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MTL - What’s Wrong With Seeking Death?-Chapter 124
1703.
Xu Tuoran remembered this number. Before Shangguan Qi left the camphor forest, she asked if she would have a chance to have a private chat later, and the then headmaster Shangguan's answer was - "1703, right? No problem."
Xu Tuoran didn't understand what this number meant at the time, and he was anxious when he entered the hotel and didn't pay much attention. Thinking about it now, the other party should have "foreseen" the room she would stay in at that time.
...Speaking of which, are all those with the ability to foresee tendencies so godlike?
Xu Tuoran only had this question in his mind for a moment, and was soon put aside by her. She looked up at Principal Shangguan, hesitated for a moment, and stepped aside:
"Please come in. It's just that I have other things to do now, for the time being..."
"If my coming is meaningless, then this matter will not happen." Shangguan Qi said gently, his eyes swept over Xu Tuoran's pile of debris on the bed and the floor, "Is there anything that needs my help?" ?"
Xu Tuoran: "..."
"Uh... Yes?" She said uncertainly, closing the door behind her backhand. She said that she wanted to have a private chat with the other party, mainly to ask about what she saw in the foresight corridor—after all, it was the notes left by the principal that let them know the location of the "iron nematode" for the first time.
But now, this question obviously needs to be dealt with slowly... Xu Tueran pursed his lips, and in front of Principal Shangguan, pulled out the tablecloth with the rune drawn on it again.
"A friend of mine, she has lost contact now..." Xu Tuoran repeated the current situation as simply as possible, raised his hand and rubbed his forehead, "She is the Changyechen class I told you before, and her grandfather's surname is Jiang... "
"I know him. The genius old man who ran away from the Renxinyuan." Shangguan Qi sat by the bed and nodded slowly, "A very unique person."
"Well... it's him and his son who have been controlling the iron nematode." Xu Tuoran folded his arms, "So I'm worried that I can't get in touch now. I tried to enter Jiang Siyu's domain, but failed. Obviously the rune There is nothing wrong with the ceremony..."
"You miscalculated a problem here." Principal Shangguan casually flipped through the math workbook next to him, and said softly, "You missed a negative sign."
Xu Turan: ...
So the question is really wrong, right?
She patted her forehead helplessly, said "I'm sorry" and went to get the exercises from Principal Shangguan, intending to do it all over again from the beginning. Principal Shangguan raised his wrist, dodged her hand, and closed the book in his hand with a "slap".
"It doesn't make sense to redo it. The root of the problem is not here. You see, the runes you drew are not activated at all."
She pointed to the traces on the tablecloth and lowered her voice: "Even if there are mistakes in the ritual, the power of the runes is still there. If the drawing is successful, they will show some traces of being activated..."
Just like an old computer with a problem, even if it cannot be turned on, the indicator light will always light up after the power is turned on.
However, these runes are completely dead silent.
Shangguan Qi didn't think it was Xu Tuoran's problem - she had noticed it when she was in the domain. Even in a state of amnesia, this girl's ability to draw runes is still amazing.
She once added several runes to her arm in front of her face, using the most common marker pen. And all the runes were activated almost immediately when she wrote the pen, and the operation was not stagnant.
Both the success rate and the efficiency are terrifyingly high. And this happened more than once. It is not an exaggeration to say that such a person is a genius. At least in Shangguan Qi's memory, Xu Tuoran was the only one who could do this.
Therefore, she did not feel that the silence of these runes was due to Xu Tuoran's own mistakes. There is only one possibility—
These runes themselves were "abolished".
"Abandoned?" Xu Tuoran curled his fingers and pressed on his chin, "What do you mean? It means they are useless, right?"
"Almost." Shangguan Qi nodded, "This is a rune used to enter a specific domain. So I guess, it should not come from the ancient knowledge of the upgrade space, but a pattern designed and 'assigned' by the domain owner himself. Then If the domain owner changes his mind and withdraws the meaning given to these patterns..."
