Chapter 644: The Ancestor's Gift (33)

"You all stay here," Du Zhengyi emphasized once more. He walked toward the room that had the problem.

"Wait," a strange voice called out.

Du Zhengyi knew it was Clownfish without turning his head; only his voice would constantly change, deliberately not wanting to be identified. He ignored him and walked straight toward the room where the incident occurred.

"Wait," this sound from Clownfish appeared right behind his right shoulder.

The Battle Mage's instinctive aggressiveness was like a sword drawn from its sheath. Du Zhengyi turned his head abruptly, and Offensive Magic flared up suddenly. A dull pain followed in his chest, and his breathing became obstructed. The timing for a single magical attack had already passed, and his tactical instinct reminded him that he should immediately put distance between himself and the enemy.

Clownfish took a step to the side on his own initiative, putting distance between himself and Du Zhengyi, moving two steps to his front-diagonal.

"They are already dead," he said straightforwardly, not wanting to cause another misjudgment. "I can be certain there are no living people left in this room."

Everyone was startled when these words were spoken, but no one had ever been able to sway Du Zhengyi's footsteps. He turned around and pushed open the door in front of him as if he had heard nothing.

"Wait..." Clownfish didn't finish his sentence, subconsciously reaching out a blurry hand to pull Du Zhengyi's arm, and a massive gravitational force captured him.

Du Zhengyi was also entangled in the gravitational force. Even though in his perception he had only stepped into the room, that brief and familiar gravitational effect let him know that what he had stepped into was no longer the same room.

"Oh shit, Teleportation Magic."

He heard Clownfish shout. A strange sense of familiarity made him look at Clownfish without realizing it. Even though he couldn't see his face clearly, he could still vaguely feel Clownfish examining the surroundings. He faintly sensed Clownfish sigh and say to himself, "Of course there's no one! Because the people have already been teleported away! What kind of trash facility is this? The elevator system is like it's haunted!"

Clownfish's irritability briefly diluted his gloom. He walked around the room with an uneven gait, stopped in front of a wall depicting ancestral totems, skillfully pressed on the totem, pulled out an Enchanted Crystal, and watched that crystal with absorption.

Du Zhengyi hesitated slightly and said, "It is indeed Teleportation Magic. It must have been when the energy suddenly filled up just now that they happened to trigger the daily Teleportation Magic that has always existed here. However, they are not here right now."

"Two idiots don't know how to go back; perhaps they went out to check, and if they're lucky, they're already lost in the maze outside. If they're unlucky... maybe they wanted to try teleporting back and ended up not knowing where they sent themselves," Clownfish said nonchalantly. "This is a Magic Cave, after all."

"You are very familiar with this place," Du Zhengyi said.

"Second only to Pei Shu and you, I suppose," Clownfish was not being modest, even though Du Zhengyi could feel that ninety percent of his attention was on the crystal he was studying in his hand.

"Indeed," Du Zhengyi admitted. "When we first met, I learned that."

Clownfish finally raised his head to look at Du Zhengyi with his own eyes. "I believe I have already apologized."

"Yes," Du Zhengyi said. "There is no need to bring up the past, but when I teleported here with you just now, I suddenly felt very familiar."

"Sensed that you have some fate with me?" Clownfish asked.

"Sensed that you are truly too familiar with Teleportation Magic, which reminds me of the modified Teleportation Magic in the Du Family Old Residence," Du Zhengyi said calmly.

"Is this matter important? In your experience, this really doesn't count as anything."

"The stairs being broken really doesn't count as anything, but what I want to ask is, why did I have a hallucination?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"A trap set by a Mind Archmage will contain hallucinations, Du Mage, what kind of lousy questions are you asking? You've been infected by Luo Qi and have become noisy; have you realized it? Do you still need me to give you a lesson on the essentials of creating hallucination traps?" Clownfish said impatiently.

Du Zhengyi stared at him, not deterred from asking by the negative emotions he was radiating, and let out a breath under the pressure. "I want to know the logic of that trap."

