CHAPTER XLIII

The sky was overcast, and the clouds were like paint that could not be dissolved, pressed against the woods by a soul painter. The blurred circle of light behind the clouds gave off a bleak glow, and here even the sun appeared ancient and pale.

A man and a woman appeared in the woods, and the woman seemed taken aback, and her cat's eyes widened slightly. The man looked around from her perspective, "It's not the right time for you to come, if it's colder, there will be ice dust flying in the woods in the sun, and Qionglin is like a crystal forest." ”

"Crystal Forest at minus forty degrees?" Guan Xinyue asked.

"There are times when it's colder." Du Zhengyi said. He led the way ahead, winding through the seemingly nowhere to go through the northern woods, seemingly irregular, but able to step on solid snow shells with precision. Guan Xinyue soon realized that only by stepping on his footprints could she not trip over the roots, shrubs, and ravines under the snow.

"I just saw a big river over there, can't we walk in an open area by the river?" Guan Xinyue asked.

"No, the river is the scavenger's territory, and I don't want to deal with them."

Guan Xinyue knew if she wanted to, as for what the scavenger meant, she didn't want to ask in detail just by hearing the name.

"Are you going to take Roach out through the normal channels?" didn't be quiet for a while, and Guan Xinyue asked again. "Didn't that old thing insist that Roach took him away when he was underage? There is no reason for him to detain him for so many days! ”

"Reasons can always be found." Du Zhengyi whispered. He has avoided this truth for a few days, and until now he has been asked directly by the little girl, and he can't hide from it.

He walked in silence for a while, until the trees in front of him began to thin out again, "I'm not going to take the normal channel. ”

Guan Xinyue seemed to be taken aback after realizing it, "You plan to go directly to the highest institution of magicians and take someone away under the noses of a large number of archmages?" ”

"When you asked me to make a deal, you didn't think it would be like this?" Du Zhengyi said, "Otherwise? Are you begging me to find a lawyer to fight the lawsuit? ”

"I thought you could speed things up if you took care of them a little more." Guan Xinyue whispered behind him, "Can you really do it?" ”

Du Zhengyi didn't answer for a while, and after a while, he just said lightly, "Try it." ”

"How can I help?" Guan Xinyue asked.

Du Zhengyi's pace slowed down, and for a while he didn't say anything, as if he was making up his mind one last time. "Whenever a mage uses his power or touches an energy crystal, he or she leaves traces of his own energy that are unique, like human fingerprints, voiceprints, or iris. Executors usually rely on this kind of trail to track, and I'm pretty good at tracking it myself. ”

"Then you ......," Guan Xinyue paused, "You mean that as long as you rescue Luo Qi, you will definitely leave traces?" ”

"Yes," Du Zhengyi said, "if I want to help Luo Qi, I will definitely leave a trace." As long as I leave traces, I can't escape the archmage's tracking, and in the end, even I have to be stuffy under the ground of Qionglin. So, it's an impossible task. ”

Guan Xinyue opened her mouth, and finally swallowed the surprise, "For the first time, I'm glad I heard a 'but' here. ”

Du Zhengyi glanced back at her, "Yes, there is a but--but there is no trace of human energy." The center of the Qionglin has an energy crystal to maintain the defense of the Qionglin, I can't touch the crystal, but humans can. ”

"Humans? I? Guan Xinyue's eyes widened in surprise, not even realizing that the two of them had completely stopped at some point. Me? She asked again softly.

"If you don't dare, I'll think of another way." Du Zhengyi asked.

"Nope." Guan Xinyue swallowed, although her face was not good-looking, she did not flinch, "There is nothing I don't dare." ”

Du Zhengyi nodded approvingly, and for some reason he turned his eyes away, his face was filled with self-loathing for a moment, like the shadow of a black pine tree falling on his face.

"Then tell me, how can I get to Qionglin?"

"You're standing in the Qionglin right now." Du Zhengyi said.

Guan Xinyue was taken aback again, "Me? Over here? ”

"Isn't this Qionglin?" Du Zheng asked rhetorically.

