Embers Ad Infinitum

Looking at the shopping mall-style building where Yan Hu was imprisoned, the reckless Shang Jianyao said happily:

"This is where you can't find anything even if you wear iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get there!"

"But the fact is that we have never tried to find Yan Hu." The honest Shang Jianyao retorted to his colleagues.

The reckless Shang Jianyao was confident about this:

"We have considered this!"

Without giving other merchants a chance to refute, he pointed at the shopping mall and said:

"Go over now."

"Are you crazy?" the vicious Shang Jianyao blurted out, "Do you know what's going on inside? Don't involve us even if you want to die!"

The reckless Shang Jian Yao was very convincing:

"We now have Xiao Chong's tiger skin. Who dares to stop us? Who doesn't give us some face?"

"How are you sure that the person who imprisoned those people in Yan Hu is not a certain official?" The sinister Shang Jianyao first asked back, and then considering that he had become a minority, he made a suggestion in a good voice, "Even if If you want to go in to find Yan Hu, you must first find some friendly 'New World' experts nearby and inquire about the situation of that building."

The reckless Shang Jianyao sneered:

"You are so cowardly!

"Is it safe to find other strong men from the 'New World' nearby? They might be the caretakers of this building!"

As he spoke, he took long strides and ran towards the place where Yan Hu was imprisoned.

"You brainless guy, you think you can do whatever you want with Xiao Chong's tiger skin?" The vicious Shang Jianyao could no longer control himself.

With all his strength, Shang Jianyao crossed his right foot with his left foot and finished the fall on the ground.

"coward!"

"Silly X!"

"You two, calm down."

…

Shang Jianyao began a fierce internal struggle, which manifested itself in the fact that he was obviously alone, but sometimes he trotted, sometimes rubbed against the wall, sometimes stood on his head, sometimes crawled backward, sometimes hugged the lamppost, and was unwilling to move forward, just following the steps in front of him. It was as if there were multiple invisible enemies fighting against him.

Finally, the reckless Shang Jianyao and his supporters, who had gained momentum during this period, won the final victory.

Shang Jianyao swaggered to the shopping mall-style building and walked in with his head held high.

With a snap, a light inside the building lit up as he arrived, casting a pure white light.

This is indeed a large shopping mall, with straight stairs and escalators, a place where you can see the dome at a glance, and areas that are layered on top of each other.

Shang Jianyao glanced at the layout of the place casually, and walked to the escalator in front of him easily and naturally without making too many observations.

The escalator was powered and carried him up slowly.

…………

In a certain building in a small city.

Jiang Baimian resisted the urge to raise his hand and rub his eyes.

As an awakener in the "Broken Mirror" field, she confirmed that the "intentionless ones" just now were not her hallucinations, and that they disappeared before her eyes.

After calming down, Jiang Baimian continued to observe, trying to confirm.

During this process, she was also "examining" the activities of those "unintentional people", trying to distinguish which ones were ordinary and which ones had awakened abilities.

What puzzles her is that the "unintentional ones" currently appearing are all doing specific things, and there is no so-called "supervisor", which makes it impossible for her to tell who has a higher status.

After a while of observation, Jiang Baimian analyzed the work of those "unintentional people" and initially divided them into two major categories:

One is to maintain the integrity and normality of the power supply lines, and the other is to ensure the life of the current ethnic group and improve the surrounding environment.

Thinking of this, Jiang Baimian's heart moved:

“The latter category is what these ‘unintentional people’ need to survive and is a by-product of the core work...

"In other words, someone implanted corresponding thoughts into them to ensure the normal operation of the power system...

"Does this mean that the area where the tower is located contains some important items that require electricity to maintain?"

The reason why Jiang Baimian used objects instead of machines was because she remembered that the reason why the ruins of Swamp No. 1 had been supplied with electricity for decades was because Xiao Chong wanted to play games.

Although game consoles are also machines, they are still somewhat different from the machines Jiang Baimian subconsciously thought of.

As his thoughts were spinning, Jiang Baimian saw several more "unintentional people" coming over.

She immediately held her breath and concentrated.

Just like before, those "unintentional ones" disappeared without a trace as soon as they crossed an invisible boundary on their way to the area around the tower.

…………

"New World", in the shopping mall where Yan Hu was imprisoned.

Shang saw the sun walking in the darkness, watching the lights follow him and light up one after another, then extinguish them step by step.

