Embers Ad Infinitum

Not long after Oudick threw the grenade, he fell into a predicament of constantly sneezing. He then fainted for a short period of time.

Thus, he had no impression of the anomaly at South Street; he only had a vague understanding of it. The situation was urgent, so he naturally couldn’t care less about obtaining other information from Castellan Xu Liyan.

Oudick shook his head and said, “I’ll ask now.”

As Oudick spoke, he picked up his phone and dialed another number.

Jiang Baimian took this opportunity to squat down and search the fake Father’s body to see if she could find any useful clues.

She quickly took out a note from the fake Father’s pocket. It was written in Ashlandic and Red River language at the same time: “This is a special permit issued by the Castellan.”

Apart from these words, there was nothing on the paper. There wasn’t even a signature, much less a seal.

Jiang Baimian said in amusement, “He easily entered North Street using such a pass?”

“This actually works…” Shang Jianyao’s eyes lit up as if he felt a little tempted.

Jiang Baimian sensed something and turned her head to scold him jokingly. “Don’t try it. You don’t know Hypnosis.”

Even if Shang Jianyao wanted to try, he had to, at least, find a carrot and use it to stamp the note.

At this moment, Oudick ended the call and said to them, “There’s a riot among the nomads outside the city. They’ve already rushed in; it’s chaos everywhere.”

“As expected…” Jiang Baimian took off the walkie-talkie hanging from her belt and tried to contact Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.

But it didn’t succeed.

“I’m out of range…” Jiang Baimian exhaled and said to Oudick, “We have to return to South Street and find a few friends. This is to prevent any accidents from happening to them during the riot.”

Oudick was very understanding. “Drive my car and take these two away.”

“Alright, how do I return it to you later?” Jiang Baimian didn’t waste any time being polite.

“If the riot ends soon, drive it to the guild. If not, head to Castellan Manor. The car also has a special permit,” Oudick said simply.

Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian didn’t say anything else. They carried Lei Yunsong and Lin Feifei on their backs and ran to First Hospital’s entrance. They then used the key that Oudick gave them, opened the door, got in the car, and drove away.

It was only at this moment that the Castellan Guard assigned to this area arrived.

As they had a special pass, Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian easily crossed the encirclement and left North Street, entering Central Square.

At this point, the gunshots became increasingly obvious. They came from all directions, and there were countless corpses on the ground. Some were in their prime, some were children, some were men, and some were women. Some were neatly dressed, some had tattered clothes, some had incomplete corpses, some looked like they had been strangled to death, some looked like city guards, and some held guns like ordinary hunters…

Their blood had splattered on the ground, reflecting the large number of bullet holes on them.

Many people were also sitting near the alley, stuffing cornbread into their mouths. They watched the commotion dazedly, neither joining in nor resisting.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao temporarily fell silent.

After a few seconds, Jiang Baimian took out the walkie-talkie again and tried to contact Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.

This time, there was an answer.

“Where are you?” Jiang Baimian tried her best to maintain her tone so as not to make her team members panic and nervous.

Bai Chen’s voice came with a noisy background. “We’re rushing to Ah Fu’s Gun Shop. We were still on East Street when the nomads rushed in; we immediately found a place to hide. The first wave of rioting nomads has already dispersed, and a large number of people are no longer concentrated in one place.

“We plan on returning to move the supplies in our rooms to the jeep before driving to pick you up. We’ll leave through East Street’s city gate and return to the city after the situation stabilizes.”

“Alright, we’ll meet in the alley outside Ah Fu’s Gun Shop.” Jiang Baimian praised Bai Chen and signaled for Shang Jianyao to drive Oudick’s red SUV into South Street.

Clang! Clang!

The occasional bullet that flew over was blocked by the thick steel plates and bulletproof glass installed on the vehicle.

The situation at South Street was worse than in Central Square. Blood even flowed down the street.

A large number of people had died on the street. Corpses were everywhere, and some had their eyes open, filled with indignation and confusion.

From time to time, one or two living people could be seen, but most of them were about to die. They only instinctively moaned in pain.

As Jiang Baimian swept her gaze across the area, she suddenly pointed at a spot. “Drive over.”

It was the first restaurant they ate at after coming to Weed City—Time-Honored Noodle Restaurant.

Back then, Jiang Baimian and the others had a deep impression of the boss’s mixed accent and persistence in borrowing books from the library to teach his grandson how to read.

The delicious, spicy oil-drenched noodles similarly left an impression.

At this moment, the noodle shop was in chaos.

The boss with gray sideburns was on the ground. There was a large hole in his forehead, and blood dyed his clothes red—he was no longer alive.

The boss was in front of a wall corner. A seven-year-old boy was squatting there, trembling.

Several books—which mostly contained pictures—were scattered around them.

On the other side of the noodle shop, two people sat at the only table that hadn’t been overturned.

One was a man in his thirties, and the other was a seven-year-old girl.

They buried their heads and ate the noodles in the large bowls, ignoring the chaos and gunshots outside.

After Shang Jianyao stopped the car, Jiang Baimian immediately opened the door and jumped down. As she raised her hand to aim at the noodle-eating man, she quickly approached the noodle shop owner and the boy behind him.

She didn’t need to conduct any other inspection. She could tell that the boss was dead from the electric signals.

The man—who was eating the noodles—quickly scooped the remaining scallions inside the bowl into his mouth. He then licked the tip of his chopsticks and stood up reluctantly, shielding the little girl behind him.

The little girl’s face was dirty, but her eyes were very bright. She didn’t stop eating, slurping down the remaining noodles in two mouthfuls.

Shang Jianyao recognized the man.

This man had bronze skin and a square face. He looked rather honest—a wilderness nomad that had previously answered Oudick’s question and told him about the fake Father’s whereabouts.