Guan Xinyue looked around in amazement, a snow-covered silver pine forest, if this place was not called Qionglin, she really didn't know where it should be called Qionglin.

"If it's a magician, you can't turn off Jonlin's defenses without revealing a trace. If it were a human being, there would be no way to get out of the illusion on the periphery of Qionglin. But if the mage and the human cooperate, both of these points are extremely simple, and the archmages will not think so, because there has never been a great mage who has cooperated with humans. Du Zhengyi said. In the archmage's vision, human beings do not exist at all. In the past, mages who wanted to do something in Qionglin tried their best to destroy the defense crystal or hide the traces of energy, and there have been no successful cases until now. ”

"I don't know if to praise me or belittle me, but I'll just take it as a compliment." Guan Xinyue said, "What is Qionglin's defensive magic like? Tell me first, I can still have points in my heart. ”

"There are many types of defensive magic." Du Zhengyi said, "The most important point is energy monitoring, this forest is now full of monitoring crystals the size of ice crystals, almost everywhere." ”

Guan Xinyue couldn't help but raise her head and look around, a gust of wind blew down the broken snow on the silver pine trees, and such white figures flew everywhere in the forest, and in the dim skylight, it was almost impossible to tell whether they were broken snow, ice dust, or crystal fragments the size of dust.

"But you don't have to worry, the magician is obsessed with monitoring energy, you don't have energy, so it doesn't exist in Qionglin's field of vision, and now Qionglin can only see me alone." Du Zhengyi said.

"You've been magical, just like we rely on modern technology." Guan Xinyue said.

"Pretty much." Du Zhengyi confirmed her statement and continued, "The most important part of the plan is how to get Luo Qi out of the surveillance crystals all over Qionglin. Although Roach's magical abilities are low, they are not completely absent, and he will still be recognized by Qionglin's defense system. Although I could modify the secret language in the defense crystal to give Roach an additional permission to leave, it would be too complicated and would inevitably be exposed in the future. I think it's most reasonable to just turn off the defense crystal. As long as it is turned off for a while, I can hopefully use this time to take him away. ”

"I see." Guan Xinyue understood the general context of this plan. She vaguely felt that Du Zhengyi had made a very bold plan, and this plan might be shocking in their world.

"No matter what the situation, I'm going to make sure you're okay first." Du Zhengyi said, and after speaking, he continued to bury his head and walk forward.

"It's okay." Guan Xinyue whispered, she raised her head and looked at Qionglin under the clouds, "I've already walked here, how can I not go there to take a look?" ”

Her voice was low, but it was not a word in the mage's ears. Du Zhengyi stood still, and at this moment, a tall building suddenly appeared in the primeval forest of the northern country. He looked up at the magnificent white marble building, and he remembered the shock he received when he first came here as a child, and remembered that under the clear winter sky, this magnificent white stone town used to shimmer like a temple, as if in response to the whispers of the gods from above.

This is the heart of Qionglin, and the heart of magic on this continent. It was built very late, so it inevitably brings a hint of European Victorian architecture. The original temple was destroyed in a civil war of magicians, at that time it was still an all-wood structure, Tang style black building, the top of the treasure outlined with golden totems, standing quietly in the mountains and forests, the same magnificent. Luo Qi must have heard those stories of the old times, and perhaps Guan Xinyue has also heard them. Originally, she didn't have the opportunity to stand at the door of the temple in the story, but in fact, it was not a pity, if he could exchange it, he knew that she would exchange it for the original ordinary life without doubt. But fate is sometimes so absurd.

Just like Du Zhengyi himself, if he had a choice, he would rather he had never been to Qionglin.

"This is the center of Qionglin?" Guan Xinyue took a few steps, interrupting Du Zhengyi's thoughts, she and Du Zhengyi stood side by side, she was still young, and her little face was still full of excitement when she saw the center of the magic world.

"Yes." Du Zhengyi said, retracting his gaze and no longer looking at the temple.

"It's not as cool as Hogwarts, and my sister used to talk about it as very mysterious."

