Chapter 546: Making a Call

Luo Qi held a roasted chicken wing, "crack!" biting through the gristle connecting the middle, half the wing dangling from his mouth. As he ate, he turned his head to look at Du Zhengyi, who was sitting beside him transcribing a Spell, admiring Du Zhengyi's fluent and elegant handwriting with great relish. Du Zhengyi was focused on pondering the Spell, the tip of his tongue licking his dry lips. Seeing this, Luo Qi immediately freed up an oily hand, nimbly using the back of his hand to push a cola cup to Du Zhengyi's side, his eyes bright as he gestured for him to drink quickly.

Du Zhengyi didn't even look at him, as if the cola had fallen from the sky, and slowly picked it up to drink.

"Is there something wrong with this thing?" Luo Qi asked cautiously, watching his expression. He had already briefly recounted the matter and explained the origin of the note clearly. Du Zhengyi had recopied it, correcting several symbols that had been drawn inaccurately, but the tip of his neutral pen had underlined several sections of the runes. "Han Yi must have studied it many, many times; according to him, this Spell is nothing special. If he thought it truly had value, he probably wouldn't have given it to me so casually."

As he spoke, Luo Qi looked up at two people who were about to come over to find a place to sit. The two humans suddenly stopped in their tracks, stiffened for a moment upon meeting his gaze, and then hurriedly bypassed them to sit far away at the seats by the restroom door. He turned his head back and contentedly continued eating. The two of them occupied the largest table in the fast-food restaurant, the tabletop as wide as a workbench.

"This is a Communication Magic Spell, standard in phrasing and correct in format; all Magic used for communication is like this. As for the content of the communication, it looks like a work text, a simple Work Record sheet," Du Zhengyi said to him without looking up.

"Mm-hmm." Luo Qi nodded repeatedly; finally, Du Zhengyi was talking to him. Afraid that he would stop again, he immediately asked studiously, "Then what do these Spells mean? Brother, can you explain them to me? I can't read a single word, and having to pretend I can in front of that psychopath is too embarrassing."

"What's difficult about this? I'll teach you once, and you'll know it." Du Zhengyi's expression was calm; he picked up his pen and marked serial numbers on the Spell line by line, then drew three horizontal lines under the first line of the Spell, dividing this sentence into three parts.

"Communication Magic is usually only effective locally. The so-called 'local' range is equivalent to about one thousand square kilometers for humans. It's just a pity that not every one thousand square kilometers in the world has the conditions for Magic communication; we'll talk about that later. First, as long as you are in a place where Communication Magic can be used, the format of all Spells is fixed. They all start with the first part of the first sentence of this Spell, which translates to: Recipient Address," Du Zhengyi said, then raised his eyes to see if Luo Qi understood.

Luo Qi became happy; how could Du Zhengyi explain Magic as simply and directly as human rules? "Then is the actual address behind that? How is the address listed?"

"In this Spell, the address is divided into two parts. This rune in the front indicates a wildcard for everything, and this part in the back indicates the entire range, which is this local one thousand square kilometers," Du Zhengyi explained.

"Doesn't that just amount to a mass message?" Luo Qi asked in surprise.

"Broadcasting the message to all containers capable of receiving it within one thousand square kilometers," Du Zhengyi said. He watched Luo Qi patiently, seeing Luo Qi's eyes immediately brighten with sudden realization.

"Because there were no Mages living there, the Magic chose the human with the keenest sixth sense, Liu Xiaofen, and her granddaughter," Luo Qi said in surprise. "No matter what it is, it wants to send a message out!"

Du Zhengyi nodded and read out the first sentence of the Spell in its entirety.

Luo Qi secretly memorized it and heard Du Zhengyi say, "It is enough for you to first remember the fixed format part. In the future, when you need to access the Communication Space to send a message, you must similarly abide by the Spell format." He nodded repeatedly.

"The first part of the second sentence is: Recipient. You can see that the second part is still a wildcard for everyone. When a Level One Mage enters an area where communication is possible, they will immediately report their name and Magic Energy signature in the Communication Magic Network. The Magic Energy signature is the address in the previous sentence, usually referred to by the sequential number of entry into the network. Any Mage connected to the Magic Network can find other people's names and addresses; of course, finding them can only be used to initiate contact." He read this sentence of the Spell again.

Luo Qi pointed to the third and fourth sentences with interest, "I sort of understand this rule now. Are the third and fourth sentences the Sender Address and the Sender?"

"Correct. The address in the third sentence is a number, so it doesn't matter. The name of the sender in the fourth sentence is, Kongsang Mountain," Du Zhengyi said, shaking his head. "We won't talk about this one yet either. Look at the fifth sentence; this one is the key. The entire Talisman is a Spell, but only this sentence is a Secret Spell, the key to opening the Communication Space. If you were to overlay the world with a grid, theoretically, there should be a Secret Spell for every one thousand square kilometer grid, but even if Magic communication were truly possible in every grid, most Secret Spells would have long been lost. This sentence appears to be the Secret Spell for the Kongsang Mountain region, belonging to the lost, unknown Secret Spells."

"Ha, Liu Ziyu is going to be happy," Luo Qi said, looking further down. Du Zhengyi had not marked serial numbers for the remaining part; this section happened to have the same rune written at the beginning and the end. "Is this the body of the message?"

"Yes. You can input voice here, but it can only hold a few words. It can also be a piece of text displayed in a High-Energy Crystal held by the other party. I think the sender used a human brain as a storage crystal; this is truly too rare, I have never heard of such a precedent," Du Zhengyi said.

"That's so damn wicked," Luo Qi said, his brow suddenly furrowing. "Hm? Brother. If I were to write you a letter, is it enough to just memorize the first five sentences of the Spell? For the content between these two symbols, can I just use modern Chinese?"

Du Zhengyi nodded, the corners of his mouth curving into an arc, "Of course."

"Then... then is there some ancestor writing a letter?" Luo Qi asked, horrified.

"It's too early to draw that conclusion. Actually, this text translates to something incredibly mundane, like a work note, just a series of environmental parameters and energy parameters," Du Zhengyi said.

"Is there anything unusual about these parameters?" Luo Qi asked curiously.

"Very common," Du Zhengyi said calmly.

Luo Qi realized, "No wonder Han Yi said this thing is nothing special; the only value is that it can use Magic communication in Kongsang Mountain. But now Mages aren't willing to use Magic to contact each other either; using a mobile phone is more convenient."

"Yes."

"But I like this!" Luo Qi happily picked up the Spell Du Zhengyi had transcribed. "Does this also have a Secret Spell for Communication Magic?"

(End of chapter)