Chapter 74

No matter how much Lin Tantan agonized, Xu Li became her personal bodyguard. He was far more reliable than Jiang Zhongyi and the others, almost never leaving her side, and maddeningly quiet, when ignored he could hold the same posture for hours on end.
Sometimes Lin Tantan would forget there was even someone beside her, and her patients, aside from glancing at Xu Li the first time they met him, always seemed to forget he existed during treatment.
Lin Tantan felt guilty that someone like him spent every day on her account, but Xu Li said watching her treat people was interesting and helpful to his meditation.
Meditation…
Well then, he wasn't simply spacing out; he was meditating. In her eyes Xu Li instantly grew taller and far more mysterious.
Besides Xu Li, Ye Xiao assigned three more people to Lin Tantan; they were all ability users. With Lin Tantan taken care of, Ye Xiao relaxed and began actively searching for any sign of Zhou Yan.
Having such an enemy around was unsettling. Although Zhou Yan made no effort to hide his movements, the clues they had showed his comings and goings were utterly erratic; finding him would not be easy.
What Ye Xiao didn't know was that "not easy" was an understatement, someone had already beaten him to it.
That day, a party of five entered Ning City's territory.
They climbed to a high spot and, through binoculars, watched the distant line of the base walls. "That's the Ning City base," someone said.
The binoculars were held by a man in his thirties with glasses and a small mustache beneath his chin. He handed the binoculars to the burly man, and after everyone had taken a look he said, "Rest here fifteen minutes, then move on. Get inside the base before dark."
Two large birds suddenly erupted from the sky. The mustached man glanced their way, and with a plaintive cry the birds fell. A woman with two glossy black braids waved her hand, and an invisible force drew the birds toward her.
A hulking man, bare-chested with a red sweatband tied around his head, stepped over and inspected them. "Mutant birds, oh, they're pretty fat." He killed them on the spot and summoned two balls of flame to roast them.
Soon the five were sharing the roasted mutant birds and drinking. The mustached man said, "Intel says the target hasn't left the base since he went in. Any action has to be inside: find him, capture him, bring him out. Whether we succeed or not, we withdraw by this time tomorrow."
The woman with the slightly rustic braids, whose air somehow made her more alluring, smiled. "Boss, isn't that too cautious? We pull out if we don't get him in a day? We came all the way round to get here; if we leave empty-handed it's just a loss."
The fire-user with the red sweatband added, "A tri-ability user, higher-ups promised eligibility to buy a Shenji and a fifty percent discount. It's worth the risk."
The mustached man shook his head. "That woman is easy enough, but don't underestimate Ye Xiao. I've met him, when he goes berserk no one stands against him. He also has someone who can foresee danger. The longer we stay, the more we expose ourselves."
He patted the dust from his trousers. "What we have now is enough to buy a Shenji; it's just the purchase qualifications that need some work. It's worth risking for a tri-ability user, but not worth dying over."
The others agreed.
The mustached man went on, "Once we get a Shenji we'll leave the capital base, set up our own base, run the show ourselves, and never have to grovel again."
Envisioning the future, a few of them grew visibly excited.
As they spoke, a man in a black cap and sunglasses suddenly raised his hand to silence them. Faintly from the distance came a string of curses.
"...Ye Xiao, I'm gonna kill you, how dare you cut me... Zhou Li, you crawl out here, you left me in a trash heap... I'll kill you, kill you... you bitch, what's so great about being tri-ability..."
In those few words their earlier subjects were named. The group exchanged glances, set down their food, dropped to the plain, and moved toward the voice. There, among the ruins, was a beggar-like figure wandering back and forth, rifling through garbage, shoving whatever he found into his mouth only to spit it out with disgust, his behavior almost deranged.
The strangest thing was that he had barely more than half a head, one side looked as if it had been neatly cut away by a blade, which made his appearance grotesque.
It was, of course, the not-dead Zhou Yan. Spotting the newcomers, he shot his head up; his remaining eye fixed on the five for a long moment as if measuring them, then, deciding he stood no chance, he turned and fled.
The five's first instinct was to give chase.
Seeing he couldn't escape far, Zhou Yan hurled a fireball in defense.
"Ha, not bad, still a fire user!" the burly man with the red sweatband laughed. "I'll deal with him." He then launched an even larger fireball.
The two fireballs collided and scattered. Zhou Yan's fizzled out, while the other man's burst into several rocket-like streaks that tore into Zhou Yan, making him scream as he was blown backward.
