Chapter 30: Dragon’s Lair

Shi Zui wasted no time. “The conditions?”

Olivia slanted a meaningful glance at Xie Pingzhi. “Captain Shi gets right to the point, as always.”

She decided to lay her cards on the table too, spreading her hands wide. “None at all. Just chalk it up to Boss Ye having a rare generous impulse this time.”

Shi Zui said nothing. She had the authority to approve as a member of the Center Group, but Autumn had always haggled over every last penny, and that boss never made a deal that didn’t turn a profit.

Doubt was plain on Xie Pingzhi’s face. She ground her back teeth and murmured to Ye Jingqiu beside her, “Truth be told, their boss might as well be Grandet. If you’d been around a few years ago, you’d know how absurd it is to call her generous.”

Ye Jingqiu’s right hand absently squeezed the pocket where the massive, untraceable windfall from “Grandet” sat. Humbly, she asked, “How absurd?”

Xie Pingzhi shot a quick look at Shi Zui, locked in a standoff with Olivia, and pitched her voice even lower. “About as absurd as someone claiming the captain has a thing for Aether.”

Olivia clearly picked up on the base’s skepticism. With another spread of her hands, she explained, “Come on, Captain Shi, don’t be so frosty. We’ve got history together, after all. Four years back, I hand-delivered that Instinct Potion around the clock. A little gratitude?”

“Is Instructor Olivia talking about that Tyrfing vial you price-gouged us on after we sat down to negotiate?” Zhou Xianhui’s voice was soft as silk, but her words cut deep. “The base handed over eighty crates of Elemental Weapons, as I recall.”

“Special stuff always costs a premium. Cut us some slack.”

Ye Jingqiu froze. The phrase felt eerily familiar, and she turned to Xie Pingzhi without thinking. “What’s the Instinct Potion…?”

“It’s this weird fluid that’s Autumn’s exclusive. Even the analyzers can’t make heads or tails of it. Word is, Awakeners and normals alike can chug it down for a burst of raw instinct—but the price is steep, and the fallout’s no joke.”

“How does something like that even exist?” Ye Jingqiu pressed. Her gut screamed that it mattered.

“No clue. But that’s exactly why the base puts up with Autumn. The Base Leader has zero intel on their stockpile. It’s straight-up nuclear deterrence.” Xie Pingzhi shook her head.

Ye Jingqiu’s fist clenched on instinct. She resolved to corner her sister about the Instinct Potion sometime soon. The very name pulled at her like a magnet.

Team One’s barbs made it clear Olivia wasn’t in the mood to haggle further. Noting the heavy hitters both sides had brought, she cut to the chase.

“Truth is, I don’t know if your base prophet’s picked up on it yet, but this dragon’s waking up within two months, guaranteed. Picture a behemoth hundreds of meters long bursting out of Beijing. How many breaths before it levels East Asia?”

