Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 798 Another Method

Bai Chen—who was sitting in the back rowspoke with a guessing tone. “Maybe a New World powerhouse lives in seclusion in Weed City. He sleeps all year round and occasionally returns, or someone with the corresponding items happens to pass by.”

The entire Old Task Force had been influenced by the Old World’s entertainment, and Bai Chen was no exception.

“It’s also possible that some New World nodes can restrain their fluctuations like Awakened and only produce an influence at specific times?” Long Yuehong said. Jiang Baimian slowly shook her head. “Plenty of information and our experiences have proven that the Heartless disease might appear in any small human settlement. It’s impossible for New World powerhouses to exist in those places or have people passing by them with the corresponding items, right? “In that case, New World powerhouses would be too run-of-the-mill; they would be equivalent to a mayor or a village chief. Can the company even call itself a large faction without hundreds or thousands of them?”

“No, no, no. At most, they are equivalent to a Rec Center’s PIC.” Shang Jianyao corrected Jiang Baimian’s analogy. He then stroked his chin and said, “There definitely aren’t many people with items containing New World nodes. We’ve only encountered a few after so long after all?

“New World nodes that can hide themselves are purely a guess. At the very least, we haven’t encountered one yet, nor can we imagine a reason for its existence. Could it be that a New World node is also considered an intelligent creature?” “Why not? You’re discriminating!” the honest Shang Jianyao retorted himself.

At this moment, Genava–who was in charge of driving-had already completed a round of exhaustive searches or an ergodic process. He said in a slightly synthetic voice, “Either the Heartless disease brought about by the return of a New World powerhouse is randomly produced in different places and is essentially a kind of fluctuation, or there are other methods that connect to the New World-other methods besides humans and objects.”

Humans as the connection point were in the form of Awakened at the New World level, while objects as the connection point were all kinds of ‘New World nodes.’

“What is it?” Shang Jianyao asked anxiously.

Humans and objects contain all possibilities. How can there be other methods? Long Yuehong muttered inwardly. “I don’t know either.” Genava moved his metal neck from side to side. “I only analyzed the meaning and extraneous aspects of ‘people’ and ‘objects.’ Combining them doesn’t make a complete set…” His explanation made Long Yuehong dizzy.

“I see.” Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. He sighed with emotion with an expression that said: “I completely understand.”

Jiang Baimian nodded. “We don’t have any clues for the time being and can’t find a direction to make an educated guess. There’s no rush for this; we’ll talk about it later. It’s not too early now. Let’s go to Ah Fu and get him to bring us to pay our respects to Auntie Nan.”

“Alright,” Bai Chen was the first to answer.

At 3:30 p.m., in the suburbs north of Weed City.

A quiet cemetery was situated here with a team of soldiers guarding it.

As Ah Fu walked to a corner of the cemetery, he casually introduced the area to the Old Task Force. “Being buried here will cost an additional sum of money every year, or you will have to find two days every month to be a warden here.”

Winter had already passed. Many trees in the cemetery had already budded and turned green. Before long, Jiang Baimian stopped in front of a cemetery. The words ‘Ren Nan’s Tomb’ were carved on the crude stone monument. “There’s no photo.” Shang Jianyao turned to look at Ah Fu.

Ah Fu sighed and said, “It’s been a long time since my sister took a photo.”

He pointed at his neck, implying that Auntie Nan had never taken a photo after she escaped to Weed City as a slave.

First, they didn’t want to waste money. Life wasn’t good. Second, she was mentally resistant to the idea.

As for the previous ones, they had long been lost with the disasters.

Bai Chen didn’t say a word. She put down the crate on her back and took out the box of dishes inside. She then stood up and silently bowed three times.

Upon seeing this, Shang Jianyao pressed his palms together and sighed. “All life is suffering.”

Jiang Baimian suddenly turned her head and glanced at him before gradually revealing a thoughtful expression.

She quickly restrained her expression and bowed three times at Auntie Nan’s tombstone.

After completing the ritual and handing some boxes of dishes to Ah Fu, the Old Task Force walked out of the cemetery.

“Oh right.” Ah Fu recalled something and quickly took two steps forward before catching up. “I asked Teacher An where she lives now and got someone to tell her that you’re here and want to meet her at her place.”

“Yes, where?” Jiang Baimian nodded.

Ah Fu gave an address and walked to the car that belonged to the gun shop alone with the dishes he received.

After returning to the jeep, Jiang Baimian held the passenger seat door with one hand and suddenly said, “I thought of a way to connect to the New World that’s not human or object. Yes, this is still only a guess. There’s no evidence yet.”

“How?” Shang Jianyao—who was in charge of driving-and Long Yuehong, who was in the backseat, asked in unison.

Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and said, “It’s considered a way that’s both humans and objects. Let’s first make one clear premise: Are the Kalendarium in the New World?”

“Definitely,” Long Yuehong replied with abnormal certainty.

