Chapter 649: The One Hundred and Forty-Ninth Chapter: The Ancestor's Gift (38)

The Mages moved forward while continuously calling back their scattered companions. The place where Du Zhengyi had gone missing was not far from them to begin with; Luo Qi pulled Liu Ziyi along as he walked quickly, knowing that the problem most likely still lay with the Seal Land itself.

Luo Qi was heavy with worry, his footsteps swift; Liu Ziyi was dragged along, stumbling the whole way. Just as they stood still before the door where the incident occurred, a door further away was suddenly pushed open. Wen Lin walked out from inside, one hand tucked into her trouser pocket, her expression complex; she raised an eyebrow when she saw Luo Qi.

"So leisurely?" Luo Qi asked subconsciously.

"Leisurely? It's not exactly leisurely. When trouble reaches a certain point, a person will head in the opposite direction; otherwise, I'd only be able to pull out my own hair right now." Wen Lin sized up the various figures behind Luo Qi, hesitated slightly, and said, "Come inside and take a look with me. Zhao Mage, would you like to come in and take a look too?"

"Wait a moment. You come over first and tell me about the situation when it happened again," Luo Qi said.

"The situation when it happened is only clearly known by the two people inside, Du Zhengyi and the other; we who stand outside don't know much. You surely already know what you ought to know, and I won't know more than you do. Now, come over and take a look; I guarantee you will regret it if you don't," Wen Lin said.

Luo Qi did not really want to go over; he did not want to create more complications in this dilapidated building. He had already seen a room full of living dead, and if that was what Wen Lin had seen as well, he was truly too lazy to look.

But Wen Lin made the decision for him, lifting her head to look for Liu Ziyi and snapping her fingers to make the dejected girl look up and glance over. She made a gesture—you handle the mess yourself for now—and Liu Ziyi nodded listlessly. Wen Lin continued to Luo Qi, "Let Liu Ziyi do the work over there; you all can't help for the time being, and being by her side will only distract her. So, Luo Mage, Zhao Mage, would you do me the honor of coming in to see my discovery?"

Luo Qi knew she had a point; even if he heard someone say it in person again how Du Zhengyi and the clownfish disappeared, it was unlikely he would gain any valuable information. He just wanted to shrink the scope of the personnel's activities.

He turned his head and said to Majiang, "The three of us will go in and take a look. Everyone else, wait here until Liu Ziyi figures out exactly what happened. Do not let anyone act clever."

Having said this, Luo Qi scanned the others once more. "Do not act clever. Unless you are attacked, no one is allowed to use Magic. Ah, it is best if you do nothing but stand there; don't even use your brains too much, lest you disturb me. My brain is particularly sensitive."

Several Mages shifted uneasily, and a few exchanged glances, as if wanting to know if what Luo Qi said was true.

Luo Qi hesitated one last time and said, "Wusu Great Mage, why not come in with us and take a look? If it is indeed worth seeing, we might as well see it all at once."

Wen Lin glanced at Wusu Great Mage, flashed a fake smile at him, and then turned lazily to pull open the big door for them. "Please, the three of you, don't be shy."

Luo Qi was the first to walk through the door. Majiang, who had originally intended to stop him from behind, did not know why he did not speak. Perhaps it was the expression on Luo Qi's face, or perhaps it was what Luo Qi had just said; his style was still his usual jerk-like manner, but when he spoke, he was expressionless and his demeanor was solemn. The mental pressure belonging to a Mind Grand Mage was as bleak as midwinter. In hindsight, Majiang realized that Luo Qi had to be the first person to enter the door; he had to choose for himself whether to trust Wen Lin, and he could not count on the Lotus Burners or the Wushan to test the waters for him.

A smile flashed across Wen Lin's face again, and her gaze followed the short, young Great Mage, as if she had gained something from it. This was the realm of the human heart that Majiang was not skilled in; he was just a Doctor, and now he was belatedly wondering if Luo Qi had just issued an order to him.

