Chapter 40: The Intent Lock

The warm afternoon sun fell upon the floor, where toy soldiers and Mages were lined up in columns, and a rubber ball rested against the corner of the wall. A fairy-tale book lay face down, imagined to be an Indian tent.

The windows were wide open, and the summer breeze surged in, blowing the white gauze curtains into full, billowing shapes.

In the kitchen downstairs, someone was working briskly; her soft humming drifted through the window to the child's bedroom on the second floor. A freshly baked birthday cake was already set on the table, a candy kitten curled up on top, and three birthday candles were already inserted.

She paused to listen, and the sound of the child waking up and moving about came from upstairs. "Luo Qi, are you awake?"

No one answered her, but then the wooden stairs emitted the thumping sound of a small child running down while stomping his feet.

"Luo Qi," she called out, "slow down on the stairs."

A young child appeared at the kitchen doorway in the blink of an eye, rubbing his eyes incessantly. His still-young Mama pulled him into her embrace. "Our treasure is awake; are you thirsty?"

"I..." Luo Qi had just started to speak when his attention was drawn to the birthday cake on the table. "Birthday... present!"

"Luo Qi." His Baba walked in from outside, carrying the scent of summer all over him, and Luo Qi turned his head to look at him. He headed straight for his son, squatted down in front of Luo Qi, and his deep eyes stared straight at his son. Luo Qi rubbed his nose, looking at him in confusion.

Luo Qi did not know what he meant, or if he was trying to renege on a promise. But Luo Qi knew he had grown up, grown up enough to express his wishes clearly, and the wishes he spoke always came true; he felt smug about discovering this trick himself.

"I want a birthday present!"

"Hold out your hands," the man winked at him. "Baba is going to give you a birthday present."

Luo Qi happily stretched out both hands, his small palms facing upward.

A Crystal cup appeared on his palms. He looked up curiously, and the man was smiling at him. He lowered his head and swallowed; a tiny, golden swimming fish appeared in his Crystal cup.

"Ah," he exclaimed, swaying slightly. The little fish flicked its tail and swam leisurely, tracing a golden arc in the Crystal cup. "Whoa!"

"Luo Qi," his Mama called to him, her hand landing on her son's head, "do you like it?"

The child nodded vigorously, watching the little fish carefully, afraid that if he didn't hold the cup steady, he would drop it and lose the fish.

"So you must hold it tightly," his Mama said, her tone becoming very serious. "Remember, you must always hold it tightly; never let go."

"Oh." Luo Qi was frightened by his mother's serious tone, looked up nervously, and swallowed again. "Oh."

"You must never let go. If you let go and the cup falls to the ground, it will shatter, and the little fish will disappear," his mother said earnestly. "Do you remember?"

Luo Qi became even more nervous, gripping the Crystal cup tightly, and reminded himself not to let go.

Just then, the kitchen suddenly grew dim. Luo Qi looked up and saw the wind rising and clouds gathering outside the window, as if a summer storm had suddenly arrived. At that moment, a peal of thunder shook the earth, and the house trembled along with it. Luo Qi shivered in fear and gripped the Crystal cup even tighter, but he felt very tired and wished the adults could help him hold it for a while.

He looked up pleadingly at Mama's face, but Mama kept a cold, stern expression and roared at him, "Hold the cup tight, don't let go, don't let the water spill! Watch the little fish!"

Outside the window, the rain poured down like a deluge, and lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Luo Qi looked toward the doorway in terror; the gale pounded against the door panel like a giant's fist, as if it were about to tear that thin door panel to shreds at any moment. Luo Qi gripped his little fish tightly, not daring to let go. Outside the window, the world turned the color of thick ink; it seemed as if the world had vanished, leaving only a solitary house, and only him and his little fish.

He turned his head back, but could no longer find the shadows of his parents; the only thing he could grasp was the little fish in the cup. A heavy sorrow surged over him once again, and he sobbed softly.

"Watch the little fish," he murmured repeatedly, lowering his head to look at the little fish in the cup. The golden little fish swam leisurely in his palm. The violent force outside the window that threatened to tear the house apart gradually vanished, and this world vanished too.

Amidst the Chaos, Luo Qi remembered; he was already grown up, long since no longer a child. It was not the first time he had returned to this scene, even though in his memories, he never remembered his parents ever giving him a little fish.

He opened his eyes abruptly, sweat soaking his clothes, his hair plastered damply to his scalp; he looked as if he had just been fished out of water. He coughed incessantly, his fingers trembling, his arms and thighs cramping stiffly, his whole body in excruciating pain. He knew what had happened; he was experiencing the aftereffects of electrocution. He could not remember how many times he had been electrocuted by Zhao Zhiyan; he had begun to despair, the abuse had no end, and his muscle control had begun to degenerate; he would rather die than wet his pants.

"Teacher, how is it this time?"

"There is a core within his Mind Barrier. Every time I try to destroy the barrier, his Yajian hides inside this core. This barrier was established by an outsider; logically, the person himself should have an exclusionary nature toward external Yajian and should not have such cooperative behavior. I think the only possibility is that the person who designed this barrier left a deep-seated suggestion in his Yajian, allowing his Yajian to actively reinforce the core of the barrier. This suggestion must have been rooted in his childhood to be buried so deeply in the depths of his Yajian without a trace. Now, as long as his Yajian does not want to let go, the barrier is very difficult to break."

