Chapter 26: Wisdom is the Mage's Only Magic Artifact

Waking up was like the near-death experience of drowning; Zhao Zhiyan remembered his lungs being deflated, then air rushing violently into them. He blinked, but it took a long while before he realized his vision had returned, and finally, his hearing.

How refreshing, he thought; he had actually woken up to the sound of a pipa melody. He opened his heavy eyelids, seeing first the expensive grain of the hardwood floor, and in an inconspicuous spot by the window, a line of high-heel imprints shallowly carved into the skin of the wood.

He had been here before. His consciousness grew clearer; he remembered this floor, and he remembered those heel imprints.

He sluggishly lifted his neck, which felt stiff. That young girl from the Guan Family was holding a pipa, her slender fingers plucking at the strings. She wasn't very focused, looking up to say something to the Mage leaning against her chair. It was the smaller Mage, not the larger one; this one was less brutal, yet possessed an unsettling gaze and an erratic personality.

Zhao Zhiyan could hear the sound of them talking, only his brain was booting up slowly and couldn't yet restore language processing capabilities. He didn't know what he said, but he even reached out to point at the pipa strings, and the young girl suddenly flared up, her fingers violently and frantically plucking at the pipa. What could Zhao Zhiyan say? The so-called "large pearls and small pearls falling onto a jade plate" was nothing compared to this; truly, in all the world's martial arts, only speed is unbreakable. No matter how beautiful an instrument might originally be, what the performer emits while showing off is nothing but noise that drives people insane.

Zhao Zhiyan let out a moan and lifted a trembling hand to cover his head.

The two people who were ruining the pipa both froze, turning their heads in unison to stare at him. Damn it, it was as if he hadn't been in this room before, hadn't been slumped in the chair like a pile of mud.

Just as the three of them stared at each other, the fourth person in the room walked in, shuffling his feet, "I just remembered, Luo Qi, did you take your medicine? Am I talking to a wall? Don't make me nag like your mother. I'll remind you one more time: you're anemic, you know? Anemia leads to zinc deficiency, and zinc deficiency leads to stupidity; your IQ of two hundred and fifty will be damaged..."

Zhao Zhiyan coughed drily. Du Zhengyi turned his head to look at him, his expression calm, "You're awake."

What else could Zhao Zhiyan say? He looked in confusion at the Mage who had nearly beaten him to death; at this moment, he was standing before him in a neat shirt and trousers, looking a bit like a white-collar worker in a high-rise, yet upon closer inspection, he had a distinct scholarly air. This person could manipulate rare Killing Magic, yet not a single obvious Crystal Magic Artifact could be seen on him; he looked like a strapped-for-cash Mage. With his hands in his trouser pockets, he looked after the younger one with the impatience of an ordinary big boy.

He was so ordinary, so special, and so contradictory. This made Zhao Zhiyan regret deeply; he should have caught that lion, should have tied it back, should have had someone dissect its brain, take apart the Consciousness Fragment copied from Du Zhengyi inside, chew it up, and savor it carefully. For someone like Du Zhengyi who was destined to step onto a pedestal, even the slightest bit of information related to him could be sold for a sky-high price.

So he had truly been careless; only now did he understand why he had almost been beaten into a wreck.

He was dazed for a moment, not knowing how to speak, when a flash caught the corner of his eye. That fur-ball, that fur-ball of unknown composition, was the first to dart over, relying on its big brother for support as it approached him without fear. Those pitch-black eyes looked over, and deep within the pupils seemed to be an unusual, dark fire. A prickling scratch swept across his spine; he looked into the child's eyes, terrified yet unable to resist, but this time there was nothing unusual. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, and the fur-ball's gaze was drawn to his trembling hand, "Ah, not much exercise?"

Today was truly his day of shame; he couldn't help but roll his eyes at the fur-ball, "I'm freezing, okay? Why don't you try soaking in ice water for a while?"

"Oh." The fur-ball sighed smugly and looked back at its big brother. That bastard genius who controlled the situation had a rare indulgence for this fur-ball of a sidekick who couldn't keep up, completely unbothered.

He sighed, looked down at his soaked trousers, hesitated gloomily for a moment, and finally made a request to the one called Du Zhengyi, "With your ability, a Speed-Drying Spell that makes water molecules vibrate shouldn't be difficult, right?"

That excessively young Mage was settling into a comfortable pear-wood chair, his body posture relaxed as if to indicate he would absolutely not lift another finger. The little girl came over to turn on the heater, and the fur-ball whispered, "You'd better just honestly use human methods to dry off; my brother never wastes energy on these trivial daily matters."

This was reasonable, but also strange. Zhao Zhiyan looked suspiciously at Du Zhengyi, only to run into his rather unfriendly gaze. His heart skipped a beat; he adjusted his facial expression, no longer willing to easily reveal any sense of guessing or probing.

"We can talk when you're feeling more comfortable," Du Zhengyi said. "If you really are an Execution Mage of the Committee, we might have had a bit of a misunderstanding. But in this place, it's always best to be a little more careful."

Misunderstanding? Zhao Zhiyan grinned; he had grievances he couldn't voice, and even a fool knew this was a trap they had set. He glanced at the younger one, who clearly dodged his gaze.

