After some communication, the "Old Task Force" discovered that the group who had "visited" the Hill Monster tribe a few days ago was the same group suspected of being from the "Salvation Army" they had encountered before.
Moreover, they seemed to have used some kind of ability to make the Hill Monsters completely lose their vigilance and become filled with hospitable enthusiasm.
"There are also Awakened among the Hill Monsters, but their numbers are small. To be able to briefly control their entire tribe and leave the influence lingering until today, it must be an Awakened at the 'Mind Corridor' level or higher..." Jiang Baimian's mind raced, trying to find the truth hidden beneath the surface.
In her opinion, the group suspected of being from the "Salvation Army" might know more and therefore regarded clues useful to the "Old Task Force" as commonplace, leaving them in the Hill Monster tribe. Or, they might have relatively less information and not understand what seemingly ordinary words implied about earth-shattering secrets.
Both of these scenarios were quite possible, and the "Old Task Force" had to give them due attention to avoid missing clues of sufficient value.
Thinking of this, Jiang Baimian turned her head to look at Shang Jianyao, gave him a wink, and quietly made a gesture.
Her meaning was:
Go for it! Be bold and "make friends"!
The originally listless Shang Jianyao immediately perked up and raised the blue and white megaphone again:
"Everyone, have you noticed that something is a little off?
"Shouldn't you say thank you to me and invite us to be guests in your tribe?
"As the saying goes, rely on your parents at home, and rely on your friends when you're out. Making more friends will ensure that you can trade for enough food and cloth in the future..."
After some "guidance," the Hill Monsters in front and the Hill Monsters lurking on the cliff all agreed with Shang Jianyao's statement and decided that there was no time like the present, and they would start their warm hospitality today.
Their performance left the "Underground Ark's" smuggling team dumbfounded, one by one.
Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and said to the Ark people:
"You complete the transaction now and go straight back. You don't need to follow us."
She wasn't worried that the "Underground Ark" people would harbor hostility towards the Hill Monsters and, after learning the location of their settlement, find an opportunity to surround and attack them. After all, the kindness and deterrent power of the five honorary presidents hadn't waned too much. She was just afraid that the "Underground Ark" people, after learning the location of the Hill Monsters' lair, would accidentally reveal it to the residents of Redstone Collection in their daily interactions.
Those residents and the Hill Monster tribe had a blood feud.
"Yes, President Xue!" the head of the Ark guard in charge of the smuggling team immediately agreed.
They didn't want to climb mountains and wade through rivers to reach the Hill Monster settlement, which had no value to them.
At this moment, Long Yuehong raised a question:
"What about our car?"
The Hill Monsters' lair was likely located in a place without roads, which would help them make use of their talents and avoid most dangers.
"It's a pity, it can't turn into a robot and follow us," Shang Jianyao said with regret.
He greatly missed Tarnan's "Automan."
Jiang Baimian originally wanted Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to guard the car while she and Shang Jianyao went to the Hill Monster lair, allowing them to attack or retreat as needed. But after looking at Bai Chen and noticing that she wasn't too willing, she said to the "Underground Ark" smuggling team:
"You leave two people behind to help us watch the car."
After explaining the precautions, she, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong each carried a crate containing a military exoskeleton device, stuffed some high-performance batteries into their tactical backpacks, and followed behind the Hill Monsters, walking into a mountain path that gradually became rugged and impassable to vehicles.
——Bai Chen was responsible for the crate containing two bionic smart armors.
…………
The Hill Monsters lived on a cliff. In some places along the way, the terrain was so steep that not only could vehicles not pass, but even normal humans would find it difficult to cross. Yet, those blue-faced, fanged Hill Monsters carried boxes of different supplies as if walking on flat ground, striding quickly.
Fortunately, the "Old Task Force" members had all undergone genetic modification or alteration and were agile enough to keep up.
Upon reaching their destination, Jiang Baimian took one look and saw many Hill Monsters of various sizes, but she didn't see any particularly old people.
Most of them were simply wrapped in animal skins, while the children, thanks to the maintenance of the smuggling business, each had a suit of clothes that were not so well-tailored.
