Embers Ad Infinitum

Jiang Baimian quickly calmed down and asked, “Can you sense where they are?”

In the mountains, there were too many creatures emitting electric signals, including those that had reached a certain size. Therefore, she couldn’t tell which two corresponded to the Nightmare Horse and Slumber Cat.

Just as she said that, Jiang Baimian regretted it. This was because the Nightmare Horse and Slumber Cat were mutated creatures and not humans. Shang Jianyao might not be able to sense their consciousness.

The next second, Shang Jianyao retracted his hands and wore the Ring of Blindness on his left wrist. He then took off his tactical backpack and took out a blue and white loudspeaker.

Right on the heels of that, he switched on the loudspeaker and brought it to his mouth as he made the accessory weaved from black hair light up like fire.

Jiang Baimian didn’t stop him and watched the development with anticipation.

Time seemed to stop at this moment. After a few seconds, Shang Jianyao’s voice sounded in a certain area outside the camp and echoed around. “Both of you should know that: I’m Xiaochong’s friend. I want to play games with Xiaochong. So…”

Using Inference Clowning… He can now sense Nightmare Horse’s and Slumber Cat’s consciousness? As Jiang Baimian’s thoughts raced, she realized that many people in the camp had been woken up or interrupted from what they were doing.

This included Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Genava.

On the fourth floor of the castle’s main building, Wang Fugui—who was staying in the hotel’s guest room—listened for a while. He frowned and walked to the window before casting his gaze at the Old Task Force.

With the help of the street lamps, he saw Shang Jianyao and the loudspeaker in Shang Jianyao’s hands, and his expression became increasingly confused.

He had no idea who this fellow was talking to, what the meaning of those words was, or who Xiaochong was.

Tracing the direction where Shang Jianyao was facing, Wang Fugui looked out of the camp from a vantage point.

Under the moonlight, the darkness was hazy as if there was nothing.

Shang Jianyao waited for a while and repeated his words twice before finally putting down the loudspeaker in his hand. He said regretfully, “Their intelligence might still be a little problematic. They might not understand what I mean.”

Hoping that they can understand you only proves that there’s something more wrong with your brain… You aren’t Xiaochong… As Jiang Baimian criticized inwardly, she looked at Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava—who had opened the car doors. She then asked Shang Jianyao, “You can sense their consciousness?”

“Normally not.” Shang Jianyao raised his left hand and showed the Ring of Blindness on his wrist. “I can use it to sense about 30 meters in that direction. There are two consciousnesses that don’t belong to humans but are relatively close. They are different from other creatures because other creatures don’t emit a clear consciousness that can be sensed.”

Thirty meters was within the range of Shang Jianyao’s Hands Immobility. However, he couldn’t discover the target without the Ring of Blindness.

One can sense the consciousness of mutated creatures at the Mind Corridor level? Jiang Baimian nodded in enlightenment.

Back when they ambushed the white wolf, she had Shang Jianyao use the Ring of Blindness to sense the situation far away. It wasn’t because she had confirmed this but because she wanted to prevent any accidents.

Humans were often the cause of accidents. Of course, she also had the intention of testing if the Ring of Blindness could sense the consciousness of mutated creatures.

“What about now? Are they still there?” Jiang Baimian asked.

Shang Jianyao shook his head. “When I shouted for the second time, they retreated beyond 30 meters. Sigh, they might not even be able to differentiate between which are their hands and which are their feet. Hands Immobility didn’t have any effect.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Jiang Baimian wanted to say, “Why didn’t you chase after them?” However, she felt that it was safer for Old Ge to do it.

Shang Jianyao replied truthfully, “I thought they were going to inform Xiaochong, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

Xiaochong might still be playing games in the city… Jiang Baimian slowly exhaled and said, “Little Red, Little White, take out the two exoskeletons. Hey, Old Ge, and I will chase after them and take a look. I hope we can intercept them in time.”

In the mountains, it was almost impossible to catch up to two mutated creatures without an exoskeleton at this distance.

“Then, I’ll go over first,” Genava said without hesitation.

“Alright.” Jiang Baimian had the same thoughts.

After hearing Shang Jianyao’s description of the location, Genava immediately rushed to the castle wall, pressed his hand, and leaped into the air. Under the patrol soldier’s dumbfounded gaze, he jumped out and ran to the target destination.

At this moment, the door to the advance base camp was closed.

On the fourth floor of the castle’s main building, Wang Fugui was also stunned for a few seconds when he saw this.

“It’s good to have a robot…” He sighed with envy.

Under the moonlight, he observed Genava’s whereabouts and realized that it had stopped dozens of meters away, searching for something. After a while, Wang Fugui—who had gained nothing—turned his gaze back and looked at the area where the Old Task Force had parked their cars.

Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian had just put on their military exoskeletons and were stretching their limbs to familiarize themselves with their augmented states.

