Chapter 555: Peacock (2)

"Wait, Luo Qi."

A thought like a gentle breeze brushed across his Yajian, softly conveying a wave of harmless supplication.

Luo Qi's footsteps faltered; the wind above their heads stopped, the hummingbird hovering over a flower ceased its high-frequency wing beats, and Guan Xinyue's hand, reaching to pluck a leaf from Liu Ziyi's shoulder, froze in mid-air. He sent back a thought laced with sarcasm, "Such a steady flow of consciousness, that is truly something a novice Mind Mage could pull off."

A wave of amusement, like ripples spreading across melting spring water, washed over Luo Qi's barbed thoughts. Luo Qi was theoretically annoyed; Wusu's thoughts swept through the areas he was less skilled in. He attacked, analyzed, and repaired people's Yajian, while Wusu dispelled negative spirits. He was deflated, his irritation smoothed away. It was hard for anyone to be an enemy of Wushan; that was likely the real reason—he couldn't even muster the anger or resolve to attack.

Wusu's thought followed right behind this maneuver, "A Child of Wushan is never entirely within the ranks of the Qionglin."

"Fine, you are as harmless as a Highland Mage. Why did you seek me out? Do you represent yourself, or do you represent Wushan?"

"After Ata returned to Wushan, she spoke of you," Wusu's consciousness said.

"I actually have the honor of being mentioned by a goddess?" Luo Qi said dryly.

"Wushan is watching you, too," Wusu said peacefully.

"You are actually a tight-knit group? I thought you were a trade guild. That means if I wanted to register at Wushan, it would be a bit difficult."

This time, Wusu conveyed a wave of amusement. "Shi Xiansheng once gave you a little gift. I have come on behalf of Wushan to ask you if you have torn off the gift's wrapping paper."

Luo Qi hesitated for a moment, but immediately realized that the hesitation had already answered the question.

Sure enough, Wusu replied, "Considering the actual situation, opening it cautiously is the correct choice. All Mind Mages are trained from childhood; their minds are prepared, and the methods are practiced skillfully. These take at least a dozen years to prepare, not to mention the mental links from family members in the early stages to maintain stability. I imagine you have none of these. In the eyes of the Qionglin, you are a wild little monster that grew on its own. However, conversely, you are also a Mind Master who has never been manipulated or contaminated."

"Right, I am a pure little angel." Luo Qi maliciously tried to disgust him, but this thought was also smoothed over by Wusu. He paused, feeling himself being steered into a range of positive thinking. He was a Mage whose Magic had been castrated by his family; no, he was also the only Mage who had never merged his Yajian with another. No one could test him, no one had merged him, no one had guided his Yajian. His thoughts had no boundaries; he didn't even need to be constrained by any sort of code like Du Zhengyi. "Are few Mages as... free as I am?"

"Few, unless that Mage is as mediocre as a human."

"So Shi Xiansheng said I am a Child of Reform?"

"I don't know Shi Xiansheng's full meaning. She left Wushan and went too far; in fact, Wushan is very conservative," Wusu said.

"Conservative?" Luo Qi pondered the word; it was truly strange when applied to Wushan.

"You will know more about Wushan later. I am here to give you a password hint," Wusu said. "Searching for the vast sea of information in your mind that does not belong to you is like walking into a maze. Trying to walk every path will consume your time in reality; it would be a very, very long time. I guess you must have tried to find connections according to logic, but that will make you lose yourself in your head. You might never wake up, or you might forget who you are."

"That problem does indeed exist," Luo Qi admitted. That was why he wanted the High-energy Crystal that Du Zhengyi had taken away; he needed many brains to think along with him. That was somewhat like the way of the Highland Mages, but they were equal connections, living organisms linked together. What Luo Qi wanted to link were lifeless, one-sided brains, which also carried risks. Du Zhengyi must have been worried about this, which was why he kept refusing to return it. He had tried searching for information on the Qionglin Great Mages existing in the Black Market himself, and the result was dangerous; for a while, he had been drifting in the massive information maze Shi Xiansheng had given him.

"Abandon logic," Wusu said suddenly.

"What? Be a total idiot?" Luo Qi asked.

"How rude," Wusu said. "You can see the item you want from a pile of clutter at a glance, right? Recall how you usually look for things in a messy room. For some reason, your brain doesn't look at those useless things at all; you only see the useful one."

"A trait all humans have—the ability to extract key information from chaos," Luo Qi muttered.

"Hand over the information you can't find to the dreamscape," Wusu said. "Wushan often lets people sink into dreams. In the dreamscape, our time is long; we experience fleeting glimpses in the Chaos. You know in your heart that the thing you are looking for is waiting in the depths of the emerald dream."

"You can't see the full information that way," Luo Qi said, dampening the mood. The information Wusu gave him was also like a dream.

"Something is better than nothing," Wusu said. "Don't be so controlling."

"You are a bit like a Highland Mage," Luo Qi said.

"I assure you, I am completely different from them," Wusu said.

The mental connection snapped abruptly. Sound suddenly flooded the space between heaven and earth. The wind blew through the canopy, bringing damp moisture. The hummingbird's wings vibrated, its slender beak extended into the flower to suck nectar. Guan Xinyue plucked the leaf from Liu Ziyi's shoulder and patted the moss and grass stalks off her sleeve.

Luo Qi turned back to look at Wusu and said with interest, "Besides working for the Qionglin, how do you pass the time?"

"I have a Treasure Hunter Group," Wusu said, breaking into a smile. "I also draw comics and illustrations for humans; the pay is considerable."

Guan Xinyue looked back at his smile, somewhat dazed. It seemed the human girl was unable to be immune to Wusu's charm.

"What kind of treasures do you hunt?" Luo Qi suddenly thought of something. "You know the first person to find Qiongqi was also a Treasure Hunter, right?"

Wusu nodded, "And it also triggered a war."

"Our elders definitely wouldn't let me talk to you much," Luo Qi shook his head regretfully, though his heels didn't move away.

"I heard your parents don't keep you on a very tight leash; looking at your little dragon-like appearance, it should be the same," Wusu said.

Luo Qi shook his head ambiguously, "Do you give dreams to good children?"

"Before you descended from the sky and started scolding me for being an old lecher, I was just about to give Xinyue a little dream."

"That's interesting," Luo Qi said. "Are you playing with me?"

Guan Xinyue turned her head suddenly, sensitive. The dazed, infatuated expression vanished from her face. She sized up Luo Qi, "Shouldn't you be going to class? Mahjong..."

"Mahjong isn't here," Luo Qi said to Guan Xinyue. "He left with Du Zhengyi; he is the team Doctor."

Guan Xinyue's face hardened, and suspicion surged in her eyes. She turned and grabbed Liu Ziyi, "Let's go play outside too! I-hap-pen-to-know a good place!"

(End of chapter)