Embers Ad Infinitum
chapter-600

Chapter 600: Surname

Translator: CKtalon

After some communication, the Old Task Force realized that the people who had ‘visited’ the mountain monsters two days ago were the people suspected to be from the Salvation Army they had previously encountered.

They appeared to have used a certain ability that deprived the mountain monsters of their vigilance and become filled with the enthusiasm of welcoming guests.

There are also Awakened among the mountain monsters, just that there’s a relatively small number of them. For them to temporarily control the entire tribe and have the influence remain to this day, they are definitely Awakened at the Mind Corridor level or above…

Since that group of people didn’t take away books, magazines, and newspapers from the mountain monsters, it means that those things lack valuable clues. Yes… We can’t make a definite judgment on this matter. They might not have as much information as us, or there might be deviations in both parties’ information. Some clues are only ordinary records in their eyes, so it’s not worth fussing over… Jiang Baimian’s thoughts raced as she tried to find the hidden meaning under the surface.

From her point of view, the group of people suspected to be from the Salvation Army might know more. Therefore, they treated the clues that were useful to the Old Task Force as ordinary and left them with the mountain monsters. Or perhaps they had relatively little information and didn’t understand what earth-shattering secrets some seemingly ordinary words implied.

There was a high chance of either situation happening, so the Old Task Force had to pay strong attention to everything to prevent themselves from missing any valuable clues.

At this thought, Jiang Baimian turned to look at Shang Jianyao. She signaled him with her eyes and secretly gestured, meaning: Go! Boldly ‘make friends!’

The listless Shang Jianyao perked up and raised the blue and white loudspeaker again. “Everyone, have you discovered that something is amiss? Don’t you have to thank me and invite us to your tribe as guests? As the saying goes, count on your parents at home, but count on friends when out. Making more friends ensures that you can exchange for sufficient food and cloth in the future…”

After some ‘guidance,’ the mountain monsters in front and the hidden mountain monsters on the cliffs agreed with Shang Jianyao. They were convinced that any day worked, and they decided to entertain the guests enthusiastically today.

Their performance stunned the Underground Ark smugglers.

Jiang Baimian fell silent for a moment before saying to the Ark personnel, “Complete the transaction now and return directly. There’s no need to follow us.”

She wasn’t worried that the Underground Ark people would show hostility to the mountain monsters to the point of finding an opportunity to surround and attack the mountain monsters after learning of their settlement’s location. After all, the favor and deterrence of the five honorary presidents remained strong. She was only afraid that the Underground Ark people would leak the information to Redstone Collection’s residents during their daily contact after they grasped the mountain monsters’ lair.

Those townsfolk had a blood feud with the mountain monsters.

“Yes, President Xue!” The Ark guard leader in charge of this smuggling team immediately agreed.

They also didn’t want to climb mountains and cross rivers to go to the mountain monster settlement that was worthless to them.

At this moment, Long Yuehong raised a question. “What about our cars?”

There was a high chance that the mountain monsters’ lair was somewhere that wasn’t conducive for car travel. This allowed them to leverage their talent and avoid most dangers.

“Unfortunately, it can’t turn into a robot and follow us.” Shang Jianyao had a look of regret.

He missed Tarnan’s Autobots very much.

Jiang Baimian originally wanted Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to guard the car while she and Shang Jianyao went to the mountain monsters’ lair. They could attack and retreat at will. However, she realized that Bai Chen wasn’t too happy after looking at her. She could only say to the Underground Ark’s smuggling team, “Leave two people behind and help us watch the car.”

After informing them of the things to take note of, she, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong each carried a crate containing a military exoskeleton. They also stuffed some high-performance batteries into their tactical backpacks and followed the mountain monsters onto a mountain road that gradually turned rugged.

Bai Chen was in charge of the crate containing the two bionic artificial intelligence armor.

…

The mountain monsters lived on a cliff. Some places along the way were so steep that it was difficult for normal humans to traverse them, much less cars. The blue-faced and sharp-toothed mountain monsters moved quickly while carrying boxes containing different supplies as if they were on flat ground.

Fortunately, the Old Task Force were agile people who had undergone genetic enhancement or modification, allowing them to barely keep up.

After arriving at their destination, Jiang Baimian looked into the distance and saw many mountain monsters of various sizes. However, she didn’t discover anyone that looked especially old.

