Chapter 613: The Ancestor's Gift (2)

Intersecting Magic Energy streaked across the air in a trajectory of certain death, like a meteor passing over Luo Qi's head; he raised his eyes to gaze at the firmament forged by the Ancestor. The Battle Mages' Killing Magic had destroyed the art on the ceiling, and the shattered fragments floated in the universe like planetary debris under the power of the magic.

Leader Zhao gasped in heartache, as if a pack of wild cats had snuck into his ancestral home, smashed his antique vases, and ruined his family estate. "Great Mages, could you perhaps be a bit more delicate? Magic is an art; you are supposed to be artists, not a sledgehammer demolition crew here to smash walls."

Luo Qi said, "Zhao Laoda, if that was a pet you brought along, you should have said so in advance."

Leader Zhao sent a ball of cold fire upward, letting the fireball rise steadily; the firelight illuminated the Black Hole in the center of the dome, where the artwork had suffered irreparable damage. "What?"

"Wasn't it brought in by you?" Luo Qi asked. He looked at the Clownfish, who was also checking the situation overhead.

Leader Zhao shook his head. "I came here sincerely to make friends with you. To be frank, it's easy to keep my distance and ambush you, but to ambush you right under your noses, I don't believe I have that ability."

This was the truth; Luo Qi had just asked casually. "Did Zhao Laoda not recognize that as Venerable Fan's pet? We met it once in the Ancient Town."

Leader Zhao was startled and turned to look at the Clownfish, his expression somewhat like a man blaming a household worker for not tying up the dog. "Did you know beforehand?"

Luo Qi also looked at the Clownfish; through the blurry boundary, he could not distinguish the Clownfish's true appearance. The Clownfish was silent for a moment, then said coldly, "The Third Ancestor's divine revelation is right here; it is not strange for anything to be here."

Luo Qi knew that nothing could make him retreat. Not to mention him, even Leader Zhao would not retreat; he was determined to obtain what he was looking for.

He looked at Du Zhengyi, as several Battle Mages were talking to him—or rather, talking to each other in front of him; Du Zhengyi basically did not participate in any discussions.

"What's going on?" Luo Qi asked. No one answered him; several Battle Mages were all worried, mentioning a few magic parameters Luo Qi did not understand.

Luo Qi raised his voice a little. "Do you want me to draw someone to answer my question? The person who draws the grand prize will spill everything about how they were dumped by their last girlfriend."

The Battle Mages all shut their mouths. Yan Hao gave Luo Qi a short, ingratiating smile and said concisely in language even ordinary Mages could understand, "It's just... we didn't hit it, it ran away."

"It could run away even after that? Could it be that it was completely eliminated by your saturation strike?" Luo Qi asked.

"If that were the case, it would be too clean," Yan Hao said.

Luo Qi looked at the floating architectural debris overhead and imagined the creature's guts and blood floating in the air, feeling instantly disgusted. He turned to Du Zhengyi and said, "I can't feel anything; its family isn't nearby. It's truly strange, why would this thing be alone?"

Du Zhengyi shook his head; he could not be entirely certain either.

"Then do you think it used Teleportation?" Luo Qi asked the Battle Mages behind Du Zhengyi as if checking homework. "When I saw it before, it didn't have that ability."

Yan Hao was a bit nervous from being asked. "No, that thing didn't use Teleportation. It shouldn't have, right? Right? I didn't detect any Magic Energy from Teleportation just now."

"There are pipes above," Du Zhengyi interrupted him.

Luo Qi said "Oh," and understood what Du Zhengyi meant.

"What pipes?" Leader Zhao asked in surprise, looking as if someone had told him his house wasn't high-class enough.

Du Zhengyi glanced at him indifferently. "There are always pipes in a house."

Leader Zhao's complexion looked uncomfortable; he swallowed his anger and turned to the Clownfish, saying, "Clean those things up."

The Clownfish stared blankly at the Black Hole overhead; Luo Qi suspected that beneath the unprobeable shell, he was full of impatience. But no matter what he was thinking, the voice he spoke with was soft and pleasant. "Perhaps using a barrier to temporarily patch the roof will suffice. Venerable, our top priority is to find the Third Ancestor's legacy."

