Embers Ad Infinitum

"Why did Montes write a 'price' in the end, and also added a question mark?" Long Yuehong looked at the book that Bai Chen showed to herself and others, and said not quite understanding.

Bai Chen did not answer his question, but just pointed out a fact:

"When writing the word 'price', Monteith was obviously very emotional. He wrote very heavily, and the ink stains were spread a little, and there were also marks on the other side of the paper."

"Price..." Jiang Baimian whispered this word, constantly making various assumptions in his mind and denying them.

Shang Jianyao made a mocking voice:

“What’s so exciting about ‘The Price’ that it needs to be written down so hard?

"How ignorant!"

Hearing this guy's words, Jiang Baimian's heart moved, he looked around and said:

"Could it be that Monteith didn't understand at the time that gaining power came with a price?

"So much so that after he found that his emotions were becoming more and more difficult to control, combined with his knowledge of occultism, he suspected that he had unknowingly paid the price..."

The occult book where Bai Chen found the word "price" was about devils.

Several chapters in it mention mortals selling their souls in exchange for power, money, body or beauty from the devil.

"But didn't you say that the 'Hall of Stars' has been echoing the voice of 'one price, three gifts'? As an awakened person, it is impossible for Montes not to hear it or not understand it..." Long Yuehong said in his own words Views.

He originally wanted to use Shang Jianyao as an example to enhance his persuasion. After all, this guy's brain was already abnormal and he knew the price. But after thinking about it, he decided not to get burned.

As soon as Long Yuehong finished speaking, Jiang Baimian spoke with a serious face:

"What if this is really the case? Does Montes really not know that there is a price to pay for awakening?

“Didn’t his awakening pass through the ‘Hall of Stars’?

"Or, the 'Hall of Stars' didn't exist at that time?"

While Bai Chen and Long Yuehong were shocked, Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and left palm:

"I see!"

"What did you understand?" Jiang Baimian asked suspiciously.

Shang Jianyao said solemnly:

“The old world was destroyed because the promotion of the awakened ones was chaotic and disorderly, like Brownian motion, which led to the continuous increase of entropy, and finally reached a critical point, and the symbol of chaos, ‘Wuxin Disease’, broke out.

"After the destruction of the old world, the elders learned from their experience and built the 'Hall of Stars', 'Sea of ​​Origin', 'Corridor of the Soul' and 'New World', incorporating Awakening into management and giving it order."

This idea is quite good... What entertainment materials have you read recently? Jiang Baimian glanced at Long Yuehong and Bai Chen, who were confused, cleared his throat and said:

"There is no need to discuss the reasons behind this phenomenon for the time being. What we need to confirm now is:

"Montis doesn't know there is a price. Is it because there was no 'Hall of Stars' when he awakened, or because he has been to Tieshan City and the Second Food Company and received some kind of 'blessing', so that Bypassing the 'Hall of Stars' and completing the awakening, is it equivalent to sneaking in?"

Long Yuehong had no way of judging which one might be right, so she could only say in an empirical spirit:

"Let's look through the books here again to see if there are any fragments left by Montes. If not, the answer to the question may be in the ruins of Tieshan City."

"Well..." Jiang Baimian nodded slowly, "Let's find all the relevant books and take a look. This includes religion, occultism, supernatural power research, unsolved mysteries of the world, and novels in corresponding fields..."

This was a big project. As noon was approaching, the "Old Tuning Team" had not even completed one tenth of it.

"Huh, you can't abuse yourself like this." Jiang Baimian stretched out, "When the fish people come back, take out some supplies and ask a dozen or twenty Ark residents to help with the preliminary screening. They don't need to know the words. , just pick out books with annotations and notes.”

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

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Shang Jianyao looked aggrieved, "Otherwise, at least half of the task would have been completed by now."

Jiang Baimian laughed twice:

"I underestimated the difficulty."

You can't say you're too eager. You're so focused on finding the next book with Monteith's "annotations" that you forget you can still ask for help, right?

Shang Jianyao didn't care at all about Jiang Baimian's explanation. He had long forgotten his previous emotions, touched his stomach and said:

"What to eat for lunch?"

…………

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the "Old Transfer Team" followed the smuggling team organized by the "Underground Ark" to the shore of Nu Lake.

There is an abandoned dock located in a remote area far away from the Redstone Collection.

It has been repaired by the Ark Management Committee and used to moor the ships it acquired.

After moving the boxes containing cans and medicine onto a small cargo ship, Bode, who directed the operation, quickly invited Jiang Baimian and others aboard.

Amidst the sound of the turbine turning, the small brown-painted cargo ship swayed in circles of water and sailed toward the depths of Nu Lake.

After twists and turns, the boat arrived at a desolate island in the middle of the lake.

