Chapter 452: The Fifth Protocol

Once again, Luo Qi felt that same concise and sharp quality from Liu Ziyi that he had felt from Du Zhengyi. He vaguely thought that this might be the Qionglin mark; perhaps those who grew up in Qionglin from childhood would inevitably always be left with a similar mark. Whether it was Du Zhengyi or Liu Ziyi, they were both genius children who had been sent into Qionglin early on.

They headed straight back upstairs to the experimental hall located on the first basement level.

The original lighting in the hall had all been turned off, and the surroundings were deathly silent; the only light source was the Fireball in Liu Ziyi's hand. Now that Fireball had turned blue and no longer looked like a flame. She had converted it into a cold light source.

"I don't know what happened, but now is not the time to use open flames," Liu Ziyi noted Luo Qi's gaze and explained. After she finished speaking, she made a face and stuck out her tongue. "Actually, it's never a good time to use open flames; it's too dangerous. But you know, if mages don't use flames, it always feels a bit strange."

Luo Qi nodded, his gaze already turning to check the surrounding situation, and he commented offhandedly, "It really does look like a giant firefly."

"Mm," Liu Ziyi responded vaguely. She hesitated for a moment, then tentatively let the cold light source split, attaching a layer of Anti-gravity Magic to it, and the cold light drifted slowly through the hall.

Luo Qi couldn't help but shiver; the empty underground hall was like a cold, giant Tomb, and the eerily floating blue ball of light looked exactly like will-o'-the-wisps between graves. In this atmosphere, it felt as if the dead were everywhere.

He tried his best to forget the terrifying associations and began to carefully examine his surroundings; everything was not much different from the experimental hall in his memory. A filtration device was humming as it operated, a large pile of manuscripts was messily stacked on a nearby tabletop, a large drawing was laid flat in the middle of the junk pile, and a pen was placed diagonally on top of it, the ink from the tip slowly staining the drawing and creating a large smudge in the bottom right corner. Luo Qi couldn't help but think that when they returned, there would surely be a Technical mage who would have a breakdown in front of this drawing.

However, more importantly, they had left in such a hurry that they couldn't even finish their work before retreating in a panic. The only comforting thing was that there were no signs of a battle here, no signs of any extreme Magic having been released.

Luo Qi frowned and checked the gauge Liu Ziyi used to test for radioactive materials once again; the reading had not suddenly increased. "At least they weren't forced away by a Curse."

"Right," Liu Ziyi said. She walked over to an experimental bench piled high with clutter, pushed aside the junk on top, pressed her palm into a rectangular groove on the tabletop, and pushed in a movable panel. She muttered, "I need to reopen this laboratory, first restore the energy monitoring system, then open the Sensing Crystal Matrix to see what happened up there."

Luo Qi didn't speak; he was certain that Liu Ziyi was reciting the mission procedure and didn't need him to answer. He looked at the time; from the moment Liu Ziyi found him to them leaving the hall together and until now, no more than thirty minutes had passed. In such a short time, what could have happened over their heads?

He heard Liu Ziyi whisper a few vague words to herself, then suddenly let out a clear, "Huh?"

Luo Qi immediately turned his head to look at her; her eyes were wide. "Mage Protocol 1981, number five? Are you kidding me?"

"What is that?" Luo Qi leaned over, staring at the hand Liu Ziyi was pressing tightly against the panel, and then wisps of Yajian traces appeared. He caught that wisp of Yajian, and immediately a clear voice appeared in his mind; that voice said a string of numbers.

He was stunned for a moment. When the numbers echoed in his mind for the second time, he distinguished that it was a 16-digit number. Then these 16 digits were repeated a third time, a fourth time... Luo Qi realized that this was a looping broadcast of Yajian, the content being the 16-digit number, released by an Energy Crystal. Because this segment of Yajian was too simple—simpler than the thoughts of a mouse—it had escaped Luo Qi's Yajian detection. He was already accustomed to filtering Yajian, only detecting complex intelligence, otherwise, it would be too noisy.

Liu Ziyi was not a Mind Mage, so she needed to be in direct contact with the Crystal to receive the information. Luo Qi realized this and immediately tightened the mesh of his Yajian filtering; in an instant, dozens of voices sounded in his mind at once, like dozens of mouths reciting the fixed 16-digit number simultaneously. The effect was so hypnotic that Luo Qi shuddered and hurriedly blocked the simple Yajian again.

"A 16-digit number?" He asked, turning to Liu Ziyi. In a flash, he suddenly thought that in human movies, when a base faced a crisis, red lights would flash in every corner of the base, and a mechanical voice would play a warning. The current situation was so similar to that of humans, only the mage race used Yajian, acting directly on people's minds. It was not hard to imagine that when this experimental hall was in use, all the mages were using Crystals, everyone's Magic was connected to the Crystals, and at some moment, this 16-digit number rang through everyone's minds.

"The 16-digit number is a code," Liu Ziyi said hurriedly, her speaking speed becoming even faster than usual. Given that she already spoke faster than everyone else, Luo Qi could barely keep up with her. "This code is one of the codes that personnel in the experimental hall must memorize; the code means the Fifth Protocol in the 'Mage Protocol 1981'." Her hand had already left the panel, and she turned her head, staring at Luo Qi with a pale face. "The Fifth Protocol is the retreat protocol. It means we have suffered a level-two attack, an external danger is coming, but there is still some time. We must immediately dismantle all important Energy Crystals according to the Fifth Protocol, carry the Crystals and leave the laboratory, rendezvous with the Battle Mages, and head to the second backup point for the current location."

Luo Qi swallowed, not knowing which part to respond to first. "That means..."

"That means the danger should have already arrived by now." Liu Ziyi looked up subconsciously, unable to stop her hands from trembling. "It also means the useful Energy Crystals have all been taken away; I cannot connect to the Sensing Crystals that were originally here. Now I am blind and deaf. I don't understand, who exactly attacked this place? Is it a traitor in Qionglin? Fan Shi? Or the Lotus Burner? How could they know about this place? I get it, the attack you suffered was the first wave of attacks!"

"Wait, don't be afraid, fear is useless. Do you know where the so-called second backup point is?" Luo Qi asked. In truth, he had also suffered a severe shock, but since Liu Ziyi had started panicking first, he had to give up the opportunity to panic.

"I know," Liu Ziyi said. She understood what Luo Qi meant and stabilized slightly. "Our second backup point here is Gongbu, in the canyon of the Highland, downstream of the Great River."

Luo Qi thought quickly. "Then we'll go there too; perhaps there's still time. Maybe the attack has already happened, and we just happened to avoid it by being underground."

Liu Ziyi managed a faint smile. "You're really optimistic."

She looked up and met Luo Qi's eyes, and Luo Qi felt the same thought rise in each of their minds—no matter what happened, it must be very serious; they might not have enough time to reach the nearest Pendragon Orbital System station.

That was twenty kilometers away.