Chapter 370: The Meeting

Du Zhengyi followed this group of inexperienced Mages wandering through the streets and alleys of the Highland City; most of them had been trapped in magic laboratories ever since they left school, and had little time to come out and play. After Du Zhengyi sent them into the tourist area, he found their fussing over the discovery of ancient Mage ruins to be unbearable.

He tugged at Luo Qi, who was looking at a painting with great interest, "I'm going out to get some air; you watch them and don't let them provoke the humans."

"Mm." Luo Qi nodded distractedly, his attention still fixed on the painting.

Du Zhengyi glanced at the painting; it was a geometric pattern with a complex structure and regular form. He said nothing more and turned to walk away.

Walking out of this ancient human building, outside was a bustling street market, with various turquoise jewelry peddled along the roadside, mixed with some genuine and fake Dzi beads. In extremely rare cases, Mages could find one or two precious Magic Artifacts of ancient Mages among these things. But that was nearly ten years ago; now such a situation was rare among the rare, and the probability of encountering plastic was much higher.

Du Zhengyi walked unhurriedly through the chaotic and bustling market, choosing his direction at random. He carefully avoided the humans kowtowing in devotion; most of them were people with strong Telepathy among humans. When they concentrated their spirits and cast aside distracting thoughts like this, they caused no small amount of trouble for Du Zhengyi.

Wandering aimlessly like this, gradually there were fewer and fewer people around Du Zhengyi, and he walked out of the city without realizing it. Many people surely did not know that just a few steps away from the city, there was a quiet, ancient temple, rarely visited by tourists. Red walls and white pagodas, spring flowers blooming inside the walls, yet the wind was quiet enough to hear one's own breathing. With Du Zhengyi's hearing, he could even hear his own heartbeat.

He sat down on a low wall around the temple and pulled out a cigarette to light it. The drifting clouds in the sky changed shape several times, and the wind sent a few thin flowers down from the branches, also bringing the faint, crisp sound of dry twigs snapping.

"You've come?" Du Zhengyi said without turning his head.

The sound behind him choked, and instantly became distinct. The sound of a cane tapping the ground, the sound of dragging footsteps, the sound of breathing, a myriad of sounds seemed to burst forth at once, synthesizing into the presence of a person. Once called out, there was no more need for concealment.

That person walked up to Du Zhengyi and sat down beside him.

"I didn't expect to be detected by you."

"I didn't expect that one day I would be sitting with you." Du Zhengyi exhaled a puff of smoke.

"I sensed you were looking for me," said Clownfish, whose face and figure were blurred; he sat beside Du Zhengyi as if sitting in deep fog.

"I sensed you were following me," Du Zhengyi retorted.

Clownfish let out a low laugh, "How did you discover I was here? I don't mean just now."

"Intuition." Du Zhengyi continued to smoke, staring ahead as if chatting with the air, "I always felt you weren't far from us. Intuition told me you are the real player behind the game. Since you set up the board and started the game, how could you not come to watch? I think the figure Luo Qi saw was you, right?"

Clownfish did not answer.

Du Zhengyi didn't mind, "How did you sneak into the territory of the Highland Mages? No, you don't have to answer me; actually, I don't care."

"You are already in a state of mental chaos and panic; you truly don't care about my affairs," Clownfish said bluntly.

Du Zhengyi smiled, not feeling the least bit ashamed about having his inner state exposed, "How could I harbor the delusion of escaping the perspective of a Mind Archmage?"

"But I am curious, how did you discover the problem with Luo Qi?" Clownfish asked.

"Pardon my bluntness, but that is a bullshit question," Du Zhengyi said, taking a fierce drag of his cigarette.

Clownfish was not angered either; the two of them sat together on the lama's low wall, as if sitting outside the world, and the world's intricate entanglements of hatred, grievances, and interests had nothing to do with them for the moment. Two mortal enemies took an afternoon off together. But regardless, having reached the level of Clownfish or Du Zhengyi, this extremely bizarre little matter was not all that surprising.

"I don't understand," Clownfish said.

"Are you human?" Du Zhengyi asked seriously.

"You aren't insulting me, are you?"

"He is my friend; we are very close, so of course I would know that is no longer him," Du Zhengyi said. The cigarette butt disappeared from his fingertips, a new cigarette appeared in his hand, and he lit the second one.

"I still don't quite understand; no matter who is in his body, that person must have obtained all of Luo Qi's memories," Clownfish asked.

"Let me satisfy your curiosity," Du Zhengyi said, "Luo Qi often has a mouth and body that are faster than his brain. In other words, many of his actions are not well-considered; I highly doubt he even remembers what he does every day himself."

Clownfish rubbed his hands and said, "Sounds like a brainless idiot."

