Embers Ad Infinitum

Long Yuehong suddenly felt a little nervous upon seeing that the general’s residence wasn’t far away. “What if General Phocas suddenly turns hostile?”

After informing Phocas of the information obtained from Avia and bringing the captive to the other party’s house, the Old Task Force didn’t seem to be of any value. In such a situation, be it silencing them or reneging on his promise, there was a possibility of Phocas turning hostile so as to eliminate any latent dangers.

With the Old Task Force’s current strength and condition, it was very difficult for them to fight Phocas on his home ground. They couldn’t entrust their safety to his conscience.

Jiang Baimian had long considered this problem. She nodded and turned to Shang Jianyao. “Get out of the car later and find a place to hide; converge your consciousness. If we aren’t able to leave, find an opportunity to escape after half an hour. In the future, lead the company’s personnel to avenge us.”

Shang Jianyao was the only Awakened among the four Old Task Force members. He could hide his consciousness, preventing Phocas from sensing him.

No matter how well the others hid, they would be directly exposed due to their human consciousness.

Shang Jianyao didn’t act all corny. “Alright.”

He then raised a question. “Which song do you want to hear when the time comes?”

Jiang Baimian rolled her eyes at him. “You rarely show your illness during serious times or make such jokes.”

She then smiled. “Because you’re too worried?”

Shang Jianyao fell silent.

Whoa, you have such a side… Long Yuehong mimicked his team leader’s tone inwardly. This comforted him greatly, and he felt that he hadn’t made a mistake considering Shang Jianyao a friend. Even if he kept suffering ridicule, he believed that Shang Jianyao was doing this with good intentions or purely joking.

At this moment, Bai Chen had already parked the car in a relatively quiet place where nobody came and went.

Shang Jianyao pushed open the side door with his uninjured right hand and alighted with his tactical backpack. After he straightened his body, he fell silent for two seconds before taking out a photo from his inner pocket.

“Help me ask if he has seen him.” Shang Jianyao handed the photo to Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian had previously seen this photo and knew that the gentleman in his thirties was Shang Jianyao’s long-lost father.

She didn’t ask further; she simply shut her mouth and nodded.

After Shang Jianyao disappeared by the roadside and climbed up some tree, Bai Chen started the jeep again and casually said, “I thought Hey would say: ‘I will rush in to save you if you don’t come out in half an hour.'”

Jiang Baimian smiled. “He knows very well that he will definitely be captured if he’s doing it alone. In comparison, it’s better to go straight to Madam Kanna and contact the company. At a time like this, choosing to rush in to die with everyone might result in a deep camaraderie among us, but it would appear too brainless. I don’t want to be unavenged for an aggrieved death.”

Bai Chen didn’t say anything else. She stared ahead and pretended to focus on driving.

Before long, the jeep arrived at the back door of the general’s residence.

Jiang Baimian raised the captive with one hand and said to Long Yuehong, who was wearing a military exoskeleton, “Stay here and guard the car. Little White and I will go in.”

“It’s better if it’s you and me,” Long Yuehong subconsciously suggested.

Jiang Baimian smiled at Bai Chen. “You need to persuade Little White, not me.”

Long Yuehong looked at Bai Chen—who was also wearing a military exoskeleton but had already pushed open the door and alighted. She walked to the back door of the general’s residence and showed no intention of negotiating with him.

He wisely shut his mouth.

Phocas had made arrangements. Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen led the captive through the ajar back door and entered an empty room on the first floor under the guidance of a silent attendant.

There were surveillance cameras installed and many sound receivers, but there was no sign of Phocas.

The silent attendant took out a military walkie-talkie and handed it to Jiang Baimian.

After Jiang Baimian familiarized herself with the buttons, Phocas’s voice sounded from the walkie-talkie. “You can wake the captive up and begin questioning him. I’ll stop him once he uses his abilities.”

Phocas had completely hidden his consciousness. Even if Khal woke up and launched an area-of-effect attack, it wouldn’t affect him because he wasn’t included in the target group.

This didn’t surprise Jiang Baimian. She immediately took out a medical kit from her tactical backpack, attached a new needle, and injected its load into the target’s body.

