Sudden Incident

"Yes, Number 325 was the most meticulous person. When he sent those images yesterday, he personally promised to report the latest developments at nine tonight. There was no way he could have forgotten. If no information came through, there was only one explanation—something had happened to him."

"That place can't be located," Chang Ye said. "Finding him would be like looking for a needle in the ocean."

"That's why I wanted to ask this criminal investigation genius to give it a try. Maybe he can create a miracle in a hellhole like Laoshan!"

Two pairs of eyes turned toward Lin Xiaosu.

Lin Xiaosu frowned deeply...

Number 88 said, "The main mission of this operation is to find Number 325. If you complete it, you'll receive 300 points. The side mission is to uncover the major discovery he mentioned. If you achieve that, additional points will be awarded according to your contribution."

Lin Xiaosu shook his head. "A comrade's life is on the line. Why talk about points? The key is... why could that place transmit information but not be located?"

Number 88 explained why.

Laoshan lay on the border of Southern Sichuan Province. It was extraordinarily mysterious, with abnormal magnetic fields. Once someone entered its interior, all signals became impossible to transmit, and there was no way to locate them.

To send a signal outside, people within had to actively seek out special areas with satellite reception, such as mountaintops, and send the information out themselves.

But it was difficult for people outside to send signals in, because when a signal was transmitted, the people within were very likely in a signal dead zone and simply couldn't be reached.

"He sent some images before? Where are they..." Lin Xiaosu asked.

Number 88 smiled faintly. "Accept this mission, and you'll be able to see them!"

"Fine, I accept!" Lin Xiaosu agreed without hesitation.

"Let's go!"

The three rose at the same time and stepped out of the library. They had just reached the flying car when a huge macaque suddenly dropped from a tree. Oh, no—a Xinyue dropped down.

The moment Xinyue landed, she sprang to Chang Ye's side and grabbed her hand. "Sister Chang Ye, I'm going too, I'm going too..."

"You don't even know what the mission is, and you want to go?" Chang Ye said.

"Who cares what mission it is? As long as I can earn points!" Xinyue said. "Respected Instructor, this mission has points, right?"

She was asking Number 88.

She was always getting points deducted in front of Number 88, but she had learned her lesson now. Even the way she addressed him had become considerably more flattering.

Number 88 said with a stern face, "The rewards are generous, but you'll only receive them if you contribute."

Xinyue leaped into the air and jumped directly into the flying car. "Wonderful! On the one hand, I'll earn points and soar straight to the top. On the other, I'll steal this kid's points and grind him into the mud. Killing two birds with one stone! Instructor, even if I have to face your coffin face every moment of this trip, I'll try my best to imagine it as an idol star..."

Lin Xiaosu wore an expression of toothache as he looked from one to the other. "With her targeting me this openly, do you think we might end up fighting out in the wilderness?"

"Don't worry. I equipped you with a gun!" Number 88 replied coldly.

Once inside the flying car, they looked outside and saw a sky full of stars.

They were still in 101, where classified information was forbidden from leaking, so everything outside was sealed off.

Number 88 tossed Lin Xiaosu and Xinyue a set of equipment each.

The equipment looked light, but when Lin Xiaosu opened it, he became excited.

Standard Hidden Dragon equipment.

There was a suit that looked like a skintight bodysuit, but its material was highly unusual. It repelled insects and moisture while remaining breathable. It could not be torn or ripped apart and had excellent elasticity. Once worn, it could not stop heavy machine guns or submachine guns, but it could withstand one or two waves of handgun bullets, not to mention the thorns and barbs in the mountain forests.

There was a dagger with a dragon pattern on its gleaming blade.

There was a pistol, the training firearm he knew best. The difference was that this was a real gun.

There were also several hundred rounds of ammunition. Every piece of equipment was connected to the suit in the most practical way possible. The moment Lin Xiaosu put it on, he felt as though his entire being had been elevated.

Xinyue put hers on at the same time, and she swelled with confidence as well. Patting Lin Xiaosu on the shoulder, she said, "Lin Xiaose, don't get too full of yourself. You may have gotten the gun you're best with, but the Dragon Armor on this lady is bulletproof!"

"Lin Xia... se? What exactly am I leering at?" Lin Xiaosu glared at her.

"You didn't aim anywhere else when you fired. You aimed at this lady's... boobs. And you still say you're not a pervert?"

Lin Xiaosu was completely speechless.

Chang Ye and Number 88 were probably long accustomed to her recklessness and did not find it strange at all.

Number 88 tapped the screen lightly with a finger, and several images appeared amid the surrounding starry sky. These were the images Number 325 had sent...

It was an unusual orchid.

The plant was abnormally tall. Its height had been measured at 1.89 meters.

It bore eighteen-petaled flowers with filaments resembling those of red spider lilies.

The entire plant had a very strange coloration. Rather than the vivid hues of ordinary flowers, it was dark green like leaves. In a primeval forest that was a sea of green, it would have been impossible to spot from afar. Number 325 had only discovered it after getting close.

