Chapter 54: Office Countermeasures

"Can Li Xu wake up now?"

"Unlikely," Han Yi said. "Du Zhengyi struck too hard."

Zuo Yu sighed. "Now is not the time to blame anyone. Li Xu is a Mind Master; even if he regains consciousness now, it will be difficult for us to do anything to him."

Han Yi had nothing to say. He glanced at Du Zhengyi, but the latter showed no reaction.

The Simulation Window on the wall of Zuo Yu's office had been raining all day. Zuo Yu gazed at the rainy scene outside the window for a long time. Time was ticking away, second by second, and for no one was this a good thing.

In the past hour, Zuo Yu seemed to have aged several years. Bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes, and his entire demeanor was somewhat dejected, lacking his former composure. He rubbed his face repeatedly, as if he could wash away the exhaustion this way. "Qionglin has been undefended for an hour. We have already mobilized everyone we could to strengthen the defenses, and Battle Mages are being recalled continuously."

"Teacher Zuo," Du Zhengyi, who had been silent for half a day, suddenly said, "Are our people currently guarding this building, or are they patrolling the entire Qionglin?"

"The entire Qionglin," Zuo Yu said. "There are too many secrets in Qionglin; we cannot take the risk."

"In that case, there isn't enough manpower," Du Zhengyi said. "Qionglin's area is too vast. Patrolling won't necessarily solve the problem, and it only weakens the manpower here."

"It doesn't matter," Zuo Yu said. "I have already sent out all the researchers from the laboratories. Most of the Battle Mages are in the building, and the others are patrolling in teams in the surrounding woods."

"Oh, then there shouldn't be a problem," Du Zhengyi said. He slowly approached the window, reached out to pull away the Simulation Window, and looked down at the white forest. He did not know how exactly Luo Qi had gotten out, but the entire building had been placed under artificial martial law; he must have slipped out in the gap between the Defense Crystal being removed and the Mages being mobilized. If he guessed correctly, Luo Qi should be in this forest right now. However, thousands of High-level Mages were also roaming here.

"Let's go over the sequence of events again," Zuo Yu said.

He had already gone over it for the fifth time. Not only was Du Zhengyi impatient, but Han Yi had already worn his impatience on his face. The only benefit Du Zhengyi could hope for was that Zuo Yu's annoyance would wear down all of Han Yi's curiosity and drive him far away.

"First, how exactly was the Defense Crystal shut down?" Zuo Yu perked up and said in the heaviest tone possible.

Han Yi's gaze was almost vacant, yet his mouth could still mechanically follow Zuo Yu's words. "The Defense Crystal could not have vanished into thin air. Someone must have taken it away. But we are not missing a single person, and we have checked everyone; no one has had contact with the Defense Crystal recently. Therefore, it is fated that an outsider entered Qionglin today."

"Li Xu is one of the few people who can modify defense permissions," Zuo Yu said gloomily. "The lesson is truly too painful. We never thought anyone would have such audacity. This is a huge loophole in Qionglin's defenses."

"If Li Xu designed such a massive conspiracy just to hijack Luo Qi, isn't that a bit too unbelievable?" Han Yi said. "Li Xu could have hijacked Luo Qi anywhere else. To go out of his way to come to Qionglin to kidnap someone, even going so far as to shut down Qionglin's defenses—this is too shocking."

"There are two possibilities for this," Zuo Yu said. "One possibility is what we just said: besides kidnapping Luo Qi, they had other objectives. But because we reacted in time, their further objectives did not succeed."

Han Yi looked like he was about to faint from impatience.

"There is a second possibility," Zuo Yu continued, not seeing his expression. "The Lotus Burners already want to openly demonstrate against us. What could be more eye-catching than entering the Mage hub to kidnap a minor? Not to mention that the minor's parents are highly respected Mages who have always actively participated in public Mage affairs and assisted Qionglin in solving many thorny problems."

"That is indeed possible," Han Yi agreed, though not very willingly.

Du Zhengyi listened silently as they went through their fifth circular conversation. In his impression, Han Yi, like most Battle Mages, had a solitary personality; he didn't like participating in such things, nor did he like getting close to Great Mages. Han Yi's behavior was entirely targeted at him; Han Yi had never liked him much, and perhaps he was now suspicious of him as well.

"But I always feel something is not right," Han Yi said, pondering. "After all, it was Li Xu who brought Luo Qi into Qionglin. Why on earth did he drag a minor into Qionglin's underground prison and lock him up for days? His department still hasn't given a satisfactory answer to this day. There must be more complex inside information to this matter. We only considered the connection between Luo Qi's parents and this incident, but we didn't think about whether Luo Qi himself had attracted Li Xu's attention. Judging by Li Xu's behavior, it looks more like Luo Qi happened to know some dirt on him, and he couldn't wait to abuse his power to get rid of Luo Qi."

That was very close to the truth, Du Zhengyi thought silently.

"Considering that Li Xu is very likely a Lotus Burner, and Luo Qi is someone with almost no Magic Ability, he was completely a target for Li Xu's attack," Han Yi said. He was almost closing in on the truth step by step. "Even without kidnapping Luo Qi, just letting Luo Qi fall into Li Xu's hands in Qionglin would have been a grim situation."

As he spoke, he turned to Du Zhengyi. Du Zhengyi looked back at him calmly.

Han Yi shook his head, as if dismissing a stupid thought that had suddenly popped into his mind. He smiled sarcastically. "If I didn't know Du Zhengyi very well and know that he absolutely wouldn't care about anyone else's life or death... I would have really thought you were the one who saved the little friend."

Before Du Zhengyi could react, Zuo Yu frowned first. "Is now the time to say such things? When something happens, the first thing you do is make sarcastic remarks about your own people. I absolutely do not approve of this."

Han Yi smiled. "I was just saying it casually, just teasing Du Zhengyi."

"The top priority is to formulate a way to retrieve the Defense Crystal," Zuo Yu said, tapping his fingers heavily on the tabletop.

"I will go track them in the woods," Du Zhengyi said. He had realized he wouldn't be able to shake off Han Yi for a while. "There are no traces in the building; we can only hope for the perimeter."

"Good," Zuo Yu said. "Fortunately, you are in Qionglin today; it puts my mind at ease."

"Mage Zuo," Han Yi laughed, "I'll go outside with him to try our luck too."