Chapter 603: The Scorching Valley

Luo Qi suddenly reacted, shut his mouth, and silently took a step back, just in time to see Du Zhengyi and Liu Ziyi exchange a very suspicious look, making him feel even more that something was amiss.

"I want to try a Level 3 Magic," Du Zhengyi said to Liu Ziyi.

The energy consumption of a Level 3 Magic is not considered high, Luo Qi calculated silently, but Du Zhengyi's words sounded as if he were saying to Liu Ziyi—"I am going to send you a ball."

He watched curiously as Du Zhengyi raised his right hand, palm forward, preparing to use magic. Du Zhengyi's way of using magic was always completely invisible; unless he was extremely bored and showing off, he never had any superfluous movements. But then Luo Qi realized that Du Zhengyi was showing Liu Ziyi that this was the signal to start the magic, and Liu Ziyi caught this ball. She immediately activated some kind of magic, and Luo Qi sensed a force chasing after Du Zhengyi; it was neither aggressive nor defensive, and Luo Qi instinctively felt it was like a bridge.

Or, in other words, like a guide for a third-party Contract, a purely auxiliary task.

Du Zhengyi did not use the magic immediately; he pondered for a moment, as if silently weighing the heft of the Spell. Luo Qi felt his Yajian undergo a slow transformation; the magical power he gathered was not powerful, but his Yajian was highly concentrated. Slowly, an ancient Spell flowed out from Du Zhengyi's Yajian. Luo Qi subconsciously focused and sank down, filtering out the interference of the howling wind in the outside world. Du Zhengyi's magic rotated smoothly, possessing Du Zhengyi's typical characteristics—the intent structure that birthed that power was stable, exquisite, and neat. Liu Ziyi's intent in guiding the magical power was more concise, carrying a flavor of cutting corners that was just barely usable.

Luo Qi was somewhat used to Liu Ziyi's cleverness; a clever person's corner-cutting was something others could not replicate. If one were to compare Liu Ziyi's magic to a human airplane, it would be a laboratory prototype, roughly welded with steel plates, with wires not even encased, brazenly exposed on the outside. Although the plane could be used, only Liu Ziyi herself could use it; her high skill made her bold.

Then, Luo Qi suddenly felt a change. It was like a gust of wind blowing through the Consciousness World; countless fireflies danced at the wind's call from the grass where they rested, and the tiny, faint specks of power gathered into a rough Yajian. This Yajian was far from forming a human mind, but it was crude and powerful. It prayed to the world, and the mountains, rivers, and dust-sealed earth responded to it.

Luo Qi was so astonished he nearly lost his balance and fell to the ground. The Consciousness World roared in response to this Yajian's summons, and it was also responding to Du Zhengyi's Yajian. Liu Ziyi pulled Du Zhengyi's magic, guiding it onto the track. Luo Qi understood; that mysterious force from yesterday had still captured Du Zhengyi, and Liu Ziyi had made them establish some kind of connection. Luo Qi did not know what this meant, but at this moment, everything was just power. The world responded to Du Zhengyi's summons, and powerful magical energy converged from deep underground. Du Zhengyi immediately changed the magic; Luo Qi vaguely felt that this time it was a defensive type of magic. Liu Ziyi's magic agilely took over the power the earth responded to him with. Luo Qi dared not imagine her ability to skillfully control magic like this; it was like catching a Fireball—one wrong move and you would lose your hands.

Liu Ziyi handled the magic with the cold, ruthless attitude of operating machinery, guiding the power Du Zhengyi summoned into the equipment she created for defense. The magic that should have been operated by one person became a coordinated operation of three forces; the completion speed was slightly delayed, but it actually succeeded.

Luo Qi had never seen such a sight. A deep blue light membrane rose from the ground; Liu Ziyi's originally invisible Shield had form and substance because it had received the blessing of immense power. The Shield rose like a wall around them, the sound of the wind weakened at a perceptible speed, the wall continued to grow, and Luo Qi looked up to see the wall about to close over their heads.

At the very last moment, Du Zhengyi cast a Spell; it was still a three-party collaborative magic, and the power was extremely great. Luo Qi's knowledge base did not have the ability to accurately identify the Spell in an instant, but he saw the trajectory of the energy, and a moment later, a huge Fireball erupted above the monster's head. In normal days, this definitely would not be something a doctor's orders would agree to, and for Du Zhengyi, it certainly wasn't a healthy behavior, but Luo Qi could clearly feel that the power Du Zhengyi used was "borrowed." It was both strange and not strange; this place seemed to be Du Zhengyi's home field, and he naturally possessed an advantage here. He transmitted the initial Spell to this land, and another... almost non-human force chanted the Spell for him, summoning the magical power. It was as if a giant chanting machine was buried here, and Du Zhengyi was the operator recognized by this machine.