The attack was ineffective. Clownfish finally put down the crystal in his hand and looked up to face Du Zhengyi. "Your willpower is truly powerful. Alright, the logic of a trap—what is the logic of a trap?"

"Why did I see a Luo Qi who doesn't exist in your hallucination?" Du Zhengyi asked straight to the point.

Clownfish looked at him for a while, long enough for two sentences, before saying, "Ask your own heart."

Du Zhengyi suddenly lost his patience and blurted out, "Don't act like a master with me; I am just your defeated opponent, you have no need to beat around the bush with me at all."

Once the words were out, Du Zhengyi was stunned himself.

Clownfish was also stunned. He said with extreme restraint, "I am a master, to begin with."

Du Zhengyi was momentarily speechless.

"Don't you doubt Luo Qi? Why don't you go ask Luo Qi?"

"Why should I ask him? Wasn't the hallucination made by you? I only need to come and ask you directly," Du Zhengyi said.

Clownfish nodded as if helpless, forcibly put down the crystal he was very interested in, and gave Du Zhengyi some time. "Brother, an honor student like you should know very well that all hallucinations are born from the heart. What you see is always your own inner self; it is your memories of the past and your desires for the future. These have nothing to do with my Magic. You know your own affairs best. You can think about my questions below, but you don't have to answer me. For example, what has trapped you? For example, what is the deepest regret of your life? Who have you hurt? Who do you crave? What do you loathe? Just like that, think about your own troubles, and worry well for a while."

Du Zhengyi did not speak again, and Clownfish put his attention back on the crystal. Time flowed by the second, and Du Zhengyi suddenly asked, "Why are you lame?"

"Because I am an evil bad guy who made a deal with the devil with a part of my body in exchange for wealth and glory," Clownfish said without looking up.

Du Zhengyi had nothing more to say. He glared at Clownfish for a while, finally decided to end this conversation, and turned to go out to find people.

"Oh, right," Clownfish said suddenly. "Speaking of serious business, you should know that the energy was accidentally activated just now, right? Logically speaking, the Magic remaining here should be kept at a minimum level; there shouldn't be too much Magic that can remain in an active state."

Du Zhengyi nodded.

"The Magic Core here cannot be overloaded. Once it is overloaded, it is very likely to produce a very bad consequence," Clownfish said.

Du Zhengyi waited for him to continue.

"Alright, it seems you don't know this part. This consequence is what they call a Curse—that's right, the spectacular Curse that our previous Lotus Burner boss was cursed to death by. But, to be honest, in principle, it's just that the Magic Energy core will be damaged if it's overloaded, and damage will produce radiation. Humans call this phenomenon radiation produced by radioactive materials; we call it a Curse."

"Radiation?" Du Zhengyi repeated in surprise.

"Every depleted Seal Land or other places where an Ancestor Mage has lived will eventually produce radiation; I have investigated a few," Clownfish said.

"Then we are now..." Even as a Mage, Du Zhengyi knew what human radiation was, and even knew that one of the jobs of an Experimental Mage was to detect the dangers of human nuclear radiation.

"So far, there is no need to worry about ourselves. The radiation dose here is fine—ah, unless you have plans to have children this year? Then I suggest you wait at least a year or more," Clownfish said.

Du Zhengyi was choked up again. He stared at Clownfish's blurry face, hesitated, and said in a low voice, "I have been wondering, who exactly are you?"

"I am a Nobody," Clownfish smiled faintly, seemingly quite satisfied that he had been able to maintain the upper hand. "You don't know a small fry like me."

"Is your surname Luo?"

Clownfish unhurriedly took apart the crystal in his hand, dividing the crystal into several thinner crystal strips.

"Are you Luo Qi's father?"

"There is no need to explore meaningless riddles, child," Clownfish said slowly. He walked back a few steps and leaned against the wall. "The teleportation has started again; it must be you Battle Mages, all of you are reckless fools."