"...Then they will become a bunch of meaningless graffiti." Xu Tuoran murmured.
Shangguan Qi nodded in agreement: "Yes, that's it. You are very smart."
Xu Turan: ...
There is an inexplicable feeling of being praised by the teacher. She scratched her face uncomfortably, and turned back to the topic: "In other words, Jiang Siyu cut off the connection between Yu and them? What does she want?"
"From the current situation, it seems that she doesn't want anyone else to enter her domain." Shangguan Qi said truthfully, "Including you."
...well, the situation is even more disturbing.
She remained silent for two seconds, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Principal Chong Shangguan smiled politely, then picked up the phone, first looked at the chat box with Pu Han, and after confirming that the other party hadn't replied yet, he opened the booking interface directly.
"What are you doing?" Shangguan Qi looked at her with interest.
"I'm checking the flight number and train number." Xu Tuoran said honestly, "I plan to go back to the place where Jiang Siyu and I met for the first time."
She still didn't quite believe that Jiang Siyu would even stop her from outside. If you revisit the old place, maybe you will find some clues that she left for herself.
Zhu Tang and the others took her to watch many adventure movies, all of which were shot like this.
When Shangguan heard the words, he choked. After a moment of pause, Fang said: "Is there anything related to Jiang Siyu around you? Maybe I can help you look."
Related to her... Xu Tuoran thought for a moment, opened the bag, and took out a silver box containing an abomination.
"This?" Shangguan Qi got up and leaned over, "Okay, then I—"
"Wait, there are more." Xu Tuoran said, and took out all the remaining boxes, and placed them in a long row on the ground.
Shangguan prayed: "...'
Although she had been mentally prepared, she paused slightly when she saw Xu Tuoran spreading the abominable things on the ground like a stall.
But she quickly adjusted and leaned over to press the silver box closest to her. After a while, he touched another lightly.
After repeating this several times, she let out a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again, there was an extra layer of red blood in her black and white eyes.
"At least three days later, she is alive." She said softly, "Sorry, I can only see so much."
"No, nothing. Thank you." Xu Tuoran looked into her eyes in surprise, "Are you okay? Do you want to take a rest..."
"It's okay. It's fine to wait a while. After all, the other party is at the Chen level, and a little price is inevitable." Shangguan prayed to straighten his clothes, sat back on the edge of the bed again, looked at Xu Tuoran who was getting water for himself, and said after thinking, "If You're really leaving. I suggest you don't book tickets for tonight."
"Why?" Xu Tuoran was taken aback, "Is this also a prophecy?"
"No, this is analysis." Shangguan Qi took the water glass in her hand, nodded his thanks, "You need to rest."
"Is there? I feel like I'm still..." Xu Tuoran was halfway speaking, and his eyes suddenly blurred. The surrounding scene suddenly began to distort, large **** handprints inexplicably appeared on the white wall, the face of the gentle woman in front of him began to undulate strangely, and the eyes protruded...
Xu Tuoran: "..."
"I'm sorry." She closed her eyes restrainedly, quickly grabbed the marker pen on the ground, and raised her hand to draw on her arm, but her eyes were black and white, her vision was shaking, and even the tip of the pen couldn't be aligned.
In a trance, she seemed to hear Shangguan Qi sighed softly, followed by someone grabbing her arm, and someone taking the marker pen, and the skin of her arm felt pressing and cool. When the pen tip left the skin, the scene in front of him had returned to normal.
Xu Tuoran's hands and feet were still weak and cold, and was supported by Shangguan Qi to sit on the bed: "I...I just..."
"You're exhausted." Shangguan Qi didn't look surprised at all, "If I'm not mistaken, you've been running non-stop since you entered the camphor forest. You also drew runes many times in the middle."
The passage of time in the camphor forest is not obvious, but it does not mean that people will not be tired. People like them who are used to staying here know how to find time to rest. As for Xu Tuoran, she obviously didn't have this concept. In real time, she ran back and forth for two days without a break. Could she not be tired?
