Chapter 681: The Ancestor's Gift (70)

There were no new inmates in the Qionglin prison, and Du Zhengyi felt a moment of bewilderment. It was not until the directional Magic within Qionglin transmitted a signal to him that he subconsciously picked it up and identified Liu Ziyi's Magic insignia.

When he returned to the surface of Qionglin, the flowing air already carried a faint, scorched scent. He quickened his pace toward the Fifth Laboratory, seeing from afar that Liu Ziyi was talking to several Experimental Mages he did not recognize, her emotions intense.

When she saw him walking over, she finished her sentence with increased speed, and those few people walked away looking disgruntled.

"What's going on?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"A few idiots caused trouble. We're short-handed, and Teacher Zuo approves anyone to enter the laboratory, which only delays things further. Not everyone is suited to compensate for clumsiness with diligence, and not everyone is actually that diligent..." Liu Ziyi complained, her mood restless and irritable.

Du Zhengyi had never seen her this restless; she was more like someone experiencing the obstacle phase after having their memories erased. Logic could not be self-consistent, and observations did not match inferences; the smarter a person was, the more intense their reaction to this would be. The Mind Mage casting the spell suppressed her direct anger over the memory loss, but there was no way to control her indirect emotions. Smart people might be tormented by this, or even become depressed.

"Do you need my help?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"Senior brother, I'm the one who asked you to come to the laboratory to help." Liu Ziyi's hand gripped Du Zhengyi's sleeve, irritably pulling him to one side, continuing to complain along the way.

Her complaints came to an abrupt halt once they walked behind a pile of experimental equipment; Du Zhengyi sensed that a Magic for isolating sound and observation was in effect in this area. He realized then that she did not truly want him to help in the laboratory.

"Senior brother." Liu Ziyi released his sleeve, and a string of characters spiraled out from her open palm, forming a list in front of Du Zhengyi. "Zhou Quan gave me this. When he was forwarding and organizing documents intended only for the review of Venerable Mages, he kept this back. Oh, he said that a good memory is not as good as a bad pen; he saw in his own work log that his 'past self' reminded his 'future self' that if he saw this type of document, he could give it to me. He personally authorized me to give this to you and... Luo Qi."

Du Zhengyi was somewhat shocked; he had never known that people below could act in such a way. Writing down important information of the Magic World with a pen, not to mention an inconspicuous clerical Mage not only peeking at the confidential documents of Venerable Mages but even granting authorization to outsiders. "What Magic did he use to endorse the private authorization?"

"Huh? Oh, no Magic, just personal credibility," Liu Ziyi said.

Du Zhengyi could not say anything more; these system loopholes did not seem like much now, as Qionglin and the Magic World itself had long been riddled with holes. His attention was fixed on the list; the first name was "Xiang Qian," and he remembered that old Mage, who was a good friend of Mage Liu Li.

"This is a death list," Liu Ziyi suddenly said softly.

Du Zhengyi froze, suppressed pain slowly rising to the surface, his chest feeling heavy. "This list is too long."

"Yes, the Battle Mages suffered the most losses. If this continues, we won't have enough manpower. Wen Lin is fine, but everyone else in her group is dead. Senior brother, what exactly did we encounter back then? Why did so many people die?"

Du Zhengyi's gaze lingered on Xiang Qian's name for a long time; the one-way Magic barrier allowed him to hear the sounds of Experimental Mages busy back and forth outside, and he suddenly felt that all this busyness was meaningless. The Magic World was slowly and heavily sliding toward the end, and all efforts seemed futile.

"Senior brother," Liu Ziyi urged him uneasily.

"The situation is complicated. At first, the Lotus Burners infiltrated Qionglin, you were transferred to the Highland Mages, and then we encountered the Lotus Burners in a high-risk Seal Land," Du Zhengyi said briefly. "Stop concerning yourself with this matter; you may already be standing on the edge of danger."

"They can't bear to kill me," Liu Ziyi said with certainty.

Du Zhengyi suddenly felt that he could not be sure of that. Clownfish did not care about the life or death of any Mage, and Pei Shu... might not necessarily care that much about individual deaths either, although their reasons might be completely different.

"Lotus Burners..." Liu Ziyi lowered her head to search through a pile of symbols flowing like water, "I saw the work orders for monitoring the Lotus Burners today; the work orders were sent to many people. All Battle Mages have been summoned these past few days, and the reason for being sent out again is almost all for this: monitoring the movements of the Lotus Burners."

"Has Teacher Pei not returned yet? I want to see him," Du Zhengyi suddenly asked.

"He's not here," Liu Ziyi frowned slightly, "I suspect he won't see you either. Right now, there isn't even a Venerable Mage on duty in Qionglin. Either they really have things to be busy with, or after erasing our memories, he doesn't want to see us for a short time. Besides, I have an intuition that even if he hadn't erased your memory, he would still avoid you. Senior brother, he has already made his decision; nothing you say will be of any use. Teacher Pei is indeed very fond of you, but this is Qionglin, senior brother. Pleas and protests are useless; they only require everyone to understand. If one cannot understand automatically, one will be forced to understand."

Du Zhengyi thought for a moment, "I will authorize an increase in Qionglin's defense level."

"Huh? How long will it last?" Liu Ziyi asked. She had never known exactly how high Du Zhengyi's true authority was; in any case, it was not proportional to his age.

"It will last forever, until the end."

"What does 'the end' mean?" Liu Ziyi asked, rarely encountering something she did not understand.

"If our world has reached the final stage, what we must guard against last is internal strife among Mages and those taking advantage of the chaos. If Qionglin ceases to exist, Mages will lose their supervision, and some people will have their own special ideas. Qionglin and... are the final, highest-risk Seal Lands." Du Zhengyi did not utter the name of Gushan; he vaguely had a bad premonition.

Liu Ziyi listened calmly, showing no signs of worry. "It's fine, I've heard that every few hundred years, the Magic World is suspected to be reaching its end. Trouble will always pass. Senior brother, are you going to stay in Qionglin the whole time?"

"I want to go see the Highland Mages," Du Zhengyi said, catching a glimpse of Liu Ziyi's puzzled look, but he did not explain. He wanted to see Mage Hashi again; he also felt that it was just a straw to clutch at, which might not necessarily be of much use. But the Highland Mages were the only hope for solving Luo Qi's problem; he truly could not find any other way to let Luo Qi live in peace.

"I don't know what Teacher Pei and the others are actually doing right now. I don't agree with some of his methods, but sometimes I really count on him to solve problems." Before Liu Ziyi finished speaking, she suddenly jumped, as if startled, and immediately extracted a new bundle from those rotating characters. "It's from Zhou Quan again, a new death list."

Du Zhengyi felt a moment of trance; the thought of wanting to see the Highland Mages suddenly became very faint, replaced by a groundless urge to go to another location. The appearance of this feeling usually came from a Magic constraint he was increasingly unwilling to fulfill: the constraint of Gushan upon him.

The list Liu Ziyi received unfolded before him; more Battle Mages appeared on the death list, and Du Zhengyi recognized the names of two Gushan Guards among them.

"When did this happen?" he asked.

"Probably within the last two days," Liu Ziyi checked the Magic insignia of the characters.

It must have been when he had not yet awakened.

"I need to go out," Du Zhengyi said.