Chapter 465: Ruins 9

"Ten o'clock direction, one hundred meters away, find a way to make some sound."

Luo Qi said through Yajian.

Liu Ziyi, who was sitting on the floor, shivered slightly; she still needed to put in more effort to adapt to the strange feeling of having something suddenly stuffed into her brain. She looked up and saw Luo Qi observing the plaza through the window, the resolute expression on his face looking somewhat like Du Zhengyi.

His task description was clear, and also had a bit of Du Zhengyi's style. She turned her head to look outside the window at the position Luo Qi had described, which was about reaching the building area across the plaza. She pondered for a few seconds, then raised her hand to summon a Spell.

The Secret Language described the form of a Sound Wave, and she inserted a Delay Spell between each word, causing this Sound Wave, which could have formed instantly, to be delayed by sixty seconds. Only after sixty seconds could the Secret Language finish describing the waveform completely; only when the description was finished would the air vibrate accordingly and produce sound. Liu Ziyi nimbly wrapped the Spell in a Sound Transmission Bubble and blew the bubble out of the window, a string of Teleportation Magic gently attached behind the bubble, describing the teleportation distance.

Luo Qi watched the bubble fly across the plaza. In the plaza, which was about to enter complete darkness, the transparent bubble was not too obvious, and the humanoid creatures in the plaza did not look up. Most of the puppets were still engaged in feeding activities; those that hadn't eaten had a singular, aggressive goal, while those that had finished eating seemed to have suddenly lost their purpose, wandering aimlessly around the plaza.

The bubble burst when it hit the wall of the building diagonally opposite. Luo Qi heard a low scream come from the opposite side. What Liu Ziyi had created was a human voice, slightly louder than a normal conversation volume. Luo Qi gripped the window frame, which had no glass, tightly. Liu Ziyi sat on the floor, observing the puppets in the plaza just as nervously from a lower vantage point.

The puppet closest to the sound source turned its neck sluggishly. The movement was very strange; it didn't look like it was searching for the source of the sound, but rather like livestock that had suddenly realized the existence of a collar.

Luo Qi took everything in. Liu Ziyi let out a breath beside him, and in a soft voice, using her own throat, she said, "It seems they aren't very sensitive to sound."

"No, look at that," Luo Qi muttered, his face paler than before. He pointed his index finger at the chair near the sound source. That puppet sitting on the bench was just as disheveled as the others; from such a distance, no further details could be seen. What made him different from the other puppets since just now was his sense of purpose. While the other puppets were urged by silent commands to feed eagerly, he was not in a hurry. When the other puppets finished feeding and entered a wandering state, his head turned toward the direction where the bubble had burst, gazing for a long time, as if thinking...

Liu Ziyi must have seen it too; he heard the girl let out a long gasp. The situation might be trickier than they had originally anticipated.

"What do you say?" he asked.

"I..." She felt frustrated for a moment, also hoping to have a wise insight into the current situation, but her long-standing habit of being realistic and pragmatic made her finally give up on reaching a conclusion and instead turn to the laboratory methods she was accustomed to. "I'll stick to my own field. I have to say they aren't very sensitive to sound. Do you think fresh blood would stimulate them?"

"Test whether they would get excited and attack like sharks following a drop of blood?" Luo Qi said. He pondered for a while, finally shook his head, and said slowly, "My intuition is that the one sitting down is the key."

"Intuition," Liu Ziyi repeated dismissively, muttering, "Intuition is unreliable."

"I can see his brain activity is higher than the other... other..." Luo Qi gritted his teeth, not knowing which word was most appropriate.

"Those dead husks," Liu Ziyi whispered, choosing a word for him.

"Those people," Luo Qi restated, "have higher brain activity than those people."

"Has he reached the standard of a normal person?" Liu Ziyi asked curiously.

"I didn't look closely, I think the overall scale shouldn't have reached it. But you know this is hard to define; human brain activity is also lower than us Mages," Luo Qi said.

"Can't you analyze his brain? They say you can even take apart a Mage's brain," Liu Ziyi asked.

"I... can't right now."

"Why do I feel like you're being evasive?"

Luo Qi was flustered for a moment, but fortunately, he immediately found an excuse. "Don't you think he looks like a sheepdog?"

"It's too far, I can't see clearly whether he looks like a dog," Liu Ziyi said seriously.

"No, that's not what I meant." Luo Qi sighed to himself; he could never remember just how literal this Experimental Mage could be, and from time to time, she would interpret people's words literally. "If I used 'lead dog', would that be more appropriate?"

Liu Ziyi gave a disgruntled "Oh," finally understanding.

"He might be the key point," Luo Qi said, trying his best to conceal the reason why he shouldn't over-utilize his Yajian ability. "If I probe his brain, it might trigger some pre-set attack command."

However, the real result could also be that he could control the entire group of puppets by controlling him. This thought made his blood boil; his anger and desire for revenge made him want to control this brutal, primitive, and evil group to tear the person behind them to shreds. However, his brain quickly cooled down; the thought of controlling so many incomplete brains made him nauseous, and it also went against Du Zhengyi's hints.

Fortunately, Liu Ziyi pondered and agreed with his words. "We should indeed adopt a conservative strategy; we can't risk provoking their entire little society."

"I have a premonition," Luo Qi said lowly. "If we can hide for a few days, we might be able to exhaust the patience of the person behind the scenes. Winning without fighting is the best."

"Yeah," Liu Ziyi said unenthusiastically. "Turtles can live for a thousand years."