He is afraid of death.
So, this highly respected church knight chose to find a random excuse to slip away.
"I have something else to do, so I'll leave you alone for now." Qi Ji looked at the forest where the five people disappeared with a mocking look, "I'll come visit you when I have time."
“Xiao Qiji, you really are…” Lunxi was shocked.
She had also heard about the deeds of the Demon Fighter of Moon Valley, and her assessment of him was that he was extremely audacious and only wanted to cause chaos in the world.
If that person was Qi Ji, it would be incredible. Because in Lunxi's eyes, she was not the kind of crazy person who did things without considering the consequences.
However, if Qi Ji really did that kind of thing, then she would have to re-examine Qi Ji's character.
Qi Ji lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear him and said, "Of course not, I was just talking nonsense."
"Ah?! But if you say that, the Knight might really believe it!" Lunxi was a little confused, "This will bring you a lot of trouble."
Qi Ji smiled but didn't say anything. As she said before, she wasn't afraid of trouble, she was afraid of meaningless trouble.
It is very troublesome to have your household registration checked by official personnel.
It's so troublesome to be suspected of being a mysterious strong man with unpredictable moods.
Besides, although the identity of "Mojira Valley Demon Fighter" will indeed bring her a lot of extra attention, it will also avoid a lot of the original attention.
For example, from now on no one will care about her origins, because compared to her reasons for disrupting the wizard gathering and how she cultivated to such a level, her nationality, political identity, and origin will not even make it into the top 50 topics.
The latter was the question she was most unable to answer - because she was a time traveler, and she was planning to keep this secret for the rest of her life.
As for the former, it is very easy to deal with - she just needs to keep silent and someone will imagine it for her.
The purpose of Qiji's approach is to replace smaller but more difficult disputes with larger but easier to resolve ones.
=======================
As the school season approaches, I wish all students academic progress!
Chapter 58 Pre-Reflection
"I have a favor to ask of you." Qi Ji remembered the original purpose of his visit, so he took out the merchant group badge and showed it to Friang. "Do you know any information about this merchant group? If not, please ask other people for me."
"Okay, okay..." Friang took the badge, but his heart began to beat.
In fact, he had been pondering Qi Ji's identity since yesterday. After all, it was incredible that he could become a psychic warrior at such a young age.
Frion also discussed this privately with Lina and Aio, and they all agreed that Qi Ji was most likely the eldest daughter of a large warrior family, or a special envoy of a certain national secret agency.
As for why such a big shot would come to a small border town like Stio, Frion guessed that it was to carry out some secret mission, or that he was asked by his family to come out for training.
Lina's thoughts were not that complicated. She thought that she might just come out to play alone, because Qi Ji's words and actions were very leisurely and calm, and he didn't seem to have any important tasks to do.
But no matter what the situation was, there was one thing that the three of them agreed on: they must not go against the mysterious Miss Sharon, and if she had any requests, they would try their best to do it.
Even if you can't make friends with her, at least don't offend her.
Therefore, the three of them deliberately restrained their words and actions in front of Qi Ji and did not show any intention of inquiring about her background.
Now, she actually revealed her identity, and it was a bombshell that was beyond anyone's expectations.
"It's actually that... Canyang, this is incredible..."
Friant had no doubts, because there was no need to doubt.
A stone smashed to death a Gu Ge giant who was at the peak of righteous thoughts; a shocking black flame column annihilated a pure spiritual alien swamp monster... There was no doubt that she was a magic fighter, and the strongest magic fighter in public.
Strength is the strongest evidence. Even if she denies it later and says that she is talking nonsense, it still has to be true.
After calming down, he returned his attention to the present.
"Saint Xudra Society?" He carefully observed the badge in his hand and soon noticed the side with words engraved on it. "I seem to have heard of it somewhere... Wait a minute, I'll go ask the leader, he might know."
"Go ahead, I'll wait for you."
Friang ran towards the crowd clutching the badge, leaving Qiji with Lunxi and Lina.
"Excuse me, Sharon, I have to go over there to take a look." Lina looked at the six corpses lying not far away, looking very sad, with slightly red eyes, "Excuse me..."
Qi Ji sighed: "The dead are gone, please accept my condolences."
