Chapter 576: Metatron

"Do you need your big brother to give you a hand? Should I drag you out, or stuff you in?" Du Zhengyi squatted down behind Luo Qi, peering into the safe Luo Qi was rummaging through. A stack of money spilled out from under Luo Qi's knees. "A god of wealth?"

Luo Qi slid out backward, sitting on the tails of his own overcoat, and lowered his head to stare at what he held in his hands. "Humans really did find something here."

Just as Du Zhengyi was about to lean over his shoulder to look at the object, Luo Qi slammed his hand down onto his coat, gripping the thing tightly to keep Du Zhengyi from seeing it. It appeared to be quite thin; in the brief flash, Du Zhengyi caught a glimpse of a dark metallic luster. "What are you doing?"

Luo Qi's expression was somewhat strange. He glanced around, and Yan Hao tactfully turned his head away and took two steps back. With his palm still pressed down, Luo Qi turned back to glare at Du Zhengyi. "Wait, wait, wait, brother, let me ask you a question first."

Du Zhengyi looked at him.

Luo Qi grabbed a handful of hair from his forehead and pushed it back, revealing a forehead covered in a thin layer of sweat. "Do you remember the day you and the Highland Mage helped me with Meditation? I asked you for a geometric shape that represented you. Do you remember what you said?"

Du Zhengyi nodded.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Du Zhengyi asked, puzzled.

Luo Qi looked into his eyes. "Why do you like that shape? Why does that shape represent you? Why did you think of that shape subconsciously? You definitely didn't just say it at random, think about it again! What you said back then is very important to me, you know that in your heart. Ever since then, perhaps every time I meditate, I have been building my world with this shape. My world is this thing, how could you have said it casually!"

Du Zhengyi subconsciously looked at Luo Qi's hand pressed against his coat; he seemed to already know what was covered by his palm. He did not answer the question immediately, but instead pondered it quite seriously for a moment. For an instant, he seemed to have gained some insight, but in the end, he could only shake his head at Luo Qi.

"You really don't know," Luo Qi said, not sure if he was disappointed. It was true, after all; Mages were actually quite familiar with this form. Some magic array structures were related to it, and the composition of some Magic was similar to it as well. He opened his palm, and a two-dimensional form of a black Metatron Cube appeared in his hand.

Du Zhengyi picked up the Metatron from his hand.

"How strange," Luo Qi said, rubbing his hair. "It's your family's metal again."

"The Progenitor Mage also used this kind of metal," Du Zhengyi reminded him. "And used it in large quantities, too."

"Regardless, humans don't have this kind of metal," Luo Qi said. "These people somehow discovered it, perhaps they dug it out of a riverbed, but even a blind man would know this thing is unusual. They must not have been far from the ancient ruins of the Mages. The reason they were killed is that they arrived at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Du Zhengyi pondered for a moment. "Do you think it's at the bottom of the river?"

"It's possible. Do you know that saying?" Luo Qi said, eyes fixed on the Metatron Cube. "Dry for a thousand years, wet for ten thousand years, half-dry and half-wet for only half a year."

Yan Hao really couldn't hold back anymore; he couldn't continue pretending he hadn't heard anything. "Is that some kind of mantra? Is it a mantra of the Ancient Mages?"

"Huh?" Luo Qi raised his eyes to look at him. "Of course not, this is a human saying. It means that if humans bury a grave in the desert, it can be preserved for a thousand years; if they put the grave under a river, it can be preserved for ten thousand years; if it's neither of those conditions, grave robbers will have dug it up within half a year."

Yan Hao nodded humbly. "That actually sounds like it makes some sense."

"It makes a lot of sense, okay?" Luo Qi said bluntly. "The golden-glittering king in the Mesopotamia region built his tomb under the water, and only now is it possible for humans to explore it. Five or six thousand years have already passed."

Yan Hao stared at him blankly, unable to judge whether what he said was true or false. Given his current temperament, he could very well be telling him about the Journey to the West.

Du Zhengyi had a realization. "Golden-glittering... you mean Gilgamesh, right?"

"What else would I mean?" Luo Qi said, turning his head to snatch his discovery back from his hand. "I can take this, right? It's just a piece of metal? There's no energy in it at all!"

"Gilgamesh of Mesopotamia?" Yan Hao finally understood a little. "I seem to remember the Battle Mage Chronicles mentioning him. In the records left by the extinct Sumerian Mages, he was the Progenitor Mage and the Son of Man. The Sumerians believed the female Ancestor created the world's first Mage to kill Gilgamesh. Unexpectedly, the Mage later became Gilgamesh's friend, his only friend. Unfortunately, the Mage died young. Gilgamesh tried everything he could but failed to resurrect him, and he himself failed to find the elixir of life, finally having to admit that he was just a human."

Yan Hao was just subconsciously trying to show off that he wasn't ignorant, or at least to keep up with the conversation between Luo Qi and Du Zhengyi. Who would have thought that Luo Qi would stand up and glare at him with as much indignation as if his mother had been insulted. He froze for a moment, and at that very instant, a gunshot rang out behind him. Yan Hao dodged almost by instinct; a bullet grazed his sleeve, tearing a hole in it.

Everyone was startled and looked back from their respective tasks. Ten meters away, Liu Ziyi, who was holding a gun, stared at them at a loss. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to test it, I don't know how I got the direction wrong, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"Luo Qi..." Du Zhengyi stood up and sighed helplessly.

Yan Hao turned back, stunned, looking at Luo Qi, not knowing how everything had happened, only gradually feeling a lingering fear.

Du Zhengyi patted his shoulder. "Don't mind it, human guns... certainly can't hurt a Battle Mage. Liu Ziyi... was testing a piece of material, it might have misfired."

Yan Hao looked at him in confusion, then looked at Luo Qi, who was still simmering with residual anger. The look Luo Qi cast at his sleeve was clearly one of regret. But what had he said wrong? Wasn't this topic started by Luo Qi himself?

Du Zhengyi reached out and pulled Luo Qi away. "Let's go, let's go, see if there's anything else on the battlefield you want to pick up? Do you need to loot the corpses after opening the treasure chest?"

Luo Qi was amused, took out the metal piece of the Metatron Cube to look at it, and then tucked it into the inner pocket of his overcoat. "What is this called in the ancient language?"

Du Zhengyi read out a three-syllable word.

"Sounds a bit familiar," Luo Qi said.

"It means Guide," Du Zhengyi said. "Humans have another meaning for it, perhaps similar to Guide."

"Let's hear it?" Luo Qi said.

"Guardian of Heaven."

Luo Qi's heart stirred. "Isn't that you?"

(End of chapter)