Jiang Baimian was very busy. On one hand, she had to keep an eye on the road ahead, afraid of driving the jeep into a swamp or having the vehicle overturned by rocks, tree roots, and other obstacles. On the other hand, she had to use her mind to sense various electrical signals in the surrounding area, trying to discern if the mechanical monk Jingfa had caught up and what his current state was.
However, none of this affected her thinking. Her brain seemed to have been optimized by genetic modification.
"That instant..." Jiang Baimian answered thoughtfully, but her voice was louder than normal, "My state was very strange. I didn't know who I was, and I didn't know what I should do. Uh... it wasn't a problem with my memory. At that time, I could recall many things that had happened before, but I couldn't get any information from them about who I was or what I should do."
Saying that, Jiang Baimian habitually did a self-examination:
"I thought that affecting Jingfa's body would prevent him from using his Awakened abilities, but my judgment was wrong...
"Is this the difference between mechanical monks and ordinary humans?"
Bai Chen shook her head upon hearing this:
"This has nothing to do with a misjudgment. At that time, it was a desperate counterattack, and there was no way to consider so much."
After fastening the buckles on his leg joints, Shang Jianyao raised his head and said:
"Many Awakened abilities rely more on, rely on, probably consciousness. The impact brought by the physical body depends on the situation. For example, by traumatizing the body, bringing severe pain, making the Awakened unable to think, unable to transfer consciousness to the key point, then he should not be able to use his abilities..."
As he spoke, Shang Jianyao suddenly fell silent, seeming to realize that this could also be used against him.
Before Jiang Baimian and the others could speak, he took a breath and continued:
"Similarly, if you can knock out an Awakened with one punch, he definitely won't be able to use his abilities."
After giving the example, Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and agreed with Jiang Baimian's previous judgment:
"In this regard, mechanical monks are indeed different from ordinary humans."
Jiang Baimian chuckled self-deprecatingly:
"Unfortunately, my 'golden finger' isn't too strong. If I could quickly invade Jingfa's power supply system and turn off his power, then he shouldn't be able to use his Awakened abilities either. No, that's not right. Who knows how long the 'Eternal's' consciousness can remain clear after leaving the life-support of the bionic chip.
"Ha, you guys also need to be careful. Don't be too confident. In the absence of empirical evidence, it's best to have a little more skepticism about your own judgments."
Bai Chen was slightly stunned when she heard this and glanced at Jiang Baimian:
"Team Leader, you seem to be in a very good state. Your mood isn't low at all."
You must know that they were being hunted down by a terrifying mechanical monk, and the main theme of their state and emotions should be tense, suppressed, angry, low, and uneasy.
"It's much better now than when I was caught by Jingfa before. Shouldn't we be grateful and happy?" Jiang Baimian focused on sensing the surrounding area. "If it weren't for Shang Jianyao just now, if we hadn't been able to break free and had really fallen into the hands of that psychologically twisted pervert, the outcome would have been very bad, very bad. Although I haven't seen the corpses of those women killed by Jingfa, I've heard people describe them..."
Mentioning this matter, even Jiang Baimian, who had always been quite optimistic, couldn't help but let her expression turn gloomy.
She didn't elaborate, worried about affecting the state of Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong.
At this moment, Shang Jianyao had completed the donning of the military exoskeleton.
His lips moved a few times before finally opening:
"Normally, an Awakened only has three abilities."
Jiang Baimian hit the steering wheel, causing the jeep to bypass a tree growing in the middle of the road:
"Three... Jingfa's are: the one that made me not know who I was... 'Hungry Ghost Path'... what else?"
Long Yuehong, who had been listening quietly, immediately thought of the answer:
"Telepathy!
"Jingfa said that he has telepathy and can hear some of the voices in other people's hearts."
"All three abilities are complete... Maybe we can consider this aspect and find a clever way to deal with Jingfa. Oh right, the Awakened's abilities should have range limits..." Jiang Baimian said to herself while driving.
However, her muttering was always loud, and the others could hear it quite clearly.
Shang Jianyao responded thoughtfully:
"He used telepathy and the ability to make you misperceive yourself within a meter. It's impossible to judge how many meters away it can reach at most."
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and revealed a slight smile:
"But it's not impossible to make a rough judgment.
"When he pounced on us from the distant tree, he chose 'Hungry Ghost Path'.
"This choice itself can explain some problems: either the range of that ability to make people misperceive themselves is far less than 'Hungry Ghost Path', or it can only target one person, while 'Hungry Ghost Path' can affect everyone in a specific area."
Bai Chen followed up with a recollection:
"I remember. When we discovered that there were 'hungry ghosts' around, Jingfa had just pounced over from the distant tree not long ago, about twenty meters away from us, or a little more."
Her understanding of the Monk Order's doctrines, stories, and legends was clearly greater than Jiang Baimian's.
"Okay, we need to remember: 'Hungry Ghost Path' has an effective range of at least twenty meters." Jiang Baimian slightly amplified her voice.