"Then we have no choice but to continue destroying his Yajian. This kid seems to have become indifferent to the electric shocks; should we try a different way of playing?"

Hearing no answer, Luo Qi hoped he would hurry and try a different way of playing, anything at all, as long as it could let him escape the electric shocks.

Zhao Zhiyan said again, "Actually, I always feel that Du Zhengyi would not expose too much of his own information to him."

Luo Qi was startled; did Zhao Zhiyan just say something in his favor? Could it be that Zhao Zhiyan was already tired of torturing him and wanted to get off work early?

"That is not important," Li Xu replied. "What is important is that we cannot let go of any brain that is entangled with this matter."

Luo Qi gave up hope; just as he had guessed, Li Xu had intended from the start that regardless of whether he betrayed Du Zhengyi or not, he would eventually chisel open his brain. Fortunately, he had said nothing; otherwise, the information he provided subjectively would have become an index for browsing his brain. Once Li Xu entered his Yajian, he would extract the relevant information from his Yajian even faster.

Now he was powerless and could only let others slaughter him. His vision was murky, and he could not see things clearly; everything before his eyes was just blurred shadows. As time passed, those shadows became increasingly blurred, and gradually even the outlines became somewhat indistinguishable. Losing his vision made one focus more on the world of Yajian, and of course, made one more panicked; they were probably making him blind on purpose. Somehow, he suddenly remembered the corpse in the Qi Family courtyard whose eyes had been nailed through.

A thought flashed through his mind. He now remembered that he did indeed know that there was a wicked custom of killing baby girls in some deep mountains; this was something he truly knew. He could even recall in detail roughly when he saw the news and where he saw it. But that was a long time ago, and, the steel needles in the news he remembered were stuck into the baby girls' stomachs.

But on that day in the teahouse, when he wanted to use an incredible story to attract Guan Xinyue and close the distance between them, he suddenly thought of the terrifying situation of steel needles being stuck into eyes. He combined this inspiration with an expired piece of news to tell a thriller story. The story was told so realistically that even Du Zhengyi had his attention drawn by it.

His heart pounded wildly; he felt he had found the key point, and he was about to figure it out, but the answer remained separated from him by a layer. He became angry, then suddenly froze, feeling that he was ridiculous. He might be about to reach the end in a muddled state; what was the use of figuring it out at the very last moment?

In a daze, he heard Zhao Zhiyan say, "Of course that is the case, I just wanted to say, I am even more curious about why the monk is afraid when he sees him."

Fuck, Luo Qi cursed in his heart; just a moment ago he had actually thought Zhao Zhiyan wanted to persuade his teacher to let him go, but it turned out he just wanted to remind his teacher not to forget other points that made it impossible to let him go.

"Once the experiment of dealing with Luo Qi is finished, it will of course be the monk's turn."

"But, although it is said that extreme fear and pain can make people give up the will to survive, causing cracks to appear in the soul. But Luo Qi is a Mage after all; if any particularly obvious traces are left on him, it will be impossible to account for it afterward. His parents will definitely demand an explanation, and I don't think Pei Shu will just stand by and do nothing."

"That is indeed true," Li Xu agreed gently, yet he appeared unhurried and confident.

Luo Qi thought with disgust that he was playing all the same rotten tunes.

"I think it wouldn't hurt to try human materials; perhaps it will be helpful. Stones from other hills may serve to polish the jade of this one."

Luo Qi did not know what he wanted to try; what human material was there that Magic could not replace? What was so useful that it could make this Lotus Burner condescend to use it?

He heard Zhao Zhiyan's puzzled voice, "Perfluorocarbon Solution?"

A chemical name? Luo Qi was stunned. Then he felt that this name was very familiar; he seemed to have seen it somewhere, certainly not in the world of Mages. Did his human friends mention it? It didn't seem like it; they were not studious people, and they had no interest in chemistry; the only chemical term they remembered after graduating from high school was probably carbon dioxide.

Slowly, he remembered that he seemed to have read it in some novel, some human novel.

A hand landed on his shoulder, interrupting his train of thought; it was Li Xu's hand, and he said gently, "Child, are you ready? Let's have another round."

Luo Qi felt a severe physiological discomfort at his words, and coupled with the fact that he had been struck by lightning too many times, his control ability was very weak, and he opened his mouth and vomited on him.

If Luo Qi's vision were normal, he could have seen how comical Li Xu looked. Even if he couldn't see, his heart felt very satisfied. But if he could have seen the water tank appearing on the Obsidian table that was large enough to fit a living person, he would probably have been left with nothing but despair.

"Child," Li Xu said after cleaning himself up, "you can no longer control yourself; this was the experimental result I wanted in the first place, so I don't blame you."

Luo Qi instinctively felt nervous.

"Death by suffocation is a process of slowly letting go," he said. "The moment of death is always very suitable for extracting Yajian. Shall we make a bet? I will bet on whether I can unlock the Intent Lock in your brain amidst the panic and despair before you drown, and extract useful information from your Yajian in your final moment of life. As for you, you bet on whether you can take the secret to your grave. Little friend, you like human culture so much, do you remember how humans solve the Nine-Linked Rings puzzle?"