Chapter 505: Seven-Day Hearing (5)

The Highland Mage's spring garden was at its best; grass shoots poked through the ground, several nameless flowers bloomed, and the air was filled with the scent of vegetation. Liu Xiuyun was preoccupied and in no mood for the Highland Mage's masterpiece. Many idle mages were lying in ambush in the woods, and the electronic glow of human communication devices emerged from several patches of grass. Liu Xiuyun was already late and did not want to stop to check exactly which mages were degenerating here. He knew full well himself that there were too many such mages; it was becoming increasingly unrealistic to stop the tentacles of human entertainment from reaching into the Mage World.

Yet, just as he was passing through the forest path, he suddenly flew into a rage. This could not be blamed on him being rigid or strict; truly, what decent, ambitious mage could endure a clear, childish voice suddenly coming from the tree above their head: "Big-faced cat, big-faced cat, long whiskers." He was stunned when he first heard it, and just as he was bewildered, a manic drumbeat started, and the singing continued along with the drums, "I walk alone on the path in the suburbs, I bring pastries for Grandma to taste, her house is in a remote and quiet place, I have to worry if there is a~ big~ bad~ wolf nearby! When the sun sets behind the hill, I will go home, and enter a sweet dreamland with Mama!"*

Liu Xiuyun was furious, unable to bear it any longer, and fiercely cast a spell toward the dense canopy above. The electromagnetic pulse stirred up by the magic destroyed the human electronic products, the manic drumbeat stopped abruptly, and a voice asked in confusion, "Eh? Why is my Bluetooth speaker broken?"

Another person said, "How could it be that easy to break? It must be out of power. Did you bring a power bank?"

Liu Xiuyun coughed. There was a rustling sound in the canopy, a head poked out to peek at him, then immediately retracted as if electrocuted, subconsciously trying to hide back. Liu Xiuyun could not bear it any longer and summoned a Water Dragon, directing it to charge toward the canopy. The two people in the canopy were caught off guard, screaming as they were washed out of the canopy by the pressure of the water, falling to the ground two meters away.

Still fuming, Liu Xiuyun glared at them, recognizing them as two Second-level Executive Mages from Qionglin; he even remembered that they had only just reached adulthood.

Both young mages looked at Liu Xiuyun in terror. He was so angry he couldn't speak, and not wanting to lecture them on anything, he turned and continued walking toward the conference room in the garden.

Along the way, he recalled the legend of Pei Shu's evaluation of young mages at the Venerable Supreme Meeting: "Rat-like offspring—each litter is worse than the last." Perhaps this legend was not a legend; Pei Shu might have really said it.

The fact was just so; the Magic World was declining day by day, and this decline had started from several aspects. The children they gave birth to were getting worse and worse, and the forms of entertainment invented by humans were spreading in the Magic World like a plague. In the past, children with insignificant Magic Ability were tragically expelled, but now even the good children longed to live in the human world. The result of living together was that they kept falling in love with their neighbors and kept forgetting their own world; the complete disappearance of mages might be a destined ending.

His anger gradually turned into sorrow, and he felt somewhat dazed when he walked into the conference area. They asked him why he was late, and he just made a vague gesture and sat down.

His thoughts became increasingly chaotic, and he did not pay attention to what topic they were discussing today. He thought of the ancient glorious era, when there were mages like Luo Qi and Du Zhengyi everywhere; after tens of thousands of years, they had become legends. No one knew why magic was declining; three hundred years ago, the number of Legendary Archmages alive at the same time was close to a single digit, and after that, only one could be born every fifty years on average.

Therefore, Luo Qi should have been the light of the Magic World because of his rarity. But precisely because Legendary Mages had become too rare and too scarce, they had caused the declining Magic World to lose its balance. As long as one Legendary Mage became ambitious or mentally unstable, the result would be an unprecedented social disaster. The entire loose Magic World had become sensitive to outstanding individuals. He felt a trace of sadness; this was almost a betrayal of bloodline, yet he clearly understood that these were still necessary.

Compared to Luo Qi, Du Zhengyi was much safer; he had always been under the guardianship and supervision of Qionglin, and more importantly, he was a warrior carefully cultivated by Pei Shu. Pei Shu trusted him, and Pei Shu never made mistakes; Liu Xiuyun trusted this aged leader.

Trust... had he always trusted him?

His heart tightened. Then why did Du Zhengyi's birth need to be covered up? Mages were not humans and were never particularly constrained by so-called ethics. Even if Du Zhengyi were an illegitimate child, his origins could have been stated openly and honestly. Having a pedigree to rely on would have been better than having unknown origins.

He became confused, and thought again that he could not be the first to discover it. At least that clerk, Zhou Quan, seemed to know now. Then why had no one ever mentioned it?

Bailida was speaking again, and he forced himself to concentrate on listening. Luo Qi was too important; they ought to be serious, and Qionglin had to be fair. He pulled his attention out of a fog and heard Bailida say, "I don't understand why you would sell a treasured High-energy Crystal to a child. This is unreasonable. I have heard that you have always been picky about your clients; money alone is hard to move you."

Liu Xiuyun looked up in doubt and saw that the person sitting in the witness seat was a fat mage. He frowned slightly; mages rarely became obese, and this was also a rare exception.

He extracted the information distributed to them, tried to catch up with the progress, and discovered that this Pangzi was a merchant who sold High-Energy Crystals on the Black Market.

Pangzi's two arms rested on the table, his hands clasped, his two chubby thumbs pressed together. He raised his eyelids and gave a greasy smile, "I am happy to offer our family's treasure to my boss, so what? I am not selling it; I am yielding it. You cannot say that I am engaged in Black Market trading."

Liu Xiuyun was somewhat puzzled by this statement; a highlighted prompt flashed a note: "Boss" refers to Luo Qi.

"You acknowledge a child as your boss?" he could not help but say in astonishment.

"Yeah," Pangzi said indifferently, "We just hit it off."

Bailida fiddled with the data and said impatiently, "His Magic Ability is so low it approaches that of a human; he is completely unable to realize he is being charmed by a Mind Mage. There is testimony showing that Luo Qi appeared in a female image at the time..."

"Wushan Goddess?" Pangzi rolled his eyes and interrupted him, sneering unceremoniously, "Forget it. Anyone with eyes can see at a glance that it couldn't possibly be a woman."

Bailida was offended and said with disdain, "You don't have the Magic Ability to break free from the illusion at all..."

Pangzi sneered rudely again, making him flush with anger. Regaining the right to speak, Pangzi continued, "You are just blind. So what if you have magic? I have a brain. Don't, don't get angry. Don't pull that on me; I don't count as a mage. I am a legal human with an ID card, a household registration, and a passport. Sorry, you can't control me. According to the Ordinance, you cannot harm or coerce humans at will. Don't you just want to say that I was happy to help my boss because he used magic to charm me? That I was dizzy from a honey trap? I thank you. I am happy to hang out with him because I think he is interesting. I have a brain and thoughts; I have my own preferences, and I hang out with whoever I want. Are you done? If you're done, I'm leaving; I still have a Marvel movie to watch."

Bailida was left speechless, and Liu Xiuyun was also stunned for a moment.

*This song is "Little Red Riding Hood" by Grape Not Angry (ì_í)

Also, I'm back, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! Have a happy Mooncake Festival!

(End of this chapter)