Chapter 651: The Ancestor's Gift (40)

"I am certain that no matter how you think about it, you won't find an opportunity for me to gain any benefit. Working together will not in the slightest violate your duties as a Gushan Guard. If you want to ask about my purpose, I will tell you with all sincerity, because I am the person in this world who hates Seal Beasts the most. But I think you are the type of person who never cares about other people's purposes, nor do you care who your enemies are or who your friends are."

For a moment, time suddenly slowed down, as if it had lost its original flow. Even though he could not see the Clownfish's true face, Du Zhengyi could still feel the Clownfish's faint mockery toward him, as if the entire situation were under his control, as if he knew some secret of time; he could not help but mock Du Zhengyi, mock himself, and mock the entire Magic World. Du Zhengyi's thoughts and everything he strove for were nothingness in his eyes; perhaps even the entire Magic World was nothingness.

He urged Du Zhengyi on with ease, calm and composed as if he were certain of how things would turn out.

Du Zhengyi wanted to break free from this invisible control; he had been bound within a macro-causality his entire life, but in his specific, microscopic life, he had never liked being controlled. Just after the Clownfish spoke in a guiding tone once more, he turned to look at that blurry figure, "What reason do you have for not showing your true face? There is only you and me here; do I know you?"

The figure swayed slightly, and just as he was about to speak, Du Zhengyi interrupted him again, "Why do you hate Seal Beasts?"

The Clownfish still did not answer; Du Zhengyi felt as if he could see thoughts racing through his brain, deducing what kind of reaction Du Zhengyi would have after various responses. He understood him; this was beyond doubt. Perhaps the Mind Master understood everyone, perhaps he... just understood him particularly well; regardless, as long as he let him speak, he would still lead him in ethereal circles.

Du Zhengyi wanted to bring everything down to earth.

"Why did the Seal Beast kill your wife?"

He skipped a question and directly posed the next one; the Clownfish, who thought too much, did not have time to keep up with his questions, and the answer became a default truth.

Du Zhengyi faced the Clownfish, looking straight into his eyes within the blurry shadow, "She was a human who could not protect herself; you didn't protect her well?"

The Clownfish watched Du Zhengyi quietly, as if he had lost all desire to speak; the soul of that gloomy, pained man they had met a few times before had returned.

"Who released the Seal Beast?" Du Zhengyi suddenly asked.

The Clownfish breathed softly, looking at Du Zhengyi without obstruction, "A Mage."

"So you hate all Mages?" Du Zhengyi said; he was consumed by rage for a moment, but suddenly he hesitated, "Is it because I didn't finish the job? Was it that I never had the chance to finish, or... I didn't manage to finish in time..."

"It has nothing to do with you," the Clownfish said, as if he could no longer bear it.

"But if you... why don't you go find her?"

"Because a man cannot step into the same river twice," the Clownfish said coldly.

"What does that mean?" Du Zhengyi asked, "Don't be a riddle-maker."

"How could she fall in love with a world-weary middle-aged man? The current her does not belong to me; my true wife has long since passed away," the Clownfish said in a low voice.

Du Zhengyi was silent for a moment, pushing all the chaotic emotions back to the origin of his emotional coordinate. "I don't know how you found the way here, and I don't want to know things I shouldn't. I only want to know what you truly want right now? It's not to find your lost lover? Don't tell me you are doing this to eradicate all Seal Beasts to protect her in advance."

The Clownfish laughed, "Can't I be a good person with only this kind goal?"

"Who exactly used a Seal Beast to kill her?" Du Zhengyi asked again.

"No one," the Clownfish lowered his head and shook it, "No one specifically wanted to kill her; she was just an ordinary woman who meant no harm to anyone. Oh, that expression of yours—no, it's not the girl you guessed; you haven't met her, she was a complete outsider."

Hesitating for a moment, the Clownfish suddenly began to speak, "She was a human who painted, very spiritual, almost like half a Mind Mage. Whatever I thought, she seemed to know just by looking with her eyes; that was truly... a wonderful feeling. She was very kind; I tripped because my legs weren't very good, she came over to help me up, I bought her a cup of milk tea, and that's how we met."

"You tripped on purpose, didn't you?" Du Zhengyi suddenly asked.

The Clownfish laughed, then the smile faded, "I was very lonely at the time, and she just appeared in my life like the only light."

"My condolences," Du Zhengyi said after a long while.

The Clownfish smiled.

"Have you ever thought that she might have been because of..." Du Zhengyi did not continue.

