Chapter 473: Ruins 17

The first rays of dawn fell upon the city ruins, where rows of dilapidated reinforced concrete buildings stood in deathly silence; the city was like a massive graveyard.

A puppet walked sluggishly into the street. The grit that had blown into the city from the Gobi Desert the day before had vanished, and the street was clean once more. Or rather, as clean as it had been on some day many years ago.

The puppet was a man, a boy. He wore a vest and a tattered jacket, his exposed collarbones thin and prominent. He walked slowly along the street, his gait stumbling, as if he had forgotten how to walk. He stopped for a moment by a car on the side of the road, tentatively and clumsily bending down to peer into the vehicle.

A gust of wind blew from the Gobi, and he straightened his back, raising a thin arm to shield his eyes. A cacophony of noise came from the underground to the west; he turned his head to look, then looked at the sun, seemingly trying to identify his location. Then he turned into a narrow alley, continuing along it toward the city center.

His pace was hurried, getting faster and faster, his gait becoming increasingly steady. Sweat streamed down his forehead, and grit stuck to his body. Had he walked ten kilometers? Twelve? The distance was hard to judge, but he finally approached a plaza.

The plaza connected to eight roads, and in the center stood an Obelisk; other than that, there was only the hollow sound of wind in the plaza. The young puppet pressed himself tightly behind a lamppost, watching everything in the plaza. Suddenly, a sharp howl came from a nearby block behind him; he shuddered and turned his head back stiffly to look.

Determination poured into him at this very moment. He lunged out from behind the lamppost, walking forward along the wind-eroded asphalt road where stones were exposed, and stepped into the empty plaza.

He headed for the Obelisk, running faster and faster, crossing half the plaza until he reached the front of the Obelisk. He searched the Obelisk in a rush; someone had polished the surface of this monument, and while something had once been carved there, now there were only blurred traces. He stared hard, even reaching out to touch the rough stone surface eagerly, wanting to feel out the shape of a few characters.

Nothing. The puppet suddenly stood still, the muscles of that blank face struggling to twitch, and a shadow of disappointment slowly appeared.

After hesitating for a moment, the little puppet squatted down and reached out to touch the base of the Obelisk. Beneath an inconspicuous piece of broken stone, he triggered a hidden slot. It wasn't the Obelisk, but the base on the ground that shifted, revealing complex Crystal wires. He stared at them motionlessly for a long time, almost as if he were thinking. His hand moved, as if wanting to pull out those fragile Crystal wires, but his fingers stopped in mid-air, then he slowly extended his right index finger and touched the Crystal wires. The Crystal wires seemed to have a life of their own, twisting and wrapping around his fingertip.

The little puppet squatted there blankly, his hollow eyes staring unblinkingly at his own hand and the Crystal wires wrapped around his fingertip.

Five meters away from him, behind the Obelisk, a slight popping sound rang out. Two figures appeared out of thin air, a man and a woman; the man held a black blade in his hand.

"Damn it, could they find a place less open than this to teleport us?" the woman cursed the moment she appeared.

"Fan Ning translated the Underlying Magic and marked this as the main base station; Wei Zhen must have thought the success rate for teleporting to the base station was the highest. It's good enough that we got in, stop complaining."

"Really? Du Zhengyi? You're speaking up for Fan Ning? You're really easy to sway. Do you know what he's actually planning? Maybe he wants to wipe you and Luo Qi out together here."

"Be reasonable, this Sandbox belongs to us Battle Mages; it never passed through their hands." Du Zhengyi stopped abruptly as he said this.

Xiang Qian also turned around sharply; both of them realized at the same time that there were others here. The female Mage smiled indifferently, "Looks like there's a little brat, how disgusting. Of all the training grounds for Battle Mages, this is the one I hate the most. I always hoped someone would destroy this place, I once hoped that person would be you, but you disappointed me—you even graduated from here with a high score."

Du Zhengyi frowned and turned around. He sensed something abnormal; for a puppet whose life baseline should be extremely stable, the breathing of this one near them was too fast, getting faster and faster.

