The man who claimed to be the master stood up.
"Then, let's make things clear first. Is the word 'Ji Xun' you are talking about written on this piece of paper?"
Jing Huang agreed. The owner asked again: "Then what is 0305?"
"…His other name."
"Is 0305 the real name? According to this naming method, are there still 304 people in front of it? Or is it like the mage of the seventh iteration, where 03 represents the number of iterations and 05 is the improved part?"
He was undoubtedly right in some parts, because Yaleriga saw Jing Huang's eyebrows furrowed.
"where is he?"
"Unfortunately, I can't answer that question."
Jing Huang looked at the white paper on the table. The owner said: "That was sent by another ship. Based on the location, it should come from the same place as those babies."
"when?"
"Just when you beat my guards to pieces - by the way, the fire spell you released also damaged the top of the judgment hall. Although except for the statues, scales and the Chaos Sea channel below, other parts It's just purely decorative, but it's also a cultural relic with a history of ten thousand years. If you come from a place that can be called civilized, then you should know how to respect other people's history, right? Or should you just pretend that nothing happened? "
Jing Huang stopped talking. Yaleriga caught the confusion on his face, which was always expressionless. For a moment she was sure he had his eyes on her, just like they used to when they were shopping for supplies. So far, she is still in charge of most of the financial affairs of the Silence, so she knows that Jing Huang has no awareness of private savings. She planned to teach him the necessary knowledge before she left.
The eyes aimed at her flew away like a hallucination.
"Where did the boat come from?" Jing Huang asked. He seemed to have decided to skip the previous question for now.
"You have asked enough questions," the owner responded. "Before asking others for answers, maybe you should explain your relationship with the owner of the ship."
Jing Huang replied without blinking: "Enemies."
"What kind of hatred is it?"
"Prefer not to say."
The master made no objection. Conservative mages have always liked to conceal their origins, and they also advocate maintaining privacy with their own kind.
"So," the master asked, "all the destruction you did before was just to find him?"
"yes."
"If this is true, then you really don't distinguish between friend and foe at all. Judging from the trajectory of the spacecraft, that person is probably not in this city. Do you think there is any use in causing destruction in my territory?"
"He can see here."
Jing Huang reached out and knocked on the paper on the table, using this physical evidence to support his statement. The owner's eyes also fell on the two unfamiliar characters. Yaleriga knew that he was probably thinking the same thing as her: the white ship that appeared in front of her, and the secret message sent in time when Jing Huang caused the riot, both of which proved that someone was on the right track. Pay close attention to their whereabouts and actions. In front of the master of this capital, the ships he sent came and went with impunity, treating all order as if it were nothing - so how on earth was this done?
The master pondered, then turned to the two-winged beast sitting quietly behind him.
"I have some technical questions about the spacecraft," he said. "I think only experts can give the answers."
Qiaoqiao Tianyi bowed to him and said, "I am honored to serve you."
"Can a spaceship suddenly disappear?"
"There are many ways - spells are the hardest explanation to narrow down. There are many spells that can achieve this effect. There are people of my kind who can achieve this with horns."
"But that cannot be hidden from the eyes of the guardian."
"Yes." Qiaoqiao Tianyi agreed, "Most spells cannot pass, unless it is an extremely powerful magic creature...it must be as powerful as the original species. It is difficult for such a creature to leave its birthplace."
She glanced at Jing Huang and added: "——Usually."
"There should be non-magical methods, right?"
"Yes, yes, of course. Many spaceships have similar stealth modes. There are two basic principles: adjusting the spacecraft itself, or adjusting the people who see your spacecraft. The former method involves optical coatings and various counter-detections Equipment, the latter one mostly uses acoustic and electric radiation. I have also seen some attempts at chemical methods, such as making the hull of the ship continuously release an atomizer of narcotic mushroom extract - ugh! The smell is unbearable just thinking about it!"
"From what you can see, which one do we encounter?"
Qiaoqiao Tianyi raised her gorgeous wings.
"I think it uses optical methods," she said. "The simplest and the least traceable, sir. If it can get past the city's defenses against spells, I don't understand why he would use a spaceship as a carrier. . We all know that the original species can travel directly through the moon realm."
“What about chemical or sonic hypnosis?”
"That will leave a lot of marks, on all those affected. Of course, I'm not saying that optical methods are easy to do. To deceive your guards, it's not enough to just use the trick of light; it requires at least one A self-sealing etheric isolation system. But that ship is too small, sir. I can’t imagine how it can integrate many systems into such a small ship. I know of several similar examples, and their size It is about ten times larger, not to mention its styling design. You see, its shape is very clever in terms of gas power design, but it leaves almost no extra space for the load. The smallest marine isolation system on the market There’s no way to install it.”
"Are you saying it's impossible?"
