Shang Jianyao's question itself wasn't particularly strange, but it was completely unrelated to the previous conversation, giving Gu Bo a sense of bewilderment:
"Why are you asking that?"
"Just asking." Shang Jianyao's answer made Gu Bo feel a tightness in his chest.
Noticing the change in his expression, Shang Jianyao raised both hands, leaned back, and added:
"Everywhere is a dream, why take it seriously?"
Ho, learning and applying as he goes, he's in love with that sentence lately? Jiang Baimian didn't interrupt Shang Jianyao's performance, after all, she also wanted to know if Gu Bo knew Du Heng.
Gu Bo hissed:
"Are you a follower of 'Shattered Mirror'?
"Why did I hear you were planning to join the 'Forge Sect'?"
As the president of the local Hunter's Guild, he was definitely well-informed.
"My plan to join the 'Forge Sect' doesn't contradict my admiration for certain aspects of the 'Mirage Dragon Church'," Shang Jianyao replied seriously.
It would be best if they gave a share of the Eucharist… Long Yuehong silently added in his mind.
Gu Bo nodded first, then felt something was wrong:
"Then why are you even learning the 'Mirage Dragon Church's' etiquette?"
"To strengthen the tone," Shang Jianyao replied with unusual sincerity.
Gu Bo suddenly felt that continuing to dwell on this matter would not only waste a lot of time, but also likely result in an answer that made him vomit blood, so he wisely gave up on this question and instead said:
"I don't know which Du Heng you're asking about, it's not exactly a rare name, I've met three or four of them."
"Claims to be an 'Antiquities Scholar,' has long black hair, and a circle of beard around here…" Jiang Baimian simply described Du Heng's features.
Gu Bo recalled for a moment:
"I have met him, he came to Tarnan at the time to explore the surrounding city ruins, we chatted a few times.
"Is there anything strange about him? I felt he was ordinary, except for being decent-looking, relatively cultured, and liked to teach others."
Jiang Baimian didn't answer Gu Bo's doubts, and asked further:
"How long ago was that?"
"Forty years ago maybe…" Gu Bo said without much confidence.
But one thing he was absolutely sure of was that this matter was a long time ago.
"Then I'll tell you, forty years later, Du Heng still looks the same," Jiang Baimian answered Gu Bo's previous question.
Gu Bo hissed again:
"That's a bit impressive…"
He recalled the various details of that time again, thinking and said:
"He seemed really normal, I just vaguely felt that he seemed to be pursuing certain things or a certain matter."
Afraid that Long Yuehong and the others wouldn't understand, he found another example:
"Like trash like me, hehe, trash hunters, every time we go to a city ruin, our purpose is very general, which is to find valuable items, and his purpose is very clear, although I don't know what it is, but I just have that feeling."
So the name trash hunter is also a common term in both the north and south… Long Yuehong suppressed his laughter.
After all, he is now also a formal trash hunter.
"We think so too," Jiang Baimian responded.
Gu Bo only met Du Heng once, and couldn't provide more information, so this topic ended quickly.
He looked around and took out a map with a fairly high level of accuracy, saying:
"You guard the intersection in the northwest direction of the town, there is a road that leads directly into the mountains…"
This road was not the one Shang Jianyao and the others had taken, it connected to the Old Mountain Range, a place rarely visited by people.
…………
Tarnan, northwest direction, on the bank of the Movier River, the intersection leading to Mount Kilar.
The "Old Task Force," having managed to apply for many supplies, drove the jeep here.
Jiang Baimian glanced at the sky, looked back at the small city behind them, and said with a smile:
"Deploy according to the planned scheme, just treat it as a training lesson in constructing fortifications.
"Yeah, we have to make corresponding changes based on the characteristics of the target, we can't be inflexible."
"Yes, team leader!" Shang Jianyao replied loudly.
The next second, he carried a full-length mirror, excitedly ran to the intersection, inserted it into the soil, and fixed it with stones.
Long Yuehong also did something similar.
Before long, the entire intersection was surrounded by multiple full-length mirrors, all facing outwards, leaving only the passage to retreat into Tarnan.
"This feels kind of weird…" As the "Commander-in-Chief," Jiang Baimian said to herself with a smile as she looked at the result.
Shang Jianyao introduced it in a serious manner:
"This is the Eight Gates Golden Light Formation, it can subdue demons, it can subdue monsters, it can exorcise ghosts."
"There's this on the radio program?" Jiang Baimian was greatly surprised.
Although she listened to the radio relatively little, spending more time online, she hadn't completely stopped listening, and felt that the company's radio stories were somewhat selective, not so outrageous.
Shang Jianyao replied frankly:
"I peeked at it from the landlady's ghost movies."
"But that's not the Eight Gates Golden Light Formation…" Long Yuehong had also taken a few glances at the time.
Shang Jianyao nodded:
"I think the combination of the three words 'Eight Gates,' 'Golden Light,' and 'Formation' would be better."
Long Yuehong, unable to win the argument, turned around and took out a pile of items from the jeep's trunk.
This included, but was not limited to, landmines, entrenching tools, iron nails, and hemp ropes.
