Mystery in the Photograph

Lin Xiaosu gently shook his head. "If this were a river, that would be fine. The key is that it isn't a river at all. It's merely a temporary waterway formed by a heavy rain in the Prison Mountain region yesterday morning. The weather in Prison Mountain is clear today, so this river has presumably already vanished."

Number 88 nodded lightly. "Sharp eyes! There's flattened grass in this river, so it clearly isn't a real river. That was also the key reason I didn't include this little river in my field of vision. Tell me, then. Where is the information you spotted?"

Lin Xiaosu said, "Look at these leaves!"

His finger pointed at several leaves drifting downstream.

The leaves were very large, and beneath Qianlong's specialized high-definition camera, they were exceptionally clear.

Leaves?

Everyone's eyes widened at the same time...

"Changye, you're proficient in botany. Do you know what tree these leaves came from?"

"They look a little like... eucalyptus!"

"That's right! They are eucalyptus leaves!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Do you know the greatest characteristic of eucalyptus trees?"

"Exceptionally tall!"

Lin Xiaosu nodded gently. "A mature eucalyptus tree can grow over a hundred meters tall. They are most common in the forests of South Mo Prefecture, but they are rare in Great Xia. If we fly our vehicle over Prison Mountain, wouldn't the hundred-meter trees below, which are not very numerous, be easy to find?"

Number 88's eyes lit up!

Changye's eyes lit up!

Xin Yue looked at this one, then that one. "Hey, hey, Instructor, don't suddenly get carried away and award points for his few unverified, bland-as-water-and-salt nonsense remarks. The Reserve Corps Regulations say that favoritism, cheating, and giving personal points are strictly forbidden..."

Number 88 burst into laughter. "Comrade Xiao Su, I see hope in you. Next, find where this photograph was taken, and I'll give you another 200 points!"

"Yes!" Lin Xiaosu raised a hand and gave a Four-Unlike Beast salute.

"Improper salute, minus 10 points..." Xin Yue shouted.

Hiss!

With a soft sound, the starry curtain outside the flying vehicle completely vanished.

Outside was the darkest hour before dawn.

Yet as Lin Xiaosu looked through the vehicle window at the great river below, he still felt the world open wide before him.

They had already left Unit 101, so there was no need to hide anymore.

Below them was the Yangtze River. Lin Xiaosu silently calculated the flying vehicle's speed in his heart. It was roughly 700 kilometers per hour.

A perfectly normal cruising speed.

"Everyone, get some rest. Once we enter the mountains, we may not have time to rest." Changye spoke, then closed her eyes.

Number 88 also closed his eyes.

And very quickly, Number 88's snores began to sound.

This was probably the peculiarity of Qianlong members.

They could sleep the moment their heads hit the pillow and fight the instant they opened their eyes. The functions within their bodies had long since been rigorously mechanized, allowing not a fraction of their strength to go to waste.

Lin Xiaosu and Xin Yue could not do that.

The two lay side by side in the back seat, staring at each other with wide eyes.

"Why are you always targeting me?" Lin Xiaosu's voice was very low.

"Why did you blow up my boobs?" Xin Yue's voice was just as low.

"You jumped out and tried to kill me. It would have been perfectly normal for me to smash your head."

"Then smash my head! Why did you hit my boobs?"

"Damn it... Women and petty men are equally impossible to raise!" Lin Xiaosu closed his eyes.

But he distinctly sensed a hand forming a blade and slicing back and forth through the air across his neck.

Lin Xiaosu abruptly opened his eyes and saw that hand. It withdrew with unimaginable speed, yet the trail it left was exactly the same as what he had sensed.

Damn!

What heaven-defying skill was this?

I could see her movements even with my eyes closed?

Lin Xiaosu closed his eyes again and focused his consciousness on his brain. Suddenly, he had a marvelous sensation. It seemed as though there was a Silver Fish of consciousness inside his mind, swimming through a boundless forest of awareness. His perception of the Outside World was so mysterious 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 given physical form—could anyone understand that?

By the time they woke up, the red sun filled the sky.

The unmanned flying vehicle had also smoothly reached its destination: Prison Mountain.

The flying vehicle did not alarm anyone and went directly into Prison Mountain.

Looking down from the flying vehicle, Prison Mountain was extraordinarily peculiar.

A thin layer of mist rose and fell like ocean waves, blanketing everything below.

Every now and then, several huge trees broke through the mist, while several tall mountains stood like isolated islands in the sea.

Xin Yue stared blankly at the trees below. She dearly wanted to pour several basins of cold water over Lin Xiaosu, but she could not say anything, because she had developed a degree of admiration for him.

The thick fog over Prison Mountain never dispersed all year round.

Perhaps only those hundred-meter-tall trees could serve as the best landmarks for finding a location.

Though this bastard was a bastard, the idea he had proposed seemed to be the only feasible method.

Ten minutes later, Changye raised a hand and pointed at a large tree. "Eucalyptus!"

Rather than dispersing, the mist had grown even thicker. The tree she pointed at rose high from within the fog and was highly recognizable.

Number 88 grew excited and maneuvered the flying vehicle to descend.

Lin Xiaosu gently shook his head. "Not this one. Keep going!"

"How do you know it isn't?" Changye asked.

"The geographical features below don't match at all."

Below!

That was right. Their target was not the eucalyptus tree itself, but using the eucalyptus tree to locate the true site. Therefore, the eucalyptus was only a reference point.

There were geographical features in the photograph as well.

Changye looked at Lin Xiaosu with a hint of defiance in her eyes. The boy's eyesight was indeed remarkable, but could he really see the precise geographical features below through this almost impenetrable fog?

Another eucalyptus tree appeared and was ignored as well.

