Embers Ad Infinitum

Upon hearing Shang Jianyao’s question, the fake Father’s pained expression became increasingly obvious. The muscles on his face warped, making him look rather hideous.

He said with all his might, “I-It’s Shepherd, Elder… Bouillon.”

Shang Jianyao wasn’t surprised at all and repeated after him. “Bouillon? Could it be that he’s also between 1.75 to 1.8 meters tall and has dark eye circles? Does he look very tired?”

He clearly believed that the Elder Bouillon the fake Father spoke of was actually the real Father in disguise.

This poor guy who had been controlled had never seen the real Shepherd, Bouillon.

The fake Father’s warped face revealed unconcealed horror. “Yes, how did you know… Why did this happen…”

He quickly became hysterical as if he was close to a complete breakdown.

Upon seeing this, Shang Jianyao smiled and said, “You have to thank me.”

He then took a step forward, raised his right hand, and accurately struck the back of the fake Father’s ear.

The fake Father fainted and escaped the indescribable pain.

Shang Jianyao quickly dragged him to an empty alley and took out the blueish-green night pearl in his pocket.

…

In the shimmering Sea of Origins, Shang Jianyao—who had split into nine—used the Destiny Pearl’s power to stir up all the fake Father’s memories.

They divided up the work and searched for the clearest and most recent scenes from the frozen waves. They constantly backtracked, hoping to discover the real Father.

Before long, Shang Jianyao found a related memory.

The fake Father named Sandel had received a letter from Shepherd Bouillon the day before yesterday. After confirming that it was real by matching the countersigns, he began plotting how to obtain surveillance footage from Wolf’s Den.

According to this memory, Shang Jianyao realized that the so-called Shepherd—Bouillon—mainly sent orders to Sandel via mailing letters. The sender’s address was always different from the one in the letter. The former was clearly a tool that had been hypnotized, and the latter was clearly fake.

He would occasionally call Sandel and had met the fake Father three times.

In the memories of the three times they met, Bouillon’s image was very fuzzy. He didn’t have any obvious characteristics, and there weren’t sufficient scenes of him walking. Shang Jianyao could only tell that he was about the same height as Jiang Baimian. He had dark circles under his eyes, revealing an unconcealed fatigue.

In other words, the man suspected to be the real Father was indeed between 1.75 to 1.80 meters tall.

The way Sandel reported the situation was to send a telegram at an agreed time. However, the other party would only receive and not send a response. There was radio silence, so they couldn’t use technology to locate the signal source.

Shang Jianyao quickly retraced the memories and found the scene when Sandel ‘became’ ‘Father.’

It was obvious that there were signs of tampering.

Shang Jianyao—who was only using a tool—found it difficult to stir the deepest and most subconscious memories and couldn’t reenact them.

In order to conserve the energy in the Destiny Pearl, Shang Jianyao quickly ended his inspection and returned to the real world.

After putting away the blueish-green night pearl, he looked around. Upon seeing that nobody was approaching, he picked up the walkie-talkie and briefly reported his gains.

After Jiang Baimian heard this, she slowly exhaled and said, “Bring the fake Father back to his room and wait for me to come over.”

She then put away the Orange rifle she had obtained from the Black Shirts and issued orders to Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava. “Continue staying in position and observe if there are any men between 1.75 to 1.80 meters tall—who look exhausted and have dark eye circles—in the surrounding houses.”

She suspected that the real Father might be monitoring everything nearby. Once anything happened to the fake Father, the connection would immediately be severed.

Just now, the fire engine sirens and Shang Jianyao’s loud shout in the fake Father’s room could be vaguely heard from the surrounding streets.

Of course, Jiang Baimian felt that the real Father wouldn’t personally monitor the area, given his style. It was more likely that he would hypnotize two to three ordinary people and get them to take turns paying attention. They would immediately send a telegram if anything abnormal happened.

After all, there was more than one fake Father. The real Father couldn’t split himself up, so he could only use less efficient but safer and more concealed methods.

Due to this inference, Jiang Baimian specially said to Genava, “Old Ge, monitor radio signals of this wavelength…”

Although it was very likely too late, it was better than nothing.

As Jiang Baimian issued orders to the other Old Task Force members, Shang Jianyao had already helped the fake Father up and brought him back to the original apartment as if he were helping a sick companion.

After closing the door, Shang Jianyao forcefully switched off the computer and ended the looping music.

Jiang Baimian quickly rushed over and entered the room.

She and Shang Jianyao carefully searched the area and only found some information regarding the Anti-intellectualism Church’s promotional material that was filled with spelling errors.

“He’s clearly not illiterate. He even knows how to use a computer. Why did he spell the words wrongly…” Jiang Baimian muttered softly.

