Chapter 661: The Ancestor's Gift (50)

Luo Qi's expression was grave, and he decisively issued the order to depart immediately. No one raised any objections to his command; Zhao Jiaozhu was exceptionally reasonable today, and almost immediately led the Lotus Burners to follow him forward. The absolute silence here made everyone uncomfortable, and under the pressure of the snakes, the blue eyes, and those invisible monsters with the ability to teleport, everyone was willing to follow Luo Qi and speed away.

But what Luo Qi did not say was that he actually had no idea which path Du Zhengyi had taken. However, although the intentional interference from the clownfish prevented him from establishing too much of a connection with Du Zhengyi, he could indeed distinguish their general direction. It was just that the terrain here was too complex, with too many walls and too many floors; he had no way to map the map of the Consciousness World directly into the physical world as he could in the wild. Now he had no choice but to ignore those margins of error; as long as the direction was correct, he would always be able to reach the vicinity of Du Zhengyi. When the time came, if the situation were urgent, he could simply blow open a wall, floor, or ceiling. Meeting up with Du Zhengyi as soon as possible was the top priority.

Unfortunately, reality did not go as smoothly as Luo Qi had imagined; perhaps things had been too smooth until now, and his good luck was finally running out. Their group soon reached the end of the road, and Luo Qi, this unprofessional sheepdog, had led this flock of silly sheep to the base of a wall so long it could not be seen to the end. Luo Qi's feeling was terrible—annoyed and restless, yet he could not let his emotions be seen by others. He no longer had the luxury of incompetent rage.

He did not know what was going on; this place should have been full of corridors, with the walls of the corridors covered in doors, looking like a complex maze or a world created after Alice had a nightmare. But now they had walked through a corridor and arrived at a T-shaped dead end. In front of them was a wall, behind them were several doors, and further back there were circuitous corridors, but facing the direction of Du Zhengyi, there was only a bare wall blocking their path.

Luo Qi stared coldly at the wall, his expression inscrutable, as if he were performing complex Magic calculations in his mind. No one knew that he just wanted to bang his head against the wall right now.

But he had to calm down. He restrained the impulse to have Liu Ziyi inspect the wall; he could not ask Liu Ziyi about everything. The requirements he gave Liu Ziyi had to be more directed, making it appear that he was a trustworthy leader who knew what he was doing and knew how to arrange the work of a Technical mage. He especially could not keep asking the peacock; although he had some understanding of this place and was even a Venerable, he was also an observer sent by the Wushan Sect. He was currently evaluating him, and he could not let Wushan think he was just a weak Apprentice mage, as that would make them continue to bet their chips on Pei Shu, the leader of Qionglin.

Above all this, he had to hurry; the time Du Zhengyi had spent alone with the clownfish was already too long. Furthermore, Guan Xinyue was not normal either; he had a vague guess about her, but he did not have the energy to solve two problems at once, so he could only let her wait. Perhaps she no longer had time, either.

Luo Qi tried his best to restrain his restlessness; he could not turn back, as that would be too much of a waste of time. The time he had been separated from Du Zhengyi was not long, and it was impossible for Du Zhengyi to have walked ahead so quickly in a circuitous way. It was even more impossible for him to have used Teleportation; Du Zhengyi had explained the principles and criteria to him—without a clear target, he would not move rashly. Thinking of this, Luo Qi's train of thought finally became a bit clearer: the greatest possibility was that there had originally been a path here.

Waiting idly in the silence was a tormenting thing. A Lotus Burner suddenly stepped forward, perhaps wanting to say something, but Zhao Jiaozhu raised his hand and stopped him silently. Luo Qi stared at the bare wall in front of him and subconsciously knocked on it; the metallic feel of the wall made him feel as if he were on a large ship built by humans. If it were a human ship, the cabin doors would also be driven by energy, and after the metal doors closed, if all the decorations were removed, they would also look like a solid wall. Therefore, the greatest possibility was that the "Absolute Silence" had closed the door leading to the other area.

Du Zhengyi had done it too thoroughly when he closed off this area.

He stepped back a few paces to examine the wall; if there were a door, it should be directly opposite the corridor. There were several corridors here that could lead to the wall, and for the sake of convenience, the distance from each corridor to the door leading to the next area would not be too far. If it were humans, perhaps they would have named them Door No. 1, Door No. 2...

