Chapter 390: Returning to the Valley

Du Zhengyi stood stunned at the entrance of the red "valley," completely mired in confusion.

If he weren't always so confident in himself, he would really be doubting now whether he was stupid enough to have found the wrong place.

The scene before his eyes was inconceivable, but if one had to describe it in a single sentence, it was simple: the valley had disappeared.

The landscape had undergone a complete transformation; all the topographical features Du Zhengyi had seen when he last came were gone. It was as if a violent crustal shift had occurred here within a few days, and the original valley had been almost entirely filled in. The mountain that held the ancient ruins in his memory had vanished, but in its place, two small hills had appeared in the original valley.

Even if the seas turned into mulberry fields, it shouldn't happen within a week, right? Du Zhengyi had never expected to see such a sight upon arriving here, and for a moment, he felt somewhat lost.

He had imagined many possibilities, but they were all on the level of the mental world; he had never anticipated that something like this would happen. It was as if he had prepared himself to fight all sorts of vicious battles, only to find when the time came that he had no idea where the battlefield was.

Just as he was at his wit's end and didn't know where to start, he suddenly heard a girl's voice clearly, "Shift five degrees to the east, and place a crystal every 314 meters."

Du Zhengyi was startled; hearing a woman's voice so abruptly made his scalp tingle, and subconsciously, he was naturally on guard against a Yajian attack from the Progenitor Mage copy. However, he immediately distinguished that the voice he heard was mingled with the sound of the wind—the sound of wind blowing over gravel and withered grass. In other words, what he heard were sounds from the natural world, not whispers in his Yajian, and he even felt this voice sounded somewhat familiar.

Before he could even discern the direction, he heard the female voice say again, "Can you do it or not, Boss? If you keep dawdling like this, I'm going back to swap people out!"

This time he heard it even more clearly, and he almost recalled the look of someone who hadn't quite woken up when they spoke.

He turned his head, and on a slope not far from him, he vaguely saw a ball of hair bunched up on top of a girl's head peeking out from behind a rock. A gust of wind blew, fluttering the girl's bright yellow scarf, which was now conspicuous enough among the pile of rocks.

"Liu Ziyi?" he asked in a low, surprised voice.

The young woman's ears were sharp enough; he saw that hair ball immediately turn in his direction. One hand rested on the top of the rock, and then the girl leaped, jumping onto the rock.

"Senior Brother?" she asked in surprise, "Why are you here?"

Du Zhengyi stared at her, incredulous, and did not answer her question.

She looked at the person he was carrying on his back, "Is that Luo Qi? What's wrong with him?"

For a moment, several questions churned in Du Zhengyi's mind, each one capable of ranking first on the list of confusion.

For instance, why are you here?

What are you doing here?

Who told you to come here?

These questions flashed through Du Zhengyi's mind, and he opened his mouth to ask, "What happened here?"

This question was actually the most important, and it happened to hit on Liu Ziyi's point of excitement; she had been impatient to talk even before Du Zhengyi asked.

"Do you see this? The speed at which the landscape changed is simply a spectacle!" Liu Ziyi said excitedly.

Only a blind person wouldn't see it, right? Du Zhengyi looked at her, bewildered.

"Oh!" she realized, knowing that what she said hadn't hit the main point. "It's like this, I discovered some anomalies in the energy readings here, so I brought a few experimental assistants to come over and take a look."

"You? Came to take a look?" Du Zhengyi understood what she meant a little.

"Yeah." Liu Ziyi walked toward him, followed by five or six small floating crystals, all in working state, frantically recording the data she was collecting. "The trouble with the Highland Mages was resolved, and I just happened to be free. There was an earthquake nearby yesterday, and it wasn't until this morning that I discovered several sensing crystals had been abnormal, so I came to check."

"What exactly happened?" Du Zhengyi really had no patience to listen any further today, "Just tell me the result."

"Oh, it's like this." Liu Ziyi waved her hand back, and several crystals projected the records into the air behind her. "These are the Induction Crystals of the Highland Mages."

Du Zhengyi looked up at the line chart she provided, and she continued, "For a period of time before the earthquake, the energy here was gathering abnormally; the anomaly started after Luo Qi made contact with this place. By the way, is he okay? Did he pass out? Do you need me to take a look?"

"Keep talking," Du Zhengyi commanded, almost rudely.

Fortunately, Liu Ziyi wasn't angry; she just glanced at the person lying on his back who seemed to be sleeping, and continued, "The energy reached a peak before the earthquake, and then it tended to stabilize."

"What is your conclusion?" Du Zhengyi asked directly, increasingly developing trust in Liu Ziyi's abilities.

"A preliminary conclusion," Liu Ziyi cautiously corrected, then said, "I believe the earthquake was an active act; it seems like someone was consciously triggering a landslide to eliminate the gathered energy, so as to avoid a more uncontrollable situation."

That was enough. Du Zhengyi's confidence returned.