Chapter 368: The Shining Attack

Du Zhengyi landed in a pitch-black hall. Dozens of meters ahead, a faint light appeared, illuminating the back of a man. Du Zhengyi had no time to stop and hesitate over whether he had walked into the range of the Curse; he chased after him closely. The plant had already completed its energy positioning; anyone only needed to find the place where the plant had caused the most damage to the foundation to walk down easily.

He had only run a few steps in the dark hall when he felt the energy ripples of Teleportation piercing through space behind him. Du Zhengyi looked back vigilantly.

The figures of the Highland Mages appeared in the darkness; their clothes were very easy to identify even in the shadows.

"Du Mage, this place has not yet reached the range of the Curse, but for the sake of safety, you cannot go any further down." The person speaking was Mage Hashi, who had also tracked them here. "Stop him."

Du Zhengyi did not reply. He threw out a glowing fireball, which rose like a human flare to illuminate the grand underground hall. In that instant, Du Zhengyi saw many unusual patterns, but he did not focus his attention on these things; that was a field Luo Qi would be interested in.

A familiar figure was exposed to their eyes under the bursting firelight. The man let out a painful cry, his eyes briefly blinded by the sudden appearance of the light.

"Zhou Quan?" Du Zhengyi said; no one heard exactly how much astonishment was in his voice.

It did not take much effort to catch up to a blind man, and he caught up easily. "Zhou Quan." He repeated his name softly again, as if these two words had some significance, becoming like a Secret Language. Then, he kicked him, ending Zhou Quan's groaning and knocking him unconscious.

"Du Mage." Mage Hashi chased up, looking at the person lying on the ground in shock, then looking at Du Zhengyi. "Du Mage, you need mercy."

"I need mercy?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"You need to know how to show mercy to others," Mage Hashi said.

"Oh." Du Zhengyi acted as if he had just truly understood. "Mage Hashi, are you alright?"

"He might be permanently blinded because of this," Mage Hashi said.

"Probably not," Du Zhengyi said calmly, stating this exclamation that should have had some emotion with a "probably" in a flat, straightforward manner. He turned to say, "Mage Hashi, he is Zhou Quan. I didn't expect Zhou Quan to really go this far."

"Why did he go this far?" Mage Hashi asked with a sigh, though he still began to check Zhou Quan's various physiological signs.

"He is responsible for handling various confidential documents at Qionglin; perhaps the Zheng Hanbin incident gave him some inspiration. Just as there was such an opportunity, Pei Shu sent us here, and he finally had the possibility of coming into contact with the secrets guarded by the Highland Mages. I think he might not believe that the Curse truly exists. Luo Qi told me that at the time, it was also Zhou Quan who was uncharacteristically eager to explore that cave. He persuaded Luo Qi at the time, hoping to find the Magic Artifact of the Ancestor Mage that you all didn't care about, to use it to help Qionglin deal with the Lotus Burners. Although I don't think he would have handed it over to Qionglin after finding the Ancestor Mage's Magic Artifact, he at least had this intention," Du Zhengyi said.

Mage Hashi nodded; this explanation did indeed make a lot of sense. "Everyone knows we are interested in plants, especially plants from the era of the Ancestor Mage. If he had just given us a seed, we wouldn't have cultivated it immediately after accepting it; perhaps that is why he designed such a roundabout method."

"Searching the cave must have been one of his goals from the start. If he had gained something in the cave, he wouldn't have had to go to such trouble, nor would he have risked offending the Highland Mages. Going to such great lengths should be an alternative plan after the primary goal could not be achieved," Du Zhengyi said. He thought for a moment. "Mage Hashi, is it possible that there are truly some Magic Artifacts in the tomb of the Ancestor Mage?"

Mage Hashi finished the simple medical care for Zhou Quan before saying, "I cannot be sure. The rebellious Ancestor Mage had many followers; the truth is that the direct ancestors of most mages followed him. After his massacre conspiracy was exposed, he still had some die-hard followers. These people have always wanted to find his tomb, wanting to help him leave the tomb where he was imprisoned. Some say that some of them came close to succeeding, only failing because the remaining Ancestor Mages intervened. But to what extent they actually helped the rebellious Ancestor, that is very hard to know."