"Thought about whether she died because of me? No, it wasn't a targeted assassination. Because it was a massacre; too many people died, not just her," the Clownfish said.

"It was the Lotus Burners," Du Zhengyi suddenly understood, yet suddenly did not understand, "Your wife was killed by the Lotus Burners, and now you are hanging out with the Lotus Burners?"

The Clownfish stared fixedly at Du Zhengyi, "Have you ever thought about the scene of Seal Lands being opened one after another simultaneously? The world is a hell! She was torn apart, eaten, her internal organs were scattered everywhere... Everything was too late when I rushed home. Mages created the Seal Lands, Mages manage the Seal Lands; as for which Mages directly created the hell, what difference does it make? All Mages deserve to die."

"I'm sorry," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice.

"Why are you saying sorry to me? You are about to die; it was my doing, have you forgotten? All Mages deserve to die, but that does not include you."

"My duty is to find the Seal Lands and close them one by one," Du Zhengyi said.

"Oh," the Clownfish laughed, "Speaking of the Du Clan's duty. But do you really not know where all the Seal Lands are? I mean, even if you don't know the specific locations of all the Seal Lands, at least you know a large portion of them. It's been thousands of years, why hasn't your family finished closing the Seal Lands? Why? Because the Venerables can never reach a consensus, because Mages are always afraid that humans will retaliate, always wanting to keep convenient weapons in their hands; Mages are growing weaker day by day, yet they cannot accept this reality. Because they were too afraid, they even wiped out your clan."

"It was a plague that devastated my family," Du Zhengyi said. As he finished speaking, he felt the scent of disappointment being pushed over unconsciously from the Clownfish's direction, and an indescribable, suffocating bitterness spread in his chest.

"Du Zhengyi, you... you only focus on what you can do, and you don't take to heart what you cannot do. You are the most responsible person in this world, but you never worry about things you cannot be responsible for," the Clownfish said.

"How can a person do what they cannot do?"

"A person can use Magic to do what they cannot do," the Clownfish said, "But you cannot, because you can, you are bound and cannot."

"Ouroboros," Du Zhengyi said suddenly.

The Clownfish looked at him in silence.

"Ouroboros is your emblem, right? Luo Qi... told me the meaning of Ouroboros when we first discovered this emblem. The Lotus Burners don't use this symbol, so I was wondering at the time if a third force had appeared in the Magic World besides the Qionglin and the Lotus Burners. You must be the creator of Ouroboros; your people have infiltrated the Lotus Burners and the Qionglin, right? Speaking of Ouroboros, I might be in the self-cycle of the Ouroboros, perhaps in a Mobius Strip, I don't know, I'm not sure. But are you in it too?" Du Zhengyi said.

"Du Zhengyi, when did you discover I..." the Clownfish asked halfway, the second half of the sentence seeming to burn his tongue.

"You have told many lies, true and false, more fiction than fact; I didn't believe too much. I have always been very concerned about why I saw Luo Qi of tomorrow when I stepped into the Guan Family courtyard and fell into the illusion. I asked you, and you replied that it was because I was concerned, so I hallucinated. But the Luo Qi in the illusion was too profound; with my level of understanding of him at the time, I shouldn't have seen such a real Luo Qi with such rich, authentic personality in my own hallucination. I have always been concerned about this, until recently when Luo Qi began to copy a part of his own Yajian, as if copying fragments of a soul, and he even carelessly gave his soul copies to girls as an Amulet. At this moment, I suddenly wondered if I had encountered a copy of Luo Qi's soul long ago. If one day in the future Luo Qi becomes crazier and begins to copy a more complete soul of himself, using his soul copies as slave tools, is that the mechanism of the trap in the Guan Family courtyard?" Du Zhengyi stared at the flickering figure, "Are you crazy?"

In the perilous situation, they were dangerously silent, and the Clownfish's shadow remained flickering.

"I want to ask one more time, why are you called Clownfish?" Du Zhengyi said, "Do you think you are a clown?"

"No, because I... am a person who does not exist in the records, and the name of the clownfish happens to be Nemo," the Clownfish said.

"What does that mean?" Du Zhengyi asked.

The Clownfish laughed, "You can ask Luo Qi; he must know the answer."

Du Zhengyi knew that if the Clownfish wanted to attack him at this moment, he could easily shatter his Shield and pry open his brain. He had never been so restless, his will collapsing.

"I still want to ask the last question of the day," Du Zhengyi heard himself say.

"Since it has come to this, ask," the Clownfish said.

"When did your leg become lame?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"After you died."