Chapter 671: The Ancestor's Gift (60)

"You had better not waste your effort," Du Zhengyi warned the Clownfish coldly.

He had known all along that the Clownfish had been following him, and no matter what was said or done, the intent was extremely clear. The first time he met the Clownfish was at Qionglin, where the core secrets of the entire Magic World were kept. He could be certain that the Clownfish's intrusion that time had already touched upon this core, yet the Clownfish had still returned empty-handed.

The Clownfish compared this core to a supercomputer and called him the system administrator; Du Zhengyi could accept this analogy.

After all, mages lived among the human world; only those extreme fundamentalists, the Lotus Burners, would try every possible way to avoid human civilization. Du Zhengyi was just busy or lacking in energy; he had never actively avoided human life, and he certainly knew some basic common knowledge about humans.

He knew he was much like a human computer administrator, so he also clearly knew the rules for logging into the system. These rules strictly limited the identity of the administrator. This person must be a descendant of the Du Clan, possessing the bloodline of the Du Clan. But that was not all; any Du Clan member capable of becoming an administrator would recall some memory fragments from the ancient past at a certain age.

These memory fragments were some blurry scenes. These scenes were fragmented, like various types of Seal Lands, and the memory fragments displayed the structure of these places in pieces. Every memory would eventually lead to the core control room. These primitive memories written into their minds would repeatedly and vaguely signal them, requiring them to find such places and execute operations there.

In these scenes, there would also be several busy figures, as if they had truly existed, had been truly seen by someone, and then synchronized into his brain. When he was young, he had tried hard to see these people's faces clearly, but he could never make out those blurry features. He had once guessed that this might be to prevent later generations from developing feelings for those who had long since passed away.

These people would demonstrate to him how to operate the magic core of the Seal Land.

Perhaps it could also be said that these people demonstrated to him various ways to resolve the dangerous state of the Seal Land, as well as the method to finally shut down the Seal Land. These images were very blurry, yet the operational demonstrations could be incredibly clear. He knew he needed to have his finger pricked to draw blood for bloodline authentication. Then, coiled nerve fibers would pierce into his skin; he guessed this was the second layer of authentication for the Du Clan—their brain activity levels and neural responses were slightly different from ordinary mages, perhaps also a form of identification. At the same time, this method of direct underlying connection to the brain could also ensure that the one executing the operation was the administrator's free will, rather than a puppet manipulated by a Mind Master. The final step of the operation was those lines of chanting branded deep in the memory, the Spells rolled over the tip of the tongue—or as Luo Qi would say, that was essentially the machine's operation code, and only then would the core computer begin the execution to clear the Seal Land.

When he first encountered the Clownfish, the Clownfish had launched a mind attack on him but did not kill him, all for the sake of wanting to obtain this information he possessed as a system administrator. But when performing an irreversible core operation on the computer, the person executing the operation and the person logging into the system must be the same individual; this was a basic rule that could not be bypassed. Not to mention that the Clownfish could not do it, those illustrious Mind Archmages of the past had all, without exception, needed to rely on the voluntary cooperation of a Du Clan member.

"Then what do you intend to do?" the Clownfish said in a daze, his mind seeming very scattered.

Du Zhengyi did not answer; he tried to sense Luo Qi's presence, but he did not have the ability to actively confirm the existence of a Mind Mage. From the time they separated until now, Luo Qi had not tried to contact him, which was not normal. He believed that within such a range, Luo Qi should have the ability to track him; even if he could not communicate with him, he should at least be able to maintain his presence.

Perhaps something had happened to Luo Qi. He quickly pushed this thought away; there were many people by Luo Qi's side now.

There was another possibility: that the Clownfish, as a more mature Mind Archmage, was able to expel Luo Qi's will, making it impossible for Luo Qi to get any closer to him in the world of consciousness. The Clownfish had been prepared from the very beginning; he knew that as long as he told himself he was also Luo Qi, he could make him mentally confused, buying time to observe him operating the Seal Land.

He was deliberately saying he was Luo Qi, and also deliberately performing as Luo Qi.

But if there was any part of him that was completely consistent with Luo Qi, perhaps it was the firm belief that he could crack the magic of the Ancient Mages, and having an unconstrained imagination. In order to study the magic of the Progenitor Mages, the Clownfish had explored one exhausted Seal Land after another. Although those Seal Lands were exhausted, they had not adopted the most extreme methods when they were shut down, and the shells and residual faint power left behind might have indeed allowed the Clownfish to learn something.