Seeing the adults carrying boxes back, these children watched eagerly, hoping that their father, uncle, mother, or aunt could pull a sour and sweet plum candy from their pockets, saying they had exchanged for some during the trade.
But today, their wishes seemed to be about to fall through.
Shang Jianyao picked up the blue and white megaphone, modified his previous words, and repeatedly persuaded the Hill Monsters in this cliffside camp.
This was just one of the Hill Monster tribe's settlements, with a total population of just over two hundred. Shang Jianyao only repeated himself three times before completing the task.
——When "persuading," the calm and rational him strictly divided the group, starting with those who might be Awakened and those who were older and more experienced, then moving on to those who were ordinary in all aspects, and finally targeting the ignorant children.
Seeing that all the Hill Monsters had become enthusiastic, Shang Jianyao propped up his eyelid with one hand to keep it from drooping, and reached into his pocket with the other, pulling out a large handful of colorful candies.
"How do you have so many candies?" Long Yuehong's eyes almost popped out.
He could tell at a glance that the candies in Shang Jianyao's hand came from within the company and needed to be exchanged for contribution points.
When he was still going on blind dates and showing off in front of his younger siblings, he was no stranger to these candies.
Shang Jianyao answered weakly:
"We have someone among us who never grows up, who likes to wear clothes from when he was a child and loves to eat candy."
As he spoke, he put on a smile and said to the Hill Monster children:
"Want to eat some?
"One for each person, but before you eat it, you have to say 'Thank you, Brother,' and after you finish eating, you have to learn a few dance moves from me."
Was this the Shang Jianyao who never grew up? Long Yuehong seemed to understand something.
The Hill Monster children, whose vigilance had been eliminated by "Thought Guidance," surrounded Shang Jianyao with the indulgent smiles of the adults, and cried out crisply, "Thank you, Brother."
Their tender childish voices were no different from those of normal human children.
Jiang Baimian watched quietly for a while, then called to Bai Chen and Long Yuehong, entered the cave in the cliff, and, with the help of the hosts, gathered the books, magazines, and newspapers they had collected.
"Are the situations you mentioned earlier only referring to your tribe, or do they include other Hill Monster tribes?" Jiang Baimian cautiously asked an extra question.
The Hill Monster representative scratched his head:
"We only have one tribe, but there are too many people. If we gather together, the safer places in the mountains won't be able to accommodate us, the clean water won't be enough, and it'll be easily polluted, so we have to live separately according to major surnames.
"Trading with you is not something that one of our major surnames can decide. We couldn't have gathered so many things ourselves."
Jiang Baimian felt relieved and smiled:
"Then please, when you hand over the supplies to the other major surnames, borrow all the books, magazines, and newspapers from their places."
"Okay," the Hill Monster representative said without feeling embarrassed. "They don't have much there either. Only our major surname likes to collect books and magazines. Let me tell you, before the Old World was destroyed, the most people from our major surname got into good schools!"
"What's your major surname?" Bai Chen interjected.
The Hill Monster representative answered with extraordinary pride:
"Our ancestors were the Li family of Shanyang."
Shanyang was north of the Iron City Ruins. Many people went abroad back then, and some settled in the city now known as Redstone Collection in the Angry Lake area.
Before Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen could respond, this Hill Monster representative emphasized again:
"We are the Li family of Shanyang, not monsters, not subhumans."
Long Yuehong suddenly felt strangely moved, turned his body, and cast his gaze outside the cave.
He saw a Hill Monster child put the candy into his mouth and not throw away the colorful candy wrapper, but crumple it up and put it in his pocket.
"It's worthless," Long Yuehong kindly reminded.
The Hill Monster child answered loudly but indistinctly:
"It, it's so pretty!"
Long Yuehong was speechless.
After Shang Jianyao finished dancing with the children, he found a place and lay down to sleep. Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen began to browse the written materials collected by the Hill Monsters.
To improve efficiency, they first looked at the table of contents or titles, and only picked out those that seemed to have problems to put aside for later, to be read carefully.
During this process, Bai Chen suddenly noticed a title:
《The Twenty-Three-Year-Old Genius Scientist Lin Sui》