Embers Ad Infinitum

As the rocket flew out, Jiang Baimian anxiously shouted, “Turn!”

She saw flames flash in the distance.

Along the way, Jiang Baimian never gave up on monitoring her surroundings. Her focus was undoubtedly on the areas that facilitated sniping and bombardment.

She wasn’t the only one. Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong—who were wearing military exoskeletons—were also doing the same. They relied on the comprehensive warning system to be in charge of the observation of the two areas behind.

Similarly, Bai Chen—who was driving—paid attention to the situation ahead and forward-left.

Therefore, it definitely wasn’t a coincidence that they discovered the rocket’s arrival in advance—it was only a coincidence that Jiang Baimian discovered it. In short, even if Jiang Baimian didn’t discover it, Shang Jianyao also would’ve noticed it. If Shang Jianyao didn’t discover it, Long Yuehong or Bai Chen would’ve.

With a creak, Bai Chen suddenly swerved the steering wheel.

The sapphire-blue jeep turned left in a nearly out-of-control manner, leaving a clear tire mark on the ground.

Boom!

The rocket passed through the vehicle’s original spot and exploded a little further away.

Amidst the surging flames, the violent shockwave—combined with the powerful momentum brought about by the jeep’s sharp turn—overturned the car as it slammed into the roadside trees.

Bang!

The trees along the road toppled to the side, stirring up a large amount of soil. The jeep finally stopped, its right side facing up.

As the car was covered in thick steel plates, the shockwave didn’t deal any obvious damage to the passengers inside.

However, Long Yuehong still felt a little scared. He had never felt the importance of wearing a safety belt more than this.

In order to wear the military exoskeleton, he and Shang Jianyao had taken off their seatbelts. However, they almost flew out of their seats when the vehicle made a sharp turn and rolled.

They would’ve collided with each other in the car or been thrown out the window with glass shards. Fortunately, they were wearing military exoskeletons. In that split second, they relied on mechanical strength to stabilize themselves.

Even so, Long Yuehong felt dizzy and short of breath. Of course, he at least managed to not relax his control over his bladder due to this accident, preventing the pee he had held in for a long time from gushing out.

Smack!

Shang Jianyao pushed open the door, and his knees drove the auxiliary joints as he jumped out of the jeep. He then raised his left arm, adjusted the grenade launcher, and used the feedback he had obtained from his prior observations to serve a grenade into the distance.

Amidst the explosion, he bent down, stretched out his right arm, and raised ‘Garibaldi’ Giuseppe up.

As Long Yuehong helped Giuseppe unbuckle his seatbelt, he climbed and jumped out of the overturned jeep.

On the other side, Jiang Baimian also opened the passenger door and used it as cover as she crawled out. She then dragged Bai Chen away from the driver’s seat, which had suffered relatively serious damage.

“Ignore the car; get to Xiaochong!” Jiang Baimian ordered. She didn’t expect the attackers to follow them and intercept them here.

No, it doesn’t seem like they were following us. It’s more like they set up an ambush in advance… Are there Awakened among them who are good at Prophecy, or do they know that we will run over here after learning of Xiaochong’s existence? But even Master Zennaga doesn’t know this… At a critical moment, Jiang Baimian could only let a few thoughts flash through her mind. She had no time to analyze them further.

Shang Jianyao stuffed Garibaldi under his armpit and clamped him tight. As he used the grenade launcher to suppress the enemy 30 meters away, he bent his legs and prepared to use the military exoskeleton to leap to the roadside and rush into the target apartment building. At the same time, he shouted, “Xiaochong! Xiaochong!”

Shang Jianyao—who was covered in the metal skeletal structure and had a tactical backpack slung over his shoulder—jumped up.

But as he was in midair, he suddenly felt the military exoskeleton become ‘heavy.’ It was as if an invisible hand had pressed down on his shoulder with the metal skeleton as a medium.

Bam!

Shang Jianyao’s cool ‘flight’ turned into a chaotic mess like a flailing rooster. He was forced to descend and take a hard landing when he was only halfway up his estimated height.

He barely managed to balance himself, and he tried to stabilize his body by taking a few steps forward. He felt his ankle being pulled by the corresponding auxiliary joint.

Shang Jianyao simply gave up and carried ‘Garibaldi’ Giuseppe as he did a roll.

Like him, Long Yuehong—who was carrying Bai Chen toward Xiaochong’s apartment—suffered an invisible tug. He felt the auxiliary joint on his right foot become a prop for an invisible enemy. He also felt like his left foot had betrayed him.

