Chapter 581: Finding the Shark

"I've already said, this is a type of Magic that remains in the background. I said this Magic would appear in cycles." Liu Ziyi looked at Luo Qi, who was standing in front of her with his arms crossed; even though he didn't speak, Liu Ziyi could see a "but" ready to burst from his face. "Yes, 'but' I don't know how long the cycle interval is, I just don't know, I have times when my brain isn't enough too!"

Luo Qi spread his hands. "Why are you yelling at me? I didn't even criticize you?" "Your expression doesn't even count as a micro-expression anymore, it's a direct expression of disgust," Liu Ziyi shouted. "You aren't my boss!"

"Be reasonable, Junior Sister, I still prefer you in your unfeeling state! Let's talk about reality. You can't keep Du Zhengyi in a state of constant Magic output, not even with low-dose Magic; what kind of stupid method is that? It doesn't even deserve the word 'method.' If you want to find a shark in the vast ocean, would humans be stupid enough to cut a person open and drag them under the boat? Learn from how humans solve problems. I thought you were the smartest Mage in the entire Qionglin. What kind of idea is this? If I were you, I would never have said this idea out loud. Don't even think about writing this in my work notebook." Luo Qi said mercilessly in an infuriating tone.

Guan Xinyue, who had just run over, gave him a disgusted eye-roll. "Luo Qi, you're really going too far."

"How am I going too far? Junior Sister, think about it yourself. You can encourage Du Zhengyi to bleed now, and he will definitely respond actively because he is famous in Qionglin for being loyal and brave but witless. Is your specialty enhancing the brain? Then Du Zhengyi's ability is destroying the brain; you turn into an AI, and Du Zhengyi turns into a brainless excavator, number one in the world for engineering throughput." Luo Qi talked eloquently with his arms crossed over his chest. At this moment, the other Mages were all drowsy with nothing to do, so everyone, including Wusu who was drawing, looked over.

Luo Qi didn't turn his head; Du Zhengyi was standing behind him, glaring at the back of his head. He looked up slightly at the Battle Mages filling the hillside. "What are you looking at me for? Is there any one of you who isn't an excavator?"

Liu Ziyi was oblivious to the scene, gnawing on the knuckle of her left index finger in annoyance. "But you saw it, this Magic responded to Senior Brother's Magic just now. Everyone's Magic has characteristics, just like voiceprints, fingerprints, or irises. It responded to Senior Brother's Magic, not some type of Magic. Now, if we want to resonate with it again, we must have Senior Brother's Magic. How could this possibly be replaced?"

"No, no, no, no." Luo Qi shook his head like a rattle and stepped forward to stand beside Liu Ziyi. "There is no such thing as a dead end in this world; every problem has a solution. Junior Sister, you are the person in all of Qionglin with the deepest understanding of Magic theory. You have designed so many experiments that can reverse-engineer the Ancestor Mages' Magic; you are good at solving problems. Now, the way to solve this is in your brain. You just need to calm down and come up with a strategy."

Guan Xinyue shouted impatiently, "You're the one who needs to calm down, you actually told someone else..."

A warning hiss came from Luo Qi's mouth, and his right index finger swiped sharply in front of Guan Xinyue, as if a conductor were lowering an overly loud trumpet. The look on his face made Guan Xinyue stop; only then did she notice the fine beads of sweat dripping from Luo Qi's forehead. She stared at Luo Qi suspiciously; it looked like Luo Qi was using Magic.

"We tried capturing Magic before," Liu Ziyi muttered. "To test the usage limit of a Barrier. I don't know if it will work, I'm not sure. We did that before to slack off, trying to find a way to make Magic leave the Mage, but I only did that because I wanted to eat some snacks and watch a TV show for a while."

After she finished speaking, she bit her lip hard, her fingers hovering in mid-air, and she glanced at Du Zhengyi very nervously.

"Wanting to be lazy is the driving force of human progress; humans have always done this. If humans didn't think about being a bit more leisurely, how would they have these machines in He Gu?" Luo Qi said. "Let's not get off-topic, you can capture a segment of the Magic Du Zhengyi releases."

"I don't know if it will work," Liu Ziyi said uncertainly. "I used to just put the captured Magic Energy into a Barrier, letting the energy constantly stimulate the Barrier, like using a spear to constantly poke a shield. I did that to know how long a defensive Barrier could last under specific conditions. But if I put Senior Brother's Magic in a container, the container itself has boundaries, which means from the outside, you wouldn't be able to see Senior Brother's Magic at all."

Luo Qi pondered Liu Ziyi's words. "Container, Barrier, container, container... can't we consider this world we are in now as a container?"

"You really dare to think," Liu Ziyi said, but she subconsciously started biting her finger knuckle again. "But what you say is also correct; I can't think of any Magic contradictions. Theoretically, of course, the real world is also a container. This way, we are indeed in the same container as the nameless cycle Magic. Senior Brother still needs to release a type of explicit Magic that requires a Spell, preferably non-offensive; the energy doesn't need to be too large, otherwise I won't be able to capture it stably..."

"What about trying Communication Magic?" Luo Qi suggested. "Communication Magic is an explicit Magic that requires a Spell, and its power is very small and very stable."

"That makes sense. But who is he communicating with? You? Let me think, once the channel for delivering messages is established, the energy required won't be small, and I don't know if the Communication Magic environment here is stable," Liu Ziyi said. "I could have Senior Brother keep sending you spam mail... but Magic constantly loses energy during use; I'll calculate how many bubbles a lowest-level Magic can send and how long it can last..."

"Wait, a phone call doesn't necessarily need someone to answer," Luo Qi interrupted, pondering. "Can you cyclically send communication requests to a non-existent person? I think there must be quite a few Mages who have declared their names in the local Magic; find someone who couldn't possibly answer the phone and keep requesting them to answer. This way, a single Magic possesses the two explicit requirements of a Spell and energy, and the energy consumption is extremely low; if it's just a summon, there's no need to establish a Magic connection at all."

Liu Ziyi's eyes lit up. "That makes sense. The energy consumption is indeed very low this way; a lowest-level Magic, minus time loss, can last at least twelve hours."

"How much Magic is a lowest-level Magic?" Luo Qi asked.

"Oh, that's very little, about the amount of Magic power it takes to light a cigarette," Liu Ziyi said.

"Junior Sister, you're amazing. I knew you could solve the problem; you are the brain for all of us," Luo Qi fawned, without blushing at all.

Liu Ziyi ignored him and began to draw a new Magic Array.

Guan Xinyue looked at him suspiciously. "Did you use Magic on Liu Ziyi?"

"Can using Magic on her help her be smarter?" Luo Qi retorted. He said naturally, "Liu Ziyi is already this smart; I just gave her more confidence and helped her calm down to use her brain to crush us. A mortal like me just needs to offer praise to the Goddess of Wisdom."

Guan Xinyue stared at Luo Qi, speechless, and after a long while, she whispered, "It's just your way of manipulating others..."

Luo Qi gave her a perfunctory fake smile and turned around, triumphantly going to talk to Du Zhengyi. "I didn't do anything bad; you should reflect on why the Magic here chose you."

Just then, Liu Ziyi muttered two names, causing Luo Qi to turn his head sharply.

"The last two names to use the local Communication Magic were Du Tingxiu... and Pei Shu? Huh?" Liu Ziyi stared at the formalized string of communication names and said.

(End of chapter)