"He is not brainless," Du Zhengyi said, and he fell silent for a moment. Clownfish did not urge him. For Du Zhengyi, things had already gone from bad to worse. For Clownfish, he had completely lost control of the situation. As a result, the two of them suddenly possessed all the time in the world.

Du Zhengyi continued to smoke and said slowly, "Details are like gossamer; you can't catch them when you want to, but they are right there. When they pile up, you can no longer ignore them. He is not Luo Qi."

Clownfish grasped his meaning, and after a while, he asked, "Do you think I am willing to do something for him?"

"I guess you would be interested in this matter," Du Zhengyi said, "I can only try; perhaps you will do something for some purpose."

"I am the one who approached you; aren't you worried about falling into a moral dilemma?" Clownfish asked, his interest in Du Zhengyi quite strong.

"Not worried," Du Zhengyi said, "If we happen to be going the same way, we'll travel a stretch together. If you still want to name a price, then I'll go back and ask Pei Shu."

"Spoken quite sharply."

"You were not bad to Luo Qi," Du Zhengyi said, "You let him go once and didn't kill him, so I thought if it wasn't too much effort, perhaps you would help him."

"I originally intended to kill him. Before he died, he begged me not to make his death too dramatic, preferably to burn him to ashes so his friends wouldn't be too heartbroken seeing his miserable state," Clownfish said. He saw the hand holding the cigarette tremble slightly. But Du Zhengyi said nothing and continued to smoke. "So I repaid you a debt of a life. There are too many Mages in this world who deserve to die, but you shouldn't be like this. Actually, I wish you hadn't happened to be blocking my path that day."

Du Zhengyi did not want to talk about his own affairs; he asked, "Then do you know if there really is the spirit of an Ancestor in the cave that Luo Qi and the others walked into?"

"I can't be sure. But it is indeed an ancient Yajian. Ancient, cunning, and incomplete," Clownfish said. "I once caught a glimpse."

"Incomplete?"

"If it were complete enough to understand human nature, I'm afraid you wouldn't have been able to distinguish that he wasn't Luo Qi so easily," Clownfish said.

Du Zhengyi did not want to argue with Clownfish that he would have eventually distinguished it regardless. "I want to know if Luo Qi's Yajian still exists? Is it possible he is still in his own mind, just suppressed, making him only able to manifest that person's personality?"

"I don't know," Clownfish said, "If he is still there, it won't be for long. Two Yajian competing for one body, the one that fails will eventually disappear."

Like the dull monk in the village, like the zombie-like puppet in the mountain village... Du Zhengyi felt a wave of nausea. He loathed Clownfish, knowing those were all his handiwork. But he also reminded himself that was the reason he was looking for Clownfish; he was the one most skilled at this.

"The Yajian occupying Luo Qi's body might be feminine," Du Zhengyi said, "Is knowing the gender useful to you? For you Mind Mages, the more you know, the more helpful it should be, right?"

"How did you discover it is a woman?" Clownfish asked curiously.

"More than a year ago, I handled a malicious incident. An old witch controlled someone else's body. That time it wasn't a complete theft of the body; she only used his body briefly after the other person fell asleep," Du Zhengyi took out a third cigarette and gave a short laugh. "She liked women, so when she made a desperate gamble at the end of her life, she chose a muscle man like Hercules for herself, wanting to pick up women more easily."

Clownfish seemed to be able to imagine the scene. A wave of amusement was vaguely transmitted from the deep fog around him.

"As a result, the women still didn't love her," Du Zhengyi said, biting his cigarette, "Men and women are different; this difference does not lie in appearance. Even if you can't find a flaw, you can still feel it."

Having said this, they fell into silence. Du Zhengyi lit the third cigarette; he smoked it quietly to the end, not in a hurry to urge Clownfish, nor in a hurry to go back and find a solution.

"You aren't in a hurry to resolve this matter; are you avoiding facing the fact that Luo Qi might already be gone?" Clownfish asked suddenly.

Du Zhengyi did not answer, "Are you interested in exorcising the spirit?"

"Ancient Yajian all contain infinite wisdom; I want to obtain it," Clownfish said.

Du Zhengyi took a fierce drag of his cigarette, "Take it."

"If you go to find Pei Shu, it might be safer. Perhaps there is a one-in-a-thousand chance that Luo Qi's mind currently holds the secret you are guarding."

"If I go to find Pei Shu, Luo Qi will truly never come back. To the Qionglin, a Yajian that might come from an Ancestor Mage is far more important than Luo Qi; there is no need to weigh the trade-off at all. If I find you, I still have a chance to control the situation," Du Zhengyi said, "Mr. Fish, why must we make it so clear? Don't you know I've broken the rules?"

"Only when you say it yourself can the Contract be established; words have their own power," Clownfish said in a low voice.

"Whatever," Du Zhengyi said, "As long as you return Luo Qi to himself, take whatever you want."