Chapter 524: Luo Qi

"What?" someone cried out involuntarily.

Several strands of disruptive magic power surged forth, thrown out in a chaotic tangle. Someone's protective magic took effect in the open space first, erecting a high wall out of thin air to guard against the Alien monster, and the attack magic reacted upon colliding with the protective magic. Liu Li let out a roar, forcibly retracting the magic power released by everyone. However, the chaotic force field was trapped within a small space by the shielding magic; although it was a storm in a teacup, since all the Great Mages were inside this cup, the experience was quite unpleasant.

Outside the barrier, Du Zhengyi sat steadily in his chair, watching the chaos behind the barrier with interest, not even glancing at the Alien creature in front.

Luo Qi's mouth hung open. With his cultivation, the energy trajectories he could see were limited after all; he could not see the entire battle situation as clearly and thoroughly as Du Zhengyi. To him, the space in front seemed to distort, and in an instant, the Great Mages went from sitting upright to half-standing and half-sitting in various postures. He knew nothing of the sequence of events, as if watching a film with dropped frames.

After a long while, he pinched his notebook and muttered, "Badass!"

A hint of a smile brewed on Du Zhengyi's lips. He raised his hand, the knuckle of his index finger pressed against his lower lip as if pondering a difficult problem, but one glance from Luo Qi told him he was merely suppressing laughter.

"Du Zhengyi!" someone roared.

"Why call me at a time like this?" Du Zhengyi said dismissively.

Liu Xiuyun turned around, furious, and glared at him. "You're in league with Luo Qi, you knew early on... wait..." He stopped suddenly, as if he had realized something.

He was not the only one who suddenly realized it; the several Great Mages beside him looked at the Alien with strange expressions, just as he did.

On the other side of the table, Wusu smiled bitterly and helplessly straightened his hair. "I felt long ago that thing wasn't a physical entity. It's a pity that I could guard against Luo Qi, but I still couldn't guard against the brothers on our side. You all moved really fast. I beg you to always remember that the kid is a Mind Mage; did you really think he could summon a monster at any time?"

"Heh heh heh, what a mess." Luo Qi licked his lips, a teasing smile on his face, and said insincerely, "I just wanted to invite you teachers to take a direct look at an Ancient Psychic Beast."

"I thank you," Wusu replied with a fake smile. "You could have used a simpler and more normal method, for example—creating a magic projection." "He doesn't know how," Du Zhengyi said suddenly.

Wusu was stunned for a moment, and everyone's gaze focused on Du Zhengyi again.

"Constructing a physical phantom based on scale information—Chapter Two of the *Information Magic Operation Guide*, third week of the first semester of the fourth grade." Du Zhengyi gestured toward Luo Qi. "This is a third-grade student."

Wusu came back to his senses and couldn't help but size up Luo Qi again.

Luo Qi gave a dry laugh. "Sorry for letting you all see a hallucination, thanks to Brother Du for explaining for me. Come to think of it, people always like to look at me through a funhouse mirror; sometimes they see me as smaller than I actually am, and sometimes they see me as larger than I actually am."

"You don't need to say thank you for my wasted breath," Du Zhengyi said. "You'd better look at the Venerable's expression, little prodigy."

Only then did Luo Qi look up at Liu Li. Liu Li's expression was extremely ugly; he believed she should have been fully aware of the situation regarding the Seal Beast. Just as Luo Qi was about to speak, the upright and stubborn Liu Xiuyun could no longer hold back. He did not want to wait for Liu Li to cut off the development of the situation and spoke first. "Luo Qi, what is going on? What is this Ancient Psychic Beast? This thing is not a creature of this world at all; where did this Psychic Beast come from? And whose spirit is it connected to? If this is something you created from a nightmare, we really should re-evaluate your mental state."

Luo Qi glanced at him, then looked at Liu Li behind him. The stern female Mage's thin lips were pressed tight, her eyes a mix of annoyance and anxiety. Fortunately, she had always been a second-in-command; she was good at doing things but not good at making decisions, and she did not firmly block Luo Qi's mouth or tie his hands at this moment.