Long Yuehong fell flat on the ground as he staggered.

Clang!

The metal skeletal structure over him collided with the ground.

Jiang Baimian—who had used all her strength to engage in a short distance sprint—was the same. As she ran, her feet seemed to be tied to an invisible rope. She lifted off the ground and struggled in midair.

After a few failed attempts, Jiang Baimian shrank her profile and rolled. As soon as she stopped rolling, she planned on raising the grenade launcher she carried and continue delivering suppressive fire to the distant enemy to cover her companions’ retreat.

She suddenly realized that the weapon was so heavy that she couldn’t lift it. It was as if someone was snatching it from her!

Jiang Baimian gritted her teeth and suddenly exerted strength with her left arm, forcefully ‘pulling’ it away from the invisible enemy as she raised the grenade launcher in triumph.

She roughly understood what was going on: After the Mind Corridor-level Awakened failed to achieve his desired goal with Forced Sleep and Real Dreamscape, he gave up on pulling strings remotely. He closed the distance between himself and the Old Task Force and then used his basic ability to interfere with matter to influence their every move.

Perhaps it was because he had maintained a safe distance, or perhaps it was because his level was inferior to Zennaga’s, but the strength he displayed was clearly lacking. He couldn’t even resist the strange strength of Jiang Baimian’s electric eel-like biomechanical limb.

However, this could still produce interference—fatal interference.

Regardless of whether one was wearing a military exoskeleton, balance in humans was a tricky thing when they were moving. At this moment, as long as one’s strength reached a minimum threshold, pushing, pulling, yanking, and pressing at key spots were enough to make the target lose their balance and be unable to complete the designated actions.

With the help of a military exoskeleton, people like Long Yuehong and people like Jiang Baimian—who could climb building ruins as if they were on flat ground—might be able to quickly adjust after losing their balance. However, it would also make them miss the most precious opportunities.

If this were combined with Forced Sleep, the Old Task Force members would be killed by the distant enemy even if they quickly woke up from their need to urinate after sleeping—as long as they didn’t enter Shang Jianyao’s Hands Immobility range.

This was what Jiang Baimian was most worried about.

She fell asleep the next second, and so did Shang Jianyao and the others.

…

In the North Shore Wastelands, in the town ruin where Han Wanghuo and the others hid from the rain.

Genava finished sending the telegram and waited for a while. However, he didn’t receive a reply from Jiang Baimian’s team.

“That’s not right…” Zeng Duo muttered.

This was the agreed-upon time for the exchange of telegrams.

“Did something delay them?” Han Wanghuo frowned and guessed.

“That’s the best situation.” Genava looked around with shimmering red eyes. “The worst possibility is that the person from before informed their companions of Big White and Hey by sending a telegram. His companions are in First City.”

Han Wanghuo hesitated and said, “But aren’t October Xue and the others at the Crystal Consciousness Church’s headquarters? There should be plenty of powerhouses there.”

During this period of time, they had learned through a telegram that Sikhara Temple was the Crystal Consciousness Church’s headquarters.

“That’s indeed the case, but we can never rule out accidents,” Genava said rather cautiously.

Zeng Duo looked at the crackling bonfire. “Then, what should we do? What can we do?”

Even if their team wanted to provide help, they couldn’t save them from immediate dangers.

Genava and Han Wanghuo fell silent because they couldn’t think of anything to do for the time being.

The only difference between the two of them was that Genava was still exhausting all possible solutions while Han Wanghuo tried to focus on doing whatever he could do, no matter how insignificant.

…

The four Old Task Force members and Garibaldi woke up from their need to urinate.

At this moment, the distant enemy had already finished aiming.

Long Yuehong—who was attempting to use the military exoskeleton to jump away with Bai Chen—clearly had his actions interfered with. He couldn’t jump too far and remained within the rocket launcher’s range.

At this moment, the hair-like bracelet on Shang Jianyao’s left wrist lit up with fire.

Bangle of Blindness!

Relying on this item, Shang Jianyao’s perception range instantly expanded to 100 meters, and he detected the rocket launcher-carrying enemy.

With a flash, the person couldn’t see anything.

He couldn’t help but feel anxious. His body subconsciously leaned back a little, and even the rocket launcher was fired at an angle.

Boom!

The rocket passed by Jiang Baimian and the others and landed on the other side of the sapphire-blue jeep.

The intense explosion caused the windows to crack.