Lin Xiaosu gently shook his head. "It would be fine if this were a river, but the key is that it isn't a river at all. It's only a temporary channel formed by heavy rain in the Laoshan area yesterday morning. The weather in Laoshan is clear today, so this river has probably already disappeared."
Number 88 nodded lightly. "Good eye! There's flattened grass in this river, so it clearly isn't a real river. That's also why I didn't include this little river in my field of view. Tell me, where is the information you saw?"
Lin Xiaosu said, "Look, these leaves!"
His finger pointed at several leaves drifting downstream.
The leaves were huge, rendered exceptionally clearly by Qianlong's specialized high-resolution camera.
Leaves?
Everyone's eyes widened at once...
"Chang Ye, you're well versed in botany. Do you know what kind of leaves these are?"
"They look a little like... eucalyptus leaves!"
"That's right! They are eucalyptus!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Do you know the greatest characteristic of eucalyptus trees?"
"Exceptionally tall!"
Lin Xiaosu nodded gently. "Mature eucalyptus trees can exceed a hundred meters in height. They're most common in the forests of Southern Mo Continent, but they're rare in Great Xia. If we fly over Laoshan in a hovercar, wouldn't those sparse hundred-meter-tall trees below be easy to find?"
Number 88's eyes lit up!
Chang Ye's eyes lit up!
Xinyue looked from one to the other. "Hey, hey, Instructor, don't get carried away and award points for his unproven nonsense with no substance to it. The Reserve Charter says that favoritism and awarding personal favors are strictly forbidden..."
Number 88 burst into laughter. "Comrade Xiaosu, I see hope in you. Next, find the location where this photograph was taken, and I'll give you another 200 points!"
"Yes!" Lin Xiaosu raised a hand and gave a thoroughly improper salute.
"Improper salute, deduct 10 points..." Xinyue shouted.
Hiss!
With a soft sound, the starry curtain outside the hovercar vanished completely.
Outside was the darkest hour before dawn.
Yet when Lin Xiaosu looked through the window at the great river below, he still felt the vastness of heaven and earth.
They had already left Number 101, so there was no need to hide anymore.
Below was the Yangtze River. Lin Xiaosu silently calculated the hovercar's speed. It was probably around 700 kilometers per hour.
A perfectly normal cruising speed.
"Get some rest, everyone. Once we enter the mountains, we may not have time to rest." Chang Ye spoke, then closed her eyes.
Number 88 closed his eyes as well.
Before long, Number 88 began snoring.
That was probably what made Qianlong members special.
They could sleep the moment they lay down and fight the moment they opened their eyes. Their bodily functions had long since been rigorously mechanized, never allowing a single shred of stamina to go to waste.
Lin Xiaosu and Xinyue could not do that.
The two lay side by side in the rear seats, staring wide-eyed at each other.
"Why do you always target me?" Lin Xiaosu spoke very softly.
"Why did you blow up my boobs?" Xinyue's voice was equally soft.
"You jumped out and tried to kill me. It would've been normal even if I'd smashed your head."
"Then why didn't you hit my head? Why did you hit my boobs?"
"Damn... Women and petty men are impossible to deal with!" Lin Xiaosu closed his eyes.
But he distinctly sensed a hand shaped like a knife slicing back and forth through the air at his neck.
Lin Xiaosu abruptly opened his eyes and saw that hand. It withdrew with incredible speed, but the path it had left behind was exactly the same as what he had sensed.
What the hell!
What kind of heaven-defying skill was this?
I could see her movements with my eyes closed?
Lin Xiaosu closed his eyes again and focused his consciousness on his brain. Suddenly, he had a strange sensation. There seemed to be a silver fish of consciousness swimming through the boundless forest of his mind. His perception of the outside world was so mystical that he seemed able to see moving objects around him without opening his eyes.
Could this silver fish of consciousness be a person's sixth sense?
The sixth sense made tangible. Could you understand that?
By the time they woke up, the sky was filled with the red sun.
The unmanned hovercar had also smoothly arrived at its destination: Laoshan.
The hovercar did not alert anyone and flew straight into Laoshan.
Looking down from the hovercar, Laoshan was extremely unusual.
A layer of thin mist rose and fell like ocean waves, shrouding everything below.
Occasionally, several giant trees broke through the mist, while a few tall mountains stood like isolated islands in the sea.
Xinyue stared blankly at the trees below. She desperately wanted to pour a few buckets of cold water over Lin Xiaosu, but she could not say anything, because she had begun to feel a little admiration for him.
The dense fog over Laoshan never dispersed all year round.
Perhaps searching for trees over a hundred meters tall really was the best landmark for finding the location.
Though that bastard was a bastard, the idea he had come up with seemed to be the only workable method.
Ten minutes later, Chang Ye raised a hand and pointed at a tree. "Eucalyptus!"
Not only had the mist not thinned, it had grown even denser. The tree she pointed at rose high above the fog, making it highly distinguishable.
Number 88 grew excited and maneuvered the hovercar to descend.
Lin Xiaosu gently shook his head. "Not this one. Keep going!"
"How do you know it isn't?" Chang Ye asked.
"The geographical features below don't match at all."
Below!
That was right. Their target was not the eucalyptus tree itself. They were using it to pinpoint the real location, so the eucalyptus was only a reference.
There were geographical features in the photograph as well.
Chang Ye looked at Lin Xiaosu with some unwillingness in her eyes. The brat's eyesight was extraordinary, but could he really see the precise terrain below through this nearly impenetrable fog?
Another eucalyptus appeared and was ignored as well.
Then three eucalyptus trees growing side by side appeared.
