Chapter 237: Prying Open the Puzzle

Luo Qi was dragged by Du Zhengyi all the way from the rooftops to the edge of the town; he finally understood the benefits of the narrow alleys of Jiangnan, and with one breath, he rushed across and leaped directly onto the roof opposite the alley.

"Wait a moment," Luo Qi suddenly called out. In the thick fog, he could only see the silhouette of Du Zhengyi. Du Zhengyi stopped immediately. They were standing on a roof where no one lived; the roof tiles were a bit slippery, and it was truly not easy to maintain one's balance here.

"Have we reached the Critical Point?" Du Zhengyi asked with understanding. They had already walked half a circle around the outermost perimeter of the town. "As expected, this is not the direction from which the fog is attacking."

"It's too cunning," Luo Qi said.

"They might be two different groups altogether," Du Zhengyi said sagely. "Under normal circumstances, no one would let a Mind Mage act alone; they are, after all, a scarce resource."

A scarce resource. Luo Qi pondered briefly: if it were under normal circumstances, could he, because he was a 'panda', be paired with a scarce resource like Du Zhengyi to complete the task?

Above their heads, the rumbling of thunder faintly appeared. The sound seemed like a mere hallucination, yet the surging aura of the Thunderstorm in the air felt all the more real. Luo Qi knew he was not relying on surface consciousness to sense it either. The next round of attacks was about to arrive. Luo Qi looked up. "I might be a little slower at intercepting this time."

"No problem," Du Zhengyi said easily. "Mahjong can also hold them off for a while."

Luo Qi grabbed Du Zhengyi's wrist and squeezed it with a bit of force, signaling to Du Zhengyi that he understood. Almost at the same time, he escaped into the complete Consciousness Space. The Ancient Town vanished, the fog dissipated, and the moon above and this universe ceased to exist. Luo Qi jumped into the space composed entirely of consciousness; he ignored those simple, restless consciousnesses and searched for the complex consciousnesses of true Mages.

Now, those complex, high-level consciousnesses also appeared in his field of vision, no longer looking entirely like a giant behemoth as they had just a moment ago. Thousands of departed souls were frantically analyzing the aggregate composed of the Magic Array with him, breaking down every possible individual consciousness and analyzing the magical structure they used to form the array.

Luo Qi had already thought of where the turning point lay. To analyze such a magical structure, he had to have a reference object that completely understood the structure, just as if one were to find a puzzle piece with a special color in a pile of puzzle pieces.

Luo Qi knew how to find that puzzle piece. Among these Consciousness Mages, there was one Mage he had been familiar with since he was born. Although what he was familiar with before might only have been his voice and his appearance, at that time he was also a Mind Mage, even if he was a sealed Mind Mage. Yet in his deep Consciousness Space, he had once, in an unconscious state, glimpsed the projection of his consciousness. No Telepath would completely lose the ability to sense; even under heavy shackles, telepathy would still sprout unconsciously, just like breathing.

That was why he possessed countless bizarre dreams; he had inadvertently seen the shadows of many people's consciousnesses. What Du Zhengyi said when they first met was right: his lack of focus was because he could see countless fleeting lights and shadows, even if his brain was locked at that time and he was powerless to identify or react to what he saw. It was as if a person had a part of their cognitive ability deleted; even if they clearly saw a bright red apple, their brain could not identify it, nor could they know that it was a ripe, fragrant apple that could be bitten into.

When he touched a Crystal capable of carrying consciousness, the effect of this influence would reach its peak, just like the series of reactions that occurred after he touched that Crystal of the Guan Family.

Just like how he had played with his father's Crystal countless times; in his childhood, he treated that thing like a glass marble, flicking it back and forth. Just like how he had touched his father countless times during their many embraces and scuffles, and just like how he had seen the fragments of consciousness overflowing from his father's dreams countless times.

In the past, he might not have been able to extract this information from his deep consciousness, but when he stood together with thousands of souls, when he possessed thousands of clever brains at the same time, he could dig this information out and gather it together. This work had been done intermittently since he first returned to the Ancient Town, and now he was able to obtain a roughly acceptable summary.

He was already able to distinguish his father's shadow from the vast shadow of the Magic Array; he was already able to pry his father off that Pyramid. Once one puzzle piece was removed, the Magic Array would no longer be able to maintain its perfect, balanced structure.