Having suffered a secret loss, Zhao Zhiyan could only say, "I am indeed an Execution Mage." "I know." Du Zhengyi changed to a more comfortable position in the chair opposite him and waved his hand leisurely, "I verified your Crystal when you passed out."

A flash of anger crossed Zhao Zhiyan's heart; he subconsciously stroked the ring on his thumb, a Storage Crystal fashioned like a jade thumb ring; many things his brain couldn't hold were inside it. The irritation of having his privacy exposed made him glare at Du Zhengyi, but Du Zhengyi opposite him remained indifferent. So he understood; this was a counterattack. That young man was petty and sharp-tongued; he had only touched his Psychic Beast, and the other had used overwhelming power to tell him that if he wanted to touch it, he could even have his head pried open.

He swallowed this bitter pill, "I didn't touch your lion; it ran off on its own. You can contact the lab to confirm if it went back by itself. I don't know who you people are, but if we came here for the same thing, I suggest we cooperate openly. After all, sooner or later you'll have to work for the Committee too; being an Execution Mage is like mandatory military service, no one can escape it, so you might as well fulfill your duty early."

Du Zhengyi didn't take his bait. He just looked at him, his face cold, as if he had no interest in his words, which left him greatly embarrassed.

Luo Qi looked back and forth from the side and suddenly coughed, "If we both have the intention of honest cooperation, then you shouldn't—how did you put it—hijack the deal."

"Fine." Zhao Zhiyan sighed, finally willing to let himself appear more mature. "This part is my fault; I sincerely apologize. This misunderstanding did indeed start with me."

Du Zhengyi gave a perfunctory nod to this apology, and Luo Qi asked with little trust, "It looks like you've definitely been to this place more than once or twice, so why haven't you made contact with the Guan Family?"

"I took over this mission halfway through and was still familiarizing myself with the data along the way," Zhao Zhiyan said. He looked at the pale little girl in the room, "So this girl isn't the one who went missing? If the rest of the Guan Family are all ordinary people, what's wrong with no Mage having made contact with them? The supreme guiding principle is that information cannot be revealed to humans; even for this little girl, once the Guan Yushan death case is closed, her memory will be wiped by a Special Execution Mage."

"What?" Guan Xinyue stood up abruptly from her chair, her face flushed red. She looked toward Du Zhengyi and Luo Qi as if seeking help. Du Zhengyi didn't turn back, and she could only see his expressionless profile. As soon as Luo Qi's gaze met hers, he hurriedly looked away.

"This is standard practice, the rules are the rules," Zhao Zhiyan observed their situation and said drily. "Let's talk about business. Although my hijacking the deal annoyed you, I hope you can also understand that from my perspective, your behavior is also very suspicious. The group I had in charge of this matter before investigated for months before vaguely sensing that Jingtu Temple was suspicious; how were you able to head straight for Jingtu Temple?"

Luo Qi didn't speak; it was Du Zhengyi who took up the conversation, "That might be the benefit of being willing to make contact with ordinary humans." The tone was flat, yet pointed.

Zhao Zhiyan's expression was unpleasant; he subconsciously looked at Guan Xinyue. The girl was very quiet, but the gaze she directed at him was so gloomy it made him uncomfortable. He looked away again, trying his best to ignore the existence of humans.

He looked back at Du Zhengyi and retorted, "I'm afraid it's also possible that you are currently executing a secret mission for some Venerable. There are only two of you, and you're stretched thin, so you have no choice but to find a way to take a shortcut."

"Venerable?" Luo Qi blurted out.

"Isn't it?" Zhao Zhiyan didn't realize that Luo Qi also had an information gap; he was still busy restraining his own annoyance. "Besides the supreme Great Mages—those nine Great Mages known as Venerables—who else would have the opportunity to pick student material like your boss? Speaking of which, Du Zhengyi, is this name really your real name? I guess it's a fake name; in what place are you ranked sixth?"

Luo Qi looked at Du Zhengyi in bewilderment, but Du Zhengyi remained as light and breezy as ever. After a long while, he said, "Whatever you say it is, it is."

Luo Qi squeezed out a sentence, "Do you think there's a Du Yi, Du Ding, Du Xia, Du Wang, and Du Zheng somewhere?"

"We can chat about this idle gossip after we finish the real business," Du Zhengyi said. "You're right about one thing: we are short-handed and don't have time to investigate the data you've already mastered. I could have gone to the Committee to pull the Execution Mages' investigation report first before coming here for a field investigation. But I didn't want second-hand material to bias me, so I planned to come here to see for myself before going back to pull the data. I didn't expect to run into you here, which actually saves trouble. I've roughly looked at the data you stored in the Crystal, but I hope you can tell us more. By the way, another piece of advice: some things are safer kept in your own brain."

Zhao Zhiyan bit his lower lip tightly, glaring gloomily at Du Zhengyi. After a long while, he suddenly let out a scoff. He leaned back in his chair and said with feigned ease, "Fine, bring me a cup of hot tea first." He looked at Luo Qi, "I must have seen you somewhere before."