Embers Ad Infinitum

The afternoon sun blanketed the city ruin that was now flush with fresh greenery with its rays. It was so quiet that even the breeze sounded ever so obvious.

Countless collapsed buildings were like crude grave mounds and were lined up in an orderly fashion one after another.

This was the most severely damaged Old World ruin Jiang Baimian had ever seen. Of course, she had never been to cities that were directly carpeted with missiles when the Old World was destroyed.

Not many people in the Ashlands were willing to go to such places. On the one hand, the corresponding area suffered from abnormally serious levels of radiation pollution and had yet to completely weaken even to this day. On the other hand, the damage was so exaggerated that it made it difficult to gain anything.

Jiang Baimian—who was standing beside the jeep—retracted her gaze and said to Long Yuehong and the others, “There’s nothing to excavate here. Let’s go straight to the Second Food Company. Don’t be careless on the way; make sufficient preparations. Don’t think that you won’t be attacked just because there’s nobody here or that there are few ordinary beasts. Intelligence indicates that very powerful Superior Heartless occasionally appear in this area.”

Many Ruin Hunters suspected that the Heartless hadn’t been completely wiped out during the repeated ‘raids’ that human factions carried out on Iron Mountain City’s ruins. Some had retreated to the nearby mountains, and some of the Superior Heartless had evolved to a level that was comparable to Mind Corridor-level Awakened in the past decade or two.

Jiang Baimian was rather suspicious about this because the Heartless lacked intelligence. It was unlikely that they could clear the islands of fear in the Sea of Origins.

Apart from Iron Mountain City’s ruins and a few other places, humans had never encountered a Superior Heartless that could match a Mind Corridor-level Awakened.

Therefore, Jiang Baimian believed that it was down to two reasons. The batch of Ruin Hunters that had encountered the Superior Heartless in Iron Mountain City’s ruins was either not strong enough or had insufficient knowledge. Due to the special abilities the other party had shown, they blindly misidentified those powers at the Mind Corridor level. A second reason was that the powerful ones weren’t the Superior Heartless themselves but the uniqueness of similar places. For example, this was a Buddhist holy land.

Upon recalling the professional woman—Liu Lu, whom Shang Jianyao had encountered in Room 522’s psychological trauma—Jiang Baimian was more inclined to the latter possibility.

Liu Lu was active in Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company in the Chaotic Era. After Shang Jianyao used the steelworks factory ruins’ medical record to trigger the anomaly, she revealed that she had contracted the Heartless disease long ago. The abilities she had previously shown could indeed match a Mind Corridor-level Awakened or even stronger. It made Shang Jianyao faint twice without any resistance and be sent back to the starting point.

After her team members nodded in acknowledgment, Jiang Baimian added in a deep voice, “Even if the probability of such Superior Heartless appearing is very low and it’s very difficult for us to encounter them, we have to pay attention to the changes in our surroundings. The Eighth Research Institute might’ve already organized a new and stronger team of commissioners for ‘silencing.'”

Her silencing didn’t only refer to killing them but also destroying Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company, a Buddhist holy land.

Compared to the rumored special Superior Heartless, the Eighth Research Institute was clearly a more realistic and likely enemy. Long Yuehong didn’t dare to let down his guard and immediately suggested wearing the equipment.

Shang Jianyao was very gratified and he turned to look at Genava. “Old Ge, you can try the Chameleon bionic artificial intelligence armor. Just the thought of a smart bot assassin who can blend into the environment at any time, making it difficult to be discovered in advance, makes me feel like it’s a cheat.”

Then, what should I wear… Long Yuehong wanted to interject and ask, but Genava seemed interested.

“Sounds good…”

Fortunately, he didn’t suggest having the smart bot wear a military exoskeleton… Jiang Baimian nodded in agreement and joked, “In our team, smart bots also have the right to wear equipment.”

Genava moved his metal neck up and down, very satisfied with this explanation.

Jiang Baimian then said to Long Yuehong, “Wear that Blackmarsh Iron Snake bionic artificial intelligence armor.”

This equipment’s right palm was also specially modified, allowing Long Yuehong to extend his mechanical palm out from it.

Jiang Baimian originally planned on using the bionic artificial intelligence armor herself and relying on its powerful defense to get close to the enemy and use abilities like Spatial Hallucination. However, she later realized that there was a very serious problem: she might lose her way…

In comparison, a military exoskeleton with automatic navigation functions was more suitable for her.

