Crow frowned. "A few days..."
Star Phoenix found himself nearly drooling at the thought of a talent that could fight against experts of a game only after a few days.
He grabbed San Zhe by both the shoulders and shook him. "Are you telling the truth? Are you telling the truth? Or are you hyping up your friend?"
San Zhe felt dizzy. "I...I...I am..."
Lotus kicked Star Phoenix away. She turned to San Zhe. "What's the catch then?"
San Zhe looked at her in a daze. "Wha..?"
Lotus huffed. "There has to be a reason why she is so good at it then. It can't be pure talent."
"Wait," said Long Hei. He turned to Lotus. "If she is still such a newbie, then she shouldn't be that far in level from Level 10. She wouldn't need to adjust to the power difference as much as an expert, that might be one of the reasons why she is able to fight so well."
Lotus rolled her eyes. "I can adjust to the powerlevels just fine, you idiot."
"And it still wouldn't be enough to defeat a person who has been playing the game for five years," Star Phoenix said.
"I still think it's because she is a genius," Matchstick said.
"Can genius really explain away all her success?" asked Lotus.
"It can, but there can only be a single reason for it."
Lotus raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Matchstick grinned. "It's very obvious, you guys should guess!"
"I will kick your teeth into your mouth," Crow said with a sweet smile. "Then we can see if any of us can guess."
Matchstick backed away, and hid behind Long Hei.
"Hey!" Long Hei scolded. "Get lost! I don't want to be caught in the cross-fire!"
"What is it?" Lotus asked.
"I'll give you a clue!" Matchstick said. Everyone started to get impatient. "It's something we speculated before, when we saw her fast learning capabilities when she learned from EverHill how to Weave!"
Lotus frowned. "That she was a fast learner?"
San Zhe froze. For the first time, thinking that revealing that Sister Xiu was a few days old player was not a good move.
Star Phoenix cuaght the small movement San Zhe made and realized that they were in the right direction.
"That she has a bigger brain!" Long Hei said, his face looking very smug about it.
Everyone rolled their eyes.
Matchstick shrugged. "Close. I meant, she would have a higher Ranked Mental capabilty."
"EverHill's potential was at near A-Rank in real life, right?" Long Hei asked. "So, she is an A Rank?"
"I am an A Rank," Crow said with a chuckle.
Silence fell.
"If you win," Star Phoenix said, "then her potential is at least at B+ or near A."
"So, if she defeats you," Long Hei said, "She is a..."
Crow smirked, his eyes glinting. "S Rank."
"Eighteen year old and S Ranked in mental power?" Lotus asked. "Then at what level would she be at by the time she has reached her thirties or her fourties?"
Crow laughed.
He turned to San Zhe. "You know Mr San, I've heard of an Eighteen year old with a Speculated S Ranked mental power recently."
San Zhe felt helpless and wanted to choke his previous self.
"There is something like that?" Long Hei asked.
Every Immortal except Lotus looked at him curiously.
"Cheng Xiu from Earth?" Lotus said, her voice vibrating with hidden emotions.
"Xiu?" Long Hei asked. "Is that the same Xiu as SelaXiu? Does that mean we can actually know where she is from in real life?"
"The information was locked yesterday," Crow said.
"What were you doing looking at that kind of imformations?" Matchstick asked. He had already opened the game Interface to report to the System about privacy breaches.
Crow frowned. "Don't think I don't know what you are thinking of doing, Little Stick."
Matchstick glared at him at the nickname.
"What were you doing, looking up that information?" Star Phoenix asked.
Crow shrugged. "Checking out the competion. I finally found a way to hack into the Public Service Files but turned out her Profile is DNA Registration locked and her DNA Registration got upgraded."
"Competition?" Long Hei asked.
Crow smiled. "It's a science thing, you commerce people wouldn't understand."
Long Hei blinked. "What the hell! Dude that is so prejudiced! It's discrimination!"
"Wait!" Matchstick said. "Earth? She is from Earth?"
Crow sighed. "Yeah."
Matchstick pursed his lips. "So, Earth has its first S Ranked Mental Ability now?"
"It hasn't been officially announced," Crow said.
"Why is that?" Lotus asked. "She took the Allaince Level test and got 9.99 out of 10. What more proof do they need? And there wasn't even a photo! It was all so hushed up! If it was in Mars, we would have already celebrated it ten times over!"
Star Phoenix frowned. "There might be some other factor. Maybe she cheated or something."
"Sister Xiu never did that!" San Zhe said in anger.
"So it is her then," Crow said, nodding as though San Zhe had confirmed something he had a doubt about.
San Zhe wanted to Log out. He would never play this game again. He was revealing too much. He didn't have the emotional range to see the traps these Immortals set up for him.
"So why is her status not being Declared?" Long Hei asked San Zhe.
San Zhe pursed his lips. He felt his eyes fill with tears and it was getting really hard to keep them form falling.
Because she is a Qiless, he wanted to say to them. They would rather die than declare a Qiless as an S Rank potentialed person.
"Little San?" Star Phoenix asked in concern. "What's wrong? Did we ask something bad? Why are you crying?"
The tears had fell down.
"What's going on?" WuQi asked from the other side of the Barrier. "Why is the newbie crying? Are you bullying the newbie? Why didn't you call me too?"
"We-" Long Hei was about to say but Star Phoenix stamped his foot. "Are not going to tell you anything."
WuQi rolled her eyes. She turned to Frost. "What were they talking about?"
The others froze. They had forgotten that Frost could lip-read.
Blue eyes looked at the Immortals in front of her and then turned away. "Crow wants to date SelaXiu."
Yue frowned and then glared at Crow.
WuQi rolled her eyes. "So that was it. I thought it was some smuggling thing or international secrets that you were talking about!"
Long Hei sweatdropped. It was international news and it was a secret, so she wasn't wrong.
Thankfully, there was a golden glow in the Battlefield and Cheng Xiu appeared before them, ending the conversation for the moment.
As Cheng Xiu watched Crow walk towards her, she noted the weird way most of the Immmortals were looking at her and the guilt in San Zhe's eyes. What was wrong?