Chapter 228: Permissions

Everything just passed like that; it was only when Luo Qi sprinted downstairs that he realized the clownfish had truly let him go. The moment he stepped out of the building, flames burst out into the corridor outside the morgue. A fire truck wailed as it approached a street away. Luo Qi walked out the front door, turned a corner into a secluded alley, and vanished into the darkness.

It was nearing midnight. Luo Qi wiped his face and looked at the bloodstains on his hands, knowing he had had another nosebleed, and hurriedly raised his hand to wipe away the traces from his face. He guessed he would be sore all over tomorrow, half from the beating he'd taken and half from overexertion.

At a nearby gas station, Luo Qi forced a cool guy riding a noisy motorcycle to give the bike to him. He gave it too much throttle on the first go, and the motorcycle shot forward violently, nearly throwing him off. Fortunately, he was a Mage and still possessed a Mage's reaction speed; at the very last second, he gripped the motorcycle tightly, stabilized his balance, and with his heart racing, barely managed to accelerate again.

After driving through two streets, he had completely adapted to the motorcycle's speed. He gradually mastered the characteristics of its acceleration and began to feel the thrill of riding. The night wind blew fiercely against his face; in the gale, he became increasingly clear-headed and increasingly agitated, though he couldn't tell if that agitation was actually anger. Everything was already ruined to the core anyway, they were about to die, Du Zhengyi was about to die—what else could this world possibly have left for him?

The motorcycle sped at its top velocity, leaving a string of engine-roaring noise in the human neighborhood and summoning equally massive echoes on the empty, silent streets. Luo Qi was very satisfied with this deafening noise; human machinery could scream out the insanity he could not.

His face was numbed by the night wind. He used the fastest speed possible, but he did not know if his speed would be timely enough for Du Zhengyi.

Luo Qi rode the motorcycle straight onto the small bridge by the river and sped into the Ancient Town. The tranquil Ancient Town was like a dead city with no inhabitants. But Luo Qi knew the Ancient Town was merely asleep; omnipresent souls slumbered on the window lattices of the Ancient Town, in the mica on the screens, and in the pearls and jade inlaid beside the tables.

The Ancient Town was surrounded by water on all four sides and had four rows of houses in total. The central axis was a river spanned by three small bridges, so there were only two alleys in the town. Luo Qi rode the motorcycle, thumping through both streets and across the three small bridges, letting the roar of the motorcycle resound through the deathly silent Ancient Town. The Ancient Town also awakened as the motorcycle wheels crushed over it; wherever Luo Qi went, countless souls responded to his summons.

For a moment, Luo Qi imagined that hundreds of years ago, when this place was still full of people and the Society was bustling with activity, whether the masters here—the Mages of the Society—had also once ridden horses through every alley here, summoning every soul and letting those souls who had been whispering dream-talk all along wake up.

Immediately, souls responded to his thoughts. Several souls diligently transmitted a scene into his mind: an ancient Mage wearing wide-sleeved robes, a black hood on his head, riding a pitch-black, tall horse. Every brick and stone of the Ancient Town was echoing with the sound of his horse's hooves. His right hand held a long sword, the pearls and jade on the hilt dazzlingly brilliant; that was the true source of power for the Zhanshe Changjian. Countless souls lurking in the Ancient Town stirred restlessly, waiting for their master's summons.

The Old Mage raised his right hand, holding the sword-staff high, and chanted a string of the highest Secret Language. The entire Mage town, all the souls residing here, were trembling as they submitted to him.

Luo Qi saw clearly and heard the entire Secret Language. He chanted it aloud, and one after another, syllables that a human tongue could not produce spilled from his mouth. A giant gate in the void of the Ancient Town opened in response.

For safety reasons, Majiang had never told Luo Qi the opening Secret Language here, but in these past few days, Luo Qi had figured out a principle: all worlds had their own rules, and the Mage World and the human world had been vastly different since the beginning of their existence. Humans constantly created the world, while the Mage World was like an inversion of cause and effect in the human world; the world had already existed before Mages were born. Humans constantly moved toward prosperity, constantly perfecting this world, like moving from an empty set to a union set, but Mages were the exact opposite. Thus, the Mage World was constantly shrinking; the Mage World relied on the Secret Language to lock down one permission after another, closing off one part after another.

If a Mage could master the Secret Language, they could open the parts of this world that had been closed and use the power that had fallen asleep. If this was Magic, then the Secret Language was the Magic Spell of human legend. But above all Secret Languages, there was another layer of Secret Language with higher priority, just as Du Zhengyi did not need a Secret Language to open countless secret doors, much like how humans could use fingerprints to replace keys and passwords. Luo Qi also possessed his own layer of hidden permission; that permission came from power and the Yajian talent he had inherited.

The Secret Language he could not obtain, he could start with the Spell used to drive the souls; he could let the submissive souls show him the scenes of the past.

The Secret Language capable of powerfully driving souls was written on the arm of the dead girl. It was not all the information on the girl's arm, but this Spell gave Luo Qi an epiphany.

Majiang's permission came from Pei Shu, but his ability was slightly insufficient, and he had not opened all the hidden power of the entire Ancient Town. Luo Qi chanted the Secret Language incessantly, awakening all the souls here, and the control permission of the Ancient Town shifted to Luo Qi's hands; he had obtained the highest permission.

The motorcycle stopped at the gate of the courtyard where they were staying. Luo Qi got off the motorcycle and ran into the courtyard. The lights in the house turned on, and Du Zhengyi appeared at the window first. Luo Qi let out a sigh of relief the moment he saw his shadow; this person now felt so familiar to him.

This familiar, warm person stood at the window looking at him and took a deep breath. "Luo Qi, are you fucking looking to die? If I don't beat you up today, I'd be doing a disservice to our friendship."

"I got hit by someone!" Luo Qi said immediately, looking up. He had originally intended to say something cool about the imminent emergency, but seeing Du Zhengyi's stern, cold glare, he subconsciously took the route of the underdog. "My chest... it's all bruised from being kicked."

Du Zhengyi paused for a moment and asked him loudly in the dark, "Who the fuck kicked you?"

Majiang ran upstairs in one breath and said to Du Zhengyi, "Are you crazy? Can you distinguish between what's urgent and what's not? Has your brain been infected by Luo Qi too? Can't you feel the changes here? Luo Qi has awakened this place; he has taken away my control."