Jiang Baimian was now rather glad that she had considered the different situations and requirements before leaving Pangu Biology. It was impossible for Long Yuehong to be limited to the Chameleon bionic artificial intelligence armor. Therefore, she got the company to modify the Blackmarsh Iron Snake armor as well.

Bai Chen donned the relatively new military exoskeleton, M-45. Jiang Baimian used the AC-45, and Shang Jianyao chose the oldest AC-42. He mainly exerted control remotely, so there was no major need for him to engage in close combat.

The Old Task Force wasn’t stingy with their battery charges and prepared to head to Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company fully armed. After all, this place was only a few hours’ drive from the Underground Ark’s Iron Mountain entrance. If they really reached a cordoned line, they could retreat and recharge.

“Drive.” In the passenger seat, Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao—who was sitting beside her—in a daze.

It was originally Long Yuehong’s turn to drive, but Jiang Baimian made Shang Jianyao—who had only rested for 90 minutes—the driver due to his previous ‘visits’ here, making him familiar with the terrain.

Shang Jianyao replied with a heavy expression, “The starting point is wrong. When I was in the psychological trauma, I appeared in the middle of the city.”

“I knew it…” Jiang Baimian said in a tone as if she had expected this.

She held her tactical backpack in front of her and took out the map of Iron Mountain City that she had drawn using a large amount of information. “See which section is familiar first before heading there.”

Shang Jianyao then said, “The environment isn’t right either. Most of the buildings hadn’t collapsed back then.”

He now lacked sufficient landmarks for reference.

Without waiting for Bai Chen to volunteer to be the driver, Shang Jianyao smiled. “That fellow actually gave all kinds of excuses for such a challenging matter!”

Great, another internal strife… If not for the price of being directionally challenged, Jiang Baimian really wanted to push this bastard out of the car and do it herself.

The jeep slowly started moving in a general direction.

Shang Jianyao grumbled as he drove. “The road here is too difficult to traverse. I wonder how long it has been since anyone passed by. I really want to use Matter Interference to lift the car up and drive it five centimeters above the ground. That way, there won’t be any friction. Unfortunately, I can’t do it.”

The honest one? Jiang Baimian looked back and saw Long Yuehong sitting between Bai Chen and Genava. She found it funny.

After that, the Old Task Force spent nearly two hours searching for a way through the city ruin. This was a very boring job. If not for Shang Jianyao’s antics and his group crosstalk performance, Jiang Baimian and the others wouldn’t have felt relatively relaxed.

They finally arrived at their destination and saw the rather old but still standing seven-story building.

Greenery was starting to spread across the building’s facade, but it had yet to completely cover it. Yellow stains were still visible in some places.

At the lobby entrance on the first floor, the signboard ‘Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company’ had long disappeared. It had been chopped and burned as firewood by someone.

If not for Shang Jianyao thumping his chest and guaranteeing that this was the Second Food Company, Long Yuehong would’ve suspected that he had most likely come to the wrong place.

He looked up outside and saw that rocks were messily strewn around and that the ground was overgrown with weeds. He couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. “It’s been a long time since anyone came.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Baimian’s expression suddenly turned solemn.

“D-don’t say it!” Shang Jianyao tried to stop Long Yuehong with a ‘terrified’ expression.

Long Yuehong was just about to snap back when Jiang Baimian said in a deep voice, “Those guys from the Salvation Army set off two days ago.”

“This…” Long Yuehong’s heart suddenly raced.

With the distance between Redstone Collection and Iron Mountain City’s ruins, the Salvation Army personnel should’ve arrived long ago and explored the Second Food Company several times.

Why did this place still look deserted?

Bai Chen gave a guess. “Did they get lost? There are no signs here.”

This was a large city ruin. It was normal not to find a destination they had yet to visit in a day or two.

“That’s possible.” Jiang Baimian nodded and pushed open the door to get out of the car before saying, “In short, be careful.”

Just as she said that, she saw Shang Jianyao swing his tactical backpack in front of him and unzip it.

“W-what are you doing?” Jiang Baimian was instantly vigilant.

Shang Jianyao laughed. “Taking out the small jade Buddha.”

“Not for now…” Jiang Baimian took a deep breath. She composed herself and added, “Let’s do an ordinary search first. We’ll later try to see what changes the medical record and the small jade Buddha can bring.”

Who could deal with so much stimulation from the beginning?

“Alright.” Shang Jianyao retracted his hand regretfully.