Tolly could tell that the Smith clan was very rich and powerful, for the carriage Miss Smith was now riding in was even far better than any limousines worth ten million dollars on Earth.

‘I’m going to climb higher on the social ladder here on Goldearth.’ Tolly whispered, ‘I’m confident that I can do it with the help of Hidden Dragon! No doubt I’ll be tall, handsome, and rich here! What a wonderful life!’

Having a glance at his short stature, he sighed, ‘Forget it! Practically, I’d better be handsome and rich.’

The first task he had to finish at the moment should be to get to know one of the nine mysterious places and then figure out a solution to the problem of finding the first secret manual. Only by doing this could his Hidden Dragon System be initiated.

But where would he start? He didn’t have any clue at all.

He frowned, his eyebrows squeezing together like two little squirming worms. At that time, Joseph suddenly walked over to him.

‘He’s such a nuisance! But he might know something about mysterious places. Now that it’s impossible to be away from him, why not tap some information from him? And I can also make fun of him to kill time during this boring long walk.’

“Hello, Joseph, I’ve heard you’re quite knowledgeable, but I guess it’s you that talk big!” Tolly said teasingly.

“Are you challenging me?” Tolly replied, quite annoyed.

“Let me give you a little quiz. Have you ever heard of any mysterious places?” Tolly asked with a sneer.

Joseph rolled his eyes and scratched his head. Apparently, he hadn’t heard of any of them before, but not to be outdone, he blurted out,

“Of course! They are said to be places where the ancient master immortals lived and cultivated, but it’s just a legend. No one knows exactly whether they exist in this world or not. Even if they do exist, you can’t get any benefits with your D-level talent for cultivation. A superb secret manual ready in your hands will still be nothing but an outrageous waste.”

Right after having said that, Joseph laughed uncontrollably. Tolly wasn’t much concerned, saying with a sneer,

“Oh, I see, you mean you’re incapable of finding these mysterious places！ Looks like I’m better off asking Jenny next time.”

“Shut up! How dare you call our Miss by her first name again? If it’s not allowed, I’ll beat the crap out of you NOW!”

“Don’t resort to violence if you can, Joseph！ You know, our society will eventually evolve to be a civilized one. We all will end up being modern and sensible, but I’m afraid you’ll be left behind. If you don’t change with the times, you’ll be a miserable bumpkin! At that time, you’ll be driven away from the Duke’s Mansion.”

"You little bastard!"  Joseph gritted his teeth in anger and then spat out.

"The little bastard is calling whom names?"  Tolly asked.

"The little bastard is calling you names!” Joseph replied without any hesitation.

“See? You admit you are the little bastard YOURSELF!” Tolly replied, laughing behind his hands. It wasn’t until then that Joseph realized that he had been taken advantage of verbally by Tolly again.

“Go ahead and laugh at me! You are proud of your sharp tongue, huh?”

“Yep, sharp tongue makes me great. Let me teach you something, Joseph! Once upon a time, a Chinese warlord pissed a man off to death just with his sharp tongue. So, it’s a great ability, a gift. It’s a weapon, you know? Oh, I forget! How can someone as clumsy as you have this kind of pleasure? I know you’re narrow-minded, so be careful not to be pissed off to death by me!”

Tolly laughed behind his hands once more.

“I’ll let you be sharp-tongued for a little while longer. But don’t get too above yourself to count your chickens now. You’ll never know who’s going to die first! I promise you won’t have the chance to see the day when I’m pissed off to death!”

Joseph gave him a wry smile once again. Tolly also felt it was creepy and weird.

All of sudden, he didn’t feel well. His stomach turned and gave him stabbing pain inside. His eyes dulled and he slumped to the ground.