Embers Ad Infinitum

The sun has set in the west, and the two bicycles drag their shadows as they speed through the barren farmland and trees with withered leaves.

While riding, Jiang Baimian suddenly made a gesture to signal Shang Jianyao to slow down.

Then, she rode to the side of the road, parked her bicycle, and picked some small, soft branches.

"What are you going to make up?" Shang Jianyao asked curiously.

Jiang Baimian, who was not wearing a mask, showed a malicious smile:

"Be prepared to enforce family law."

Shang Jianyao deeply agrees:

"Yes, Xiaohong has been a little distracted recently. We need to let him know that things are difficult in the world."

Jiang Baimian said "ha" and pushed the branches into the back seat.

She didn't explain much and turned onto the driveway:

"Let's go."

When the sky turned the color of fire, the two returned to the dock.

Seeing that they returned safely, Long Yuehong, who was wearing an exoskeleton device, breathed a sigh of relief:

"How's it going? What did you find?"

"We have gained something, let's talk about it when we get back." Jiang Baimian raised his head and glanced at the sky, "We have to hurry up, we can't wait for the sky to get completely dark."

By that time, it will be difficult to tell the direction on the lake, and the fish people will become even more elusive.

Although the "Old Tune Team" has two humanoid radars that can sense the presence of enemies, this is the era of thermal weapons after all. If the fishmen drive a boat and take advantage of the cover of night to launch rockets here from a distance of one or two hundred meters, , that would be more troublesome.

In addition, Jiang Baimian was reluctant to share his rather terrifying exploration experience in this environment, so as not to affect the status of Long Yuehong and Bai Chen.

Regarding her proposal, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong had no different opinions, because the sun was really setting a little bit.

After Bai Chen put down his bicycle and started the speedboat, Jiang Baimian sat down, took the branches he had picked before, and started knitting things seriously.

"Team leader, what are you doing?" Long Yuehong was also curious.

"Enforce family laws." Shang Jianyao deliberately took off his mask so that Long Yuehong could see his sunny smile.

Jiang Baimian then smiled and said:

“Maybe it will come in handy later.

"If there can be no fight with the fishmen, it's best not to fight."

At this point, she paused and started boasting:

"We are the villains. We must learn to defeat others without fighting."

Long Yuehong was confused for a while after hearing this. She didn't quite understand the relationship between braiding branches and subduing the enemy without fighting.

At this time, Bai Chen, who was in charge of driving the speedboat, whispered:

"It seems that he wants to deceive the fish people."

Perhaps because the interference from the wind was not that strong, Jiang Baimian keenly caught this sentence, opened his eyes wide and said:

"How can it be called fraud?

"This is tactical deception."

"What's the difference between the two?" Long Yuehong said subconsciously.

Shang Jianyao helped with the "explanation":

"The latter statement sounds better."

"Well, you guys are still singing along." Jiang Baimian glanced at them, "It seems like we really need to consider how to enforce family law!"

While they were talking and laughing, the speedboat followed its original route and sailed towards Hongshiji through wind and waves.

Not long after, Jiang Baimian used half of the small branches to weave a bracelet.

"It turns out you have never forgotten it." Shang Jianyao suddenly realized.

Jiang Baimian almost lost his temper:

"What a terrible line."

"What do you mean?" Long Yuehong was confused and curious.

Jiang Baimian explained casually:

"We found a branch bracelet in that temple, but we didn't dare to take it."

"Well, you can't just take things from a place like that." Long Yuehong said that was the way it should be.

After putting the branch bracelet on his left wrist, Jiang Baimian stretched out his left hand in front of Bai Chen and gestured:

"How about it, am I clever?"

Bai Chen responded calmly:

"Don't stop me from sailing the boat."

She paused and added:

"When I was seven years old, I could make up better than you."

"Can this be the same? When I was seven years old, I had never seen what real trees looked like. I thought they were similar to cotton." Jiang Baimian smiled nonchalantly.

The speedboat drove for a while, and the sky became darker and darker.

Seeing the lake in sight, Jiang Baimian frowned slightly.

Soon, Shang Jianyao said:

"There's a huge number of people underwater."

"Ha, it's quite rigorous. Those who come are not necessarily fish-men, right?" Jiang Baimian replied with a smile and said with a relaxed expression, "There are about thirty or so."

"So many?" Long Yuehong was not sure how much combat effectiveness his antique machine could exert after it entered the water.

At this moment, Jiang Baimian walked to the edge of the speedboat, faced the direction with the most fish people, and raised his left hand.

She shook her wrist and said loudly:

“We went to the forbidden temple and got this item.

"You should know what your divine envoy took in the first place, and you should also know how powerful he is.

"Want to give it a try?"

After saying that, she turned her head and winked at Shang Jianyao.

At this moment, the fish people underwater were not very sensitive to the sounds outside. They could only barely hear words such as "temple", "angel", "powerful" and "terrible". At the same time, through The swaying water waves saw the branch bracelet on Jiang Baimian's wrist.