But now Du Zhengyi had pulled the plug.

"Theoretically speaking, the Magic energy is still there; we can restart it," Luo Qi said, looking at Liu Ziyi.

Liu Ziyi was stunned for a moment, but immediately realized what he meant. "There's a door here? Yes, there must be a door here. If Senior Brother were here, he could turn the power back on."

Luo Qi resisted the urge to retort to this correct but useless statement: if Du Zhengyi were here, he could open the door and find Du Zhengyi.

When Liu Ziyi said these words, her gaze remained on the pile of data floating in the air, speaking absent-mindedly. She suddenly looked up, stared at Luo Qi in confusion for a second, then shook her head and said vaguely, "No, that's not right, it's not you."

Before Luo Qi could even ask, she turned to Zhao Jiaozhu.

"Mr. Zhao," she said with effort, "could you get a bit closer to the wall? Uh, or could you put your hand on the wall, please? I mean, could you touch the wall with your skin?"

He did not refuse; in fact, it was as if he had been expecting this moment all along. He slightly restrained the self-satisfaction he had briefly released, trying his best to appear solemn without being overly pretentious, and raised his right hand to press it against the wall. It was like a devout saint touching a holy relic left behind by a true god.

Luo Qi restrained the nausea rising in his heart. Just at this moment, in a faint, imperceptible way, he seemed to hear a tiny sound—"Click." Perhaps it was not a sound, but a feeling, coming from a Mage's instinct, an instinctive sensing of Magic power, just like a computer that had been shut down suddenly coming back online.

The system Liu Ziyi was operating had a more intuitive reaction; Luo Qi saw a red light point flash, and she followed this flashing point with a slight leap of joy. More symbols emerged, which Luo Qi could no longer understand.

"Just now, when I felt you approaching the wall, the Magic here produced a subtle reaction, as if it wanted to respond. Now it seems that is indeed the case," Liu Ziyi explained.

"What's going on?" Mahjong, standing behind Luo Qi, asked abruptly. His brow furrowed, and he cast a look of disgust at Zhao Jiaozhu.

"It is probably because I have some blood ties to the Du Clan," Zhao Jiaozhu said, reserved yet happy.

Being able to drive the relics of the Progenitor Mage was a supreme ability; Luo Qi could feel the worship and joy diffusing among the Lotus Burners rising sharply. He restrained himself from suggesting that they go lick the soles of Du Zhengyi's shoes. Wasn't Du Zhengyi more sacred than him? Why didn't they go worship Du Zhengyi?

He also remembered that Zhao Mage had long ago said that his maternal family had Du Clan blood, but since this place did not welcome him like it welcomed Du Zhengyi, it meant that his bit of Du Clan blood had long since been diluted to almost nothing; he was just a mutt.

This damn place recognized the Du Family genes, and perhaps when he pressed against it, it was finally forced to read that pathetic little door key in his genes. And the Du Clan... the Du Clan... Luo Qi recalled the legends about the origin of the Du Clan that had been verified through several channels.

Their ancestor was the God of War among the Progenitor Mages, who combined with a human and gave birth to a child. Removing the God of War component and that distant love story, the remaining part was that the Du Clan were the direct descendants of the Progenitor Mage. In the creation myths told by everyone, one constant claim was that the Progenitor Mage created the Mages. But no one said that Mages were the children of the Progenitor Mage, except for the Du Clan—only the Du Clan.

Mages combined with humans could almost never have children, yet the Progenitor Mage seemed to have given birth to children with humans very naturally. Most Mage families had few descendants and difficulty with reproduction, but the Du Clan, before being slaughtered, had been flourishing and was one of the few large families in the Mage World.

Therefore, the ruins of the Progenitor Mage would only open to the Du Clan. This place was actually only open to their own kind; back when the Progenitor Mage's kin were numerous, this was a public place where they could come and go as they pleased.

He did not speak the things he had figured out. There was no need to add any more divinity to Zhao Jiaozhu.

Liu Ziyi looked up at him and said, "Good news. The recognition here for Mr. Zhao is not that strong, so it won't open completely, which puts less pressure on the unstable energy here."

Luo Qi nodded, signaling to her with his eyes: well said.