“If his spelling and grammar are all correct, how can he convince those believers?” Shang Jianyao felt that there was no problem.

Jiang Baimian looked at the unconscious fake Father—Sandel—and deliberated before saying,

“I’ll restore the computer to normal using the program Old Ge wrote up and see if there are any clues inside. Wake him up and befriend him.”

“Alright.” The corners of Shang Jianyao’s mouth curled up as he walked to the bed.

After Jiang Baimian cleansed the portable computer of its virus infection, Shang Jianyao was already chatting happily with the awakened Sandel.

He used facts to prove that the other party was a fake Father, the real Father’s puppet. This incited Sandel’s hatred.

He didn’t even use his abilities for this part.

Jiang Baimian turned her chair around and looked at Sandel. “Although I’m not sure if the real Father has discovered anything wrong with you, we can pretend that nothing has happened.”

She organized her words and offered her plan. “Pretend to escape in a sorry state later and move elsewhere. Then, send a telegram to the real Father at an agreed time and say that you were targeted by us and almost captured. You went through great difficulty to escape.”

“Alright!” Sandel replied firmly. He thought for a moment and gritted his teeth. “He has been playing with my mind for a long time. If I don’t take revenge, I’d have lived all this while in vain! But after killing Father, I will leave this place and quietly leave the Anti-intellectualism Church.”

He had deep reservations about figures at the Anti-intellectualism Church’s Elder level.

There were a total of eight such powerhouses. The Anti-intellectualism Church’s organization that wielded executive power was the Eight-Man Council. The Pope above them was said to have gone to the New World to serve the Kalendaria, Last Man.

“That’s your freedom.” Jiang Baimian nodded.

As for whether Shang Jianyao would lock Sandel up for doing so many bad things, that was another matter.

Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao asked questions related to the Anti-intellectualism Church again, but they didn’t obtain anything new that exceeded their previous understanding.

As this place wasn’t suitable for them to ‘stay’ for long, they watched Sandel ‘escape’ in a rush.

“Goodbye! We must meet again!” Shang Jianyao waved his right hand reluctantly.

Jiang Baimian rolled her eyes and said seriously, “We’ll evacuate too.”

They quickly left the apartment and went to the agreed rendezvous point.

Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava reported their situation. They didn’t discover the man suspected to be the real Father.

Genava didn’t gain anything from monitoring the radio signals either.

Jiang Baimian held the walkie-talkie and ordered, “Withdraw.”

On the return trip in their dark-red, off-road vehicle, Jiang Baimian—who was in the passenger seat—summarized the operation. She sighed and said, “We still haven’t caught the real Father’s foxtail. Sandel can only be considered a decoy, and it’s highly likely that it won’t be of any use.”

“The real Father is really too cunning and careful…” Long Yuehong sighed.

Everyone in the car immediately fell silent, feeling a little depressed and disheartened. They had finally found a useful clue after spending a great deal of effort, but they still couldn’t capture the real Father.

Genava could also correctly respond to failure, just like when he was in Tarnan.

A few seconds later, Shang Jianyao said confidently and excitedly, “Such an opponent is more interesting!”

He wasn’t depressed at all and even added, “When we capture the real Father and hang him up for a beating, it will definitely be especially satisfying.”

“That’s right.” Jiang Baimian laughed after hearing that. Her emotions had already returned to normal, and she also had the desire to accept the challenge.

“Yes, the real Father will eventually be exposed as long as he still has things to do and has other operations to carry out.” Bai Chen also exhaled.

After some thought, Jiang Baimian said, “Take it slow; there’s no rush. Let’s take over the Zhao family’s Left Bank Manor first. Heh heh, perhaps the real Father is waiting for us there.”

In First City—where some semblance of order had been maintained—transferring ownership of a manor wasn’t a simple matter. It also required the Administrative Department’s approval. Therefore, the Old Task Force had to wait a few days.

At this moment, Long Yuehong—who was sitting in the backseat—glanced at Shang Jianyao and asked, “What are you thinking about?”

One could tell from Shang Jianyao’s face that he was deep in thought.

Upon hearing Long Yuehong’s question, he thought for a moment and said, “I’m thinking that if we have nothing to do recently, we’ll go to the places where the real Father might appear. When we discover people that match his characteristics, I’ll get Old Ge to ‘hit on’ them and drag them deep into the alley to have a chat…”

“I-isn’t this searching for a needle in a haystack?” Long Yuehong said in amusement.

Shang Jianyao shook his head. “No, it’s fishing. What’s most important when fishing is patience. The problem now is where the real Father might appear.”

Jiang Baimian opened her mouth and closed it again, revealing a thoughtful expression.