Chapter 488: Heavenly Book

Luo Qi turned around sluggishly, looking at the damage at the end of the world with some awe; the scene of the puppets passing through the damage was like jumping into a gate of light.

"Luo Qi." Du Zhengyi listened carefully for a moment, then asked as if making small talk, "Can you hear the chilling sound of your ribs growing back?"

Luo Qi raised his hand to press against his chest, a look of curiosity slowly emerging on his face, "Ribs fractured, lungs bruised. I used your Battle Mage methods to shut down the nerves in that area."

"Self-taught." Du Zhengyi said, refraining from lecturing Luo Qi on how dangerous that was; he would save that lesson for after they had eaten and slept. "This was the final test; there won't be any more situations like this in the future."

"Did I pass?"

"Even if the Sandbox is broken, it won't delay the data extraction. The process is complete, and this is the end of it. This was also the condition for me agreeing to the test—regardless of success or failure, this is the last time; I won't cooperate with them again. But I think this test can be considered a success, and the Committee will eventually accept the result. Although you might be harnessed by the Qionglin in the future and become an ox pulling a cart, at least this stage is over. You have become a part of the Orthodox Mage society; I can finally rest easy."

Luo Qi raised his eyes to look closely at Du Zhengyi's face, his lips trembling slightly; he looked like he was about to cry but suddenly laughed out loud, "They are all idiots."

Du Zhengyi watched him with concern. He laughed even harder, unable to help but raise his hand to cover his lungs, "They are all idiots. When they took you away, I actually completely surrendered; if they wanted me to pull a cart, I would have pulled it. And yet, they wanted to test if I was qualified to be a Mage? When have I ever cared about being a Mage? They want me to work for them. And what reward do they give me? Credit points? The power to bully low-level Mages? A sense of belonging?" Luo Qi laughed heartily, reaching out to grab Du Zhengyi's arm, "As long as you stay alive, I'll do the work. Screw their common interests and great causes; I don't care, I'm not some lackey of Hitler."

Du Zhengyi's face turned somewhat pale; Luo Qi had said things that went against everything he had pursued his whole life. If words could have power, he could feel Luo Qi whipping up a hurricane. But he could not refute him, nor could he be angry, because Luo Qi was not even standing on his own side. When someone is willing to go through fire and water for you, how can you blame them? After a long while, he said, "Don't you and Guan Xinyue often shout that all mortals must die?"

Luo Qi abruptly raised a hand to block his mouth, "All mortals must die, and I can die too, but I want to die fairly. No matter how Pei Shu roped you into this, you can say that kind of talk to others, but I don't want to hear it ever again. Also, no matter what I want to do, don't interfere with me; as long as I haven't crossed the final line, don't stop me."

"Fine," Du Zhengyi said.

Luo Qi opened his eyes wide in surprise as he looked at him. He said calmly, "We are friends." Luo Qi waited for a long time, but Du Zhengyi didn't continue. As if to change the subject, Du Zhengyi said, "They are too uniform; are they... considered a single organism?"

"You noticed?" Luo Qi said, "I don't know how long the original Yajian stayed here. Perhaps after the limbs were worn out, new puppets were added, but to save trouble, they just installed the adjusted old Yajian. This Yajian has existed here generation after generation, and the new puppets added in would more or less retain a tiny bit of the original consciousness and memory. To coordinate their actions, their thoughts were artificially synchronized. I don't know when it started, but the collective consciousness began to develop a self. Although the brain activity of each individual puppet isn't great, after thousands of incomplete brains merged, they formed an almost complete brain—a self."

"How is 'complete' defined?" Du Zhengyi asked sharply.

"I connected myself into it," Luo Qi whispered, "I felt loneliness, longing, jealousy."

After a long silence, Du Zhengyi whispered, "That's terrifying."

"Just like Frankenstein," Luo Qi said, "The Mages inadvertently created an artificial human. What exactly are we Mages? As barbaric as primitive humans, yet with more power than modern humans."

"That is exactly why we need a Committee to restrain us," Du Zhengyi said.

"Is it useful? I feel like it's already out of control."

"Perhaps one day you can form a better Committee to manage all of this," Du Zhengyi said, "The Qionglin has existed for a thousand years. Just by observing humans, one knows that all organizations that last too long won't be very good; they will eventually ossify."

"You can actually say things like that? I thought you were loyal to the Qionglin," Luo Qi frowned in surprise, "What's wrong with you?"

Du Zhengyi smiled, "Who gave you the impression that I am loyal to the Qionglin? I am loyal to Gushan, and to the great cause you won't let me talk about."

"I understand now. Gushan Guards don't owe loyalty to anyone in particular, and the Entanglement didn't attach you to any specific person. No wonder Mages never produced an emperor, nor a nation," Luo Qi said thoughtfully, "So when the Qionglin ran into problems, you were actually granted a measure of freedom."

"I wouldn't say I was being detained, would I?" Du Zhengyi said, "Why did you stay with the puppets? You could have found a quiet place to wait for me."

Luo Qi's face looked as if his chest was in great pain, "I saw a puppet holding a plush toy dog, just like... someone who wasn't very old."

"And that sparked your curiosity to investigate further? You surely knew you'd get beaten up, right?"

"No, I discovered that the puppets were collecting these things. I remembered that they might collect a certain type of thing," Luo Qi said. He reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out a roll of old, dirty cloth.

"What is this?" Du Zhengyi forced himself to remain calm. "A profound... illustrated... book made of cloth. The first page has a cabbage drawn on it. You went through all that trouble to get this because your IQ is about the same as a cabbage?"

"This is a Baby Book," Luo Qi said.

"What?"

"A book for babies to look at, that's why it's made of cloth; babies tear paper. You've never seen one," Luo Qi explained.

"I didn't tear books when I was born; I don't need such childish things," Du Zhengyi said, then suddenly a thought struck him, "Wait, this is a book—does it have text? There shouldn't be many things with text left that haven't been destroyed."

"I knew you'd think of that too. All the paper was destroyed, the Library is empty. The billboards on the street are empty, and the walls have been cleaned. I could only try to find things that aren't paper, might have text, and had a chance of surviving by luck." Luo Qi rubbed the dirt off from under the cabbage, revealing a line of elegant symbols.

Both of them fell silent. Luo Qi slowly flipped through this baby's book, "Interesting, right?"

"Interesting," Du Zhengyi said slowly. He pointed to the symbol under a sheep, "I know how to read this character."

"How do you read it?"

"I don't want to read it."

"This is an Ancient Mage Spell. You don't want to read such a sacred spell? I don't recognize it at all; I'm only in Third Grade, still a poor student."

"I just realized, this is an onomatopoeia," Du Zhengyi said dryly.

"Baa-baa?" Luo Qi asked.

"Something like that," Du Zhengyi nodded.

Luo Qi flipped through the Baby Book again, "So a spell... is just a lost form of writing; it's not sacred at all. It's just that when we use it, there is power. Some people... just use it as text."

Du Zhengyi did not speak; he was more shocked than Luo Qi.

"Look here, this is completely a human city," Luo Qi said, "These people once used the language of Mages, yet lived like humans. Where did they go now? Were they the ones among us without Magic? Did they once live in tribes? Why did they disappear? Do you guess... did we slaughter them?"