Chapter 52: Gong Qian Joins the Squad
The next day, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou attended school as usual. The formations surrounding the sealed-off zone had isolated all sounds and disturbances from the zone. So, the vast majority of Silver City's residents remained unaware of the battle that had taken place the day before.
The Supernatural Academy, however, was a different story. Rumors spread like wildfire. Some claimed a rare treasure had surfaced outside the city, while others insisted a Forbidden Fruit had emerged, triggering a cataclysmic battle among countless supernatural beings. With each retelling, the stories grew wilder and more outrageous.
This was especially true of the Gossip Queen, Chen Ling, who secretively shared the "inside scoop" she had gathered. After listening to her, Zhang Shou and Yu Xian could do nothing but offer polite, strained smiles.
For the next three days, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou attended school and went home. They constantly monitored the Qilin app for the latest updates, keeping a particularly close eye on any news regarding Jin Sheng.
Meanwhile, Yu Xian's social circle expanded dramatically. Through introductions from friends in the Evil Slaying Squad, he became acquainted with members of many different squads across the country. He was also invited into various group chats.
As he got to know the people in those groups, an older girl stationed in Yanjing eventually shared some unfortunate news. Jin Sheng's condition was proving more troublesome than originally expected. In the short term, he likely wouldn't recover enough to return to his squad. The news weighed heavily on both Yu Xian and Zhang Shou. Neither knew what the future held for the Wickedness Purging Squad.
On the fourth day, the two friends received a text message from Bluebird, instructing them to report to the branch office next door to the Public Security Bureau. When they arrived at the branch office, Bluebird was already waiting for them in the hallway. The three of them entered the temporary office that had originally belonged to Jin Sheng.
Inside the office, Gong Qian was seated behind Jin Sheng's desk. Unfortunately, she wasn't tall enough, and only her head was visible. The sight nearly made all three of them laugh. Thankfully, they managed to hold it in.
Once everyone had taken their seats, Gong Qian cleared her throat. "Since Captain Jin Sheng is temporarily unable to continue leading the Wickedness Purging, Director Yu Lie has appointed me as..."
She paused for a moment. "Vice Captain. I'll be handling all squad affairs on an interim basis."
Zhang Shou couldn't resist teasing her. "So, you got demoted."
Gong Qian's face immediately darkened. She shot him a vicious glare. Zhang Shou quickly looked away, whistling innocently as if he hadn't said anything.
But Gong Qian had indeed been demoted. Although she had played a crucial role in the battle against Deimos and was virtually guaranteed a First-Class Merit, it was also true that the squad under her command had been nearly wiped out.
So many promising talents had died, and headquarters was deeply pained by the loss as well. Merit was merit, and mistakes were mistakes. There was no such thing as merits canceling out faults within Qilin.
After careful discussion, Qilin's headquarters ultimately reassigned her to the Wickedness Purging Squad as vice captain. Another important factor for this decision was that her coordination with Yu Xian had demonstrated extraordinary combat potential.
Headquarters had even considered promoting Yu Xian directly to Acting Captain, with Gong Qian serving as his support. However, Yu Xian had joined the squad only recently. In the end, the proposal was shelved. Had Yu Xian been a member of the Wickedness Purging Squad for more than a year, the person currently sitting in Jin Sheng's chair would almost certainly have been him rather than Gong Qian.
Seeing Gong Qian still glaring at Zhang Shou, Yu Xian decided to steer the conversation back on track. "So, what's our squad's mission now?"
Gong Qian withdrew her gaze. "For now, we don't have any team assignments. The director's intention is for us to spend some time working together, improve our coordination, and become familiar with each other's abilities."
What Gong Qian didn't mention was that Yu Lie had also spoken to her at length in private, telling her to consult Yu Xian whenever trouble arose and, above all else, not to act on impulse. Although Yu Xian had only been with the Qilin for a short time, his performance had been nothing short of exceptional. His abilities were powerful, he possessed both courage and intelligence, and most importantly, he never failed when it mattered. If anything, he was remarkably dependable.
Once the memorial service was over and merits were officially awarded, Yu Xian's ranking would undoubtedly rise. There would also be numerous rewards and benefits waiting for him.
Yu Xian asked, "Then, Vice Captain, do you have any plans?"
Gong Qian shook her head. Immediately, a smile appeared on Yu Xian's face. "Since you don't have any, how about we go catch some rats tonight?"