Immediately afterward, three eucalyptus trees standing side by side appeared.

They were ignored too.

The flying vehicle flew for roughly forty minutes and saw thirty eucalyptus trees along the way.

Overall, eucalyptus trees were indeed as rare as Lin Xiaosu had said.

But Prison Mountain was too vast, and it still contained dozens of them.

An hour passed. Although the flying vehicle was in the sky, it had temporarily lost its bearings. Below was a sea of clouds, above was the firmament, and there were no effective reference points in any direction. Even the satellite signal had been completely lost...

These Qianlong prodigies, accustomed to keeping everything under control, experienced for the first time a sensation of being unable to control anything...

Heaven bore witness: the feeling was awful.

Suddenly, Lin Xiaosu pointed. "There!"

Number 88 perked up and piloted the flying vehicle downward.

It was a valley. This eucalyptus tree grew at the bottom of the valley, and its crown had only just broken through the fog layer. Among the many eucalyptus trees, it was not actually conspicuous.

Yet Lin Xiaosu had locked onto it at a glance.

The moment they landed in the valley, the sight before them made Changye's eyes shine. "Over there!"

"They really found it? No way, right?" Xin Yue leaped up, her entire body transforming into a wisp of Qing Yan. She and Changye reached a low cliff almost simultaneously. Before them, an unusual orchid that had been displayed in the picture from every angle swayed in the wind.

Xin Yue licked her lips and swallowed. "This bastard... really does have a few tricks up his sleeve!"

When she glanced back, she grinned. "Hey, Lin Xiaose, you look just like a turtle..."

Lin Xiaosu was instantly a little exasperated.

Of the four traveling together, three had climbed the low cliff in seconds. Only he had to tug at tree roots and crawl upward.

This body of his was truly disappointing.

But what could he do?

His body was that of an ordinary person!

Number 88 stretched out a hand, grabbed his, and hauled him forcefully onto the cliff. He patted Lin Xiaosu on the shoulder. "Well done! Your 200 points have been credited!"

Lin Xiaosu was delighted.

Xin Yue's eyes were filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred...

And Changye?

Her eyes contained 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; she was clearly analyzing it.

Xin Yue called from the side, "Instructor, the main mission is to find No. 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 No. 325 is still worth 300 points, right?"

"Right!" Number 88 showed her rare warmth. "As long as you find him, you'll get 300 points as well!"

"Haha! Once those 300 points are credited, I'll directly break through that damned threshold for the Hidden Dragon Gold Medal. Let's see how the Reserve Corps Damn Regulations deduct my points then..."

As soon as her voice fell, Xin Yue vanished. The next moment, she appeared atop the highest peak, overlooking the entire valley.

Speaking of which, the Reserve Corps Regulations were truly the regulations Xin Yue hated most. She dreamed of breaking through the one-thousand-point line.

Why?

The Qianlong Regulations made it very clear.

Below one thousand points, instructors could add or deduct points at any time.

Break through the one-thousand-point line, and one met the standard for the Hidden Dragon Gold Medal.

Once she became a Hidden Dragon Gold Medal member, she would leap out of the Reserve Corps Regulations' jurisdiction in a single step. Instructors would no longer have the authority to deduct her points. The ones governing her would no longer be instructors, no longer the damned Reserve Corps Regulations, but the Qianlong Regulations!

This showed just how deep this girl's resentment was toward instructors deducting her points.

Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly, blinked lightly, and entered Temporal Reversal.

As long as he found this orchid, he could discover No. 325.

As long as he discovered No. 325, he could trace his chain all the way along, and the main mission would be smoothly completed.

Therefore, after entering Prison Mountain, the most difficult part was not finding No. 325 himself, but finding any trace he had left behind at any point.

This was Lin Xiaosu's true trump card, kept hidden at the bottom of his chest.

In Temporal Reversal, Lin Xiaosu saw No. 325.

The clothes he wore were precisely Dragon Armor.

But his Dragon Armor was clearly different from Lin Xiaosu's. Lin Xiaosu's Dragon Armor was not truly Dragon Armor at all, but the Reserve Corps' False Dragon Armor. He had already learned from the materials that the Qianlong four-piece set—Dragon Armor, Dragon Scales, Dragon Eye, and Dragon Tendon—could only be worn by official Qianlong members.

Dragon Armor was the protective suit worn on the body. Different status, different clothing. Genuine high-grade Dragon Armor could be made to look like ordinary clothes, and when worn out in society, outsiders would not be able to see any difference at all. It could even be tailored to personal preference and made into fashionable clothing.

Dragon Scales were daggers made from a special alloy, sharp enough to cut hair blown against their edges and even pierce steel.

Dragon Eye was the pair of glasses Changye had once displayed. What made them formidable was not the glasses themselves, but the massive system connected to them.

Dragon Tendon was merely a rope. If one regarded it as a rope, then it was a rope. Yet among Qianlong members, many preferred to regard it as King Yama's life-snatching garrote.

The color of No. 325's Dragon Armor seemed to change at every moment. Different lighting, different surrounding colors—the color of the Dragon Armor changed accordingly.

It was camouflage material developed by imitating the principles of a chameleon.

No. 325 opened the flower bud atop the orchid and carefully dug out a cluster of grape-like objects inside. He studied it closely for a long time...

The grapes were golden in color and exceptionally strange.

They absolutely should not have grown inside an orchid bud.

No. 325 had probably realized that as well. That was why he took the cluster of grapes while leaving the orchid behind. Of course, it was also possible that the orchid was simply too large for him to carry away.

After collecting the cluster of grapes, he followed the valley upward and climbed straight to the mountaintop.

Lin Xiaosu traced his path all the way along...