Embers Ad Infinitum

“Maybe not every extraordinary item has an additional price?” Long Yuehong guessed the reason. Of course, he felt that there was another possibility—Shang Jianyao had deliberately not said anything back then.

Jiang Baimian shook her head. “In theory, no. Since such items are produced in the same way, they should conform to the same pattern.”

She wasn’t too sure about this. After all, she had yet to figure out the essence of the Mind Corridor and Awakened auras.

“It’s also possible that the price attached to Coward and Destiny Pearl is too small that Shang Jianyao neglected it.” Genava gave his analysis results.

Upon hearing this, Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. He then said in a tone of enlightenment, “I understand why. The price attached to Coward and Destiny Pearl is nothing to me. It doesn’t affect me at all.”

Jiang Baimian listened quietly and had a new train of thought. As she tucked her hair behind her ear, she thoughtfully said, “The Destiny Pearl is from the Subhuti domain. We can basically determine that Shang Jianyao is in the Master Zhuang domain. I remember that certain prices in these two domains are very similar.”

She then gave an example. “For example, mental problems.”

As Long Yuehong vaguely understood something, Bai Chen nodded slightly. “DiMarco is very brutal, and his emotional state was very unstable. This might come from the price he paid, and this led to a serious mental problem.”

“The Destiny Pearl is only formed from his remnant aura. Its abilities are inferior to his original abilities, so the price one has to pay will definitely be reduced significantly. Since Shang Jianyao is officially certified as a patient by a doctor—” Jiang Baimian voiced her judgment based on Bai Chen’s analysis of DiMarco. “—perhaps for Shang Jianyao, that price might only be about two kilograms for a person weighing 75 kilograms. It’s very difficult for people who don’t pay attention to their own weight to sense it.”

Long Yuehong weakly raised his hand. “What about Coward?”

“Maybe the additional aura’s price is related to mental problems as well,” Jiang Baimian speculated after some deliberation.

Her core idea was: “Shang Jianyao was ill enough, so much so that he neglected the price.”

At this moment, Shang Jianyao recalled and said, “Back when I used Coward, I felt that my mental state was very good. The few of us had active thoughts, and we each pushed our characteristics to the limits and successfully deceived DiMarco.”

“…” Jiang Baimian was stunned for a second before she laughed involuntarily. “It seems like there’s no need to think about other possibilities.”

The price attached to Coward might be a split personality. This allowed the nine Shang Jianyaos to be like fish in water, thereby not showing any problems.

Shang Jianyao turned to look at the Ring of Blindness beside him and said with lingering fear, “It can actually make me lose my appetite.”

This item’s effect was to make a person lose their vision for a certain period of time and become blind. Its range of influence reached 130 meters.

Compared to the original version, its weakened version might not be able to work on multiple targets at the same time.

“An accurate description should be a desire for food…” Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and said, “This might be effective against certain Awakened in the Mandara domain.”

To eat or not to eat—that was an eternal question.

After ending the topic, Shang Jianyao took out the Destiny Pearl and pointed at it, which had dimmed significantly. “It probably can’t be used much longer—not more than ten times.”

“Try your best to save two to three uses for the main targets.” Jiang Baimian felt that it was a pity. The Destiny Pearl was really useful.

Their main targets were Oray’s granddaughter and grandson—Avia and Marcus.

Investigating the reason for the Old World’s destruction and the Heartless disease’s origins were their team’s primary mission. Eliminating Father was only to eliminate latent dangers and take revenge.

Upon mentioning their primary objective, Jiang Baimian looked at Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Genava. “Father’s matter has been resolved. Next, we’ll be living a quiet and simple life. Yes, this is mainly to prevent the Anti-intellectualism Church’s crazy revenge.”

At this point, Jiang Baimian simply mentioned the information Shang Jianyao had dug out from Father’s memories. “Father has always been in charge of dealing with us because of the Anti-intellectualism Church’s habits. This can be seen as a test from the Anti-intellectualism Church’s higher-ups. If he can eliminate a latent danger like us, Shepherd Bouillon might consider removing his Hypnosis and returning his tampered memories to normal. That way, he will have a chance to enter the Mind Corridor.