After waiting for a while, her and Bai Chen’s eyelids suddenly drooped, and their bodies collapsed to the ground.

But in the blink of an eye, Khal—who had pretended not to wake up and secretly used Forced Sleep—fainted again.

Right on the heels of that, intense music sounded in the room, waking Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen from their reverie.

After a few more similar cycles, Khal finally realized that he couldn’t escape for the time being. He couldn’t find the fellow who had made him unconscious and couldn’t use his abilities on him.

“What do you want to ask?” Khal gave up his futile attempts and looked up at Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen.

Jiang Baimian went straight to the point. “Why do you and the organization behind you stop others from investigating the reason for the Old World’s destruction?”

Khal raised his chin and said, “To prevent this world from being destroyed again.”

He had a proud attitude, one with obvious pride.

“What?” Jiang Baimian didn’t expect such an answer.

Bai Chen carefully observed Khal’s microexpressions, wanting to figure out if he was lying.

Khal spoke with an attitude as though they were a bunch of ignoramuses. “An investigation of the cause of the Old World’s destruction will trigger something, causing the world—which has finally recovered from the disaster—to be destroyed again.

“We humans used decades to reduce the effects of the Heartless disease and the environmental pollution bit by bit. With a relatively stable source of food, we established a preliminary order that allows for civilization to continue. How can we destroy it? All of this is still so fragile that it can’t withstand any setbacks.”

“Therefore, you don’t mind killing a large number of innocent people without batting an eyelid?” Jiang Baimian didn’t directly ask what the trigger was and raised a new indirect question.

Khal scoffed. “Most of them aren’t innocent. They are people who ignore the continued existence of human civilization by investigating the cause of the Old World’s destruction for their curiosity or some kind of benefit. The rest can only blame it on their bad luck—they happened to know a secret they shouldn’t know or appear in places they shouldn’t be.

“Compared to the entire Ashlands and human civilization, it doesn’t matter if a few dozen or a few hundred people die. Once disaster strikes again and order disappears once more, how many people will die? When the time comes, humans might not be able to have civilization continue.”

Although she knew that the other party was being unreasonable, Jiang Baimian had to admit that these people had their own beliefs. In a sense, the logic behind their actions was also valid.

Of course, combined with the information provided by Avia, such an explanation might’ve been used to brainwash the captive in front of them. It might not be true.

First City’s former emperor, Oray Ubis, had said: Some people from the Eighth Research Institute might still be alive, but a terrifying development had already happened. They were reduced to traitors that hide in the darkness, people that others needed to be wary of.

At the same time, the Third Research Institute’s former Chief Scientist believed that the fellows from the Eighth Research Institute had caused a disaster.

From his appearance and age, this person was likely born after the Old World was destroyed. He’s not one of the survivors of the Eighth Research Institute, so there’s a high chance that nothing terrifying has happened… He’s more like a hired thug that those people deliberately nurtured… Jiang Baimian fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “What you said is without basis. What can an investigation of the cause of the Old World’s destruction trigger?”

Khal scoffed again. “I had my doubts in the past as well. It was only ten years ago that a group of people made some progress in their investigation of the cause of the Old World’s destruction. They found a city in the north, and that city is a settlement independent of large factions. It has hundreds of thousands of people when including the population in the surrounding area. Many powerhouses control many resources that can be traded.

“In the end, the Heartless disease erupted again overnight. This city was destroyed and reduced to ruins. If not for our containment and the early quarantine, the entire Ashlands would’ve been affected.”

This made Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen subconsciously fall silent. They felt their hearts become heavy, and the air seemed to freeze.

After a while, Bai Chen blurted out, “Are you from the Eighth Research Institute?”

“Yes, I’m a commissioner of the Eighth Research Institute,” Khal admitted frankly. He seemed to be very proud of this identity.

As expected… Jiang Baimian slowly exhaled and directly changed the topic by deliberately asking unconventionally, “I know that before the Old World was destroyed, the various countries jointly established nine secret research institutes. Among them, the Third Research Institute’s focus was in the field of artificial intelligence. The other research institute is Eternals. Then, what is the Eighth Research Institution’s focus?”

Khal fell silent. He deliberated for a moment before saying, “Human Awakening.”