Chapter 160: Black Market (8)

"Mind Mage, a Mind Mage..." Wan Pei muttered, picked up his wine glass and drained it in a large gulp, then set the glass back down on the table with a heavy thud. He summoned a bit of the magic provided by the tavern, tightly enclosing the one-meter radius around them to ensure their conversation was absolutely secure. This magic barrier had been activated after Shui Xiansheng walked away.

Finally, he looked toward Luo Qi and examined him carefully for a moment.

Luo Qi looked back at him cheerfully, not feeling a shred of the mental probing coming from him.

Luo Qi also looked at Du Zhengyi with concern; Du Zhengyi was supporting his forehead with his hand, as if covering his face.

"Damn it, I walked into the best-informed tavern in the world with a goddess, and I didn't even know it myself. I have a premonition that someone is already selling this news, and by tomorrow morning, Qionglin will know."

"Haha, if I'd known, I would have set my own price," Luo Qi said heartlessly.

"No wonder they all treat you so well; do you have no shame at all?" Du Zhengyi said weakly, his persona completely unable to hold up, then he suddenly thought of something else, "No wonder there are two extra red berries in your glass; do you have no shame?"

Luo Qi's eyes lit up, "If you had said earlier that you wanted those two red berries, I would have just let you have them. What is this 'do you have no shame' talk? Are you getting old? Just repeating the same old thing over and over?"

"I don't want to eat them, damn it, where did you get that idea? I meant that it's a lady's drink!" Du Zhengyi said irritably, turning his head to look at Luo Qi—who in his eyes was still Luo Qi—that little bastard with a wicked grin on his face.

"You are being completely sexist. Why can't I drink sweet and sour wine?" Luo Qi said with a laugh, taking a sip of his newly acquired 40-proof alcohol, "This isn't bad either."

"It's alright, I suppose," Wan Pei suddenly said, attracting Du Zhengyi's attention. Du Zhengyi looked up at him in confusion.

"I said his taste is alright," Wan Pei said, raising a thick finger and pointing at Luo Qi.

Luo Qi let out a loud laugh; in Wan Pei's eyes, the radiant woman looked even more charming when laughing. Du Zhengyi turned his head to glare at him; in his eyes, it was still, through and through, a little bastard.

"What level Telepath is he?" Wan Pei asked curiously, fortunately relying on his age to remain unaffected by the Wushan Goddess that Luo Qi had replicated.

"What do you estimate?" Du Zhengyi smiled and asked, throwing caution to the wind, "Guess what level he is, looking like this?"

Wan Pei thought for a moment, appearing a bit unsure, "There are four classes and seven levels of Telepaths in total. Is he Class B or Class C?"

Du Zhengyi did not answer him immediately; he took a sip of the wine Wan Pei had ordered for him, letting the spicy liquid slide over his tongue. He said in a low voice, "Actually, the news has already reached here, and I think you might have heard it too. The ridiculous name he gave himself, when stretched out, is: King of Kings Great Civet Cat King Swallowing Heaven and Devouring Earth."

Wan Pei's single eye became sharp, and his gaze toward Luo Qi became complex. He assessed him and said uncertainly, "Class B? B1?"

Du Zhengyi looked at him meaningfully and said nothing. This made Luo Qi a little nervous as well.

Wan Pei suddenly picked up his wine glass and drained it in one go, "How extraordinary. It has been a long time since an A-Grade appeared. That there is still someone whose telepathic ability would be rated as A-Grade is truly rare."

Luo Qi couldn't help but ask Du Zhengyi in a low voice, "So, what A-level am I exactly?"

Du Zhengyi turned his head and looked at him gloomily, then suddenly put down his wine glass and tilted his head to whisper in his ear.

He hurriedly leaned in.

Du Zhengyi said loudly in his ear, "Idiot, there is only one level for A-Grade."

Luo Qi's face turned red, and he hurriedly pulled away. Wan Pei burst into a fit of laughter across from them. "Is there really such a person? He doesn't know it himself? What kind of Mage is he exactly?"

"You might not believe it, but he is this stupid," Du Zhengyi said, annoyed, tugging at the collar of his shirt and unbuttoning another button.

