Chapter 427: Trial (4)

Luo Qi paused slightly, thinking secretly.

Du Zhengyi had told him that there was no need to admit to anything the other party did not know, and no need to help the other party clarify anything.

He thought rapidly; in reality, he had been to the Black Market twice in total, or strictly speaking, perhaps three times, but the last two times occurred so close together that they could count as one. Of these three visits to the Black Market, the first was with Du Zhengyi, and the latter two he went to by himself. All three times he did not appear in his own image, and all three images were intended to gain a psychological advantage at the time. The first time he was Ata of Wushan, the second time he was simply Du Zhengyi, and the third time he improvised... what was that female broker's name again? Yao Yu.

Peng Xiaopeng actually asked very vaguely, and Luo Qi doubted whether he really understood the situation at the time.

After a moment's thought, Luo Qi summarized his behavior in one sentence, "I was drunk."

A "hiss" sound almost escaped Peng Xiaopeng's mouth; he was probably about to be choked with anger by Luo Qi. "Do I need to remind you that you also snatched a cat from the market?" he said sarcastically.

"Du Zhengyi paid for it!" Luo Qi said righteously.

Clearly that was not the point, but what could Peng Xiaopeng say? He patiently reminded Luo Qi, "You severely assaulted several wandering Mages."

"They attacked me first." Luo Qi looked at him earnestly, "Can I not fight back? If you think I used excessive force..."

"Then you returned to the Zhouqiao Grass Market, specifically to take revenge on one person." Peng Xiaopeng asked.

Luo Qi understood that he had indeed done a lot of investigation and had already grasped quite a bit of the situation. His hands slid back into his trouser pockets, "Dai Wei?"

"It seems you remember very clearly." Peng Xiaopeng narrowed his eyes, looked up to study his expression, and incidentally applied some pressure on him.

Luo Qi realized that this pretty boy was actually not that "white" after all; he was not entirely green, and his life experience points were likely mainly trained in interrogation skills. He had been observing Luo Qi's face, but Luo Qi had no face. No, no, no, Luo Qi corrected himself in his heart; he did not have no face, he only had a pure mask of a face. His breathing frequency, his heartbeat, and his micro-expressions all came from his own simulation database. The exterior he revealed to these people was a virtual Luo Qi he had molded himself.

Everyone believed he was a dangerous Mind Mage, but everyone also believed he was not that dangerous. This seemed contradictory, but it was better to say that all small-minded people thought he would eventually grow into an uncontrollable Mind Mage, yet they looked down on him as he was now, thinking he was nothing but a little monkey.

"Yes." Luo Qi pulled his right hand out of his pocket, pressed two fingers against the edge of the table in front of him, and gently licked his lips; his eyes gradually turned somewhat red. "Of course I remember him. He also had a younger brother, a confirmed High-Reaction Child, and it was Du Zhengyi, who was performing his official duties, who took his brother away and sent him to the underground Cube of Qionglin."

Whispers broke out among the Mages sitting in the shadows, and Luo Qi continued, "Dai Wei bought a murder at the Zhouqiao Grass Market, and the target was Du Zhengyi."

The noise became clearer.

Peng Xiaopeng asked, "So?"

Luo Qi did not care at all about the harsh reproach in Peng Xiaopeng's emphasis, but his eyes looked even redder. He blinked, and the excitement of being forced into a corner was reflected in his rotating pupils. "I asked him to withdraw the Jianghu Kill Order."

"Threatening him with Mind Mage tricks?" Peng Xiaopeng asked.

"I am a Mind Mage. If I didn't use Mind Mage tricks, I could have knelt down and begged him." Luo Qi said earnestly.

Someone could not help but let out a laugh, and Luo Qi raised his eyes, glancing hurriedly toward the source of the laughter.

Peng Xiaopeng waited for the echo of that laugh to disappear completely; it must have been some Battle Mage. Mind Mages were always sinister, while Battle Mages were always unscrupulous.

Unexpectedly, the child above opened his mouth to ask a question. He opened those deer-like eyes and asked almost innocently, "Excuse me, did I leave Dai Wei with any serious sequelae?"

Peng Xiaopeng was unwilling to answer, but this was a public inquiry, and the meaning of "public" was that the people listening came from various factions, and the entire process of the inquiry would be spread in a small circle later.

"There were none."

Luo Qi seemed to heave a sigh of relief, "Is he the one accusing me?"

Peng Xiaopeng hesitated for a moment. A trap was hidden beneath Luo Qi's question; if he were the one accusing Luo Qi, then he would simultaneously be admitting to buying a murder and assaulting an important Battle Mage and Execution Mage of Qionglin. Qionglin had to take action on this matter, otherwise, it would be self-destructing its own prestige.

"No." Peng Xiaopeng pondered before saying slowly, "It was an anonymous report."

Luo Qi said nothing and did not respond. Instead, he looked at Peng Xiaopeng silently with his large eyes for a full few dozen seconds. "If I left him with any sequelae... I don't want to say sorry either; I am not a hypocritical person. Someone who assaults a lone Mage serving Qionglin and can still walk away unscathed is not worth an apology from me."

All Mind Mages gave the impression of having nothing to do with bravery; they were magicians who hid in the shadows to curse others, people who hid behind Battle Mages to strike secretly. However, Luo Qi appeared simple and brave; he actually blocked bullets for a Battle Mage, and he actually appeared reckless and direct. Peng Xiaopeng shifted uncomfortably in his seat; he keenly felt that Luo Qi was actually gradually winning the favor of the Battle Mages here.

In front of him, Luo Qi stared with innocent, large eyes, watching him quietly, without any triumph of victory; he was still waiting quietly for him, waiting for him to continue asking questions. Like a... little chick waiting to be hunted.

He shook his head, shaking off this strange sense of dissonance. He checked the notes he had prepared in advance, "Then let us return to the original question: why did you go to the Zhouqiao Grass Market while you were recuperating?"

This was the most insignificant question, and Luo Qi said, "I went to buy things, to help Doctor Ma sell things."

He briefly narrated the cause of the matter, omitting all their speculations; he just begged an older brother who could not refuse his younger brother to take him for a stroll, to buy back a Calculation Crystal for the doctor that could solve the Guan Family mystery. He pondered their judgment regarding the Psychic Beast; Peng Xiaopeng did not delve into any of it. As expected, they were bypassing Fan Shi's mistakes, and they were avoiding the Venerable.

That did not matter to Luo Qi at all; he had not wanted to say too much anyway.

Perhaps because of this, the inquiry only lasted for a little over two hours, which was already much shorter than Luo Qi had expected. After Peng Xiaopeng finished questioning him, the Battle Mage representative Xiang Qian asked him about his physical characteristics. This part was the easiest; he told the truth, and in the parts where Battle Mages excelled, he was almost at zero.

The last ones to ask questions were the Mind Mages; many of them had already been impatient for a long time, and they took turns asking Luo Qi many questions. The part that made Luo Qi the proudest was that Luo Qi could not understand most of their questions at all!

As a category of Magic that formed an independent system, Mind Mage Magic had its own endless concepts. Luo Qi was a wild-path Mind Mage who knew nothing about the concepts, so he could not even understand the premise of the questions. Every Mage who asked him a question had to spend effort explaining to him what they were actually asking, and in the end, even Liu Li lost her patience.