Running away was useless, and killing Luo Pei to silence him was impossible. She had to calm down and figure out Luo Pei's purpose before acting.
Xia Qing clenched her fist, forcing herself to remain calm. "I thought I hid it well."
Luo Pei fumbled for his teacup, tilted his head back, and took a sip, exposing his potentially fatal neck to Xia Qing. Then he revealed his trump card to her, "You hid it quite well; most people might be fooled. But I have level ten visual evolution and level six hearing evolution, making it easy for me to catch details that others overlook."
Xia Qing couldn't keep up the act anymore, her eyes widening as she asked, "Brother Luo also has level six hearing evolution?!"
"Just like you, no one easily reveals all their cards." The usually wooden girl had been provoked into such a vivid expression, and Luo Pei couldn't help but laugh. "Even within the team, very few people know that I'm a dual-evolved being. You have to keep it a secret for me."
Xia Qing immediately nodded, cautiously pressing, "Of course. Brother Luo, how many people know I'm a triple-evolved being?" Luo Pei truthfully replied, "All I know are myself, Yang Jin, and Xie Yu. I don't know about the others around you. Don't worry, we'll keep it a secret for you."
Those around her were all ordinary people or ordinary evolved humans; Xia Qing was certain they hadn't discovered it. She felt slightly relieved, "Did Brother Luo tell Captain Yang and Captain Xie?"
Luo Pei shook his head, "Yang Jin found out himself."
Xia Qing was shocked again, "How is that possible? I've never been on a mission with Captain Yang, we've never even interacted before."
"He didn't say." Luo Pei genuinely didn't know. Yang Jin valued Xia Qing highly, but Luo Pei didn't understand why he valued her, so he chose to remain silent.
Xia Qing, her mind full of questions, calmed down and continued with her most pressing question, "Brother Luo, I still don't quite understand why the mountain would be more suitable for me. I feel that from your perspective, the mountain shouldn't have been given to me."
Xia Qing had been at the bottom of the base for years, with limited information; it was normal for her to be confused. Luo Pei patiently guided her to think, "You know the uses of unpolluted spring water, right?"
Xia Qing nodded, holding up two fingers, "For medical use and for planting crops, but I don't know the specifics."
Luo Pei nodded, "Then do you know how many other springs our base has besides the one in your territory?"
Xia Qing certainly knew, "Four, but I don't know their locations."
This was top secret for the base, so Xia Qing obviously didn't know. Luo Pei corrected, "To be precise, the Hui San Base discovered four springs in the past ten years, but now only two remain."
Xia Qing's eyes widened again. "What about the other two? Did they dry up? Or were they taken by other bases?"
Luo Pei patiently explained to Xia Qing, "You've been in the territory for almost two months now, you should have noticed that the daily water output of the springs varies, right?"
Xia Qing honestly shook her head, "No, it seems about the same every day."
This girl is so honest. Luo Pei smiled and smoothed things over, "Perhaps you haven't been here long enough to notice the seasonal changes in the spring's output. This change is consistent with the natural laws of Blue Star before the natural disaster, so after the springs were discovered, the vast majority of people in the base advocated exploring the source of the water, investigating its formation, and developing and producing more unpolluted water to benefit all of humanity."
Xia Qing nodded, "That's very reasonable."
Luo Pei's tone became heavy, "But Blue Star now is very different from before the natural disaster. Many of the old technologies are no longer effective. All the unpolluted springs that humans have explored and researched so far have become ordinary polluted water sources." Xia Qing felt a pang of heartache. "Can't they find the cause?"
There are too many unexplained events after natural disasters, causing many to doubt existing science and turn to all sorts of nonsensical theories and doctrines, turning the safe zone into a chaotic mess.
"Well, the reason is unknown. Currently, there's only one generally accepted but unconfirmed hypothesis: under the influence of nuclear-contaminated water, violent tectonic plate movements, and cosmic gamma-ray bursts, all water sources on Earth have been polluted. Only a few mountains, through the combined effects of various factors, have formed enormous and complex natural filters or equalizers, filtering out most of the harmful elements, radioactive elements, and other harmful substances from the polluted water, creating uncontaminated water sources."
"This complex structure is completely beyond the scope of current human knowledge and technology. Therefore, once the internal structure of a mountain is artificially interfered with or damaged, causing structural changes that result in the loss of its water-filtering ability, it cannot be artificially repaired. Therefore, the deep development and exploration of the springs has been explicitly prohibited by the highest levels."
Luo Pei further emphasized, "The impact of the springs' deterioration is extremely severe, so the highest levels have ordered a strict information blackout. Just listen to this, don't spread it."
Xia Qing tried hard to remember and digest the meaning of Luo Pei's words, "I understand. Brother Luo means that there is currently no way to artificially create uncontaminated water, and even research on uncontaminated water is prohibited because it would damage the water sources." "That's right. While we can now distill water to obtain pure water, we can't reliably dissolve the element of 'Yi' into it. Therefore, distilled water cannot replace unpolluted water rich in 'Yi'," Luo Pei continued. "That's why unpolluted spring water is a very important type of high-value resource. It empowers those who own water sources, and it also leads organizations that cannot benefit from them to try every means to destroy them and weaken their owners. Our base's largest spring was destroyed in this way."
Xia Qing immediately became angry, her eyes widening. "Who?"
Luo Pei shook his head. "Knowing more won't do you any good."
"…Oh."
Xia Qing said "Oh," and didn't ask any more questions.
Luo Pei continued, "The spring is yours if it's within your territory. You definitely wouldn't agree to hand it over. If the northern mountain belongs to the Azure Dragon Team, the voices within the team advocating for opening the mountain to find the spring will persist. Once the Azure Dragon Team's successor opens the mountain to find the spring, the internal structure of Mountain 49 will inevitably be destroyed, and 99% of the springs within your territory will be damaged, turning into ordinary polluted water sources. The final result is that you lose the unpolluted spring water, and the Azure Dragon Team gains nothing either. Therefore, you, who already possess the spring, are the only one who won't destroy the internal structure of Mountain 49."
There were some things Luo Pei didn't say aloud: Actually, there was another option: Xia Qing could join the Azure Dragon Team with the spring. But this didn't even need to be mentioned, because Xia Qing had previously chosen to conceal her strength while working with the construction team. Now that she possessed territory and the spring, joining the team was even less likely.
Like most people who had struggled through natural disasters for ten years, Xia Qing only trusted herself and was very wary of others.
Yang Jin said that if Xia Qing was pushed too far, she would choose a desperate measure—destroying the spring.
Xia Qing finally understood. "So, Brother Luo, you've searched all of Mountain Forty-Nine and haven't found any new springs?"