Chapter 617: The Ancestor's Gift (6)

Du Zhengyi paused his advance; spiders do not appear out of thin air. He called several Mages more skilled in technology into the room. No one raised any objections; the Lotus Burning Mages had no intention of rashly pushing forward once they arrived here, and Zhao Jiaozhu kept his distance from the room, staying among his attendant Mages.

Liu Ziyi had originally been dragging her feet, not wanting to go over, as Guan Xinyue's complexion looked truly poor. However, the others could only perform residual energy tests, and these spiders possessed no Magic Energy to begin with; she was the only one who could conduct perspective tests on the room's structure. Her testing method involved testing the homogeneity of the materials, a circuitous and highly cumbersome way of testing. Luo Qi, never missing an opportunity, told her from the side that humans could use scientific and direct perspective methods, that certain light irradiation could achieve a perspective effect, or that they could adopt some drilling and sampling methods.

Yan Hao wanted to ask Luo Qi about the detailed human methods, but Luo Qi actually only had a superficial understanding. Wusu, however, knew a little about the principles and started chatting with Yan Hao. The Battle Mages couldn't sit still, and most of them wanted to go in and find some work to do. Or perhaps they were simply unwilling to stay with the Lotus Burners.

Guan Xinyue, however, did not want to walk into that room.

She did not know what was wrong with her. The room's area was estimated to be only about sixty square meters, and it was filled with Mages; Du Zhengyi and Luo Qi were both inside, as were Wusu and Liu Ziyi. Guan Xinyue felt she couldn't catch her breath; perhaps it was because there were too many people, which was a possible reason. But she knew it wasn't.

There was no obvious air circulation here, but there was no lack of air. Guan Xinyue realized belatedly that the air pressure here did not seem to be the air pressure of the Highland. Mages did not care about changes in air pressure, which might be because their bodies were much sturdier than humans', and this slight change could be ignored.

Yet she felt somewhat stifled and fearful. Those Mages, who were generally similar in height and possessed perfect body proportions, gathered in a room of a strange, alien civilization; this scene felt like an extremely unreal spectacle. Without such a background, she seemed never to have thought that they were as perfect as computer modeling.

She gripped her collar tightly, pulling at it uncomfortably. She had been mingling with Mages for so long that even when she entered Qionglin, the core area of the Mages, and was surrounded by a large group of Mages for the first time, she had never had such a feeling. However, that time Du Zhengyi was with her, and she was anxiously worried about Luo Qi, thinking only of Luo Qi's affairs, so she hadn't even managed to be afraid, and hadn't thought about anything too much. Besides, the Experimental Mages, those technical mages, were really not much like Mages; even among Mages, they basically counted as weirdos.

And there were the Highland Mages, but they were all benevolent monks. Except for her own home, their side was the warmest and most peaceful place Guan Xinyue had ever stayed.

But the Battle Mages seemed different; they were the Mages among Mages. They had bizarre, almost identical heights, perfect proportions, and expressionless, assembly-line-style handsome features. When they gathered together coldly, they were like perfect industrial products. They did not sing, they did not dance, they did not chant of the eternal mountains and rivers, and they did not care about the stars of the universe; they were powerful in function but completely devoid of creativity.

Perhaps the Experimental Mages and the Highland monks were more varied, but their appearances were still too similar. Luo Qi might be an outlier among outliers, but she knew that recently his height was also slowly changing; perhaps in his race, he was indeed not yet fully mature, his bones were still growing, and in the end, he would eventually complete his modeling.

An indescribable fear swept across her spine, as if the gaze of a demon was scorching her back.

She could no longer hold it in and whipped her head around. She already had a splitting headache, and turning her head made her dizzy. No one was looking at her; only Zhao Jiaozhu, who was whispering to Clownfish, raised his head and glanced at her.

He was the creator of that tragedy; Guan Xinyue had to exert effort to suppress the anger surging in her heart when she saw him, yet even he was actually so similar to Du Zhengyi.

The same elegant posture, broad shoulders, narrow waist, and perhaps even the shapes of their skulls were extremely similar. He looked over gently; the shape of his eyes was longer and narrower than Du Zhengyi's, but he had similarly deep-set eye sockets and a prominent nose bridge. He did not withdraw his gaze; Clownfish said something else to him, and he elegantly tilted his head slightly to listen, while his gaze was cast toward her with profound meaning, carrying a trace of a hateful, frivolous smile.

She turned her head away and took a step back toward a place with fewer people; the Mages made her unable to breathe. For the first time, she realized they were not human. She warned herself that Liu Ziyi was more like a human, Luo Qi was more like a human, Mahjong, Wusu, and the others were all very much like humans, very much... but they were too similar. Humans of the same race in the same region also had a high degree of similarity, but there were always exceptions; there were always people too fat, and people too thin, always people too tall, and people too short. The Mages, however, were like they had been artificially selected, like a model troupe, yet even models could not always successfully replicate a similar next generation.

They themselves would say that this was the superiority of their race, just like the elves in human fantasy; they were always beautiful, always tall, elegant, and handsome...

But it wasn't like that; something was not quite right. She thought irritably, her head aching as if it were about to explode, when the sound of a breath came right against her spine at this moment. Her heart almost stopped beating. She turned her head and looked at the empty wall behind her; dark blue patterns flickered on the metal wall, like countless hieroglyphs describing a story she could never decipher. She suddenly realized that she clearly knew these were words. There was no one behind her, and no Mage showed any sign of having heard the sound.

She took a step back, pressing tightly against the wall out of fear.

——Are you afraid of them too?

What exactly were the Mages? They were not elves; their conspiracies were dirtier than elves, and their hearts were not as pure as elves. They were also not the wizards in the Harry Potter stories; they were not as vivid as the wizards in human stories.

——But you like them.

Because she had only come into contact with the good ones among them, those who were like humans...

——But I think they are actually a minority among the Mages.

You think? Guan Xinyue's eyes widened sharply. Most of the Lotus Burning Mages were silent in the corridor, and no one noticed her. Who are you? She could not move. She thought she was thinking, having a dialogue with herself. But the dialogue in one's thoughts would not always lead her to think of questions she had never thought of before. Unless... unless she was schizophrenic.

She remembered Mahjong arguing with Luo Qi, Mahjong accusing Luo Qi of not being allowed to touch her Yajian, accusing Luo Qi of being too self-righteous and potentially causing damage to her spirit.

——I think you are not schizophrenic.

What?

Fear gripped her throat. For a moment, she thought of Luo Qi's warmth and reliability; she should stay around him. She was too stupid; she should go find him immediately. But this thought was fleeting. She thought of his concealment, his strange attitude, his strange words; her intuition clearly knew that he must know where her sister was. But he always put her in second place; in his heart, he only hoped that his fellow friend Du Zhengyi could be safe...

A hand gripped her shoulder. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest. She wanted to scream, but her body tumbled into a piece of darkness.

Tomorrow I should update "Deep Space Screw".

(End of chapter)