Chapter 345: Shenmiao (2)

Luo Qi looked up, watching the dozen or so towering snow-capped mountains in the distance, which set off the crimson palace before him as if this were the center of the world. The wind-eroded pillars seemed to have endured endless ages, standing tall against the mountain mass, or perhaps they had emerged from the mountain itself, the only corner of another lost world revealed to view.

The wind blew from somewhere unknown, but Luo Qi could hear it swirling high and low in the space deep within the hall, like the sharp singing of a Ghost. Other than that, there was only silence here; the race that had created this glory had long since departed, and their favored symbols were carved all around the central archway. It was like a Seal created by language, the words transformed into graceful lines linked together, like vines crawling over the arch.

"I know what place this is," Zhou Quan said, also looking at those characters.

"I don't recognize all the ancient language," Luo Qi said.

"I don't recognize many either," Zhou Quan said, "but I've thought of what place this is. Have you ever heard that Highland Mages all live near a Shenmiao? They walk into the snow-capped mountains periodically to cultivate inside the Shenmiao."

"You think this is it?" Luo Qi asked. "So close to home?"

"If this isn't a Shenmiao, where else do you think it could be?" Zhou Quan countered.

"Then is there actually a Curse inside the Shenmiao?"

"Uh..." Zhou Quan hesitated for a moment, and just as he was about to say something, Luo Qi's eyes suddenly widened; he knew that when out and about, one must pay extra attention to the reactions of a Mind Mage, and he was so startled that he immediately swallowed the rest of his words.

"I hear someone talking," Luo Qi said. He lowered his head, concentrating on sensing that Yajian; now that he was closer, he found that the Yajian was becoming increasingly ethereal. This feeling was like eavesdropping on someone whispering—he clearly heard the sound, as if every word and sentence were right in his ear, yet he couldn't hear each syllable clearly, nor could he hear what they were actually saying.

Zhou Quan didn't dare to breathe, focusing all his attention on every move Luo Qi made. If Luo Qi said "bad" at this moment, he was already prepared to turn tail and run.

Luo Qi remained motionless, then suddenly, he looked up, and then sat down on the ground with a thud.

"What? Buddy? Looking at your posture, are you planning to do some Meditation here?" Zhou Quan said.

"I still need to think; standing is too tiring," Luo Qi said, resting his elbows on his thighs and his head in his hands. He tilted his head to examine the arched entrance. "Perhaps this is just a Public Post Station. Can you send a message home?"

"I can't. There is no energy here at all, and I don't feel that power that connects to other Public Post Stations," Zhou Quan said.

"Maybe it's offline because of a power outage," Luo Qi said.

"This can't be a Public Post Station, right?" Zhou Quan said. "Though what you said is also possible; after all, we don't even know what a Public Post Station really is."

"Brother Quan, you are actually always able to understand what I'm saying, even my brother doesn't know what I'm talking about," Luo Qi turned his head to look at him and said.

"Du Zhengyi is a very busy man; where would we have so much time to waste on human entertainment projects?" Zhou Quan said indifferently.

Luo Qi didn't say anything more; everything Zhou Quan said was the absolute truth. Luo Qi sat under the ancient arch for at least half an hour, his deep-in-thought appearance looking a bit like an ascetic monk from Kathmandu, though in between he took out a bean to eat and drank some water.

Zhou Quan waited the whole time, and being bored, he started a fire next to them, took the effort to make a tent, and even added "zq" graffiti to the tent. In this regard, Luo Qi had to say he was the most patient Mage he had ever seen, patient to the point of being almost heartless. If Luo Qi had kept sitting there, he might have accompanied him until the end of time, bored enough to replicate a full set of household items and then replicate an equal-scale red stone arch on the opposite side.

"I finally translated the text on the arch," Luo Qi said, turning back to him with some excitement forty minutes later.

Zhou Quan was stunned for a moment, "Weren't you fighting with the Yajian here?"

Luo Qi was also startled, "You think I can fight while eating?"

"Oh, that's not important," Zhou Quan readily brushed past all those minor details. "But how did you translate the ancient language just by sitting there? Didn't you say you didn't recognize it?"

"That's also not important," Luo Qi said. He licked his lips; he had called upon several Ghosts skilled in this area to help him look up information, but Zhou Quan didn't need to know about these things. "Are you interested in what is written on it?"

