Chapter 420

Chapter 421: Xu Jiali and His Psionic Squire

Xuan Che kept his expression steady and did not show anything unusual.

He swiftly gathered his Divine Sense and scanned the entire manor again, then “looked around” the room one more time.

There were truly only two people here: himself and Mo Ran. No third mind was lurking. No foreign sorcery made any illusion.

Mo Ran’s face and breathing were normal. Her mind showed no signs of trouble.

But she clearly believed she had brought “Elder Dao Heng” here, and that he stood right beside her.

He simply nodded and did not stop her from leaving. She noticed nothing, bowed, and withdrew.

Silence settled.

Xuan Che stood by the window, keeping a Divine Sense Projection in place while facing the quiet, but his mind was not as calm as his face. He thought fast. For one instant, doubt brushed him. He even wondered if Elder Dao Heng was truly standing here and he had missed something and could not see him.

He shook his head at once, pushed aside that stray self-doubt, and quietly raised his guard against Heart Demons. Without a sound, he took out the Spirit Rhinoceros Mirror to contact others.

…

On the surface of Garrison-3, Engineer Sun’s engineering team dug through thick layers under Yu Sheng’s guidance. The heavy machines rushed in on short notice from the Black Forest worked fast. They doubled the size of the crater left by Foxy’s fall, then started digging downward.

Near the main excavation pit, several smaller sampling points were marked out.

Engineer Sun had found a few crystal-cluster outlets that were good for sampling. The dead crystal branches were wedged in the cracks between dirt and rock, just lucky enough not to be ground to powder by Foxy’s impact. Under those Rifts, the shallow crystal material was intact and unpolluted.

Wearing yellow, heavy engineering Powered Armor, the crew used small digging arms to widen the Rifts around the branches. They pried out whole blocks of crystal as cleanly as they could and moved them to a temporary staging platform. Around that platform stood the recovery teams dispatched from the Special Affairs Bureau.

These hazardous-material specialists wore white protective armor marked with the Bureau’s insignia. They worked in teams of three. Two handled samples while the third watched the operators’ mental states. A Captain with red trim on the armor supervised, making sure each team’s words and actions stayed normal.

Close by stood several Deep Divers in thick combat armor. Each one was fully armed, followed by a walking tactical robot. Every stance was tight and ready.

Yu Sheng spotted a familiar face among the Deep Divers.

Xu Jiali flipped open the metal shutter on his helmet to show his scruffy face. Among all the Deep Divers, he seemed the most relaxed. He even jogged out from his unit to chat with Yu Sheng, as if there was no rush even though they might be handling suspected Angel material.

He jerked a thumb at the stiff Deep Dive Team behind him and spoke with a grin: “They’re all rookies. As soon as they heard the samples might be related to the Dark Angels, they tightened up like drumheads. You, though… long time no see, and the moment you show up it’s something big again.”

Yu Sheng raised both hands: “You make it sound like I planned it. How was I supposed to know something like this would pop up from underground?”

Xu Jiali tugged at the corner of his mouth, then looked around at the wrecked battlefield with a low whistle: “Even if you’d told me, I wouldn’t have believed it. Hard to think Miss Fox could make a scene like this. Looks like somebody fired an Atlas Nova Cannon. Lucky she’s on our side.”

Yu Sheng winced and nodded: “She told me she had a big move left. I didn’t think it would be this big,” he said, then looked past Xu Jiali’s shoulder. “Who’s the young miss who keeps following you?”

A petite girl stood behind Xu Jiali. She was just over one and a half meters tall and looked tiny next to his two-meter frame. She wore a light protective suit that looked like a thin version of Powered Armor. She carried no weapon, only a strange round sphere with mechanical patterns and blue latticework in her hands.

Wherever Xu Jiali went, the girl followed.

Yu Sheng also noticed that every Deep Diver here had a similar partner at their back. Some were men, some women, tall or short, all in light armor that looked too thin for a fight and each holding the same kind of “mechanical sphere.”

Where the Deep Divers went, the sphere-holding partners went too.

Xu Jiali tapped his helmet as if he had just remembered something and introduced her: “Oh, my Psionic Squire. Her name is Bell.”

He added with a nod: “Remember what I told you? A Deep Diver’s full field setup includes a fire support shuttle, two walking tactical robots, a number of light drones, and one Psionic Squire. So, strictly speaking, each Deep Diver is a complete tactical squad when out in the field. What you see now is our ‘expedition state’… though this time we didn’t bring the shuttle because this call was sudden.”

Yu Sheng blinked for a few seconds, then looked at Bell. Bell glanced up at him, spoke in a flat voice, and asked: “You’re the boss’s friend?”

Xu Jiali chuckled: “We’re friends. He’s Yu Sheng, the Borderland’s Angel Combat Expert. He’s kind of a big deal.”

Bell nodded, kept one hand under the sphere, and held out the other to shake: “Hello.”

Yu Sheng shook her hand and noticed something odd about her eyes. Her pupils were vertical, like a cat’s.

Seeing his curiosity, Xu Jiali explained before Yu Sheng could ask: “Bell is Gyproian. Most Psionic Squires are Gyproian. The Special Affairs Bureau has a long-term agreement with their species. They send us their best espers, and we supply them with the strongest catnip in the universe.”

Yu Sheng froze: “Uh… what?”

He then noticed the two sharp points on Bell’s helmet might not be decoration at all.

Xu Jiali kept grinning: “Gyproians are a species from Terra. You’ve heard of Terra. The Academy is there, and it’s the Forest Folk’s homeworld. Gyproians share some feline traits. They’re very sensitive, especially with psionics.

“We Deep Divers are good at combat, but not so good with magic-like stuff. Psionic Squires cover that weakness, and if we get hit by a mind attack, they are our first Mind Barrier. That’s for expedition work. When we run Otherworld dives in the Borderland, we use a different setup. The Umbilical Cord can partly take the place of a Psionic Squire.”

Listening with real interest, Yu Sheng nodded along. These were things he had heard a little about but never learned in depth.

Through all this, Bell stood quietly behind Xu Jiali, saying nothing, only now and then turning the sphere in her hands as if the outside world had nothing to do with her.

While Yu Sheng and Xu Jiali chatted and waited for news from Engineer Sun’s dig, a ringtone suddenly cut them off.

Yu Sheng checked his phone. The caller ID was a fox face squinting with a mouthful of big white teeth.

He answered, and Foxy’s happy voice burst out: “Benefactor! I’m full. Door Opening, I want to come back!”

…

Boundary City, Special Affairs Bureau headquarters.

Li Lin had just finished a mission break and returned for his first day back at work. Holding his meal card, he stood in a daze at the door of Staff Canteen No. 2.

The canteen doors were locked. The electronic sign above them scrolled a message: “Due to special circumstances, Canteen No. 2 is closed today. Please use the cafeteria on the third floor.”

Li Lin blinked. In all his time at the Special Affairs Bureau, he had never seen this.

He cupped his hands to the glass and peered in. Nothing seemed wrong inside. It was just clean and empty.

A few Bureau agents walked by in the hallway behind him, their talk drifting to Li Lin’s ears:

One asked with puzzlement: “What happened? Why did they close it all of a sudden?”

Another replied: “No idea. It was open this morning.”

A third lowered his voice: “Heard it got foxed.”

The second said: “Huh?”

The third added: “They said it was the hotel fox. I don’t know what that means either.”

Li Lin listened in silence, looked down at his meal card and then up at the canteen, and felt like crying: “[So who’s going to make up for my discount chicken leg?]”