Embers Ad Infinitum

After some communication, the "old tune team" discovered that the people who "visited" the mountain monster tribe two days ago were actually the group of people suspected of being the "Salvation Army" they encountered before.

Moreover, they seemed to have used some kind of ability to make the mountain monsters completely lose their vigilance and become full of enthusiasm for hospitality.

"There are also awakened ones among the mountain monsters, but the number is small. The ones who can control their entire tribe for a short time and have an influence that remains to this day must be the awakened ones at the level of the 'soul corridor' and above...

"Since that group of people did not take certain books, magazines, and newspapers from the mountain monster, it means that those things indeed lack valuable clues. Well... we cannot make too sure a judgment on this matter. They may not be as capable as we are. There is too much information, or the information on both sides is misplaced, and some clues are just ordinary records in their eyes, not worth making a fuss about..." Jiang Baimian's mind was full of thoughts, trying to find out the true meaning hidden under the surface.

In her opinion, the group of people suspected of being the "Salvation Army" may know more, so they treat the clues useful to the "Old Tune Team" as normal and stay with the mountain monster tribe. They may also have relatively little information. , I don’t understand what earth-shattering secrets some seemingly ordinary words imply.

Both of these situations are quite possible, and the "Old Tune Team" must pay certain attention to avoid missing clues of sufficient value.

Thinking of this, Jiang Baimian turned his head to look at Shang Jianyao, winked at him, and made a gesture quietly.

What she means is:

let's go! Be bold and “make friends”!

Shang Jian, who had been wilting, regained his energy and raised the blue and white loudspeaker again:

"Everyone, do you realize something is wrong?

"Do you have to say thank you to me for inviting us to be guests in your tribe?

"As the saying goes, rely on your parents at home and your friends when you go out. Only by making more friends can you ensure that you can trade enough food and cloth in the future..."

After some "guidance", the mountain monsters in front and the mountain monsters lurking on the cliff all agreed with Shang Jianyao's statement, and decided to choose a different day than to hit the sun, and start to entertain guests warmly today.

Their performance made the smuggling team of "Underground Ark" stunned.

Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and said to the people in Ark:

"You complete the transaction now, and then go back directly without following us."

She is not worried about the hostility of the people in the "Underground Ark" towards the mountain monsters. After knowing the location of their settlement, they will look for opportunities to surround and attack. After all, the kindness and deterrence of the five honorary presidents have not faded too much. She is just afraid of " After the people of the "Underground Ark" learned the location of the mountain monsters' lair, they leaked it to the townspeople of Hongshiji during their daily contacts.

There is a blood feud between the townspeople and the mountain monster tribe.

"Yes, President Xue!" The leader of the Ark Guard in charge of the smuggling team immediately agreed.

They also don't want to climb mountains and wading rivers to reach a mountain monster settlement that is of little value to them.

At this time, Long Yuehong raised a question:

"What about our car?"

The mountain monster's lair is most likely to be in a place that is not accessible to traffic. This can help them use their talents and avoid most dangers.

"It's a pity that it can't turn into a robot and follow us." Shang Jianyao looked regretful.

He missed Tarnan's "Autobots" very much.

Jiang Baimian originally wanted Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to caboose, while he and Shang Jianyao went to the mountain monster's lair to advance, attack, retreat or defend. However, after taking a look at Bai Chen, he found that she was not too happy, so he had to go to the "underground The smuggling team of "Ark" said:

"You leave two of you down to help us look after the car."

After explaining the precautions, she, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong each carried a crate containing a military exoskeleton device, stuffed some high-performance batteries into the tactical backpack, and followed the mountain monster on a road that gradually became rugged. A mountain road that is difficult to navigate.

——Bai Chen is in charge of the crates containing two bionic smart armors.

…………

The mountain monsters live on a cliff. Some places along the way are so steep that they cannot be passed by vehicles. Even for normal humans, it is not that simple to climb over. And the mountain monsters with green faces and fangs are wearing different clothes. The boxes of supplies are as smooth as walking on the ground, and the strides are like flying.

Fortunately, the "Old Tune Team" are all genetically improved or modified, and they are very agile people who can barely keep up.

After arriving at the destination, Jiang Baimian took a quick look and saw many mountain monsters, large and small, but did not find anyone who looked particularly old.

