magician in town

Chapter 688 Everyone Needs a Protective Talisman
Perhaps it was the contents of those two work orders that affected Qionglin, as a very strange atmosphere permeated the area. First, a large number of mind-control mages entered Qionglin. Even if they were there for work purposes, the increasing number of mind-control mages around them made the other mages uneasy. Second, almost all the experimental mages were included in the investigation list, and they couldn't remember why, which multiplied their anxiety.

These experimental mages become extremely focused when they're busy, but when they're aimlessly idle, they become incredibly talkative. Their volume of nonsense is enormous, Du Zhengyi has excellent hearing, and the experimental mages don't care at all if anyone hears them.

The topics they discussed most were why the Mind Masters were examining their minds, and why Wushan had inexplicably closed its gates to the outside world, causing the Wushan Masters outside to suspend the operation of all their shops.

These two events instilled a sense of dread in everyone. The psychic was coming to test their purity, and the magical world seemed to be undergoing a cataclysmic change. The Wushan were always able to sense such upheavals; they were like the barometer of this world, the canaries in the magical mines. In every legendary era of crisis, the Wushan were always the first to smell the change. They would conceal their tracks, disappearing from the world's sight, and then the mages' calamity would arrive.

Du Zhengyi listened quietly, even he had to admit that what Qionglin was doing was like a madman's hysterical outburst. He knew that Pei Shu was the one who made the decision, and that the ability to erase so many people's memories so harmlessly could only be Pei Shu's doing. He had known Pei Shu for many years, and in a way, had been raised by Pei Shu; he knew Pei Shu wouldn't go insane. Therefore, Zhou Quan's analysis was correct; Pei Shu could only be doing this to cover up a colossal scandal.

This scandal is serious enough to shake the foundations of Jonlin, and even the foundations of the entire world. In fact, he vaguely guessed part of the truth; he also lived in the human world and wouldn't be so blind as to ignore such important human affairs. When he brought Roach into the sealed land, he intended for Roach to understand it more quickly and deeply. Roach would discover some truths, and his interpretations would be more profound than his own.

Perhaps the very existence of a sorcerer is a scandal. Roach might be quite shocked, but he doesn't particularly care.

More importantly, why couldn't Roach's discovery be concealed? Roach wouldn't deliberately expose himself; that's not in his nature.

He tested whether he had the urge to attack Roach.

not at all.

He had initially worried that the vague binding around him might contain these things, but it was clear that the Lonely Mountain Guardians were not Qionglin's lackeys. Pei Shu's judgment did not fully represent the magical world itself. What he was guarding was simpler and more straightforward than these things; otherwise, the binding would have been completely ineffective.

Therefore, Pei Shu would not send him to deal with Luo Qi. With manpower even more scarce now, if priorities were to be placed, Luo Qi was a more serious but not the most urgent problem for Qionglin. The number of battle mages and first-level execution mages was already stretched thin, and some of these men were now untrustworthy due to the corruption of the Lotus Burner, while others were untrustworthy because of Luo Qi's "corruption." Du Zhengyi belonged to the latter, so Pei Shu and the higher-ups of Qionglin were pretending he had become invisible.

He had always felt somewhat invisible, but now that feeling was different. Now he was like a corpse; they avoided talking about him, waiting for him to slowly cool down before burying him in the grass with a hasty funeral.

He sat in the cafeteria for the entire afternoon. Several groups of people came and went; some went to be investigated, while others, after completing their interim investigations, returned to have a drink to ease their overstretched nerves. There were no bars in Qionglin, and everyone was distracted from work, so they ended up gathering in the cafeteria for the mediocre drinks it offered. Some experimental sorcerers had begun secretly selling beverages of dubious origin, supposedly with nerve-soothing properties that could induce daydreams. This way, when mental sorcerers examined their minds, they would only see absurd illusions, helping them protect their privacy.

At this point, Du Zhengyi didn't think much of it. If the experimental mage didn't make a fool of himself, they would find the day dull and tasteless.

But the experimental sorcerer who arrived at dusk began mysteriously selling a type of amulet—a red stone set in a black silver ring. To boost sales, the sorcerer started telling his followers a story. It began like this: Have you heard of the agate mines in Baoshan, Yunnan? The red agate deep within the earth carries the magic of the ancestral sorcerers, a magic so powerful that even humans can sense it. During the Qing Dynasty, those in power would wear those red agates on their heads! But have you heard? Now those mines in Baoshan have been sealed off by humans; they dare not continue digging. Do you know why? Because greedy humans dug too deep! This awakened one of the ancestral sorcerers slumbering underground—the Flame Demon.

Du Zhengyi awoke from his drowsy reverie. The story bore such a strong personal touch that it resembled the one Luo Qi used to deceive the ignorant sorcerer. In Yunnan, there lived a small ethnic group where the men were all very short, while the women were exceptionally tall. Therefore, when the women were working in the fields, they often carried their husbands in baskets on their backs. Their short stature was adapted for working underground in the mines, obtaining these precious red agates. But those red stones were forged by the flames spewed by the Balrog. The Balrog was the most capable of restraining mind-controlling sorcerers among the Primordial Sorcerers, but he was a fallen Primordial Sorcerer, and thus suppressed underground in Yunnan by the other Primordial Sorcerers.

Du Zhengyi finally remembered. This was a movie that Luo Qi had insisted he watch together. Du Zhengyi had been dozing off during it. What was it called again? The Magic Necklace? No, he glanced at the rings they were holding; it was *The Lord of the Rings*.

Now, even if you're just sitting in the cafeteria daydreaming, you can hear Roach's nonsense. Will these ridiculous stories of Roach spread throughout the entire wizarding world in the future?

"So as long as you wear the ring, you can resist Master Qionglin's mental examination and absolutely protect your privacy. The method is to rub your right thumb on the stone three times..."

Du Zheng stood up and walked towards the middleman. "Suppress Qionglin's mental energy for inspection? Wearing this, you'll all probably be judged as contaminants. Luo Qi will make Qionglin even more overwhelmed."

He reached out from behind the man and took a ring.

"You can only touch them if you pay a deposit!" the experimental mage shouted. When he turned around and saw who it was, he swallowed in fear and quickly hid the remaining bag of rings in his clothes with his other hand, afraid that Du Zhengyi would confiscate them.

Du Zhengyi gave him a cold look, then turned around and walked back to his original seat.

The ring was turned over on his hand; a small red stone was set in the center of the oxidized black silver band. The style was a common one found at roadside stalls, like a hastily copied piece by Roach. He fiddled with the ring for a while, his finger slowly touching the stone.

A warm touch flowed through his fingertips, and a simple consciousness suddenly became joyful as it approached his. There was no message; perhaps Roach felt unsafe. The originally clear consciousness, upon recognizing his consciousness, self-deleted; the hallucinatory thoughts vanished, leaving only a feeling—the warm sensation of an arm around his shoulder, with a childlike, playful merriment. The dam deep within his consciousness was gently reinforced by this wisp of consciousness.

Forty-eight hours later.

Liu Li looked at Pei Shu nervously, "What's in here?"

A pile of confiscated rings sat on Pei Shu's desk, his face gloomy.

After Liu Li urged him for the third time, he finally said, "It's just a trick, not worth mentioning."

Another short story, "Not in the Cage," is a coming-of-age story. It's not about going from naive and innocent to arrogant and domineering; it's the opposite.