Chapter 17: Avoiding Chaos

The next day, Xia Zhou performed fire breathing in the ring.

Behind the curtains of the backstage, several pairs of eyes were fixated on the figure spewing flames in the ring.

Sneck's eyes were reflecting the flames, his face full of complete shock:

"Sister Audrey, Xia Zhou's fire-breathing skills are so advanced!? This youngster must be born with a talent for fire breathing; he's far superior to the likes of Farns who relies on the Breathing Spell for his fire breathing."

"Mmmm mmm!"

The Clown Siblings covered each other's mouths, but they mustered agreeable sounds from their throats.

Every time Xia Zhou spat out a three-meter-long flame, the siblings would jump excitedly, their eyes growing bigger and bigger.

If it wasn't for the enormous figure of the strongman blocking their way, they would have rushed to the ring and surrounded Xia Zhou.

Bo Pai blocked the siblings with one arm while the other hand stroked his cream-like hair:

"Sister Audrey, heh, will the kid get poisoned?"

Upon hearing Bo Pai's words, all the people present instantly turned their gazes towards Audrey.

Even the Clown Siblings quiet down, their faces full of concern.

Audrey looked at Xia Zhou's figure with a somewhat dazed expression. This reminded her of the words the boy said to her last night.

"Don't worry."

Audrey looked at the members and smiled, pulling out a bottle of potion. "I bought this universal antidote for him."

..

The universal antidote can neutralize or inoculates most types of poisoning within 1 hour of consumption.

..

"Xia Zhou uses a mixture of fire breathing potion containing a fireproof agent. He also drinks a diluted universal antidote before going on stage to reduce the toxicity of the fire breathing potion."

"With the help of these two potions, his performance won't be much different from Farns. It's just that he makes a little less money because buying potions costs."

Audrey looked again towards the arena, her smile widened:

"And, as you all know, he keeps his money with me. He doesn't misuse addictive analgesics like Farns."

"Sister Audrey."

Sneck seemed hesitant, then after some consideration he said:

"I would like to cover some of the cost of the universal antidote for Xia Zhou ..."

"Mmm mmm!" The Clown Siblings nodded while covering their mouths.

"Heh, I was thinking the same thing."

Bo Pai rubbed his chin, "We can't let the new member pay for our old bones."

"Mmm~ Let's stick to this plan. I will arrange everything."

Audrey responded with a broad smile, pleased by the reactions of the members.

This is what a team should look like: helping each other, backing each other up, and jointly managing the circus business.

In fact, even if Sneck and the others didn't propose covering the cost of the medicine, Audrey would have done this anyway.

Maintaining fairness among team members has always been her principle.

But this is just one reason.

Audrey put the universal antidote back into the leather box while recalling the six words Xia Zhou had said:

Play the full set.

Xia Zhou decided not to reveal his extraordinary recovery ability to other members.

He discussed strategies with Audrey in advance to prevent revealing his secret, including dealing with the reactions of the others.

A bottle of the antidote, a bottle of diluted antidote, and an empty potion bottle.

These three will become seasoned performers in the future.

Before the performance, Xia Zhou would get the diluted antidote from Audrey.

After entering the changing room, while changing his clothes, he would pretend to drink the potion and then return the pre-prepared empty potion bottle to Audrey.

This was the master plan.

As for the cost of the medicine.. cough.. accounting.. naturally, Xia Zhou took up this task.

The fire-breathing performance on the stage lasted for 5 minutes.

Despite his young age, Xia Zhou had already mastered 60 to 70 percent of Farns' stage prowess.

Even though he relied a lot on the flames, the under flames, and moving, jumping around for transitions.

It was enough to cause Sneck and the others to question how he did it.

Audrey, in keeping with the plan, conveniently blamed the universal antidote for everything.

Even though the antidote that Xia Zhou drank was diluted, its effectiveness lasts for at least 5 minutes. Why waste it? It's better to drag it out and perform a little longer.

The audience cheered.

Xia Zhou successfully cooked the raw chicken.

Audrey turned to the people around her and was the first to step onto the stage.

"The show concluded smoothly. Let's go to the stage to thank the audience."

...

The circus performed three times from morning till dusk.

By evening, Xia Zhou sat backstage resting, his arms trembling, cheeks twitching, teetering on the edge of muscle cramp.

What he wanted most was to return to the inn, take a nice hot bath, and find a place to have a good meal.

During the break, Audrey took care of the random chores and arrangements.

Xia Zhou no longer had to cook for the other members. Each person would take care of their own dinner.

The members' pay was also given out before dinner.

Without Farns, the money in the cash box behaved. It wouldn't selfishly run away.

Audrey grabbed a handful of coins from the cashbox, counted them carefully, put them in a bag, and tossed them to each member.

"Big Sister, you can just keep my money directly."

Xia Zhou raised his sore arm to wave at Audrey, stopping her from tossing the money bag over.

