Chapter 191: The Burning Valley

"The most important thing is..." Under the flickering firelight, Luo Qi's eyes were as dark as an ancient well; for a moment, his maturity seemed to far exceed his age. He looked at the two men before him, who were perhaps the greatest enemies he had ever encountered in his life thus far.

"The most important thing is," he repeated in a low voice, like a whisper, "why here?"

His Consciousness World tightened like a bowstring in an instant, and a cluster of consciousness, sharp as an arrow, violently invaded Zhao Jiaozhu's Mental Domain. Sure enough, Zhao Jiaozhu's consciousness did not have the protection of Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi; what politician would truly hand over their own brain for someone else to manage? He did indeed have an impenetrable Shield, but that Shield could not block a desperate, sudden attack from an Advanced Telepath like Luo Qi.

An instant is a lifetime.

Luo Qi could not finish reading the scroll of his entire life; even if it were just an instant, Luo Qi believed he did not have that much time to utilize. The consciousness that truly swept through Zhao Jiaozhu's life was Luo Qi's Copy Consciousness, a demonically fierce consciousness that Luo Qi had twisted himself. It was a consciousness of pure attack, forcing a person to open their brain at any cost, which could potentially result in the opponent's temporary paralysis.

Luo Qi saw that Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi's vast Yajian Zhiliu indeed followed his consciousness, and he felt a powerful, resolute consciousness carrying the intent to kill, coldly strangling that segment of his Copy Consciousness.

The feint worked. Luo Qi's main consciousness followed closely behind, and taking advantage of the moment when Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi was sweeping across the battlefield with tiger-like ferocity, he snatched the shallowest wave of Zhao Jiaozhu's consciousness and devoured it with relish.

In a millisecond, Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi understood Luo Qi's intent. He turned to attack Luo Qi, but he still had to spare some focus to reinforce his leader's Consciousness Barrier and repair his damaged Consciousness Space. Luo Qi had already timely forged several layers of barriers around himself; he didn't even have the time to mock Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi, burying his head to greedily devour the traces of the Lotus Burner leader's memories and thoughts from today back to the previous few days.

Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi launched an attack from another dimension in the real world. His strikes were ruthless, but Luo Qi had not retained any of his senses in the real space; in the real world, he was both blind and deaf—he could see nothing and hear nothing. He wanted to complete such a high-difficulty sneak attack, and since his opponents were the boss of the Lotus Burner and a Mind Master, he naturally gave his all, using his entire self. Sure enough, even Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi, in the Consciousness World, could do nothing against him in time measured in thousandths of a second.

Originally, this was a "burn together" tactic; no mature Mind Master would do this, but Luo Qi was not alone. Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi twisted the space around Luo Qi; Luo Qi would be rolled into the twisted space and torn to pieces—in other words, annihilated.

However, this Spell was neutralized before it could finish being chanted; Du Zhengyi stood in front of Luo Qi.

Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi's invisible frost mask cracked. Beneath that crack, he looked at Du Zhengyi in astonishment; the young Battle Mage stood before him, his expression calm, not yielding an inch. He had once burrowed into his brain and once torn his nerves; he believed that even if Du Zhengyi no longer remembered, a warrior of his level would have an extraordinary sensitivity to life-and-death threats, and he should have long ago realized that he was that person.

Yet he still firmly held his position, doing his utmost to cooperate with Luo Qi and protect the fragile life of the Mind Mage. Even though he was not Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi's match at all.

However, just because he guarded the Mind Mage's back, Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi realized he could do nothing to him.

If it were one-on-one, the still-green Luo Qi would be no match for him, and Du Zhengyi would not be a match for a Mind Mage like him either. But Luo Qi had taken the initiative to tie up a portion of his energy; devouring that piece of Luo Qi's "trash" consciousness had cost him quite a bit of energy, and another major portion of his energy was being used to prevent Luo Qi from reading the boss's Pianshu Yajian. His remaining Yajian Zhili was simply insufficient to open the thick barriers in Du Zhengyi's mental world. Du Zhengyi clearly fully trusted the "amateur" techniques of that child Luo Qi, and at such a moment, he actually changed the offensive and defensive posture, thrusting an attack toward him.

Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi hurriedly retreated to dodge; Du Zhengyi's blade flashed past his throat. He took two steps back and suddenly felt rolling heat waves behind him. He turned his head abruptly; the flames behind him extended thin tongues of fire straight toward his legs. He was almost dragged toward the high-heat fire field by the fire dragon wrapping around his ankles.

He was forced to dodge forward, and upon turning back, he saw a rain of arrows like locusts heading straight for his face.

He sighed and gave up his Yajian attack on Luo Qi; there was no possibility for him to avoid Du Zhengyi's attack by relying on agile dodging. He had never seen anyone else who could be born for war like this young Mage; he could combine all types of Magic with combat, and for him, combat was an instinct like breathing.

The only way for him to avoid Du Zhengyi was Teleportation. He could also use Teleportation, though he could not reach the level of perfection that Du Zhengyi had. But the basic requirement of Teleportation was that he had to take all of his brains with him; he could only end his attack on Luo Qi and withdraw his protection of his boss.

Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi appeared behind Luo Qi and Du Zhengyi. He knew that in such a long relative time, Luo Qi had long since finished eating the consciousness he had snatched from Zhao Jiaozhu, and attacking Luo Qi again was meaningless.

Luo Qi also felt his pressure suddenly disappear. The moment the pressure vanished, he darted out and stood before Du Zhengyi's Yajian Diba. Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi's wave of attack arrived right on schedule, and Luo Qi blocked it in front of Du Zhengyi.

Perfect coordination, an attack that could not be attacked.

Perhaps Luo Qi was not his match, but he could not fully unleash himself to slaughter Luo Qi. Because outside the Consciousness World, Du Zhengyi would continuously launch attacks at him; Zhao Jiaozhu could not recover his senses within a second, and no one could guard his back. Besides, no one had ever guarded his back.

Do you have Entanglement?

In relative time, he asked the Slime before him in despair.

The Slime sent him a wave of confusion—what is Entanglement?

He believed that this illiterate Luo Qi might really not know, and was not just being smart.

Do you just rely on primitive tacit understanding?

That's right—the Slime boasted—telepathy.

Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi was silent for a moment, then exited the Consciousness Space.

Luo Qi followed him out of the Consciousness Space. Like finally breaking the surface after a Deep Dive, he took a deep breath and shouted, "Brother!"

Du Zhengyi grabbed his arm firmly. The last thing he saw was Xiaochuyu Dafa Shi's gloomy gaze and Zhao Jiaozhu, who had just regained consciousness and was crawling up from the ground. Then he fell into the Subspace; Du Zhengyi successfully carried him away from the burning valley.