Chapter 638: The Ancestor's Gift (27)

Luo Qi watched the three Mages walk toward the depths of the corridor, feeling dazed for a moment. Modern Mages fighting primitive dinosaurs? He couldn't articulate the sense of dissonance in his heart; vaguely, he knew things shouldn't be this way.

Mages slaying dragons, humans fighting dinosaurs. Perhaps things should be like this; the two worlds shouldn't be muddled together like this.

But he had always known the boundary was never that clear. He knew the basic logic of things applied to both worlds, and he had always used a human perspective to crack the laws of the Magic World. He knew Qiongqi could also be called a type of creature, not necessarily needing to be crowned with the word "magic," and he also knew the Alien Insect Race that had nearly finished them off had long been discussed by humans regarding the rationality of their existence.

The three vigorous adult Mages were the pride of their world. If they were just dinosaurs, they shouldn't be as hard to deal with as those monsters capable of Teleportation that they had encountered at the entrance of the Seal Land. Then perhaps the Progenitor Mage didn't entirely create the Seal Beasts; just as the Experimental Mages and Mind Mages of Qionglin tried to make lions into Psychic Beasts to equip for Du Zhengyi to use, the Progenitor Mage had also once used materials at hand to craft Seal Beasts.

Perhaps, perhaps in the ancient era, that was a common situation. Just like the portrait of the Du Clan ancestor Luo Qi had once seen in someone else's memory, the way he caressed the beast in the painting was a realistic style, not solely to make him appear majestic; Du Zhengyi's portrait could also be him and his lion.

There were three Ancestors: one lost in ambition, one indulged in love, and the supreme one was merely a wandering ascetic, and it was never heard that he achieved the great cause he sought. Luo Qi stood in the magnificent hall of the Ancestors, wanting to ask himself if he dared to say out loud: the Ancestor of Mages was, after all, just a mortal.

Not far away, the three Mages released Magic. Now Luo Qi could feel that terrifying power, his awakened bloodline echoing with it from afar. That powerful force intertwined with the grand, imposing aesthetic power of the Seal Land, as if pressing him to ask: could those who could not feel this existence truly be called the same kind? Was their past neglect of him an unavoidable, natural thing? Having found his origin, could he continue to view ordinary humans as close kin? And who was he, really? Was the Luo Qi who obtained Magic and the Luo Qi without Magic the same person?

"I heard that Italians..." Luo Qi suddenly spoke, as if the intense Combat sounds and the smell of blood in the depths of the corridor did not exist.

Du Zhengyi looked at him in confusion.

Luo Qi paused, then continued to finish his sentence, "I heard that the Italians once forgot everything about their ancestors, so when they returned to Rome and saw the ruins of the magnificent halls, they couldn't believe those halls were man-made no matter what. They said that in ancient times, some Titans lived in Rome, and it was they who built the magnificent halls."

Du Zhengyi looked at him for a while and said nothing. Zhou Ruisi behind him said "Ah," "I really didn't know that. Is it like the Pyramids? Humans say they were built by aliens, but in fact, they just forgot the technology their own ancestors used to build the Pyramids."

"Yeah." Luo Qi responded thoughtfully. They were the same; they had just lost the technology of their ancestors. The Progenitor Mage was not a god, just as human ancestors were not Titans.

Progenitor Mage... Luo Qi's spirit jolted. The shadows of several Progenitor Mages appeared in front of him once again. He identified them eagerly, and this time, the man who looked most like the Du Clan appeared again. He was arguing fiercely with other Mages. Luo Qi felt Wusu also seizing this fleeting opportunity to tune his Consciousness Magic to the maximum degree. But this time, Luo Qi felt another presence; another consciousness adjusted its direction and tracked them.

It was the clownfish.

Did the clownfish discover them? Luo Qi had a moment of panic. He had almost forgotten this might alert him; how could such a Mind Archmage not be alerted? It was unlikely they could have deceived the world in the first place. Wait, not them. Wusu was doing it on purpose. A neutral organization of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years—they wouldn't easily have any bias. What was meant to happen would happen. Luo Qi calmed down in an instant.