This made them naturally think of certain things, recalling the terrifying performance of the divine envoy.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of fishmen suddenly lost "feeling" in their hands and could no longer paddle the water waves.

This caused them to sink a little instantly, but they quickly relied on their legs to kick back and maintained their balance.

The facts were in front of them, so they couldn't help but not believe it. Fighting against an enemy as powerful as the Divine Envoy was something they didn't want to do and didn't dare to do it.

Moreover, they had just experienced a war and lost a lot of their population, and they definitely didn't want to have thirty or forty young people die for no reason.

Those fishmen who experienced the "loss of movement of their hands" quickly informed their companions of the situation through gestures.

Seven or eight seconds later, they dived down at the same time, away from the water.

Jiang Baimian immediately withdrew his gaze and glanced at Long Yuehong, Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen with a smile:

"I'm just saying, you can conquer the enemy without fighting."

Long Yue was heartbroken and convinced.

Shang Jianyao proposed a new plan:

"If we tell them that it was the envoy we killed, will they also be scared off?"

"There is also the possibility of launching a suicidal charge." Jiang Baimian breathed out.

After this conversation, she confirmed one thing, that is, Shang Jianyao did not feel any guilt or psychological burden for killing the fish-man angel.

Also, on the battlefield, lives are mutually beneficial, and you don't need to worry too much if you kill your comrades by mistake. Well, Shang Jianyao didn't even think about killing him at the time. If it hadn't been for a sudden change, he would have been ready to catch him alive... …Jiang Baimian canceled the scheduled psychological counseling session.

The sky was getting darker and darker, and when the sun was only half on the horizon, the speedboat returned to Hongshiji Pier.

…………

Hotel camp, in room "05".

Jiang Baimian shared the findings during the exploration with Long Yuehong and Bai Chen.

As Long Yuehong listened, she felt like the wind was blowing and couldn't help but shudder.

Then, he glared at Shang Jianyao:

"When did you open the door?"

What made him feel cold was the winter night wind blowing in from outside.

"One minute ago." Shang Jianyao expressed his thoughts, "I was simulating the environment at that time for you, so that you can be immersed in it."

"No need!" Long Yuehong said that she didn't want to be there at all.

When Shang Jian Yao closed the door, he turned and sighed:

"That sounds so magical."

Not scientific at all.

"Yes." Jiang Baimian exhaled, "The life forms of those powerful awakened people and even those who have explored the depths of the 'soul corridor' are really curious. So many incredible things can happen around them. At the time, I really thought it might be haunted."

She looked around and said seriously:

“This also tells us that we can firmly believe that science can explain everything, but we must not directly treat things that cannot be explained and verified by science at present as non-existent, or defined as errors.

“This is especially true today when science is far from perfect.

“The spirit of science is to make bold assumptions, carefully verify, and seek truth from facts, rather than being clinging to the past, being complacent, and blindly rejecting.”

Bang bang bang, Shang Jianyao clapped his hands.

Jiang Baimian glared at him, looked at Bai Chen and said:

"Do you have any idea?"

"When you return to the company, you must apply for the corresponding information." Bai Chen said calmly, "The company must know more than us in this regard, and the more we know, the safer our subsequent investigations will be."

Jiang Baimian said "hmm":

"Unfortunately, now that we are outside, we can only get a response from the company if we encounter specific problems."

She continued:

"After this time, I can be sure that the Vigilance Sect will send strong men to explore the temple. Although we have a friendly relationship with Song Warner and others, we are burdened with many secrets after all, and there is no need to meet the strong men of the Vigilance Sect.

"Anyway, our main goal of going to Hongshiji has been achieved. The only thing left is to collect information on the 'Machine Paradise'. It can be completed soon. When the time comes, we can leave directly."

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen had no objections. Shang Jianyao hesitated for a moment and nodded.

Jiang Baimian breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and said:

“While there is still time, we must find the real culprit who killed Herwig.

"We can't accept other people's arms and do nothing."

Bai Chen thought about it:

"We may have to reorganize the list of Herwig's enemies."

"Yes." As soon as Jiang Baimian responded, he turned his attention to the door.

Soon, Shang Jianyao also looked over.

After about ten seconds, there was a loud knock on the door.

Shang Jianyao put on a monkey mask and opened the door, only to find Song He, the warning man in a black cloak, and Weller, the playboy-style forensic doctor from the public security station.

After entering the room, Song He looked at Jiang Baimian and others and said sincerely:

"I have a task to entrust you with."

"What?" Jiang Baimian asked doubtfully.

Song He glanced at Weller and said:

“We previously suspected that someone had sold information to the fishmen and mountain monsters, letting them know about Bishop Renato’s emergency transfer back to the headquarters.

"Now, we have initially identified a suspect, and we hope you can conduct a secret investigation."

Jiang Baimian nodded with understanding:

"who is it?"

Song He sighed and said with a serious expression:

"Han Wanghuo."