Embers Ad Infinitum

Nearly two hours later, a light truck peppered with bullet holes drove over from the Zhao family manor and headed for First City.

Sitting in the driver’s seat was a man with fluffy black hair and a scraggly beard. He had a cigarette in his mouth that was nothing but a rolled leaf. His body swayed slightly, and he looked rather relaxed.

Jiang Baimian turned to look at Shang Jianyao and asked him with her eyes if he was a target.

Many people had passed by during the past two hours, but none of them belonged to the ‘suspicious people’ in Zhao Shouren’s memories.

Shang Jianyao nodded in response. He then mouthed a name: “Shen Kui.”

This person was called Shen Kui. He was someone Zhao Shouren knew in some of his memories, but in another portion of his memories, he was mixed with another person’s image. Some details seemed to indicate that he didn’t exist.

Without a doubt, Jiang Baimian didn’t understand Shang Jianyao’s mouthing. However, she only needed his nod.

After receiving a definite answer, she turned to Genava and stretched out three fingers, indicating that they were taking action.

Genava—who was squatting behind a tree—suddenly jumped out. He then exerted strength with the metal joints in his legs and flew up, landing on the light truck’s hood.

Shen Kui—who had a crude cigar in his mouth—saw this scene from the corner of his eye and immediately tensed up. Without bothering to distinguish who the figure that suddenly pounced out was or what characteristics it had, the corners of his mouth curled into a cruel smile. His right foot lowered as he floored the accelerator.

He had undergone training and knew that he absolutely couldn’t brake when encountering such a situation. It was the best and safest choice to slam through the obstacle regardless of the consequences.

With a roar, the light truck suddenly accelerated.

This made Genava—who was supposed to land on the bonnet—slam into the windshield.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Baimian couldn’t help but raise her hand to cover her face. She wasn’t worried about Genava, but she pitied the driving Shen Kui.

Amidst the mixed sounds, Shen Kui was first blasted by the windshield shards as a small number stabbed into his body. Then, he was struck by heavy and high-speed steel in the guts.

He fainted without a grunt. Several of his ribs fractured.

Normal people would definitely choose to reduce their speed or turn the steering wheel when they saw a ‘metal lump’ flying toward the windshield to prevent themselves from being injured. However, Shen Kui accelerated as if he wanted to compete with Genava to see who was harder and more able to withstand the impact.

Needless to say, how could an egg deal damage to a rock?

With a creak, the light truck barely stopped after traversing quite a distance. It didn’t fall to the side.

This was because Genava tried to control the steering wheel in the driver’s seat and kicked the other party’s foot that was on the accelerator.

As soon as the light truck stopped, the smart bot opened the door and alighted. As it checked itself, it ‘grumbled’ at Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao—who were quickly approaching. “Doesn’t he know that doing so will only lead to a vehicle accident? I need another paint job later.”

“All carbon-based people have moments when a screw goes loose in their heads,” Shang Jianyao explained sincerely.

Jiang Baimian looked at Shen Kui—who was slumped in the driver’s seat—and said worriedly, “I hope he didn’t die.”

“I controlled my posture and avoided the critical spots.” Genava was very confident about this.

In the situation just now, it wasn’t strange for the driver’s head to be smashed by the ‘metal lump.’

At this moment, Jiang Baimian carefully pulled Shen Kui out and placed him on the ground beside the forest.

“Only a few bone fractures…” Genava took on the role of medical inspection equipment.

Jiang Baimian heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Shang Jianyao. “There are no electric signals of large creatures within 50 meters of us.”

It wasn’t that she was afraid of accidentally killing Shen Kui. The reduction of every Anti-intellectualism Church believer would raise the average intelligence of humanity. Furthermore, these weren’t ordinary believers who had been bewitched and deceived. They were direct participants in an operation and were the core members with a certain role. She was just afraid that she wouldn’t be able to obtain ‘information’ in time. That would mean she would have to wait a while longer.

“There are no human consciousnesses either.” Shang Jianyao took out the night pearl that emitted a green glow.

Facing an unconscious person, Destiny Connection was better than Inference Clowning.

As the green light suddenly lit up, Long Yuehong saw Shang Jianyao’s eyes turn hollow, and his gaze lost focus.

The next second, the unconscious Shen Kui opened his eyes. He raised his hands and touched his body before saying excitedly, “If the target loses consciousness, I can still control them to do things.”

Back then, DiMarco could forcefully control the other party’s body regardless of whether the target had lost consciousness or not. They could only interfere and resist to a certain extent.

Upon seeing Shen Kui’s bearded face filled with excitement and his hands constantly touching his body, Long Yuehong inexplicably found it ridiculous. He couldn’t help but say, “Quick, flip through his memories. You look like a pervert.”

A legendary narcissist.

Bai Chen nodded in agreement.

“He’s not very strong…” Shen Kui’s voice gradually lowered until there was silence.

