Embers Ad Infinitum

It wasn’t Shang Jianyao who replied to Long Yuehong but Jiang Baimian. “Making friends is indeed more reliable in the short term, but it won’t take long for Shang Jianyao’s Inference Clowning to lose its effects without the suitable environment.

“Think about it. Most people in the Underground Ark won’t help Yu Tian and Bode testify that they are friends with Shang Jianyao. Once they return, they will quickly discover that they were deceived. In contrast, making them misunderstand our identities and think that we are envoys from the Vigilance Church who want to help them overthrow DiMarco’s rule is in line with their inner desires. It might even be a manifestation of their hidden desires guided by Inference Clowning.

“People will always believe what they are willing to believe. This way, when they return, they will cooperate with Inference Clowning to deceive themselves, hypnotize themselves, and actively help us do things even if they sense something amiss.

“If one can do this very well, they will join in on resisting DiMarco even without Inference Clowning. They will spontaneously rope in others and make the group snowball. Shang Jianyao’s goal this time is to save time and energy by using Inference Clowning to skip the relatively troublesome steps in the middle so that we don’t have to consider more provocative statements or provide more convincing proof…”

Long Yuehong listened carefully and gradually came to a realization. The first thought that flashed across his mind was: Inference Clowning is most invincible when combined with one’s grasp of the human psyche…

He then had a second thought: Fortunately, Team Leader doesn’t have Awakened abilities.

A third thought popped into Long Yuehong’s mind: Wait a minute. Shang Jianyao and Team Leader have never discussed how to deal with the guards and create spies. He had already figured this out himself. He gave up on making friends and switched to misleading them with our identities…

At this moment, Long Yuehong sadly realized that Shang Jianyao’s intelligence was really higher than his. Although he usually looked like a mental patient and had all kinds of strange ideas that rendered people speechless, not many people could compare to him when it came to brains—at least among the people Long Yuehong knew.

Such intelligence, coupled with a mental patient’s abnormal thinking, made it even more unfathomable.

Long Yuehong recalled something as a result—Shang Jianyao had once said that he didn’t need Inference Clowning to mislead me; all he needed was his brain. This might, probably, perhaps be the truth…

Upon hearing Jiang Baimian’s analysis, a corresponding scene appeared in Genava’s corresponding processor: Jiang Baimian said to Yu Tian and Bode, “There’s no need to be afraid. There are very, very few things you need to do, and it won’t be too dangerous…”

This was to lay the groundwork for subsequent self-delusion and self-hypnosis… Genava finally figured out the goal of such words and looked at Jiang Baimian with his sunglasses on. “Are you also an Awakened?”

Before Jiang Baimian could answer, Shang Jianyao nodded with a sigh. “Her abilities are to ‘play with people’s hearts,’ ‘tactical deception,’ and ‘intimidate others…'”

Jiang Baimian raised her left hand, wanting to stop Shang Jianyao’s nonsense.

“I used my brain!” she emphasized; then, she answered Genava’s question. “I’m not an Awakened, but I’ve modified my genes.”

At this point, she had a burst of inspiration and asked, “Do you know of any way to make a person an Awakened?”

She felt that there might be some clues in Mechanical Paradise’s large database.

This sentence also diverted Bai Chen’s attention.

Genava shook his head. “We don’t need to Awaken, nor can we Awaken. The Source Brain didn’t study such matters. According to our data analysis on the intranet, the number and ratio of Awakened in the various religions in the Ashlands are clearly higher than that of other factions. The number of Awakened in a large faction like First City is also clearly higher than that of ordinary factions. A large portion of the reason for this phenomenon is that large factions are more attractive to Awakened, but we can’t rule out the possibility that they can artificially create Awakened…”

Jiang Baimian quietly listened and sighed. “We left Tarnan in a rush and didn’t have the time to participate in the Furnace Church’s baptism…”

Although she also knew that an Awakening brought about by baptism was definitely unlikely and that her chances were even slimmer as an impious believer, it was at least not zero.

Shang Jianyao sighed deeply when he heard that. “There was also the pork dish.”

This was something that pained the entire Old Task Force—apart from Genava.

After a few seconds of silence, Long Yuehong asked, “What should we do next?”

“Let’s go to Lake Heart Island again and see if we can get something good back. We’ll increase our chances of success and reduce the corresponding risks.” Jiang Baimian smiled. “Now that we have Genava, we don’t have to worry about Yama Tiger invading our minds.”

…

The next day, Redstone Collection, Public Security Department.

The Old Task Force met the current sheriff and town guard captain, Tan Jie. He was 1.68 meters tall and had a baby face, but he was expressionless. His skin was weathered by the elements.

“Do you want to borrow a speedboat to go to Lake Heart Island?” Tan Jie asked in a flat tone as if he were asking about what they had eaten this morning.