Upon seeing Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao pointing their guns at him, the wilderness nomad revealed a smile that was uglier than crying. “Shoot me; I killed him. He didn’t give us anything to eat, so I could only snatch the food and cook it myself… Otherwise, we’d starve to death.”

Upon recalling this, the man’s expression became a little warped, and his voice became much louder. “We are all humans. Are we not fit to live? We’re humans too; do we deserve to starve to death?”

Jiang Baimian looked at the man and the little girl behind him—who reluctantly put down her bowl and chopsticks.

Jiang Baimian didn’t pull the trigger for a long time.

A few seconds later, a gunshot sounded.

The man fell to the ground, and blood gushed out of his chest.

The one who fired was Shang Jianyao.

The little girl watched this scene numbly; she didn’t cry or shout.

Jiang Baimian turned her head slightly and looked at Shang Jianyao. She saw him holding the gun with both hands and staring ahead with a solemn expression.

Jiang Baimian retracted her gaze and quickly instructed, “Bring both of them along, and we’ll rendezvous with Little White.”

If they didn’t do anything, the two children wouldn’t survive in such a chaotic situation.

When the time came, they could think of a way to settle them in after Weed City stabilized.

Shang Jianyao nodded and helped the two children into the red SUV. One squeezed into the backseat with the unconscious Lei Yunsong and Lin Feifei, while the other entered the passenger seat and stayed beside Jiang Baimian.

The two children didn’t cry or resist; they seemed to be terrified instead.

After the car gradually drove away from Time-Honored Noodle Restaurant, the boy and girl seemed to wake up and lunged toward the windows at the same time.

They looked at the two corpses and shouted at the top of their lungs.

“Grandpa!”

“Daddy!”

…

In the alley where Ah Fu’s Gun Shop was.

Long Yuehong hastily swung his right arm and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A knife-wielding nomad—who had appeared out of nowhere—fell to the ground and convulsed.

Compared to how he acted at the beginning of the chaos, Long Yuehong was relatively calm now. At least eight wilderness nomads had died at his hands.

After he and Bai Chen left their hiding spot in East Street, they returned to Ah Fu’s Gun Shop by utilizing the route with the least number of people. Even so, they encountered many wilderness nomads—who were overwhelmed by bloodthirstiness—and local bandits, who were taking advantage of the situation.

After the initial panic, Long Yuehong realized that these people didn’t have good marksmanship; they weren’t skilled either. As long as they avoided large groups and didn’t rush toward places with bullets flying everywhere, he and Bai Chen could deal with them through their cooperation.

The only thing to worry about was that the ammunition they carried with them was depleting. There was no time to replenish it.

Of course, it was not without danger along the way. Long Yuehong and Bai Chen encountered a City Guard team that cleaned up the wilderness nomads. It was unknown if the team treated them as civilians because of an overreaction caused by nervousness or if they believed that they could wipe them out due to them being alone.

Fortunately, there were only five people in the team.

Bai Chen had seen through their intentions in advance. After a chaotic battle, they abandoned two corpses and retreated to another alley.

This left Long Yuehong with lingering fear and excitement. This was because he had killed one of the city guards with a single shot to the head.

To him, this was an impressive achievement.

After entering Ah Fu’s Gun Shop, Bai Chen swept her gaze around, and her heart sank.

Many of the guns sold here had disappeared. It was a mess everywhere, looking as if someone had robbed the shop.

Almost at the same time, gunshots came from upstairs.

The sound was intermittent and heart-wrenching.

“Auntie Nan…” Long Yuehong looked at Bai Chen and said a name.

Bai Chen’s expression didn’t change as she nodded. “Let’s go up and take a look.”

With that said, she added, “There’s still plenty of supplies in the room.”

“Alright.” Long Yuehong didn’t object. He only put away the Ice Moss with a slightly hot barrel, switched to his United 202, and reloaded it with bullets.

When they arrived at Ah Fu’s Gun Shop’s back door, they looked at the courtyard through the door hole and confirmed that the jeep was still parked in its original spot.

It was obvious that the wilderness nomads—who had rushed here—were temporarily uninterested in cars. They also didn’t discover that many supplies were hidden in the car.

After turning into the stairwell, corpses were reflected in Long Yuehong and Bai Chen’s eyes.

There were men and women among them; they were either lying on their stomachs or lying on their backs. All of them had been shot to death.

Bai Chen quickly scanned the area and subconsciously quickened her pace.

When they were about to reach the second floor, gunshots sounded again.

Bai Chen lowered her back and carefully moved upward. Long Yuehong mimicked her actions and followed behind closely.

After rounding the corner, they saw five to six armed men firing at someone in a room on the second floor.

In front of them were densely packed corpses, which were almost piled up.

Bai Chen didn’t hesitate to raise her hands and fire at the group of wilderness nomads.

Long Yuehong didn’t ask any further and did the same.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Coupled with the counterattacks that came from inside the room, the duo emptied their clips and wiped out all the enemies in front of them.

“It’s us!” Bai Chen immediately shouted.

Auntie Nan’s voice sounded. “Quick, come on up.”

Bai Chen and Long Yuehong dashed over and saw a group of people hiding in the room. There were Ah Fu’s Gun Shop’s shareholders like Auntie Nan, Gu Changle, and the prostitutes of different ages. They hid inside and trembled slightly.

An Ruxiang was guarding the door, preventing any wilderness nomads from rushing up.

This Ruin Hunter and temporary teacher held her pistol, half-kneeling as she leaned against the wall. Her expression remained cold and calm.

Auntie Nan’s brother, Ah Fu, was in charge of reloading and handing out guns.

Upon seeing Bai Chen and Long Yuehong come up, An Ruxiang suddenly sat down and panted heavily.

A rare smile appeared on her clean and pure face.