They were ignored too.
The hovercar flew for around forty minutes, and they saw thirty eucalyptus trees along the way.
Overall, eucalyptus trees truly were as rare as Lin Xiaosu had said.
But Laoshan was too vast, and it still contained dozens of them.
An hour passed. Though the hovercar was in the sky, they temporarily lost their bearings. Below was a sea of clouds, above was the firmament, and there were no useful reference points in any direction. Even all satellite signals had been lost...
For the first time in their lives, these Qianlong prodigies who were accustomed to being in control felt utterly powerless...
Heaven bore witness, that feeling was awful.
Suddenly, Lin Xiaosu pointed. "There!"
Number 88 perked up and guided the hovercar down.
It was a valley. This eucalyptus tree grew at the bottom, and its canopy had only just broken through the fog layer. Among the many eucalyptus trees, it was actually not particularly noticeable.
Yet Lin Xiaosu had still locked onto it at a glance.
The moment they landed in the valley, the scene before them made Chang Ye's eyes shine. "Over there!"
"They actually found it? No way?" Xinyue leaped up, her whole body turning into a wisp of smoke. She reached a low cliff almost at the same time as Chang Ye. Before them, an unusual orchid that had been displayed in the photograph from every angle swayed in the wind.
Xinyue licked her lips and swallowed. "This bastard really... really has some skills!"
When she glanced behind her, she grinned. "Hey, Lin Xiaose, you look like a turtle..."
Lin Xiaosu was immediately a little exasperated.
There were four of them, and three had climbed the low cliff in seconds. Only he had to claw his way up by grabbing tree roots.
This body of his was truly disappointing.
But what could he do?
His body belonged to an ordinary person!
Number 88 stretched out a hand, grabbed his, and hauled him onto the cliff by brute force. He patted Lin Xiaosu on the shoulder. "Well done! Your 200 points have been credited!"
Lin Xiaosu was delighted.
Xinyue's eyes were full of envy, jealousy, and hatred...
What about Chang Ye?
Her eyes held only excitement.
She put on the glasses Lin Xiaosu recognized and pierced the orchid before her with a silver needle. Light flickered in the lenses, clearly indicating that she was analyzing it.
Xinyue called out from the side, "Instructor, the main mission is to find Number 325, not the orchid. We found the orchid, and Comrade Xiaose's points have been credited. I won't compete with him over that, but finding Number 325 is still worth 300 points, right?"
"Right!" Number 88 showed her a rare warmth. "As long as you find him, you'll get 300 points as well!"
"Haha! Once I get those 300 points, I'll break through that damned threshold for the Qianlong Gold Medal. Let's see how that Reserve Charter crap keeps deducting my points..."
The moment her words fell, Xinyue vanished. In the next instant, she appeared atop the highest peak, overlooking the entire valley.
The Reserve Charter really was the charter Xinyue hated most. She dreamed of breaking through the thousand-point threshold.
Why?
The Qianlong Regulations made it very clear.
Below one thousand points, instructors could add or deduct points at any time.
Break through the thousand-point threshold and reach the standard for a Qianlong Gold Medal.
Once she became a Qianlong Gold Medal, she would immediately leave the jurisdiction of the Reserve Charter. Instructors would no longer have the authority to deduct her points. What governed her would no longer be instructors or that damned Reserve Charter, but the Qianlong Regulations!
From this, it was clear that the girl harbored a mountain of resentment toward instructors deducting her points.
Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly, blinked lightly, and entered Time Reversal.
As long as he found this orchid, he could discover Number 325.
As long as he discovered Number 325 and tracked his chain of movements, the main mission could be completed smoothly.
Thus, once they entered Laoshan, the hardest part was not finding Number 325 himself, but finding any trace he had left behind.
This was Lin Xiaosu's true trump card.
Through Time Reversal, Lin Xiaosu saw Number 325.
The clothes Number 325 wore were Dragon Armor.
But his Dragon Armor was clearly different from Lin Xiaosu's. Lin Xiaosu's Dragon Armor was not true Dragon Armor in the strictest sense, but imitation Dragon Armor for reserve members. He had already learned from the files that of Qianlong's four-piece set—Dragon Armor, Dragon Scales, Dragon Eyes, and Dragon Sinew—only official Qianlong members could wear them.
Dragon Armor was the protective suit worn on one's body. Different status meant different clothing. Truly high-end Dragon Armor could be made to resemble ordinary clothing, and people in society would not be able to tell at all. It could even be custom-made according to personal preferences and fashioned into stylish outfits.
Dragon Scales were daggers made of special alloy, sharp enough to slice through hair and even pierce steel.
Dragon Eyes were the glasses Chang Ye had once displayed. The glasses themselves were not the powerful part; it was the massive system connected to them.
Dragon Sinew was merely a rope. If you treated it as a rope, then it was a rope, but many Qianlong members preferred to regard it as King Yama's life-taking noose.
The color of Number 325's Dragon Armor seemed to change at all times. Different lighting and different surrounding colors caused its color to change as well.
It was a stealth material developed by imitating the principles of a chameleon.
Number 325 opened the flower bud atop the orchid and carefully dug out a cluster of grape-like objects inside, studying them for a long time...
The grapes were golden in color and extremely unusual.
They absolutely should not have grown inside an orchid bud.
Number 325 had probably realized this as well. That was why he took the cluster of grapes but left the orchid behind. Of course, it was also possible that the orchid was simply too large for him to carry away.
After collecting the grapes, he followed the valley upward, heading straight for the mountaintop.
Lin Xiaosu tracked along his path of movement all the way...
Before you continue