“And three bicycles,” Shang Jianyao added.

Tan Jie looked at Dr. Weiler—who was admiring the ladies’ beautiful figures—and directly said, “His Excellency Saint Sigmund forbids us from approaching Lake Heart Island in any form.”

“What has his ban on you got to do with us?” Jiang Baimian—who was wearing a graceful monk mask—laughed. “It’s not like we need to listen to him. Uh, to you, it’s just lending friends a speedboat and bicycles. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Tan Jie was not moved by such an explanation. He looked at the Old Task Force and the others expressionlessly. “It’s not a good habit to play word games.”

Whoa, why do I feel like I’ve been provoked? Jiang Baimian had a plan in mind and calmly said, “His Excellency Saint Sigmund can only forbid you and not the merfolk. Maybe the merfolk will head to Lake Heart Island again after some time and find some items there to nurture new Oracles.

“Don’t worry; we won’t destroy the island’s layout. We still value our lives. At most, we’ll take away the items we need. This can help you eliminate the latent dangers, and at least they won’t fall into the merfolk’s hands.”

Tan Jie listened without any change in expression. He turned his head and said to Weiler in the Red River language, “I have no objections if they want to borrow a speedboat to catch fish in the Lake of Wrath.”

“Me neither.” Weiler smiled.

…

Lake of Wrath, Lake Heart Island.

Compared to the last time, the Old Task Force’s voyage was much smoother. The merfolk seemed to have given up on monitoring the island.

Jiang Baimian said to Bai Chen and Long Yuehong, who was wearing a military exoskeleton, “You guys will still be the ones guarding the speedboat. This concerns our wealth and lives. If it’s stolen or destroyed, we’ll be trapped on the island.”

“Yes, Team Leader!” Long Yuehong replied very loudly while Bai Chen said ‘okay.’

After informing them of the things to take note of, Jiang Baimian turned to Shang Jianyao and Genava. “Let’s go.”

Fully armed, she then mounted the bicycle and cycled. Shang Jianyao didn’t fall behind at all.

Genava looked at the bicycle in front of him and laughed in a synthetic manner. “I’ve always wanted to try this mode of transportation.”

The Old Task Force had borrowed three bicycles from Tan Jie because of Genava’s firm request.

Jiang Baimian’s original idea was for her and Shang Jianyao to ride their bicycles while Genava jogged behind them. After all, he didn’t suffer from fatigue, and an advance at such speeds wouldn’t waste much of his electricity.

Creak, creak…

After Genava sat on it, the bicycle emitted a sound like it couldn’t bear the load, making one have the illusion that it would fall apart at any moment.

Jiang Baimian glanced at the bicycle under Genava and evaluated it for a few seconds. “Let’s go.”

She only had one thought: This bicycle’s quality is really good!

The journey was uneventful. The three bicycles traversed the road along the lake, and they arrived at the Old World town with white walls and black eaves.

Jiang Baimian stopped the bicycle and turned to ask Shang Jianyao, “Do you still remember what to take note of?”

Shang Jianyao replied concisely, “Fifteen minutes, half an hour, three days.”

This meant that they couldn’t stay in the temple for more than 15 minutes and that they couldn’t stay in the temple’s vicinity for more than half an hour. They also couldn’t stay on this island for more than three days.

“Reduce all of it by 10%,” Jiang Baimian emphasized.

With that said, she looked at Genava. “If anything abnormal happens to us, knock us out, drag us back, and evacuate us out of the island.”

“No problem,” Genava promised solemnly.

They soon traversed the streets and alleys and arrived at their destination. They saw a black temple with a white paper lantern hanging on each side.

“Yama Hall.” Genava—who had parked his bicycle—read out the name on the signboard.

Jiang Baimian—who had never imagined that she would come again—sized it up. She stretched out her left hand—which was wearing latex gloves—and gently pushed open the black door.

The indescribable silence and fear surfaced in her heart again.

After passing through the impluvium and raising a white curtain, Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, and Genava walked behind the offering table and stopped beside the pitch-black coffin.

The coffin’s lid was slid to the side, revealing the sleeping deity in the white linen shirt with long black hair.

“How rude.” Shang Jianyao criticized. The last time he left, he had helped Yama Tiger close the coffin lid.

This situation was clearly caused by the Vigilance Church’s Terror Bishop, Sigmund.

Jiang Baimian ignored this and cast her gaze at the mummy’s right wrist.

The tree branch bracelet was already gone.

“As expected…” Jiang Baimian exhaled and turned to Genava. “Search his body.”

This was something neither she nor Shang Jianyao could do, and Genava was theoretically unaffected.

Genava didn’t hesitate. He took two steps forward and stretched out his silver-black palm—which shimmered with a metallic luster—toward the corpse that had been dried for many years.