Chapter 216: Police

After resting for a few days, and after Du Zhengyi paid off Luo Qi's debts and compensation to the Black Market through an intermediary, they finally set off to return to the Ancient Town.

Majiang insisted throughout that they should return to the Ancient Town as soon as possible, as the ancient Mind Mage Society possessed better protection and alert capabilities. Du Zhengyi had long since fallen into a situation where he was surrounded by enemies on all sides; if it were entirely up to Majiang's wishes, it would be best if Du Zhengyi could take his pet Luo Qi, and Luo Qi could take his pet Ruiqi, and all of them disappear into some sparsely populated region. If Majiang could choose this region, then the Tibetan antelope's activity area would be just fine.

Luo Qi had never been very willing to go back; he simply didn't know which matter troubled him more. He repeatedly emphasized to the two adults, Majiang and Du Zhengyi, that the High-Energy Crystal must have a massive purpose, and Majiang would repeat the same old circular logic to him for the nth time, telling him that Du Zhengyi had already told him that Kongsang Mountain was not in Ganzhou.

Then he would start thinking about Lu Xinchen, a Mind Mage who had likely already registered with the Old Soul in the Storage Crystal; he must have had some special value in the hands of the Lotus Burner, and the fact that the clownfish could kill the Old Soul must have had something to do with his contact with Lu Xinchen. The things Du Zhengyi saw and heard in the Illusion Trap beneath Guan Jia Jing must also have had a reason. All the clues to the mystery seemed to have been laid out before him, yet he still couldn't guess the key to it all.

If Pei Shu had really left Gushan early to return to Qionglin, what kind of conflict would he have with Fan Shi? Would Wen Lin warn them in advance? He was like an ant on a hot pan, and Guan Xinyue's temper was even worse than his; she seemed to have started to harbor hostility toward all Mages. In their small group of four, this infighting made everyone very uncomfortable. They were like a successful enactment of a future where Mages and humans simply could not sit down and negotiate.

Generally speaking, Luo Qi would firmly stand on the side of humans in such a situation; Luo Qi had never thought about living in the world of Mages. Human games, movies, music, and literature—these beautiful parts of humanity were more attractive to Luo Qi than Magic. However, there is always a "however," and there is always a major premise. Under the major premise that Du Zhengyi was destined to leave this world early, everything was different. This world was veiled in the gray veil of the Goddess of Death before Luo Qi's eyes. He anxiously endured Guan Xinyue's provocations, and when Guan Xinyue thought he was an ally of humanity and wanted to talk to him about those things, he couldn't listen at all.

When Guan Xinyue talked to him for the nth time about the inequality between humans and Mages, she started talking about the Execution Mages and Battle Mages of the Mages. Although they also performed the duty of protecting humans and prevented Mages from wantonly killing the innocent, in essence, it was no different from humans establishing nature reserves and banning hunting. It was even worse than that; humans didn't even count as wild animals, they were completely just livestock raised by Mages, just pigs, cows, and sheep.

Luo Qi suddenly couldn't help it anymore, "I don't care at all about how humans and Mages are doing, okay? Didn't you guys live just fine without knowing that Mages are like this? I don't know what fairness is. If you know what a fair world looks like, come tell me after you see it with your own eyes!"

Guan Xinyue looked at Luo Qi in shock, her eyes full of anger and hurt, and Luo Qi was scolded by Majiang again. The three of them formed a distorted circular structure, with Du Zhengyi calmly keeping himself out of it.

The few days they spent together were passed like this. By the day they sat in a small car, trapped in a tin can, this distorted structure simply made Luo Qi suffocate.

The long-distance car journey lasted two days. Du Zhengyi evenly divided the trip into two days without rushing, and they stopped at a hotel very early on the first night to rest. Luo Qi suspected this was because Du Zhengyi actually couldn't stand it either, unable to be trapped in a tin can with them for too long under these circumstances.

At noon on the second day of the trip, they finally drove out of the last city and saw the Ancient Town from afar. Luo Qi, sitting in the front passenger seat, suddenly reached out and grabbed Du Zhengyi's forearm. "Brother, don't drive straight over." "What do you feel?" Du Zhengyi asked. Due to the terrain, they needed to go up one more slope before they could see the river surrounding the Ancient Town; Du Zhengyi only saw the empty, narrow national highway ahead.

"It's not a feeling," Luo Qi said. "I saw a blue and red light flash." "What do you mean?" Majiang looked up from his pad and peered out as well.

"What else could it be?" Guan Xinyue rolled her eyes. "I saw the lights of a police car too."

Majiang gave an "ah" of realization. What could he say? He could only say that he and Du Zhengyi were unfamiliar with human life and were not that sensitive to the various signals that permeated it.

"Why would a police car come?" Majiang then asked in surprise. "In a place like this with no one around, is there anything that needs the police?"

"Criminals like to find empty fields to trade; maybe there was some kind of shootout here last night," Guan Xinyue said listlessly, deliberately exaggerating.

"How could that be?" Majiang said, glancing at Guan Xinyue as if to see if she was serious. "Didn't I tell you? This is the location of the ancient Mind Mage Society. It was filled with Hallucinogenic Crystals during the renovation. Humans who haven't been authorized will feel very afraid when they walk here and will develop the urge to leave."

"Oh, I forgot," Guan Xinyue said. "I forgot this is a famous ghost town."

"Well, should we keep approaching?" Du Zhengyi asked Luo Qi. Now, Luo Qi had practically become the human ethologist among them. If Luo Qi weren't a bit nervous and in a bad mood lately, he would have realized that Du Zhengyi was actually asking for his guidance.

"Drive over," Luo Qi said, then quickly added, "but slower. Don't let the police think we have hostile intent. If the police are handling a case, we'll just go close and take a look. If the police ask, we'll say we're out on a road trip and heard there was an ancient town here, so we drove over to take a look. This is very reasonable, but it's best if I do the talking. If necessary, I can perform psychological intervention on the police."

"Okay," Du Zhengyi said. He maintained a speed within the composite speed limit and drove up the gentle slope, immediately seeing four cars parked by the river, two of which were police cars, and the other two had no obvious markings. Quite a few people were standing by the riverbank; some were wearing police uniforms and had set up a cordon along the river. Some people were standing in the river, and people on the bank were pointing into the water, seemingly directing the work.

"Get closer, I'll go down and take a look," Luo Qi said.