"I think this thing should be called a Seal Beast. Of course, it is not a product of my broken brain. I think you Great Mages shouldn't be unfamiliar with such Alien creatures; after all, Qionglin is guarded by an Alien creature like Qiongqi," Luo Qi said. He felt Du Zhengyi glance at him uneasily, but just as Du Zhengyi was also undecided about whether to stop him, he quickly finished his words. "These Alien creatures were sealed underground by the Ancient Ancestor Mages. Qiongqi might be an asset inherited by Qionglin, but Fan Shi, as an individual, certainly has no right to sell these pets of the Ancestor Mages into the Black Market, nor does he have the right to privately use these magic creatures whose attack capabilities completely exceed those of the vast majority of Mages. If you think that I, as a Mage human, am a dangerous element because I possess slightly higher magic ability, then I implore the nine Mages to consider what kind of dangerous situation it is to have these unknown numbers of high-energy magic creatures active in this world."

"Luo Qi," Du Zhengyi said, "we have no right to leak this; we only reported it to Pei Shu..."

Sanchun stood up in shock. "Luo Qi, are you saying that the legend of the Seal Beast is real?"

Liu Li's face had turned pale. She interrupted Sanchun. "Some Mages know about the Seal Beast, some do not. Luo Qi has no qualification to discuss this here."

"Why am I not qualified?" Luo Qi looked up, looking at Liu Li gently, staring straight into the female Mage's eyes. "I will fight for the supreme interests and common great cause of the Magic World for my entire life. I have resolved to dedicate everything to the Mage Supreme Committee. Regarding all events that threaten the safety of the Mage community as a whole, I will never be lenient."

High-sounding words poured out of Luo Qi's mouth, and Liu Li was so countered that she could not say anything to directly refute him.

"Luo Qi," Du Zhengyi called out to him. "In fact, everyone who knows about the Seal Beast incident should be covered by Silence Magic. You were not included because it is Mind Magic, and there was no appropriate person who could perform the magic operation on you. So you should have voluntarily remained silent; that is the way to maintain your personal credibility."

"So that's how it is," Luo Qi said. "I didn't know about these conventions of Qionglin."

Liu Li interjected, "Now you know. You have no right to submit an investigation application to the Nine-Person Committee regarding the Seal Beast issue."

"In fact, I have the right." No one expected Luo Qi to calmly push back against the Venerable. "I did not request an investigation into the Seal Beast. I searched all the old calendars and discovered this chain of logic: Any Battle Mage currently executing a mission who is attacked without cause, anyone can request the Nine-Person Committee to investigate the matter, because the Battle Mage themselves may have already perished in the mission. Anyone can request the Nine-Person Committee to investigate, as long as they are not bound by a Silence Agreement and can speak freely. Any investigation request involving a Venerable's dereliction of duty, if there is a nine-level magic gap between the applicant and the Venerable, due to the disparity in power, the applicant may send the request to non-Qionglin organizations in the form of Agreement Magic as a backup. The meaning of this sentence is probably that to prevent me from being silenced, I can send the whistleblower letter to more organizations. Oh, of course, it's me; Du Zhengyi knows nothing about this, and he is under the constraint of silence, and the magic gap between him and the Venerable is almost non-existent. However, I am only a third-grade student, I haven't even passed the primary Mage certification at fifteen, and the magic gap between me and the Venerable is in fact over fifteen levels."

Everyone went quiet until Liu Li spoke in a sharp voice, "Who else did you send this message to?"

"What message?" Luo Qi asked, then asked and answered himself as if suddenly realizing, "Oh, you mean the message that Du Zhengyi was attacked by an Ancient Seal Beast of the Ancestor Mages mobilized by Fan Shi? Yes, I used the Public Post Station to send the message to the Highland Mages, Wushan, the Zhouqiao Grass Market Management Committee, and the Pan-Eurasian Mage Trade Committee respectively."

The woods were silent. Luo Qi blinked, revealing a sincere smile. "My actions highly conform to the rules and systems of Qionglin. You respected Great Mages and Venerable Mages present, I have confirmed with my actions that I am an honest and trustworthy Mage, so now, it is time for you to fulfill your obligations."

(End of chapter)