Sitting in the back, Bai Chen said in a guessing tone:
“Maybe Wildgrass City has a hermit who is a ‘New World’ powerhouse, sleeping for many years, occasionally returning, or someone carrying corresponding items just passing by.”
The entire "Old Task Force" is deeply influenced by entertainment materials from the Old World, and Bai Chen is no exception.
“Maybe some ‘New World’ nodes can converge their own fluctuations like Awakened, only producing an impact at specific times?” Long Yuehong added.
Jiang Baimian slowly shook her head:
“A lot of data and our experiences have proven that even the smallest human settlements can experience ‘Heartless Disease.’ It’s impossible for those places to have ‘New World’ powerhouses, or for people carrying corresponding items to pass by, right?
“In that case, ‘New World’ powerhouses would be too cheap, equivalent to a town head or village chief. A company wouldn't be embarrassed to call itself a major power without hundreds or thousands of them?”
“No, no, no, at most equivalent to a community center director.” Shang Jianyao corrected Jiang Baimian's analogy.
Then, he stroked his chin and said:
“There definitely aren’t many items with ‘New World’ nodes. We've only encountered a few after so long?
“A ‘New World’ node that hides itself is purely a guess. At least we haven’t encountered one yet, and we can’t imagine a reason for its existence.
“Could it be that ‘New World’ nodes are also considered intelligent creatures?”
“Why not? That’s discrimination!” The honest Shang Jianyao retorted himself.
At this moment, Genaver, who was driving, had completed an exhaustive search, or rather, a traversal, and said in a slightly synthetic voice:
“Either the ‘Heartless Disease’ brought by the return of a ‘New World’ powerhouse randomly occurs in different places, essentially being a type of fluctuation, or there are other ways to connect to the ‘New World,’ ways other than ‘people’ and ‘things.’”
The way to connect through “people” is a New World-level Awakened, and the way to connect through "things" is through "New World" nodes of all sizes.
“What is it?” Shang Jianyao asked eagerly.
“People” and “things” already encompass all possibilities, how could there be other ways? Long Yuehong muttered in his heart.
“I don’t know either.” Genaver moved his metal-cast neck left and right, “I just analyzed that the connotations and extensions of ‘people’ and ‘things’ combined don’t equal the entire set…”
His explanation made Long Yuehong dizzy.
“So that’s how it is.” Shang Jianyao slapped his right fist into his left palm, and said with an expression of "I completely understand."
Jiang Baimian nodded:
“We don’t have any clues for the time being, and we can’t find a direction for guessing. This isn’t urgent. We’ll talk about it later. It's not too early now, let’s go to Afu’s place and have him take us to pay respects to Aunt Nan.”
“Okay.” Bai Chen was the first to answer.
3:30 PM, a northern suburb of Wildgrass City.
A quiet cemetery is located here, guarded by a team of soldiers.
“Being buried here requires an extra fee every year, or taking two days a month to act as a guard.” Afu said casually to the "Old Task Force" as he walked towards a corner of the cemetery.
Winter had passed, and many trees in the cemetery had sprouted new buds and grown green leaves.
Before long, Jiang Baimian stopped in front of a grave, on which a roughly polished stone tablet was engraved with the four characters "Tomb of Ren Nan."
“No photo.” Shang Jianyao tilted his head to look at Afu.
Afu sighed:
“My sister hasn’t taken a photo in a long time.”
He pointed to his neck, meaning that since escaping to Wildgrass City after shaking off her slave status, Aunt Nan hadn’t taken a photo.
One reason was that she didn’t want to waste money, since life wasn’t easy for anyone. The second reason was a psychological resistance.
As for the earlier ones, they had long been lost in the disaster.
Bai Chen didn’t say anything. She put down the carrying case, took out the boxes of dishes inside.
Then, she stood up and silently bowed three times.
Upon seeing this, Shang Jianyao put his palms together and sighed:
“All living beings suffer.”
Jiang Baimian suddenly turned her head and glanced at him, gradually revealing a thoughtful expression.
Soon, she restrained her expression and bowed three times towards Aunt Nan’s tombstone.
After completing the ceremony and distributing some of the boxed dishes to Afu, the "Old Task Force" walked out of the cemetery.
“Oh right.” Afu remembered something, quickened his pace, and caught up, “I asked about Teacher An’s current residence and told her that you guys were here, hoping you'd like to visit her.”
“Yeah, where is it?” Jiang Baimian nodded.
Afu reported an address, took the distributed dishes, and walked alone to the car belonging to the gun shop.
After returning to the jeep, Jiang Baimian supported herself on the car door of the passenger seat with one hand and suddenly said:
“I thought of a way to connect to the ‘New World’ that is different from ‘people’ and ‘things.’
“Yeah, this is still just a guess, and there isn’t any evidence yet.”
“What way?” Shang Jianyao, who was driving, and Long Yuehong, who was in the back, asked in unison.
Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment:
“It can be considered a way that has both ‘people’ and ‘things.’
“Let’s first clarify a premise:
“Are the Celestial Worthies in the ‘New World’?”
“That’s for sure.” Long Yuehong answered with unusual certainty.