Most of them were simply wrapped in animal hide. Only the children wore clothes that weren’t well-tailored, thanks to the smuggling business.

Upon seeing the adults return with boxes, these children eagerly watched. They hoped that their fathers, uncles, mothers, or aunts would take out a sweet and sour plum candy—which they had exchanged for during the transaction—from their pockets and throw it to them.

But their hopes seemed to be dashed today.

Shang Jianyao picked up the blue and white loudspeaker and modified his previous words, convincing the mountain monsters in the cliff camp over and over again.

This place was only a residence to one of the mountain monster tribes, and it only had a total of about 200 people. Shang Jianyao only repeated it three times before completing the job.

The calm and rational him strictly did a categorization when ‘convincing’ them. He began with the groups with a possibility of having Awakened and older experienced ones before going for the ones who were very normal in every aspect before finally dealing with the confused children.

Upon seeing all the mountain monsters turn enthusiastic, Shang Jianyao propped up his eyelids with one hand to prevent them from falling. He reached into his pocket with the other and took out a large handful of colorful sweets.

“Why did you bring so much candy?” Long Yuehong’s eyes almost popped out. He could tell at a glance that the candy in Shang Jianyao’s hand came from the company and needed contribution points for the exchange.

Back when he was still on blind dates and showing off in front of his siblings, he was no stranger to these candies.

Shang Jianyao weakly replied, “One of us never grew up. He likes to wear our childhood clothes and also likes to eat candy.”

As he spoke, he smiled and said to the mountain monster children, “Do you want this? Each person gets one, but you have to say ‘thank you, Brother’ before eating it. You still have to join me in dancing after finishing it.”

Is this the Shang Jianyao that can’t grow up? Long Yuehong seemed to understand something.

The mountain monster children—who had their vigilance eliminated by Thought Guidance—surrounded Shang Jianyao amidst the adults’ indulgent smiles and shouted, “Thank you, Brother.”

Their young voices were no different from that of a normal human toddler.

Jiang Baimian quietly watched for a while before summoning Bai Chen and Long Yuehong. They then entered the rock cave on the cliff and gathered the books, magazines, and newspapers with the owner’s help.

“Did the situation you previously mentioned only refer to your tribe or other mountain monster tribes as well?” Jiang Baimian asked cautiously.

The mountain monster representative from before scratched his head. “We only have one tribe, but there are too many of us. If we gather together, we won’t be able to fit in the relatively safe areas on the mountain. The potable water won’t be enough either. Furthermore, it’s easily polluted, so we can only live separately following our surnames. How can a surname family like ours decide to trade with you? We can’t gather so many things ourselves.”

Jiang Baimian felt relieved and smiled. “Then, please borrow all their books, magazines, and newspapers when you hand the supplies to the other surname families.”

“Alright,” the mountain monster representative said, not finding it difficult. “They don’t have that many either. We’re the only surname family that likes to gather books and magazines. I’ll let you in on this: before the Old World was destroyed, the majority of people from our surname were admitted to good schools!”

“What’s your surname?” Bai Chen interrupted and asked.

The mountain monster representative replied with abnormal pride, “Our ancestors were the Li family of Shanyang.”

Shanyang was north of Iron Mountain City Ruin. Back then, many people had gone abroad, and some had settled around the Lake of Wrath, the city Redstone Collection now occupied.

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen’s response, the mountain monster representative emphasized, “We are people from the Li family of Shanyang, not monsters or Subhumans.”

Long Yuehong suddenly felt inexplicably emotional. He turned around and cast his gaze outside the cave.

He saw a mountain monster child stuff the candy into his mouth without throwing away the colorful candy wrapper. Instead, he rolled it together and placed it in his pocket.

“It’s worthless,” Long Yuehong reminded kindly.

The mountain monster child replied loudly but vaguely, “I-it’s so pretty!”

Long Yuehong was speechless.

After Shang Jianyao and the children finished their mass dance, they found a place to sleep. Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen began to flip through the text the mountain monsters had gathered.

To improve their efficiency, they first read the table of contents or the titles. They would only pick out those that they felt might be problematic and placed them to the side, after which they would read them carefully.

During this process, Bai Chen suddenly noticed a title: ‘The 23-year-old genius scientist, Lin Sui.’