Everyone in the room froze and turned to him. A bubble no larger than the eye of a needle formed on the tip of his finger. "You all know how my ability works. The spaces inside my bubbles are interconnected. So, in theory, sound can travel between them as well.
"These past few days, I've had nothing better to do. So, at night, I've been placing tiny bubbles in all sorts of corners around the city. Using them, I've overheard some pretty interesting things. For example, a group of idiots is planning to rob a shop tonight. We can wait for them to make their move and catch them all in one go."
Yu Xian brushed his hair aside. Hidden inside his ear was a tiny bubble resembling an earbud.
Zhang Shou stared at the bubble, his face full of disbelief. "You can use them like that too?"
Yu Xian smiled. That was just the tip of the iceberg. He didn't need to sleep at night, so he had spent the last few days pondering more ways to use the bubbles, experimenting with a vast array of interesting moves. Moreover, by adjusting bubble size, he kept his energy consumption incredibly low.
The bubbles he now deployed were kept at the size of a pinhole. Whenever he needed to expand one of them, he simply transmitted energy through the interconnected spatial network. In an instant, a tiny bubble would grow into a sphere two meters in diameter.
This approach offered several advantages. Each bubble was not only incredibly energy-efficient but also highly covert. When necessary, they could even serve as a means to gather information. It was truly killing multiple birds with one stone.
In addition, he no longer needed to constantly control the bubbles' movements. He could now attach a bubble to a specific coordinate. When that object moved, the bubble would be carried along with it.
The bubble in his ear functioned according to this principle. Otherwise, he would have needed to constantly concentrate on keeping it aligned with his ear every time he took a step. That would have been far too mentally exhausting.
Next, Yu Xian attached a bubble inside each of their ears. With that, the four of them could communicate anytime and anywhere.
Zhang Shou ran outside the office and lowered his voice. "Can you hear me?"
Inside the room, all three of them heard him perfectly clearly. Bluebird got curious. "Salted Fish, the Death Medic is speaking softly, yet why are his words so clear?"
Yu Xian smiled. "The bubbles in our ears are elastic. Their internal space has a strong resonance capability. Once the bubble's sound outlet is directed inward, the sounds we hear become incredibly clear and resonant."
At first, he had never considered the issue. After all, Silver Blood had greatly enhanced his hearing. Even the faintest sounds were crystal clear to him. It wasn't until Zhang Shou repeatedly failed to hear him at school because of the surrounding noise that Yu Xian realized not everyone possessed hearing as sharp as his own. That realization had prompted him to further refine the design and make numerous adjustments.
There was one more thing he didn't mention. He could also filter exactly what kind of sounds were allowed to enter the bubbles. His bubbles could be used for both offense and defense. Without his permission, even if another creature slammed into the bubble at full force, it would never be able to enter the bubble. And even if someone possessed enough power to break through the bubble's membrane wall, the result would merely be the bubble's destruction.
By developing this function further, Yu Xian could designate exactly whose voices were permitted to enter a bubble. All other sounds would be blocked out. As a result, he could create a channel that transmitted only a selected person's voice free of any background noise.
When Zhang Shou returned to the office, the four of them agreed on a meeting time for that evening before going their separate ways. As Yu Xian left the temporary office, a bubble materialized out of thin air in front of him. He stepped inside, and the next moment, he was back home. The bubble outside the office rapidly shrank. It settled into a tiny depression in the ground, becoming so inconspicuous that no one would notice it.
Abilities could be developed on a larger scale, but they could also be refined on a smaller scale. And sometimes, small things were no less powerful than large ones. This was especially true once a person's micro-control had become sufficiently refined. With enough mastery, it was entirely possible to overcome a stronger opponent and reverse the situation in an instant.
Yu Xian continued practicing, and his control over the energy within his body became increasingly natural. His mastery of the bubbles likewise improved day by day. By hiding microscopic bubbles within the grooves of his fingerprints, he could already perform all sorts of astonishing tricks, bringing out all kinds of unique effects from his spatial bubbles.
For example, if he placed a bubble somewhere in outer space, he could theoretically banish an enemy directly into the vacuum of space. He even came up with an especially devious tactic. What if he secretly left a spatial bubble inside Qilin's headquarters? Then, whenever he encountered an enemy he couldn't defeat, he could simply teleport them straight into Qilin's headquarters and let them enjoy a righteous group beating from the big shots.
The idea was tempting, but the moment he imagined the big shots who had descended upon Silver City tracking him down afterward, he immediately buried the thought. Some ideas were better left untested.