"I am interested! If it says 'No Entry,' then we'd better hurry back; I'm afraid there's a Curse ahead," Zhou Quan said with a straight face, though it wasn't entirely a joke—the basic meaning was serious.

Luo Qi examined Zhou Quan, gave him a thumbs up, and continued, "It says—'Fly here for peace, the Flame Demon is far across the mountains.' I translated it roughly; I'm not good at translation."

"Does it mean... this is a dwarf mining factory?" Zhou Quan paused and asked with a complex expression.

Luo Qi turned back and stared at the arch for a while longer before saying, "No, I don't think so."

"Of course not! So what does it actually mean?" Zhou Quan finally became a bit restless. "Most importantly, let's get to the point: does this mean we can enter or we cannot enter?"

"I have a slightly different view on this sentence." Luo Qi was still sitting on the ground, his hands pressed on his thighs as if confronting an invisible demon. "I think this sentence was translated too poetically. We Mages are pragmatic; if we speak from a pragmatic perspective, we wouldn't write such poetic things on a door."

"Hmm, right," Zhou Quan agreed with him. "'No Entry' and 'Safety Passage' are more suited to our style."

"So I think the meaning of these two sentences is actually..." Luo Qi took a deep breath and finally said it, "In other words, it's—'Flight docking point, no smoking.'"

Zhou Quan looked up to examine the top with a complex expression. Just as Luo Qi was thinking about what words to use to continue persuading him, Zhou Quan gave him a thumbs up, "I think you're right!"

"I don't even have to argue with you?" Luo Qi was a bit surprised.

"No, no, in principle, Mages in the ancient era could fly; there is no great dispute about this nowadays. What you said makes a lot of sense, why would I argue with you?" Zhou Quan said nonchalantly. "So this place should be safe? But if it really is such a place, then its functionality is greater than its symbolic meaning. It's not a Shenmiao at all; if the Highland Mages take this as a Shenmiao, then they are complete fools."

"What does that have to do with us? Why are you suddenly angry?" Luo Qi said in surprise, standing up from the ground. "We didn't come here to find a Shenmiao, nor are we here to explore; didn't we just happen upon this place?"

"I'm just a bit disappointed; I thought I would be able to see some special ancient ruins," Zhou Quan said. "Didn't you feel a Yajian here?"

"I did feel it," Luo Qi said. "But the distance standing here isn't close enough; I have to go inside and get closer to truly make contact."

"Did you really just spend several dozen minutes translating that line of text?" Zhou Quan suddenly became a bit restless again.

Luo Qi nodded. "From an archaeological perspective, this is a special ancient ruin!"

"Then what if it's filled with text inside? Are you going to translate it step by step?" Zhou Quan asked.

"Then that proves this place is very safe. Later, I'll pull a group of people over to turn this into a laboratory, and I can apply for my own project through you. After that, I can officially work in Pei Shu's laboratory, work in advance, and I won't even have to wait until graduation; I can save my family a sum of tuition fees," Luo Qi said seriously.

Zhou Quan only had a basic judgment of Luo Qi, and this judgment was now completely insufficient to distinguish whether what Luo Qi said was true or false. Simply put, he was almost dumbfounded now, staring blankly at Luo Qi.

Luo Qi picked up his backpack from the ground and put it back on his shoulders. "I'm going in to take a look; you can wait for me here."

"I'll go in with you," Zhou Quan said hurriedly.

"That works too; you can help me evaluate the project," Luo Qi said, turning and walking through the arch.

Behind the tall arch was a deep cave corridor; there wasn't much sunlight that could shine through the arch. When Luo Qi turned to face the depths of the cave, his expression tightened significantly; he had a bad feeling, as if he were passing through a monster's throat and voluntarily walking into its esophagus.

Zhou Quan didn't even hesitate at the entrance and followed him straight in, also sending out a cluster of light orbs, not as dazzling as Du Zhengyi's, but barely usable.

Luo Qi walked forward, and with the light, he could see dust hanging on the walls, almost unable to see the original color of the walls. Zhou Quan followed him closely, a step behind; he monitored Zhou Quan's heartbeat and even the activity level of his brain.

