Embers Ad Infinitum

Jiang Baimian instinctively made an "ah" mouth gesture, but quickly closed it without making any sound.

She turned her gaze forward again, turned a bush smoothly, and then smiled casually:

"I always feel that I may have a hidden talent, which is that people feel close to me, they feel at ease when they are around me, and they are willing to talk about some of the troubles stored in their hearts."

"It's not something that must be kept strictly confidential." Shang Jianyao didn't agree with Jiang Baimian's statement, but he was freed from the situation created by his previous words.

"Haha, I'm kidding." Jiang Baimian nodded as if thinking, "Actually, we have experienced two crises together, and you exposed the secret of the Awakened One, so we have a fairly good trust between each other. Have you ever heard this saying? The way to quickly bring two people closer is to let both parties share a little secret. Also, we can be considered friends in need."

Shang Jianyao, who was serious just now, suddenly laughed:

"How are you sure that this trust was not created by me using my awakened ability?"

"..." Jiang Baimian thought about it carefully and found that he could not rule out this possibility. After all, the scene where Shang Jianyao and the mechanical monk Jingfa shook hands and said goodbye was really impressive, and Shang Jianyao also said that if he could The cycle formed in the interpersonal interactions around them proves that the affected people have almost no way to detect abnormalities on their own. Only when they are separated from the corresponding environment can they discover something is wrong.

"Haha, just kidding." Shang Jianyao responded to her in Jiang Baimian's way.

Jiang Baimian turned her head and rolled her eyes at him:

"I almost pulled out a gun, you know?"

She looked away and said to herself:

"Although you are indeed joking, I have to guard against similar situations... Set up a few logical verifications for yourself?

"Well... the simplest way is to record key information on paper or in a chip every day, and read it before going to bed. In this way, if there is a contradiction, you can wake up immediately. I have to say, diary is such a thing It’s still very useful.”

"The ability of the awakened is not omnipotent." Shang Jianyao added.

Jiang Baimian said no more and continued to search for clues in this hilly area with Shang Jianyao.

Almost an hour later, she looked around and said:

"The surrounding area is really too big and the environment is complex. It would be impossible to complete an effective search in less than ten days and a half just by the two of us walking step by step."

Shang Jianyao did not speak, because he saw that the team leader still had a smile on his face, and it was obvious that he had found a solution.

Sure enough, Jiang Baimian turned his attention to him and said with a smile:

"Let's go back to the hill where we put the emergency flare."

Shang Jianyao's heart moved, and he vaguely grasped something.

Jiang Baimian continued:

"You will definitely meet a lot of ruin hunters and wilderness wanderers there, and you can ask them for information about any large bandit groups or dangerous teams that have been in the surrounding area recently."

Speaking of this, she showed the same smile she had after severely damaging the Jingfa:

"If you were the leader of the attacker team and you saw something unusual happening in the place where you had done a big deal and deliberately erased the traces of the team, would you send some unrelated people to the area where the emergency flare was launched to investigate the specifics? Situation? Anyway, there will definitely be a large number of ruin hunters and wilderness wanderers passing by, mixed in, and no one can tell them apart.

"When the time comes, if we can use this to understand which big force is behind Black Rat Town, we can also make targeted preparations in advance."

Shang Jianyao suddenly realized:

"They will not send their core members to investigate, or even find people to annex them. The most likely option is to directly hire real wilderness wanderers who are active nearby."

In this way, even if it is a trap, there will be no problem, just like no one can find a drop of water in a lake that is unique in nature but has nothing unusual in appearance.

After Shang Jianyao figured it out, he asked with some confusion:

"Team leader, you should have thought about this a long time ago. Why don't we just guard there?"

"How did those relic hunters and wilderness wanderers come so fast? There's no point in waiting there. Why don't we familiarize you with the search." Jiang Baimian turned his wrist and looked at the black electronic watch, "It's about time Alright, let’s go there.”

When they returned to the hill where the emergency flare was launched, Shang Jianyao discovered that the previous search was also directed in this direction - after the two changed directions slightly, they arrived at their destination in only ten minutes on foot.

In other words, Jiang Baimian did not just think of relevant issues temporarily, but had already planned it, and even the search route was planned in advance.

After observing for a few minutes, Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian found the best position, climbed a tree, and monitored several roads leading to the hills.

After almost another quarter of an hour, ruin hunters and wilderness wanderers arrived one after another and headed towards the top of the hills.

They were all very careful, keeping clear of each other but not infringing upon each other. After all, it was uncertain whether there would be any gains around the anomaly, so it would be too stupid to start a big fight.

