Chapter 57: Chapter Fifty-Six

Luo Qi turned his body with difficulty; the cold and exhaustion were about to tear his body apart. It was already no small feat that he could keep himself from falling apart instantly like a person made of Lego bricks. The ancient monster ten paces away stared at him; its bones could crush him, and its teeth were enough to tear Luo Qi to pieces.

Luo Qi breathed gently and deeply, slowly exhaling white breath in the cold weather; he faced the monster in near despair. Legend had it that the Qionglin had defenses, and it seemed that was indeed no empty claim.

There was absolutely no way for him to escape from the claws of such a monster, yet the monster remained in a stalemate with him. Clearly, its bloodthirsty intent was already very strong, but it still hesitated to make a move.

Luo Qi looked at the monster's ginger-colored eyeballs. For some reason, he felt the monster was weighing him up. Perhaps it was because he wasn't afraid enough, or perhaps it was because he hadn't quickly established personal defenses like other Mages. He just stood there completely open, unmoving and unshaken, not gathering power, nor feeling particularly terrified.

His behavior was outside the monster's expectations, and he suddenly realized that this monster was extremely cunning. Cunning, vicious, and it wasn't even very hungry; it just wanted to torture and be bloodthirsty. This feeling was surprisingly consistent with the feeling Li Xu gave him. Luo Qi laughed before he knew it; this matter was just like Li Xu haunting him to take revenge. If Li Xu could transform into a monster, this was likely what that ugly thing would look like; in any case, it certainly couldn't be a unicorn or a My Little Pony.

The monster seemed to perceive Luo Qi's mood. Luo Qi's smile confused it, and it tilted its head to look at Luo Qi. It knew that Mages were all cunning and had many complex behaviors. Luo Qi also looked at it, suddenly thinking that it wasn't tilting its head to look cute—with that appearance, no matter how it tried, it wouldn't be cute—it was adjusting its focus. This thing had too many biological flaws, like a deformed child; its biological features were all failures. It was even difficult for it to see a target clearly; if it looked straight ahead, Luo Qi would even appear as a double image.

Once again, Luo Qi didn't know how he had acquired this knowledge. He gave a dejected, self-deprecating laugh; he was truly fed up. He didn't know where things had gone wrong, so he irritably shifted his gaze, raised his eyes to look at the sky, and wondered what kind of providence was controlling everything.

His peripheral vision caught the monster moving, but he was a bit too lethargic to move. In any case, he couldn't outmaneuver that thing.

But just at this moment, he heard that call again, the one he had heard in the underground Interrogation Room: "Luo Qi."

The sound was clearly directed, sounding clearer than all the previous voices. The voice wasn't very loud, but it was extremely distinct—distinct enough for him to understand that he only knew this voice was calling him, he knew it, rather than him hearing it.

When he was underground, he had noticed that it wasn't just Zhao Zhiyan calling his name. From that time on, he realized that two people were calling him. Zhao Zhiyan's was closer and more urgent, while the other voice seemed to be calling him tentatively.

He was a bit distracted, wanting to hear this voice more clearly. But it wasn't a sound, so there was no way to hear whose voice it was. He had an intuition that this voice had no malice, and he even felt a sense of familiarity.

Suddenly, "Luo Qi!" that voice amplified sharply, carrying fear.

He raised his head and, in a daze, saw the monster pouncing on him, accurately biting his neck and tearing at his head. But then he realized something was wrong; his positioning was off. He saw the monster pouncing on him, but he was standing to the side of the monster.

The moment this thought crossed his mind, he didn't yet realize what it meant, but whether he saw the monster pouncing over or saw the monster pouncing away, his instinct was always to dodge. He reflexively lunged toward the snow on one side; the scene seemed to return to the mountain near the Guan Family Old Residence. That night, he had similarly dodged a vaguely incoming attack, and after landing in the same way, he rolled to the side.

He endured the pain and quickly climbed up from the ground, turning his head to see the monster landing where he had just been standing, looking somewhat bewildered. Luo Qi guessed that it had never miscalculated before; its speed was already the limit for a beast, and its strength was shockingly greater.

For Luo Qi, that vague premonition of an incoming attack had grown into a concrete thought, as if images were playing in advance in his mind. He stood up in astonishment, but he soon understood that this was useless; even if he could know its intentions in advance, he would soon have no strength left to dodge.

The monster understood this logic too. Luo Qi couldn't even tell anymore if this thought was his own, or if it had originally belonged to the monster and had now been captured by him.

However, Luo Qi understood a little bit more; he recalled the situation with Zhao Zhiyan at that time, and it seemed that part was real, not a hallucination. But he no longer understood the situation where he had ordered Zhao Zhiyan to choke his own throat; at the time, it felt as if he had known that method all along. But now, he didn't know how to control a monster.

He looked at the monster hesitantly and silently recited, "Don't kill me." The monster had no reaction; it wasn't moving yet, but it seemed to be just assessing the situation, guessing the degree of danger Luo Qi posed.

Luo Qi thought that perhaps he shouldn't give such a vague command to an animal, and he thought hesitantly—"Back off."

The monster didn't even move.

Luo Qi gave up; he suddenly felt he was being ridiculous. He turned around and ran rapidly toward the ice. Behind him, the monster let out a roar as if it had released all restraints, and it also suddenly began to sprint.

Luo Qi didn't manage to run more than a few steps before his foot slipped and he fell onto the ice. His heart sank, knowing this was almost the final moment. Who would have thought that almost at the same time, a loud crash of the monster falling came from behind him.

He climbed up from the ice and looked back. The monster had fallen onto the ice, but it wasn't affected by his Yajian; a massive, hiltless ice blade had neatly severed the monster's head.

Standing on the ice next to the monster was a person, tall and slender, wearing a human suit, looking just like a human white-collar worker who had worked too much overtime and was in an extremely bad mood.

"Du Zhengyi." He called out in confusion, as if worried that this was also a phantom.

Du Zhengyi was breathing slightly heavily; it was the first time he had seen Du Zhengyi exert himself. Then Du Zhengyi walked over and reached out to pull him up from the ice. Du Zhengyi's hand was warm, and his entire being was incomparably real.

Great, for once it wasn't a hallucination.