Chapter 701: Old Debts

"I'm fine, I don't need a checkup." Du Zhengyi said irritably.

The doctor smirked, "So you're busy now?"

Du Zhengyi was struck a nerve, and he stopped in his tracks, angry.

Most of the time, the doctor's profession comes with a high irritability level, today Mahjong was especially anxious. "Since you have nothing to do either, go to my office and finish the checkup. If you don't care, neither do I—I could just do it in the Orbital Transfer Hall."

The Orbital Transfer Hall is always crowded, getting checked by a doctor here is completely a disaster, today Mahjong seemed determined to make things difficult for him. Du Zhengyi couldn't help but lift his head and look around—at a glance, there were at least twenty or more people. Now approaching rush hour, more people would soon appear and disappear here.

"What should we do?" Mahjong urged, somewhat ill-intentioned, eager to try casting a spell.

Du Zhengyi heard footsteps coming straight at him from behind, he was about to signal Mahjong to wait, when a woman's voice shouted, "Du Zhengyi!"

He turned his head, a woman who had been waiting in the corner walked toward him, wearing a worn-out windbreaker, her elbows had stubborn creases, her long hair tied low at the back, already somewhat disheveled. Mages have the ability and money to maintain excellent appearance, but this woman had clearly lost all joy in living. He had seen her once today, Luo Qi blocked her off as if facing a great enemy, yet she persisted and found her way here.

Du Zhengyi quickly glanced around, and indeed saw the man from Gudu Li in another direction, standing behind a newly appeared crowd, slowly walking this way with the crowd.

"What's going on?" Mahjong frowned, stepped to Du Zhengyi's side, eyeing the woman with some hostility. "Who is this person?"

"I don't know her." Du Zhengyi looked at the middle-aged woman approaching him. Her appearance was too ordinary, her magic ability not necessarily strong—he had seen people like her before and wouldn't remember them. But her fierce stare at him was very familiar. The remnants of reason in her eyes were few, years of mental torment and hatred toward him had worn her down to near death, yet now something had ignited this last spark of life.

"You don't remember me!" The woman glared at Du Zhengyi with resentment, "Then do you still remember Qu Chuan?"

Du Zhengyi couldn't recall that name either. His blank expression made the woman let out a painful whimper, she lunged like a mad leopardess, grabbing his collar. "It's my son! My son, taken by you on May 9th, six years ago. He was only seventeen, still a child, and you hurt him right in front of me. My son's blood flowed on the lawn in front of our house, that patch of grass turned blood-red! So much blood—I knew he couldn't survive, I knew he didn't make it."

"Let go!" Mahjong couldn't watch anymore and pulled the woman away. "Six years ago, Du Zhengyi was still a child too. Your son was seventeen, still capable of causing trouble that caught Qiong Lin's attention—don't you ever reflect on yourself?"

"Child? Haha, yeah, he was still a child then. I really don't understand—what parents would let their kids work for Qiong Lin? I'd love to meet his parents! My child, due to some special traits, is a High-Reaction Child endangering mages and human society. What about Du Zhengyi? He could kill at his teens—does that mean he's not a High-Reaction Child? Are Qiong Lin's raised High-Reaction Children harmless? Hahaha, what is Qiong Lin anyway!" The woman cried and laughed loudly, her resentful eyes locking back onto Du Zhengyi. "You don't even remember the people you killed—how can you be sure he was guilty or innocent? You killed someone and still grew up so well. Other people's blood doesn't affect you—what monster are you? You're just the monster Qiong Lin raised, the one that should have died long ago."

Mahjong glanced nervously at Du Zhengyi, gripping the woman tighter but softening his tone. "Ma'am, calm down. Du Zhengyi doesn't want this job either—this is a disaster for everyone, even for Qiong Lin, the appearance of a High-Reaction Mage is a loss. How about this: I help you apply, we go through the process, request Qiong Lin to re-examine the past incident—would that work? Maybe your child is still alive."

The woman burst out laughing, "You still believe in Qiong Lin?"

She broke free from Mahjong's grip, magical energy surged violently. Du Zhengyi instinctively began preparing, but unexpectedly a young mage rushed from the crowd and grabbed her wrist. Du Zhengyi immediately felt a stronger magic dispersing the energy that had just gathered.

The young mage smiled slightly, leaned in and whispered to the woman's ear. "The Great Tanuki King says if you leave now, he'll give you one last chance to live."

His voice was extremely low—if not for Du Zhengyi standing extremely close and having slightly better hearing than others, it would have been nearly inaudible.

"No." The woman's madness faded, replaced by unshakable resolve. She wanted to end her pain today. Energy gathered again like a storm, the ring on her hand flashed. They had sold their possessions on the Black Market to buy this expensive crystal, just for its rare property to help her release magic she couldn't use—the ancient crystal helped her break through the Upper Limit she had been just shy of touching.

The young mage immediately released her wrist, stepped back, and muttered an ancient incantation. It was one Du Zhengyi recognized—the spell to summon sleeping souls.

The chant echoed, the woman's Revenge Curse, in her astonished eyes, was turned back by her own self, she didn't even have time to shout—the curse transformed into scorching flames that engulfed her own body.

Someone let out a painful cry—her husband, stumbling out from the crowd.

The young mage turned to look at him, he swayed, suddenly spun around and sprinted in the opposite direction, vanishing into the Orbital System's force field. The former shook his head disappointedly, muttering to himself, "When it comes to loving children, fathers always fall short. Ah, but maternal love is always blind—even if they give birth to a deformed infant, mothers cannot abandon their children. In the end, it's always a tragedy."

He then looked toward the people in the hall, these mages stared in shock at the burning Woman Mage—this scene was like the nightmare from mage legends, witches always meet such a fate, they stood in fear and confusion, gazing this way. At that moment he raised his voice and announced to everyone: "This……brave person, actually used the most extreme and cruel way to protest Qiong Lin! How did this come to be? Does anyone know what actually happened?"

"Qiong Lin……" someone whispered in low voices, then quickly lowered their tone even further.

Du Zhengyi stared blankly at everything unfolding, his hand trembled slightly. Mahjong grabbed him firmly, saying with unyielding determination: "Come on! Leave this place! Right now! If you don't leave now, you'll get dragged into trouble—someone's playing too big!"