The first door closed, and Luo Qi saw a familiar empty room; he had already begun to realize that such a layout meant a laboratory of the Progenitor Mages. Wen Lin walked quickly past him and pulled open the second door for them; this time, Wen Lin went through first and held the door for them inside.

"This door should have its own opening and closing mechanism, but we really cannot rashly use the Magic of the Seal Land now," Wen Lin said. Her tone was relaxed, but her expression had become severe, her eyes looking into the second room.

This room was larger than any room Luo Qi had seen before. Luo Qi thought of some warehouse supermarkets, with ceilings two or three stories high, a completely open space, and layers upon layers of shelves. It was just that the spacing between the "shelves" here was wider, and the "shelves" were gray, translucent containers, just like giant Crystal balls filled with mist.

"What is this? Used for divination?" Zhao Jiaozhu asked in confusion, approaching the Crystal body closest to him.

Luo Qi thought of those human bodies that aged and died rapidly once they left their containers, and a wave of nausea rose in his chest.

Wusu stopped beside him and leaned down to pick up something that looked like an ostrich eggshell. The object looked like an eggshell at first glance, and it still looked like an eggshell upon closer inspection. Luo Qi caught a glimpse from his hand and even saw some viscous liquid hanging inside the shell, looking just like egg white.

"Oh, don't worry about this; there is something even more exciting inside, Wusu Mage," Wen Lin said. She walked quickly through the first batch of shelves and turned left.

Luo Qi followed quickly. After passing through two rows of shelves, he understood what Wen Lin meant. The "shelves" here were no longer as turbid as if they were filled with smoke; the Crystal had become transparent, which was the exact omen that the Crystal was about to open. The things inside the Crystal were now also in full view.

"I see dinosaur eggs, is that right?" Luo Qi asked calmly.

"You... seem calmer than I imagined," Wen Lin said.

"Because I just remembered, since there are dinosaurs, it's not very strange to have eggs. It looks like it's about to hatch; have you realized that?" Luo Qi said.

"Don't worry, newborns are relatively fragile," Wen Lin said.

Luo Qi turned his head to look at her, his expression as if he were looking at a dull student. "I have a cat; it is a kitten, but it can spray corrosive liquid."

"Uh... at least for now, these are all dinosaurs," Wen Lin added.

Luo Qi turned to face the dazed Zhao Jiaozhu. "Zhao Mage, do you know why the Progenitor Mages wanted to preserve dinosaurs here?"

The latter looked at him for a while. "I don't know what you are asking; the will of the Progenitor Mages cannot be guessed."

"What I mean is, this is a Prehistoric Animal Conservation Site," Luo Qi said in a low voice. "These things are not the creations of the Progenitor Mages."

"So what? The Progenitor Mages saved these giant creatures that should have perished; the Ancestors possess boundless mercy," Zhao Jiaozhu said.

"If my cat, the variants in the Ancient Town, and your insects are all the same as the dinosaurs here—all collectibles of the Progenitor Mages—how likely do you think that is?" Luo Qi said.

"Collected from where?" Zhao Jiaozhu asked.

"From different worlds: worlds with dinosaurs, worlds with cats, worlds with variants—traveling everywhere, collecting everywhere. Zhao Jiaozhu, have you ever seen a human biological laboratory? I increasingly feel that the Progenitor Mages are very much like humans; they have the same behavioral patterns, the same adventurous radicalism, the same tendency to cause trouble, and the same incompetence in cleaning up the aftermath. Have you ever thought that the so-called Seal Land might not be some treasure left to us by the Progenitor Mages? The Seal Land is just their own laboratory, and the ancient city surrounding the Seal Land is just their former settlement. They have no special affection for us, and they have no deep meaning; they just disappeared and left us behind," Luo Qi said.

His gaze fell on Wusu. "We were just left behind. Some of us retained fragments of memories of them... some of us inherited the responsibility of cleaning up their aftermath."

"Perhaps... perhaps we should discuss this later," Zhao Jiaozhu said uneasily, as the sound of a breaking eggshell clearly vibrated against the Mages' eardrums.