But the clownfish was the clownfish. Just the moment he discovered Wusu's illusion, Luo Qi felt a surge of Mind Force rush toward Wusu. Before he could even figure out if this was an attack, it was as if someone had dropped a flare in their sensitive Consciousness World. Luo Qi didn't know what that was, what kind of Consciousness Magic it was; he only felt his other field of vision was about to be blasted. They—mainly Wusu, he was only affected because he was too sensitive—Wusu's Mind Force intensity surged in an instant.

In the real world, Wusu remained motionless, his expression unchanged, as calm as if he were waiting for the battle at the end of the corridor to be decided. But in the space of consciousness, his world exploded. Bright light illuminated the previously dim and unclear corners, as if he had been enlightened. The inherited dark memories suddenly became clear, and Luo Qi also saw the two people arguing clearly through his consciousness; the meaning of the ancient language suddenly became clear in fragments.

"We lack energy."

"Taking risks will blow up the stars."

"It's not the first time the stars have been destroyed."

"We have nowhere to go."

"Nowhere to go."

"Nowhere to go."

"The virus spread too fast and destroyed the last ship."

"She did it on purpose, burning the bridges."

"You have no idea which ship is safe."

"We are finished."

Panic spread into Wusu's consciousness, and then followed Wusu's consciousness into Luo Qi's. Just at this moment, the clownfish suddenly extinguished all light and disconnected all links.

Luo Qi stood blankly in the world of consciousness, struggling to figure out what had happened. It took him a while to understand: whoever is most sensitive is the unluckiest. The clownfish was probably "deafened" by the panic. Now they didn't even need to try.

He subconsciously looked at Wusu, unable to help but admire that this young old guy had indeed seen the world. He looked calm and unruffled, still as handsome as ever—if one didn't look closely at the sweat on his temples.

"A piece of cake."

For a moment, Luo Qi couldn't distinguish which world the voice belonged to. The surrounding crowd became active. Du Zhengyi was listening to someone speak, Zhao Jiaozhu was holding forth, and the fishy smell was as thick as if a giant ladybug had been crushed. Luo Qi realized it was reality; they had finished the battle.

The three Mages were not unscathed; Luo Qi saw the wounds on Yan Hao and the Lotus Burner, but overall, the victory was quite impressive. Zhao Jiaozhu went to observe the Seal Beasts. Several Mages came over to tell Du Zhengyi that there were some remains ahead, looking like other Seal Beasts that had been slaughtered. Someone suggested checking the path the Seal Beasts had taken to count or inspect other Seal Beasts. Liu Ziyu wanted to take this time to pause and adjust the Monitoring Magic.

Du Zhengyi moved out of the crowd to check the Seal Beasts. The Lotus Burner and the Battle Mage were almost piled together. Luo Qi took advantage of the chaos to mix into the crowd and quietly approached the door where the Mages in the illusion had stayed. The last time they argued, the location looked like a ward; this time, there must have been something that triggered the argument.

Luo Qi nervously pushed the door, but it didn't open. Wusu appeared silently beside him. Without a word, Wusu also tried to push and pull the door, but it didn't budge.

Wusu whispered, "The doors in this corridor are different from the ones before."

Luo Qi realized it. The artistic quality of the doors in this corridor was lower. It looked... to use an analogy, the previous doors looked like ones for people to live in, while these looked like warehouse doors. On the pitch-black surface of the door panel, there was only a tiny Mekatelun Cube in the middle, followed by a string of ancient numbers, looking like a room number. Luo Qi touched the complex Cube; he couldn't exactly ask Du Zhengyi to open the door for him, could he? Even if Du Zhengyi could do it, he was unlikely to agree; he certainly wouldn't like to create complications now. Luo Qi himself knew some Spells for opening doors, obtained from Shi Xiansheng.

He looked back toward Du Zhengyi's direction but didn't see him; he must be busy. The clownfish wasn't there either; he was trapped by his superior. Now was a moment that, once lost, would never return.

Luo Qi rubbed his hands together.

(End of chapter)