Chapter 40: Xiao Yu

Xia Fei boarded a Gulfstream V business jet in Beijing airport.

“I’ve already said there’s no need to send me off, why are you guys still here? I’m only going to take part in an assessment; it’s not like I’m going to my death,” Xia Fei was seated in a roomy seat as he jokingly addressed the men before him.

Wu Long furrowed his brows, “How can you say that? How inauspicious.”

Andre also had a somber expression, “I heard the assessment this time isn’t that simple and killing is allowed.”

Xia Fei nodded needlessly, pulling out a cigarette as he hung it on his lips, lighting it up with a lighter.

Before boarding the plane, he had bought an entire carton of Hongtashan cigarettes and stored it in his spatial ring. Since dimensional spaces did not have air, the cigarettes placed inside would not deteriorate. Xia Fei no longer had to worry about running out of cigarettes now that he had the ring.

“I also heard that the Adjudicator Union will even be hosting a Safe grade assessment next year, and the chances of clearing that will be much higher than this time,” Andre added.

The look in Andre’s eyes showed he didn’t want Xia Fei to join this Crisis grade assessment this time, but he did not directly mention this out of respect for Xia Fei, which was why all he could do now was beat around the bush.

Wu Long was straightforward, not at all tactful with his words like Andre, “Then why are you participating if that’s the case? Wouldn’t it be better if you wait till next year as the two of us can take the assessment together?”

Xia Fei chuckled, “Thank you both of you for showing such concern for me, but I’ve already made up my mind.”

Seeing Charlie quietly sitting to the side, Xia Fei asked, “Charlie, why are you always following your grandfather around? Don’t you have to go to school?”

Charlie smiled somewhat shyly, “I’ve already graduated, and I’m now learning finance by shadowing grandfather.”

“Graduated? What did you graduate? Junior High School? High School?”

Andre was delighted as he answered, “Charlie has already graduated university with a double major in Mathematics and Finance from Stanford University.”

“What?” Xia Fei’s cigarette nearly fell from his hand. “Andre, did I hear that correctly? Charlie is barely 13 years old, yet he has already graduated from a university?”

Wu Long patted his own bald head heavily, “I spent five years in junior high alone. Charlie, you’re so much smarter than me.”

“Charlie is good in his studies, but he lacks real-life experience. That is why I plan to let him shadow me around the market for 2 years while I can still move about before he does his Ph.D.” Andre said.

Xia Fei rummaged through his spatial ring, pulled out three small bottles and placed them on the table. One was yellow in color, while the other two were blue.

“This is a gift from me to the three of you,” Xia Fei pointed to the three small bottles and spoke to Wu Long, “The yellow one is for you, and it can increase your strength, allowing you to increase by an entire rank after you ingest it, though it would be a little painful.”

Xia Fei had a scowl on his face. He had a pervasive experience with Phantom’s medicinal formulas, after all.

“The two blue bottles are gene optimization fluids for the two of you,” Xia Fei said, facing Charlie and Andre.

The was a silence in the plane for a good moment, as Charlie, Andre, and Wu Long stared at him, bewildered.

“Gene optimization fluid!” Charlie was still just a young boy, so he was a lot more impatient. “You’re gifting me a bottle of gene optimization fluid! That means I can be as fast as you if I were to drink it!”

“That’s not necessarily the case. Who knows what special ability you would get after unlocking your seventh brain region. Perhaps you would gain a rare special ability,” Xia Fei explained.

The three bottles had cost Xia Fei quite a bit of money, and they were all tailored for the three men using the best medicinal ingredients.

Andre burst into tears in excitement. He would never have imagined that he would have a chance to unlock his seventh brain region despite his old age and become a Special Ability User.

Wu Long patted Xia Fei heavily on his shoulder, “Bro! I don’t have flowery words to say, but if you want me to do anything, I’ll gladly do it. Even if you want me to behead myself, my last name would not be Wu if I say no!”

…

The jet slowly made its descent to the temporary airport in Central Australia.

This was the reception area for the assessment, and all the candidates had to first report here before the staff would escort them into the actual venue.

Xia Fei bade farewell to Wu Long, Andre, and Charlie, and made his way to the reception hall. Due to the spatial ring that he wore on his finger, Xia Fei had no need to carry any luggage on him, merely carrying a medium-sized shoulder bag.