Clearly that man's ability was far stronger than Zhou Yan's.
Zhou Yan, who had often been the one to ambush others with fireballs, now bore several smoking, charred holes in his body. He let out a bestial howl; his remaining eye snapped wide. The red-band man staggered, his gaze going vacant, and he stood there dazed and motionless.
Zhou Yan sprang up and hurled a fireball at him. It was about to hit when, luckily, the man with the red sweatband had companions nearby. Sensing danger, the braided woman waved her hand and conjured an invisible barrier in front of the red-sweatband man, while the mustached man concentrated his mental power into a needle and drove it into Zhou Yan’s mind.
Zhou Yan screamed and collapsed, clutching his head as he writhed on the ground. The red-sweatband man instantly snapped out of it. “Damn, what was I doing just now? I just went blank,” he muttered.
The mustached man stepped forward, watching Zhou Yan roll on the ground, frowning slightly. “A dual-ability user? He Fan, take a look.”
The man in the black cap and sunglasses came over, took off his shades, revealing strange eyes with more white than iris. He closed his eyes, pressed his index and middle fingers to his brow, then snapped them open. His gaze grew stranger, as if he’d seen something inside Zhou Yan, and he blurted out, “A three-system ability user!”
“What?!” the other four exclaimed.
He Fan closed his eyes and put his glasses back on. “No mistake. There are three ability traces in him; one of them is especially faint, but there's no doubt.”
They stared at Zhou Yan in shock. The mustached man pinched his whiskers. “This is uncanny. What kind of lucky place is Ning City? Two three-system ability users have turned up just like that.”
The braided woman said, “If he's a three-system ability user too, can't we just take him with us?”
The mustached man shook his head. “Those above specifically want Lin Tantan. They mainly want her wood-type ability. This guy, one is fire, one is mental power, the third is unknown, and he's so unstable. Might not be worth as much.”
He grinned and added, “But we could probably get the purchase rights switched.” It felt like fortune smiled on them, everything had gone smoothly since they arrived. He couldn't help imagining whether things would be just as easy at the Ning City base. Two three-system ability users…
His eyes gleamed faintly, eagerness spreading across his face.
At four or five in the afternoon the base gate was bustling. Most people who'd gone out returned around this time and had to go through strict searches, even being checked for zombie scratch marks. Only a small number were exempt from inspection.
Ye Xiao, of course, was one of them.
That day he'd returned empty-handed again; he couldn't find Zhou Yan at all. His gaze lingered on the people entering the base; his bold brows knitted slightly, lost in thought. In any case, a man with such a formidable presence standing there made those entering the base nervous and submissive, no one dared complain, even after multiple rounds of checks.
The guards at the gate felt the pressure too. Their leader, Qu Kong, ran over and said, “Captain Ye, don't worry. We're thorough in screening everyone who comes in. Anyone acting suspicious won't be let through.”
Ye Xiao nodded slightly. “Thank you for your work. Pay special attention to unfamiliar faces just arriving at the base.”
The gate guards all worked for Lu Jianping. Ye Xiao and Lu Jianping were on good terms now; Lu Jianping’s favorite officer, Ruther, had been saved thanks to Lin Tantan's timely and workable treatment plan and was slowly recovering, so Lu Jianping's men were very courteous toward Ye Xiao.
At that the leader quickly agreed and exchanged a few polite words before hurrying back to his duties. Ye Xiao checked the time, visiting hours were nearly over, and headed toward the clinic.
He was going to pick the young girl up and take her home.
Not long after he left, four unfamiliar faces reached the head of the line to enter the base. As expected, the guards rigorously interrogated them and recorded detailed notes.
The four were even stripped and searched for a long time before being issued temporary ID cards and allowed into the base.
The braided woman wore an expression of indignation. “Damn it, are they treating us like criminals?” she spat.
The mustached man looked surprised. “Didn't expect such a small base to be so strict.”
He Fan, the one with glasses, glanced around. “Have you noticed anything?”
The mustached man nodded. “Other bases must be starving by now, streets littered with gaunt corpses, looting everywhere. But people here seem calm and confident. Look, most of the folks entering are carrying plenty of game. Looks like they’re doing pretty well.”
They exchanged glances. You could tell how well-run a base was by whether people were well-fed and whether order prevailed. Obviously this Ning City base was solid, far better than several they’d passed along the way.
And between an orderly base and a chaotic one, the latter clearly suited their purposes better.
“Let's go to that clinic.”
Lin Tantan was almost off-duty too. She told those around her, “I'm heading back. You all can clock out as well.”