"Leave..." the puppet made a difficult sound, as if his rapid panting just now was to enable his vocal cords to vibrate normally.

"What the hell? First time I've heard a dead puppet talk. Threatening me?" Xiang Qian said, circling around to the side of the Obelisk.

Du Zhengyi's heartbeat accelerated sharply. Xiang Qian sensed it immediately and sneered, "Why are you regressing so fast? Can't control yourself already? You know? For a Battle Mage, tachycardia is practically the equivalent of incontinence..."

Her voice stopped abruptly, and the Old Mage froze beside the Obelisk. Du Zhengyi rushed out from her side, only to be yanked back by her.

"Stay calm!" she barked, "Are you a greenhorn? He won't be Luo Qi. Remember, this is the Yama Hall of the Mind Mages; the will of the old ones is here, so it's normal even for a Battle Mage to misread things."

Du Zhengyi stopped in his tracks, staring straight into the little puppet's eyes—Luo Qi's eyes.

The puppet stood there, motionless, his body swaying as if a force were trying to break free from his stiff frame; that force made Du Zhengyi's eyes ache. That force made him speak once more, "Quick... go... leave... this..."

"Luo Qi?" Du Zhengyi called out.

The puppet's eyes had some reaction; he raised a hand, "Quick... go..."

"Du Zhengyi, we have to leave here!" Xiang Qian sensed danger; she believed Du Zhengyi must have sensed it too, he was just being lethally slow.

"He..." Du Zhengyi said, he couldn't move, his legs felt like they were filled with lead. "What kind of puppet would warn them of danger?" Except for a puppet with Luo Qi's lingering will.

"Fuck, the plaza is a trap," Xiang Qian said, resigned. She knew it was too late. "It's only safe here if you're a puppet; they've identified our active Yajian."

Yes, Du Zhengyi knew. The empty plaza around the Obelisk cracked open, the stone slabs folding and receding downward. Du Zhengyi didn't look to see how deep a chasm they intended to carve. That was meaningless; all physical distance was not the biggest problem for a Mage.

The biggest problem was the several figures appearing around them.

"Have you seen this before?" Xiang Qian asked.

"You know the Obelisk exam randomly generates test papers," Du Zhengyi said, forced to shift his gaze away from the little puppet, watching those figures vigilantly. "When I took the exam here, Space Magic was forbidden."

"Can't use Teleportation," Xiang Qian said, "but when I took the exam here, I could use Teleportation."

"Better not..." Du Zhengyi didn't finish his sentence, because a shadow he was staring at vanished.

"Oh fuck," Xiang Qian wailed, "I don't want to fight a version of you that isn't human; the odds of winning are too low."

Du Zhengyi's heart went cold. What was even more terrifying than that was what it meant for Luo Qi: there was nowhere to hide here. Whether he was hiding in a tower or deep underground, a killer puppet capable of Teleportation would appear before him. He shouldn't have compromised; he should have come here the first moment...

He was in chaos; it was his first time being in chaos on the battlefield. Was Luo Qi killed by a monster that looked exactly like his friend? What did it feel like when the Teleportation he was familiar with turned into a shadow of death?

An entity appeared abruptly behind him. Du Zhengyi was a split second too late; his peripheral vision blurred as another person rushed over, heading straight for his back. He turned around in astonishment, hearing the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh and bone gaps, yet the wounded one couldn't even let out a cry of pain.

Du Zhengyi turned and kicked over the killer puppet that had lunged at him; the thing rolled away and vanished again. Du Zhengyi seized this moment to quickly provide first aid to the wound on the little puppet's shoulder, his heart a void of confusion.

"Du Zhengyi!" Xiang Qian roared, throwing out a bolt of fire, "You must believe he isn't Luo Qi! If he is all that's left of Luo Qi, kill him! It's meaningless!"

Du Zhengyi's hands trembled; he pushed the little puppet up, pressing him toward the Obelisk, letting him lean against the stone monument. Du Zhengyi turned and stood in front of him.