Chapter 30: The Starting Point 2

A time coordinate appeared in the air, with the starting point at year 4821.211, and the landmark event being the death of Lu Jinfeng.

"4821.211?" Guan Xinyue said in surprise, "What time is this?"

"This is our way of reckoning years," Luo Qi said. "It means the 211th day in the 4821st year after the founding of our world."

"Oh," Guan Xinyue said. "Our history is five thousand years long!"

"Then why didn't you use the five-thousand range to represent the year?" Luo Qi looked at her slyly.

She was just about to explain when she suddenly realized, "You had a mature civilization four thousand years ago?"

"Four thousand years ago, we were your gods," Luo Qi said with a smile. "Many human legends depict our history, our wars, our blessings—think of Cangjie, think of Prometheus."

Guan Xinyue opened her mouth in astonishment.

"Four thousand years ago was a prosperous period for Magic civilization, though there's nothing to be proud of, because we haven't changed since then—at least not as much as humans have. Humans are about to land on Mars, while we, in the past, present, and future, are likely stuck on Earth."

"Then what about further back?" Guan Xinyue asked curiously. "Four thousand years ago? Don't you have your own legends? Don't you have your own gods?"

"Our gods are also your gods; the earliest civilizations all share the same origin. We are also human, aren't we? In our earliest records, there is also a Great Flood," Luo Qi said. He modified the coordinate, extending it forward by ten years. Many events involving the Guan and Lu families appeared on the coordinate, but they had no intersection at all.

Luo Qi began to read intently and rapidly, no longer chatting. One after another, fuzzy cloud clusters unfolded before him; he adjusted their positions, constantly shrinking and expanding new information clouds. Guan Xinyue also stopped talking, watching the light mist of information flicker in the air, dazzled. Luo Qi's slender fingers moved nimbly to guide them, looking more and more like a magician.

"This is the rough time coordinate." Luo Qi suddenly waved his hand, and a group of characters flew down like little birds onto a branch, perching on a golden coordinate line, with a few points being particularly conspicuous. "4821.211, Lu Jinfeng was killed. 4821.275, Guan Ya passed away from illness. 4823.42, Lu Chengzhi died in a gas explosion. 4823.65, Guan Yushan passed away, and Lu Xinchen went missing at about the same time. It is now early 4824."

"This is indeed clearer than Zhao Zhiyan's description," Guan Xinyue said. "So Gugu and Lu Jinfeng died in the same year, and the time of their deaths was only two months apart."

"Yes," Luo Qi said. He leaned back into his chair, watching the information floating lightly in the air, like breathing, as if some secret were truly about to be spilled.

"Could there really be some connection?" Guan Xinyue tentatively took two steps forward, reached out her finger, and gently traced the golden link between the two information clouds floating behind the coordinate. But for now, the two ends of this link were only connected in time. "Do Mages die so easily?"

"No," Luo Qi said. "We generally live for a very long time."

After a moment, he added in a low voice, "And it is very difficult to die by accident."

He reached out and once again pulled up the birth data of Guan Ya; the information poured before him like water. "Calculator, Scholar, a scholar among Mages," he muttered. "No bad habits, quiet, focused. No intersection with the dregs among Mages."

He abandoned Guan Ya's information cloud and grabbed Guan Yushan's information cloud once more. Even with much information obscured, Guan Yushan's cloud cluster remained very dense. "Starting with Guan Ya, ending with Guan Yushan and Lu Xinchen. Lu Xinchen is just a child; Guan Yushan is the most important. The focus must be Guan Yushan. Xinyue, if it were you, if you wanted to kill a Great Mage, what would you do? Don't think about your grandfather; if... if you wanted to kill Du Zhengyi, what would you do?"

"Kill him?" Guan Xinyue rolled her eyes at him. "I wouldn't even dare to think about it. And he is different from my grandfather; he has no bad habits and never talks about his private life. I know nothing about him. I don't even know if he counts as your friend or if he cares about you. If you were friends, I might try to kidnap you first—you look easier to handle. Then I would use you to threaten him—if you don't commit suicide, I'll kill your friend!"

Luo Qi laughed, "You've been watching too many TV dramas."

Guan Xinyue snorted, "Indeed. 'Drawing a sword to help a friend'—that's a plot even kids don't believe in anymore."

"Yeah," Luo Qi said, falling into thought, muttering, "That's impossible, and it's too easy to be counterproductive. One wrong move and you'd be caught and killed by a Great Mage instead."

"What did you think of?" Guan Xinyue scrutinized Luo Qi's expression. "Tell me."

"You said you don't understand Du Zhengyi, so you can't find his weak spot to prescribe the right medicine?" Luo Qi said thoughtfully.

"Mm," Guan Xinyue said. "That's it."

"But if you understand a powerful person and know what they cherish, you can find an opportunity by destroying their emotions." Luo Qi's eyes lit up. "To kill Guan Yushan, first create a miserable family problem, kill his only daughter through such sordid means, and thereby destroy his spirit—that is indeed a path. Truly vicious. Would someone really go to the extent of killing several people and casting such a long line to lay out a plan?"

