Chapter 587: Lost

Luo Qi stood up indignantly and reached out a hand to his side; his cat had returned at some point, and the black cat leaped from the grass, climbed up Luo Qi's arm, and settled onto his shoulder, its feline eyes fixed on Zhou Ruisi. Zhou Ruisi stared back at the cat in a daze, even feeling a slight urge to reach out and pet it.

"I'm sleepy, I want to sleep," Luo Qi called out, preempting Du Zhengyi.

Du Zhengyi looked at him teasingly, "Such a declaration might damage your authority as a leader."

Luo Qi gave him a resentful look.

Du Zhengyi laughed, "Does a leader need to hold a cat while sleeping?"

"The leader says," Luo Qi stated, "that Zhou Ruisi must be among those on the first night watch shift today."

Yan Hao laughed out loud, playing along with Luo Qi, "Received, Captain."

"Wait, what..." Zhou Ruisi cried out, but Yan Hao dragged him away. Shi Qian also stood up and walked toward Wen Lin.

Luo Qi stood in the valley shrouded by the night; the sounds of the wilderness rolled over him like a tidal wave, the rustling of the wind through the grass never ceasing for a moment, and beasts wailed mournfully in the distance. Someone had lit a fire, and the flickering warm light shone on his friend's face. He saw the expression on Du Zhengyi's face, a mixture of gentle worry and moderate concession, which made his chest feel warmly at peace. He did not answer; he did not want to answer, nor did he know how to answer. Du Zhengyi shifted his gaze away, returning to being the Qionglin War God who was uninhibited in the eyes of others.

Luo Qi walked over and hung himself on Du Zhengyi's shoulder, letting him go with him to check on the girls. Wen Lin and Shi Qian were arguing fiercely in low voices where the firelight couldn't reach, the Battle Mages were gathered in twos and threes, at least half of them were in a state of alert, and Wusu was drawing pictures at the entrance of the girls' tent.

"Wushan Mage is really strange," Luo Qi said.

"Strangely beautiful?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"No, just strange," Luo Qi said, looking at Wusu from afar, "but all Mind Mages are quite strange, aren't they?"

"Perhaps it is just because they have an extra layer of vision," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice.

It was indeed an extra layer of vision, and perhaps, even a few extra dimensions of time and space.

Guan Xinyue had fallen into a sleep, and Liu Ziyi stayed by her side the whole time, trying her best to maintain a shallow connection with her. This mental connection was far weaker than what Luo Qi was used to, almost negligible. It was established for them by Mahjong, so that Liu Ziyi could check on Guan Xinyue's status at any time using this method.

Xiang Qian also stayed by the little girls' side, nonchalantly telling them not to worry, "This kind of situation happens when we come into contact with humans too closely. Something like this happened when my granddaughter was being mischievous with human children, but it passed without any danger later on. But then again, this kind of thing usually happens among toddlers; you all really shouldn't have let this happen."

Luo Qi unloyally left Liu Ziyi to listen to Xiang Qian's complaints alone, making a brief stop in their tent before hurriedly pulling Du Zhengyi away.

Yan Hao had created quite a few sleeping bags outside; Luo Qi went over to take two and found a core position for him and Du Zhengyi, very close to the campfire. Zhou Ruisi was right; even if cold light was more environmentally friendly and magic was warmer, nothing made people as happy as a campfire.

Luo Qi used his coat to make a nest for the little black cat and crawled into his sleeping bag. The sleeping bag was not comfortable, and lying in it, he could clearly feel the details of the terrain on the ground. He thought of Liu Ziyi's magic and really wished he could sleep in a floating sleeping bag made of Anti-gravity Magic. Du Zhengyi sat beside him, silently as if in Meditation. Luo Qi secretly leaned over and discovered that the frequency of Du Zhengyi's thoughts was indeed in Meditation.

He retreated and asked with his mouth, "Why do you need to meditate?"

"I want to check why I feel this place is so familiar."

Du Zhengyi's answer took him by surprise.

"That simple? Can you check all your memories just like that?" Luo Qi asked curiously.

"You can't?" Du Zhengyi opened his eyes and asked him, "Is your brain that messy?"

Luo Qi retreated into his sleeping bag, not very happy, "My brain is well-organized."

"If your brain is very messy, you really need a Highland Mage to help you," Du Zhengyi said tentatively.

"I will, I'll study hard and improve every day when I get back," Luo Qi quickly blocked his mouth, stretching out his fingers to swear an oath. "Now I'm sleepy, I'm going to sleep first, aren't you sleeping?"

Du Zhengyi stared at him suspiciously; it really wasn't late yet, most of the camp hadn't rested, and the only one who had crawled into a sleeping bag was Luo Qi, along with his cat.

"I'm exhausted," Luo Qi immediately complained, guessing his inner thoughts accurately and cutting him off. "A Mage as delicate as me is different from you Battle Mages."

Du Zhengyi shook his head and told him to get lost; when Luo Qi started claiming he was delicate, there was no way to continue the conversation.

Luo Qi "hummed," turned over in his sleeping bag, let out an exaggerated yawn, closed his eyes, and began to try his best to relax. He started using Wusu's method, vaguely approaching those many memories of others, thinking as much as possible about Pei Shu, about Du Tingxiu, about... he thought of Du Zhengyi again. Thinking of this restless wilderness, thinking of... Wusu's paintings made him feel agitated. Wusu seemed to have lived here before, once, when this place was still a city of an Ancestor Mage.

Why was it like this? No, no, no, Luo Qi thought vaguely, that's not important, don't think about that, what's important is the Seal Land. Luo Qi really hated this feeling; his ability was like a piece of Chaos, he wanted to know if he knew the ancient incantations about encryption and decryption, but he couldn't control his own mind at all. He intermittently thought of Wusu's paintings, intermittently thought of Du Zhengyi's troubles, he wanted to control his own direction, but instead, he plunged headlong into a dream.

Things were becoming a bit bad... were they becoming a bit bad?

Luo Qi didn't know; soon he no longer knew who he was, he was walking through a narrow alley, leading a chestnut mare.

Someone threw a ceramic jar from a high place, and it shattered on the gravel-paved road. He didn't pay attention, his face hidden under a hood, and people behind the windows of a small tavern were pointing at him.

—Who am I— his question drifted on the edge of his Yajian. But here, this man in the hood was more powerful than him, than the him from before.

He walked confidently through the winding, dark alley, stopped at the end of the alley, and handed the mare to a child. The child would tie his horse to the manger in the courtyard behind the building, and he would walk through the courtyard.

A man sat in a magnificent high house, wearing baggy lantern-shaped trousers and draped in a gold-trimmed coat; his bare chest was almost as chestnut as his mare, and as robust and shiny as his mare, as if smeared with honey.

"Friend, where do you come from?" he heard himself ask.

"I come from the side of the great river," the man whispered, "following the merchant caravan of the Son of Man."

(End of chapter)