Chapter 22: The Secret Within the Photograph

Lin Xiaosu shook his head lightly. “If only this were a river. The key is, this isn’t a river at all. It’s just a temporary waterway formed by heavy rain in the Laoshan region yesterday morning. Today, the weather is clear in Laoshan, so this so-called river must have already disappeared.”

Number 88 nodded gently. “Good eye! There are fallen green grasses in this water, so clearly it’s not an actual river. That’s also why I didn’t pay attention to it. Now, tell me, what information did you see?”

“Look at these leaves,” Lin Xiaosu said, pointing at several leaves floating downstream.

The leaves were large, and under the high-definition camera of the Qianlong, they appeared extremely clear.

Leaves?

Everyone’s eyes widened at once.

“Changye, you’re skilled in botany. Can you tell what kind of tree these leaves come from?”

“They look a bit like… eucalyptus!”

“Exactly! Eucalyptus,” Lin Xiaosu replied. “Do you know what’s special about eucalyptus?”

“They’re extraordinarily tall!”

Lin Xiaosu nodded. “Eucalyptus trees can grow more than a hundred meters tall. They’re common in the forests of southern Mo State, but in Daxia, they’re rare. If we fly over Laoshan in our aircar, it should be easy to spot such rare, towering trees from above, right?”

Number 88’s eyes lit up.

Changye’s eyes shone, too.

Xinyue glanced from one to the other. “Hey, hey, instructor, don’t just get carried away and give him bonus points for a few vague, unsubstantiated remarks! The Reserve Charter strictly forbids favoritism or bending the rules…”

Number 88 laughed heartily. “Comrade Xiaosu, I see hope in you! Next, find the location where this photo was taken, and I’ll add two hundred points to your score!”

“Yes, sir!” Lin Xiaosu saluted, though his gesture was more than a little unconventional.

“That salute was improper—minus ten points!” Xinyue shouted.

With a soft whir, the starry sky outside the aircar vanished completely.

It was the darkest hour before dawn.

But as Lin Xiaosu gazed out the window at the great river below, he still felt the vastness of the world.

They’d already left Area 101, so there was no longer any need to conceal themselves.

Below them was the Yangtze River. Lin Xiaosu quietly estimated their speed—about seven hundred kilometers per hour.

A perfectly normal cruising velocity.

“Everyone, get some rest. Once we enter the mountains, there might not be another chance,” Changye said, closing her eyes.

Number 88 closed his eyes as well, and before long, the sound of snoring filled the air.

That was the unique trait of Qianlong members: they could fall asleep the moment they lay down, and the moment they opened their eyes, they were ready to fight. Their bodies were trained to conserve every ounce of energy.

Lin Xiaosu and Xinyue weren’t so fortunate.

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

“Why are you always picking on me?” Lin Xiaosu whispered.

“Why did you smash my chest?” Xinyue’s voice was just as low.

“You jumped out, ready to kill me. I’d say breaking your head would be perfectly reasonable.”

“Then why didn’t you hit my head? Why my chest?”

“Ugh… There’s an old saying: ‘Women and petty men are hard to deal with!’” Lin Xiaosu shut his eyes.

But he distinctly felt a hand, shaped like a knife, tracing a line in the air across his neck.

He snapped his eyes open, catching sight of the hand as it quickly withdrew, but the motion was exactly as he’d sensed.

What on earth?

Was this another otherworldly skill?

Had he really been able to “see” her movement with his eyes closed?

Lin Xiaosu closed his eyes again and focused his consciousness in his mind. Suddenly, he felt something strange—a silvery fish of awareness seemed to swim through his mental forest, wandering boundlessly. His perception of the outside world became mystical, as if he could sense movements around him without opening his eyes.

Could this silver fish be the so-called sixth sense? Could this be the materialization of intuition?

When they next awoke, the sun was blazing in the sky.

The autopiloted aircar had already reached its destination: Laoshan.

Without disturbing anyone, the aircar slipped directly into the mountains.

From above, Laoshan appeared extraordinary. A thin mist undulated like ocean waves, enshrouding everything below. Here and there, a few giant trees pierced through the mist, and in some places, mountain peaks rose above the clouds like lonely islands.

Xinyue stared blankly at the trees below, wanting to douse Lin Xiaosu with a bucket of cold water, but she held her tongue—she had to admit she was a little impressed.

Laoshan was shrouded in dense fog all year round.

Only by finding trees over a hundred meters tall could they hope for reliable landmarks.

This scoundrel might be an insufferable brat, but his idea seemed to be the only workable solution.

Ten minutes later, Changye raised her hand, pointing at a tree. “Eucalyptus!”

The mist had grown even thicker, but this tall tree jutted upward with remarkable distinction.

Number 88 grew excited and began to steer the aircar down.

Lin Xiaosu shook his head. “Not this one. Keep searching.”

“How do you know?” Changye asked.

“The terrain below doesn’t match at all.”

That was it. Their goal wasn’t the eucalyptus itself, but to use the eucalyptus as a reference point to locate the true spot. The eucalyptus was only for orientation. There were other geographic features in the photo.