Shang Jianyao was silent for a moment and said:
"He is more powerful than me."
"His age is unknown how many times yours, and the number of years he has been an Awakened is too." Jiang Baimian comforted him.
She had no way of knowing when Jingfa had become an Awakened, but she judged from the other party's words just now that he should have uploaded his consciousness to a robot body after becoming an Awakened to become an "Eternal." Jingfa, as a mechanical monk, was quite active in the late chaotic era before the New Calendar.
At this time, Long Yuehong seemed to have accepted a fact:
His good friend, Shang Jianyao, whom he had grown up with, was actually an Awakened with strange and terrifying abilities!
He felt that he would never be able to forget the scene he had seen before:
The originally murderous and determined mechanical monk Jingfa suddenly became extremely friendly after hearing two sentences from Shang Jianyao. He even shook hands with Shang Jianyao to say goodbye, feeling reluctant to part.
This simply subverted Long Yuehong's understanding.
He looked at Shang Jianyao and couldn't help but ask:
"When did you become an Awakened?"
Shang Jianyao was silent for a while and said:
"Not long ago."
Long Yuehong wanted to ask something else, but suddenly felt that it wasn't appropriate, as if he were spying on someone else's secrets.
Inside the jeep, there was silence for a short time.
Jiang Baimian broke the silence, looked ahead, and smiled:
"Do we need to keep the relevant matters confidential?"
"Thank you." Shang Jianyao slowly exhaled.
Bai Chen and Long Yuehong successively expressed that they would definitely keep it confidential.
Shang Jianyao was about to say something when he suddenly saw a slight change in Jiang Baimian's expression.
At the same time, Jiang Baimian suddenly hit the steering wheel, causing the jeep to make a sharp turn.
Although Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong in the car were all wearing seat belts, they couldn't help but lean to the right.
A grenade flew over and landed where they should have been.
Boom!
A blazing fire bloomed, and the violent shock wave made the earth tremble slightly.
After the jeep turned, Jiang Baimian floored the accelerator, causing the vehicle to shoot out like an arrow again.
With a whoosh, a crimson laser drilled into the ground, burning out a bottomless hole.
"Eleven o'clock." Seizing the opportunity, Bai Chen used the clock position to tell Jiang Baimian which direction not to go, otherwise the vehicle would sink into the swamp and slowly sink.
Jiang Baimian was very familiar with this method and did not convert it. She directly hit the steering wheel.
Then, she shouted softly:
"Shang Jianyao."
Shang Jianyao inhaled almost imperceptibly, suddenly opened the jeep door in motion, leaned his body, and rolled down.
At the current speed of the jeep, he would inevitably be injured if he made this attempt under normal circumstances, but now, he was wearing a military-grade exoskeleton.
With a brace of his arms, Shang Jianyao easily bounced up and ran towards the location of the grenade and laser in a serpentine pattern.
He did not bring assault rifles or submachine guns because they were useless against mechanical monks.
What he could rely on were the grenade launcher and electromagnetic weapons that came with the exoskeleton itself.
Thump thump thump, running at full speed without conserving energy, Shang Jianyao saw the jet-black robot wearing tattered monk robes and a red cassock through the crystal goggles of his metal helmet.
But the next second, Jingfa turned around and ran away, circling around Shang Jianyao and gradually widening the distance by taking advantage of the fact that the exoskeleton's reaction speed and smoothness were not as good as the robot's.
After chasing for a while, Shang Jianyao lost track of the mechanical monk.
The exoskeleton's comprehensive early warning system did not detect anything either—obviously, the other party had targeted anti-early warning capabilities.
Unable to continue chasing, Shang Jianyao had to return the same way. Relying on the jeep's wheel tracks, he found Jiang Baimian and the others, and then got into the car without the jeep stopping.
On the way back, he deliberately destroyed the wheel tracks and fabricated destruction marks in other directions, hoping to interfere with Jingfa's judgment.
"He's hiding from me." After closing the door, Shang Jianyao briefly explained what had happened.
"Is he afraid of you? Does your ability restrain him?" Long Yuehong subconsciously gave his idea.
"No, his ability has a greater range." Shang Jianyao said without hesitation.
Jiang Baimian frowned slightly and was about to speak when she suddenly hit the steering wheel again.
Boom!
Jingfa's ranged attack came again!
However, when Shang Jianyao, wearing the military exoskeleton, got out of the car and ran over, Jingfa took the initiative to retreat, widen the distance, and not give him a chance to fight.
Once, twice, three times... similar situations occurred at varying intervals.
"What is he trying to do?" Long Yuehong also noticed the problem.
Jiang Baimian curled her lips and said:
"Probably he brought a lot of high-performance batteries and feels he has a chance to drain our exoskeleton until it runs out of power. He's quite patient..."
"But he can't carry many grenades." Long Yuehong reflexively asked.
Bai Chen looked in the rearview mirror and said:
"The last few times, he only used laser weapons."
Long Yuehong immediately became a little worried:
"Then what should we do?"
ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~