"What's that?" Du Zhengyi said, after asking, he waved his hand with an expression of forget it, "No matter where it is, this building conforms to the characteristics of the times and aesthetic characteristics at that time." Do you expect this to be the castle of Europe? If it weren't for the fact that the wooden buildings are difficult to preserve, this place would be completely Chinese. ”

"It's beautiful, too." Guan Xinyue smiled and sincerely praised Du Zhengyi's culture, but he was speechless for a while, not knowing what to say. "Roach is here now?"

"It's supposed to be underground." Du Zhengyi said, "There are many criminals imprisoned in the underground of Qionglin, most of them are some magicians with extreme tendencies, and a small number of other types of criminals. ”

"You guys have a lot of crazy people?" Guan Xinyue asked in surprise.

"The total number of people detained here is not very large." Du Zhengyi said, "Ordinary criminals are usually serving hard labor and are not imprisoned here. ”

"How are you going to go down and save Roach?"

"After Qionglin's defenses are closed, the entire center will be paralyzed, and there will definitely be a big mess at that time. The prison is a separate subsystem from the whole defense, and I will go to the prison as an interrogator to interrogate a madman who I had previously imprisoned. Rest assured, that man is not an extremist, he is a complete lunatic, and he has been rubbing fireballs all the time. Just guide him to attack Roach's prison from the outside, and you can use his magic power to open Roach's prison. ”

Guan Xinyue hugged her arm on her chest a little nervously, "Sounds reasonable, it should be fine, right?" ”

Du Zheng smiled, he didn't expect that one day a little girl would worry about him, "Don't worry, I'm often sent to various places to deal with this kind of." ”

After a slight pause, he said, "The key to this matter is actually on you, I will take you to teleport immediately, but I can't teleport too close to the defense crystal." That thing was too sensitive, and any magical energy that was too close would be caught by it. So if we want to enter the room with the defense crystals, we have to pass through a hall and walk past at least a few dozen magicians. ”

"What?" Guan Xinyue almost screamed, "Dozens of magicians around? Even if you can't identify humans with your broken crystals, are all your magicians blind? Is it too blind to see me? ”

Du Zhengyi raised his hand and made a gesture that made her the most restrained, "So the hardest part is that you have to stay calm." Whoever is near you, don't panic. Ordinary mages are certainly not blind, and when they see you with me, they take it for granted that you are a mage, or the daughter of some archmage. This is not a complete lie, you were originally the granddaughter of Archmage Guan Yushan. ”

"You mean the archmages happen to be blind?" Guan Xinyue asked in disbelief.

"No, they are neither blind nor blind." Du Zhengyi said, a sly smile appeared on his face, "Archmages are used to using energy detection instead of eyes to see people, they don't use their eyes to see people, they rely on energy tests to perceive the magicians around them. If I happen to have some respectable mages approaching me, you should stand a little further away and try to get as close to the younger mages as possible, even if you go and talk to them, you know? As long as the expression is natural, it is right. ”

"Aren't any of those young mages archmages?" Guan Xinyue said cautiously.

"Among the young mages, I am the only one who can do that, and it is impossible for me to betray you."

"Oh-" Guan Xinyue breathed a sigh of relief, knowing what a powerful guarantee she had received, "No wonder Luo Qi hates you." ”

Du Zhengyi's face was stunned, and Guan Xinyue's eyes had already rolled, "Hey, forget it, no one really hates you." That one...... Although they can't find evidence, will they suspect you? Would you suspect that you took Roach? After all, you've been getting close lately, and with your skills, I think you know that you may have done it. ”

Du Zheng smiled slightly, and the insolence that showed no trace was revealed again, "Without a real hammer, what can I do?" ”

Guan Xinyue nodded clearly, even if Luo Qi didn't hate him, there must be people who hated him.

"That'...... Have you ever wondered why the hell they are targeting Roach? Do you want to use him as a scapegoat because you see that he is weak? ”

"I'm not sure either." Du Zhengyi said, his heart once again drifted through a layer of haze, as if talking to himself, he said, "I have some guesses, if unfortunately I guess it, then he ...... now."

He shook his head at this point, and refused to say any more.