Chapter 1477: Discovering That Little Eleven Is a Class C Magnetoception Evolver

After their bout of fussing, the two lay side by side on the sofa, smiles on both their faces.

Xin Yu reminded her friend to be on her utmost guard against the third leader of the Azure Dragon Squad, who was about to come "vacation" in the northern first district's territory. "Yang Jin is the strongest overall fighter and the best at making money among the Azure Dragon Squad's three leaders; Luo Pei is the most upright and most responsible, and Xie Yu is the most mysterious and most cold-blooded—he's the enforcer of internal order within the Azure Dragon Squad."

Although she hadn't met Xie Yu more than a handful of times, Xia Qing had dealt with the Azure Dragon Squad for two years and had a very keen sense of just how important Xie Yu was to the squad. She offered an apt analogy: "If you compare the Azure Dragon Squad to a person, Yang Jin decides how fast that person can run, Luo Pei decides whether that person will go astray, and Xie Yu decides whether that person will fall. Without any one of these three leaders, the Azure Dragon Squad would never have developed into what it is today."

In the calamity years when order had collapsed and the strong ruled, the powerful alliance of Yang Jin, Luo Pei, and Xie Yu was the most enviable model of cooperative survival.

She and Xin Yu weren't just a powerful alliance—they were a land-air partnership, and the effect was even better.

Xia Qing's magnetic field was calm and gentle, which was simply wonderful for a Class C magnetoception evolver. Xin Yu stretched out her limbs, tilted her head to bump her friend's head, and once again warned her not to be fooled by Xie Yu's appearance once he took off his hat.

"Xie Yu doesn't just decide whether the Azure Dragon Squad 'person' will fall—he also decides how long and how sharp the blade in that person's hand is. In the fifth year of the calamity, to rescue a squad member who had been captured and taken into an underground laboratory, Xie Yu revealed his brain-domain evolution ability and went undercover as a researcher inside the lab to act as an inside man. That mission had a huge impact on Xie Yu. After that, several large-scale violent clashes between the Azure Dragon Squad and outside forces were all led by Xie Yu."

The hat-wearing Xie Yu of before had instinctively frightened Xin Yu; the Xie Yu of now, who seemed like a different person once he took off his hat, made her even more wary. If she could, she would never in her life want to deal with someone like him.

Xia Qing didn't have Class C magnetoception ability and couldn't sense the changes in Xin Yu's magnetic field, but she possessed outstanding auditory evolution ability and could hear the changes in Xin Yu's breathing rate.

Xia Qing of course knew what her friend was worried about. Everyone had secrets they didn't want others to know, and the more secrets a person had, the less they wanted to associate with a top-tier brain-domain evolver whose observation and analytical abilities were off the charts.

When she heard that Xie Yu was coming to "visit" her territory, the first thought in Xia Qing's head was to hide Zhang Shi and little Ye Yiyi in the cave in the third district of Mountain 49 before he arrived, so that if Xie Yu asked to visit her laboratory, he wouldn't catch her off guard.

This wasn't because Xia Qing was certain Xie Yu would harm Zhang Shi, but because she didn't want more people to know Zhang Shi's whereabouts—the more people who knew, the greater the risk of Zhang Shi being exposed.

Xia Qing comforted her friend. "Xie Yu's role within the Azure Dragon Squad is a lot like Qu Fangzhou, the vice-captain of Blaze. They both possess extremely strong information-retrieval and analytical abilities, and can rationally and objectively put forward the best plans. This time, in cooperating with you, Xie Yu has shown such great sincerity because Azure Dragon wants to cut off the Fire Phoenix's pollution-free water supply as quickly as possible and achieve their goal. If you don't want to deal with Xie Yu, when he comes over, just have Uncle Ping host him."

Zhou Zhaoping, who had spent half his life battling in the business world, was an old fox, and dealing with all kinds of people was what he did best.

