Chapter 181: Crushing a Little Squirrel to Death

The world entered another dimension within Luo Qi's field of vision. Luo Qi was examining every point of flowing fire in his vast perspective; the light of Yajian shone in his world, and Luo Qi once again felt a touch of the king's dominion over all under heaven. Yes, as long as he wished, he could crush a little squirrel to death, without even using his hands.

Of course, this sense of kingship was entirely because Du Zhengyi was sleeping; if that bad man were to wake up, he could slap him back into the world of flesh and blood with a single palm.

Luo Qi did not dwell on these thoughts; he enjoyed the joy of flying on the wind in the Consciousness World, while simultaneously supervising whether this world was natural and orderly. He gradually pushed his consciousness toward the mountains north of the village; he still remembered the appearance of those mountains. The forests in the north grew tall and straight tree species. Most were conifers; when Luo Qi was young, he had watched the Spring Festival Gala with human companions and heard a song praising the great pine trees for being evergreen throughout the four seasons.

However, the so-called evergreen of the four seasons was not the same evergreen. In the bleak, cold winter, the needles here presented a dark green that was almost black. Standing in the village and looking up, the mountain forest stood dark and oppressive amidst the residual snow, making one feel only dullness and cold.

But in the world of consciousness, everything was relaxed and pleasant. Luo Qi could feel that although there was not much life here, it was still vibrant. There were some consciousnesses in deep slumber. At first, Luo Qi was very curious; he carefully examined those simple forms of consciousness and discovered that even their vital signs were somewhat weak. He fell into confusion, but soon the zoological knowledge he had acquired while mixing in the human world helped him. He suddenly thought that those must be animals in hibernation.

Luo Qi wandered around excitedly in his world, spinning about, stimulated by the new discoveries. He collected newer data and gradually entered the rolling mountains. The population density in the vast northern lands was extremely low; once one entered the undulating terrain of the mountains, humans were almost nowhere to be seen. Luo Qi pushed forward past the barrier-like hills before a small cluster of human consciousnesses appeared in what seemed to be a valley between two mountains. Luo Qi guessed that it was a more remote village. His consciousness overlooked the village, then gradually descended, stepping into the human world like a wanderer, and began his increasingly practiced inspection at will.

He distinguished eleven consciousnesses; even for a village in the north, the number was truly a bit too small.

However, it was not that Luo Qi had never heard of the concepts of "urbanization process" and "left-behind population"; there was nothing truly worth making a fuss about. In Luo Qi's judgment, humans were almost harmless, and what he was looking for was not human consciousness. He intended to take a shallow glance at these people's consciousnesses and leave; at a slightly further distance, he had already felt that their consciousnesses were all in deep sleep.

Luo Qi's consciousness passed through the houses, stepping into the mountain village like a ghost. He suddenly felt a different kind of silence. He lingered for a while in the empty streets and courtyards of the village, not rashly walking into anyone's consciousness. Luo Qi pondered what the silence in the Consciousness Space actually meant; this feeling that even the soul felt empty and cold made his spine chill.

Mind Mages would not like cities; the crowded souls would make them feel like they were about to explode, but Mind Mages were even more afraid of absolute silence. That was not what humans called quiet; even if humans resided by a tranquil lake, there were still birds chirping and fish jumping. What Luo Qi experienced was a terrifying, absolute silence—a silence without any signs of life.

Luo Qi turned around abruptly; he had already understood what was missing here. There were no dogs here, no chickens, no ducks, sheep, or cattle—the most basic accessories of any village were missing. He retreated in a hurry, letting his main consciousness withdraw to a relatively safe distance. He copied and split a sub-node from his own consciousness, letting that wisp of consciousness step into the village houses like a wandering ghost, close to the sleeping humans.

He only had time to obtain one piece of surface information; he perceived with alarm that these humans seemed to be on the verge of death, and all their vital signs were extremely faint. That feeling was like... like animals in hibernation.

His branched consciousness was pushed out of the human brains. At the same time, a certain energy body was activated. That thing screamed shrilly in his Consciousness Space; the soul's cry stimulated Luo Qi's brain, and it released energy that stabbed at Luo Qi's main consciousness.

Luo Qi soared into the air in the world of consciousness and quickly released several Shields, using his copied branched consciousness as bait. His main body did not even dare to look; he knew the time left to him was perhaps only a few nanoseconds.

He retreated at high speed, looking back at the path he had come, searching for the Coordinate he had set. Du Zhengyi's Yajian was as conspicuous as a Lighthouse. He contracted the branched bodies he had released into various spaces back toward that consciousness. Fortunately, this time he had not penetrated deep into anyone's consciousness, so retreating was not difficult. Even if he were to have a nosebleed, he dared not stay in such a bizarre and oppressive place.

Even if it was just a fleeting glance, he had distinguished the consciousness released from the activated energy body; that consciousness was very ancient, powerful, and strange. He was not sure if he could handle it, but at the very least, fighting it from a long distance was too disadvantageous.

Luo Qi opened his eyes in his armchair, gasping violently. The moment he opened his eyes, he heard a shrill scream from next door.

Next door—not Du Zhengyi's next door, but the people living in the neighboring courtyard. Someone let out a scream that Luo Qi had never thought a human throat could produce. Luo Qi trembled in his chair.

Du Zhengyi woke up abruptly from his dream and leaped up.

He rushed into the living room and froze again; a terrifying wail came from a slightly more distant courtyard. The lights in the village came on again, the loud crying of a child traveled far in the quiet night, and the village's mongrel dogs also began to bark wildly.

Luo Qi jumped up from his armchair. He ran to Du Zhengyi's side, as if he did not dare to approach the window, and looked back at the window in fear and uncertainty.

"Brother, I think I saw..." Luo Qi covered his mouth, not wanting to say it out loud, as if he did not want that word to pass through his lips.

"What did you see?" Du Zhengyi asked calmly, not even asking why Luo Qi could see something he hadn't seen while in the room. He actually understood immediately what Luo Qi had just done; his Battle Mage instincts told him something had happened, and he did not waste a single minute on emotions.

"I'm not sure," Luo Qi said anxiously. "I either saw a group of people who are about to die, or I saw... the living dead."

"Puppets." Du Zhengyi immediately converted Luo Qi's terminology and nodded to show he understood. "Anything else?"

"There is also an ancient consciousness, sleeping in an energy source; it should be in a High-Energy Crystal," Luo Qi said. "Now it has woken up."