Luo Qi watched the situation change anxiously; the magic unfolded smoothly, and no accidents occurred, so he breathed a sigh of relief. The huge Fireball burning above the monster army emitted a series of explosions, burning fiercely in mid-air, and Luo Qi watched the fire with some awe.

However...

"Brother, did you burn the wrong place? It's a bit high..." Luo Qi said regretfully.

He didn't expect Du Zhengyi to miss when aiming. The fire burned in mid-air; would those psychic monsters only feel a bit roasted? At most, get charred at the edges? Luo Qi hesitated, not knowing whether he should comfort Du Zhengyi; if one shot missed, he could take another. "Maybe you need a firing table. I heard that when firing artillery on a plateau, the trajectory changes. So you need to fire a few more times to compile a firing table."

"Shh." Du Zhengyi impatiently shushed him.

Luo Qi turned his head back in confusion. The bursting, burning giant Fireball emitted strange light and burned fiercely; the fire came and went quickly. Rather than calling it fire magic, it was more like Du Zhengyi had created an explosion. The flames, of course, also affected some of the monsters; their hard shells were more heat-resistant than Luo Qi had imagined, and most of the monsters' bodies were practically flame-retardant.

However, a shocking scene occurred just as the Fireball was about to extinguish. The monsters collectively showed symptoms of being unable to breathe; looking from afar, they were twisting and screaming frantically. Monsters that lived in a low-oxygen environment were actually encountering suffocation?

"How is this..." Luo Qi exclaimed, then suddenly realized, "Oh, oh, oh..."

As the burning neared its end, the monsters' lives seemed to near their end as well. Luo Qi realized this was because the Fireball had burned up all the air near the monsters; the oxygen consumption of such a fierce fire must be huge. Du Zhengyi had the Fireball explode and burn in mid-air precisely because the flames would rapidly drain the air below, creating a vacuum environment under the fire. The few of them were behind the temporarily effective Shield; the closed Shield protected the oxygen and also ensured they were not affected.

Yan Hao was the first Battle Mage to come to his senses. "Can... can it be used to attack with fire like this? Being able to sustain fire for no reason is indeed a high-level magic, but since you can use fire, why not just burn them to death? Oh no, the monsters are desperate; they are going to run."

Yan Hao anxiously wanted to rush out and drive them back to their original positions, but as soon as he lifted his foot, he bumped into the light-membrane-like Shield, and the rebounding force field pushed him back. Fortunately, his worry was unnecessary. Luo Qi heard an ominous sound, and he couldn't help but step back; the ground collapsed at that very moment.

The earth under the monsters' feet was like a brittle shell, disintegrating under the scorching heat of the fire. The collapse happened right before their eyes; the ground disintegrated, sand and stones flew, and the monsters were both burned and suffocated, their final struggles also terminated.

Unfortunately, Luo Qi didn't even have much time to gloat. The geological structure here was not very stable, and the hillside they were standing on also suffered a landslide. Luo Qi could be sure Du Zhengyi hadn't expected this! That was great; Luo Qi sat on the ground on his bottom, and as he was slid into the bottom of the monster pit by the mud, he couldn't help but want to curse.

For a long time, Luo Qi was only dizzy, with dust rolling before his eyes. The Shield had worked; the sliding hillside had wrapped them along with the Shield and sent them into the giant valley pit. He was dizzy for a while, and not long after completing its final mission, the Shield completely failed. Luo Qi struggled to climb up, spat out the dirt he had eaten, and the howling wind brought back air of very poor purity. He looked vigilantly at the monster corpses in the mud; Du Zhengyi's estimate had been very accurate. Then Luo Qi saw the psychic mages mixed in the mud with them; some looked as if they had no signs of life.

Du Zhengyi had attacked both the monsters on the ground and the psychic mages underground at the same time, using only the same fire.

Luo Qi struggled to stand up, dizzy and dazzled, admiring Du Zhengyi's talent for war, while trying to stay as far away from the terrifying corpses as possible. However, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a figure flashing past. He jerked his head up and stared blankly at a smooth black metal wall not far away, on which was engraved the Cube he was now familiar with.

(End of chapter)