The accountability of the church personnel was not resolved, but the caravan members did not chase after them in anger. They knew that those people could escape but not the temple - the church was right in the city center, so how could they worry about not being able to find them?
As for now, all they can do is clean up the scene and mourn the dead.
There were a total of six members who were killed in the attack by the swamp monster. They have been carried out of the camp and placed on the plain.
There were no scars on their bodies, their clothes were neat and tidy, and they looked like they had not been attacked at all, as if they were just sleeping.
But all organs in their bodies had completely stopped all vital activities, and they were just slowly freezing corpses.
Someone built a mini stone tower with stones next to each of them, which should be the custom in these people's hometowns.
The relatives and friends of the deceased sat beside them, weeping.
A strong sense of sorrow and sadness spread.
"Is this the church's style?" Qi Ji looked at all this and said calmly, "Faced with a tragedy caused by one's own negligence, the first reaction is to evade responsibility?"
The direct reason for this to happen was that the church's ritual failed. No matter how difficult it was for the church, it was not a reason to just get away with it.
A perfunctory explanation and completely non-existent compensation...this attitude is so bad that it is unforgivable.
"The church's arrogance towards pagans is deep-rooted, and this is true of any church." Lunxi was infected by the sad atmosphere and spoke in a much lower voice:
"Plus, they are all foreigners, so the prejudice is even worse... Alas, Stio is a border city, and the quality of the clergy varies. This kind of thing has happened more than once or twice."
As a Templar, she felt bad when she saw the rulers of her country were like this.
Qi Ji laughed a few times: "Is it really just because of pride and prejudice?"
Lunxi didn't understand what she meant and looked at her in confusion: "Now I do think so... What does Xiao Qiji mean?"
"Is that so?" Qi Ji did not explain, but asked: "So, do you want to change?"
"Change? Of course I want to," Lancy said, sitting on the grass with his knees hugged, feeling very depressed. "I have expressed my opinions to the priest and the knights, and also reported the situation to the church... They said verbally that they would pay attention to it and that it was indeed our fault, but similar problems still occur again and again."
Qi Ji also sat down, crossed his legs, and asked quietly, "What do you think is the reason for this situation?"
"I think there are probably too many 'bad guys' among the crowd," Lunxi said hesitantly, looking up at the sky. "There are always 'bad guys' in any group. Whether it's nobles, adventurers, commoners, or even clergy, there are definitely mean, selfish, cruel and evil people."
"so?"
Lunxi paused, thought of something, and added:
"When a low-ranking person does evil, it affects only himself and a few people around him; when a high-ranking person does evil, it affects thousands of people... But the reality is that the proportion of 'bad people' among high-ranking people is no lower than that of ordinary people... This is terrifying."
"Then why are there so-called 'bad guys'?" Qi Ji asked.
"Maybe it's human nature," Lun Xi said uncertainly, "Humans... no, any intelligent life has bad nature in their hearts, but some people can suppress it with morality and conscience, while others indulge in their own darkness..."
"The cause of evil is the existence of evil. Is that your answer?"
Lunxi felt that there was something strange about Qi Ji's summary, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he frowned and stared at her:
"Isn't it...?"
"Don't you think this argument is a little short-circuited?" Qi Ji turned his head and looked at her directly. "Why is there evil? Because someone does evil. Why do someone do evil? Because evil exists - this is simply spinning in circles."
"It seems that this is indeed the case..." After hearing what Qi Ji said, Lun Xi's thoughts were slightly enlightened, but she still didn't fully understand:
"But what other reason could there be?"
Qi Ji did not answer her, but continued to sit there, his dark brown eyes were like water, deep and unfathomable.
"Miss Sharon, our leader is here." Frion's voice came from not far away. "He said he knows something and wants to explain it to you in person."
Next to Friant was a man in his fifties, the leader of the caravan:
"Hello, my lord."
Chapter 59 Useless clues?
The team leader is sturdy and looks very honest.
"Lord Sharon, I have some impression of this merchant group." He pinched the badge with two fingers. "The Saint Xudra Society is a merchant group headquartered in 'Lookout City'. It is very small, so it is not very famous."
Qi Ji thought of something, stood up, and brushed off the grass and dust on his cloak:
"Lookout City? I remember your caravan's destination is there, right?"