"Alright~ I'll keep it for you. After today's 3 performances, and after deducting the cost of the potions, we made a total of 310 copper coins."

Audrey put the money bag in her own trunk, clapped her hands and announced, "We'll take a day off tomorrow and set off for the next stop the day after tomorrow."

She walked up to the exhausted boy, extending her arm, "Little one, need me to help you back to the inn?"

Xia Zhou stood up shakily, leaning half of his body against the strong arm of Big Sister, flipping through the information of the hacker in his mind while walking.

"Successfully completed today's fire show.

"Average fire intensity and duration per performance:

"Flame, 50 seconds

"Small fire, 40 seconds

"Medium fire, 30 seconds

"Strong fire, 15 seconds

"Average audience for each performance: 40 people

"Average audience satisfaction: 85%

"A total of 30 experience points gained from 3 performances."

[Level] LV.5

[Experience] 31+30→61/200

..

The average experience earned per performance is 10 points.

The normal number of audience is about 25 people, corresponding to 6.25 experience points.

According to 3 performances a day for 6 consecutive days, that adds up to 110 experience points for each stop.

The circus spends half of the month traveling, performing at two stops each month on average, which equals 220 experience points!

A smile slowly spread across Xia Zhou's tired face; he was finally back to the pace of leveling up once per month.

…

The next day.

Before the caravan set off, Audrey's old comrade-in-arms, the town army's clerk, Wilson, sent a letter.

Xia Zhou read the letter in Audrey's room, then burned it in the basin.

Both of them could sense each other's worries.

The intelligence provided by Xia Zhou was not only accurate but also crucial.

With the help of that chubby resident mage, the town army successfully found the first underground alchemy room.

Unfortunately, the evil alchemist who secretly conducted experiments there was highly alert.

As soon as he heard the movement in the tunnel, he immediately poured a potent solvent into the crucible.

By the time the soldiers broke open the iron door of the tunnel, the alchemy room was a mess, everything was blown into powder, a more dreadful sight than where Xia Zhou was.

This self-destruction scenario was repeated in several other locations.

However, the town's army didn't leave empty-handed.

Wilson noticed that since the army began to raid the underground alchemy rooms, the bandit's slaughters seemed to have stopped.

Until the moment the circus was about to depart, there had been no news of villages being annihilated for more than ten days.

There indeed seems to be some deep connection between the evil alchemist and the bandits.

Wilson's letter burnt to ashes, leaving only a wisp of blue smoke swirling in the bathroom.

Xia Zhou and Audrey discussed, and knew the circus must make some adjustments to cope with the potential return of the lurking bandits.

The equipment and weapons hidden in the third carriage were now distributed among all the members.

The people in charge of controlling the pack horses were supplemented by Xia Zhou, so the rest have more energy to deal with emergencies.

And Xia Zhou was happy about this.

The exercise effect of the mini elastic ball was negligible. He had to squeeze it more than 80,000 times to gain 1 point of strength.

But driving the carriage was different. To him, it was a new thing that brought both experience and enhanced sense perception.

Following Audrey's directions, Xia Zhou took the driver's seat, snugly sat down in the concave leather seat, reducing the amplitude of upper body vibration when bumping.

He held the rigid cage wrapped in leather in both hands. The reins on the left controlled the two pack horses on the left, and the ones on the right controlled the horses on the right.

The pack horses were strong and had decent stamina. If desired to travel a long distance, one needed to learn to observe their physical conditions.

The pack horses of the circus were rented from the Rosak Horse Shop. Their manes were shaved into regular stripes.

If the sweat soaked more than 8 stripes, that meant the horse's energy was running down quickly, and it's necessary to slow down the speed, giving the horses a break as they walk.

At times like this, Xia Zhou just waited for the pack horses to slow down on their own.

If needing to speed up the rested pack horses, he would lift his arms and flick the reins sharply, making a "yah" sound, repeating this action until the speed increased.

The hacker rewarded him according to the duration of driving the carriage.

The experience given per hour was not much, only 0.005 points.

However, the reward for perception was quite generous.

Every time he successfully maneuvered the carriage to dodge a large rock on the ground, he would gain 0.01 to 0.03 points of perception.

If he could successfully avoid animals dashing out from the bushes, or avoid holes that could cause the carriage to overturn, the perception gained was even more, starting at least 0.08 points.

Driving the carriage was as fun as playing a dodge game.

On the country roads in forests and fields, Xia Zhou focused on the ground conditions, feeling the cool breeze on his face and put his full concentration into driving.

Audrey popped her head out from the carriage and pointed out directions to the young driver after a brief observation, giving him the right choice well in advance at the next junction.

According to Audrey's plan, the caravan departed straight from the radiation range of Piyec Fortress and entered the northern region of Rosak Province.

This would be the performance venue for the circus in the coming months.