Chapter 612: The Ancestor's Gift

"Let him do it," Luo Qi said.

He turned his head back and waved his hand irritably, as if shooing away invisible insects. In an instant, everyone shuddered, as if a heavy burden pressing on their hearts had suddenly been lifted, though most did not even know when that burden had been placed there. Luo Qi's brief outburst of uncontrolled emotion had affected the people here on a large scale, like an active volcano; the flames were directed at Clownfish, but the volcanic ash drifted down to blanket everyone, and most did not recover until the ash was swept away in a wave. This damage range was indiscriminate, and when the pressure was withdrawn, Guan Xinyue and Zhou Ruisi, the two weaker ones, were somewhat exhausted.

Luo Qi irritably swallowed back his power, forcibly calmed his emotions, and repeated to Du Zhengyi, "Let him perform! If the sky falls, we'll all be crushed together anyway." The words were directed at Du Zhengyi, but his gaze was sharply fixed on Clownfish. "Whether he can find what he wants, I don't know, but in my experience, dealing with the spirits of ancestors never leads to any good results."

Du Zhengyi was silent. He had no chance of winning if he moved forward, not to mention that Luo Qi's hand was firmly locked onto his wrist, delaying his movement speed with the crudest of methods.

Zhao Jiaozhu observed everything from all sides and also saw clearly that the opponent's God of War was tethered and that his own strong generals had their reservations; the instantly erupting confrontation returned to a balance once more. This was the moment for a leader to step in, so he gave a hearty laugh. "Oh my, we all come from the same world and have gathered together under the calling of the same ancestor. Even if we have some disagreements regarding inheriting the ancestor's legacy, there is no need to draw blades against each other at the slightest provocation."

Du Zhengyi glanced at him coldly, but Luo Qi took over the conversation. "Zhao Laoda makes a good point. Yu Shu, don't go around provoking Du Zhengyi at every turn; the bit of unseemly upper hand you have isn't anything to be proud of, so there's no need to show off. Zhao Laoda, since we've all come this far, let's stop speaking in riddles. What exactly is the true meaning of Magic you want us to see? You state it clearly first, then we'll decide whether to take a look together or fight to the death right now."

Clownfish did not retort, watching them gloomily.

Zhao Jiaozhu breathed a sigh of relief; as long as someone could communicate with him normally, that was fine. Although Battle Mages were all excellent Mages, they were truly stubborn and impervious to reason. "Well said. Oh my, Clownfish's temper is indeed bad, but Du Mage really shouldn't be too quick to assume our goal is necessarily harmful."

"Does Zhao Laoda mean that you are definitely not here for the Human Elimination Plan?" Luo Qi asked straightforwardly.

Zhao Jiaozhu's face stiffened, and his expression became somewhat unpleasant. "There's no need to put it so harshly. As long as we can coexist, no one would want to exterminate everyone."

The Lotus Burner had a notorious reputation, but speaking like this could be considered frank.

He continued, "You want to ask if we are looking for the Seal Beast, right?"

"Zhao Laoda wants something bigger than that?" Luo Qi grinned. "That's right, you certainly wouldn't be satisfied with just raising a pet like I do; you are people who do big things."

"You flatter me; someone has to do the big things and the small things. Someone has to do the big things so that the other clansmen can happily do the little things that make them happy, as long as we don't mock each other," Zhao Jiaozhu said unhurriedly, smiling at Luo Qi. "To tell you the truth, when I first obtained a small batch of Seal Beasts, I was indeed very interested in this."

"A small batch, huh." Luo Qi rubbed the blood-stained mud under his feet; those things had enough lethality even in a small batch. "Is there something with even greater lethality than the Seal Beast?"

Just then, a chill swept through Luo Qi's Yajian. He subconsciously identified the source of that coldness and followed the direction mapped out by his Yajian with his gaze. In the dark corner above Zhao Jiaozhu's head, an Alien face familiar to Luo Qi poked out, and Luo Qi suppressed a scream.

