Embers Ad Infinitum

Long Yuehong looked at the book Bai Chen showed them and asked in confusion, “Why did Modeus end up writing ‘price?’ Furthermore, there’s an additional question mark?”

Bai Chen didn’t answer his question and only pointed out a fact. “Modeus was clearly very agitated when he wrote the word ‘price.’ His strokes were very heavy, and the ink stains smudged a little. There are also traces on the other side of the paper.”

“Price…” Jiang Baimian muttered this word and constantly made all kinds of surmises in her mind before rejecting them.

Shang Jianyao made a mocking sound. “What’s there to be excited about ‘price?’ Why is there a need to write it down so hard? How ignorant!”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Baimian’s heart palpitated as she looked around. “Could it be that Modeus didn’t know a price needed to be paid to obtain abilities back then? This resulted in him realizing that it was becoming increasingly difficult to control his emotions. Coupled with his knowledge in mysticism, he suspected that he had unconsciously paid a price…”

The mysticism book Bai Chen found that contained the word ‘price’ was mainly about the Devil. Several of its chapters mentioned mortals selling their souls to the Devil in exchange for power, money, bodies, or beauty.

“But didn’t you say that Star Cluster Hall keeps echoing the words ‘three bestowments for one price?’ As an Awakened, it’s impossible for Modeus not to hear it and know about it…” Long Yuehong voiced his opinion.

He originally wanted to use Shang Jianyao as an example to enhance his persuasiveness. After all, even this fellow whose brain was no longer normal knew the price. However, he decided against inviting trouble after some thought.

Just as Long Yuehong said that, Jiang Baimian said with a relatively serious expression, “What if that’s really the case? Modeus really didn’t know the price of Awakening? Could it be that he didn’t go through Star Cluster Hall during his Awakening, or did Star Cluster Hall not exist back then?”

While Bai Chen and Long Yuehong were shocked, Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. “I get it!”

“What do you get?” Jiang Baimian asked warily.

Shang Jianyao said seriously, “The Old World was destroyed because the advancement of Awakened was chaotic and disorderly, just like Brownian motion. This resulted in a constant increase in entropy that eventually reached a critical point, erupting with the symbol of chaos—the Heartless disease. After the Old World was destroyed, the Kalendarium built Star Cluster Hall, Sea of Origins, Mind Corridor, and the New World as a warning for the future. They started managing Awakenings and gave it order.”

That’s rather imaginative… What entertainment material have you been watching recently? Jiang Baimian glanced at the confused Long Yuehong and Bai Chen and cleared her throat. “There’s no need to discuss the reason behind this phenomenon for the time being. What we need to confirm now is: did Modeus not know about the price because Star Cluster Hall didn’t exist when he Awakened or was it because he had gone to Iron Mountain City, went to the Second Food Company, and received a certain ‘blessing,’ which resulted in him avoiding Star Cluster Hall and completing his Awakening? Is that equivalent to being a stowaway?”

Long Yuehong couldn’t determine which was likely the case, so he could only say in an empirical manner, “Let’s flip through the books here and see what other messages Modeus left behind. If not, the answer to the question might be in Iron Mountain City’s ruins.”

“Yes…” Jiang Baimian slowly nodded. “Let’s find the relevant books and read them. These include religion, mysticism, research on superpowers, unsolved mysteries of the world, and novels in the corresponding genre…”

This was a sizable project. The Old Task Force didn’t even complete one-tenth of it even as noon approached.

“Phew, we can’t abuse ourselves like this.” Jiang Baimian stretched. “After we meet the merfolk, we’ll hire about 20 Ark residents to help with the preliminary screening with some of our supplies. They don’t have to know the words; they just have to choose books with comments and notes.”

Ah… Long Yuehong held back the words that rushed to his mouth.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Shang Jianyao had an ‘aggrieved’ expression. “Otherwise, we would’ve completed at least half of the mission by now.”

Jiang Baimian laughed dryly. “I underestimated the difficulty.”

She couldn’t say that she was too anxious and that her mind was filled with finding the next book with Modeus’s ‘comments,’ thus forgetting that she could hire help, right?

Shang Jianyao didn’t care about Jiang Baimian’s explanation. He had long forgotten the emotions he just had and rubbed his stomach. “What are we having for lunch?”

…

At 2 p.m., the Old Task Force followed the Underground Ark’s smuggling team to the Lake of Wrath’s shore.

Located in this remote area was an abandoned dock far away from Redstone Collection. It had already been repaired by the Ark Management Committee, which allowed the boats they acquired to dock.

After moving the boxes containing canned food and medicine onto a small cargo ship, Bode—who was in charge of this operation—quickly invited Jiang Baimian and the others to board.

With the turbine revving, the small, brown cargo ship sent ripples through the water and sailed further into the Lake of Wrath.

After making many turns, the ship arrived at a desolate island in the middle of the lake.

