Chapter 7 The Woman Obstructed by Mosaic

Ye turned his head to look, and saw someone walking slowly towards the stage. Although his expression did not change, there was a slight, imperceptible shift in his gaze.

For someone like Ye, who was usually unemotional, this change in his eyes was enough to suggest a multitude of problems.

However, Qi Shuheng and Wang Tian'er were right beside him, and he was unable to signal anything to Lin Shen.

"Mr. Lin Xiangdong, you don't mind that we've invited this friend to observe, do you?" said Qi Shuheng, smiling as he looked at Lin Shen.

"Shuheng, that's where you're wrong," Wang Tian'er interjected as he turned his gaze to Lin Shen's face, with a smile that was not quite a smile, "The fact that she's come is a great honor for the Dark Bird Base, making our recruitment convention shine with splendor. Moreover, she's an old friend of Mr. Lin Xiangdong. Instead of objections, Mr. Lin Xiangdong should be thanking us; isn't that right, Mr. Lin Xiangdong?"

"Why is she here? And how come Qi Shuheng and Wang Tian'er have such tacit understanding? Could it be that the Qi and Wang families have already forged an alliance? If that's truly the case, we probably won't last until Mr. Lin Zongzheng and Mr. Lin Xiangdong return," Ye thought, his mind tormented as if on fire, yet he dared not make any move. Any movement might only make Qi Shuheng and Wang Tian'er, who were intently watching Lin Shen and trying to read something from his scarcely visible eyes, more suspicious.

All eyes focused on Lin Shen's face, and while Lin Shen looked at the person who had walked onto the stage, his gaze did not change, but his heart was filled with immense doubt.

"A human carrying the Fire Seed of Super-Base Evolution?" What shocked Lin Shen was not the identity of this person; in fact, he hadn't seen who it was, only vaguely recognizing that it was a woman.

Because the body of this woman was like a mosaic, Lin Shen could not discern her features at all.

Since discovering the Fire Seed, Lin Shen had only seen it on the Base Mutation Egg, and not even on the hatched Base Variant Creatures, let alone on a human.

In fact, it had never occurred to Lin Shen that humans could also possess the Fire Seed; this discovery thrilled him.

The delight was due to another potential method of obtaining the Fire Seed, and, naturally, the shock came from not knowing who this person was; he had not the slightest clue.

It wasn't just that he didn't recognize her. Even if he did, the woman's body was covered in mosaic; he couldn't tell who it was.

"Lin, how has it been?" the woman said, her tone light, as she walked up to Lin Shen.

This statement reminded Lin Shen that his older brother Lin Xiangdong had been sent to train at the distant Sea Corn Base when he was very young, where he spent nearly a decade before returning.

Every time Lin Xiangdong drank too much, he would boast about how advanced the Sea Corn Base was, and how impressive the Mutators there were. If the Sea Corn Base were a metropolis, then compared to it, the Dark Bird Base wouldn't even count as a village.

Of course, Lin Xiangdong's stories were not meant to belittle the Dark Bird Base, but rather to brag about himself.

Each time, Lin Xiangdong would talk about how great his talent was, how the big shots at the Sea Corn Base fought over who would get to mentor him, and how many training camp coaches eagerly awaited his decision. He nonchalantly selected a coach, reputed to be the top figure of the Sea Corn Base, to follow for his training.

The coaches he did not choose would lament, beating their chests in regret for missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime genius.

He'd also boast that during his training, all the students in his cohort were exceptional, but upon meeting him, they acted as if they had seen a cat, terrified and respectfully calling him "Senior Brother".

There's no special reason, other than Lin Xiangdong crushed his peers and was an unbeatable existence in his grade.

Lin Shen heard it so often that he started to feel that Lin Xiangdong's words were completely unreliable, with too much bragging involved. If his older brother was really as awesome as he claimed, dominating his generation even at a place like Sea Corn Base, how could it be that back at Dark Bird Base, a smaller location, there were still a few peers who could stand up to him?

However, since Lin Xiangdong was quite eloquent, even his boasting could make a story thrilling and full of extravagant fantasy. After hearing them so many times, Lin Shen did remember quite a few names and people from the stories.

Of course, those people were only there to highlight how amazing Lin Xiangdong himself was, mere backdrops.

It was just that Lin Xiangdong, in order to show off even more, assigned those backdrops some astonishing identities.

What with once-in-a-century talents naturally gifted, sons of great families and nobility, school beauties and the like—it all felt a bit vulgar after hearing it too much.

Lin Xiangdong spoke of many female classmates, all apparently fascinated by his charm and personality, completely infatuated and unable to extricate themselves, each of them crying and begging to be his girlfriend, which annoyed him.

In Lin Xiangdong's words, the only female classmate who did not entertain the thought of dating him was still deeply impressed by his cultivation talent and combat abilities—his little fan.

Lin Shen remembered that the little fan in Lin Xiangdong's stories was named Bai Shenfei, who was a year junior to him but a prodigious girl genius who underwent Butterfly Transformation at twelve and was absorbed in martial arts, spending every day cultivating or on the path of martial and combat.

Back then, Lin Xiangdong was only a year older than Bai Shenfei and had yet to undergo Butterfly Transformation. He defeated the already transformed Bai Shenfei and since then she looked up to him as an idol, seeking advice from him on every issue of cultivation.

The so-called Butterfly Transformation is an important step in evolving from human to Mutator, similar to how a caterpillar pupates to transform into a butterfly. A cultivator must undergo a similar process to evolve their flesh and blood body toward one akin to a Steel Body.

Lin Shen recalled again that among those backdrop classmates in Lin Xiangdong's stories, most were his own classmates, with Bai Shenfei being the only junior sister.

"This woman calling herself 'Senior Brother', could she be Bai Shenfei?" Lin Shen thought it was possible, but he could not be certain. After all, Lin Xiangdong had more than one junior sister named Bai Shenfei and misrecognition could lead to unbearable consequences for Lin Shen.

Under everyone's gaze, Lin Shen, with some arrogance, said to the woman with the mosaic blur, "Why am I the last one to know you've come to Dark Bird Base?"

While saying this, Lin Shen also glanced at Qi Shuheng and Wang Tian'er, making it clear that he was quite displeased.

"On my first day at Dark Bird Base, I already visited the Lin Family to see Lin Senior Brother, but your family said you were tackling an important technical challenge and it was inconvenient to receive guests. That's why I had to visit the Qi Family and Wang Family instead," Bai Shenfei explained.

Lin Shen couldn't see Bai Shenfei's expression or eyes, but he sensed her tone was calm, not angry at his bad attitude, patiently explaining, as if she really did think highly of Xiangdong.

"Are you implying you didn't come to Dark Bird Base specifically to see me?" Lin Shen decided to continue probing.

If it were just a normal classmate relationship, his accusatory tone would have elicited an upset if not angered response. If there was no hint of discomfort in the woman's tone, then it was likely she was Bai Shenfei.

"Mr. Lin Xiangdong, that's a bit unfair of you to say. She traveled miles to our Dark Bird Base to see you first, but you shut her out, refusing even a glimpse. And now that you've finally met, you're still hiding behind a lousy mask, face unseen. So tell me, does this count as a meeting, or not? Or is it that Mr. Lin Xiangdong's face can't be shown, afraid of being recognized? Or perhaps, the face under that mask isn't the same as Mr. Lin Xiangdong's?" Wang Tian'er was just short of calling Lin Shen an impostor.