But as the headmaster himself said - this is just an analysis, not a prediction.
"If you really want to take action, you might as well wait for your all-knowing friend to reply to you. Otherwise, you will have to waste a plane ticket." Principal Shangguan added while twisting the cap of the mineral water bottle for Xu Tuoran.
This is prophecy.
Xu Tuoran looked at her in surprise, and leaned back on the head of the bed: "Are people with the ability to predict are so amazing?"
"Abilities with the same tendency, coupled with different qualities, will have different manifestations." Shangguan Qi smiled, "If I really want to say, I'm still the boring one."
Her quality is "being a teacher", and she has two skills, corresponding to the two tendencies of order and foresight. Among them, the order skill is called "Teacher of All Things", and the predictive skill is "Teacher of All Things".
"Master of all things" means the teacher of all things. Wherever the power reaches, all things can be regarded as students and bound by school rules; "teaching all things" refers to learning from all things and taking all things as teachers. Relying on the communication of power, you may get some enlightenment about the future from above all things.
To put it simply, she can obtain some premonitions about the future through observation and perception of external individuals. If you inquire with questions, you can sometimes get more precise answers—for example, Xu Tuoran's "1703".
But most of the time, all she can get is some unknown fragments of information. These fragments may not be meaningful or regular, and may even be different results of the same event on different timelines. The specific meaning needs to be guessed and answered by herself, and the scope of her interference is limited.
For example, just a moment ago, she saw two futures in Xu Tuoran at the same time. One is to book a ticket directly after leaving, and miss the message from your companion because you fell asleep halfway, and you have to book a ticket again after waking up, and go to another place to meet your companion; Under the guidance of the coach, he went straight to the destination and met with the other party smoothly.
Both developments are possible. As for Shangguan Qi, she could only guide Xu Tuoran to choose the easier one, but she couldn't help her make the third choice.
Shangguan Qi explained very carefully and spoke softly as always. Xu Turan nodded slowly, not sure if he understood. At the end, Shangguan Qi smiled gently: "So, my predictive ability is quite ordinary."
Xu Tuoran did correct him solemnly: "Whoever said it, it's obviously very practical. It's just not so fancy. And you still missed a little bit."
Shangguan prayed:?
"You can read the content from the foresight corridor." Xu Tuoran paused every word, "but few others can do it."
Shangguan Qi: ...
"Yes, I almost forgot if you didn't mention this." She smiled again, and brushed her long hair like a waterfall behind her back, "You said before that you wanted to talk, and that's all you want to talk about. It just so happens that you have time to spare now." , may we chat?"
She looked at Xu Tuoran seriously: "What exactly do you want to know?"
"Ceremony." Now that the other party said so, Xu Turan didn't backtrack and cut straight to the point, "I have stayed in Dahuaihua, and I have seen the notes you left. I understand most of them, only the last paragraph —”
[The whole world, all the time, is a grand ceremony. 】
This sentence has been lingering in Xu Turan's mind for a long time, since the wooden man also heard the word "ceremony", it has come to mind from time to time. However, Mu Mu only said that she needs to complete the ceremony before receiving the power he has accumulated; she doesn't actually understand the ceremony itself.
As for the "ceremony" mentioned by Shangguan Qi, she didn't know if she was talking about the same thing as the wooden man. But obviously, this is also important information.
Shangguan Qi heard the words, but frowned slightly—after thinking for a moment, he shook his head slightly.
"Sorry, you've seen everything I know."
Xu Tuoran: "?"
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Shangguan Qi said, drawing a circle in the air with his fingers, "Day and night alternate, seasons change, year after year. Time passes in constant reincarnation.
"The reason why we know these reincarnations exist is because we can see their beginning and end. But where we can't see? Does the greater reincarnation exist?"
Xu Tuoran was taken aback: "You mean...?"
"Is the existence of the world itself a huge reincarnation? From scratch, from birth to death, and after everything disappears, start from scratch again." Principal Shangguan said lightly, "It's just that our life and death are bound to the survival of the world, and we cannot Just witness the cycle."