This island wasn’t large, far from comparable to Lake Heart Island where Yama Tiger was sleeping. It could be seen from end to end in one glance, and it bordered the sunlight-reflecting lake.

“Let’s wait on the island.” The freckled Bode pointed at the strange, rugged island in front of him. Without waiting for Long Yuehong and the others to ask, he simply explained, “We have to be wary of the merfolk turning hostile. We are completely no match for them on the lake or in the water. They aren’t willing to leave the Lake of Wrath and come ashore to trade with us, so we can only choose this island as a meeting place. According to your Ashlandic saying, it’s a compromise.

“Although this island isn’t too large, we can build fortifications to resist attacks by ships. Once the merfolk come with ill intentions, we will defend and send a telegram to request backup. When the time comes, the reinforcements should be able to evacuate us with the drones and Awakened we obtained half a year ago.”

Not bad. The ordinary guards from back then are now well organized… Jiang Baimian praised inwardly and continued on this topic. “How are the Awakened’s attitudes?”

She was referring to the Awakened that DiMarco reared.

“Two of them were very enthusiastic and have already been recruited into the Administrative Committee. This is something that can’t be helped; their abilities are very useful to us,” Bode replied truthfully. “The rest were unwilling to shoulder management duties, but we also provide them very good treatment.”

Indeed. If the Administrative Committee doesn’t have sufficient strength, they will be overthrown sooner or later… Jiang Baimian had left Genava as interim president in the Underground Ark to intimidate the Awakened. She believed that they couldn’t completely rely on the Vigilance Cathedral.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao was bored from waiting. He exerted strength with his waist and abdomen and began jumping away.

He jumped from the edge of the cargo ship to the island and didn’t even use the gangway.

Bode and the others’ foreheads twitched when they saw this. Is this a monster?

Upon seeing this, Jiang Baimian didn’t delay any further. She jumped onto the gangway with a small leap and walked onto the island.

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen followed closely behind.

After about 15 minutes, the merfolk arrived at the transaction location on a wooden cruise ship.

They had actually gathered all kinds of boats scattered around the Lake of Wrath. Furthermore, their ancestors had passed down the corresponding repair skills. But due to the lack of gasoline, steel, batteries, and other resources, many boats were either impossible to repair or couldn’t be steered after the repairs.

In comparison, the ancient wooden boats suited them better.

Long Yuehong felt dizzy as he looked at the grayish-black faces that shimmered with a weak glow. He looked at their protruding eyes that were more white than black and the gills below their ears, which stretched all the way to their necks.

He felt like he had prosopagnosia. For a moment, he could only rely on the merfolk’s heights and weights for identification.

The tall murloc in the lead swept his gaze around and suddenly jumped back two steps before landing on the shore, a short distance from the lake.

As the other merfolk stirred, he raised his palm—which was covered in grayish-black scales—and pointed at Jiang Baimian and the others. He then said in the Red River language, “Who are they? They weren’t present in all the previous transactions!”

In order to dispel the merfolk’s wariness, the Ark Management Committee tried their best to be uniform when forming the smuggling team each time. If anyone really couldn’t participate, they would rather have one fewer person.

Whoa, these merfolk have been forced by life to almost believe in Eidolon Nun. They’ve become vigilant to a certain extent… Jiang Baimian turned to look at Bode, indicating that he should deal with it.

Without waiting for Bode to explain, Shang Jianyao laughed. “We are the Ark Management Committee’s honorary presidents and the bosses behind this smuggling business. Don’t worry. If we really wanted to deal with you, we could’ve done so long ago. Why wait until now?”

These words weren’t too convincing, and even Bode and the others felt that they were riddled with flaws.

They believed that the merfolk definitely wouldn’t believe them, so they quickly shielded Shang Jianyao behind them and tried to use the words President Ulrich had prepared to reduce the merfolk’s wariness.

Bode and the others knew that Jiang Baimian and the others were very powerful. They shielded Shang Jianyao because they were afraid that the merfolk would fall out with them. It was to resolve the conflict and not escalate it so as to prevent the failure of their original goal.

But at this moment, the murloc in the lead took the initiative to walk back. He looked at Shang Jianyao and nodded. “You’re right.”

Although the other merfolk didn’t say a word, they supported their leader with their actions.

While Bode and the others were surprised, Jiang Baimian thoughtfully said, “We came here to exchange supplies for information.”

“What information?” The leader of the merfolk was confused.

Jiang Baimian said seriously, “How long did the first batch of people who went to Lake Heart Island wait for the Oracle? Where did they wait?”

The murloc’s eyes bulged even more as he blurted out in surprise, “Why are you asking?”

Jiang Baimian’s heart palpitated as she changed the topic and anxiously asked, “How are they now?”

The lead murloc fell silent for a few seconds before saying in a terrified tone, “A-all of them contracted the Heartless disease.”