Jiang Baimian then pointed to different places and said:
"Dig a hole there, make a hunting trap, throw the iron nails in… pull two hemp ropes to block it there… there, there, there, bury a landmine in each place…"
After instructing, Jiang Baimian said with a slightly smug tone:
"The biggest problem with hallucination abilities is that they only affect creatures that have thoughts and make responses.
"But it can't make landmines, ropes, iron nails, and traps hallucinate.
"They are arranged here, no matter what kind of illusion, they won't move, waiting for you to come to the door, absolutely real…"
To avoid electromagnetic signals being distorted, she had chosen more "classical" things, not relying much on electronic components.
"I'm afraid Xiao Hong will step on them," Shang Jianyao said with concern as he dug a hole.
"Am I that clumsy?" Long Yuehong protested.
Shang Jianyao glanced at him:
"Hey, I had genetic modifications…"
"Stop!" Long Yuehong stopped him in time.
Jiang Baimian also chimed in:
"As long as he's not affected by the illusion, Xiao Hong is very reliable now."
This was why they arranged the full-length mirrors first, and then buried the landmines and dug the traps.
Otherwise, they were likely to "misremember" the locations and step on them themselves.
After a period of busy work, the "Old Task Force" completed the construction of the fortifications, and erected a wooden sign with a light bulb next to the full-length mirrors facing the mountainous area.
The sign said:
"This road is closed, please take the northeast gate."
The people of the "Mirage Dragon Church" were in charge of the northeast gate, with Zhou Yue personally guarding it.
"Phew, done!" Jiang Baimian was not just standing and commanding, she also participated in the work, but the focus was on monitoring whether there were any large creatures with electromagnetic signals approaching.
Before Shang Jianyao could speak, she turned to the jeep and said:
"We'll just stay behind the jeep later, no matter what happens, try not to interfere.
"Didn't Zhou Guan say it? The more you do, the more mistakes you make, the less you do, the fewer mistakes you'll make."
Hearing this sentence, Long Yuehong breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that although the enemy was strong, they had a solid fortress.
After everyone entered their designated positions, the four of them chatted from time to time.
There would be some strange answers mixed in.
"What's the oldest you wet the bed?"
"Five years old…"
This was not Shang Jianyao deliberately making things difficult for Long Yuehong, but rather conducting periodic identity verification.
With the previous experience and corresponding information, Jiang Baimian believed that the illusion constructed by that "Higher Mindless" originated from himself, rather than his own memories and emotions.
Therefore, if a companion became a fake, he would definitely not be able to answer relatively private questions—even if the questioner's hearing of the information was distorted by the illusion, he would not get the correct answer.
This could be used to guard against "malicious" approaches.
To this end, Shang Jianyao had prepared a hundred questions for Long Yuehong.
…………
The sun gradually moved towards the west, and the sky slowly softened.
Just as Jiang Baimian was preparing to arrange the evening matters, a car drove out of the mountains and arrived at the intersection.
This was a dark blue car with steel plates installed, a high chassis, and large tires.
Shang Jianyao picked up the megaphone and whistled:
"Handsome guy!"
This made the people in the car a little confused, as if they were wondering about this guy's sexuality.
After a few seconds, the car door opened and four people got out.
One was a man with the small half of his skull on the right side flashing silver-white metallic light, with irregular shrapnel embedded in his forehead, one was a woman with a gentle and intellectual temperament, with long and straight black hair, one was wearing an old-world black priest robe, nearly the same height as Shang Jianyao, with a gentle smile on his face, and one was wearing a khaki military uniform, with a matching beret, his facial features were standard Ashlander, but the lines were more rigid.
They were the relic hunter team that Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian, and the others had encountered at the water source in Mount Kilar.
"Can't go this way?" The man with the small half of his skull metalized asked loudly.
Jiang Baimian picked up another megaphone:
"Stand in front of the full-length mirror."
Afraid that the other party would not accept, she added in explanation:
"In order to identify the true and false, and verify identities.
"You should know what that 'Higher Mindless' is best at."
The four relic hunters exchanged glances, nodded, and walked to the full-length mirror in turn, looking at themselves for a few seconds.
The gentle and intellectual woman and the man in the black priest robe took the opportunity to fix their hair.
"What are your names?" Shang Jianyao asked with the megaphone.
"Bai Xiao." The man with the small half of his skull flashing metallic light and a tear mole below his left eye answered loudly.
"Lin Tong." This was the woman's name, "A person who studies biology."
What a coincidence, our company is called "Pangu Biology…" While Jiang Baimian muttered to herself, the man in the black priest robe, with a gentle smile, also replied:
"Lei."
"Zhang Shaopeng," the man in military uniform followed.
Seeing that they had all looked in the mirror, Shang Jianyao asked a question before Jiang Baimian could:
"At the last water source in the Kilar Mountains, what did we talk about?"
The four people looked at each other, and Bai Xiao answered:
"We talked about the city ruins around Tarnan."
Long Yuehong's eyes suddenly froze.
At that time, they hadn't chatted with this relic hunter team at all, they had only been reminded by the other party that there were "Higher Mindless" in the southwest mountains!