With Xu Li at her side were three other ability users, one of whom she knew: Fan Fang, an ice-type user who was quite skilled. Since Zhou Yan was fire-type, Ye Xiao had placed the ice user next to Lin Tantan, and because they already knew each other, it kept Lin Tantan from being surrounded by too many strangers.
Fan Fang said, “Captain Ye, is he coming today? If not, we can escort you back.”
Xu Li glanced at his radio. “Yeah, he's coming over.”
Lin Tantan sighed inwardly. Ever since finding out Zhou Yan was alive, Ye Xiao had grown unusually protective, assigning four bodyguards, personally escorting her whenever he was free. If he weren't out searching for Zhou Yan, he'd probably be shadowing her every moment.
Several times the thought had popped into her head and each time she had dismissed it as ridiculous.
She finally had to face the truth: Ye Xiao was genuinely overly anxious about her.
Or was it that a tri-ability user warranted such worry?
“Doctor Lin, you aren't leaving yet?” An elegant voice rang out, no need to look to know it belonged to that wood-type ability user, the one who'd said at the meeting he wanted to join them. His name was Shao Ping; he'd already submitted an application to Bai Cheng and was, for now, being evaluated. Lately he'd been showing up around Lin Tantan more often, as if trying to rival Ming Ze.
He smiled and said, "Dr. Lin, I have a question about abilities I'd like to ask you."
She couldn't take offense at a smiling face, Lin Tantan had no grudge against him, and she liked earnest, hardworking people, so she started talking with him.
Soon Ming Ze came out of his consultation room. Seeing Shao Ping's eyes flash, he joined the conversation. The group halted in the clinic lobby; Lin Tantan stood between the two and couldn't help feeling as if they were competing for her attention.
Fortunately Ye Xiao arrived quickly. When he saw Lin Tantan he smiled and came over. "Ready to go?"
Ming Ze and Shao Ping tactfully fell silent, Fan Fang and the others left as well. Ye Xiao had driven, so Lin Tantan and Xu Li climbed into the car and they headed toward the villa.
It was only about a two‑minute drive.
Lin Tantan hesitated. "Ye Xiao, it's so close, I can get back on my own. Besides, Xu Li and the other three are here; you don't have to come out of your way."
"It's fine, it's on the way," Ye Xiao said after a pause. "And it's not just about Zhou Yan. I heard someone in the capital has put up a huge reward and hired mercenaries to come to the Ning City base."
Lin Tantan blinked. "For me?"
"Yes."
She frowned. "They're really overdoing it. I'm only a tri-ability user, is it worth all this?"
"Some people have resources to spare. If someone succeeds they're only spending a bit of surplus; if they fail they only lose a deposit, sometimes there's not even a deposit," Ye Xiao said apologetically. "Actually they're partly after me. Some people think I'm too disobedient and enjoy causing me trouble."
Lin Tantan's brow knitted tighter. "Then maybe I should stop going out altogether."
The car pulled into the courtyard. Ye Xiao turned and looked at her with a gentle gaze. "That's unnecessary. I said I could protect you, I'm not asking you to hide yourself. We just need to take more precautions."
Under his stare, Lin Tantan lowered her eyes, feeling a little uneasy.
"When the place is finished, you can move the clinic in, it'll be safer." Lin Tantan's abilities and choices meant she couldn't avoid contact with strangers, and he didn't want to take away her freedom; he could only do his best in other ways.
It would just be a tense period: let a few waves come and be fought off, and those people would naturally think twice.
He'd heard about the mercenaries from the capital this afternoon, and learned it wasn't only private forces, there was also military involvement. Ye Xiao couldn't tell whether he felt disappointed or angry. People had grown complacent; they'd expend so much effort from thousands of miles away. If they were in the capital right now, would they send troops to seize someone?
Noticing his mood, Lin Tantan thought for a moment. "I won't go to the free clinic. It's too crowded and chaotic over there. I won't bring the clinic either. If someone needs help, have them go to the clinic first; only if they truly need me will I see them in person."
Ye Xiao was surprised. "Tantan..."
Lin Tantan smiled. "I've been thinking, I've been keeping myself too busy. I might as well give myself a break."
Ye Xiao couldn't help but smooth her hair; the girl was trying to lighten his burden.
"Then I won't go out for now either. We can't find Zhou Yan anyway; instead of chasing him around, we'll wait for him to come. For now, stay by my side, okay?"
Lin Tantan nodded.
