Chapter 558: Meeting Up

Luo Qi sat beside a round table, eating a bowl of double-skin milk one spoonful at a time. Wusu sat beside him, and Wusu was next to Guan Xinyue and Liu Ziyi. The table was filled with Cantonese desserts; he had taken a bowl of double-skin milk, while Wusu only touched the milk tea. The two girls seemed to be holding a tasting session, each taking a little of everything and exchanging their thoughts on the flavors.

"So," Luo Qi continued talking to Wusu, having already seized the time to chat with Wusu for a long while about Wushan theory, "if one lets oneself go in a dream, what happens if one gets lost in the dream?"

"Actually, the best method is to maintain a mental link with another person to anchor yourself. Just like the dreams Wushan sometimes provides for guests—by perceiving the dream the guest desires most, Wushan can help them fall into a beautiful dream and then pull them back out." Wusu smiled slightly, extended his left hand, palm upward, and said to Guan Xinyue with a smile, "May I hold your hand?"

Luo Qi saw the area near Guan Xinyue's cheekbones turn red. He did not stop Guan Xinyue from reaching out, because a Mind Mage does not need to hold someone's hand to break into their mental world. Wusu was simply making the matter more ritualistic; regardless of whether it was his charming smile or the gentle holding of hands, both would make the guest more relaxed. A relaxed mental world would not produce a strong rejection reaction when linked.

Guan Xinyue was a little nervous, but she still placed her small hand, white enough to reveal blue veins, into Wusu's large hand. Wusu looked at her with a friendly smile, his shoulders and back straight, gentle and refined, without the slightest offense. If Luo Qi had to judge, this action was much like a knight helping a lord's young daughter across a ditch. He pondered whether he should learn it; Wushan could manipulate people without using telepathic abilities, which, upon careful thought, was truly very clever. But he immediately thought of Du Zhengyi looking at him with surprise as he put on such a pretentious act, then honestly asking him—are you sick?

So, he decided to forget it. He shoveled another spoonful of double-skin milk into his mouth and observed silently. Suddenly, he saw what Guan Xinyue was seeing; this layer of illusion barrier from the Wushan Mage was too fragile for him. He saw the bustling Disneyland, spinning flying horses, fluttering flags, and steam-powered airships. The time flow in the mental world was extremely fast, and Luo Qi only saw fleeting glimpses. He saw the figures of the two girls, arm in arm, and he saw an old man running over with great effort, holding two ice creams.

Liu Ziyi was paying close attention to them from over there. She could see nothing, but it seemed nothing could be hidden from her; she suddenly blinked and hid her gaze.

A glow gradually bloomed on Guan Xinyue's face. Her eyes were as soft as a pool of autumn water, dots of moisture spilled from those eyes, and the corners of her eyes slowly turned red. She smiled slightly, then broke free from Wusu's hand. "Thank you," she said in a low voice, then lowered her head.

Luo Qi pushed the double-skin milk away; he could no longer eat it.

Wusu withdrew his hand, cleared his throat with slight awkwardness, turned his head to look at Guan Xinyue, and after a long moment, said in a low voice, "My apologies."

Guan Xinyue shook her head repeatedly, looked up and glanced at him quickly, but still insisted on saying, "Thank you."

Wusu looked at the top of her head for a moment, turned his head to meet Luo Qi's gaze, and cleared his throat again. "You can link with someone you trust; it doesn't require them to be a Mind Mage. As long as they are a person with a firm will, they can wake you up. However, of course, if you don't have such a person you can trust, it is not a big problem. Sinking into a dream is far safer than using other methods."

"Is this kind of link not an Entanglement?" Luo Qi asked.

"Entanglement? Of course not. Entanglement is a Magic Contract, supervised and executed by fate. A link in the Mental Domain is just a brief sharing, and it is only a partial sharing, connected only by a single conduit." Wusu paused here, hesitated slightly, and continued, "You have probably already thought of it; conversely, if you truly fall into being lost while in a conscious state, if there is time to establish a link, there is hope to bring you back. This kind of explicit link is very helpful for maintaining stability. However, if it were to develop into a completely open state, that might also mean the loss of the self. We have not used this method."

"The Highland Mages want me to join them; they will help me stabilize my mental world," Luo Qi said in a low voice.

"That is a completely open link," Wusu said, glancing at Luo Qi.

Luo Qi understood. The Highland Mages, Wushan, and Qionglin Mages like him were not particularly significantly different; they just adopted different methods to deal with their own problems and develop their own abilities. The Highland Mages were completely integrated into a whole with a religious piety, openly sharing their mental worlds. Therefore, they viewed the artificial Puppet Legion as a great humiliation and an unacceptable offense. Wushan, on the other hand, existed between the secular and the monastic, dealing with problems in a clever way, and perhaps even pursuing indulgence and pleasure as a life goal, but they had indeed developed many methods to use telepathy.

These were two minority groups that had luckily escaped the troubles of the secular world. The remaining telepathic mages were often born into families of ordinary mages; once they developed telepathic abilities, they would be subject to Qionglin's supervision. However, because they might be too deeply involved in the world and have too heavy responsibilities, these Mind Mages might actually be the least capable of dealing with their own problems. The probability of going astray was likely not low, so Qionglin was particularly vigilant. At the same time, being in the secular world with too many desires and too much ambition made them even more suspicious to Qionglin.

He was thinking silently when Liu Ziyi suddenly paused, pulled open the cuff of her left sleeve, and looked at the Crystal on her wrist. He looked toward Liu Ziyi, and she raised her head to look at the door. "The person you asked me to invite for you has arrived."

Luo Qi also looked toward the door. A figure appeared outside the glass door, which had the words "Grand Opening" pasted on it. Under Luo Qi's shallow probing, her mind was tightly locked; it was indeed the will of a Battle Mage. Behind her was another person, whose lock was slightly looser than hers; that was a person prone to hesitation, who was currently feeling troubled and restless.

The door was pushed open, and a slim woman walked in. The wind outside was blowing very hard, and she was wrapped in a navy blue long trench coat, wearing a soft felt fedora on her head, her chin buried in the raised collar, making it impossible to see her face for a moment. Behind her followed a man in a dark gray coat, his hair slightly naturally curly, with a look of agitation on his face.

Liu Ziyi raised her hand and greeted the female Battle Mage cheerfully, "Hey, Wen Lin, over here."

The woman's face lifted, her gaze drifting between Luo Qi and Wusu several times, as if she were not sure which one was Luo Qi.

Luo Qi sighed. It seemed his true identity in the non-core area of Qionglin would remain a mystery for a while.

(End of chapter)