Chapter 504: King of Kings

Pollution-free spring water is a precious and scarce resource. It was one thing when everyone understood this implicitly before, but it's another matter entirely now that Xia Qing has taken the initiative to tell him.

This is the greatest sincerity she can offer in cooperating with him. Zhang San smiled. "You should know Hui Three Base still has a few springs of pollution-free water, right?"

Xia Qing replied, "I know. Originally there were four, but two were destroyed, so now only two remain."

Zhang San nodded. "One of my conditions for joining Hui Three Base was that the base supply enough spring water for my research needs, so I don't need to take it from your territory now. Just have Number Fifty Mountain's warm spring water delivered to me—it's safer too. Setting aside the two harmful elements, the water quality at Number Fifty Mountain is basically the same as that in your territory; both are premium spring water."

The word "safer" truly struck a chord with Xia Qing. She seized the chance while her idol was in a good mood and humbly asked for guidance. "Third Brother, what standards do you use to evaluate spring water quality?"

Zhang San was indeed in a good mood now, so he patiently answered Xia Qing's common-sense question. "Spring water gushes out from the mountain body, so the chemicals in it mostly come from various minerals in rocks, minerals, or volcanic gases. Spring water from different geographical regions contains different chemicals. The basis for judging whether spring water is good or bad is whether the minerals it contains are harmful or beneficial to the human body."

Zhang San held up the test results in his hand so Xia Qing could see the elemental content listed. "These two springs belong to the top grade among the four major categories of spring water—carbonate springs. Springs that simultaneously contain calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, and sodium carbonate, and whose pH value is mildly alkaline, are the top grade even among carbonate springs, and are hailed as the Water of Life."

Wow! Wow!

Xia Qing's eyes lit up. No wonder when she first brought the spring water to Territory One, Dr. Wang had been so excited after testing the water quality. It turned out her pollution-free spring water was the top grade among top-grade springs.

King of Kings!

"The importance of the three elements—calcium, magnesium, and sodium—to the human body, you can look up yourself if you're interested. In short, this kind of spring water is highly beneficial to the human cardiovascular system, nervous system, and endocrine functions, and has high medical and therapeutic value. You use spring water when you soak in medicinal baths, don't you?"

Xia Qing nodded immediately.

"Keep using it. You can soak in it more often even when you're not doing medicinal baths. This kind of spring water can soften the skin's stratum corneum, moisturize, and whiten the skin. Natural warm springs of the quality of Number Fifty Mountain were called 'Beauty Soup' before the Catastrophe."

Hearing the three effects her idol mentioned, Xia Qing's first reaction was not to soak more, but to soak less. Moisturizing and whitening she wanted, but—"Third Brother, if the stratum corneum is softened, does that mean it gets injured easily?"

Zhang San shot her a look. "In theory, yes. But did you think the medicine I formulated for you was just for fun?"

No way, absolutely impossible!

Fan Xia Qing immediately declared, "After using it for two months, I feel like my bones and joints have been brushed with a thick layer of lubricant—everything feels comfortable. Although I've never used anyone else's medicine, I believe yours is the best, because you are the scientific research big shot standing at the very top of Blue Star's pyramid!"

"The top of the pyramid is too narrow; with my current abilities, I still can't squeeze in."

Zhang San showed a satisfied expression. After a modest remark, he instructed Xia Qing, "Now is the Catastrophe era, the living environment is harsh. Maintaining a certain thickness of stratum corneum on the palms and soles of the feet does indeed have great benefits."

"Understood, thank you, Third Brother." Xia Qing brought up the question she most cared about on this trip. "Third Brother, you said this warm spring at Number Fifty Mountain—could it also have been a pollution-free water source before?"

Zhang San lowered his eyes to stare at the test results. "There's that possibility, but it's not very likely. There are no domestic precedents for two adjacent mountains both having pollution-free water sources."

Xia Qing laid out her reasons for saying so. "The people living in the valley moved into the bear cave by the crevice in the winter of the second year of the Catastrophe. Then they carved out a passage from the bear cave to the mountain crevice, widened the valley, and filled it with soil to farm."

"The rock there is very hard. The passage they carved from the bear cave into the valley is over 8 meters long, the cave entrance is more than 300 meters from the spring, and the valley is about 20 meters wide. According to the videos on the phone, although there were over 20 of them, only 8 were strong laborers. During the process of opening up the valley, harmful rain and various dangers in the evolved forest coexisted, causing a relatively high proportion of casualties. So they would need at least half a year to widen from the cave entrance to the location of the warm spring."

"During that half year, they must have channeled the spring water out and used it as domestic water. This should have boosted their resistance and stimulated and promoted evolution." Xia Qing handed the second-to-last video to her idol and continued.

"Our country's population evolution rate in the first two years of the Catastrophe was 3‰, but these three people in the video survived without protective suits or medicine until the third year of the Catastrophe, even the fourth year. Third Brother, can this prove that all three are Evolvers?"

Zhang San pushed his glasses up and also took it seriously. "The probability is high, especially this old man. The evolution rate for people over fifty is less than one in five hundred thousand, so this elderly Evolver is a low-probability phenomenon, and there's a high possibility it's aided by pollution-free spring water. Is this the last recording?"

Her speculation had been acknowledged by her idol, and Xia Qing was very happy. She flipped to the next video and introduced it to Third Brother. "The person who filmed the previous video is this person. She was the last person in the valley, and she survived the third harmful rain of the seventh year of the Catastrophe."

After watching the video, Zhang San asked Xia Qing with a solemn expression, "Besides you, who else has seen this video?"

Xia Qing's heart immediately leapt into her throat. "Besides you, I haven't shown it to anyone else, and I haven't mentioned it."

Zhang San asked again, "Besides you, who else has entered that valley?"

Xia Qing replied, "Yang Jin. I asked him to go in and help me get some peanuts. He set up his on-site disaster control command room inside the bear cave. Whether he went in afterward, I'm not sure. But he promised to help me keep it secret, so besides him, definitely no one else has gone in."

Zhang San breathed a slight sigh of relief. "You've heard of the underground experimental project at Hui One Base's Research Institute, right?"

Xia Qing nodded. "I've heard of it. Shi Jiayi is connected to the underground experiments?"

Zhang San slumped weakly back in his chair; his expression alone showed he was extremely reluctant to bring up these matters. "Shi Jiayi's younger sister, Shi Jiaran, is one of the victims of the underground experimental project. She's a Recovery Evolver."

Xia Qing was shocked. "Like the Fire Phoenix?"

Zhang San nodded slowly. "Her evolution level is even higher than the Fire Phoenix's, so she was treated as a precious experimental subject and suffered much less than the Fire Phoenix. Not long after she was rescued, she disappeared."

Xia Qing's mood grew heavy. "Who took her?"

Zhang San shot Xia Qing a look. "I secretly let her go. Only three people know about this. Me, Shi Jiaran, and you."

Xia Qing immediately straightened her back, about to make a promise to never reveal the secret, when Zhang San stopped her.

"Over the past few years, all parties have been investigating her whereabouts. Keep the phone with me. Go to the valley immediately and thoroughly, completely erase every trace Shi Jiaran's relatives left in the valley that could reveal their identities. Notify me when you reach the bear cave, and I'll call Yang Jin over. The fewer people who know about this, the better."

"Understood." Xia Qing stood up, opened the door, and stepped into the long, narrow corridor, only to find Yan Long actually standing inside it.