Chapter 391: Liu Ziyi vs. Luo Qi

"What else have you confirmed?" Du Zhengyi asked, his tone becoming noticeably more polite. "Besides the release of energy, have you discovered the direct cause of the landslide?"

He sincerely appreciated this sudden help and turned to look at Liu Ziyi, who seemed not to have sensed anything at all. In fact, when his attitude had been poor, she hadn't taken it to heart like others might have; her attention wasn't on people, but entirely on the things that interested her—abnormal readings, rapidly growing plants—those were her points of interest.

"Oh, oh!" Liu Ziyi let out an excited string of rising notes; Du Zhengyi had hit on something she was passionate about. The symbols projected in the air behind her quickly formed a string of formulas, which changed forms frantically, constantly evolving into new symbols; those symbols were a type of sub-variant in the ancient Mage language, with each symbol representing an element.

"Look!" Liu Ziyi turned her head excitedly to look at Du Zhengyi. The formulas changed incessantly, demonstrating all of Liu Ziyi's deductions and the process of her discovery. The speed at which the bizarre symbols changed was so fast that if a human were watching, they would certainly be dazzled and unable to see anything clearly.

Du Zhengyi could see them clearly, but he felt a bit of pressure—even more pressure than when Luo Qi looked at him full of expectation, hoping he could turn into a Magic war machine. Did this girl hope that the legendary Du Zhengyi was a prodigy who could keep up in every aspect?

Fortunately, Du Zhengyi still managed to grasp some key points; the only part he was certain he excelled at was grasping the key to a matter.

He didn't want to say he hadn't understood the girl's work; he had a premonition that doing so would be too dismissive of her, which might affect their future cooperation. A young girl could only be more difficult to deal with than Luo Qi, who was at least fortunate enough to have been born a man.

Du Zhengyi caught a few key ancient words; he was very familiar with these terms. "This is... my blade?"

"Yes!" Liu Ziyi said excitedly. "Highland Mages say this is an ancient tomb, but it's not that at all. Either the Highland Mages are too romantic, or they simply don't understand how practical the ancient Mages were."

They certainly weren't romantic—Du Zhengyi said to himself, but he remained silent. Fortunately, the young girl didn't intend to discuss technical issues with him and simply believed he had already understood her deduction process.

Liu Ziyi continued, "This is a construction site."

Du Zhengyi was startled. "A site for manufacturing metal? An alchemist's mining and smelting plant?"

"Yes! Senior brother, you really are smart to have thought of that right away," Liu Ziyi said happily. "There is a huge energy source beneath this, connected to a mine, which can refine metal of the same origin as your weapon. In the ancient era, this place must have provided a steady stream of rare, high-quality metal; the Progenitor Mages probably needed a lot of metal at the time. I suspect there might have been more than one mine in the world back then, but most of them were exhausted, leaving only this one. By the time the Progenitor Mages left this world, it hadn't been completely mined out yet. The Qionglin might be interested in this place, but that would require convincing the Highland Mages to allow us to continue mining. Fortunately, negotiation isn't in my scope of work. Actually, the most tragic thing is that we have no idea what the Progenitor Mages needed so much of this stuff for? It's so tragic!"

Du Zhengyi's mind stirred, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. "So this place required soul laborers to mine?"

Liu Ziyi nodded. "There might have been a large number of laborers here once. But when the Progenitor Mages left, they should have wiped them clean. I don't sense any active Yajian here."

Du Zhengyi understood now; this place was originally a mine, possessing energy and storage space for the Yajian laborers who controlled the mining work. Perhaps even the rebellious Ancestor herself had been punished and transformed into a laborer, exiled here. When the Progenitor Mages left this world, her worshippers secretly hid her high-level copy here; the conditions here were the most suitable for preserving a soul long-term.

"Can you expand the search range?" Du Zhengyi asked.

Liu Ziyi considered it and asked cautiously, "Do you want to search outside the valley? Or deepen the search depth underground?"

"Neither. You have been searching for energy radiation, right?" Du Zhengyi asked.

Liu Ziyi nodded.

"Can you change it to primarily search for active Yajian?"

"You think Luo Qi is still here? I have to say, the chances aren't high." Liu Ziyi looked at him.

He knew this girl might not have much interest in people, but she wasn't stupid, nor was she ignorant of human affairs. She hadn't asked about anything in detail, but she had her own estimation of the situation at hand.

"That active Yajian might be disguising itself as an energy body," Du Zhengyi said, looking at her.

He clearly saw her eyes light up, as if she had cracked a puzzle or seen a new challenge.

"If I find it, then I will have surpassed Luo Qi in the field of Yajian, right?"

"I sincerely hope you can beat him."

"Oh ho ho," Liu Ziyi said happily, her calculation crystals all starting to work frantically. "Once I finish setting up the Sensing Array here, I will definitely be able to compare which energy point is a disguise. Before, I didn't know what I was looking for, but now I will definitely be able to find it."