This island is not big, far from the island in the middle of the lake where Yan Hu sleeps. You can see the end of it from the front, back, left and right, and connects to the lake water reflecting the sun.

"Let's go to the island and wait." Bode, who had freckles on his face, pointed to the rugged island in front of him.

Without waiting for Long Yuehong and others to ask, he simply explained a few words:

"We have to beware of the fish-men turning their backs.

"On the lake and in the water, we are no match for them, and they are unwilling to leave Nu Lake and come to the shore to trade with us, so they can only choose this island as the meeting place. To use your gray language, it is, It's a compromise.

"Although this island is not too big, we can build fortifications to withstand attacks from ships. Once the fishmen are really malicious, we will hold on and send a telegram to request support.

"When the time comes, we should be able to snatch us out by using the drones we obtained more than half a year ago in conjunction with the Awakened Ones."

Yes, the ordinary guards at the time were now doing things in an orderly manner... Jiang Baimian secretly praised and asked on this topic:

"What's the attitude of those awakened ones?"

She was referring to the awakened ones raised by Dimarco.

"Two are very active and have now been absorbed into the management committee. There is no way around it. Their abilities are very useful to us." Bode answered truthfully, "The rest are not willing to take on management responsibilities, but we They were also treated very well.”

Indeed, if the management committee does not have enough strength, it will be overthrown sooner or later... When Jiang Baimian left Gennava as the temporary president of the "Underground Ark", she also had the idea of ​​​​deterring those awakened people. She believed that she could not rely entirely on the vigilant church. .

At this time, Shang Jianyao was bored with waiting, so he exerted force on his waist and abdomen and started to play standing long jump.

He jumped directly from the edge of the cargo ship to the island without taking the prepared ship planks.

Bode and others' foreheads jumped when they saw it.

Is this a monster?

Seeing this, Jiang Baimian no longer delayed, jumped to the board of the ship in small steps, and walked onto the island.

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen followed closely behind.

Almost a quarter of an hour later, the fishmen drove a wooden boat and arrived at the trading location.

They actually collected various ships scattered in Nu Lake, and the corresponding repair techniques were passed down from their ancestors. However, due to the lack of resources such as gasoline, steel, and batteries, many ships either could not be repaired at all, or they could not be driven after repair.

In comparison, ancient wooden boats are more suitable for them.

Looking at the gray-black faces with faint light, their protruding white and black eyes and the gills from the ears to the neck, Long Yuehong felt dizzy and felt like he had face blindness. disease.

For a while, he could only remember those fishmen by their height, shortness, fatness and thinness.

The tall fishman in the lead glanced around, suddenly jumped two steps back, and landed on the shore, getting closer to the lake.

When the rest of the fishmen were commotion, he raised his palm covered with gray and black scales, pointed at Jiang Baimian and others, and said in Red River dialect:

"who are they?

“There were so many transactions before without them!”

In order to dispel the vigilance of the fish people, the smuggling teams organized by the Ark Management Committee try to be as consistent as possible every time. If anyone really cannot participate at that time, they would rather have one less person.

Oops, these fishmen were forced to believe in "Yougu" by life, and they became vigilant to a certain extent... Jiang Baimian turned his head and looked at Bode, motioning for him to handle it.

Before Bode could explain, Shang Jianyao laughed:

“We are the honorary president of the Ark Management Committee and the bosses behind the smuggling business.

"Don't worry, if we really want to deal with you, we could have done it long ago. Why wait until now?"

This is not a very convincing statement, and even Bode and others feel that it is full of loopholes.

They thought that the murlocs would not believe it, and hurriedly blocked Shang Jianyao behind, trying to use the words prepared by Chairman Ulrich to dispel the murlocs' vigilance.

——Bode and others knew that Jiang Baimian and the others were very powerful. They blocked Shang Jianyao not because they were afraid of the fish-men falling out, but in order to resolve conflicts and avoid conflicts, so as not to achieve the intended purpose.

But at this time, the leading murloc took the initiative to come back, looked at Shang Jianyao, nodded and said:

"you're right."

Although the other fishmen did not speak, they supported the leader with their actions.

While Bode and others were surprised, Jiang Baimian said thoughtfully:

"We came here this time to exchange supplies for information."

"What information?" The leader of the fish man was full of doubts.

Jiang Baimian said seriously:

"How long did the first batch of people from your tribe who landed on the island in the middle of the lake wait for the divine messenger? Where did they wait?"

The leader's eyes seemed to bulge even more, and he blurted out in shock:

"Why do you ask?"

Jiang Baimian's heart moved, he changed the question, and asked urgently:

"How are they doing now?"

The leader of the fish-man was silent for a few seconds and said in a tone full of fear:

"They, they all have 'unintentional disease'."