The magician in the city

Chapter 679 The Gift of Our Ancestors (69)

When Du Zhengyi walked out of Qionglin, no one stopped him.

Just like the countless times before when he left Qionglin, he completed his mission and walked out of Qionglin alone. No one greeted him, no one cared what he had done or where he was going.

The long winter in the frigid region seemed to have finally passed by unnoticed, replaced by an even colder, belated spring. He felt the cold, which was unusual for him; perhaps his newly repaired body wasn't as robust as before, or perhaps he simply hadn't fully recovered. He still didn't know how Roach had managed to save his life; it must have been a desperate struggle.

He stopped in the nearest human town to Jonlin, found a coffee shop, and tried to contact Roach by phone. Jonlin had many informants there, but even if he went further, it wouldn't make much difference; he believed someone was following him. Jonlin's scheme was outwardly relaxed but inwardly tight.

Erasing the memories of those involved is a post-mission cleanup. Currently, the entire Qionglin is pretending the mission is complete, with everyone returning to their posts and the memories of unrelated individuals being erased. However, the mission is clearly not finished, and too many people have had their memories erased.

He leaned back on the sofa in the coffee shop, a posture that revealed his exhaustion and made him look weak and vulnerable. Like a wounded lion on the savanna, still young in age, but nearing the end of its life cycle. He made no attempt to hide it, nor did he have the strength or energy to do so.

The coffee shop's jazz playlist flowed smoothly for the second time. His calls went unanswered, and the calls and WeChat messages he was waiting for never arrived. He sank into the soft cushions of the sofa, his eyes half-closed as he stared at the ceiling, waiting quietly, his mind blankly listening to the murmuring, swaying music.

As the human town fell asleep, no one contacted him. The coffee shop had long since closed, yet he remained half-reclined on its sofa. Until dawn, until the human town awoke once more. Du Zhengyi walked out of the coffee shop, certain that Luo Qi had chosen to remain silent.

He tried to find a way to contact Guan Xinyue's father, who asked him on the phone, "Who is Guan Xinyue?"

He hung up the phone.

He crossed that item off the list. His list now consisted of people he needed to meet in person, with Wusu at the very top. But this wasn't someone he could meet immediately, and if he started trying to contact the people of Wushan, it would provoke those monitoring him, and he might not even get to the point of meeting them.

He couldn't find anyone to discuss or deduce what had happened; everyone had forgotten. In reality, this was just the norm in his past life and work; he just hadn't realized his world was so quiet before.

He opened the video he had recorded on his phone again—"Brother, I have to go. I have to take Guan Xinyue with me, they won't let her go. I can't see...see your teacher either, he's coming soon."

This contains a few brief pieces of information: 1. Guan Xinyue is in danger; 2. Luo Qi cannot see Pei Shu; 3. Pei Shu has arrived in person, or rather, Luo Qi believes that Pei Shu is about to enter.

Perhaps there's another reason: based on his understanding of Luo Qi, he might have interrupted to hold back an insult. For a long time, Luo Qi had maintained a strange attitude towards Pei Shu. Each time, he would first dismiss Pei Shu, subtly hinting that Pei Shu was suspicious, then, realizing he had violated some taboo against interfering in family matters, he would subtly try to find a way to back down.

He knew that Luo Qi harbored some vague hostility towards Pei Shu, but he didn't mind. He wouldn't demand that others respect or like his teacher; Luo Qi was certainly free to have his own opinions and reserve his own views. Luo Qi was a gentle person, and the fact that he wanted to berate Pei Shu in a life-or-death emergency indicated that he had finally found some evidence to support his suspicions.

He knew he couldn't see Pei Shu, and he also knew Pei Shu would definitely come. And indeed, Pei Shu did come. Otherwise, Ma Jiang wouldn't have lost his memory. Besides Pei Shu, only Clownfish and Roach could cause Ma Jiang to lose his memory, even with a battle mage right beside him.

Clownfish wouldn't do such a thing; he thrives on chaos. Roach wouldn't do such a thing either, because he trusts Ma Jiang and wouldn't erase himself from his friend's memory. The only remaining possibility is Pei Shu, who violated the mission completion regulations by improperly raising the security level.

If we analyze Luo Qi's words more closely, he said Guan Xinyue was in danger, but he didn't say he was in danger himself. Regarding himself, he said he couldn't see Pei Shu.

A human girl finds herself in danger, as Qionglin will not let her go.

A nascent master of mental power refuses to meet the world's most powerful mental power master, King Wang. Even though they had met recently and remained at peace.

He watched the short video repeatedly, in the instant before he began speaking, Roach gritted his teeth and cursed amidst the chaos. Roach wouldn't treat his enemies like that; he knew anger towards them was pointless, and he wouldn't be provoked to that extent by them now.

If we connect the dots, it's highly likely he was venting his anger on Guan Xinyue. What had Guan Xinyue done? What had she done that Luo Qi strongly disapproved of? This was something so serious that even Luo Qi couldn't stop it. He knew this would put Guan Xinyue in danger, perhaps an irreversible situation. He had to take Guan Xinyue away immediately to save her life.

There's a very small chance that humans could obtain weapons from the sealed land and use them to attack mages. But that usually takes time to learn how to use them. Guan Xinyue was indeed acting strangely at the time, and he noticed it, but she must have been under Ma Jiang's care the whole time; she didn't have time to think about it.

Since we can't figure out how Guan Xinyue used this method, we can only treat this part as a black box for now. Guan Xinyue achieved her goal by accidentally finding it.

What is Guan Xinyue's goal? Her goal couldn't be clearer: to find her sister, Lu Xinchen, and to make the murderers who killed her family pay the price. This is the closest she's ever been to Master Zhao and the Burning Lotus Master, and the longest she's ever spent with them. She won't give up this opportunity, and Du Zhengyi is almost certain she's willing to pay any price to achieve her goal.

Guan Xinyue is just a human girl, a sixteen-year-old girl. How did she do it?
But then a thought that he had been avoiding suddenly came to mind: the person who directly killed her family should actually be the clownfish, shouldn't he?
A feeling of suffocation gripped his chest. He returned to Qionglin as quickly as possible and went straight to check Qionglin's recent imprisonment records.

The logbook was blank; no Lotus Burners were sent in. Were none captured? Or was there simply no one to capture?

He had a conclusion that even he found hard to believe: perhaps before or after Luo Qi brought them all out, Guan Xinyue had killed all the Lotus Burners.

Perhaps for Pei Shu, this is the second major disaster since Luo Qi escaped from the list of mind-controlling sorcerers when he was young.

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