“This…” Wang Fugui’s eyes nearly popped out. He knew that this team had a background, was strong, and had plenty of equipment. However, he didn’t expect them to have so much equipment and be so strong.

Those aren’t ancient models… What kind of people are they… Wang Fugui watched Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao run to the castle wall. They also pressed their hands down and jumped up, flying over the four-meter wall.

The patrolling soldiers watched blankly and didn’t dare to stop them. They felt that this was the most humiliating day for the castle walls.

Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao quickly arrived beside Genava.

“There are hoofprints, but they disappeared into the forest.” Genava pointed at the dense forest.

It was overgrown with weeds and had a complicated environment. It was very difficult to find any clues.

“Forget it.” Jiang Baimian exhaled.

With Genava around, there was still a chance of tracking them down. However, it would take an unknown amount of time.

It was impossible for the Nightmare Horse and Slumber Cat to remain motionless. Given the time, they would’ve long escaped the tracking range.

Jiang Baimian then glanced around before looking at Shang Jianyao. “Don’t tell me the Nightmare Horse was really tricked by the white wolf howl you imitated?”

There was still a certain difference between a human’s wolf howl and a wolf’s howl. If the Nightmare Horse really fell for it, it would be a disgrace to the world of mutated creatures.

“There’s no other possibility.” Shang Jianyao had a proud expression.

Jiang Baimian tersely acknowledged it and muttered to herself in confusion, “But why did it let the Slumber Cat deal with me and not you?”

The quack—no, the neigh was clearly Shang Jianyao!

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and said in all seriousness, “Maybe you’re more charming.”

“Huh?” No matter how smart Jiang Baimian was, she couldn’t understand what this fellow meant.

Genava couldn’t figure it out either.

Shang Jianyao explained seriously, “The Nightmare Horse heard the white wolf’s howl and rushed over, but it didn’t discover the target. And in the place where the sound came from, you were the most charming. It believed that you had abducted the white wolf and prevented it from having sexy times with it, so it began targeting you. You probably can guess; it’s not very smart. After all, it’s only a horse.”

“…” On the one hand, Jiang Baimian found this explanation ridiculous. On the other hand, she inexplicably suspected that this might be the truth.

After a few seconds, she exhaled and said, “Go back. I hope they can understand that you’re Xiaochong’s friend.”

The three of them returned to the castle wall that served as the advance base camp’s defense again. They pressed their hands down and easily jumped in.

The patrolling soldiers pretended not to see anything.

After discussing the situation with Long Yuehong and Bai Chen, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao took off their exoskeletons and continued their night duty.

After switching a few rounds, a faint glow lit up the sky.

After breakfast, the Old Task Force members separately questioned everyone in the advance base camp to see if they had seen creatures similar to the Nightmare Horse.

This time, everyone was polite and respectful to them.

“Have you seen a horse? It’s black and not as tall as me. The color of its mane and tail seem to look like coagulated blood. Its eyes are about the same…” After asking around, Shang Jianyao found the hotel owner.

They had never actually seen the Nightmare Horse. They got the descriptions of the Nightmare Horse’s appearance from Qiao Chu.

The hotel owner was also not young—his sideburns were already white. He asked in confusion, “Yes, did you lose it?”

“Where did you see it?” Shang Jianyao asked excitedly.

Jiang Baimian also perked up.

The boss recalled and said, “It looks relatively special, so it left a deep impression on me. There was a period of time when we were lacking livestock to transport supplies to the mountains. We got the nomads from the surrounding settlements to help, and someone led such a horse over. It worked pretty hard, and I wanted to buy it. However, that person refused.”

It was difficult for cars to traverse the mountains, so they could only rely on livestock to transport supplies or have humans carry them.

“It was led away when the job was done,” the boss continued. “I paid a total of 15 Oray coins.”

Jiang Baimian was abnormally confused and wondered if her boss had mistaken her for a horse. The Nightmare Horse actually came to the advance base camp to do manual labor and transport supplies? That’s a rather powerful mutated creature!

After Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao repeatedly made confirmations, the boss was certain that it was that horse.

“I understand!” Shang Jianyao suddenly clenched his right fist and punched his left palm.

“What?” Jiang Baimian subconsciously asked.

Shang Jianyao replied seriously, “It was working to earn money.”

“Huh? Why?” Jiang Baimian was completely confused.

With a gratified expression, Shang Jianyao said, “To pay for Xiaochong’s rent, electricity, and water.”

He seemed to think that bringing up a pet to this extent was already enviable.

“…” Although this was very strange, it didn’t seem impossible for it to happen to strange creatures. However, the mighty king of the Heartless also had to pay rent, water, and electricity?

At this moment, the hotel owner looked at them in confusion. “Is the Xiaochong you’re talking about the person who led it here?”