Chapter 85: Holy Mountain Temple

Breakfast was cleared away, and Majiang led them to change to a tea room he had opened up on the second floor of a small building in the back garden. According to him, this small building used to be called Tingyu Lou. As he said this, Du Zhengyi leaned against the railing and looked down at the overgrown garden; the weeds were almost as tall as the banana trees, with not a hint of elegance to be found, and he scoffed at Majiang's words.

Luo Qi and Guan Xinyue lagged a step behind, still in the garden and not yet up to the building. Guan Xinyue had arrived a few days earlier than Luo Qi and had become familiar with the place, so she was currently acting as a tour guide for him. The two stood side by side looking at the pond in the garden; it was unclear what Guan Xinyue was saying, but Luo Qi nodded frequently, looking very harmonious. Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long; before long, for some reason, Luo Qi picked up a stone and threw it into the pond, splashing the not-so-clean water all over Guan Xinyue.

Luo Qi looked stunned for a moment, and Guan Xinyue screamed in exasperation, kicking Luo Qi several times.

Majiang sighed and said, "You say this little brat Luo Qi, if you convert it by biological age, he should be close to Guan Xinyue's age, but in reality, he sometimes doesn't look as mature as Guan Xinyue. But Guan Xinyue is the same; she dared to go to a Mage's lair just to help Luo Qi, yet they can start fighting within ten minutes of seeing each other."

Du Zhengyi watched the chaos downstairs and suddenly said, "Have you ever thought that after Li Xu met you and me, he sent Zhao Zhiyan to the Guan Family, and then found an excuse to take Luo Qi away—this was actually aimed at me."

"You mean what Li Xu originally wanted to dig out of Luo Qi's brain was about you?" This came too suddenly, and Majiang was completely stunned for a moment. But after a little thought, he knew Du Zhengyi was right; Li Xu's misfortune was entirely a case of hitting the mark by accident, as no one at the time thought Luo Qi would have such great value.

"If he were just venting his anger or promoting his own extreme views, he wouldn't have chosen to target Luo Qi right under our noses. If he were such a simple person, he wouldn't have climbed to his current position in Qionglin," Du Zhengyi said. "He just finally found someone around me he could target, and he couldn't care about much else, so he acted in haste. His goal was likely to deduce what exactly I encountered at Gushan three years ago. Gushan is the kind of target someone of his level would be interested in."

"That makes sense."

"Luo Qi was tormented for so long in the depths of Qionglin; he couldn't have been completely unaware of what Li Xu wanted to get from him. But after he came back, he didn't say a word, nor did he complain once," Du Zhengyi said. "I think he didn't want me to owe him anything."

Majiang laughed, "In that case, this little brother has some likable qualities."

"So," Du Zhengyi paused, looking down from above to see Luo Qi finally losing his patience and talking back, arguing with Guan Xinyue in the garden and throwing another stone into the pond, as childish as a three-and-a-half-year-old. "So, when I am no longer around in the future, look after him a bit more; at least help him get through the Anchor Point hurdle."

The smile vanished from Majiang's face. He watched Du Zhengyi's back for a moment, then turned to make tea.

Du Zhengyi didn't speak either. The spring day in the Southern Country was warm and full of life. Luo Qi and Guan Xinyue had argued to the heavens, appearing to have broken off their friendship once again, and the two were coming up here, huffing and puffing. As they walked up the wooden stairs, it was unclear whose hooves were making the stairs thud loudly.

Majiang sighed in annoyance behind him, but he couldn't help but smile slightly. He walked over and sat down, and even as he took the celadon teacup from Majiang's hand, the noise from the wooden floorboards could still be heard.

Before long, Luo Qi and Guan Xinyue walked in, fuming.

"Boys are all idiots!" Guan Xinyue cursed first, insulting all three of them in one breath.

Luo Qi sat down beside Du Zhengyi in a huff, casting an unfriendly look at Du Zhengyi.

"Not bad self-control, kid," Du Zhengyi said with a smile as he looked at him. "You stopped after throwing two stones, and nothing exploded."

Luo Qi was taken aback, only then realizing his good days were over, and immediately became filled with worry.