At this point, Du Zhengyi also thought of some possibilities. If one truly regarded the Progenitor Mages as an alien race and regarded all this "Magic" as future science, then the earlier one thought of this, the closer one was to the "truth." Du Zhengyi was an administrator, having inherited the login permissions and the ability to use scientific equipment. Liu Ziyi was one of the few truly intelligent mages, but Liu Ziyi still could not understand the true scientific principles; she relied on observing phenomena to summarize the laws of usage. It was just like how primitive people might not understand modern human computers, televisions, air conditioners, or even the power grid and tap water systems. Yet, relying on an intelligence level that was already similar, primitive people could still grope out the laws of usage through observation, and even deduce some methods of modification. But these were not the correct angles to understand "Magic."

What if it were Luo Qi? Luo Qi could find the correct angle to understand magic.

If it weren't for Du Zhengyi acting as a shackle for him in the Magic World, allowing him to always maintain a connection with the Magic World, where would Luo Qi go? Perhaps he would break away from this world. With Luo Qi's mode of thinking, he would likely integrate into the human world immediately after discovering the truth, disappearing from the sight of mages. He would "drive" the "mages" in the human world called scientists to crack the puzzles for him and help him understand magic. Those true scientists, they already possessed the "correct" way of thinking; would they perform true reverse engineering on these future sciences called "magic"? Completely different from what Liu Ziyi called "reverse engineering," this would be true reverse scientific research. How far would they go? Would it be possible to touch the core technology of the Progenitor Mages? Or would they make stupid mistakes and drive things toward another kind of point of no return?

If viewed from this angle, what was it that the Du Clan was truly guarding? What were they preventing?

He could not think anymore. He forced himself to recall the way to completely end this base that had already spiraled out of control. Perhaps the Clownfish was right; there were abnormal organisms here, causing the base's computer to generate a BUG, unable to execute the command to simply destroy the organisms. Or perhaps the way to completely end the base was meant for this specific moment; completely destroying the base could ensure that all organisms would not leak out. But...

The premise was that after initiating the final command, he must quickly find Luo Qi and take him away from here. After getting out, if possible, it would be best to buy a rope to tie him up, and then they should have a real talk. He could not let Luo Qi continue to use his "full-mouth-running-train" way to evade things.

But what if he could not find Luo Qi within the limited time? What would happen then? The torn Seal Land would swallow everything, and Luo Qi would not be spared. He could not kill Luo Qi like he killed Seal Beasts and out-of-control mages. For the first time in his life, he hesitated.

Just as the thought of hesitation occurred, something he had never felt before happened: his occiput began to tighten, an uncomfortable numbness arose from his brain, he could not maintain his breathing frequency, his daily low-frequency heartbeat began to accelerate, physiological anxiety began to climb to his forehead, and his head felt as if it had been clamped into a box.

The Clownfish felt something sluggishly and shifted his attention toward him, "Do you have anxiety? Is your anxiety acting up?"

"I..." Du Zhengyi wanted to speak, but pain gripped his throat; he could not speak steadily.

This feeling was indeed anxiety; this anxiety wrapped around him, coerced him; he was as emotionally fragile as a toddler, having lost his basic self-control, and as desperate as an addict. An extreme, aimless craving drove him to slam his hand back into the groove on the console; the hidden needle at the Heaven's Canal position once again pierced his hand, and the nerve fiber beam plunged deep into his arm.

An ancient Spell flowed through his consciousness; he craved to chant it out, and his entire physiological need was to recite this passage of incantation. His free will was suppressed by the instinct of his body; the will belonging to Du Zhengyi was on a distant cloud, while the instinct of his body, driven by craving, chanted the incantation. His will sluggishly discerned that it was the command to completely destroy this Seal Land.

The Entanglement of the Gushan Guard took effect on him passively for the first time; he gasped, staring blankly at the image that appeared out of thin air—it was the dazzling three stars of Orion. The light of the stars reflected in his eyes, and his pupils dilated slightly. Around him, the runes on the bronze tree began to flicker. The air trembled, as if some ancient existence had been awakened, yet it let out a silent roar.

"This is... you initiated the final destruction?" the Clownfish said in astonishment. "Do you know that this place will collapse?"

Du Zhengyi could not answer; the control he prided himself on was lost the moment he hesitated. He was like an incompetent toddler, pressed onto the console by an invisible giant hand; the residual power of the Progenitor Mages was still enough to dominate his insignificant self. He had not even considered betrayal, merely a thought of hesitation. A tear slid past the corner of one of his eyes... his sluggish visual nerves captured a pale blue trace, so faint it seemed not to exist, as if it were merely an unusual disturbance of the air.