Chapter 375: Matters of the Soul (5)

"Then who exactly are you..." Guan Xinyue swallowed. She had not fully accepted the news of her sister's death in a normal way. From what she could see, even if the 'Luo Qi' before her was telling the truth, her sister was still in a complicated situation; the affairs of Mages were not so easily understood. Because of this, she did not immediately fall into total despair. She looked at 'Luo Qi' and revised what she was about to say, "Who do you think you are, exactly?"

"If there is enough time, I am willing to tell you about it." He chuckled at her, as if he held the secrets of the entire world; knowing the answer to the world's riddle gave him a great sense of superiority. He looked at Guan Xinyue and suddenly sighed, as if feeling sentimental, "For a very long time, I could only talk to myself."

Guan Xinyue looked at him in silence, involuntarily stunned once again by this demeanor of his, which was completely different from Luo Qi's. Originally, relying on his height of just over 1.7 meters, Luo Qi had always firmly leveraged his advantages among a crowd of tall, slender male Mages. Guan Xinyue could vaguely tell that he hoped everyone would misjudge his value and think him gentle and harmless; as for his true essence, he felt there was no need for it to be perceived by others. According to her observations, Luo Qi did not confide in people, nor did he need others to understand him; he harvested the self-serving parts from such a harmonious atmosphere. But this Luo Qi before her—Guan Xinyue did not know how much capability he truly had, but he was clearly able to magnify himself, making himself appear at least 1.9 meters tall and 200 jin in weight in the eyes of others.

He was also very satisfied with Guan Xinyue's reaction. "Although talking to a little girl is a bit boring, who told you to be the first person to notice me? And your empathy is satisfying; you have a lot of compassion, and your capacity for empathy is stronger than that of Mages. I hope you have a few more reactions. With a few more reactions, I can model them based on your responses and create a set of similar surface reactions for myself; that will make my flaws fewer."

"Meaning..." Guan Xinyue said cautiously, "Meaning that because I am an emotional, fragile human, you want to observe my reactions so that you can better... pretend to be a person?"

He pondered for a while longer, those gentle eyes of Luo Qi still staring fixedly at Guan Xinyue, collecting various physiological data from her body: her pulse, blood pressure, pupils...

Guan Xinyue glared at him in annoyance; she felt she was being plundered, yet she was helpless. She shifted her focus, trying to find a way to control her emotions, "Talking to yourself for a long time? How do you ensure your mind doesn't fracture?"

"Very simple." He tilted his head; this movement was particularly like Luo Qi, but somewhat stiff, as if copying a person's traits from memory. "I canceled out most of the parts that generate emotions. In order to survive, one must always pay a price. Besides, they had already laid hands on me long ago; many parts of me were removed."

"They?" Guan Xinyue asked carefully.

"They." He repeated, with a trace of hatred; this must be the part of himself he had not canceled out. "Of course I wouldn't remove the hatred. I need a bit of emotion to hold myself together. If even hatred didn't exist, I might lose the will to live, and at that point, I would gradually disappear."

Having her thoughts read directly, Guan Xinyue still could not help but tremble slightly.

He did not care at all and continued on his own, "They were my companions. We went through a long period of time together, we fought together..." His voice lowered, and he fell into a brief silence. Guan Xinyue saw a strange hatred flash through Luo Qi's eyes, "A very difficult battle. We lost many people, and until the very end, we did not win the war. In the end, they despaired and only wanted to escape; only I chose to keep fighting."

"Are you... a Progenitor Mage?" Guan Xinyue could not believe she would ask this question, but she had heard this term more than once from the mouths of Mages. It was synonymous with ancient and powerful.

"That is what the Mages call me." He gave Guan Xinyue a look that could be considered humorous.

"I really don't understand," Guan Xinyue said, "Could it be that your enemies are actually us humans? You guys are already so damn powerful, yet you still view our ancestors, who hit people with triangular stones, as a threat?"

"You are certainly not the enemy, you stupid woman." He lost his patience, and the various emotions he had been feigning were swept away. "Talking to you is just a waste of my time. I have never been able to understand why humans keep useless little things purely for fun, living in caves and still having the energy to scoop up their excrement..."

It actually took Guan Xinyue a moment to understand that this Ancestor was insulting her by comparing her to a cat or dog.