"..." Xu Turan frowned involuntarily, his eyes turned lightly, "Is that kind of reincarnation in time what you call a 'ritual'?"
"This is part of the ceremony. All the time we have experienced is part of it." Principal Shangguan said, "But more, I don't know."
I don't know who the ceremony is for, what the purpose is, or the more detailed content.
"..."
"What about those wireworms?" Xu Tueran pursed his lips, not sure, "Are they also part of the ceremony?"
"I don't think so." Shangguan Qi didn't think about it, "At least from the information I got, those things and 'ceremonies' are naturally opposed, and point to different endings."
Based on other information, the existence of iron nematodes is obviously not conducive to human beings. Although it cannot be concluded that the "ritual" is beneficial, it seems that iron nematodes are more worth guarding against.
"And I have an intuition, a strong intuition." Shangguan Qi's eyes turned, his bloodshot eyes looked a little embarrassed, but his eyes were a little firm, "No matter what those iron nematodes want to do, we must not let them Success. Once they get their hands on, the consequences will be disastrous."
Xu Tueran couldn't help being stunned again, paused for a few seconds, and said half-jokingly: "If you want to say that, they stared at me and beat me several times."
"Then we should protect you." Shangguan Qi didn't hesitate for half a second, "Protect you at all costs."
Xu Turan: ...
"Forget it then." After a moment of silence, she told the truth, "It's kind of scary."
Shangguan Qi smiled: "Of course, that's just an ideal state. Right now we have very little power to call on...but really, if you need it, at least you can find me anytime."
"You guys helped clean up Jiang Lin and Jiang Lin. That's already the greatest help." Xu Tuoran sighed, "Not to mention, Jiang Lin is really annoying."
If she really wants to blame her current hallucinations, the blame has to be pinned on him.
Having said that, Xu Tueran couldn't help but look at his arm again. Shangguan Qi followed her gaze and said proactively: "I have never touched this kind of rune before, and the effect may not be very good. After you have rested, it is best to stabilize yourself."
Xu vainly nodded in agreement. Shangguan Qilue was silent for a while, and couldn't help but said: "How did you get this problem? Are you polluted by abominable things?"
Thinking about Xu Tuoran's strange posture like setting up a stall, it seems very reasonable.
Xu Turan shook his head, and said, "I don't know the specific reason. But someone told me that it's a side effect caused by passing through the Chen-level gate."
As soon as these words came out, Shangguan Qi was stunned: "Chen level? Is it chaotic?"
"Ah." Xu Tuoran nodded logically, "I got promoted a little too fast. Maybe because of this, the side effects are stronger."
…Combined with your age, the promotion is indeed very strong.
Shangguan Qi was slightly surprised in his heart, but thinking of Xu Tuoran's amazing talent in runes, he didn't think much about it, and instead nodded slightly: "Indeed, after passing through the Chen-level gate, those with abilities often feel some side effects. .”
Her order is Hui Jinchen, and she has had a similar experience. But she is luckier than Xu Turan, and the side effects of order are relatively mild, only severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and unprovoked sleepwalking.
In her sleep she would draw strange and ancient stone palaces, scarred lands and howling monsters, and scorching meteors. But these symptoms didn't bother her for a long time, and they disappeared naturally as she advanced in the upgrade space.
As for the prediction, she has never entered the Chen-level gate, so she doesn't know.
"Really or not?" Xu Tuoran was a little surprised, "I thought your foresight would be about Chen level."
"No. I encountered a Chen-level gate, but I gave up and didn't go through." Shangguan Qi said, "At that time, I wanted to find more clues in the upgrade space."
Unlike other upgrade spaces. The corridors of the Corridor of Prediction are circular, unless you find a door through the next area, you have to go back and forth in the same corridor repeatedly. And those stone tablets that hide important knowledge are probably behind a certain door. So Principal Shangguan chose to stay on the Hui-level corridor for in-depth exploration instead of upgrading.
