Chapter 525: Luo Qi's Cooperation

Liu Li looked at him with shock and anger; disbelief had led to her silence. But this silence was like the heavy clouds before a storm, bound to erupt sooner or later.

Luo Qi slowly folded the few pages of notes in his hands. Loopholes in the system had never been a problem in the Mage World; the authority of Qionglin ensured that Mages would act with caution. Everything had always remained in balance; vague rules had their own value, as they could increase the authority of the Venerable. Contradictory rules left the power of interpretation to the most powerful Venerable, and it had always been this way, unless the structure of power changed.

He pondered for a long time, knowing he did not see through everything in Mage society, but as long as one was slightly familiar with human sociology, these problems still had traces to follow. One only needed to compare human... primitive societies. Humans had also once commonly served, had also once sent tribesmen who lost their ability to labor into the deep mountains, and had even once deeply worshipped the Great Chieftain of their tribe. The Chieftain's name could be the Huaxia Huangdi, it could be the Eternal King Arthur, or it could be Pei Shu. No matter how many layers of nobility something was wrapped in, the essence remained the same. Every Mage was like a primitive human, wearing invisible shackles, even if they could have come and gone like the wind.

Luo Qi folded the notes one last time and tucked them into his pocket. These few pages of notes were not even worth toilet paper; everything he had was in his head and did not need to be written down. Clumsily fumbling with notes in front of the old guys had the sole purpose of disgusting them. He did not have such deep feelings for Mages, and their bowing to idols had nothing to do with him, but if he discovered a loophole here and didn't exploit it, that wouldn't fit his character.

He clearly saw the expressions on the faces of the most senior Mages become very inscrutable, including those who had had conflicts of interest with his family and were willing to repay his father. He knew then that he had stepped into the forbidden zone of the Mage World. He knew that what he was doing now was too hasty and too early; he should have operated for twenty-some years, even if he played the part of a high-efficiency baby, and at the earliest, he should have chosen to strike at forty. But he had no time left; either he jumped onto the speeding train, or he watched the train pull away and was ground into fragments himself.

He kept an eye on everyone, monitoring the changes in intent throughout the venue; things were proceeding even more smoothly than he had anticipated. Yesterday, what he worried about most was not the direction things would take, but that he would be afraid, that he would turn into a sobbing child under the glare of these senior and powerful Mages. But when he stood here this morning, he realized he was not afraid. He looked at them, and the projections of their inner hearts could not be hidden from him. He could see their nervousness, their fear, their resentment, their jealousy... they were just the most ordinary humans, as ordinary as the humans taking the bus home a thousand miles away.

He observed the fluctuations of everyone's intent, reserving a large portion of his mental preparation to accept Du Zhengyi's reaction. Du Zhengyi might jump up in a rage, tell him he had done everything wrong, and then tear up all the goodwill he had shown him so far.

Liu Li had just had an emotional outburst, but among everyone present, she was not the one whose intent shifted the fastest. Just as Liu Li was shouting at him, he found the measurement point. He gave up on Zhou Quan, who was always quick-witted but the lightest in weight, and passed over Sanchun, who was likely the smartest and therefore had the biggest brain of them all; his gaze fell upon Wusu.

He was slightly startled; he had stayed in the mental domain for too long and sometimes forgot to pay attention to the outer world. Now, looking at Wusu carefully, he realized he was a Mage who looked quite young and was extremely charming, and he himself was quite attentive to maintaining his charm. Du Zhengyi was also attractive, but Du Zhengyi was a stone who would not respond to anyone. Wusu was very interesting; every one of his movements seemed meticulously designed. His shoulders would tilt at just the right angle, his smile was enthusiastic and just enough to make his face vivid, and if he wanted to look at someone else, he would certainly make sure people saw his face from his best angle. Luo Qi wanted to curse him as a fake old man, but he couldn't say it; Wusu's "just right" made him think only of the words "a feast for the eyes." No one would care about his age or his gender anymore; the only thought one would have was to praise him, for this living person was a work of art.