Below it, Zhao Jiaozhu continued, completely unaware, "Haha, slaughter is not my intention."

Luo Qi was secretly startled; Zhao Jiaozhu hadn't noticed, and Clownfish hadn't noticed either. He observed Du Zhengyi out of the corner of his eye; Du Zhengyi was staring at Zhao Jiaozhu with weariness.

"Slaughter is just a means, not the end. If there were a better way, I wouldn't choose slaughter; the Lotus Burner only hopes that Mages can develop better," Zhao Jiaozhu continued with his bland words. Luo Qi's heart grew panicked. When he looked at the top of Zhao Jiaozhu's head again, there was nothing there.

Luo Qi moved his gaze back calmly, forcing himself to focus his attention on Zhao Jiaozhu. A layer of sweat broke out on his back; this wasn't the first time he had experienced hallucinations. He had encountered this problem last time when he was with Liu Ziyu. It might be because his Yajian had consumed too many soul fragments, and even the Yajian of non-human creatures; these non-human Yajian fragments were the first to begin disturbing him, and in some dreams, he even thought he was those disgusting things.

"You found a peaceful way?" Luo Qi asked, while forcing himself to concentrate and reminding himself to learn from the strong will of a Battle Mage.

"Did you not hear the words of the Progenitor Mage just now?" Zhao Jiaozhu cleared his throat and recited the passage, "... until a new Mage is born among you... when he appears, you will know. He will lead you to a new era and save the others among you."

"Uh..." Luo Qi said, but he couldn't control his eyes from looking to the upper left; that hallucination appeared again, and the black, half-insect, half-human figure appeared above his head this time. He swallowed, "Uh... do you think that person is you?"

"What?" Zhao Jiaozhu frowned. "Are you mocking me?"

Luo Qi forcibly kept his gaze entirely on Zhao Jiaozhu. "I really don't understand. Are you coming here to find that so-called new Mage? Is the new Mage sealed in the old underground? To be honest, I think you can only find bugs, beasts, and monsters here."

"What? That is certainly not it. Luo Qi, I think you should ask your friend what information he blocked."

"What information? Information about eugenics? I think the Progenitor Mage was saying that she didn't know when we would be able to give birth to a hero to save us. Did she leave behind a marriage guide? Do you want to find a path to rapid breeding?" Luo Qi said, forcing himself not to look up.

"Luo Qi." Zhao Jiaozhu called his name with great patience. "The normal line of thought is that a hero must undergo baptism to achieve greatness."

"I don't quite understand." Luo Qi licked his lips. Even without looking up, his Yajian was clamoring that there was an Alien Yajian above his head; he might be going crazy.

"An ancient document guided me here; an ancestor who was exceptionally fond of her descendants left a gift for us here."

Luo Qi finally stopped caring about what was above his head and almost spat out a curse, "Zhao Laoda, if the ancestor you are talking about is that lady in the video just now, I advise you to be vigilant!"

Zhao Jiaozhu and Clownfish exchanged a look. "No matter what you say, all Mages have the right to know the ancestor's information..."

Luo Qi didn't hear what he said after that; he was distracted again and neurotically looked up, staring at that illusory Alien. This time, he could even see the patterns on its carapace clearly. Du Zhengyi had already noticed that Luo Qi had glanced upward several times, so he followed his gaze and looked up as well.

"Ah, haha." Luo Qi laughed it off, wanting to say something about how high the ceiling was here, but he saw Du Zhengyi turn his gaze to look at him in astonishment.

"What's wrong?" Luo Qi still wanted to bluff his way through.

Just then, more than one person around him gasped. Luo Qi froze. Under the several Attack Magic spells the Mages fired at the ceiling above his head, Du Zhengyi looked at him in confusion, "I find your composure is quite good now."

Luo Qi rubbed his nose and carefully looked up, seeing a black shadow flash by, nimbly dodging the Mages' attacks. Several curses rang out, and the Battle Mages gave chase. So, it wasn't his hallucination.

Didn't expect that, I'm back!

(End of chapter)