No strange things are allowed to evolve!

He looked at Jiang Shu.

Although his expression didn't change much and remained very calm, if the minister were present, he would definitely be able to tell from his micro-expressions that Xia Zhi was completely bewildered at this moment.

Jiang Shu's shock at this moment was no less than his.

I didn't even realize that the ice cream from the cone had melted onto my hand.

No way...

Could it be the bureau chief...?

Is it possible that the bureau chief simply enjoys secretly attending anime conventions in private?

The probability shouldn't be zero, right?

Without taking the initiative to greet him, Jiang Shu naturally looked away, pretending nothing had happened.

He didn't forget that he was wearing makeup.

To put it bluntly, he might not even recognize his own mother.

So he planned to pretend to be Tang first to deceive everyone, and then remain unchanged to deal with any eventuality.

But the thing I feared most still happened.

"Operate an excavator?" Xia Zhi's voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet broadcasting room.

Jiang Shu swallowed hard, his expression filled with bitterness, and said with difficulty, "Develop 9G."

The staff then noticed Xia Zhi, who had been walking silently. As if they had finally found a savior, they rushed to Xia Zhi and said, "You must be Fan Xiaoqin's parent, right? Please take him away quickly, we really can't take it anymore!"

A moment later.

The three of them sat in a makeshift coffee shop, staring at each other.

Xia Zhi took a small sip of coffee, and upon discovering it was made from powder, he calmly spat it back out and put down the coffee cup.

"Tell me, what's going on? How could you be a sacrificial offering?"

After the three of them left the visitor center, they did not have any formal conversation. Jiang Shu always thought that her superb makeup had not been discovered.

So even now, he's still pretending to be stupid.

"Hey? Bro, you know me?"

"You...sigh." Xia Zhi hadn't expected Jiang Shu to be so humorous, and also felt a little tired: "Don't you call me Director anymore? Jiang Shu?"

"You can recognize this?!"

Jiang Shu was stunned, as if struck by lightning:

Is it that obvious?

He felt like a primary school student caught red-handed by his mother at an internet cafe.

What's worse, he's not as innocent and cute as a primary school student and can't say things like, "Auntie, although I look a lot like your son, I'm not actually him."

At this moment, Shenji, who was standing to the side, finally couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Jiang Shu stared at her with wide eyes, while Xia Zhi, who already understood everything, lowered his eyes and silently stirred his cup of coffee, which he would not actually drink another drop of.

Seeing that Jiang Shu became more anxious the more he laughed, Shenji then explained:

"The makeup is quite good, it looks flawless no matter how you look at it, but there's no way around it, you're facing him, no amount of disguise will work on him, he sees the color of your spiritual root, and no clue can escape his perception."

To put it simply, although the process and principles are different, you are no different in front of me or in front of him—you are both transparent, and he doesn't need to pay any price.

“There is a difference. I can’t create something out of nothing, but you can. Without enough clues, I can’t get the answer as directly as you do.” Despite being set up, Xia Zhi remained meticulous.

"You knew all along that Wu Yi was the bureau chief?!" Jiang Shu belatedly realized that he and the bureau chief had been pranked by Shenji: "Didn't you say you wouldn't lie to me?"

She just wanted to see the surprised looks on her and the bureau chief's faces.

"Where did I lie to you?" Shenji retorted. "I do know Wuyi, that's for sure."

Jiang Shu subconsciously questioned, "Then you clearly knew I was also a member of the Bureau of Different Principles, yet you still let me meet with the director?"

"Are you very resistant?" the bureau chief asked upon hearing this.

"Uh, that's not what I meant..." Jiang Shu's momentum suddenly weakened.

"Hahahaha." Shenji continued to laugh.

“What I mean is…” Jiang Shu explained somewhat awkwardly, “If I had known earlier that you were Wu Yi, I wouldn’t have…”

As he said this, his chat history with the bureau chief automatically popped into his mind.

Who would have thought that an online friend would be someone you know in real life?

It's still my own boss, my boss's boss.

Top three times.

"Those things aren't important." Xia Zhi didn't care too much about them.

He only wants to know one thing right now.

"The important question is... why do you possess a Cataclysmic-level skill?"

He stared intently at Jiang Shu.

Pasteur was like the first person to discover the existence of bacteria.

It was as if he had discovered something that could answer his long-standing questions and overturn all previous so-called axioms...

The key.

Chapter 191 The Fermi Paradox

One must possess catastrophe-level skills to become a manager of the Fellowship. That much is certain.

Moreover, Jiang Shu's ID was automatically changed to "Dedication" when he synchronized his information, so Xia Zhi had no doubt that Jiang Shu possessed a calamity-level skill.

The problem is that in the past, calamity-level skills could only be acquired during the second sublimation at level twelve. But now Jiang Shu has not even experienced a single sublimation, which should be impossible based on past experience.

Therefore, Xia Zhi was very curious about how Jiang Shu obtained the Cataclysmic Skill.