Wan Pei gradually stopped laughing, looking back and forth between Du Zhengyi and Luo Qi. Of course, he couldn't see through the disguise of an A-Grade Telepath, but for an old veteran, sometimes one looks at people with the heart rather than the eyes.

"He is still very young, isn't he?" Wan Pei asked with concern.

"Yes," Du Zhengyi said, "He thinks he can hide it well, but there are flaws everywhere, and he keeps exposing himself."

Luo Qi was unhappy; Du Zhengyi rarely offered him genuine criticism. By genuine criticism, he meant criticism that was spot on.

Du Zhengyi glanced at him and then said more gently, "However, he hasn't turned himself into a pile of Slime or some form of Bone Warrior, which is already giving me enough face."

Wan Pei, however, was not infected by his humor; his expression grew increasingly grave, "Zhengyi, you haven't violated the principles of Qionglin, have you?"

Luo Qi heard a trace of heavy anxiety in the old veteran's voice, making him feel that the consequences might be even more serious than he had originally imagined. He saw a hint of hesitation on Du Zhengyi's face; he didn't know exactly what Du Zhengyi was hesitating about—perhaps it was because they had violated so many Qionglin principles that Du Zhengyi wasn't sure which one the old veteran was referring to.

"Is he a high-level target you are supposed to handle?" Wan Pei asked seriously, his single eye fixed on Du Zhengyi. His hand gripped the wine glass, and it was filled once again.

"Of course not," Du Zhengyi said immediately, his voice filled with a sense of relief.

But Luo Qi suddenly realized that Du Zhengyi had lost. The old veteran could read his tone without the slightest effort, just as he himself now understood that Du Zhengyi was rejoicing at having escaped an opportunity to lie to one of his own.

"Oh," Wan Pei said knowingly, raising his glass and draining the wine in one breath.

The glass was knocked back onto the table with a heavy thud, and a veteran's cunning flashed in Wan Pei's single eye, "But you still know that, according to Qionglin's standards, he should spend his whole life in the Cube?"

"He is a high-energy individual, but he has no antisocial tendencies."

"Is that so? He didn't almost eat someone's brain, did he?"

A moment of dead silence fell at the table. Wan Pei wiped the wine dripping from his lips and gave a mocking laugh. "A Mage who catches monsters suddenly unable to bring himself to do it—that is the biggest taboo in our line of work."

"I am not a Daoist, and he is not a civet cat spirit. My trouble has nothing to do with him, and Qionglin's power struggles have nothing to do with him either," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice, a slight touch of anger in his tone.

The old veteran shook his head slowly, as if he felt his words were completely meaningless. He pointed out the errors to his team member with a sense of annoyance, as if Du Zhengyi were still the rookie he once was, "If your trouble really had nothing to do with him, he wouldn't be by your side right now. If Qionglin knew he was an A-Grade Telepath, Qionglin's power struggles would have everything to do with him, just as Qionglin's power struggles have always had something to do with you and your teacher."

Luo Qi saw the exhaustion on Du Zhengyi's face; Du Zhengyi was looking straight at the old man.

"I am no longer a Battle Mage; I won't demand that you escort him to Qionglin." The old man pushed the wine glass on the table away irritably, as if trying to control himself to drink less. He kept his head down, looking at his wine glass with anger, "What is right and what is wrong—when I was ten, I thought I knew, but after living for over a hundred years, I don't see it that way anymore. My old captain once told me that if one day you start sympathizing with Qionglin's goals, then it's time to retire. That is when I chose to retire, and perhaps you should consider retiring too. Retirement has nothing to do with age; you could try being a Treasure Hunter."

Du Zhengyi listened blankly, appearing somewhat shocked by what he had heard.

Luo Qi suddenly nudged him, as if the matter had nothing to do with him, and said bluntly, "You must not retire."

Du Zhengyi looked at him in astonishment, and the old veteran frowned, looking rudely at the overly charming beauty in front of him.

"Those who wash their hands of the business never have a good ending," Luo Qi said impatiently, "It's too unlucky. Don't listen to them, and definitely don't hold a resignation press conference. We can just go treasure hunting directly."

A rumbling laugh erupted from the throat of the Qionglin veteran, gradually turning into a hearty, full-throated laugh.