The reception hall was round-shaped, made out of special boards that were snow-white in color, covering a total area of several tens of thousands square meters.

A red spherical ball was fitted above, and from afar, it looked like it was a globe.

The vast majority of candidates for this assessment came from distant stars. As these candidates who had come from afar would often arrive a few days earlier out of prudence, so there were not too many people in the hall right now, roughly numbering around 500 to 600.

Upon arriving at the hall, a blonde-haired beauty in her twenties received Xia Fei with an Adjudicator Union’s crest pinned on her chest, indicating she was a 4-star Silver Adjudicator.

“Are you here to participate in the assessment?” The blonde woman asked icily with a grim tone in her words.

Xia Fei approached the woman with a slight smile, “My name is Xia Fei, registration number 70563.”

The blonde woman had a handheld AI computer in her hands that she entered Xia Fei’s registration number into it, which promptly displayed Xia Fei’s full details.

“You’re a native candidate?” She asked, somewhat surprised.

Xia Fei nodded but did not say anything further.

“Follow me, there’s another native candidate who arrived not too long ago as well.”

Xia Fei followed the woman to the front desk to retrieve a slim watch.

It was white in color, and while it looked like a watch, the projected screen did not show the time. There were only 3 buttons on it, and it had with Xia Fei’s name and registration number engraved on it.

“This watch is used for communication and positioning. Wearing it will let us know your position, and whether you’ve violated any rules, as well as your physical condition. If anything were to happen, you could also get in touch with the command through the call function. Please put it on yourself right now.”

Xia Fei put on the watch on his right hand, and suddenly, the device automatically clipped onto his wrist, not disengaging no matter what he did to it.

“You need to wear that watch until the end of the assessment. We’ll help you take it off when that time comes, so until then, there’s no way for you to take it off on your own no matter what happens. Of course, there’s no way for you to take it off as long as you don’t break your wrist,” The blonde-haired woman explained.

After briefing him on the assessment rules, the blonde woman led Xia Fei to the west corner of the hall and saw a 12 or 13 years old little girl standing next to a group of uncles and aunts.

This girl wasn’t even 1.5m tall, and she was somewhat scrawny looking, wearing her black hair short that gave a very refreshing feel to her look.

With a pair of big and clear eyes that seemed like they could speak volumes, her exquisite facial features made her appear very well-mannered. It was hard for anyone not to feel a sense of endearment toward her.

A man with a large beard, who seemed to be in his thirties, was speaking to the girl, “Xiao Yu, you need to bring glory to our Xiao Family through this assessment. This is a gift from dad to you.”

With that, the man handed her a stainless steel butterfly knife. The girl took the knife in her hand and very deftly played with it in her hands; the butterfly knife twirled and spun with great alacrity as if there were really a silver butterfly dancing in her hands.

The girl smiled and brightly saying, “Thank you, dad. Xiao Yu will surely do her best!”

Xia Fei was speechless and thought to himself, ‘Shouldn’t little girls around her age be playing with barbie dolls and watching Winnie the Pooh? Besides, what sort of father would give his own child a dagger as a gift?’

“What a good girl,” An old grandmother in her sixties was repeatedly ruffling that little girl’s hair. “Granny has something for you as well, take a look.”

The granny pulled out a wooden square box and gave it to the little girl. The box was not particularly large in size, slightly smaller than a cigarette box, and its workmanship was incredibly intricate.

“Inside it is the venom from the Chinese Copperhead snake. Apply it to your weapon, and as long as anyone were to be injured by it, it would be difficult for them to fight against their eventual demise. So, do you like it?” The granny asked as she smiled.

The little girl appeared to be very excited about the gift, her two hands hugging the box of venom as her mouth curled into a crescent-shaped smile.

Xia Fei was experiencing a total mental breakdown; a father who gifted a knife, and a granny who bestowed a box of venom! Just what kind of family was it!

That was when the blonde-haired beauty came to a halt in front of this crowd of people and turned to Xia Fei, “This is the other candidate native to Earth, I think you should get to know each other.”

Xia Fei looked around. There was nobody else around aside from the little girl and her family.

All of a sudden, Xia Fei came to the realization. He pointed at the little girl and blurted, “You couldn’t possibly be referring to her, are you?”