The instant he found this species, which he had never seen before, he photographed it with the high-precision specialized camera he carried and transmitted the images back to the base for analysis.

Chang Ye stared at the flower. "Could Number 325's major discovery really not have been this mutated flower?"

"Probably not. When he said that, he had already collected a specimen of this flower. If this were the major discovery, he should have stated it plainly. He didn't, which means he had only discovered some clues about it but hadn't truly pinpointed it."

Xinyue's eyes flickered. "Sister Chang Ye, you think this flower itself is a major discovery, don't you?"

"Yes! Judging from the plant's form, it is an ordinary orchid, but its size has inexplicably become so enormous, and its flowers have evolved protective coloration. Such evolution is rare even in the animal kingdom, and even rarer among plants."

When it came to understanding plants, if Chang Ye called herself second, no one would dare call themselves first.

Because she was a Poisonous Person.

Her life's mission was to study the various genes within plants.

In the Hidden Dragon Botanical Garden, she was one of the few true authorities.

There were very few plants in the world that she did not understand.

Most plants bloomed, and most flowers were bright, eye-catching, and fragrant.

Why?

Plants had little sense of beauty. They did not bloom to admire themselves in solitude.

They bloomed to carry on life's inheritance.

Flowers were striking, fragrant, or even foul-smelling because their fundamental purpose was to attract insects that found things through smell and sight. Those insects pollinated the flowers, allowing the plants' lineage to continue.

Orchids were the same.

Their small size, vibrant flowers, and fragrance were the result of millions of years of natural selection, because such traits were best suited to the continuation of orchids as a species.

Yet the orchid before them had abandoned its ancestors' choice...

Its stalk was as tall as a tree.

Its flower color blended into the surrounding environment.

And according to the monitoring data Number 325 had sent back, the flower had no scent at all—neither fragrant nor foul.

That was strange...

It had avoided every key link in the chain of life's inheritance. It seemed to intend to bloom quietly as a lonely orchid...

Lin Xiaosu stared at the images from different angles inside the flying car, and his thoughts quietly drifted elsewhere. Chang Ye was not the only one skilled in botany; he was well versed in it too, and he also felt this was suspicious.

"Number 325 can't be located right now, but what about the place where he sent these images? Can that be located?"

His Time Reversal could currently only trace scenes from up to five days ago.

As long as he could discover any point connected to Number 325 within those five days, he could follow that point and track his movements all the way forward.

How to make the process appear scientific was a matter for another level.

The crucial thing was that as long as this point could be located, completing the mission was inevitable.

In theory, what he said made sense.

Number 325 had sent images as recently as last night. There should have been location tracking associated with sending them, and through various advanced technologies, they should have been able to precisely determine where the signal originated.

However, Number 88 shook his head. "It seems you don't understand Laoshan's peculiar nature. Laoshan is called Laoshan because, in a sense, it resembles a prison between heaven and earth. From its high mountain peaks, signals may occasionally be sent out, but the place they are sent from cannot be located."

If it could not be located, then what could they do?

Number 88 laid out the plan he had already prepared.

Number 325 had entered the Laoshan Hotel a month ago and entered Laoshan twenty-nine days ago. If they followed the route he had taken in, they might find traces of his passage. After all, Hidden Dragon members were basically trained from the same curriculum, and wilderness survival had its usual routines.

Hidden Dragon members would recognize these routines at a glance: where was suitable for camping, where was suitable for climbing, and so on. Their judgments would be broadly similar. As long as they found his campsite, they might be able to determine his next route from the traces he left behind and find him in the primeval forest.

The method was stupid, and the outcome was impossible to control. But in places beyond the reach of advanced technology, the most primitive method became the only method...

Chang Ye and Xinyue looked at each other, both somewhat dazed.

Yes, from their positions, they had long grown accustomed to Hidden Dragon's advanced technology. For people in the world, they used Dragon Eyes to search; for worldly matters, they searched online. But in places Dragon Eyes could not reach and networks could not access, how could they find someone who had entered the mountains a month ago in a vast primeval forest? Both of them felt their heads ache.

Lin Xiaosu let out a soft breath. "It seems we can only use the most primitive method, but I don't recommend using yours. After all, your method is too uncontrollable."

Number 88 frowned. "My method may be uncontrollable, but it is the only method!"

"No, it isn't the only one!" Lin Xiaosu said.

Xinyue's eyes widened. "Contradicting an instructor—under Article 135, Paragraph 1 of the Reserve Charter, that's a deduction of twenty points! Instructor, deduct them already..."

Number 88 glared at her, then turned to Lin Xiaosu. "Go on."

Lin Xiaosu pointed. "For example, these four images convey some information."

Number 88's eyes flickered. "You mean this small river?"

Chang Ye's eyes lit up...

Finding a person in the forest was difficult, but finding a river was much easier. Did Lin Xiaosu mean they should find this river?

As long as they found the river, the search area would be greatly reduced.