When Friant was talking to the Knights of the Church, he mentioned that this caravan was departing from the Glorious Plantagenet Empire and was heading to the Lookout City on the south coast of the Templar State to conduct some trade.
"Yes, yes, that's right." The leader grinned flatteringly:
"The Saint Hydra Society has less than a hundred official members, and even in Lookout City, they are not well-known. It's normal that you haven't heard of them. As for us, we traded with them once when we went to Lookout City last time, so we still have some impression of them."
This is no coincidence.
Qi Ji took the badge back, his eyes wandering: "That's all?"
"I'm very sorry, I don't know more." The team leader bowed and smiled apologetically, fearing that Qi Ji would be dissatisfied:
"We didn't have much communication with them. We just bought a batch of marine fish from them... Oh, by the way, they seem to be specialized in seafood business."
How could a merchant group selling fish have the scent of an antidote for the plague on its emblem?
"Have they come to Stio recently?" Qi Ji asked.
"I don't know, I really don't know," the leader shook his head. "Perhaps you can ask the nobles of Stio for advice. Generally speaking, any merchant who wants to stop in a city must obtain permission from the local nobles or the church."
"Okay," Qi Ji saw that he was not lying or hiding anything, so he ended the conversation, "We have something else to do, so we'll leave first."
"Go slowly, go slowly..."
Looking at Qi Ji and Lun Xi's gradually receding figures until they turned into two blurry, swaying black dots, the leader heaved a sigh of relief:
"Oh my, so many people died. This is a huge loss..."
"When are we going to church?" Friant said. "We can't leave such a big thing like this."
"That's right. If those pagans don't give us an explanation, we will definitely not accept it."
The leader glanced at the towering church bell tower, then moved his gaze to a certain point in the sky, and pointed his right ring finger at his forehead:
"The distant stars guide us, and may the sea accept the souls of the dead."
After praying, he said to Friant:
"Bury those six brothers. Tomorrow we will take you to the church to seek justice!"
Bidding farewell to the gloomy caravan, Qi Ji and Lun Xi walked back to the North District.
"You went to the guild a few days ago to issue a commission to investigate bandits - the one that was later accepted by Friong and his team," Qi Ji said casually as they strolled along the increasingly crowded streets. "Is it about bandits and no one is taking care of it?"
According to common sense, such city security issues should be the sole responsibility of local administrators.
For example, lords and city lords are all under the jurisdiction of Lunxi's father. It is not Lunxi's turn to hire someone to investigate in her personal capacity.
In this regard, Qi Ji could only think of one reason: other people didn't want to bother with him.
"Uh, this..." When asked this question, Lunxi's eyes dimmed, and he pursed his lips hesitantly, as if there was something unspeakable hidden behind it.
Qi Ji didn't say anything and just looked at her quietly.
"Well, there's no need to hide this kind of thing." Lunxi seemed to have figured something out, and his expression returned to normal:
"It's simple. Father doesn't seem to care about this matter. I have mentioned it to him many times, but the situation has not improved... Maybe Father has been too busy recently and doesn't have the energy to deal with it."
"So... I want to try to solve this problem myself." She paused, lowered her head, and continued:
"Otherwise, the people of Stio are too pitiful. So many people died of the epidemic before, and they finally survived, but now there are bandits committing crimes. I have the ability to improve the current situation but I stay out of it... I really feel guilty."
"But, in terms of your duties, you have no obligation to deal with these issues. These matters are not your responsibility. You don't even have the ability and authority to manage these matters. You are just borrowing your father's background."
Qi Ji thought about how Lunxi went to the human traffickers' den alone yesterday morning. She guessed that was a crime ignored by the church, the lord, her father and other nobles, otherwise Lunxi would have no reason to do it herself.
"You are getting involved in something that is completely outside your scope of responsibility, and there is no substantial reward, and there may even be risks."
"You are right, but," Lun Xi's tone suddenly became firm, "the higher the status, the higher the moral standards should be. I think this is reasonable."
"Is this how you fight?"
"Yes," she nodded firmly, "I must follow my heart and not let my actions go against my morals and conscience... If other people can agree with me, that would be great."
"You want to 'inspire' others by setting an example?" Qi Ji smiled, "Do you really think... this will work?"