Xu Li, sitting in the back: he might be quiet, but he's not invisible, and he's not a fool. Could they at least consider his feelings while they're showing off?
And: "Brother Ye, so I'm unemployed the moment I start the job?"
On the other side, in front of the clinic, Ming Ze looked coldly at Shao Ping. "You'd better stay away from Miss Lin."
Shao Ping smiled with cultivated politeness, but a look of satisfaction flashed in his eyes. "Why, worried I'll expose your past misdeeds? Oh, someone who used the guise of medicine to create surgical accidents and kill patients has now attached themselves to a powerful backer and become a widely respected wood‑type ability user. Isn't that ridiculous? Junior, is that how our teacher taught you?"
Ming Ze's face went cold. Shao Ping lowered his voice. "Your ability isn't stronger than mine, you just got there first. Give me my chance and I'll bury this secret forever; I won't tell a soul."
Ming Ze sneered, "Suit yourself."
Shao Ping sighed. "Fine. We'll see." He turned to leave, but halfway down the street a hand dragged him into an alley and clapped over his mouth. He looked up at the four people before him, cold sweat running down his face.
"We're asking questions, and you answer them, understand?" a seductive woman with braids said, smiling sweetly.
Shao Ping nodded frantically.
"Who was the man who just spoke to you?"
Quickly he said, "His name is Ming Ze, he's Dr. Lin's assistant."
"Assistant? To what extent? Can he be trusted?"
"Yes, very much. Dr. Lin trusts her a lot."
The four glanced at each other, then began asking other questions.
After a while Shao Ping collapsed to the ground. The four of them discussed, "This won't be easy. Lin Tantan is always accompanied by four people, Ye Xiao personally escorts her, and the only strangers she normally meets are patients. It might be possible to kill her, but abducting her would be difficult."
"Even if it's hard we have to try. Isn't there already a way in?"
They looked down at the unconscious Shao Ping. The braided woman curled her lip. "He says he's on Bai Cheng's watch list. We can't let him disappear for too long."
The man with the red sweatband said, "Are we sure we should use him? He doesn't seem useful."
"He doesn't have to be useful himself. It's enough that he knows some things."
The four of them found a place to lay low and the next day staked out the clinic. Annoyingly, after hours of waiting they caught nothing. When they pulled Shao Ping out and questioned him, they learned that Lin Tantan wasn't coming to the clinic anymore.
"Why wouldn't she come? How should I know?" Shao Ping hunched his shoulders. "She said she wouldn't be coming for a while. Please leave me alone."
Dark circles rimmed his eyes, and the handsome, gentle look he'd had was instantly diminished. The small-mustached man said grimly, "I've left a thread of my mental energy in your mind. No matter where you are, I can blow your head off whenever I like. You'd better behave. I'm not asking you to do anything dangerous, just pass on information. Not hard, is it?"
Pain stabbed through Shao Ping's head, as if a bomb had been planted there. He hurriedly shook his head: "Not hard, not hard."
After finding out that Lin Tantan wasn't coming to the clinic, they went to the construction site on the east side.
The site was as busy as ever. The perimeter wall and gate were mostly finished, enclosing the whole compound, over forty acres, it looked vast at a glance.
The basic plan was laid out and construction was everywhere. The most striking things were several buildings already up three or four stories, and beside them rows of small bungalows for those who stayed on watch at night and to handle daily affairs. Compared to villas, this had become a second stronghold.
Lin Tantan was in one of those bungalows. Sure enough Ye Xiao hadn't left the base today, he'd brought her here first thing in the morning. He and Bai Cheng were discussing something, and bored, Lin Tantan watched Xu Qin fiddling with a model fighter jet; his computer screen was filled with design schematics.
She stared at it for a long time without understanding, so she asked. Xu Qin said, "I heard they've produced some sort of Shenji over in the capital."
"A Shenji?"
"It looks like an ordinary fighter, but when it encounters danger in flight it can project an energy shield. It used to be just a concept, it's always been hard to convert available energy into a shield, but I hear they've learned to use crystal cores as the power source."
Xu Qin explained.
Lin Tantan understood at once. She couldn't imagine a 'miracle' machine, but when he said crystal cores as the power source she knew, it was the prototype of the energy fighter that later became insanely expensive.
The aerial threats in the apocalypse had never gone away. Just because you might not see a bird flying for days didn't mean taking to the skies was safe, you could be killed without ever knowing how. Energy fighters were, to some extent, a fast way to ignore threats from zombie or mutated birds, even serving as an escape vehicle in a pinch.