“We don’t exactly run in the same circles,” Olivia said, pausing for effect before driving the point home word by word, her hatred thick enough to cut. “But when it comes to Exotic Beasts… Autumn stands with humanity. Always.”

~~~

August in the Imperial Capital was brutally hot. The entire city felt like a powder keg waiting to blow—no Dragon Flame from the Candle Dragon required; it could blaze from Xihongmen to Siyuan Bridge all on its own.

Ye Jingqiu straightened, mopping sweat from her forehead. Desperate times made people do desperate things, she mused. Hell, she was half-tempted to hightail it back to Shanghai and grind out a couple math sets.

Olivia had called it. Early August brought Ning Wan’s latest premonition, solid proof the Candle Dragon was stirring. The base shifted to full wartime footing. The Alchemy and Dao Talisman Department called a rare truce on their infighting, throwing everything into Elemental Weapons to keep the beast down.

Stalemate, for now. The eggheads were scouring ancient texts for a breakthrough. They’d pored over everything from Yelu Abaoji’s black dragon kill to Saint George’s devil-slaying legend.

Word from the inside was that the factions were now at each other’s throats over Liu Bang and the white snake. Dao Array swore it was a white dragon and pushed recreating the Scarlet Sky Sword Daoist-style. Alchemy dismissed it as superstition—only silverware doused in holy water stood a chance.

The Technology Department stirred the pot from the sidelines, all friendly-like: Why not missiles? Gold bullets and Talisman Bombs worked wonders, right?

Internal squabbles only poured fuel on the fire. Department Head Yan and Loteria burned the midnight oil under crushing pressure. Gossip had it they’d gone full cohabiting for efficiency’s sake.

Xie Pingzhi insisted it was fact, not fiction, and tipped off S-Rank holder Ye Jingqiu: Keep an eye on the admin approvals. Loteria was liable to sneak in a marriage request amid the chaos—that snake had been eyeing our Department Head Yan from day one!

Fresh off the exclusive, Ye Jingqiu: Whoa, that’s a stretch, isn’t it?

A-Xie, way too simplistic!

Spill the full tea!

Misery loves company, and it hit fast. Before Xie Pingzhi could regale them with the ministers’ epic eight-year romance saga, Shi Zui busted them cold. The nosy Little Cat Aether got slapped into the evidence log as contraband.

Hence today’s sweat-soaked slog: Elemental Explorers in hand, hunting the Candle Dragon’s den. Captain ran a tight ship on discipline—Xie Pingzhi nailed for corrupting a minor’s love life, Ye Jingqiu for accessory. Lockup it was.

Xie Pingzhi: …Folks, we’ve hit peak absurdity. Worse than Boss Xia’s giveaway or the captain crushing on Aether.

At your age, I was plotting elopements with Zhong Qing. Puppy love? Nah, captain’s gunning to drag Xiao Qiu to a nunnery someday!

But no way was she voicing that. Not with the captain’s icy surveillance feed locked on them.

One more forest park to comb. Prior drone sweeps had flagged elemental spikes here—time for boots-on-ground verification.

Ye Jingqiu was beat. She shot Xie Pingzhi a weary look. “A-Xie, our five elements are totally at war.”

Xie Pingzhi, the German, nodded sagely. “Star signs don’t vibe either.”

“Can’t we get Autumn and her group out here early to lend a hand? It kills me just thinking about them chilling with air conditioning.” She clutched her chest, as if on the verge of death.

Olivia’s boss had gone all out, throwing money around like it was nothing. That crew might as well have been on vacation in Beijing—they’d booked an entire hotel for a dozen or so people.

Glancing back at their old base, she remembered how last year Yi Fengyan had argued with Sanjima for a full day and night over funding. Rumor had it she’d only secured the grant by faking tears in the end.

Xie Pingzhi was about to ask Xiao Qiu if she had any plans to “switch sides.” If not, maybe Xiao Qiu could put in a good word with the captain—after all, the little teammate seemed to get the green light from her more often than not.

But before she could make a move, a thud echoed from the distance—someone had collapsed to their knees, clearly hit by heatstroke.

To provide ample testing and materials for the Alchemy and Dao Talisman Department’s weapons, the base was desperately short-staffed. Beijing spanned sixteen thousand square kilometers, and even with modern tech assisting, it all came down to the Awakeners to verify things on the ground.

When it came to exotic beasts, intuition trumped rational analysis every time.

Not every Awakener was built like an Olympic athlete, either. The base provided solid supplies and care, but heatstroke victims were hardly uncommon.

Xie Pingzhi sighed inwardly. She was just stepping forward to help when she saw Xiao Qiu—the usual slacker—bolt out ahead of everyone, arriving first among those who’d noticed.

She froze for a second, then twisted the Awakener Ring on her finger, the one with the monitor still active.

The heatstroke victim was quickly dragged into the shade by others. Ye Jingqiu, first on the scene, pulled the right meds from her backpack. Elemental weapons and innate abilities weren’t for casual use—antipyretics worked better in a pinch.

With everyone pitching in, the situation stabilized fast. As the victim regained a bit of awareness, Ye Jingqiu hurried off to call Aether for a ride.

But the woman weakly waved her off. “No need to go back. I’ll be fine after a short rest—my sector’s scan isn’t done yet.”

The base had only a skeleton crew out here in the forest park. One person down meant extra load for the rest, so it was no surprise she was fighting to stay.

Ye Jingqiu didn’t even look up. “Leave your sector to me, Yiyi-jie. I’ve only been at the base a short while, and I’m dying to play with this elemental scanner. Let me have some fun.”

Someone else chimed in right away. “I’ll take it. We can’t send a student into the field.”

Ye Jingqiu grinned. “Sister, don’t be so rigid! This high schooler can run the eight hundred meters in under three minutes. High school isn’t just an intellectual peak—it’s a full-body workout.”

No one could outmaneuver Ye Jingqiu in the end. On the monitor, Shi Zui paused her work, watching her complaining teammate spring into action.

“Found something, Captain?” Zhou Xianhui looked up from nearby, smiling. “Xiao Qiu’s always extra attentive to everyone else’s problems. The only thing she slacks on is her own stuff.”

Shi Zui didn’t reply. If Zhou Xianhui had noticed, how could she miss it?

Homework was her own business, so she could cut corners there. But last month’s training involved others’ lives during missions, so she never skimped.

She could head to Chongming Island solo without heatstroke meds, but always packed a bag when out with the team.

【Mirror Domain can’t contain her emotions. I can hardly imagine what that forgotten memory of hers entails.】

Ning Wan’s words from the innate ability lab that day echoed in her ears once more. Shi Zui fell silent.

Environment shapes personality; emotions reshape the brain.

Shi Zui had undergone therapy and knew full well that her excessive distrust and detachment stemmed from those three years locked in the lab.

Time itself had blurred during that period. Endless drills and desensitization had forged her current self.

So what could drive Xiao Qiu’s almost deliberate behavior?

What made her so indifferent to herself yet burdened with responsibility for others?

Shi Zui stared at her little teammate on the screen for a long time, watching her banter and laugh with Xie Pingzhi as always, while clearly speeding up her elemental sensing.

An inexplicable kinship stirred in her heart, a feeling shared by those on the same path. But before she could dwell on it, Aether’s alarm blared from the side.

“Target located. Behavioral trajectory logged seven times.”

Yanked back to work, Zhou Xianhui spread her hands with a knowing look. “Overlapping paths with Xiao Qiu once or twice might be coincidence, but seven? That’s no accident.”

Shi Zui whipped around to see Aether had marked the person she’d been tracking for over a month in the surveillance footage, clear as day.

It was a face Xiao Qiu knew all too well.

Her Teacher Xiao Xu, Xu Xianyue.