"No, but I think it would have to be very elaborate and take a lot of time and effort... It's not cost-effective to design a technical stealth system for a ship like this. It might be better than just flying the ship here." It's all difficult. I think it must have some special reason, non-technical reason. This is what I can observe from its appearance. If you want to know more, I'm afraid I need to inspect the ship up close. Boat."
Qiaoqiao Tianyi bowed to her master again to show that she had expressed all her opinions. The master also thanked her and then turned to Jing Huang.
"Don't you have anything to say about this ship? Since I have asked someone to explain it, maybe you, as the enemy of the ship owner, can provide us with some evidence?"
"I have only seen the prototype." Jing Huang said, "The principle is not clear."
"So you don't know how to track that ship?"
Jing Huang did not respond. Yaleriga noticed that he looked somewhat disapproving. He asked his master: "Where are the children?"
"They can't talk."
"Is there a spell I can read?"
"Failed a lot."
The master replied calmly, and then stretched out his hand from the thick cloak. Yalerga saw that he was holding a rough and simple gray stone short staff, with a complex hexagonal pattern carved on the top of the short staff. The material of this short staff looked very similar to the stone house they were in and the railings outside the stone house, and when it was exposed to everyone's sight, the top of the staff also shone with violet brilliance.
"Let's go outside and have a look." He invited, turning around and walking out first. The others followed him one after another, arriving at the mossy stone courtyard where violets shone brightly. When the master raised his short staff, the golden guardians surrounding the courtyard and the small open space adjacent to the street disappeared. The world had undergone some kind of transformation in an instant, leaving them in a desolate gray wilderness.
The endless gray stone forest extends, and on the top of each stone tree grows a face sleeping peacefully. Some are extremely clear, while others are as blurry as tree lines. When Yaleriga carefully distinguished them, she realized that all the particularly clear faces were located near the stone courtyard, and almost all of them looked exactly like abandoned babies.
"This is a cemetery." The host said straight to the point. "Those who died in the gate city will be buried here if they do not want to return to their hometown. According to the laws of this world, their bodies will be turned into stone tree species, and then used The roots crawl towards nothingness little by little. These people who are very close to the tomb guarding house now are the people who have just died."
Jing Huang looked at him in shock.
"all?"
"It is an innate disease. Judging from the anatomy results, these babies need a specific infrasonic environment. If they are not satisfied, they will die from internal bleeding due to decay, and because they were not given this kind of infrasound environment on the way, Environment, all have brain lesions that seriously damage intelligence - so even the empathy spell can hardly detect much. The person in charge of the foster care agency I appointed tracked the children who were placed for adoption and found that none of them survived More than a thousand hours. It reported this to me and requested my assistance. Although I have tried to get doctors to provide the kind of infrasonic environment they theoretically need, so far no individual has successfully survived. I'm afraid what they need is a very accurate and cyclical frequency."
The master raised his short staff high and said in his ruthlessly mocking tone: "If your enemies send new babies, I'm afraid they can only continue to be buried here. Although the capacity of this cemetery will never be full, I will also I don’t want my city to serve as his morgue.”
"Why don't you go find him?"
"I have no obligation to take risks for strangers. Taking in these babies is just to avoid causing chaos in the city. It would be irresponsible to abandon the responsibility of managing the city for them and go to a completely unknown place to deal with a completely unknown enemy. It’s something only a responsible planeswalker would do.”
Jing Huang stared at the death field covered with stone forests. In the gloomy and rolling mist, he seemed to be looking for some figure.
He asked his master: "What do you want me to do?"
"Do what you originally wanted to do. Naturally, if it meets my purpose, I will provide appropriate assistance and remuneration."
"I'll go find him." Jing Huang said. He seemed to have finally calmed down from his simmering anger.
After that, facing the ancient cemetery, the owner talked with them in many details. He promised them that all their past criminal records would be erased and they would be allowed to move and trade freely in Gate City. He also heard that Jing Huang was waiting for a prosthetic surgery, and he could negotiate with Baita to pay for the best prosthetic limbs that were hard to buy on the market as an advance payment for their next journey. Everything would be done as quickly as possible, but they also had to get going as soon as possible.
"Come to me next time at the Nightingale Theatre." The host said at the end. He put down the gray stone staff, and the stone courtyard returned to the streets of the gate city. Before he walked out of the stone fence, Jing Huang stopped him.
"If you catch that man," he asked his master, "what will you do with him?"
The owner smiled sarcastically: "Maybe put him in this room and appoint him as the tombkeeper here."
"If you want to imply that I am this kind of person, I won't be offended." The master responded, "However, this reminds me of a question - when you find your enemy, what do you plan to do with him? "
Jing Huang remained silent for a while, then turned and walked into the stone house's ajar door.
