Chapter 359: Night Talk

"Do you want to talk now?" Du Zhengyi looked at him, leaning slightly toward him.

"I..." Luo Qi hesitated for a moment.

"I have always wanted to ask you if your memory has recovered. But I don't want to 'push' too hard; it doesn't matter if you can't remember," Du Zhengyi said.

"I have vaguely recalled some things, but they are all just fragments," Luo Qi said. "What I worry about is that fragments might lead to taking things out of context, so I haven't wanted to say anything. It wouldn't be good if I wronged someone because of taking things out of context."

"In any case, you are just talking to me in private, so it doesn't count as an official occasion. You might as well speak these memory fragments out; I can help you analyze them," Du Zhengyi said.

"Alright, I will first say some memories that are basically certain," Luo Qi said. "First, I want to say some good aspects. I feel that Zhou Quan is not a bad person; he neither rejects me nor has any hostility toward you. His attitude toward the Qionglin is basically one of loyalty, but he also has no hostility toward humans; he even has a similar level of acceptance for human culture as I do. I feel that Zhou Quan also has no ambition; he is not the type of ambitious person like Fan Shi, nor is he the type with extreme tendencies like Li Xu. If I had to say what kind of person he is, based on intuition, I feel he is just a normal person. Or rather, just an ordinary person. If all these characteristics are taken as indicators, he does not lean toward any extreme; he is almost at the equilibrium point of all the characteristics of a Mage."

Du Zhengyi smiled, "You are not wrong. A person like the one you summarized is naturally very suitable for his current position. Pei Lao has always been very good at using people. Although I can't say I like him or dislike him, I have to admit he is very suitable to be a liaison among Mages; he is especially suited for secretarial work."

"Yeah," Luo Qi sighed, admitting, "After I had contact with him for a while, I felt the same way."

"So do you feel there is any aspect of him that seems contradictory?" Du Zhengyi asked. He knew very well that Luo Qi would not say this without reason.

"Yes, I feel that if he is such a person, his courage shouldn't be very great, or in other words, such a person would never go looking for trouble himself," Luo Qi said, pondering. "But along the way, he pushed me many times to go with him to find the Shenmiao of the Highland Mages. Ah, the so-called Shenmiao—now I feel that this kind of legend about the Highland Mages might not exist at all. However, if he really is a slick and smooth person who knows how to handle people, someone especially suited for liaison work, then he should be a person who likes to stand in the background; he should absolutely not have wanted to walk into that obviously dangerous cave."

"That makes sense, continue," Du Zhengyi encouraged Luo Qi.

Luo Qi continued, "He did mention returning here to find you to explore that cave. But he wasn't resolute when he said it. I feel he was actually just testing me; he knew I wouldn't be willing to let you get involved in such dangerous matters at this time. Now that I think about it again, he was actually just putting me in a checkmate at the time, giving me two choices—either I, as a Mind Mage, go with him to find the secret of the Highland Mages, or I come home to find you and let you take the lead."

Du Zhengyi listened earnestly without speaking.

"He is a smart person. I don't know if he knows the truth; he might know nothing at all and just discovered through intuition that I would never want you to expend Magic," Luo Qi said, somewhat agitated.

"Luo Qi." Du Zhengyi called his name softly, sounding like a sigh. "You are right. Actually, you are not hard to guess. The trick is to treat you like a child; as long as one thinks about how a child would think and act, using you is not hard at all."

"Is this a criticism of me?" Luo Qi asked.

"This is a compliment to you, for always having a heart of innocence. Even though you have experienced so much, you can still maintain your original heart; you might be naturally suited to be a Mind Mage," Du Zhengyi said.

"Thanks for the compliment," Luo Qi said, bringing the topic back to the previous point. "Zhou Quan gave many reasons why we must find the secret of the High-level Mages, or rather, must find the secret weapon of the Ancestor Mages. Because if these things exist, then it would be beneficial for the Qionglin and for the current situation of Pei Shu. To be honest, it's a bit awkward; Zhou Quan is actually not such a righteous person at all."

"Actually, you didn't necessarily have to go in with him. Even if he wanted to come back to find me, I have many suitable reasons to refuse him. We shouldn't have been curious about the secret of this ally, the Highland Mages, in the first place," Du Zhengyi said.

"Oh." Luo Qi hesitated, looking a bit evasive.

"But none of that matters. I believe you didn't mean to shirk responsibility," Du Zhengyi said gently. Luo Qi had always been indifferent to causing trouble; once he caused trouble, he would just come back and put on a pitiful, self-reproachful look. Most of the time, he himself had no way to deal with him; this little brat was becoming increasingly emboldened.

"Actually, Zhou Quan became increasingly eager later on. Before the incident at the end, he almost stopped hiding his thoughts. He definitely has his own purpose. I don't know what he wants to get from the Highland Mages, but his purpose is very clear; he is different from Pei Shu's other students," Luo Qi said earnestly.

"So you mean that although he doesn't look like he belongs to any side, he is also definitely not simple," Du Zhengyi summarized.

"Yes, I have thought for so long and still haven't figured out what his purpose is, or rather, whose person he actually is," Luo Qi said. "There is one more thing, Brother, how can you be sure that all this trouble started from that cave? If Zhou Quan had a seed in his hand, who could know when he had gripped it?"

No one could actually answer this question. But the situation derived from this question was extremely complex.

"If everything that happened in the cave was just a smokescreen, then the problem still lies within us," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice. "If that is really the case, then perhaps he has a connection to that figure who snuck in."

"Right, perhaps Zhou Quan's original intention was to find some secrets of the Highland Mages there. Later, perhaps he didn't find anything, but he didn't want to waste the opportunity, so he took the chance to launch what he had prepared earlier," Luo Qi said.

"If that's the case, then we really need to be careful tonight," Du Zhengyi said.