So she doesn't know what the upgrade side effects of the propensity to predict are. She guessed that in today's world, only the Chen-level prophet in the past may know.
"I'm quite regretful. I've been suppressing and not upgrading before. Now that the prophecy is blocked, I don't know if I can upgrade in the future." She sighed and shook her head lightly, "I'm also reflecting, if I If you can see through the reasons behind the behavior of the prophet, and take the initiative to share clues with him, maybe everything will be different.”
"...You didn't foresee all this at the time." Xu Tuoran pursed his lips, "And he..."
"He was in a hurry." Principal Shangguan said, "Although I don't know how he knew it. But I think that among the capable users at that time, some of them should have been parasitized by iron nematodes. He needs to solve this problem as soon as possible."
This is something she only wanted to understand after recovering her memory. At that time, she only felt crazy, and even thought that the information she had obtained was wrong, and the tendency to predict was not safe—after all, judging from his behavior at the time, he was more like the one possessed by a monster.
"He did his best to delay the appearance of the wireworm for five years." Shangguan Qi sighed, "We have to do the next thing."
She looked out the window, the sky had completely darkened, and then carefully checked Xu Tuoran's state, and after confirming that there was no problem, Fang got up to say goodbye. Before leaving, he suddenly felt something again, stayed where he was for a while, turned around and asked for a pen and paper, and drew a set of complex rune patterns for Xu Tuoran.
Xu Tuoran: "? What is this?"
"I learned it in the foresight corridor, the rune for omniscience." Shangguan Qi looked a little dazed, "Don't ask me why I left this for you, I don't know. I just had a sudden hunch that you will definitely Useful."
Xu Turan: ...
I get it, I'm afraid I'm going to fight with Quanzhi later.
She thanked Principal Shangguan, and while digesting the vague information she got from the other party, she sent her to the door. Just when Shangguan Qi was about to open the door, for some reason, Xu Tuoran suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart, and he couldn't help but ask, "Did you really have no premonition at all?"
"?" Shangguan Qi turned his head puzzled, "What?"
"You were tricked into the camphor forest by him. And I heard from Su Mai that you were the last one to be imprisoned." Xu Tuoran said, frowning unconsciously, "Before you went to that trap...really Yes, didn't you foresee anything?"
Shangguan prayed: "..."
She turned her head and stared at Xu Tuoran for a moment, showing a soft smile.
"Would it be strange if I said yes?" She tilted her head, "But if I said no, it would be a lie."
"...That is to say, after you know that you will be trapped for several years after you go?" Xu Tuoran frowned more tightly, "Then why did you..."
Why don't you hurry up and step in instead?
"Who knows?" Shangguan Qi was still smiling softly, his long hair like a waterfall slid down his shoulders, mixed with a few conspicuous white strands, and some thin lines piled up at the corners of his eyes.
Even though the passage of time in the camphor forest is not obvious, the passing years will still leave traces.
"Maybe it's because, if I'm not around, that bug named Jiang Lin probably won't be able to catch it."
As she spoke, she turned around and pressed the doorknob, and walked out. Just as she was going out, she stopped suddenly.
"By the way, there is one more thing." She turned her head and looked at the little pink flowers in the flower bed next to her, waving leaves politely at her, "I wanted to tell you before. In about two hours, you can go downstairs to see Look. In the flower bed downstairs, maybe you can find a boyfriend..."
Xu Tuoran: "...?"
Seeing Shangguan Qi glance at the room behind her, his eyes stayed on the big soft bed for a moment, then drifted to the floor next to her.
"You don't try too hard at night. He'll be hard."
Xu Tuoran: "...???"
After Shangguan Qi finished speaking, he smiled at Xu Turan again, turned and left, and his figure quickly disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Xu Tuoran was left alone, standing at the door of the room with a bewildered expression on his face.
At this moment, the mobile phone in the bedroom rang, and Xu Turan went back to take a look, only to see Pu Han's message popping up on the screen.
【good news. 】
[I'm promoted. 】