Embers Ad Infinitum

A lake with no visible edge rippled in the wind on the left side of the vehicle, and buildings from the old world stood beside it.

Some of them have collapsed, some are extremely dilapidated, and some are covered with withered and yellow plants, and some of them are falling down from time to time.

"Is this the Hongshiji?" Long Yuehong, who was driving, asked in surprise.

They had left Wild Grass City and headed south for some time. Based on the approximate location provided by "Uncle Sun" Fei and Feilin, the leader of the "Rootless" team, and the routes pointed by several teams of ruin hunters along the way, they barely managed to find Nu Lake. area, locking a larger range.

Then, based on the traces left by human activities, they found the ruins of the city on the lakeside.

——With no satellite to provide positioning and no guide, they could only rely on this stupid method. After all, Bai Chen only knew and understood the Red Stone Collection and had never actually been there. Her previous area of ​​activity was limited to the area between "Pangaea Creatures", "Prime City" and "White Knights".

This is also the norm for most ruin hunters and wilderness wanderers. Although they may live in no fixed place and live in ruins, they are still limited to a certain area by intelligence, materials, connections, courage, and experience.

Bai Chen, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was also a little puzzled:

"This place seems to have been abandoned for a long time."

"The shit is still relatively fresh, which means there are a lot of people moving around here. Even if it's not the Hongshiji, you should know where the Hongshiji is." Shang Jianyao in the back row said with certainty.

He was confident in the traces he had found.

When setting off from Weedao City, in order to collect supplies in exchange for military exoskeleton devices, Jiang Baimian suggested selling the extra car to the "Rootless" caravan.

Because Shang Jianyao hugged the jeep and refused to let go, saying that we were already partners and would not give up until we had to, so the "old tune team" could only sell off the bulletproof off-road vehicle given by Xu Liyan.

In order to improve the survivability of the Jeep and enhance everyone's safety, Jiang Baimian used almost half of the materials in exchange, and asked Felin and the others to add bulletproof glass and thicker armor to the vehicle, and transform the electric engine.

——Of course they didn’t prepare the food and ammunition needed for the journey themselves. They directly reported it back to the company and got a large batch through Chen Xufeng.

Business must be done in public!

After hearing Shang Jianyao's words, Jiang Baimian raised his hand and touched his nose:

"Go into the ruins and look around to see what you can find."

After speaking, she glanced at the book in Shang Jianyao's hand:

"How do you see it?"

Before leaving, she took advantage of Shang Jianyao's "privilege" to borrow a batch of less popular disease-related books from the Wild Grass City Public Library.

"It's very rewarding." Shang Jianyao watched Long Yuehong drive the vehicle towards the ruins of the city.

"Oh?" Jiang Baimian expressed curiosity in his tone.

Shang Jianyao replied seriously:

"Studying medicine cannot save all mankind."

Jiang Baimian was a little confused for a moment:

"What's the meaning?"

"Effective organization, the spirit of exploration, the courage to experiment, scientific methods, and the inheritance of knowledge are the most important, and medicine is only one part of it." Shang Jianyao talked eloquently.

"So, have you found a new way to deal with the 'disease island'?" Jiang Baimian pointed to the point.

During this period, Shang Jianyao always discussed the "disease island" with her without hesitation, so she stopped helping him avoid Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.

Shang Jianyao replied seriously:

"No.

“We can only continue with our current ideas.”

"Yes, keep this spirit of fighting after defeat." Jiang Baimian encouraged.

Bai Chen looked at the ruins of the building with cracked cement and outstretched steel bars. He hesitated and gave his own suggestion:

"Actually, you can really have a minor illness and feel what the disease really looks like."

"I have also considered this plan." Although he has rejected Shang Jianyao's similar idea before, in fact, Jiang Baimian has not completely given up on this direction. "The main reason is that this guy is as strong as a cow and does not suffer from minor illnesses at all. , if you deliberately infect it, the severity can easily go out of control, hey, if it really doesn’t work, let’s wait until we get back to the company.”

Long Yuehong opened her mouth, intending to say something, but closed her mouth rationally.

The next second, Shang Jianyao spoke:

"You can let Long Yuehong catch a cold first and then infect me."

"What's the difference?" Jiang Baimian cursed, "Okay, look around."

At this time, the military green jeep that looked slightly old and shabby drove into the ruins of the city that extended far away from the lakeside.

Similar ruins in the old world always make people unable to see the end at a glance, and they are so big that they are beyond imagination.

This place is very similar to the ruins next to the "Rootless" camp. A large number of buildings have collapsed, the road has sunk, and nothing of value remains. It is desolate and unusually quiet.

"In the old world, this was such a lively place..." Long Yuehong thought of the scene after the "lights came on" at the Swamp No. 1 ruins.

And that is not enough to restore one-tenth of the urban scene of the old world.

