Chapter 462: Ruins 6

They didn't even care that Liu Ziyi was still here!

Luo Qi closed his eyes, forcibly suppressing the anger that kept churning and escalating. When he opened his eyes again, Liu Ziyi happened to be looking at him inquiringly, having turned her head because she hadn't received a response for a long time. As their eyes met, he clearly saw the purity and simplicity in hers. Luo Qi felt a bit dizzy; he hadn't noticed before that her eyes were so clear and distinct, just like a child's. He hadn't realized she was actually so young, because her wisdom always made her seem especially mature. This young, genius Experimental Mage had infinite possibilities in her future; she would repair and decipher who knows how many ancient Spells, yet they actually viewed her as a loss that could be paid?

If Luo Qi truly lost control, her brain would also be torn open.

Were they born stupid, or did they actually have nine parts of confidence in Luo Qi? Luo Qi swallowed, and a new thought vaguely emerged in his mind—perhaps things were out of control?

The grand spectacle of thousands of puppets couldn't have been arranged specifically for Luo Qi; this might be a fixed test environment, a fixed testing procedure for unstable Mind Mages. But for some reason, the arrangements were a bit out of control. Qionglin had been continuously out of control for a while now; perhaps it was related to the Lotus Burners, or perhaps it had to do with Qionglin itself.

Qionglin was no longer as orderly as the legends of the past, though Luo Qi suspected that Qionglin had never been perfectly orderly at all; it had just always been able to self-heal, able to balance. If a human stood here observing Qionglin, they would certainly easily reach such a conclusion; humans would not believe that an institution could be eternal. And for Mages accustomed to Magic power, the trust in Qionglin was like superstition. Amidst his bitterness, Luo Qi felt a trace of luck; fortunately, he was more like a human, fortunately, he could think like a human and could stand on the outside looking at the Mage World. That was why he realized all of this was wrong—not quite right.

Qionglin's consistent theory was that because the Mage race was on the verge of extinction and the Mage World was fragile, all Mages had an obligation to contribute everything to their own race, without fear of sacrifice. Even if the one to be sacrificed was a little girl like Liu Ziyi, or a good person like Du Zhengyi. They were all making sacrifices for the common great cause led by Qionglin, as if they were not living beings, not flesh and blood, without the rights of an independent individual, without the value of existing as a complete soul...

Luo Qi himself had officially become the next one. They observed him as if monitoring livestock, pushing him into this Sandbox to test his reactions, to test the limits of his capabilities, to test if he was an out-of-control weapon, and whether he would be accompanied by massive radioactive hazards like human nuclear weapons. If Liu Ziyi hadn't successfully shut down the Monitoring Magic network, those members of the Investigation Team he had seen a few days ago should be in their office right now, watching his every performance through three-dimensional Magic images, evaluating every bit of Magic Ability he displayed. He felt shame and anger, as if he were being stripped bare and studied, as if he were a monkey being toyed with.

It served them right that they were unlucky; the one who came down with him was Liu Ziyi, and now they could only wait blindly. The loss of control was continuously triggering chain reactions, as if the turning point had been calculated by someone. This might be his Luck, and he had to seize every opportunity.

His Luck was indeed very subtle; if the Seal his parents placed on him were still there, he should have left the Mage registry, stepped into the human world, and become a Mage who luckily escaped a disaster. But he discovered he would never agree with his parents' actions; he was Luo Qi, he was himself, he had the right to choose, and he had made his own choice.

In the increasingly thick darkness of the dilapidated house, he grabbed Liu Ziyi's shoulder, and his other finger pointed at the ceiling—they needed a better perspective to observe.

Liu Ziyi's pupils shifted slightly, and after a brief hesitation, she nodded affirmatively. Luo Qi breathed a sigh of relief; her intelligence and agility were at least on par with her senior brother, and both were especially easy to talk to, requiring no effort from him in communication.

Luo Qi slowly stood up and guided Liu Ziyi toward a corridor he had already spotted; the concrete stairs were behind the door leading to the corridor. Liu Ziyi took off her leather shoes behind him; she didn't know how the hearing of these puppets was, and she didn't want to take the risk. He glanced at her actions and secretly noted her meticulousness. Someone like her had to live; he had to let her live; she deserved to live to the end and get the life she should have. Her senior brother was the same...

Fury burned once again in Luo Qi's internal organs; the emotions that should have been unbalanced instead achieved a brief balance. He had been terrified, and the instinct for survival would have made it easier for him to lose control, but now the anger neutralized most of the fear. He was standing on the edge of a cliff; this was the true test Qionglin had given him. If he passed, he would resolve his greatest current crisis. If he failed, he would disappear from the plane of existence, and Du Zhengyi outside would follow suit, not long for this world. The great darkness looming over them would have won, everything would be meaningless, and his existence as a person would have its value completely erased.

Liu Ziyi suddenly grabbed his sleeve and shook it.

They were silently climbing up the stairs, and he looked back down at Liu Ziyi from the step above. She was looking up, her face flashing with terror, her eyes wide open.

【What is it?】 He sent a pure, questioning Yajian into her mind, doing it more easily than any other time. He didn't even consider technique, nor did he consider Liu Ziyi's brain structure; he just let the thought turn naturally. Then he saw Liu Ziyi shiver; suddenly hearing another person's voice in one's Yajian was probably not very comfortable, especially since the two of them were not close, nor were they familiar with each other's souls.

He felt Liu Ziyi trying hard to concentrate, "forcefully" thinking of a sentence, and this directed message was successfully conveyed to his mind. 【Luo Qi, what happened? I feel the power in you suddenly increasing, so strong that I can feel it directly. Are you okay?】

Luo Qi looked straight into her eyes and raised his hand to make a soothing, downward-pressing gesture, telling her everything was fine. He didn't want to touch her Yajian too frequently unless absolutely necessary. Liu Ziyi almost dodged the Mind Mage's direct gaze, but at the last moment, she still raised her eyes to meet Luo Qi's and nodded at him.

He turned around and focused on the steps, climbing all the way to the fourth floor, far enough from the ground, with a good enough observation angle, and no obstruction from tall trees. He crossed the dust-covered floor and carefully approached the window. Against the east wall near the window leaned a row of sofa remains, and there were some other pieces of furniture in the room, but in the darkness, Luo Qi couldn't see them clearly. He looked down from the corner of the window; the outdoors was brighter than the indoors, and the last bit of light of the day still lingered on the plaza.

Those things, the puppets, black heads constantly approaching the fountain, crawling over the knee-high concrete pool edge, fishing for Energy Pills in the dry fountain. Another hand touched near his face, scaring him into a shudder; he turned back and gave Liu Ziyi a threatening look.

Liu Ziyi didn't look at him; her eyes were wider than before, as if some greater fear had firmly glued her gaze there; she was so afraid she didn't even dare to shift her eyes. She raised that hand and pointed her index finger in one direction.

Luo Qi looked in the direction she was staring at; among the black heads moving along fixed trajectories on the plaza, there was one black head that was motionless. That puppet, unlike all the others, was sitting quietly on a chair in the plaza, as if relying on self-awareness to decide to sit there and enjoy the evening breeze. In a sea of puppet zombies, this scene looked exceptionally eerie and terrifying.