"Perhaps they left a glimmer of hope for the rebellious Ancestor," Du Zhengyi said.

"What does Du Mage mean?" Mage Hashi asked.

Du Zhengyi shook his head and did not continue. He asked in return, "Mage Hashi, may I request that you check Zhou Quan's Yajian?"

"You suspect..." Mage Hashi said.

"This is Qionglin's standard procedure," Du Zhengyi said. "Ever since the Mind Mage rebellion, we have had routine Yajian detection for major crimes, so as to avoid someone's crimes being committed while their Yajian was modified. Recently, many Mind Mages have also appeared among our enemies, the Lotus Burners, even some powerful Mind Mages, so this standard is now required to be strictly enforced."

"I understand," Mage Hashi said understandingly. "The earlier the Yajian detection is performed, the more accurate the result."

"Yes," Du Zhengyi said. "Luo Qi is still too young, still an Apprentice, and not skilled at doing this work. So I can only request the help of the Highland Mages. After all, they once lost a period of memory, and I am worried..."

"No one should be wronged; I am very willing to help." Mage Hashi nodded and turned to look at Zhou Quan.

Du Zhengyi fell silent at the right time. He felt the subtle energy flow around him, which was different from the explosive power of Luo Qi. In other words, Luo Qi's power was often a wild horse without a bridle, with no stability to speak of, while the Highland Mages' control over energy was like a trickling stream, capable of using power more precisely and delicately.

He believed that the Highland Mages' work was being carried out in an orderly manner because it took much longer than Luo Qi's. He would not be like Luo Qi, who would either come back with a half-finished product or never return, like a poorly trained, restless hunting dog. Unknowingly, Du Zhengyi sighed again.

The Highland Mage opened his eyes and slowly exhaled. "Du Mage, your worries are truly too heavy."

Du Zhengyi was stunned for a moment and blurted out, "I'm sorry. Did I disturb you? Do you need me to return to the top first?"

"No need," the Highland Mage said. "My work is already finished."

"How is it?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"I have already probed his Yajian. Based on the principle that Telepathy Magic should not be abused, I did not touch his privacy. If one day you want to know more about his crimes, you will have to rely on your own interrogation. However, I can say with certainty that I cannot find any traces of his Yajian having been modified by anyone. I cannot even find any situation of him having amnesia; it seems that when he was in the Ancestor's tomb, he did indeed lose consciousness. In other words, he really fainted, so active Yajian recording could not be performed, rather than his memory being wiped. I speculate that he suffered a fierce mental shock in the tomb; the only unknown part is how this shock was produced. Perhaps it was the magic left behind by the Ancestor Mage in the tomb."

"In the past, this magic didn't act on the shepherd boy, nor did it act on human explorers," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice.

"Perhaps Luo Qi triggered some hidden Magic Artifact in the tomb. His energy is abundant and always flowing everywhere, and he also has the habit of carelessly radiating his Yajian. Du Mage, this is a childish bad habit, I hope you can..." Mage Hashi paused, perhaps suddenly remembering that Du Zhengyi was not Luo Qi's parent, nor was he anyone to Luo Qi, and entrusting Du Zhengyi to manage Luo Qi seemed inappropriate. "Let's go back first. After such an incident, the ancestor's tapestry is no longer important. I am going to summon all the Highland Mages, destroy this building, completely kill the plant, and implement new protection measures for the underground Cursed Land."

They should indeed return to the top immediately; the underground had already felt several ominous tremors, and the foundation of the entire underground building was crumbling.

Mage Hashi's voice became urgent. "We must go back immediately; I need to meet with other mages to assess the safety of the building structure."

Du Zhengyi did not speak. Mage Hashi took Zhou Quan, and he immediately followed Mage Hashi's actions.

When they returned to the surface, the sunlight on the Highland felt exceptionally intense. The mages were all gathered near the collapsed corridor. The Highland Mages looked solemn, the Qionglin mages were worried, and unexpectedly, Luo Qi was standing at the very front; judging from his position, he had the air of a leader.

He saw Du Zhengyi at a glance and immediately came over to meet him.