Chapter 1455: Xia Qing at the Top of the Pyramid

"Third Brother, look at this!"

The expressionless Xia Qing entered her idol's office and closed the door, then took off her protective mask and eagerly pulled out a test report, holding it out to her idol.

Zhang San took the report, saw the first line, and frowned. "Samples 1, 2, 3, 4? Why is there only the sample serial number? What about the geographic location, area code, sampling point type, soil layer, and depth?"

... At a time like this when I'm so happy, could you not nitpick these minor details first?

Xia Qing sat down, grinned, and reported happily, "These were collected within the range of the third peak of Mountain No. 50. Samples 2 and 3 of the Gao Yi-element soil were in a canyon formed by a mountain fissure — the location is extremely hidden, a normal person would never think of it or be able to get in. Look at the Yi-element content of Sample 3 — 6.0! The highest Yi-element content in the soil of my territory's terraced fields is only 5.9!"

Zhang San carefully read through the test results of all four samples, and felt his breathing ease. "Did you record video?"

"Recorded." Xia Qing immediately handed over the USB drive. "Don't worry, the sampling and testing process are absolutely fine — these two samples are definitely Gao Yi-element soil!"

Zhang San took the USB drive and handed Xia Qing a map of Mountain No. 50. "Mark the sampling locations clearly."

"Got it!" This was no challenge for Xia Qing.

The first frame of the video showed two wolves perched on a tree branch. Zhang San's expression visibly softened. "Was the sampling location discovered by Xiao Duan?"

Xia Qing, pen in hand, answered seriously, "It was Yang Jin who first circled the geographic area of the hot spring water system, and then Duan Yao took Xiao Lang-ge to search within those areas."

So discovering the Gao Yi-element soil wasn't entirely the credit of your beloved disciple Xiao Duan.

Zhang San glanced at Xia Qing's messy hair and continued watching the video.

After listening to Yang Jin's first segment of analysis, Zhang San praised him: "The ability to connect static rock evidence with dynamic geological processes is one of the core abilities of a geologist. Yang Jin has both rich theoretical knowledge and practical experience, which is why he was able to find the unpolluted spring on the island in Lan Wu's Sea of Death."

Xia Qing, who was tapping away on the map...

When the video reached the part where Xia Qing easily pried loose a rock that Yang Jin couldn't move, and accurately found the rock's original position, Zhang San looked up and saw the new human sitting across from him, pen in hand, gazing at him eagerly. He gathered his thoughts and praised, "Your strength and visual evolution are both outstanding — worthy of a new human standing at the top of Blue Star's pyramid."

Xia Qing...

Today's recording only covered the sampling process, with no footage of the journey or the climbing through the mountain fissure, so Zhang San finished watching quickly.

After handing Xia Qing a bag of rice puff candy, he picked up the map with the sampling points Xia Qing had circled and glanced at it — his eyes immediately lost focus, clearly indicating his brain was running at high speed.

Xia Qing sat quietly across the desk, not crunching on rice puff candy and disturbing her idol's thoughts.

About two minutes later, Zhang San's eyes refocused. "How do you and Yang Jin view these two springs?"

When the idol asks like this, he must also have developed doubts about the mainstream view.

Xia Qing tore open the bag of rice puff candy and answered, "Yang Jin believes both springs formed in the first year of the Catastrophe. The spring on Mountain No. 50 was damaged in the earthquake of the second year of the Catastrophe, so the water quality dropped to ordinary grade."

After stating Yang Jin's view, Xia Qing presented her own: "I believe the unpolluted spring on Mountain No. 50 formed after the great earthquake in the second year of the Catastrophe. After the disaster, people moved into the hidden valley formed by the mountain fissure, cut into the mountain to farm, which damaged the mountain's structure, and the spring water's quality gradually declined to its current level."

Yang Jin's inference was based on eleven years of human research on unpolluted spring water during the Catastrophe. If he hadn't seen the cell phone videos left by Shi Jiayi, Zhang San would have inferred the same way — which was why he had fallen into thought just now.

Now, he wanted to hear Xia Qing's reasons for making a different inference. "What is the basis for your inference?"

Xia Qing took another rice puff candy from in front of her idol, tore it open and handed it to him, before clearly laying out her arguments: "First, that earthquake happened in late autumn of the second year of the Catastrophe. If we follow Yang Jin's inference, the riverbed where Samples 2 and 3 are located would only have been washed by the unpolluted spring for a little over a year. For sediment in the riverbed to accumulate such excessive Yi-element in such a short time, I feel the difficulty is quite high. Second, Shi Jiayi repeatedly mentioned the spring water in her recordings before her death — she must have done so because she discovered that drinking the hot spring water in the valley was beneficial to the human body."

Zhang San nodded, gesturing for Xia Qing to continue.

"Shi Jiayi didn't have protective clothing or a protective mask. She lived in the valley for five years. In her last video, the only skin she exposed — aside from the venomous snake bite — had only some shallow scratches on her hands. Even if the valley was very safe, she shouldn't have had only this few injuries. She must also have been a recovery-type evolver, which is how she managed to survive until the seventh year of the Catastrophe."

"The reason she couldn't hold on any longer was probably that the spring's quality only dropped to yellow-light a few months before, or even less time before that. She lost her source of high-quality water, and without a protective mask or potions to combat the Catastrophe, it ultimately led to her losing control."

This was the result of surviving alone in the Evolution Forest, cut off from human society for a long time. Zhang Shi most likely watched his sister's cell phone videos before finally making up his mind to risk returning to human society with Xiao Shiyi.

Xia Qing paused before continuing, "Yang Jin used one point to overturn my hypothesis: the cultivated soil in the hidden valley is not Gao Yi-element soil."

Zhang San poured Xia Qing a glass of water, gesturing for her to continue.

As a farming lord, Xia Qing might lack knowledge in other areas, but her understanding of soil definitely surpassed Yang Jin's. "Although there's no test confirmation, just by feel and smell, I'm eighty percent sure: the cultivated soil in the hidden valley itself is not the type of soil that can absorb Yi-element."

Xia Qing's eyes burned with intensity. "Third Brother, you told me before that humanity's research on unpolluted springs is still in the exploratory stage."

Zhang San corrected her seriously, "The professional way to express it is: primary stage."

Although these two phrases mean the same thing, whatever the idol says goes. Xia Qing corrected herself, "Right, primary stage. So the view that 'all springs formed during the period when the Yi and Qi elements suddenly appeared in the first year of the Catastrophe' might be wrong. The spring on Mountain No. 50 formed after the earthquake in the second year of the Catastrophe. The second spring in my territory formed in the sixth year or the first half of the seventh year of the Catastrophe, after the spring on Mountain No. 50 was completely destroyed."

Zhang San pressed, "Why do you believe the spring in Territory No. 3 didn't form in the first year of the Catastrophe?"

Xia Qing was very calm. "Because the spring in my territory is just in a small pile of rocks on the hillside — lift one stone and you can see it. Our territory isn't far from the old regiment headquarters, so it's in an area adjacent to human living zones. During the second to sixth years of the Catastrophe, humans conducted carpet searches of adjacent areas. If the spring had already been an unpolluted spring at that time, it couldn't have gone undiscovered. Am I right?"