“The point of what I’m making is that the matters we previously exposed are no longer in the Anti-intellectualism Church’s control after Father’s death. We don’t have to be too worried that they will use Wolf’s Den, Ugo Hotel, and those people and places to take revenge on us.”

“Doesn’t Father leave any paper records?” Long Yuehong asked cautiously.

“Yes, but he brings them with him. We obtained it all.” Jiang Baimian pointed at the bag beside the Ring of Blindness.

Inside were items that Father carried with him, including but not limited to: 75 Oray and 12 Drace worth of notes, 7 Cass coins, a meticulously made but very old wallet, a palm-sized notebook, five Ralph candies, a pack of Flagship cigarettes, a white mask without facial features, a Red River pistol, and nine bullets.

Jiang Baimian immediately added, “Shang Jianyao confirmed it through Father’s memories. He didn’t leave a backup record elsewhere.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Long Yuehong heaved a sigh of relief.

Jiang Baimian smiled and changed the topic. “However, Shepherd Bouillon can read other people’s memories on a large scale without causing a commotion.”

This was information they had obtained from the fake Father, Guo Zheng. Part of fake Father Sandel and real Father Alex’s memories also proved this.

“In other words, Shepherd Bouillon should be able to determine that we did it by flipping through the memories of those streets’ residents.” Jiang Baimian consoled Long Yuehong when she saw his expression turn solemn. “Fortunately, I considered this in advance. When we evacuated, I made you pass through deserted and intersecting alleys so as to sever Shepherd Bouillon’s tracking.”

The cameras in those places had been hacked by Genava.

After explaining the situation, Jiang Baimian concluded, “The Anti-intellectualism Church’s current focus is still on stirring up internal strife in First City. Furthermore, they aren’t a religious organization that can publicize their activities. They are currently being tracked by an unknown number of people. Therefore, as long as we reduce the frequency of going out and narrow down our range of activities, there won’t be any problems as long as we don’t directly bump into them.

“In addition, our hibernation is also to wait for First City’s situation to turn chaotic. When the time comes, we will have a chance to make contact with Avia and Marcus.”

Upon seeing her team members nod, Jiang Baimian clapped her hands and said, “We completed the operation at noon. Everyone must be exhausted. Let’s eat something before discussing the matters that appeared in Father’s memories. Heh heh, treat it as an internal celebratory feast.”

“Yes, Team Leader!” Shang Jianyao replied very loudly.

After Long Yuehong and the others replied, Jiang Baimian glanced at the fellow. “What will you do if I don’t give you additional servings?”

“I’ll play music,” Shang Jianyao replied sincerely. “I’m so hungry, so hungry, so hungry. I’m really hungry…”

As he spoke, he started singing.

Jiang Baimian quickly interrupted him and turned to ask Bai Chen, “What local delights are there in the Green Olive Zone?”

She had previously not bothered to ask about this.

Bai Chen replied calmly, “Fish—all kinds of cooking methods for fish. Fried fish, roasted fish, stewed fish, etc., etc.”

Long Yuehong was confused. “Can residents in the Green Olive Zone often eat fish?”

This didn’t match his understanding of lower-class citizen life.

Bai Chen glanced at him and nodded slightly. “Yes. This is because they eat fish from the Red River.”

Long Yuehong fell silent, not knowing what to say.

The Red River was seriously polluted. It had both high levels of radiation from the Old World’s destruction and the sewage from the upstream factory district. Therefore, there were certain problems with the fish inside. Bad mutations were common.

If such fish were to be eaten over a long period of time, all kinds of illnesses would definitely arise.

However, humans sometimes had no choice. They had to choose between starving to death in a few days or dying of an illness in a few years.

Bai Chen broke the short silence and said, “I remember a bakery named Dimichel. The rye bread it bakes isn’t bad. Although it uses rye, it’s not that hard or crude. It’s very fragrant and chewy.”

“Then, let’s have rye bread with coffee!” Jiang Baimian made the final decision.

Shang Jianyao smiled. “Celebrating Father’s death, T+1:28!”

“Celebrating Father’s death, T+1:29!” Genava very ritualistically mimicked Shang Jianyao.

Jiang Baimian’s eyes darted up as she sighed quietly.