Shang Jianyao immediately looked terrified:
“It’s over, the Celestial Worthies are all walking on the graylands, like Little Chong.”
“But regardless, the vast majority of Celestial Worthies should be in the ‘New World.’” Bai Chen helped Long Yuehong fill the loophole in his statement just now.
Jiang Baimian didn’t pay attention to this small dispute and said to herself:
“Then, is humanity’s faith in the Celestial Worthies a way to connect to the ‘New World’?
“The Old World has been destroyed for almost seventy years. One thing I can’t understand is, in a situation where there is war everywhere and transportation is inconvenient, why are the rumors of the thirteen Celestial Worthies so uniform? Most people on the graylands have some understanding of them. Even in the most remote, hidden, and smallest settlements, there are some people who know about the existence of certain Celestial Worthies and treat them with a somewhat believing attitude.”
Long Yuehong originally wanted to say, "There is no such situation within the company. Everyone is unaware of the existence of the Celestial Worthies," but after careful consideration, he realized that this was completely untenable:
Not to mention the Security Department's dispatched employees' knowledge of some of the Celestial Worthies, not to mention the 'Life Ritual' and other cults that had been secretly developing for a long time, not to mention that the members of the Board of Directors and the 'New World' powerhouses all believed in the Celestial Worthies. Just the fact that the Big Boss was equal to 'Siming' could make Pangu Biology no different from other settlements in terms of faith.
“This method has a certain possibility.” Genaver gave the result of his analysis.
Shang Jianyao suddenly understood:
“Are the Celestial Worthies' believers another kind of domesticated livestock?
“Wherever they are, there are invisible ‘New World’ nodes, causing the spread of ‘Heartless Disease’?”
Hearing such words, the jeep fell silent.
After a few seconds, Genaver responded:
“It’s indeed possible.
“Perhaps this is why some Celestial Worthies, despite not liking it, allow others to develop believers.
“To maintain a large number of invisible nodes that are connected to the graylands?”
“If all these nodes disappear, what will happen?” Following this line of thought, Bai Chen raised a question.
Shang Jianyao showed a terrified expression again:
“The disappearance of those nodes means that the vast majority of humanity will completely die, and the remaining few may not be able to maintain the continuation of civilization.”
“I mean, what will happen to the Celestial Worthies?” Bai Chen hurriedly explained her true meaning.
In fact, everyone except Shang Jianyao could understand what she wanted to ask.
“I don’t know.” The honest Genaver moved his metal-cast neck left and right.
Jiang Baimian also shook her head:
“We aren’t even sure if faith is another way to connect to the ‘New World.’
“We have to investigate more cautiously later.”
She turned her head to look at Shang Jianyao and asked instead:
“Has the owner of ‘Room 506’ not dreamed yet?”
“No.” Shang Jianyao said with great interest, “I plan to see how many days she can last.”
…………
Tarnan, Youmeng Hotel.
The landlady, Ai Nuo, nodded her head, almost hitting the table.
She suddenly woke up and muttered with a haggard face:
“Hold on, hold on…”
…………
In the evening, South Street of Wildgrass City, the fifth floor of a building.
The "Old Task Force" arrived at An Ruxiang's rented place and knocked on the door.
They waited for a while before the door opened inward.
An Ruxiang was wearing a woman's dark jacket, the base of her neck faintly revealing a cyan-black tattoo, and her face was still expressionless.
“I thought you wouldn’t come until tomorrow.” She stepped aside and said calmly.
Her place was quite nice, half a bedroom and half a living room, with a kitchen attached. Only the bathroom was shared, and needed to go to the end of the hallway.
“Wait a moment, I’ll make a few more dishes.” An Ruxiang pointed to the kitchen.
“We brought our own dishes. We just need to heat them up.” Shang Jianyao pointed to his tactical backpack.
Then, he walked familiarly towards the kitchen:
“I’ll do it. Little Red, help out. You guys chat.”
“It’s decided so happily!” Jiang Baimian responded before An Ruxiang could be polite.
Thus, Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao went to the kitchen to get busy. Jiang Baimian, An Ruxiang, and Bai Chen each pulled up a chair and sat down.
“Why did you suddenly want to see me?” An Ruxiang asked.
Jiang Baimian looked around and noticed that a neatly folded blue and white checkered handkerchief and a folded piece of paper were placed on the bedside table in the depths of the room, and several children's textbooks from the Old World were on the coffee table in the living room.
She withdrew her gaze and smiled with a slightly complicated expression:
“This should be the last time we come out on a mission, so we wanted to meet with old friends. Hehe, I don't know if there will be any chance in the future.”
“Get married, have children, and live a stable life?” An Ruxiang nodded gently.
“Yes.” Jiang Baimian pointed at Bai Chen, and then at Long Yuehong at the edge of the kitchen. “Those two are already married.”
An Ruxiang paused for a moment and said with slightly lowered eyelids:
“That’s good.”
“It’s good. The things of the past will slowly be let go.” Jiang Baimian changed the subject, “You said before that you were an assassin, so you should have been to many places and met many people, right?”
An Ruxiang was quite frank about this:
“Yes, I can be considered to have some experience.
“What do you want to ask?”