He could feel that Zhou Quan's heartbeat was extremely stable, maintained within the standard heart rate of a Mage, and his fire of consciousness was also stable and robust. Luo Qi shallowly invaded Zhou Quan's consciousness, not touching his current thoughts or his memories, cautiously only contacting the part of Zhou Quan's brain entirely responsible for basic physiology. Zhou Quan's various physiological indices were all stable; he had no special hormone secretion, and his blood pressure had no obvious changes, which meant he wasn't afraid, nervous, or anxious at all. In a strange, grand, ancient building, with potential enemies ahead and a potentially invisible but deadly Curse behind, yet under these premises, Zhou Quan appeared abnormally calm... quite in the style of Du Zhengyi.

Either he is truly stupid...

Luo Qi muttered secretly in his heart.

After the corridor extended for about fifty meters, it reached its end, and a wide hall appeared before them. Zhou Quan manipulated the light source, constantly replicating light sources to send to every corner of the hall, just like countless invisible hands passing out lamp fire.

Luo Qi walked slowly through the hall; now he could see the entire hall. It was very large; if one were to compare it, it was like a small airport. So if Mages who arrived by flight were to stay here, they definitely didn't rely on wings to fly; they at least had large beasts like a Griffin.

Luo Qi let himself imagine the scene here in its prime, but now there was only empty silence, and the countless dancing and swirling light orbs illuminated only nothingness.

"There's nothing here," Zhou Quan said with regret. "There aren't even any traces of Highland Mages having used this place."

Luo Qi didn't answer; he walked toward the walls of the hall. It was too far from the cave entrance here, and wind and sand had not invaded this area. There were traces of flooding on the ground; mud and sand had once surged in and deposited into a thick layer on the floor, but the walls higher up were clean.

Luo Qi touched the wall; the wall was abnormally smooth, like cast metal. He grabbed a light orb and brought it close to the wall, seeing familiar Mage patterns on the wall; these patterns were often used even in today's Mage architecture. But the patterns here were hidden beneath the wall, and where his fingers brushed, he couldn't feel any traces.

"Luo Qi, what are you doing?" Zhou Quan turned his head, saw his unusual behavior, and walked over.

"Look at the wall here," Luo Qi said in a low voice.

"Bronze?" Zhou Quan asked casually; ancient civilizations were very fond of using it.

"Doesn't look like it, but it's metal regardless," Luo Qi said. "But look closely, do you see anything special?"

"Uh..." Zhou Quan tried hard to look for a moment. "It's relatively smooth?"

"Bronze products are originally gold in color, and only turn green after rusting. Sometimes in museums, you can still see a bit of golden core on the lids of bronze vessels," Luo Qi muttered. "But look at this wall; thousands of years have passed, and the metal hasn't been corroded at all."

"Oh, then the wall here seems quite interesting," Zhou Quan said with zero interest.

Luo Qi knocked on the wall.

"Oh god, if it reacted to being knocked by a bone, it couldn't be used as a wall at all," Zhou Quan said beside him.

Luo Qi really started to feel like slapping him.

Just at this moment, Zhou Quan raised his right hand, holding a dagger, and stabbed fiercely toward Luo Qi's head.

Luo Qi didn't even dodge, looking at him with calm composure; the dagger stuck into the wall without leaving even a single scratch. "Good mental fortitude!" he said.

"You have no killing intent," Luo Qi said sincerely. "If you really wanted to kill me, I could make you brain-dead first. Your brain doesn't have much resistance against a Mind Mage."

"Badass," Zhou Quan said, then asked, "Are you saying I'm simple-minded?"

"I am also a simple person," Luo Qi said.

Zhou Quan laughed, then he burned the wall with fire, burned it another round with Karma Fire, sprayed it with cold water, and later had Luo Qi stand further back while he sprayed the wall with a steaming liquid; Luo Qi suspected that stuff was liquid nitrogen. But all in all, the wall was barely damaged.

"Alright," Zhou Quan finally withdrew his supernatural power. "Although these techniques of mine aren't top-tier, they are at least similar to what those Experimental Mages use. I can responsibly say that I've only seen this kind of metal once."

"Is it that new material from the laboratory?" Luo Qi asked sharply; he still remembered the laboratory had obtained new materials.

"No," Zhou Quan said. "It's the blade Du Zhengyi uses, oh, and his guns, arrows, chains... in short, Du Zhengyi is very good at manifesting weapons out of this material."