Chapter 91: The First Piece of Information

Luo Qi woke up to the sound of cold rain tapping against the window. He rolled over on the hard bed, knocking the *Mind Control Theory* he had been reading last night onto the floor. Before he had even fully opened his eyes, a wave of boredom washed over him. In just two days, he had already begun to miss Du Zhengyi's home; although it was simple and had a thick, psychiatric ward vibe, it was, at the very least, a modern room. It had good lighting, and the air didn't have that lingering smell of mold.

He rolled out of bed. The room was piled high with books he had moved out of this Mind Mage Society library. He navigated around the stacks to the window and pushed it open. Water dripped continuously from the eaves, falling onto the banana leaves in the courtyard. He was a northerner, and although this was a common Jiangnan scene, he had never seen it before. At first, he had been full of interest, thinking about the poetic imagery of "rain hitting banana leaves," but before long, he was bored to the point of irritation.

This place, for him, was truly stifling.

Looking up, there was only the cramped courtyard, the tall grey buildings, the narrow alleys, and the overcast, rainy sky—none of this suited his temperament.

He was lying listlessly at the window until the ginger-colored shadow of that orange cat darted across the roof of the building opposite. Luo Qi snapped back to reality, sprinted downstairs, followed the verandas on either side of the courtyard, and cut through to the front yard. Sure enough, Du Zhengyi appeared in the room where Majiang usually stayed.

"What's up with him?" Majiang asked, turning around in surprise at the sound, his question directed at Du Zhengyi. "How come every time he manages to follow you into the room? Could it be that you two have some kind of Yajian connection?"

Luo Qi glared at him. In truth, he hadn't made up with Du Zhengyi yet. It was a one-sided lack of reconciliation, because Du Zhengyi didn't care at all whether he was willing or whether he existed.

However, at Majiang's remark, Du Zhengyi also looked at Luo Qi with a thoughtful expression.

Luo Qi guiltily looked away, went over to Majiang, grabbed a bag of daily nuts that Guan Xinyue had left behind, and opened it to eat with a clear conscience. Du Zhengyi had already shifted his attention away because Majiang was asking him something else, "You've been investigating the Lu Jinfeng Case for the past two days; any progress?"

"It's an old cold case, already picked over by mages from all sides; what kind of progress could there be?" Du Zhengyi sighed and said, "Besides, I always feel like someone is following me. My movements haven't been very free."

"Who is following you?" Majiang's expression turned serious immediately.

"Who else but that little gang of Han Yi's?" Du Zhengyi said dismissively. Caught off guard, he snatched the bag of nuts from Luo Qi's hand, took out a hazelnut, and then, in the blink of an eye, all the nuts in the bag were in his hand.

Luo Qi was stunned. He hadn't expected a Mage to use profound Spectral Magic to scan for similar substances just to snatch some snacks. Du Zhengyi returned the remaining tooth-achingly sweet dried cranberries and raisins, along with the bag, to Luo Qi.

Luo Qi stared blankly for a long moment before shouting, "Have you no shame!"

Du Zhengyi ignored him, as if he were just an unreasonable kitten, and while eating the nuts, continued to speak to Majiang, "You don't need to be so serious, do you? The Committee's regional office has already accepted my appeal and issued me a receipt. The opinion on their disciplinary action has already been sent down to the Qionglin Internal Control Division. Liu Li and Fan Shi will be waiting for me at the office today to complete the in-person appeal process."

"Two Qionglin Venerables?" Majiang laughed. "You certainly have a lot of pull."

"Liu Li has always been the Teacher's person, and Fan Shi is in charge of the Internal Control Division. I think Liu Li is likely representing the Teacher's side; she has always been a fussy person, probably not at ease unless she sees it with her own eyes," Du Zhengyi said, pondering. "The one actually presiding over the appeal should be Fan Shi."

Majiang nodded. "Since the disciplinary opinion has already been sent down, the in-person appeal is just a formality; it doesn't matter. That's not what I'm worried about."

"Did you manage to decrypt any important information from Guan Yushan's storage Crystal?" Du Zhengyi asked full of expectation.

"This... that's still a ways off," Majiang said with a dry laugh. "What I wanted to say is, in order to avoid the Gushan Guards chasing you, have you been using Teleportation to cross space frequently?"

Luo Qi keenly noticed that Du Zhengyi was uncharacteristically evasive and immediately stared at him intently, not backing down even after receiving a roll of the eyes from Du Zhengyi.

Majiang's expression grew somewhat irritable. "You know your own situation. Actions like crossing space, which consume a huge amount of energy and have no real necessity, should be avoided whenever possible. Once you realized those idiots were tracking you, you should have stopped working and found a place to hide. Besides, the Qionglin appeal acceptance came through quickly anyway, didn't it?"

"What happens if you exhaust too much energy?" Luo Qi subconsciously stuffed a dried cranberry into his mouth, looking at Du Zhengyi. "Do you get a headache? Your headaches are neurological, right? Caused by damage to your mind space? Which part of you is damaged, exactly?"

Du Zhengyi ignored him and said to Majiang, "If you have any progress on your end, I won't have to keep running over to the Lu Jinfeng Case."

"Damn it," Majiang muttered. A beam of golden characters swirled up from his hand, forming a piece of text and graphics that kept scrolling.

"So long?" Du Zhengyi only glanced at it and lost interest. "It's all nonsense."

"It's not nonsense!" Majiang said, annoyed. "This is the forensic report Guan Yushan made on the human brain that killed Lu Jinfeng. I just decrypted this part. What Guan Yushan submitted to Qionglin wasn't the real forensic report; I don't know why the High Committee members are so unreliable now. But I suspect that since he was working for Pei Shu, Pei Shu probably saw the preliminary version of this report."

"Then what does it actually say?" Du Zhengyi asked. "Can you just give me a result?"

"I can't," Majiang said, becoming even more agitated. "This is an academic report. Guan Yushan was conducting research; he had made some progress in his study of the murderer's brain, but the report is over a hundred pages long, and I need to read it carefully. You have to realize that Guan Yushan was a master of Mind Control; I have to put in some effort just to understand his thesis."

"Why are you being so long-winded?" Du Zhengyi said impatiently. "Can't you just give me a rough range? I don't believe you haven't even grasped the general meaning. Stop acting like a Scholar."

"Damn you, Du Zhengyi." Majiang was embarrassed and angry, but the fatal thing was that Du Zhengyi had hit the nail on the head. After cursing, he had no choice but to say, "Guan Yushan believed that the human brain must have been tampered with, but the technique was extremely advanced. His thesis is an attempt to reverse-engineer this technique and find a way to fix the opponent's energy signature."

"So that's why Guan Yushan ended up losing his family," Du Zhengyi sighed.

"All Mind Mages are registered with the High Committee. Guan Yushan must have believed that if he could fix the evidence, he would have a way to find this person," Majiang said. His gaze turned to Luo Qi, who was watching the excitement from the side with wide eyes. "But since a situation like Luo Qi's exists, I'm not as optimistic as Guan Yushan was. Although I've only skimmed Guan Yushan's thesis, I don't think there is such a profound and mysterious figure on the list of Mind Mages registered with the High Committee."

Luo Qi was now able to take such remarks in stride, so he interjected, "Then let's just label this mysterious person for now to avoid confusion. Since he has a connection to the temple that worships the Great Black Heaven, how about we call him Great Black Heaven? Or just call him Da Hei; let's not insult the real Great Black Heaven deity."