Xin Yu responded, "We can't leave it all to Uncle Ping. When Xie Yu comes to the territory, if the situation with Chonglian has already become clear, I'll need to do my duty as host. I'll still have to trouble you to come over and help out—chime in with a word or two when I leave an awkward silence."

Xia Qing certainly wouldn't refuse. "Sure. But I'm not great at this either. When the time comes, invite me on the lord channel—Tang Huai will definitely offer to bring some Green Lantern ingredients along to join the fun. If you even invite him, then even if you don't say a single word, there won't be any awkward silences."

Thinking about how noisy Tang Huai was, Xin Yu wanted to throw a bomb. "Tang Huai's even more trouble—bring Yang Jin instead."

Yang Jin was indeed a better fit than Tang Huai. Xia Qing nodded. "Sure. If Yang Jin isn't around at the time, we'll just call Tan Qi along. That little girl is pretty good at handling things too, and she knows Xie Yu as well."

"Tan Qi—she changed her own name." After correcting her friend, Xin Yu asked, "Has Yang Jin found out that Zhang Shi and her daughter are in your territory?"

Xia Qing gave an affirmative answer. "No. He lives in the meeting room by the farmland and rarely enters the village."

Xin Yu raised an arm and gave Xia Qing a thumbs-up. "So when Xie Yu comes to visit you, you'll host him in the meeting room too?"

Xia Qing answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "The wasteland village I live in is the territory of Lao Da, Wolf Lao Er, and Lao Si. Any human who hasn't earned their trust can't enter, so I can only host Xie Yu in the meeting room."

This excuse really was too useful!

Xin Yu made the call. "Next spring Guagua will hatch a little bird with an off-the-charts territorial instinct, and it'll block everyone I don't want to see outside the territory gate."

Xia Qing was tempted too. "Can you make it hatch two?"

"I'll have it try extra hard."

"Do you still remember that valley where I went to pick soybeans? The birds in there are all pretty impressive. When we have time, let's take Guagua over for a look—maybe we really can find it a mate."

"Sure."

After the two finished chatting about Bird Valley, the topic returned to the territory. Xin Yu asked, "Have you been keeping an eye on that little niece Ye Yang brought back from Lan Five Base?"

Xia Qing answered honestly. "Not really. What about her?"

"She might be a Class C magnetoception evolver, because…"

Xin Yu suddenly flipped over and stared at her friend with wide eyes. "You knew!"

Xia Qing met her friend's gaze calmly. "I knew, but I promised not to tell anyone."

"Mm, don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Xin Yu lay back on the sofa and described how she had discovered Ye Shiyi's hidden ability. "At first I didn't notice her either. This period I've been going in and out of Territory Seven frequently, and I often run into her going to and from school with Tan Qi. After seeing her so many times, I noticed that when she's nervous, to hide her true emotions, she imitates Tan Qi's emotions and adjusts her magnetic field fluctuations to match Tan Qi's."

Xia Qing truly hadn't known this, but thinking it over she understood—it was probably the self-preservation method Zhang Shi had taught her. But Little Shi was too young, and her concealment wasn't good enough yet, so she couldn't fool the probing of a fellow evolver. She still needed to work twice as hard.

Quietly feeling the calm emotions radiating from Xia Qing, Xin Yu let out a long sigh. "This evolution ability, when hidden, is a perfect means of self-protection; once exposed, it becomes something everyone avoids. Those whose own abilities are lacking might be tied to a powerful figure and turned into their human lie detector and danger sensor, or they might become research subjects in a laboratory…"

Xia Qing comforted her. "You're already strong now, and you've taken the initiative to find a pretty decent friend like me."

As her relationship with Xia Qing grew closer, Xin Yu was talking more and more. She liked to pour out her thoughts in front of Xia Qing, because whether it was Xia Qing's magnetic field feedback or her verbal feedback, it all made her feel at peace, and her worries didn't seem quite so vexing anymore.

Xin Yu smiled. "Yes, I'm very lucky. Without exposing me, you can give that little girl a reminder—tell her to anchor herself to a few more imitation targets. That way it'll be even harder for her to be exposed."