Chapter 456: Limitations

Sand blown by the wind landed on Luo Qi's face, worked its way into his collar, and mixed with his sweat to stick thickly to his skin. He silently reflected that within twenty-four hours he had gotten dirt on his face twice and was drenched in sweat, his inner garments already soaked through, and it would take no more than sixty minutes for him to become thoroughly foul-smelling. He had just downed 500ml of water in one gulp, barely staving off the threat of dehydration.

"I thought there would be something different." He ground the rough gravel under his boot soles, speaking absentmindedly. He lifted his head to gaze at the distant snow-capped mountains he had long since grown familiar with; the mountain range showed no difference from his memory.

"This place is completely different now." Liu Ziyu suddenly spoke beside him in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Ah?"

"Atmospheric pressure is roughly at plain level, and the composition of the air has undergone a complete change—that is the greatest difference." Liu Ziyu said, lifting her head to draw a deep breath; her unfocused gaze also swept over those distant mountains, fixing sharply on a point for a second. "Don't trust those mountains—they might not be anything real, it's too easy to fake snow-capped peaks at this distance. But faking air pressure and atmospheric composition over a large area would be extremely difficult. Right now, the water vapor content in the air exceeds one percent, which is the biggest change in air composition. So this is no longer the dry early spring of the Highland; the terrain certainly won't be as barren as it looks."

Luo Qi was drawn in, involuntarily recalling Du Zhengyi's godlike insight; now his junior martial sister seemed to be giving him a simplified lecture on the matter. Perhaps the method was never difficult—Du Zhengyi had never pretended to be mysterious; to him these things were as obvious as a full moon at night, and he couldn't tell these people with their eyes closed.

Liu Ziyu busied herself, ignoring the dazed Luo Qi, pulling a chain from inside her collar, at the end of which hung a silver pendant set with a rare energy crystal. Luo Qi's attention was caught—the necklace resembled Du Zhengyi's too closely, and he couldn't help glancing at it several times before realizing it made clear the teacher-student lineage and karmic connection between the two of them.

Liu Ziyu then meticulously converted her earlier words into characters, recording them as an observation log into her energy crystal—thoroughly and completely, like a little bookworm.

Luo Qi watched her, feeling an unfamiliar sense of urgency slide down his throat into his stomach. This girl's demeanor was like someone bustling about in a lab—though a genius, still somewhat clueless. She was a mage, yet appeared less sharp than Guan Xinyue, a human, and let's not even mention that Guan Xinyue's responsibility had always been assigned to Mahjong. He had always been accustomed to being the weakest among them, but now, a lone girl with arms and legs thinner than his, more fragile than he, possibly because he had dragged her into trouble—this combination of attributes made him feel quite anxious. He sensed that if he let her come to harm, Du Zhengyi would likely not be pleased, after all they wore identical chains. So although he was not capable, and his current state was hardly good, he also had to bring her out unharmed.

"Let's keep moving forward, okay?" Luo Qi licked his lips, which had quickly dried and cracked again, and urged as gently as he could, "Make haste."

"All right, but which direction should we go?" Liu Ziyu asked, glancing behind her where the Highland Mage's home lay hidden behind the trees. They stood on an unpaved village road, coarse gravel filling the ground as far as the eye could see, until the mountain base where some residual snow lingered. Vegetation consisted mostly of shrubs, sparsely scattered along the roadside, looking lifeless. In other words, no matter which direction they took, it seemed equally dull.

"It's obvious we must follow the hint." Luo Qi said, "No matter how fake this place is, we should still head toward the Pendragon Orbital Station."

"Yeah, I just realized that if that's a trap, we'd just run straight into it." Liu Ziyu muttered under her breath, tucking the necklace back into her collar.

Luo Qi glanced at her, "They don't need to set a trap."

Liu Ziyu looked at her, puzzled.

"They could just make the ground beneath our feet a trap right now—no need to go through all this trouble to toy with us."

"Oh." Liu Ziyu suddenly deflated, "You're right."

"Ziyi, actually we already agreed on this." Luo Qi bit his lip, speaking earnestly, "Once we make a decision, we shouldn't keep going back and forth over other options."

"Right, right, you're right." Liu Ziyu made a face, as if even she were a bit annoyed with herself.

Luo Qi studied her closely for two seconds, roughly recognizing this as her unique lab-induced distraction. He had no choice but to adapt to her, or rather to adapt to them both not being Du Zhengyi. But this slight distraction caused his pulse to quicken, his blood pressure to creep upward; he swiftly quelled his anger and despondency, firmly suppressing a budding hallucination.

"Let's go." He gritted his teeth, turned, and strode toward the orbital station twenty kilometers away.

He heard Liu Ziyu hurry up behind him, swiftly catching up to his side. Fortunately, she was a self-contained person, very quiet, and wouldn't keep wanting to talk heart-to-heart like Guan Xinyue. But he also didn't use this quiet marching time to do what he loved most; he firmly restrained his mental probing to a range limited to a ten-meter radius centered on himself.

This amounted to shutting down most of his abilities, especially while still in an unknown environment, and he soon felt even more anxious, irritable beyond endurance, like an old smoker hit by a nicotine craving.

But even without a sense of security, he could not expand his detection range. Ten minutes earlier he had emphasized loyalty and trust to Liu Ziyu—actually those words were more like him speaking to himself; he had to repeatedly remind himself of one fact—he completely trusted Du Zhengyi, whether or not Du Zhengyi was present. Even if Du Zhengyi asked him to do something that completely violated his instincts, like him falling into deep water while Du Zhengyi told him not to struggle.

The item in his pocket was Du Zhengyi's note, which to him was crystal clear, utterly self-evident. As early as when Du Zhengyi first dragged him out of the mire, Du Zhengyi had clearly and directly blamed his father for castrating him. Yes, castrated him, using sharp, precise words without mercy, yet highly summarizing the essence of the matter; every time he heard it he flinched. For him to forget this vicious term was utterly impossible. So when Du Zhengyi nearly shoved a copy of *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer* into his hands, the meaning here was self-evident.

Anyone who has read *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*, upon seeing this book, would immediately think of two things: either lamenting Linghu Chong's lifelong pursuit—ah, junior martial sister—or—practicing this skill requires first castrating oneself. Since Du Zhengyi was unlikely to suddenly become obsessively infatuated with Liu Ziyu at this juncture, it could only be that he was hinting to himself to use his abilities with great restraint and cunning, best limited to the extent of self-castration.

Luo Qi dared not say he fully understood the purpose of doing this, but the matter was certainly urgent and important. Thus everything returned to the beginning—he must completely trust Du Zhengyi, for only trust is the life jacket in deep water.

His hand reached into his pocket and clenched the prickly pine branch—perhaps Du Zhengyi was telling him to be brave, that being the symbolic meaning of the pine tree. But perhaps also…… everyone knows the Supreme Committee's alias, Qionglin. That mage power core surrounded by pine forests, which takes the pine tree as its designation. Perhaps Du Zhengyi was telling him that all this comes from Qionglin.

Qionglin, that bunch of bastards……

"Ah!" Liu Ziyu suddenly cried out in a low voice, then grabbed Luo Qi's arm.

Luo Qi withdrew his attention from his reverie and asked softly, "What?"

Liu Ziyu didn't need to answer, for he only needed to lift his head and cast his gaze farther, where he immediately saw what had made her exclaim. "Damn…… what is that? A concrete building?"