Chapter 669: The Ancestor's Gift (58)

Their conversation ceased upon the final arrival at their destination; Clownfish turned back into a mass of gloomy, painful mist, and the "Luo Qi" that occasionally revealed itself was like a sliver of daylight briefly piercing through the fog.

Du Zhengyi had felt a sense of closeness in a few brief moments, a closeness and pleasure that could only be felt when approaching Luo Qi's soul, which could not be faked. He had not known Luo Qi for long, but perhaps because Luo Qi was a natural-born Mind Archmage, he was able to make direct contact and communicate with Luo Qi's mind or soul. Perhaps a momentary exchange could also surpass the slow, error-prone communication between humans or Mages, allowing them to understand each other on a deeper level. Or perhaps it was simply because Luo Qi was a special existence, or even just because of some causal link in the universe that he had seen but could not explain.

Beyond that, there was an even more important point: everything had to be logical. This mist named Clownfish, no matter how elusive, was real; therefore, the mist must eventually have a core. If the Luo Qi that leaked out was not its core, then the mist could hardly exist. Either Clownfish did not exist, or Clownfish really was Luo Qi.

So now, this closeness had turned into pain. Du Zhengyi's hand touched the gate to the core of the Seal Land, struggling to focus his attention to open it. Yet his thoughts were constantly distracted by pain; the most real beauty and connection he had in this world could be 1, or it could be 0, but it should never be the absurdity of both existing and not existing. This made him unable to even carry out self-doubt thoroughly.

He had countless explanations to account for the difference between the Luo Qi who returned from the future and the Luo Qi he had met, but his mind was in chaos. It was as if every time he tried to explain this matter, a mass of mist in his mind suppressed his thinking, forcibly twisting the chaos of this thought into a cutting pain in his heart.

Du Zhengyi focused his attention once more, silently reciting the Secret Language for opening the door in his mind. Clownfish's unsettling conjectures had not failed to affect him; he could not help but think that the door before him was indeed a biometric authentication door.

His job duties brought him closer to the core of the Magic World, and he had a deeper understanding of the essence of Magic than others. It was not that he had never thought about how similar all this was to the future technology envisioned by humans. Like an amateur anthropologist, Luo Qi would chatter all day about the similarities between Magic and human scientific thought. He did not feel annoyed; in fact, from the very beginning, he had felt that everything Luo Qi said was right. Although he was not as widely knowledgeable about human science and technology as Luo Qi, he had still picked up some common sense from human society, whether intentionally or not.

So how much difference could there be between the Tower's firm belief in Magic and the Lotus Burner's religious worship of it? The Progenitor Mages treated them with the same arrogance that a higher intelligent species would show toward primitive people. The Progenitor Mages had never truly regarded Mages as their children; they had never truly taught Mages anything, and of course, they had never taught humans anything either.

The gate finally stirred, contracting to one side like the muscles of a living organism, revealing the breathtaking scene inside the Main Control Room.

He sensed that Clownfish must be looking up at the scene in the Main Control Room. In the hall, it was as if a Bronze Divine Tree from human legend was growing; a metal pillar nearly ten meters high with an extremely complex structure "grew" in the center of the hall, holding up a sphere that was actually suspended in the dark void at the top, like the fingers of a giant.

The pillar was like a tree trunk, winding out new branches at many asymmetrical points, with a "fruit" growing on each branch. However, except for the "fruit" at the very top, which was a perfect sphere, the others were all exposed hemispheres.

This was not the first time Du Zhengyi had seen this sight. He had, of course, been to other Seal Lands; although the construction of the Main Control Rooms was not exactly the same, the actual topological structure was not much different. Some Seal Lands did not have such a "Divine Tree" and looked as ordinary as human laboratories or server rooms, but in general, one could still find a Main Console and an Auxiliary Console, just like a human mainframe computer and the various clients linked to it. The only thing Du Zhengyi was certain of was that many people had once worked busily in such rooms, but now the people were gone, leaving only the automated systems that were still running on their own.

In some special areas, the Seal Lands were intentionally built with superfluous structures, such as this bronze tree. Perhaps the Progenitor Mages had also gone through phases where certain decorative styles were popular, wanting to express some spiritual pursuit beyond practical value. He had previously been completely unable to understand the existence of these scenes, and he actually harbored many irreverent thoughts about the Progenitor Mages in his heart.

It was not until he traveled through Luo Qi's country in the Mental World that he had the good fortune to witness scenes that were completely different but achieved the same effect. He once suspected that Luo Qi's mind had serious problems, which was why he had built a small patch of twisted architecture in the Mental World. "Twisted" was not enough to describe those buildings; the buildings themselves were like some kind of prototype organism, somewhat like the Slime that Luo Qi himself could turn into—no fixed shape, forever in a stage of growth and change. At the time, Du Zhengyi felt he had seen hairy teacups and fermented canned jars, and he truly felt his vision go black.

As it turned out, Luo Qi later said sheepishly that he wasn't being original; he was imitating the Spanish architect Gaudí, using nature as a secret code of inspiration, so that buildings could also grow and change. Du Zhengyi even went to check out the original version Luo Qi mentioned; his tribute to the human master was indeed more brilliant than Luo Qi's imitation, but he felt he would have been better off not checking.

But because of this, he felt he understood the Progenitor Mages a little better; perhaps they also had artistic pursuits he could not understand. Perhaps the shape of the tree expressed some meaning, and perhaps the Progenitor Mages, like the architect Gaudí, believed their works represented life or nature.

Clownfish suddenly spoke, his voice filled with sneers and mockery. "A Bronze Divine Tree. How could the Progenitor Mages produce bronze? This kind of primary metal is worthless in their culture. Intentionally using the only metal that early humans could smelt, intentionally creating a shape that humans had the ability to recognize and imitate—it is clearly meant to lure humans into worship and interfere with the progress of human civilization."

"How extreme," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice.

Clownfish did not refute him, walking closer to examine the texture of the giant bronze tree. A closer look revealed that this was not copper at all, but purely a more advanced alloy disguised as bronze. The texture on the surface of the tree was not generated naturally or randomly; many people would find these shapes familiar, just like the gene sequences described in human abstractions.

"The Progenitor Mages might just be a few geneticists who lived too long and went insane."

Du Zhengyi ignored what he said, although he had thought the same thing, but this matter was not important. There were many things he had thought of, but those things were not important at all; none were more important than the safety of the people living right now.

He did not linger on the other branches, going directly up to the main trunk at the top and entering the largest sphere, which was the true Main Control Room of this Seal Land.