Guan Xinyue opened her mouth in shock, Luo Qi's words making her hands tremble slightly. "After Gugu died, Grandfather started drinking heavily. He was a bit fond of the cup before, but Gugu always watched him and wouldn't let him drink too much. Then... my sister..." Guan Xinyue suddenly bit her lip. Luo Qi looked at her, vaguely guessing the part she hadn't said. People are always like this, whether they are humans or Mage humans; they are full of weaknesses and are adept at hurting each other.

Guan Xinyue took a deep breath and said, "My grandfather always said that my Gufu killed my Gugu, but my sister refused to believe it, and she argued with my grandfather. When Gufu died, my sister refused to believe it had nothing to do with my grandfather. She kept saying that my grandfather was a Great Mage who could easily kill others. She ran away from home for a while back then, but she just came to my house to live with me. She said... she said with her own mouth that she hated my grandfather. My grandfather actually had a bit of a violent temper; after Gugu died, he became even more irritable than most people could tolerate. Sometimes I hated him a little too. But I... I didn't really hate him. He and my sister argued so fiercely that neither of them could calm down. In the two months before he passed away, he drank until he was unconscious every night. My sister wouldn't let him drink, and one time, while trying to grab the bottle, he accidentally injured my sister."

Guan Xinyue shook her head in pain and said, "But my dad said he was already suffering from alcohol poisoning by then, and withdrawal symptoms appeared when he didn't drink. But my sister couldn't forgive him, and he couldn't quite forgive himself either. By the way, I said he was delirious at that time and started talking nonsense incessantly. I wasn't completely lying about that; he seemed to always feel that there were many people around him, and he kept talking to them, sometimes apologizing to them. My sister said he had gone completely insane... Anyway, he passed away not long after, and my sister... her whereabouts are unknown."

"There is still a long way from alcohol poisoning to death caused by alcohol poisoning," Luo Qi said softly.

Guan Xinyue nodded, "My dad said the same thing."

Luo Qi stayed quietly with her for a while, but soon his mind began to turn, "I'll try again to see if there is any intersection between the lives of Lu Jinfeng and Guan Yushan."

However, there was still nothing. Luo Qi looked at the data in the air in disappointment, while clearly knowing in his heart that this was the inevitable result; the Execution Mages must have compared them long ago.

But he still refused to give up, staring at the data and pondering. If this string of murders was pushed by the same hand, killing Lu Jinfeng was very straightforward, not as complex as the subsequent series of actions. The murderer who killed Lu Jinfeng was still serving time in prison, and the Execution Mages had already investigated him. But by the stage of Guan Ya, Lu Chengzhi, and Guan Yushan, the murderer had not truly appeared; the mastermind's methods had become more sophisticated, and their actions more meticulous, even the scapegoats had been wiped out. Regardless of whether the mistress was the murderer, she was a key link, and her disappearance left the Execution Mages with no way to go further.

Luo Qi suddenly realized that he might have really found something. He straightened his back and began to carefully track the cloud cluster that had sprouted outward from Lu Jinfeng—that was the detailed information about the murderer who killed him.

Luo Qi quickly browsed the human's life; it was just an ordinary life full of frustrations, as everyone's is. He adjusted the angle of the information presentation, looking for the name of the Execution Mage who investigated him. Following these names, he opened the lives of these Mages; they were all Second-level Executive Mages, and there were no problems with them either. He browsed their investigation reports, and finally, his attention stopped on a report submitted by a Mage requesting Mind Detection on the murderer. The approval stamped on the back of the report was: Approved, dispatch immediately.

He immediately began to search for the Mage who had been dispatched, the one who could read another person's brain like an open book. But there was nothing more. Luo Qi knew that Telepathic Mages were a taboo; they had a lot of dirty work to do and were highly suspected, so although Telepathic Mages were registered, they often worked anonymously. The Committee protected the privacy of Telepaths from being known by the outside world, but conversely, this was also a tool of control.

Luo Qi was not trapped by this door; he bypassed it almost immediately and began searching for the return report from that Mind Master. He rummaged through the chaotic data cloud for a while before finding a concisely written report, stating that the murderer's brain had not been interfered with by external forces. The report was also unsigned, but Luo Qi found a time stamp.

"4821.219," Luo Qi said. He did a conversion, "August 7, 2014. Do you have any impression of this day?"

"Yes," Guan Xinyue nodded gloomily.

"What?" Luo Qi could hardly believe his luck. "What made you remember such a day from years ago?"

"Because it was my birthday," Guan Xinyue said. "My grandfather didn't know where he had gone and didn't come back all day. It was agreed that he would take me to Disney. Of course, I couldn't forget something like that even if I wanted to."

"Oh," Luo Qi sighed and threw himself back into the depths of the chair, unable to stop the excitement in his heart. "In that case, I might know why your grandfather couldn't accompany you on your birthday. And perhaps, I have also found the starting point of everything."