Chapter 503: Seven-Day Hearing (3)

Liu Xiuyun tried his best to overcome his disgust for Bailida and focus his attention on the data regarding the Test Sandbox. In his notebook, the test data from the Mind Mage was critical evidence, almost capable of deciding life or death. His most essential duty was to find flaws in this data. If Bailida was willing to nitpick this evidence, he believed the Investigation Committee could spend a little time allowing Bailida to do so; test data should, after all, be subjected to repeated verification.

Yet, it was this very critical piece of evidence that they passed in only two and a half hours.

After Zhou Quan summoned the evidence and witnesses, his own niece appeared in the Highland Mage's temperate garden. Liu Ziyi stood before the Committee's table, speaking coldly, and presented the entire test evidence with impeccable, rigorous logic. Bailida had no chance to fire back at all; he, along with Peng Ruxin and Fan Ning, tried to ask a few questions, but Liu Ziyi coldly slapped perfect answers into their faces, with an effect like being splashed with profanity that contained no dirty words. Because, clearly, they couldn't fully understand Liu Ziyi's words at all, appearing like a group of morons. Those profound Magic theories and unpredictable Magic effects were things they could only grasp to a very limited extent. This could be seen on Sanchun's face, as he lay on the table laughing like a lecherous mole.

Liu Li had not asked a single question the entire time, looking as if she hadn't been listening at all, spending the whole process organizing the materials in her hands. Liu Xiuyun suspected she might have been grading student assignments the whole time, though he lacked the courage to verify this—and didn't want to know the truth at all.

In the final half hour, only one person asked questions: the experimental committee's monster, Sanchun. Yet Liu Xiuyun could be one hundred percent certain that everything Sanchun asked was technical; he didn't care about Luo Qi's credibility at all, as he and Liu Ziyi were discussing purely technical issues. This was a precious Sandbox, a rare treasure, and what was even rarer was that someone had smashed the box. With eyes sparkling, Sanchun discussed with Liu Ziyi the boundary effects of the damaged Sandbox and the safety Magic that was still operating which they hadn't anticipated; in the end, the energy had circulated for 72 hours, perfectly ensuring that the people inside could leave safely. His niece's attitude toward Sanchun was much better; at least she wasn't using the look one gives a mentally disabled person to facilitate communication.

Under such pressure, no one wanted to ask Liu Ziyi questions again and invite humiliation. Liu Xiuyun pondered carefully for a while but eventually gave up as well. She had grown up in Qionglin, so he wasn't close to his niece, but he was very aware of her capabilities. Since she was standing here, she must have prepared for everything; she had the ability to ensure there were no loopholes, and they certainly wouldn't be able to find any faults in this.

At the end of the day, the only request Bailida made was for Luo Qi to be present. He might have realized he couldn't find a breakthrough point from the rigorous Liu Ziyi, but asking for Luo Qi himself to answer questions was reasonable, and Luo Qi himself might instead expose some issues.

Liu Li did not reject this request from Bailida; Bailida's request was indeed reasonable. However, the person Zhou Quan sent to summon Luo Qi returned empty-handed, bringing only a message from the attending Doctor, Majiang—Luo Qi was in a deep-sleep self-healing process and could not possibly wake up to answer questions.

The first day of the seven-day Hearing passed just like that. When the meeting adjourned, Liu Xiuyun noticed that young old thing Wusu chasing after Liu Ziyi to talk, and he couldn't help but feel a burst of irritation. Wusu looked to be in his early thirties, perhaps only ten years older than his niece, but this old thing had actually lived for ninety years; if he seduced his niece, she might be a widow for a century.

He followed them in annoyance, but the two had already returned to the lobby via the Teleportation Point, and he hurriedly followed back to the lobby. Wusu turned a corner in the crowd to chat with a Highland Mage, while his niece walked in another direction, standing behind a team of Highland Mages to talk to someone else. He breathed a sigh of relief, slowed his pace, and glanced over again casually.

That team of Highland Mages in wide robes happened to walk past at that moment, and the man who had been talking to his niece was revealed. He stopped subconsciously, staring involuntarily at the young man. That was genuine youth; it might not be easy to distinguish by appearance, but his eyes had not yet been glazed over with boredom and numbness from having known too many women, tasted too many failures, or been drowned too deeply in wine jars. But if anyone thought a scorpion wasn't lethal just because it was smaller than an elephant, they would be very foolish.

This wasn't the first time he had seen Du Zhengyi, but by the time he first saw him, he had already become famous, his appearance and core fully developed; he was considered quite precocious. Interestingly, even in his pre-adolescence, this lethal Mage had never attempted to prove he was a tough guy. Every time he saw him in Qionglin, he was refined, suave, and dressed elegantly, especially fond of wearing suits that were inconvenient for movement, with styles falling somewhere between court-appropriate and rock-stage-appropriate. He didn't pay attention to anyone, and it seemed no one could make him angry, but in reality, Liu Xiuyun noticed that almost every Mage within fifty years of his age avoided him. He was the youngest Plague God in the Mage World; whenever he appeared, there was almost no one in a five-meter radius around him, as if his breath carried a virus that had nearly wiped out the Mage World.

Yet, he had ended up getting involved with that "little darling of the era," and even, had gotten entangled with Liu Ziyi.

Why was Liu Ziyi meeting him at such a sensitive time? The doubt and vigilance in Liu Xiuyun's heart were both magnifying.

Du Zhengyi appeared to be listening intently to Liu Ziyi, but suddenly, as if he had sensed something out of thin air, he turned his head. Across a distance of fifteen meters, his gaze was as sharp as a blade, coldly slicing across his face. Liu Xiuyun's scalp went numb; in that instant, he had an illusion as if the fifteen-meter distance between him and Du Zhengyi had suddenly been shortened, and Du Zhengyi's cold, oppressive pressure had arrived in a flash. It felt like a sudden cold wind blowing on one's face in the middle of summer, causing a shiver under the bright sun, yet when examined closely, nothing had happened; the sun was still overhead, but a faint, lingering numbness permeated his spine.

Du Zhengyi had already turned his face away, said something to Liu Ziyi, and then vanished into thin air without a trace, as if this person hadn't appeared at all just now. Liu Xiuyun was not a sensitive person, but in the Mage territory of a foreign land, Du Zhengyi's difference from the crowd and his ability to come and go without a trace gave him an absurd illusion, as if Du Zhengyi's very existence was just his hallucination.

Just as he was still dazed, Liu Ziyi turned around and looked at him guardedly. He came back to his senses and walked toward Liu Ziyi, pondering all the way how to communicate with this niece he wasn't familiar with.

"Is something the matter?" As soon as he approached, Liu Ziyi asked first, "If you want to ask me something, you should ask at the Committee's Hearing; that would be fair and just."

"Ziyi." Liu Xiuyun interrupted her, "Has Du Zhengyi threatened you?"

Liu Ziyi's expression changed, and she looked up to size him up, "He doesn't need to threaten me. If they think it's necessary, Luo Qi can directly modify my brain; you all think he has that ability, don't you?"

Liu Xiuyun was stunned.

In that gap, Liu Ziyi turned and left.