Chapter 199: Ship Ticket

Wan Pei looked at Du Zhengyi/Luo Qi with some reluctance.

"I never said that," he said, stubbornly yet feebly.

"When I was little," Luo Qi said softly, "my Baba told me that the Old Mage knows all the secrets in this world, because two centuries of life is truly very, very long."

Wan Pei watched him in silence, and he was silent too, but suddenly two lines of tears fell from Luo Qi's eyes.

Wan Pei was startled; on one hand, it was truly terrifying that Du Zhengyi would cry, and on the other, the person before him with Du Zhengyi's appearance had suddenly become not at all like Du Zhengyi. This contrast was practically schizophrenia. However, he knew that appearance and soul were not the same person to begin with, so it could hardly be called schizophrenia.

If Luo Qi could have thought to strengthen his mental control at this moment, he probably could have avoided letting Wan Pei see him cry, but the tears came too suddenly, and his world suddenly collapsed. He could also say it was because of caffeine and alcohol, fatigue and drowsiness, and excessive expenditure of mental power; these things combined were already close to throwing his mental world into chaos. But the fact was just that: his world was crumbling.

"You..." the old man was so frightened he didn't know what to say.

Luo Qi could no longer bear the personality traits required to play the role of Du Zhengyi; he had completely lost the professional ethics of a Mind Master. He pushed away his wine glass and slumped onto the table, a gray despair sweeping over him, and his only thought was that he was finished.

"Hey, hey..." the old warrior tapped his head twice from across the table. "You don't know? Du Zhengyi didn't tell you? No one told you? Hey? Am I the first person to tell someone the bad news again? Hey, I... don't, pull yourself together, kid, pull yourself together. What's wrong with you?"

"Why am I so unlucky, it's as if the last person in my family is about to die." Luo Qi surrendered his entire weight to the table, one hand still clutching his wine glass.

"Don't, sigh," Wan Pei said with a sigh. "How can your drinking habits be this bad, kid? Are you the type who cries when they drink too much? Are you throwing a drunken tantrum now?"

"The last person in this world who wants me is about to die," Luo Qi said, weeping bitterly. "I'm going to Jingtu Temple to become a monk tomorrow."

"Which Jingtu Temple? Hey, Mind Archmage, why don't you go to Gushan to become a monk?" Wan Pei said. "At least go somewhere where Mages stay!"

"Why Gushan?" Luo Qi was still able to ask him while crying.

"Because Mind Mages are Great Priests," Wan Pei said. "Sigh, stop crying, let me tell you, stop crying, kid, listen to Grandpa tell you a story. Didn't you just ask me? Don't, Du Zhengyi might not necessarily die. As long as he isn't dead for one day, there is hope for one day. Perhaps Pei Shu can have a change of heart and give him a spot on the ship."

"On the ship?" Luo Qi sobbed, lifting his head; he suddenly felt this phrasing was very familiar. He searched his own mind and suddenly realized it was right here, even in this very seat. When Du Zhengyi brought him here, they met the market administrator Shui Xiansheng, who was also the owner of this place—that Old Mage was truly the oldest mage Luo Qi had ever seen, looking as if he were about to wither and die.

It was also at that time that Du Zhengyi asked him if his body was still alright, and he told Du Zhengyi that he had already obtained a Ship Ticket from Pei Shu and was about to pack his bags and board the ship.

"What does 'on the ship' mean?" Luo Qi asked, bewildered.

"It's a metaphor. It is said that we mages came here by boat from the far end of the world, and only a very few mages have the chance to return their souls to their homeland," the Old Mage said. "Have you never heard this legend?"

"I have," Luo Qi said dryly. "I've also heard a thousand other types of legends, and there are even more human legends, at least ten thousand. Does one have to remember such things just because they've heard them? Bored ancestors working in the fields could probably make up five hundred legends in a single afternoon."

"Sigh, what you say makes sense too," the old man said. "But do you know why there are nine supreme Venerables in our world? Nine, no more and no less. No matter how fierce the internal strife in the Qionglin is, in the end, the number of nine Venerables has never changed."

"I heard it's because there were nine Progenitor Mages in total, and the nine Progenitor Mages created mages in the ancient era, and then created the humans who serve the mages," Luo Qi said. "Isn't this a myth meant to explain the status difference between mages and humans? Humans have so many; the clay figures Nuwa pinched by hand are nobles, and the mud splatters flicked off her whip are slaves."

"You must be able to see the important meaning in myths and legends, the parts that do not change," Wan Pei said. "In the language of ancient mages, Venerable also means priest. The nine Venerables are actually nine Great Priests. However, it is said that the so-called nine is only an imaginary number, because the journey of the nine mages from the end of the world to this world was actually a process of a great war between heaven and earth. Six mages died in the war, dying to protect the spark of the Holy Fire. Three Progenitor Mages came to the new world, sacrificed the ancestors' spark here, and created the new world. To commemorate the past, the Creator chose six mages from his creations to make up the nine."

"Oh," Luo Qi said, "three, so the idea of a trinity in many human myths still has some basis; it's probably another ancient memory."

"That's about it," Wan Pei said. "I heard that after the world became calm, these three Progenitor Mages finally boarded a great ship and left the new world to return to their homeland."

"You mean they still frequently offer salvation?" Luo Qi said, being a bit clever.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I guess you're probably right," Wan Pei said. "It is said that they gave the later Great Priests the gifted power to select the most outstanding mages from among all living beings. They would choose the elite mages most qualified to return from among the mages and grant them the opportunity for rebirth. They would receive brand-new, young bodies, board the great ship, and return to the promised land of their ancestors to live there forever."

"You believe in such a beautiful legend?" Luo Qi said in astonishment; he didn't believe it at all, but his tears had dried somewhat.

"I certainly didn't believe such nonsense before," Wan Pei said.

"But Shui Xiansheng said he got a Ship Ticket?" Luo Qi asked.

"No," Wan Pei said quietly, "because I got a Ship Ticket myself."

Luo Qi was taken aback, looking at Wan Pei in astonishment, "But you decided to be a security guard here for now, working until you're satisfied before leaving?"

"No," Wan Pei said. "I have lost many people in my life. I have already lived for two hundred years; there is a lot of pain that is already painful enough to remember for a hundred years. Do I still have to choose to live in this kind of pain forever?"

Luo Qi didn't know what to say. If it had been a few months ago, he might not have been able to understand Wan Pei, but now he was able to understand him.

"I said to Pei Shu, give this opportunity to Du Zhengyi," Wan Pei said. "But he refused me."