This could not be Mental Induction, Luo Qi could be certain; he did it entirely on his own. However, this did not mean that Wusu was not a Mind Mage. What surprised Luo Qi the most was that he felt Wusu's mental activity level exceeded that of the others and extended into a higher domain. When Du Zhengyi performed Teleportation, his mental activity would also exceed that of an average Great Mage, but Luo Qi was more familiar with Wusu's activity characteristics—that was the domain of a Mind Mage.

Luo Qi froze, wanting to quickly distinguish whether Wusu was another hidden Mind Mage. He did not know what method the Society used to detect Mind Mages; Luo Qi himself identified them by monitoring the activity level and active domain of the entire brain, so he would not have direct contact with the subject and would not trigger a backlash or attack. Perhaps it was because he could stand high enough that he could see clearly; ordinary Mind Mages might not be able to see a person's entire brain as he could. However, Wusu's Telepathy ability was definitely not in a range that could be ignored. Luo Qi returned to the mental domain and caught a glimpse of some entirely unfamiliar structures in Wusu's mind from afar. He could not say for sure; that might be his method of hiding his Mind Magic ability.

"Luo Qi!" Du Zhengyi truly roared.

Luo Qi was pulled back as if someone had grabbed him by the collar; he hunched his shoulders and looked down at Du Zhengyi beside him. Du Zhengyi was still sitting quietly at the table, his posture unchanged. He came to his senses and recalled that Du Zhengyi had not called him with his voice just now.

He raised his head, just in time for the end of Liu Li's roar at him, "... Have you ever thought that the consequence of you doing this is a complete leak? Bounty Mages from all over the world will dig everywhere. If a Seal Beast falls into their hands, have you thought about what the result will be?"

He opened his mouth and suddenly noticed that Liu Xiuyun had looked at him deeply. He closed his mouth, feeling a trace of relief in his heart. He knew that his agreement with Liu Xiuyun had finally been reached at this moment. Threats—of course, Luo Qi should threaten everyone; that was consistent with everyone's impression of him. He would rather people fear him; that was good for what he wanted to do. But upright people like Liu Xiuyun could not be driven entirely by coercion; as long as you persuaded him, he would drive himself.

"Venerable Mage," Liu Xiuyun said, "Even if Luo Qi does not appeal, such a big matter cannot be hidden on a large scale within Qionglin. I think it is better to bring this matter out and place it squarely on the Council, which will facilitate cooperation between our various forces and optimize resource allocation. According to Luo Qi's statement, mobilizing such monsters to carry out actions to eliminate dissidents already represents the failure of Qionglin's previous measures."

"Mage Liu, it cannot be hidden within Qionglin, but that is still different from the whole world knowing that such an Artifact exists," Liu Li said solemnly. "Of course, I know that no secret can be hidden forever, but we must delay the arrival of this point in time. I will speak openly: we must at least hide it until we have time to destroy all the Seal Beasts."

"Luo Qi has accelerated the arrival of this point in time," Liu Xiuyun said, pondering, his expression becoming even more severe. "No, strictly speaking, I don't think it was Luo Qi who accelerated the arrival of this point in time."

"What do you mean?" Liu Li's anger eased a little; they were both serious people, and there was still basic trust between them at this time.

"Now that I think about it, isn't Luo Qi himself a secret? A hidden Mind Mage. If he doesn't advance to the fourth year this year, he will leave Mage society and go to live in the Otherworld human world. In that case, perhaps Luo Qi's life would have been a secret, or perhaps the secret was destined not to be hidden, so the secret named Luo Qi would still be revealed later, but not now," Liu Xiuyun said. "Someone accelerated the revelation of the secret; that person is not Luo Qi."

Liu Li's face turned pale, and she spat out the name, "Lotus Burner."

"I think so," Liu Xiuyun said. "The Lotus Burners who have already infiltrated Qionglin must have already known about the existence of these monsters. What else they want to do is a problem we must face squarely."

Luo Qi breathed a sigh of relief and sat down in his seat. The Contract without Magic had already begun to operate; he would no longer be alone.

(End of chapter)