"Alright, you two are both grown up, don't fight like a cat and a dog every time you meet," Majiang said from across the table. "Let's talk about something serious. The idea that Lu Xinchen is also a Telepath still has some value. Du Zhengyi, do you have any thoughts on this?"

"Not for the moment," Du Zhengyi said.

After saying this, he discovered that Luo Qi was staring at him.

"What?" he asked with a hint of wariness.

"Nothing," Luo Qi muttered.

Guan Xinyue immediately seized the opportunity to attack from across the table, "Coward! If you have the guts, say it out loud, otherwise don't say anything at all!"

Luo Qi's temper was instantly stoked again, "Damn it, how am I a coward? I just can't be bothered to talk! In the past, Du Zhengyi, you didn't talk, so fine, but now what is the point of hiding anything? Guan Xinyue and I are both homeless people now, we can only hang out with you guys; is it impossible to treat us as one of your own?"

After he finished speaking, there was no sound in the room. Guan Xinyue unloyally kept her mouth shut, and Majiang maintained a strange silence, which, if scrutinized, was more about watching the show.

Luo Qi, in a fit of pique, didn't look at Du Zhengyi, nor did he want to look at the two bastards across from him. This feeling was as if he had returned to the day he left school with Du Zhengyi. That day, Du Zhengyi mocked him for not even being able to conjure a Fireball, and he felt that going on an investigation with a bastard like Du Zhengyi was simply impossible. But in the end, Du Zhengyi caught up to him, and he got into Du Zhengyi's Mustang; from then on, things were never the same.

Now he was sitting in a ruined Ancient Town of unknown location, reflecting on this. If he hadn't gotten into Du Zhengyi's car that day, would all of this have happened? But then he realized that Majiang's judgment was likely objective; he would have discovered his own abilities sooner or later, the only difference perhaps being that it wouldn't have been so intense.

"I am a Gushan Guard."

When Du Zhengyi said this sentence beside him, he was still sulkily reflecting, and didn't react at all. It wasn't until all three of them were staring at him that he came back to his senses. He hadn't expected Du Zhengyi to compromise at all, and in his shock, he stammered, "Guard... guard what?"

"It doesn't guard anything," Du Zhengyi said. "Gushan Guard is just an honorary title."

Luo Qi's mind split into two; one part was pondering the Gushan Guard, while the other was thinking that Du Zhengyi was actually a very soft-hearted person—this was a major weakness.

Guan Xinyue asked curiously from across the table, "Is it like a Merlin Knight?"

"Wait," Luo Qi suddenly said, "Why do I feel like I have some impression of the Gushan Guard?"

"Did your Baba mention it?" Guan Xinyue asked him. "Your father must have been a very impressive Mage; he was probably an elite in your society as well."

"No," Luo Qi said, "I know Gushan; everyone knows the story of the Holy Mountain Temple. It's not far from Qionglin. Ordinary people call that building in Qionglin the Temple, but that's just a metaphor; actually, everyone knows the real Temple is a cave."

Majiang and Du Zhengyi exchanged a look, and Majiang spoke up, "Everyone knows the Holy Mountain Temple, but not everyone knows the Temple is a cave. Luo Qi, did you categorize a part of Li Xu's memory into your brain's knowledge partition?"

"It seems..." Luo Qi murmured, racking his brain. That knowledge was almost forgotten; he had never dared to rummage through that area of memory afterwards, but it was indeed there.

"You won't go berserk and turn evil, will you?" Guan Xinyue examined him cautiously, earning a "Shh" from Majiang.

"Gushan Guard," Luo Qi began to think, without any shadow of Li Xu, as if it had been his own memory all along. He had learned it in some book, listened to it in some breeze, "what they guard are the eternal souls that exist in the Holy Mountain Temple."

Majiang gasped, turned to Du Zhengyi, and stared at him fixedly.

Du Zhengyi's expression turned serious, "What else?"

"The nine highest Venerables of Qionglin are the Nine Luminaries from the legend of the Holy Mountain Temple, the nine priests of the Holy Mountain, responsible for selecting Mages qualified for eternal life," Luo Qi said. He turned to Du Zhengyi, looking at him in surprise, "Could it be... it's not a legend? Is there really a Gushan Guard?"