Chapter 589: The Boy Playing Hide-and-Seek

Luo Qi was engulfed by countless phantoms, countless mouths pouring their stories into him. His heart was pounding wildly; he was entangled by the memory fragments of countless people, yet it also felt like being haunted by countless wronged souls. Perhaps it was because he was too rushed, or perhaps he was simply not skilled enough, but he lost his rhythm. It was as if he had opened countless drawers in his mind, each one hiding a soul that was shrieking and wailing.

He watched countless mouths opening and closing toward him, yet all he heard in his ears was tormenting white noise. He wanted to vomit, but in the reality of his consciousness, the urge to vomit was merely a refraction of discomfort; he had nowhere to vomit at all.

Luo Qi restrained his fear; if he were scared to death, it would be him scaring himself to death. But are people who are scared to death actually just scared to death by themselves? Luo Qi thought chaotically, struggling to push away those mouths eager to speak. He gave up for the moment; he had to retreat.

Just then, a thunderclap exploded above his head. He looked up in a panic and saw himself standing among mountains; those blue peaks were shining with red flames, like the raging fire flowing across the apocalypse of the gods. Thunder roared, and lightning split the night sky, leaving behind blue, flashing ball lightning. Luo Qi was astonished to find that he was attracting the ball lightning, and he turned and ran wildly. The earth tilted, the peaks turned into smooth, steep geometric shapes, and the ground beneath his feet turned into Du Zhengyi's black metal.

"Brother!" he screamed, suddenly thinking of Du Zhengyi.

The lightning, flames, thunder, and mountains were all enraged, pursuing him relentlessly, as if they wanted to trap him in this hell of fire and frost.

"Brother!" he cried out. He knew what he was calling for; he was summoning his own Anchor, he wanted to find his way back to his own true world.

A gray mist appeared in front of him. Luo Qi did not hesitate, running wildly and jumping into the mist. The silence fell instantly; the noise vanished, all sounds disappeared, and he could see nothing but the mist itself. This was a gray zone, and all that existed here was nothingness. Luo Qi moved his feet cautiously, walking forward, wondering if this patch of nothingness was the boundary of his own world.

"Du Zhengyi," a voice suddenly called out, not far in front of him. "Do you want some chocolate?"

Luo Qi was startled, and also somewhat disappointed; this was still someone else's memory. He did not remember anyone daring to ask Du Zhengyi that question. But upon second thought, the voice sounded somewhat familiar.

The mist ahead thinned a little. Luo Qi walked a few more steps, and sunlight pierced through the mist, causing it to gradually become transparent. The shadows of trees began to appear in the mist. Luo Qi stepped out of the mist and stood in a clearing in a pine forest.

A courtyard house stood not far ahead. The two main gates were open, and a soccer ball rolled out. Luo Qi reached out a foot and stopped the ball. He looked into the courtyard; there was an old apricot tree in the yard, the apricot blossoms were in full bloom, and a child was sitting on a horizontal branch of the tree, his feet dangling and swinging.

Luo Qi hurried a few steps and looked up at the child. The child looked at him coldly. Luo Qi stared intently at those familiar eyes, never expecting to receive this memory. The Du Zhengyi in the memory probably could not see him; those eyes belonging to the boy were pitch-black and bright, yet filled with deep contemplation.

"Du Zhengyi," the woman called again.

The boy did not know what he was thinking about and turned a deaf ear to the call. Luo Qi saw him casually catch a falling petal; the petal changed rapidly between his fingers, becoming a complete apricot blossom. He flicked his hand, and the apricot blossom was thrown out, turning into a bolt of lightning in mid-air, striking the ground and leaving a deep pit.

Luo Qi suddenly discovered there was something else in the pit—a soccer ball. Only then did he realize the soccer ball under his feet was gone. But the ball had just been kicked out of the courtyard, not buried underground. Unless... unless the young Du Zhengyi was playing a chain game: growing a petal into a flower, turning the flower into lightning, using the lightning to split the ground, and having the soccer ball he had teleported into the ground buried beneath...

Luo Qi was amazed. When he was that age, if he were bored, he might just draw lines on a wall with chalk while walking.

He dared not say how much profound Magic was contained in the series of actions the boy had just performed. There might have been Growth Magic, Weather Magic, and Teleportation Magic, but what connected these things when they were strung together, Luo Qi could not say.

"Zhengyi, I see you," the woman said, walking toward this side.

