Embers Ad Infinitum
chapter-614

Long Yuehong remained stunned and confused. “What do you mean ‘scare it off?’”

Shang Jianyao pushed open the door and alighted. Having ‘expected better from him,’ he explained, “Have you forgotten how we sensed someone secretly watching us? However, the other party didn’t come over despite us waiting. Therefore, Big White wanted to feign sleeping and lure him into attacking. She wanted to find an opportunity to capture him and study his characteristics—well… if he’s really that special Superior Heartless. Who knew that you would formulate a plan yourself and scare him away!”

As Shang Jianyao spoke, Jiang Baimian alighted from the jeep.

“Team Leader never said that…” Long Yuehong carefully recalled the situation and cast a pleading gaze at Jiang Baimian.

He found it ludicrous. I only bragged in front of Little White. How did I end up scaring away a Superior Heartless? If the other party really had Clairvoyance, he shouldn’t have mixed up the brag with the real, implementable plan!

Although Bai Chen and Genava were a little confused a few moments ago, they eventually came to a realization.

Before Jiang Baimian could answer, Shang Jianyao excitedly said, “It’s all very subtle! Got it? Do you know what it means to be subtle? Don’t you know what kind of person Big White is? She’s so full of curiosity. How could she let go of any abnormalities so easily, especially after we sensed the hidden gaze? You have to learn to understand the subtleties behind one’s words and have a silent rapport with us.”

Is this the Shang Jianyao that likes to joke or the Shang Jianyao that seeks novelty? He’s actually playing the role of Little Red’s elder and teacher… Jiang Baimian glared at Shang Jianyao and cleared her throat. “Don’t listen to Hey. I just want to carry out further observation before sleeping to prevent any accidents from happening.”

So Hey is telling the truth… Team Leader, you even deceived your team members in order to deceive the enemy… Long Yuehong suddenly recalled what had happened when they faced Jingfa.

Back then, Jiang Baimian had come up with a fake plan and deceived Jingfa by deceiving her team members. This led to a successful ambush.

Upon seeing Bai Chen reveal a reminiscing expression, Jiang Baimian quickly added, “Besides, I can’t say it out loud when it comes to such matters. Do you still remember Jingfa? Back then, he showed outstanding hearing and grasped our ‘plan.’ Also, didn’t we experience what others saw and heard when we were trapped in the Crystal Consciousness Church’s Sikhara Temple?

“According to my understanding of the Buddhist scriptures and the fact that there’s a Buddhist Holy Land here, the abnormalities should be related to this. I suspect that the special Superior Heartless’s ability isn’t Clairvoyance but Heavenly Ears and Heavenly Eyes. Yes, I began to suspect something after Little Red mentioned that Old Ge could monitor 24/7 and that I could sense bioelectric signals.”

“Yes.” Bai Chen and Genava expressed their agreement.

Long Yuehong thought about it seriously and found it reasonable.

Therefore, my bragging was heard by the Superior Heartless, and that scared him away? Long Yuehong came to a realization and found it funny. However, he still had some doubts. “Team Leader, he’s only a Superior Heartless. Why can he understand our words and the meaning behind them? This is completely different from the ability to predict danger through Clairvoyance.”

Even if a Superior Heartless recovered a certain level of intelligence, they should only be able to understand relatively simple words, just like the ones following Xiaochong.

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly and said, “Since he’s a special Superior Heartless, there must be something ‘special.’ Maybe he’s also possessed by something and has the other party as a translation device.”

“Don’t underestimate Superior Heartless either.” Shang Jianyao felt unjust. “If Xiaochong’s subordinates further evolve, they might be able to understand more complicated words.”

I think what Team Leader said is more likely. Not only is this place a Buddhist Holy Land, but something had once possessed Liu Lu… Long Yuehong muttered as he expressed the corresponding content in a more euphemistic manner.

Shang Jianyao—who had switched personalities—didn’t insist on his opinion. He only said regretfully, “Unfortunately, the trap failed. We didn’t capture him.”

“Forget it, forget it. Let’s sleep.” Jiang Baimian exhaled and said, “He probably won’t come again tonight.”

The other Old Task Force members had similar judgments regarding this.