After a while, Jiang Baimian patted Shang Jianyao on the shoulder and pointed to the road on the left.

She didn't speak because she wasn't sure how loud her voice was, so she could only use her movements to signal.

Shang Jianyao then looked over and saw two sneaky and shrinking male wilderness wanderers.

Their specific ages cannot be seen from their appearance. What they have in common is that their skin is rough, chapped, and deeply tanned. Their hair is greasy and messy, and their beards have not been shaved for an unknown period of time. The surface is stained with unknown sources. Various stains.

One of them was wearing a dark blue ripped sweater, underneath was a greasy and stiff shirt whose original color could not be seen, and was covered with waist-length black clothes that were obviously unfitting. On his feet were military green rubber shoes. He had a black pistol with a metallic luster on his waist, and a long, flaky knife in his hand.

Shang Jianyao felt that this was very similar to the watermelon knife in the textbook.

The other one was tightly wrapped in an old black cotton-padded jacket. Through the obvious large holes, you could see that the cotton inside was compressed together, making it black and tight. He didn't seem to have a gun. The other thing on his waist was a sharpened dagger, a baseball bat in both hands, and a dirty, extremely shriveled bag on his shoulder.

"Yes, what's the problem?" Shang Jianyao asked in a low voice.

This is almost the same as the wilderness wanderer who came before, just a little more shabby.

"I..." Jiang Baimian made a voice, with an obvious questioning tone in his tone.

Shang Jianyao immediately understood what the team leader meant and said quickly:

"Lower."

After two "debuggings", Jiang Baimian finally suppressed his voice:

"Don't you think the equipment of these two wilderness wanderers is too poor?"

"Isn't it normal for wilderness wanderers to have poor equipment?" Shang Jianyao asked rhetorically.

"Yes." Jiang Baimian did not deny it. He looked at the two wanderers and said thoughtfully, "The point is that there is a contradiction between their behavior and their equipment.

"Under normal circumstances, wilderness wanderers with only a small pistol and a few cold weapons would not dare to be the first to rush to such a place where abnormalities occur. As long as there is a fight, they have almost no ability to protect themselves.

"For this kind of wilderness wanderers, they will come back half a day or even a day later to see if they can find some leftovers. By that time, the competitors will be the same people, and they will not be defenseless. .”

Shang Jianyao nodded slightly after hearing this:

"It's just like many animals that feed on the rotting carcasses left behind by wild beasts after hunting.

"In other words, there is a certain probability that these two wilderness wanderers were forced here?"

And who would force two incompetent wilderness wanderers to come over to investigate the anomaly?

Jiang Baimian put his teachings into practice. Hearing this, he smiled and said:

"right.

"Can you get them to be nice and tell us the situation directly?"

Shang Jianyao looked at the two wilderness wanderers getting closer and closer, and said calmly:

“If there’s just one, no problem.

“If both of them are present, there is a high chance that they will witness each other, causing the ‘reasoning’ to fail.

"If they are separated, it affects one first, and then they come together to affect the other, that's fine too."

Jiang Baimian made an "OK" gesture:

"This is simple.

"Change guns."

After that, she and Shang Jianyao exchanged grenade guns and assault rifles.

The next second, Jiang Baimian jumped down suddenly and landed in front of the two wilderness wanderers.

After landing, she quickly raised her assault rifle and pointed coldly at the man wearing a ripped sweater with a pistol on his waist.

Almost at the same time, she turned her waist slightly and kicked out her right leg, like a suddenly tightened whip.

There was no doubt that this kick missed, but it frightened the man holding the baseball bat to retreat and fall to the ground.

He glanced at the assault rifle in Jiang Baimian's hand, gave up on his companions without hesitation, and ran away far away without even daring to look back as he rolled, climbed, and stumbled.

The man with the pistol and watermelon knife was always pointed at by the assault rifle and did not dare to move.

At this time, Shang Jianyao jumped down and said with a smile:

"do not worry.

"We don't mean any harm."

While he signaled Jiang Baimian to lower the muzzle of his gun, he took advantage of the dazed man opposite and said:

“Look, you are here to search for information, and we are also here to search for information.

"You are human beings and we are human beings.

"so……"

The man's expression gradually became more vivid, and finally he smiled:

"Brother!"

When he called out this title, he subconsciously glanced at Jiang Baimian and saw that the other party had put away his assault rifle and did not show any hostility, so he believed in his own reasoning and judgment even more.

"Brothers!" Shang Jianyao imitated the other party and greeted him enthusiastically, "Who asked you to come here?"

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