To Luo Qi's right, Du Zhengyi spoke at almost the same time; Luo Qi hurriedly cast the Clownfish aside and focused on listening to what Du Zhengyi was saying.

"We will continue to work. The Seal here has clearly been broken; even if it is only partially broken, the situation is not optimistic. The good news is that most newborn Psychic Beasts have intellectual defects, not even as good as wild animals outside; the bad news is that no one knows what form the Seal Beast takes. Do not limit yourselves to the types of Seal Beasts you have seen before," Du Zhengyi gave the mission briefing to the Battle Mages.

Someone asked in a low voice what to do about this group of Lotus Burners, and Du Zhengyi only glanced at Leader Zhao and the Great Mages behind him who were covering their faces. "Deal with the most troublesome one first."

"Du Mage." The Clownfish paced two steps toward them, as if to block their path. Before Luo Qi could react, almost all the Battle Mages moved; the originally calm Magic Field was like a pot of water suddenly preparing to boil.

The Clownfish stopped in his tracks and muttered with a cold laugh, "Battle Mages," with a tone like someone on the African savanna sighing at a honey badger—a "flat-head brother"—tearing at his pant leg.

Unexpectedly, Luo Qi suddenly blocked the space between Du Zhengyi and the Clownfish.

"Luo Qi," the Clownfish called his name in a low voice.

"Don't pick a fight," Luo Qi said with a smile. "We can't finish you off, and you can't finish us off, so we might as well go our separate ways. I don't care which ancestor's will you are looking for, and I don't have the energy to care; there is a problem with the Seal here, and we can only look after this end."

The Clownfish silently sized him up.

"You all are waiting here, waiting for Du Zhengyi. As long as he is here, this place will remain open," Luo Qi said slowly. "Why don't we act separately? If I'm not mistaken, you actually can't do anything to us either. If, and I mean if, you really killed Du Zhengyi, this place would probably close. So why tear off the mask? Zhao Laoda is much shrewder and more decent than you."

Leader Zhao looked over, his gaze lingering on Luo Qi's face, still maintaining the smile on his face. "Hey, shrewd is not the word, and Luo Qi doesn't need to say that. Everything for the sake of Mages—this is the purpose of the Lotus Burners, and all means serve this sole goal. It is a fact that I cannot kill Du Mage, but to say I don't want to become friends and comrades with you would be too cynical."

Luo Qi was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "Then we are leaving."

"Wait a moment," Leader Zhao called out.

There was no waiting; Du Zhengyi didn't even move, standing silently behind Luo Qi. A door that had been invisible on the wall to the side suddenly swung wide open with a boom, and the air from underground surged out, carrying a hint of an ominous scent.

Leader Zhao looked in surprise at the pitch-black corridor behind the door, stunned and speechless for a long while. More than one Battle Mage also turned to look at the Abyss left by the ancestors; Guan Xinyue sneezed heavily and leaned closer to Liu Ziyu.

Wen Lin, standing beside them, silently moved a step closer to them, watching the corridor leading to the Abyss with vigilance.

"Sorry," Luo Qi said to Leader Zhao, unmoved. "My brother opened the monster a bit suddenly."

"Enough," the Clownfish interrupted him impatiently. "Du Zhengyi, find the legacy the Third Ancestor hid here. You understand what this means; it could allow Mages to break through the current bottleneck of Magic. The Seal Land will naturally be destroyed after that, easily destroyed."

"Then I wish you a pleasant time searching through the vast sea of information left by the Ancestor," Du Zhengyi said.

"Wait a moment," Leader Zhao stopped them again.

Just as Luo Qi didn't want to pay any more attention to them and turned to leave, he heard Leader Zhao say, "We will go with you."

Luo Qi turned back and gave him a malicious smile. "How about that? Actually, we don't trust each other, so how can we not go together? What if we come back riding the Seal Beast? Come on, Zhao Laoda, there are no eternal enemies. For the sake of a common victory, I could even hold your hand. Once we finish troubleshooting the Seal, perhaps we can study the Ancestor's great legacy together."

Before he finished speaking, he was grabbed by the neck by Du Zhengyi and shoved to the front, pushed into the middle of the Battle Mages. The pitch-black corridor behind the door gradually lit up with soft light as Du Zhengyi turned around.

(End of chapter)