Most of them were simply dressed in animal skins, except for the children, who each wore clothes that were not well-tailored due to the maintenance of the smuggling business.

Seeing the adults returning with boxes one by one, these children watched eagerly, expecting their father, uncle, mother, or aunt to take out a piece of sweet and sour plum candy from their pockets, throw it to them, and talk about the deal. Changed some by the way.

But today, their wishes seemed to be in vain.

Shang Jianyao picked up the blue and white loudspeaker, improved his previous words, and persuaded the mountain monsters in the cliff camp over and over again.

Only one of the mountain monster tribes lived here, with a total number of just over two hundred. Shang Jianyao only repeated the task three times before completing the work.

——Calm and rational, he strictly divided them according to groups when "persuading", starting with those who may have awakened people and those who are older and more experienced, then to those who are ordinary in all aspects, and finally targeted the ignorant. children.

Seeing that all the mountain monsters became enthusiastic, Shang Jianyao held his eyelids with one hand to prevent them from falling. He reached into his pocket with one hand and took out a large handful of colorful candies.

"Why did you bring so much candy?" Long Yue's red eyes almost popped out of his head.

He could recognize at a glance that the candy in Shang Jianyao's hand came from within the company and needed to be redeemed with contribution points.

Back when he was still on a blind date, when he was still showing off his power in front of his younger brothers and sisters, he was no stranger to these candies.

Shang Jianyao replied feebly:

"One of us is not very grown up. He likes to wear his childhood clothes and eat sweets."

As he spoke, he put on a smile and said to those mountain monster children:

"Want to eat?

"Each person has one, but you have to say 'Thank you brother' to me before eating, and you have to imitate me to dance a few times after eating."

Is this the young Shang Jianyao? Long Yuehong seemed to understand something.

The mountain monster children, whose vigilance had been eliminated by "thinking guidance", surrounded Shang Jianyao under the indulgent smiles of the adults and shouted "Thank you, brother" in a crisp voice.

Their childish voices are no different from those of normal human cubs.

Jiang Baimian watched quietly for a while, then called Bai Chen and Long Yuehong, entered the cave on the cliff, and with the help of the owner, gathered together the books, magazines, and newspapers they had collected.

"Do the situations you mentioned before only refer to your tribe, or do they include other mountain monster tribes?" Jiang Baimian asked cautiously.

The previous mountain monster representative scratched his head:

"We only have one tribe, but there are too many of them. If we gather together, we can't even put them in a safer place in the mountains, and the clean water can't keep up, and it's easy to be polluted, so we have to live separately according to our surnames.

"Trading with you is something that we, as a family, can't decide? There are so many things that we can't come up with on our own."

Jiang Baimian felt relieved and smiled:

"Then please, when you hand over the supplies to other big names, borrow all the books, magazines and newspapers from them."

"Okay." The mountain monster representative said without feeling embarrassed, "There aren't many of them there. We are the only ones who like to collect books and magazines. Let me tell you, before the destruction of the old world, we were the ones who got into good schools. The most people!”

"What's your last name?" Bai Chen interrupted and asked.

The mountain monster representative replied extremely proudly:

"Our ancestor is the Li family of Shanyang."

Shanyang is north of the ruins of Tieshan City. Many people went abroad in those days, and some of them settled in the city where Hongshiji is now located in the Nuhu area.

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to respond, the mountain monster representative emphasized again:

"We are members of the Li family of Shanyang, not monsters or subhumans."

Long Yuehong suddenly felt inexplicable, turned around, and looked outside the cave.

He saw a mountain monster child stuffing candy into his mouth. Instead of throwing away the colorful candy wrapper, he crumpled it up and put it in his trouser pocket.

"It has no value." Long Yuehong reminded kindly.

The mountain monster child replied loudly but vaguely:

"It, it's so beautiful!"

Long Yuehong was speechless.

After Shang Jianyao and the children finished the group dance, they found a place to lie down and sleep. Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen began to look through the written materials collected by the mountain monster.

In order to improve efficiency, they always read the table of contents or titles first, and then pick out the ones that they feel may have problems and put them aside for later reading.

During this process, Bai Chen suddenly noticed a title:

"Twenty-three-year-old genius scientist Lin Sui"