Changye was a little unconvinced. The boy had sharp eyes, but could he really see through such dense fog to make out precise features below?

Another eucalyptus appeared—ignored.

Soon after, three stood side by side—also ignored.

After about forty minutes of flight, they’d counted thirty eucalyptus trees.

Overall, as Lin Xiaosu had said, eucalyptus was rare, but Laoshan was vast enough to contain dozens.

An hour passed. Even in the sky, the aircar had lost all sense of direction; below, the clouds roiled, above, the sky stretched on, and all landmarks had vanished. Satellite signals were completely lost…

These Qianlong prodigies, so used to being in control, experienced—for the first time—a sense of helplessness.

Heaven knows, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

Suddenly, Lin Xiaosu pointed. “There!”

Number 88’s spirits rose as he guided the aircar down.

They landed in a valley. The eucalyptus grew at the valley floor, barely protruding above the mist. Among so many eucalyptus trees, it was actually rather inconspicuous.

But Lin Xiaosu singled it out at a glance.

As soon as they landed, Changye’s eyes brightened. “Over there!”

“Did he actually find it? No way!” Xinyue leapt forward, her body becoming a wisp of smoke, and reached a low cliff almost simultaneously with Changye. Before them, a strange orchid—the very one from the photo, seen from all angles—swayed in the breeze.

Xinyue licked her lips and swallowed. “That brat… he actually has some skills.”

Glancing back, she laughed. “Hey, Lin Xiaose, you look just like a turtle!”

Lin Xiaosu was a little exasperated.

Out of the four, three had reached the cliff in seconds; only he struggled, clinging to tree roots, to climb up.

His body really was nothing to boast about.

But what could he do? He was just an ordinary human!

Number 88 reached out, grabbed his hand, and hauled him up with brute strength, clapping him on the shoulder. “Well done! Your two hundred points have been credited!”

Lin Xiaosu beamed.

Xinyue’s eyes blazed with envy, jealousy, and resentment.

As for Changye—her eyes sparkled with excitement.

She donned the familiar glasses Lin Xiaosu recognized and pierced the orchid with a silver needle. Light flickered in her lenses—a clear sign she was analyzing the flower.

Xinyue called out, “Instructor, the main mission is to find Number 325, not just the orchid. Lin Xiaose’s points are credited for the orchid, and I won’t compete with him for that. But if I find 325, I still get three hundred points, right?”

“Yes!” Number 88, for once, showed her a rare, gentle smile. “If you find him, you’ll get three hundred points!”

“Ha! With that, I’ll finally break past the cursed line for Qianlong Gold. Let’s see how the ‘Reserve Charter’ tries to dock my points then…”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Xinyue’s figure vanished, and a moment later she was at the highest peak, scanning the whole valley below.

Truth be told, the “Reserve Charter” was her greatest nemesis. She’d dreamed of surpassing the one-thousand-point threshold.

Why? The Qianlong Regulations were clear:

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

Once you passed that line and reached the standard for Qianlong Gold, you’d leave the jurisdiction of the “Reserve Charter.” No more docking of points by instructors; from then on, you’d answer only to the Qianlong Regulations.

Clearly, this girl bore a grudge against all those point deductions.

Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly and blinked, shifting into reverse time-flow.

As long as he found this orchid, he’d be able to locate Number 325.

Once he found 325, he could follow the trail all the way to completing the main mission.

So entering Laoshan, the hardest part was never finding 325 himself, but rather finding any trace he had left behind.

That was Lin Xiaosu’s true ace.

In the flow of reversed time, Lin Xiaosu saw Number 325.

He was wearing Dragon Armor.

But his armor was clearly different. Lin Xiaosu’s own “dragon armor” was just a reserve-grade imitation. He’d already learned from the records: the Qianlong four-piece set—Dragon Armor, Dragon Scale, Dragon Eye, Dragon Tendon—was for official members only.

Dragon Armor—protective clothing. Depending on status, the appearance varied. High-level armor could look like regular clothes, even tailored to personal preference and made as stylish as you wanted; no one on the street would know.

Dragon Scale was a dagger, made of special alloy—sharp enough to cut hair, able to pierce steel.

Dragon Eye was the glasses Changye had demonstrated; the real power lay in the vast system the glasses connected to.

Dragon Tendon—a rope. Treat it as rope and that’s all it is, but among Qianlong members, many used it as a death-dealing garrote.

Number 325’s Dragon Armor seemed to change color constantly—different lighting, different surroundings, different shades.

It was developed based on chameleon principles—an advanced cloaking material.

Number 325 opened the orchid’s bud and carefully extracted a cluster of grape-like objects, examining them closely for a long time.

The grapes were a golden hue, utterly unique—definitely not something that should grow inside an orchid’s bud.

Clearly, Number 325 realized this as well. He took the grapes but left the orchid, perhaps because the orchid was simply too large to carry away.

After collecting the grapes, he climbed up the valley toward the mountaintop.

Lin Xiaosu tracked his movements, following his trail…