But the prototype…
She blurted out, "No way that's safe."
"Hm?" Xu Qin looked at her. Lin Tantan hurried to add, "I mean, the apocalypse hasn't been going on long. They haven't even fully studied abilities yet. Have they really produced weapons powered by crystal cores in the capital?"
Xu Qin shook his head.
"Exactly. They haven't even figured out how to retrofit handheld weapons, and they're already trying to convert planes. That's overambitious and dangerous, maybe it's just a publicity stunt."
She knew the prototype was cobbled together to make the capital base look impressive and to attract strong fighters. The technology was actually unreliable: the shield would destabilize within minutes of activation and the craft would explode.
Think about it: if a crystal core is mishandled it can blow people to bits, and that's with a single core. How many cores would be needed to power a plane's shield?
There were only a handful of prototype energy fighters and their endings were brutal; they took many lives.
It wasn't until Xu Qin first developed ability-based cold weapons, then ability-powered handguns and other firearms, and only after that returned to refit the prototypes, that true energy fighters were made.
But because the shields consumed so many crystal cores, no one used energy fighters lightly.
Only later, when technology advanced to extract ambient energies and synthesize crystal cores, did energy craft become less rare, by then aerial threats had largely diminished.
Xu Qin fell silent.
Over there, Ye Xiao heard them and turned back. "Tantan's right. Old Xu, don't be impatient. We'll take this step by step."
Xu Qin thought for a moment, nodded, put down the model fighter and closed the computer window.
Only then did Lin Tantan realize Xu Qin had been spurred by rumors of a 'Shenji' and had gotten a little anxious.
Lin Tantan said, "I don't have anything else to do right now, I'll help you research these ability weapons."
Xu Qin smiled, "Sure."
They'd discussed the topic several times before.
Take a dagger, for instance. When Lin Tantan held it and infused it with energy, it could unleash great power. In fact, Lin Tantan didn't really need the dagger to use her ability, the blade remained an ordinary dagger in the hands of a normal person.
Xu Qin had been trying to find a way to fit an energy chamber in the dagger to hold a crystal core as a power source, but triggering a core's energy wasn't easy. He settled for a compromise: if an ability user charged the dagger, could that make the stored energy last longer?
Lin Tantan began helping him run experiments.
Ye Xiao and Bai Cheng would chat for a while and then glance over; Bai Cheng looked a little speechless.
The four back at the hideout were even more exasperated.
"Damn, are we sure she's inside the house? Is she ever going to come out? Won't she get moldy staying in there forever?" The man with the red sweatband couldn't help cursing. At this rate they wouldn't see a hair of her, let alone get her out.
The small-mustached man shook his head. "Their security is way too tight." It seemed hopeless.
The braided woman suggested, "Why don't we go in and apply for work?"
"And then be seen through and grabbed? Don't underestimate the instincts of professional soldiers."
The four of them sat on stakeout until the afternoon, nearly ready to give up in despair, and just then, someone finally came out of that row of small houses to get some air: their target.
Lin Tantan wore a pale orange jacket; her skin was so fair it seemed to catch the sunlight. Compared to the grimy, soot-faced people around her, she looked clean and alive, like a young lady untouched by the world's troubles. She didn't seem like someone surviving the apocalypse; there was a comfortable, well-kept air about her.
She stretched lazily, turned and smiled as she spoke to a tall man. The mustached man recognized at a glance that it was Ye Xiao.
He muttered under his breath, damn it, tailing her just because she stretched? What's wrong with these people! Like an assassin's going to drop out of the sky and kill her or something?
He grew despondent; the irritation of crouching all day surged up. "Forget it, let's pull out," he said.
"We can't leave!" He Fan suddenly spoke up from beside them. He pressed two fingers to his brow; his already small pupils shrank even further. Slowly lowering his hand, he stared toward Lin Tantan and said, "She doesn’t have only three abilities, she has five."
At the same time Ye Xiao seemed to sense something; his gaze abruptly stabbed toward a direction. Lin Tantan saw his expression turn solemn and looked that way too. But whether inside the wall or outside, there were only people coming and going.
She asked, "What's wrong?"
Ye Xiao said, "Stay here, don't move. I'll go take a look." Then he added, "Xu Li."
Xu Li answered and appeared, no one quite sure where he'd come from. Lin Tantan found him oddly uncanny. Only after entrusting her to Xu Li did Ye Xiao hurry off.