According to his previous speculation and Jiang Baimian's calculations, he knew that Yan Hu was on the fourth floor, where there was only one light that was so weak that it was about to go out.

Not long after, Shang Jianyao arrived at his destination and saw a gray-white rolling shutter door sealing the entrance.

"Nothing happened." The reckless Shang Jianyao glanced around and said with a proud smile, "Let me just say, who dares to stand in front of Xiao Chong's friend?"

Others choose silence.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shang Jianyao slapped the rolling shutter door hard.

"Is there anyone? Is there anyone?" He shouted loudly while slapping.

After shouting several times, he shook his head in disappointment:

"Has Yan Hu been deprived of his senses? He didn't even respond..."

When he knocked on the door just now, he noticed that the situation here was indeed very similar to his previous encounter:

The doors seemed to be welded to the wall, and the wall was indestructible!

In other words, he couldn't break in violently.

The vicious Shang Jianyao responded coldly to his colleagues:

"You were so noisy that you suppressed many sounds."

"That's right!" Shang Jianyao said while holding his right fist and left palm.

He calmed down and put his ear to the rolling shutter door.

In the silence, Shang Jianyao heard a small and weak voice:

"help me……"

"Sure enough, it's you, Yan Hu!" Shang Jianyao responded extremely excitedly, which felt like meeting an old friend in a foreign country.

"Help me..." Yan Hu's cry for help was as thin as a gnat.

Shang Jianyao rubbed his chin and said with a smile:

"I can't open the door now.

"If I want to save you, I'm afraid I have to fully understand the cause and effect of the matter and find out where the problem lies."

The rolling shutter door seemed to have some kind of shielding effect. Logically speaking, Yan Hu was weak, hungry, and close to coma. He would instinctively try to extract the consciousness of the surrounding humans, but Shang Jianyao felt nothing at all.

After Shang Jianyao repeated his words several times, Yan Hu finally had a reaction:

"Who are you...know me?"

"I have seen your body on the island in the middle of the lake." The honest Shang Jianyao never lies. "I have to know what happened to you before I can find a way to save you."

As far as Yan Hu is concerned, under the current circumstances, a dead horse has to be treated as a living horse doctor, not to mention that the other party has shown its willingness to help him.

Even if this is a trap, he will jump into it without hesitation.

Therefore, he forced himself to cheer up and said intermittently:

"When I entered here, not long after, I suddenly became stupid and couldn't think about anything.

"Then, there was a voice, asking me to come here, and I came here in a daze, and was locked in this room.

"At the beginning, I was too eager to extract a large amount of the consciousness of my believers as food to replenish my own consumption. As a result, they either died or became 'careless people' and could no longer provide me with food.

"Later, whenever I was about to starve to death, someone would provide me with some food, so that I could not die or survive, and always remain in this weak state."

"Who is providing you with food?" Shang Jianyao asked.

"I haven't seen it. I don't know who it is." Yan Hu replied angrily.

Shang Jianyao changed his perspective:

"Who made you stupid?"

"I don't know." Yan Hu couldn't hide the hatred in his tone.

"This is very similar to the 'Halo of Stupidity', the awakened person in the 'Zhuang Sheng' realm." Shang Jianyao said to himself.

He did not let Yan Hu spend too much energy on this meaningless issue, and sincerely asked for advice:

“Why do you think that person locked you up?

"Well, if you find the motive for the crime, you can identify the corresponding suspect."

Yan Hu didn't pay attention to his strange metaphor, and was silent for a while before saying:

"I suspect he wants my body."

"What?" Shang Jianyao was shocked, "Is that a rapist?"

As for whether it's a man or a woman, it doesn't matter.

Yan Hu just spoke for a while, and his words became a little smoother:

"No, I don't mean that.

"I also observed the situation here from the window when I had enough food.

"The lights rarely go out here, which means it's difficult for them to return to reality.

"This, this may be a spiritual prison."

Bang bang bang, Shang Jianyao applauded Yan Hu:

"It's really impressive that you can come to such a conclusion based on observation alone."

Yan Hu didn't have the energy to be polite, so he thought to himself and said:

"The person who is dealing with me may want to transfer his consciousness into my body and escape back to reality when the opportunity arises.

"My neighbor Montes has such an ability. Even if he doesn't possess it himself, he can still achieve his goal by obtaining corresponding props.

"If I haven't, and I'm wrong, that person is still in different places, holding several people like me in prison. Give me more choices and be prepared."

PS: Ask for double monthly tickets at the end of the month~