After a while, he opened his mouth and said, “He’s indeed from the Anti-intellectualism Church. He was arranged to enter the Zhao family manor and control it…

“He has never seen the real Father or any other higher-ups. There are no such figures in his memories. It’s also possible that his key memories have been modified…

“He listens to the black-robed man beside Zhao Yixue. That person’s name is Meng Gang, a suspected Awakened who has shown the ability of Hypnosis…” As he spoke, Shen Kui flipped through his pockets and took out a few randomly folded pieces of paper.

After he unfolded them, Jiang Baimian and the others saw the contents clearly.

“Thinking is a wrap, and knowledge is poison…

“Sublimate your thoughts to distance yourself from the Heartless ciease…

“Contracting the Heartless ciease is definite from imparting knowledge…”

Jiang Baimian sighed in amusement. “Reading it makes my head spin. It’s like a spell.”

She then said, “With these pamphlets and ‘verbal statement,’ we can report to Councilor Zhao and confirm that it’s an operation of the Anti-intellectualism Church. Old Ge, take a photo of the pamphlet and save a copy.

“Hey, you can come back now. Conserve Destiny Pearl’s energy.”

Destiny Pearl was the name she had given the night pearl. It couldn’t be charged unless DiMarco was resurrected or if they had the help of a Mind Corridor-level expert with the same abilities as him.

Shen Kui nodded reluctantly.

His eyes quickly closed, and Shang Jianyao’s eyes began to move.

The night pearl’s brightness also returned to normal.

“Shall we go?” Genava asked.

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian to speak, Long Yuehong hesitantly said, “I think we should put on a full act, right?”

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Shang Jianyao clapped.

“Yes.” Jiang Baimian nodded thoughtfully.

Bai Chen objectively said, “Our current role is an investigation team hired by Councilor Zhao. We definitely don’t want to expose ourselves.”

“Wake him up then.” Jiang Baimian pointed at Shen Kui on the ground.

“Let me do it.” Genava had the intention of testing the new module he obtained from Redstone Collection—the stun gun.

Shen Kui jolted awake a moment later. He saw four human faces in front of him and a silver-black robot standing beside them.

“What’s wrong with you? Do you not know how to drive?” Bai Chen criticized on behalf of the entire team. “Don’t you know better than to brake when you encounter people on the road and swerve? Are you trying to kill us? Fortunately, the first person you hit was a robot. It’s nothing serious; otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to leave alive today!”

Long Yuehong was stunned by the scene because Bai Chen showed no signs of acting. It was as though this was something she was very good at.

Yes, she was a wilderness nomad and mainly did business. She definitely argued with others often… On second thought, Long Yuehong found an explanation.

Shen Kui was at a loss from the scolding. He wanted to retort, but the pain in his chest and the fact that the other party had the advantage in numbers made him lower his head and mutter, “It was its fault. It tried to jump onto my truck.”

“It’s a frog-type robot. You have a problem with its preference of jumping around?” Jiang Baimian lied through her teeth.

Shen Kui weighed the pros and cons and smiled fawningly. “How do you want to resolve this?”

“We’ll need a paint job, right?” Bai Chen raised the request.

Finally, they ‘extorted’ 50 Oray from Shen Kui—funds the Anti-intellectualism Church had provided him for his expenses.

After watching them disappear into the forest, Shen Kui touched his pocket to confirm that the pieces of paper were still there.

“How unlucky!” He slowly moved back to the light truck and prepared to return to get someone to treat him.

In the forest, Long Yuehong looked back at the highway and said in amusement, “The Anti-intellectualism Church’s ordinary believers really aren’t that smart…”

Jiang Baimian smiled and sighed. “If I can earn a sum of money from them every time, I really can’t bring myself to crush them.”

Shang Jianyao agreed deeply.

…

At 7 p.m., the Old Task Force had dinner and moved into the rented apartment on Iron Medallion Street in the Green Olive Zone.

Jiang Baimian looked around and said, “We’ll sleep here tonight. There are only two beds; we’ll have to make do.”

She then smiled. “I’m with Little White!”

This rental room was very small. It could only accommodate a bunk bed, a table, and chairs.

“I can rest sitting.” Genava indicated that this wasn’t a problem.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong glanced at each other in disdain and didn’t say anything.

As they chatted, Jiang Baimian drafted the afternoon’s harvest into a telegram and prepared to send it to Zhao Zhengqi tomorrow morning.

Suddenly, a wolf howl sounded from the harbor. It dragged on long like a beast’s whimper; it was sad and strange.

“What happened?” Jiang Baimian turned to look at Bai Chen.

Bai Chen simply repeated what she had previously told Long Yuehong. “Ashlandic prostitutes that are illiterate can only rely on simulating wolf calls to attract customers. This should be a symbol of sex in First City.”

As an outsider, she wasn’t sure about the latter half of the sentence. She only heard someone mention it and remembered it.

Before Jiang Baimian could say anything, Shang Jianyao stood up and said with a normal expression, “I’ll go take a look.”