Chapter 278: Old God

One step, the Alien Queen's foot landed on the smooth stone floor as if performing a strange dance. She slowly circled half a turn around the Old Mage, the anger in her heart long since replaced by deep, calculated contemplation. She was like someone in a museum circling an exhibit in a central display case, observing incessantly, pondering slowly, with some plan brewing in her deep Yajian. Her movements were gentle, and because her body was lighter, there was even a touch of elegance to them. Despite being at a disadvantage, she possessed a distinct sense of confidence.

Luo Qi did not know if he admired the Queen a little; if she could grow to look like a human, Luo Qi might truly fall in love with her. The Old Mage's body was already so old it was hunched, and the Alien Queen appeared even taller than him. She elegantly tilted her head, and Luo Qi had already grasped the words (thoughts) she was about to speak.

"Similar creatures always have similar thoughts. Yet the voice of every thought is unique," the Queen's thought said.

Yes. Luo Qi silently affirmed this to her, and secretly added—just as a sound has a voiceprint, just like palm prints, just like an iris. Luo Qi could distinguish the thoughts of many people; he was most familiar with Du Zhengyi's thoughts, just as he was familiar with the sound of his voice.

"I can feel your characteristics." The Queen reached out, tracing a line through the air above the old man's head. Her armored hand clenched into a fist, and her emotions suddenly surged; her Yajian was roaring. "You are him! Even though you have changed, I can still recognize you."

Luo Qi shuddered. This moment was like someone pulling a saw blade, or scraping an iron pot with an iron spoon; Luo Qi's hair stood on end instinctively.

He hadn't thought much just now, but the Queen had listened to the Old Mage's muttering more carefully than he had. Just as the Old Mage said, the body was not important; the body was merely a jade spring vase, and he was just old wine poured into a new bottle. The soul had not yet aged, but the body would decay; the body was nothing more than a bottleneck for "existence."

Luo Qi trembled. The Queen was even smarter than he had imagined. He had been blinded by appearances; all existence was not necessarily the existence he thought it to be. The human body is a vessel for the soul, so why is the body of an Alien not a vessel for the soul? What, in the end, is the difference between a human body and an Alien body?

Regarding this principle, others might have thousands of sighs to express, or countless papers to debate, but for him, Luo Qi, a Telepath, was there anything he could not understand? When leaving the body, he could be a Slime, could he not? A thought is the thought itself. A Slime is Luo Qi, a human Mage is also Luo Qi; is it not possible for an Alien to become Luo Qi?

Or to put it the other way around, the difference lies only in whether Luo Qi's thought is in a Slime's body, a human Mage's body, or an Alien's body. He was stunned by this thought.

This subversive discovery had another important significance for Luo Qi. It meant that the gods had always been here.

He might have even seen one; he was almost trembling, he must have seen one. Some said there might be nine Progenitor Mages; he suddenly realized now that there must be nine, because there had always been nine Venerables.

But there was a problem behind this.

"You have become weak." The Alien Queen laughed, a trace of sinister joy flashing through her thoughts.

The Old Mage looked at her wearily. "And you are still so healthy, even if you die, you will be remembered. Are you proud of this? Heh, your special biological mode has given us much inspiration. However, the Progenitor Mage is no longer here, and I am not him."

Luo Qi instinctively felt that he was not lying, but this sentence was also incomparably heavy and complex.