Luo Qi saw Du Zhengyi frown, and then, the boy disappeared right before Luo Qi's eyes.

Luo Qi was greatly shocked and turned his head to look for him, only to see the woman with a helpless expression. The woman—Shi Xiansheng? She was holding a bottle of chocolate candies in her hand.

"Oh, this child!" Shi Xiansheng almost stomped her foot. "Pei Shu, look at this child, he disappears whenever he wants. Disappears whenever he wants! Can you really control him?"

Pei Shu walked out of the room and said calmly, "He will appear when he wants to appear."

Luo Qi's gaze drifted upward. Du Zhengyi was on the roof; they hadn't seen him. He was sitting next to the chimney, holding a bottle of chocolate candies in his hand. Luo Qi couldn't help but laugh. Sure enough, the sound of Shi Xiansheng's frustrated huffing reached his ears again, and the candies she had been holding were gone. "Let me tell you, you have to teach him properly! No one can control this child, it's too dangerous! This child leaves all the adults helpless, he'll just grow up freely—how can that be allowed?"

It was fortunate that he hadn't known Du Zhengyi back then; otherwise, if he had played hide-and-seek with him, he would have been cheated to death. He was far too good at cheating.

"It doesn't matter," Pei Shu said in a measured tone, a completely different person from the impatient Pei Shu in Luo Qi's previous memory.

"You are truly patient with children, Pei Shu. I really suspect that the reason we broke up is because I never ended up having children," Shi Xiansheng said.

"Don't talk nonsense, Xiao Shi. You know I'm not that narrow-minded; they are all my children," Pei Shu said, reaching out a hand to hold Shi Xiansheng's.

"The tragedy of the Du Family makes me very sad," Shi Xiansheng said. She sighed. "Is Zhengyi the spark you left behind? Which branch is he from? Why have I never heard before that the Du Family had such a genius in this generation? Tingxiu should have mentioned Zhengyi often; he has always been so... toward the younger generation."

"Don't mention him again!" Pei Shu said suddenly. His expression became very serious, his eyes staring intensely at Shi Xiansheng.

"I can understand how you feel," Shi Xiansheng said gently.

Luo Qi's heart rose to his throat. He saw Shi Xiansheng's eyes; a dark rage surged within them, completely different from the gentleness of her tone. For a moment, he was very worried that Pei Shu would be angered, but he wasn't. The Head Venerable's expression softened; although he appeared distant, his emotions were eased. Luo Qi suddenly realized: the Shi Xiansheng he saw in Shi Xiansheng's memory was her truest self deep inside. And at that time and place, the Goddess of Wushan certainly hadn't shown Pei Shu her true self.

"Xiao Shi, sometimes I think we shouldn't talk anymore," Pei Shu said.

"You must be very sad inside; let's talk about something else," Shi Xiansheng said.

"I mean, we shouldn't see each other anymore," Pei Shu said.

Luo Qi saw the smile on Shi Xiansheng's lips, faint and elusive, as well as the grief in her eyes. However, based on Luo Qi's understanding of Shi Xiansheng, she wouldn't be this grief-stricken just because Pei Shu had completely broken up with her.

"Alright," Shi Xiansheng said gently. She turned and walked away. At the courtyard gate, she turned her head back to look at the roof. "Du Zhengyi, you must... take care of yourself."

Luo Qi wanted to see the young Du Zhengyi again, but he was no longer in his original position; he didn't know where this little genius had run off to. He wanted to keep looking, but he was forced to use Shi Xiansheng's memory, and now that Shi Xiansheng had left, he was also swept outside.

Shi Xiansheng walked into the pine forest. Luo Qi didn't know why this memory hadn't ended yet, so he could only accompany Shi Xiansheng as she walked. The pine forest was very quiet, filled with the scent of pine oil; squirrels darted past from time to time, and the calls of cuckoos could be heard from far away overhead.

Just as Luo Qi began to feel a bit bored, Shi Xiansheng stopped. She looked up at the sky for a while. Luo Qi didn't know what she was looking at. Just then, she suddenly spoke, "They are all dead, only one child is left."

Luo Qi worried that she might be overly heartbroken. She suddenly turned her head and said, "Do you think I'm so sad because of love, or some love triangle or something?"

Luo Qi was startled and stared at her, not knowing who she was talking to.

She laughed. "Don't be afraid. I don't know who you are yet, but you are the one to whom I am gifting this memory. Then one day, you will walk to this point and meet me."

(End of chapter)