Chapter 679: The Ancestor's Gift (68)

Qionglin was still the same, as if nothing had happened.

Those boring daily tasks were steadily progressing, and everyone looked calm, repeating their day-to-day work with calm and ease. No one showed any unease, and no one had heard that there was once a Luo Qi who emerged from nowhere and stirred the Magic World into a state of panic.

Du Zhengyi walked through Qionglin for a while; the Battle Mages on duty were not the ones who had been on shift those few days. He checked the logs, and everyone had a reasonable excuse for being sent out at the moment.

The attendance records from over ten days ago were also there, with the reason for attendance: handling an emergency in the Seal Land. Action result: mission accomplished.

At least the reason for attendance was not to deal with High-Reaction Mages.

The only thing unusual was that the highest-ranking Mages were all absent. Du Zhengyi tried to contact Pei Shu, and the reply he received was to wait for the time being.

He had never encountered such a situation before, including the wiping of people's memories. It wasn't that he didn't know Qionglin would do such things, just not so ruthlessly at such a high level.

What was the necessity of wiping the Doctor's memory? He was neither a threat, and his security clearance was high.

Du Zhengyi even thought that if it weren't for the fact that it couldn't be done, his own memory would have been wiped too. After waking up, he would not remember what had happened, or more tragically, he would remember everything but lack the emotions of sorrow and anger. He would remember Luo Qi, but would wander around not understanding why he had acted for him, and be confused as to why he could not act.

Ultimately, modifying the memories and thoughts of those around you, even in Qionglin, crossed the bottom line. No one had ever done this; the highly respected Pei Shu... had never been that kind of person.

Perhaps he should thank the clownfish for letting him turn a misfortune into a blessing. He had a problematic brain, but he had become someone capable of preserving his own self.

Thinking of the clownfish was like a thorn pricking his chest. He immediately turned his thoughts away; for an unsolvable matter, any thinking was meaningless.

Returning to the matter itself, even from an absolute rational perspective, there was no need for Pei Shu to delete these people's memories. Their loyalty was beyond doubt. Taking things to this extent would already bring about counterproductive results.

What could be done in the future? Were they going to completely control everyone's brains?

Why go to such lengths? Could it be that Luo Qi finally got into trouble, pulled off something big, and blew up half of everyone's brains?

He crossed half of Qionglin and walked into the place where the Experimental Mages stayed. If he couldn't find the answer here, he might go find the Highland Mages.

His body was still sluggish, but it was slowly becoming coordinated; he had never thought he would still be able to walk in this world. Judging from what Mahjong said, it should have been that Luo Qi made a prompt decision and threw him into the container for cultivating Seal Beasts. Or Psychic Beasts; according to his previous judgment, the device for manufacturing Psychic Beasts should not be suitable for the human body, as they could only produce mindless things.

It was estimated that Luo Qi had no other choice, or perhaps he had observed something at the time and had a new assessment. Luo Qi could always see places others couldn't; this ability was innate, and perhaps more important than his Mind Magic.

The magic work in the laboratory continued; Du Zhengyi couldn't tell if they were continuing the work from the Highland Mages' side. He saw a few faces that had appeared at the Highland Mages' place back then; some had bought cookies from Luo Qi—these weirdos got along very well with Luo Qi.

Liu Ziyi saw him from afar and ran over excitedly, just like before, "Senior Brother!"

His heart sank; this world was like Luo Qi's broken game, a glitch rollback. He had become a bug in the game.

"Senior Brother, what's the matter?" Liu Ziyi asked.

Du Zhengyi looked her over, "You've tanned a bit."

"That's really rude, I'm not dark at all." Liu Ziyi said subconsciously, then paused there.

Du Zhengyi watched her.

She raised her own hand and looked at it seriously, slowly as if she were restarting her own train of thought, "Oh—I am indeed a bit dark, tanned so quickly, just like being exposed to the sun on the plateau."

It seemed her memory was even less than the Doctor's, at least it stopped before meeting the Highland Mages.

"I must have met a human girl recently," Liu Ziyi said. She took a sticker out of her pocket with the name of a milk tea shop on it.

She looked at the sticker, which didn't evoke any memory, then flipped the sticker over; the back was a Gomoku board, "No Mage would be willing to play this."

Du Zhengyi shook his head, and just as he was about to leave, Liu Ziyi took out her phone again and lit up the screen; a selfie of her and Guan Xinyue huddled together immediately appeared.

Du Zhengyi was speechless; above their heads was Luo Qi's face, sneaking into the selfie behind them with a punchable expression.

"Thank you," Du Zhengyi said, half-truthfully, "Otherwise I would have thought I was crazy."

"Wait a second." Liu Ziyi held him back, tapped on the photo, and opened a video in the photo app.

Luo Qi's face appeared on the screen, haggard and disheveled, with blood on his face. His nerves looked very tense, as if he were gnashing his teeth at someone; he was still swearing urgently when he started recording the video.

He turned his head back to the camera and said, "Brother, I have to go. I have to take Guan Xinyue with me; they won't let her go. And I can't see... see your teacher, he's coming soon."

He felt the pause in the middle might have been a swear word, but Luo Qi held it back. He seemed to quiet down for a second, his voice becoming soft, "Brother, take care. You will wake up, but I can't wait anymore, don't be angry. I will... I will find a way to hold on, I promise. You stay safe..."

His words weren't finished, the camera shook wildly, someone was calling out, and outside the camera, Luo Qi said urgently, "Take it, hold the phone well, hide the phone, quick..."

The camera went completely black, as if it had been shoved into a pocket, and the video ended quickly.

"I think this is a message for you," Liu Ziyi said.

"So it could be like this," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice. He took the phone from Liu Ziyi and tapped the video to watch it again.

The place where the video was recorded was already in the wilderness; they had already left the Seal Land. Du Zhengyi didn't know how they left; when he made his decision, he had abandoned everything. Abandoned them, abandoned Luo Qi; he had no way to bring Luo Qi out.

He could only close the Seal Land and annihilate everything in the collapse of magic. Cleaning up the mess of the Progenitor Mage, preventing those mindless yet terrifying animals and humanoid creatures from running out. In that instant, he not only sacrificed himself, but also chose to sacrifice Luo Qi and the others.

He couldn't clearly state whether his actions were the Magic Contract at work, or if his own heart's intention was just that. Perhaps both. But Luo Qi found a way out himself, not knowing how he did it, and even brought the others out. He even rescued his life. He recorded a video to briefly explain his whereabouts, without thinking of blaming him, and even in the chaos, he was still worried about him being angry.

Luo Qi's lack of heart was indeed reflected in many aspects, perhaps especially in the good aspects.

"Ziyi, is it possible that you have their phone numbers, or have added them on WeChat?"

"Definitely. But there's no signal here," Liu Ziyi said.