…

The night passed uneventfully. At 9:30 the next morning, the Old Task Force arrived at Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company half an hour early.

The door here was still in ruins.

Jiang Baimian and the others quickly searched the food company for 15 minutes and realized that it was no different from yesterday’s situation.

Shang Jianyao then took out the original medical record and the small jade Buddha one after another and made an attempt. However, nothing happened.

“We really entered an illusion yesterday?” Jiang Baimian muttered to herself regretfully. “Was this Eidolon Nun’s goal?”

As she, Long Yuehong, and the others ruminated over the matter, Xu Datong and Li Shouyi’s dark car drove over.

“How’s it? Any discoveries?” Xu Datong asked enthusiastically.

When others were enthusiastic, Shang Jianyao naturally became more enthusiastic. “No, but it doesn’t indicate that we entered an illusion yesterday!”

An illusion… That’s a good explanation… Jiang Baimian came up with a plan and said, “We triggered an anomaly in the illusion, allowing the employee introduction board I mentioned to be completely replicated…”

She recounted what she had experienced yesterday and only skipped on mentioning the small jade Buddha. She then pushed all the problems to the illusion.

Finally, she guessed, “The reason we encountered the illusion instead of you guys might be that we have a medical record from Long River City’s United Steel Plant ruins. That’s another Buddhist Holy Land.”

“No wonder…” Xu Datong came to a realization.” However, what you saw in the illusion doesn’t seem valuable. ”

Jiang Baimian first shared the medical record with him before saying, “We’re searching for a connection between the two.”

She didn’t mention her team’s guess last night. It was too shocking while lacking evidence.

“Thank you so much,” Xu Datong said sincerely. “How can we help?”

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and asked, “You mentioned that you had gathered a few hard drives from Iron Mountain City Ruin and restored the data inside. Some of the information you previously gathered for us came from here. Can you copy the entire database to us now?”

“We gave you what we carefully selected and found useful. The rest are all random and worthless.” Xu Datong felt that it was meaningless.

Jiang Baimian cleared her throat and smiled. “To be honest, I also have another identity as a folklore scholar. I’m very interested in the Old World’s living environment, and there’s a high chance that the miscellaneous content contains such details.”

Xu Datong glanced at her and chuckled. “Alright.”

He then got a Salvation Army member in the car to take out a portable computer.

Genava didn’t decline the responsibility. He walked over with firewall and anti-virus software and copied all the information.

Jiang Baimian gave an order in front of Xu Datong and company, “Old Ge, carry out some simple filtering of the data now.”

“The first keyword is Long River City.” It was Shang Jianyao who spoke this time.

The Old Task Force had previously done a similar screening regarding Iron Mountain City’s information. Everyone was very familiar with it.

“There’s only a few trade-related content that’s of little meaning.” Genava quickly gave the results.

Bai Chen immediately said, “The second keyword, Modeus.”

This was the name of the first Underground Ark owner. He had once gone to Iron Mountain City to participate in the bidding for the Old City’s rejuvenation and had Awakened Subhuti domain abilities after the Old World was destroyed.

“None,” Genava replied.

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and said, “The third key term is ‘foreign merchant.’”

Genava quickly completed the search. “There are a few news reports from foreign chambers of commerce. They don’t involve Modeus or the Old City’s rejuvenation.”

The Old Task Force then used keywords like ‘old city rejuvenation’ to carry out more filtering, but they didn’t find anything. Xu Datong, Li Shouyi, and the others watched patiently.

As time passed, Jiang Baimian paced back and forth. “Keyword: foreigner.”

Genava did another search. After a few seconds, he said in a slightly synthetic voice, “I got something.”

“What is it?” Shang Jianyao excitedly came close.

Genava looked up at Jiang Baimian and said, “There’s a thread from Iron Mountain City’s local forum; the topic is about condemning law enforcement injustice. Someone in this thread mentioned: There was once when a foreigner driving without a license hit a pedestrian who turned into a vegetable, but he wasn’t sentenced and only paid some compensation.”

A foreigner driving without a license turning a pedestrian into a vegetable through a car accident? Long Yuehong’s pupils dilated, and the hair on his back stood on end.