Chapter 626: The Ancestor's Gift (15)

126. The Ancestor's Gift (15)

The situation became a mess because a Mage, a Lotus Burner Mage, was bitten by a bug.

Luo Qi couldn't really say how it happened, but when the incident occurred, the Qionglin Mages and the Lotus Burner Mages just happened to be standing on opposite ends of the corridor, clearly divided. If one had to shift the blame, it would be that the Qionglin Mages resisted the natural, scattered nature of Mages; when the Qionglin War God indicated that the situation was urgent, they mindlessly and resolutely executed the War God's orders, killing the bugs without leaving a single blind spot. The Lotus Burner Mages clearly didn't take it as seriously.

But Luo Qi had never seen a Mage cry out so miserably. It wasn't that Mages were less prone to bug bites than humans, but Luo Qi had never at any moment heard a Mage emit such a heart-wrenching cry, as if the bug had bitten into his soul.

At first, Du Zhengyi held him firmly to keep him from going over, but Wusu was the first to pace over to check the situation, and Luo Qi immediately wanted to follow. Only after Du Zhengyi and the other Battle Mages threw at least ten more rounds of Killing Magic and detection spells into the corridor, ensuring that no matter what kind of bug it was, there wasn't even half a limb left, was Luo Qi finally able to edge over.

In fact, from the second the incident happened, the Lotus Burners themselves had also furiously and frantically cleared this corridor, sealing off all room entrances and exits in the hallway. Luo Qi caught a scent from the half of the corridor occupied by the Lotus Burners; it was the scent of fear collectively emitted by people, smelling like the ashes of burnt dead branches on a hillside on a pale, cold winter day. Mages were rarely very afraid, and Mages capable of being Lotus Burners had even less capacity for fear; Luo Qi did not fully understand for a moment why the concentration of fear was so high.

The Lotus Burners surrounded the injured person in a semi-circle, most standing a bit further away, and Clownfish also stood coldly to one side. One person was holding the screaming injured man, and Zhao Jiaozhu was kneeling beside him, trying to find a way to make him feel better. They had removed his black mask, revealing a face that was overly young, perhaps not much older than Luo Qi, with the fresh, green lines of a youth on his chin; his hair was fluffy and soft, even a bit cute. He looked at Zhao Jiaozhu imploringly, as if begging his own father for help, begging him to rid him of the pain, begging him to protect him.

Luo Qi was stunned by the scene before him; that... that boy believed in that man, he believed in him, he believed in what he believed, he believed in his foresight and wisdom, he fanatically believed that he was walking on the right path.

Zhao Jiaozhu was anxiously busy; Luo Qi could feel that he had placed several healing Spells on the boy, and the Mages around him were also helping. He cared about that boy; Luo Qi stood behind him and could feel his genuine sadness, anxiety, and pain. Those emotions were already strong enough to cross the barrier Clownfish had built for them and could be perceived by him. Mages were as complex as humans. Luo Qi suddenly thought that in their own small group, they also didn't lack inward warmth and love, even though they could brutally gouge out a human's eyes; hatred and love were equally intense.

But no matter how much effort was made, and no matter how many lost, novel Spells the Lotus Burners possessed, Luo Qi knew in the dark that the ending was already doomed; the young Mage's screams were becoming increasingly harrowing. If a person let out a sound like that, their foot must have already stepped into the gates of hell.

A hand landed on Luo Qi's shoulder, and he shuddered, but before he even turned his head, he felt it was Du Zhengyi. That hand pulled on Luo Qi's shoulder and dragged him to the back, right to a position side-by-side with Mahjong, and Du Zhengyi said, not very happily, "That's enough, seen enough, haven't you?"

"That is..." Luo Qi asked, feeling his chin ache a little as he spoke.

"No saving him," the Doctor, Mahjong, said perfunctorily. The second half of the sentence was a question to Du Zhengyi. "Seems like it attacked the nerves?"

As if in response to the Doctor's words, the young Lotus Burner's imploring expression suddenly changed; extreme horror swept across his face like a hurricane, his young, beautiful face was twisted into something incredibly ugly, and then his life stopped at that moment. He did not pass away peacefully at all, as if he had caught a glimpse of the ugliest devil at the very last moment.

It wasn't that Luo Qi hadn't used hallucinations to torture others, but he had never thought of letting someone die with such an extremely unpeaceful expression; he watched the sudden arrival of death in astonishment from between the gaps of people.

"Alright," Du Zhengyi's low voice reached his ears, surpassing Zhao Jiaozhu's unseemly roar, as if forcibly placing a full stop on the event. Luo Qi woke up from his trance, and Du Zhengyi's hand pressed on his shoulder again, pulling him back a few steps. "Dead people are nothing to look at."

Luo Qi came to his senses and raised both hands to rub his face. But no, something latent had affected him just now, not just the death itself. Now that he looked back, it should have been a passive release of Yajian, not an active attack, so he hadn't noticed; the group had produced a strong, consistent emotion just now, which had affected him.

It was fear, despair; it was the extreme emotion that erupted violently as a Mage's life faded, and it quickly reached a high concentration Luo Qi had never seen before. When someone unfortunately passes away, no matter who that person is, this will certainly trigger negative emotions in the onlookers. But relatively speaking, the emotions of Qionglin Mages could always be restrained... restrained within their own shells, not to the point of surging out of control. Luo Qi finally realized what had happened: the Lotus Burners' collective emotions had spiraled out of control.

Luo Qi looked in shock at those black-clad Mages who were silent in fear and despair; if they were as kind and sentimental as middle-school girls, should he go easier on them when he beat them up in the future? That was simply ridiculous, absolutely impossible.

In his shock, Luo Qi desperately searched his mind for what kind of situation this could be; a group of men with extreme ideologies would suddenly suffer a major emotional blow, unless their faith had collapsed and their values had suddenly exploded.

"What's going on?" someone asked in a thin voice nearby.

The person speaking was Wen Lin; she frowned and spoke to her companion in a low voice, "... attacked a Mage? Killed a Mage?"

"Oh!" Luo Qi realized with a start; the Progenitor Mage's gift had killed a Mage without hesitation. Mages could actually die so easily and irrevocably, die like mortals, and even die at the hands of the Progenitor Mage. They didn't seem to be any nobler than humans; a few minutes ago, they still thought Guan Xinyue was just a human bait brought in to test the Seal Land, but the first to die was a Mage. Died just like that, just bitten by a bug gifted by the Progenitor Mage, as fragile as a human.

"What?" Wen Lin heard the sound of his epiphany, looked over in confusion, and asked him in a low voice.

He shook his head; he thought he would gloat, as his feelings toward the Lotus Burners had always been hatred and disgust, but he found himself pitying them somewhat. Thinking deeper, he actually knew nothing; physiologically, he was definitely a Mage, and no matter how he categorized himself as a human, he couldn't be completely indifferent to the plight of Mages. He quietly looked at Du Zhengyi; he could be sure that Du Zhengyi knew exactly what had happened, having observed the situation earlier than he had. But Du Zhengyi, from his expression to his Yajian, was completely calm; he couldn't feel any hesitation, confusion, or bewilderment in Du Zhengyi. He observed everything, probably as calmly as watching a lunar eclipse.

Hehe, updating "Deep Space Screw" tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)