If there is a way to acquire Cataclysmic-level skills outside of the Second Ascension, it would undoubtedly be a major discovery.

The value of this is equivalent to proving that the root cause of the disease is not the so-called miasma, but viruses and bacteria.

This has milestone significance, capable of overturning some previously accepted truths.

However, Jiang Shu's understanding of this was not very profound.

You can't expect someone born with innate knowledge to empathize with the incomprehensible experiences of ordinary people.

He simply had this one thought: apart from him, it seemed that no one else had the same conditions to start with a catastrophe-level skill as he did.

"Is everyone curious about this...?"

Jiang Shu glanced at Shenji subconsciously; the latter had asked him the same question:

"But actually I'm not too sure either. Anyway, I already had a catastrophe-level skill when I became an evolved being."

Xia Zhi wasn't too surprised by this answer.

After all, if Jiang Shu knew everything, he wouldn't have made so many basic mistakes. In fact, Jiang Shu was completely ignorant about many common sense things about evolved beings.

As for this question, Xia Zhi had already made some guesses.

"Could you tell me about the difficulty level of your Trial Hatchery?"

He got right to the point with his question.

Jiang Shu did not avoid the topic.

“A natural disaster,” he replied.

There's no need to hide it anymore.

Not to mention that everyone in the Bureau of Different Principles treats him well, and his promotion also depends on the Bureau, or more precisely, the Bureau Chief's help. Moreover, they are both managers of the Fellowship, and in a sense, they are like-minded people. Although it is a bit of an overreach for him at the moment, there is no problem in calling him a partner as long as there is no conflict of interest.

And don't forget, the divine planner is still here.

Even if it involves answers on a catastrophic level, what if she can calculate it?

As long as she can calculate, Xia Zhi will definitely be able to afford the required payment.

Rather than waiting until it's too embarrassing for both of you, it's better to take the initiative and be honest.

And it's about time to expose it.

There's a saying that goes something like this.

They were afraid the poor guys would see it, but also afraid the rich guys wouldn't.

Jiang Shu is in this field; he knows it best and has the most authority to speak on it.

Since Xia Zhi has stood the test of time and is considered reliable, and his status and strength are so effortless, it would be excellent to gain his favor and attention.

Such a person has long since transcended base desires and would likely not covet anything of mine.

Catastrophe-level skills, others have them too, don't they?

Therefore, Jiang Shu generously answered all questions.

“A natural disaster…” Xia Zhi murmured.

Compared to his relative composure, Shenji was somewhat surprised.

"Are you sure?"

“Of course I’m sure.” Jiang Shu nodded. “I can at least read. The information about the incubator back then said the difficulty level was catastrophic.”

"There really is a calamity-level trial incubation ground..." Shenji exclaimed in astonishment.

Jiang Shu asked curiously, "Why do you say that? Your words give me the feeling that you already knew about the existence of the Cataclysmic Trial Incubation Ground, but hadn't discovered it yet."

Yes, that's right.

Shenji explained:

"Do you know why I didn't think of the Trial Incubation Grounds at first? It's because it's a generally accepted rule that the highest difficulty level in the Trial Incubation Grounds is the Catastrophe level."

If what you're saying is true, then you're the first evolved being to experience the Heartbreak Incubation Grounds on Cataclysmic difficulty; before you, this has never happened before.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu was also somewhat puzzled.

"Why is that...?"

"You'd have to ask me that."

Shenji shrugs:

Why did you enter the Calamity-level Trial Incubation Ground?

Normally speaking, let alone the trial incubation field, even in the official incubation field, the difficulty of a natural disaster level has only appeared in the ancestral spirit root incubation field in the past.

As for the others, even if they are extremely difficult, they only approach the level of a natural disaster, but none of them reach the level of a natural disaster.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu thought about it carefully and realized that it was indeed true.

Whether it's [Town of Lies] or [Lone Smoke in the Desert], even if they can produce items of the Cataclysmic level, their difficulty is only at the Disaster level, not reaching the Cataclysmic level.

Just then, Xia Zhi finally spoke.

"Just as Shenji said, everyone has always believed that a catastrophe-level incubation site would not appear outside of the Ancestral Spirit Root Incubation Site, so the Trial Incubation Site would not have a catastrophe-level difficulty."

He paused, then continued:

"However, I have always believed that there must be some way for evolved beings to obtain catastrophe-level skills before their second sublimation, and the existence of catastrophe-level incubation sites is one such possibility."

Although there are no such examples in history or in oral tradition, I still believe it's simply because we haven't yet found evidence of their existence.

"Why?" Jiang Shu asked curiously.

"Because of the skill tree."

"Skill tree?"

"Yes."

Xia Zhi nodded:

"I don't know if you've noticed, but after acquiring a Cataclysmic skill, some new skills will appear in your skill tree that you didn't have before."

The number of additional skills is small, and their effects vary, but they all have in common that they can enhance your Cataclysmic Skills in various ways.