Shang Jianyao immediately had a look of horror. “It’s over. The Kalendarium are going to walk the Ashlands like Xiaochong.”

“But no matter what, most Kalendarium should be in the New World.” Bai Chen helped Long Yuehong fill in the gaps in his previous sentence.

Jiang Baimian ignored this small argument and continued, “Then, is humanity’s faith in the Kalendarium a form of connection to the New World? The Old World has been destroyed for almost 70 years. What I can’t understand is why the rumors of the 13 Kalendarium are so uniform despite the chaos of war and inconvenient transportation. Most people in the Ashlands know about them. Even in the most remote and obscure settlements, there are some people who know of the existence of certain Kalendarium and believe in them to a certain extent.”

Long Yuehong wanted to say, “There’s no such situation in the company. Nobody knows of the Kalendaria’s existence.” But after careful thought, he realized that it didn’t have any grounds.

Ignoring the Security Department’s outfield employees’ understanding of some of the Kalendarium, the Life Ritual and other parishes that had developed in secret, and the fact that the board members and New World powerhouses believed in a Kalendaria, just the fact that Big Boss was equivalent to the Arbiter of Fate made Pangu Biology no different from other settlements in terms of faith.

“There’s a certain possibility for this method.” Genava gave the results of his analysis. Shang Jianyao came to a realization. “The Kalendaria’s believers are another kind of caged livestock? Where there are them, there are invisible New World nodes that cause the spread of the Heartless disease?”

Upon hearing this, the jeep fell silent.

After a few seconds, Genava replied, “It’s indeed possible. This might be why some Kalendarium allow others to recruit believers despite clearly not liking it. To maintain a large number of invisible nodes that connect to the Ashlands?”

Following this train of thought, Bai Chen asked, “What will happen if all these nodes disappear?” Shang Jianyao revealed a terrified expression again. “The disappearance of those nodes means that most humans are completely dead. The remaining few might not be able to maintain the continuation of civilization.”

“I mean, what will happen to the Kalendarium?” Bai Chen quickly expressed her true meaning

In fact, apart from Shang Jianyao, everyone could understand what she wanted to ask.

“I don’t know.” The honest Genava moved his metal neck from side to side.

Jiang Baimian also shook her head. “We aren’t even sure if faith is equivalent to another way to connect to the New World. We have to investigate further carefully.”

She turned to look at Shang Jianyao and asked, “Has Room 506’s owner not had a dream yet?”

“No,” Shang Jianyao said excitedly. “I plan on seeing how many days she can last.”

Tarnan, Serene Dream Hotel.

The lady boss, Aynor, drooped her head a little and almost smashed it on the table.

She suddenly woke up and muttered to herself with a haggard expression, “Hang in there, hang in there…”

In the evening, on the fifth floor of a building on Weed City’s south street.

The Old Task Force came to An Ruxiang’s rented apartment and knocked on the door.

They waited for a while before the door opened.

An Ruxiang wore a dark lady’s jacket. A bluish-black tattoo appeared at the base of her neck, and her face remained expressionless.

She stepped aside and calmly said, “I thought you wouldn’t come until tomorrow.”

The place she lived in wasn’t bad. Half of it was a bedroom, the other half was a living room, and there was an attached kitchen. Only the bathroom was public; one had to go to the end of the corridor. “Wait a minute. I’ll cook a few more dishes.” An Ruxiang pointed at the kitchen.

“We brought our own food. We just need to heat it up.” Shang Jianyao pointed at his tactical backpack. He then walked to the kitchen as if they were familiar with each other. “I’ll do it. Little Red, help. You guys

chat.”

“It’s decided then!” Jiang Baimian replied before An Ruxiang could.

Therefore, Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao went to the kitchen and got busy. Jiang Baimian, An Ruxiang, and Bai Chen each pulled a chair over and sat down.

“Why do you suddenly want to see me?” An Ruxiang asked. Jiang Baimian looked around and realized that a neatly folded blue and white checkered handkerchief and folded paper were on the bedside table deep in the room. On the coffee table in the living room were a few children’s textbooks from the Old World. She retracted her gaze and smiled with a slightly complicated expression. “This should be the last time we are out on a mission, so we wanted to meet our old friends. Heh heh, I wonder if we still have a chance in the future.”

An Ruxiang nodded slightly. “Marriage, have children, and lead a stable life?”

“Yes.” Jiang Baimian pointed at Bai Chen and Long Yuehong, who were at the edge of the kitchen. “The two of them are already married.”

An Ruxiang was stunned for a moment before her eyes drooped slightly. “Pretty good.”

“It’s indeed pretty good. We will slowly let go of the past.” Jiang Baimian changed the topic. “You previously said that you were an assassin. You should’ve been to many places and seen many people, right?” An Ruxiang was rather frank about this. “Yes, I can be considered knowledgeable. What would you like to know?”

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