Lin Tantan watched him disappear from view and sighed; her good mood evaporated. Bai Cheng, who had come to check the situation, patted her shoulder. "It's not your fault. Don't feel uneasy. If a group of people have nothing worth coveting, then they're just a bunch of nobodies. Thank you for keeping us from being nobodies."
Lin Tantan laughed at him. Bai Cheng's way of comforting people was strange, but it worked, she suddenly felt much lighter.
She asked, "So when will this ever end? We only got word about mercenaries yesterday, could someone already sneak in today?"
"It's hard to say. Our information isn't first-hand, so we don't know how delayed it is. And these mercenaries aren't sent from the capital. Since the apocalypse began, countless people have put out notices searching for relatives or special supplies, and those so-called mercenaries have been roaming the country. If a band of mercenaries happened to be near Ning City and learned about this, they'd be able to get here very quickly."
Lin Tantan said, "If we'd known, we wouldn't have announced it."
"Mainly, we never expected so many people to be that shameless," Bai Cheng sighed as well.
Suddenly Lin Tantan thought of something. She looked sharply at Bai Cheng and slapped his shoulder. "Brother Bai, your space is pretty large, right?"
"?" Bai Cheng, unusually baffled, asked, "You mean hide inside it?"
"I mean, I'm the one being coveted now, next it could be you. Ultimately, you need real strength. It's such a pity your power has no offensive edge. Why not try to develop an attack like a space blade?"
Bai Cheng blinked. "What... a space blade?"
Lin Tantan began to explain the space blade to him, of course she'd read about it in the records. Spatial ability users were pitifully rare during the apocalypse, and spatial powers were generally thought useful only for storage. But a very few had developed other techniques, like the space blade.
Unlike wind blades or metal blades, the space blade works by separating a part of one's own space and insTantaneously placing it at a target location. As that small pocket of space vanishes, whatever was in that spot disappears with it, creating an attack.
Imagine someone is trying to kill you; you sweep a space blade across his arm and a section simply ceases to exist, his hand falls away. Terrifying, right?
Besides the space blade, there are techniques like space folding and teleportation, but those are higher-level abilities that require an especially deep understanding and control of space. By comparison, the space blade is easier to realize.
Bai Cheng fell into thought. If it could really be achieved, it would be a deadly trump card.
He had never been particularly strong in combat, and after being badly wounded he largely stopped fighting. Although he had a space where he could hide countless weapons and pull them out at will, having a means of defending himself that didn't rely on external objects would be very necessary.
So he began to try.
When Ye Xiao returned he found Bai Cheng and Xu Qin both lost in their own worlds, while Lin Tantan rested her chin in her hand and watched him.
Lin Tantan asked how it went. He shook his head. "I didn't find anything unusual." He then gestured toward Bai Cheng. "What's going on?"
Lin Tantan smiled. "He's evolving. Don't disturb him."
"Evolving?"
Lin Tantan went on, "Ye Xiao, show me how you absorb crystal cores. Let me see you absorb one, and show me how the energy runs through your body. I have more powers than you and more experience in this area, let's have a real discussion. Either way, letting time slide by is still wasting it."
Lin Tantan was angry; she erupted. Wasn't it her doing that had left everyone on edge and hemmed in? She couldn't even treat patients properly; Ye Xiao wouldn't go outside the base. Why keep holding back? No more tiptoeing! Get everything out now! Let her find other ways to shine!
Meanwhile, the four who had narrowly escaped before Ye Xiao noticed them were still shaken. What kind of sensitivity was that, he almost detected them from so far away.
But they had no time to dwell on it. They kept their eyes fixed on He Fan. The mustached man asked, "What did you say just now, five? What does that mean?"
He Fan pressed his head. The distance earlier had been too great, and because realizing it was a five-type had shocked him, he'd spent a long time double-checking, he'd overused his ability and now felt a bit of a headache.
He said, "There can be no mistake, that woman has five lines of energy flowing through her body."
The mustached man hurriedly asked, "What kind of ability is it?"
"How am I supposed to tell what kind of ability?" He Fan said with a very serious expression. "Two of them are especially bright; the other three are a bit weaker, but still very bright. Brighter than any of yours."
The mustached man sucked in a breath. "Goddamn, is this woman a monster?"
His face flushed as if asking his three companions and himself at once: "Which is more valuable, a possibly once-in-a-generation five-ability user, or a crazy three-ability user who isn't even the mission target?"
Is that even a question?
The mustached man paced back and forth a few times and made up his mind. "Find a safe place. I want to talk to them and see how high a price they'll put on her."