Chapter 169: Stance

Luo Qi sat on the sofa, watching Du Zhengyi search for menus and restaurant introductions behind the hotel desk without even glancing at him; he knew that this time, Du Zhengyi was, for once, truly, fucking angry with him.

His legs were getting sore from sitting cross-legged, so he stretched them out on the sofa, propped his feet on the tea table, and lay back, his kitten rising and falling on his chest. "I want to eat pasta today."

No one paid him any mind, and not even a plastic-wrapped menu flew into his face.

Luo Qi sighed, folded his hands over his stomach, and lay straight on the sofa. "Brother."

Du Zhengyi still ignored him, seemingly studying the menu intently; he couldn't remember Du Zhengyi ever being this interested in food. He knew his lack of seriousness had infuriated him.

"Brother." Luo Qi gazed at the plaster molding on the ceiling and said in a low voice, "I've always wanted to ask you, did you really deduce that that person was Clownfish just based on those characteristics? Who is that person? And who is Clownfish? That person and Clownfish are actually both phantoms; frankly, there is no evidence to prove they even exist. Only Pei Shu truly exists."

"What are you trying to say?" Du Zhengyi asked coldly from the chair behind the desk.

Luo Qi knew that Pei Shu was not to be spoken of or doubted; Du Zhengyi had been rescued by Pei Shu and brought back to the Qionglin, and Pei Shu had raised him to adulthood. To Du Zhengyi, Pei Shu was the mentor of everything. Pei Shu had painstakingly cultivated Du Zhengyi, and Luo Qi guessed that even the formation of Du Zhengyi's worldview might have come from him. He remembered the way the old man would smooth out the wrinkles in Du Zhengyi's papers one by one, carefully organizing them, and felt a wave of insecurity. The old man loved Du Zhengyi as if he were his own grandson; Luo Qi could see it. That was why he hadn't said it earlier, and even now, he regretted saying it.

"My point is," Luo Qi heard his own voice say vaguely, "does the world really contain two Legendary Level Mind Archmages at the same time?"

"Luo Qi, many people have a misunderstanding about Pei Shu, thinking he intimidates the Qionglin through his techniques," Du Zhengyi said dryly. "Are you one of those idiots too?"

Luo Qi lay there without moving. "I heard Pei Shu is the leader of the Great Chess Gang."

"Put it another way."

"Many people say... even among the students, it's rumored that Pei Shu's success lies in his wisdom. He might win or lose small skirmishes, but in the end, he is always steadily playing a game of great chess. That's why our class of students calls him the leader of the Great Chess Gang in private," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi was half-skeptical. He had known Luo Qi for a while now, and since they were together every day, he had developed the illusion that he had known Luo Qi for a lifetime. Therefore, he knew well that anything coming out of Luo Qi's mouth was not necessarily true, no matter how serious or world-weary Luo Qi sounded when he said it.

"I guess that might mean Pei Shu is a strategic master, always looking at the big picture, a great helmsman," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi didn't know why he felt a trace of sarcasm in his words, but he didn't understand the ambiguous meanings humans were prone to, so he couldn't capture Luo Qi's true intent.

Luo Qi didn't speak; his fingers circled and pointed in the air, and a string of golden names floated there. Pei Shu, Clownfish, that person, Da Hei.

"Why are Pei Shu's name and theirs arranged together?" Du Zhengyi frowned, looking at the large characters floating in the air.

"I'm listing people with similar influence and status," Luo Qi said. He used smaller characters to display a new line of names: Li Xu, Yao Yu, Zhao Zhiyan, Jin Yu, and Monk. Then, after thinking for a while, he listed Fan Shi, Wen Lin, Du Zhengyi, and Luo Qi himself.

Zhao Zhiyan and Jin Yu's names slid under Li Xu's, connected by lines; Monk fell under Da Hei's, Wen Lin appeared under Fan Shi's, and Luo Qi appeared under Du Zhengyi's. Du Zhengyi's name had a connection to Pei Shu but flew to a position parallel to Li Xu.

Du Zhengyi understood what Luo Qi meant.

Fan Shi was positioned slightly higher than Li Xu and slightly lower than Pei Shu; looking at that position was awkward.

Luo Qi made the three characters "Clownfish" fly up, but they hovered indecisively before finally landing in an awkward position level with Fan Shi. Then came Da Hei, and—that person.

Luo Qi finally turned all the Lotus Burner names black and placed a black question mark at a position level with Pei Shu.

"This question mark represents the Lotus Burner leader we've never dared to hope to find. We really have zero data on him, right? But this is also reasonable; we are having a hard time just proving the existence of the Lotus Burners right now, and the work has only just begun. The leader of the organization doesn't necessarily have to be a Legendary Archmage; his strength might be as a politician or as a heroic idol," Luo Qi said.

Luo Qi watched Du Zhengyi nod, then added, "The number one figure of a terrorist organization is usually extremely cunning and difficult to pin down. We can temporarily set him aside. If you believe Pei Shu is higher than the others because of his status as the Great Chess Gang leader, then these few people all fall into the position of Ordinary Venerable. Clownfish, Da Hei, and that person."

"Drawing a structural diagram like this is indeed very clear," Du Zhengyi admitted.

"That person and Da Hei have never shown their faces, just like Clownfish, who only exists in the legends of the Black Market. You might think I'm no longer cute because I now look like a raving conspiracy theorist," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi couldn't help but say, "I never thought you were cute, so stop gilding your own lily."

Luo Qi continued as if he hadn't heard him, "If I haven't obtained concrete evidence to prove the existence of those three, then I can assume they don't exist. I don't believe it's logical for three situations like mine to appear in a cluster in this world. To me, it looks more like someone is setting up a chess game. Maybe the three people exist, or maybe they don't exist at all; they're just three phantoms."

"What made you suddenly have this thought?" Du Zhengyi asked.

Luo Qi ignored him and continued his train of thought, "Our investigation at the Guan Family led us to find Guan Yushan's Storage Crystal. But we didn't find anything of real value in the crystal Guan Yushan left behind, did we? The investigation into the Guan Family massacre is far from over! Not to mention that Lu Xinchen is still missing."

"You want to go to the Guan Family again?" Du Zhengyi paused. "You want to go to the temple."

Luo Qi nodded.

"Are you ready?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"I admit that Da Hei's temple scares me more than the others, but I don't want to run away anymore. Let's go try it. I think I'm just about ready. Following their path to Ganzhou definitely won't work; we have to find another way. Let's go try Da Hei's temple," Luo Qi said.