"The decline of human civilization is sometimes faster and more complete than we imagined, and sometimes it is more tenacious and tenacious than anyone thought." Jiang Baimian looked out the window at the city that had been dead for who knows how many years, and sighed. One sentence.

Bai Chen made careful observations:

"These collapses and destruction are old, they are not recent."

She is not a professional and cannot judge the specific number of years.

"At least we rule out the possibility that the Hongshiji was destroyed recently. Well, the premise is that this is indeed the Hongshiji." Jiang Baimian looked at the lifeless gray concrete, the messy steel bars, and the weeds revealing the The shards of broken glass and rusty hollow window frames passed before my eyes one by one.

They walked around the ruins of this dead city for more than ten or twenty minutes, but they still found no trace of human settlement.

"It seems that we went to the wrong place. The red stone collection is somewhere else nearby." Long Yuehong, who was driving, expressed his judgment, "Such a large ruined city doesn't look like a market town. They should come here often. The search for items of value left those traces.”

After hearing his words, Shang Jianyao suddenly became energetic, as if he had determined that this was the Red Stone Collection.

"Hey!" Long Yuehong knew what this guy was thinking and couldn't help complaining.

Similarly, Jiang Baimian also grasped Shang Jianyao's "reasoning" process:

Long Yuehong has a bad life and bad luck, so the routes he chooses and the answers he gives often deviate from the correct ones.

In this case, when he said that this didn't look like a red stone collection, then it probably was a red stone collection!

Before Jiang Baimian had time to scold Shang Jianyao and protect Long Yuehong's self-esteem, his expression suddenly changed slightly, as if he was a little bit dumbfounded.

She coughed and pointed to a high-rise building on the side of the road that was extremely dilapidated although it had not completely collapsed and had obviously been shelled:

"There's someone inside."

"Yes!" Shang Jianyao echoed with a very positive attitude.

They also sensed the existence of human electrical signals and consciousness in that building, and the straight-line distance was no more than fifteen meters.

Long Yuehong's expression suddenly became a little complicated.

"Coincidence, coincidence." Jiang Baimian smiled and comforted, "Stop the car, Shang Jianyao and I will go in to find that person and ask for directions."

Shang Jianyao also comforted Long Yuehong:

“I’m even more convinced now of your importance to our group.

"You are our compass!"

What's the north arrow, isn't it a compass? Long Yuehong subconsciously raised a question.

In an instant, as a good friend of Shang Jianyao, he understood what this meant:

The compass is used to point in the right direction, and the north needle is used to eliminate wrong routes!

At this moment, he felt a bit itchy.

"You have to be careful about the day Xiaohong shoots you in the back." Jiang Baimian said to Shang Jianyao as he pushed the door and got out of the car.

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment, walked out of the driver's seat window, and said sincerely:

"You can tell me directly if you don't like me joking about this matter."

After speaking, he smiled and said:

"But the premise of my acceptance is that you beat me once during fighting practice."

"A primary school student-level provocation technique." Jiang Baimian walked by and commented.

Long Yuehong was silent for a few seconds, looked at Shang Jianyao and said:

"I will work hard."

Although he had been working hard to improve himself in previous fighting training, his long-term self-awareness made him accept "mediocre" and had no desire to win against anyone.

After watching Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian enter the roadside building, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong took their own weapons and got out of the car to monitor the surrounding area, including the roof of the building where snipers might be present.

After a while, when the two exchanged positions, Bai Chen suddenly whispered:

"Everyone has bad luck sometimes."

Long Yuehong was startled for a moment and smiled:

"Thanks."

In that building, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao quickly locked a room at the edge of the hall.

They immediately walked lightly, crossing the area with many gray and white stones and glass fragments, and arrived there.

After exchanging glances, Shang Jianyao walked half a circle in tacit agreement and guarded the other exit of the room.

When he was in position, Jiang Baimian shouted loudly in an area where the people inside could not shoot:

"Come out, we've found you."

There was silence in the room with the wooden door closed, as if nothing existed.

After more than ten seconds, the side door in front of Shang Jianyao opened silently.

A gray man in his twenties came out with his waist bent.

He suddenly stopped, raised his head, and saw a sunny smiling face:

"Got you!"

The "ice moss" in Shang Jianyao's hand was already pressed against the man's forehead.

The man immediately raised his hands and acted very tame:

"I lost."

Hearing this sentence, Shang Jianyao was a little surprised:

"Why do you say you lost?

"We're not competing."

The man whom he pointed a gun at his forehead answered calmly:

"This is the rule of our Red Stone Collection and the teachings of our sect."

"Sect?" Shang Jianyao's eyes suddenly lit up, "Is your teaching hide-and-seek or peek-a-boo?"

The man was stunned for several seconds before replying:

"No, I am always vigilant and always hiding."

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and asked:

"What's the difference between this and what I said?"