Chapter 567: Meeting Up (8)

Luo Qi woke up, feeling lightheaded for a moment and a bit nauseated. He subconsciously reached up to touch under his nose, but did not feel the familiar nosebleed. It seemed that using the method Wusu had taught him was indeed better than him just blundering through it on his own.

"How is it?" Wusu asked without looking up, still drawing on his PAD.

Wen Lin raised her eyes to the rearview mirror to observe him for a moment. Seeing him leaning listlessly against the car window, she asked, "Altitude sickness?"

Luo Qi did not speak. He gazed at the crimson canyon outside the window; he did not like this barren landscape that looked like Mars. This canyon was like a scar on the earth, tearing through the peaks covered in glaciers. The glaciers were nothing to look at either. You might be thinking of Disney's Snow Queen in your heart, but in reality, the glaciers looked like a dusting of coal ash blown onto your snow-capped coffee; it had nothing to do with purity or beauty, and it was actually a bit depressing to look at. Luo Qi knew this because he watched human television programs, and humans had traveled across almost every continent on the planet. One day, humans would travel across the entire solar system, as well as the deep space beyond the solar system.

"You don't like it here either, do you?" Wen Lin guessed, looking at his expression.

Luo Qi still did not answer her question. He stared quietly out the window, as if the people in the car did not truly exist. Wen Lin looked at him a few more times and stopped talking. The stylus in Wusu's hand glided softly across the surface of the machine. Shi Qian had fallen asleep, and in the back row of seats, a faint sound flowed from the headphones of the two girls. The cat made a purring sound that invited affection; taking advantage of him being asleep, the cat had crawled to the back seat to throw itself into the girls' arms.

After a long while, Wusu suddenly raised his head, his gaze landing on Luo Qi's face. "Your thoughts move very quickly."

"Perhaps because I know everything," Luo Qi said.

"Heh." A light chuckle that wasn't quite sarcastic came from the front seat, mixed with a hint of curiosity.

"I am not testing you," Wusu explained. "I just sensed that you were thinking at high speed. Do you often do this?"

"You don't know what I have actually witnessed," Luo Qi said softly toward the mountains outside the window, as if he hadn't heard him. "Although it is chaotic and disorganized, and the pieces seem to have no connection to each other, if I still couldn't guess the answer with so much information laid out before me, then my intelligence level would be equivalent to an earthworm."

Wusu watched him. "It wasn't something you dreamed in a dream, was it?"

Luo Qi shifted his gaze and looked at him quietly for a moment. "Dreams have never amounted to anything. I am talking about my experiences."

Wusu pondered in silence for a while, then finally nodded.

Luo Qi turned his head away, looking wearily at the scene outside the car window. "Do you see that black scar in the river valley? It's like a scar within a scar, a foul-smelling wound that could only be carved by a poisoned machete."

"It doesn't look like it formed naturally," Wusu said.

"I think it's human gold prospectors," Luo Qi replied.

"Like the prospectors of the Yukon River? They still exist?"

"The Yukon River?" Luo Qi said. "Mage Wusu is quite worldly; you know much more than most Mages."

Wusu smiled slightly. "Only because I have lived a long time. Have you forgotten that I am also a Treasure Hunter?"

"Oh, right," Luo Qi said softly, then continued to explain. "The altitude here is too high, and it is difficult for human government organizations to monitor this place. This spot is one hundred kilometers from the nearest village, or perhaps there is less than one human per square kilometer on average. Only humans who are particularly desperate come here. Oh, and they don't use the gold-panning methods of North America from a hundred years ago; they use the latest human Magic and modern engineering equipment to dig open the river valley, using machines to wash the mud and sand. Although the gold content here is not high, it is a business with no overhead, and the desperadoes can earn a considerable reward. However, by digging up the river valley like this, the ecological damage might not recover for decades. More importantly, the melting of the glaciers is accelerating, changing the geological conditions here, which could very likely make the Seal underground unstable. I was just thinking that the locations where they are digging extensively are a bit too close to the Seal Land."

Wusu understood; the point of this lecture on human behavior analysis was in the last sentence. "You are worried that humans will inadvertently dig up the Seal Land?"

"I was just saying it casually. No matter what form the Seal takes, it is impossible for humans to break it easily."

Wen Lin looked at him through the rearview mirror. "Were you such a gloomy harbinger of doom when you were with Du Zhengyi?"

Luo Qi glanced at the mirror.

Wen Lin said again, "You seem to have changed quite a bit since we last met."

"Last time, I nearly ate your brain," Luo Qi said calmly. "I didn't think I was being healthy and cheerful back then."

Shi Qian woke up, looked back at him in astonishment, and then hurriedly turned his head back.

Wen Lin laughed brazenly; Luo Qi could tell that was her way of dealing with danger—danger made her a bit excited. She was an ambitious woman, and a bit crazy; a small, seemingly harmless, dangerous man like Luo Qi could satisfy her vanity.

Luo Qi smiled. "Tell me about those folk stories you collected. What do those monsters look like?"

"All sorts," Wen Lin said happily. "To be honest, I don't believe most of what they say. The human mind is too fond of fantasy. It is true that they were influenced by something, but the result was likely processed by their own brains. Luo Qi, can we see Du Zhengyi today?"

"I don't know," Luo Qi said leisurely, leaning against the car window. "Do you want to see him?"

"Du Zhengyi is a legend among Battle Mages. Of course, I hope to work with him and gain some experience," Wen Lin said.

"Oh—" Luo Qi raised his eyes, his face suddenly full of spirit, a flash of a smile crossing the depths of his eyes. "Do you know that he is also very interested in you?"

"Really?"

"He talks about you often," Luo Qi said, encouraging her. "But my brother, that guy—you look at him and think he is very arrogant, but he really isn't. He doesn't chat because he is actually very introverted, especially when he is shy about starting a conversation with women."

"No way? According to you, the Qionglin War God is actually a poor little thing?" Wen Lin asked in surprise, and the car even swerved slightly.

"Yeah," Luo Qi bit the knuckle of his thumb. "Really pitiful. His heart is always very lonely. He doesn't want to be a god, yet he is treated as a god and kept at a distance."

"Is that so..." Wen Lin fell into thought.

Luo Qi shook the messy hair on his head and sat up straight in his chair, then suddenly paused. "Wait, the car is heading east."

"East?" Wen Lin glanced at the surroundings. "There is no road to the east."

(End of chapter)