Jiang Baimian looked at Long Yuehong, gazing into his eyes, and didn't answer immediately.
This made Long Yuehong a little uneasy, wondering if he had seemed too timid.
After several seconds, Jiang Baimian smiled:
"Actually, even if the 'Heartless Disease' hadn't broken out, I would have considered getting one or two more residences in other districts or on some of the more chaotic streets in the Green Olive District. A cunning rabbit has three burrows. We're doing secret work, so we have to make multiple preparations."
"Yes, indeed." Long Yuehong breathed a sigh of relief.
Jiang Baimian turned to Bai Chen and said:
"You can find the backup options we gave up on before."
"Okay." Bai Chen didn't think he was immune to the 'Heartless Disease' either.
-- At the company, everyone had no choice. If the 'Heartless Disease' really broke out, no matter how much they hid, they were still inside the underground building, which didn't make much of a difference.
Of the entire "Old Task Force," perhaps only Genaava, being an artificial intelligence, didn't have to worry about contracting the "Heartless Disease."
Shang Jianyao therefore raised a question:
"Do Zen masters get 'Heartless Disease'?"
The Zen masters he was referring to were mechanical monks.
Jiang Baimian couldn't answer.
"There are no relevant records. Only they themselves probably know." Genaava spoke with data.
Long Yuehong muttered:
"Sometimes, they're not much different from people with 'Heartless Disease'."
He would never forget the way Jingfa went crazy after hearing a female voice.
...
Taking advantage of having some money, the "Old Task Force" rented a room each in a relatively chaotic street in the Green Olive District and in the Red Giants District.
When renting the rooms, they didn't appear themselves, but instead just found someone on the street, gave them some money, and had them handle it.
After finishing this matter, they drove the gray off-road vehicle towards the southern city exit.
-- Yesterday, when Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian were observing the environment around the Zhao Family Manor, they drove the original jeep. Today, naturally, they had to change vehicles, to avoid suspicion.
On the way, Shang Jianyao, sitting in the back row on the right, raised his hand and pinched his temples, letting his consciousness enter the "Sea of Origins."
The fact that he hadn't discovered the fourth island of fear after so long made him seize every spare moment.
Inside the shimmering ocean, Shang Jianyao continued to swim towards the horizon that seemed forever out of reach.
He had tried covering his eyes, plugging his ears, and letting things take their course, and he had also practiced splitting himself into nine, each exploring a direction, but he still hadn't found any trace of an island.
Seeing that his spirit was getting a little tired, the nine Shang Jianyaos merged into one, sat cross-legged on the illusory "water waves," and entered thinking mode.
After a while, he muttered to himself:
"Could it be that I'm not afraid of anything anymore?
"No, I'm still afraid of losing my companions..."
As his thoughts raced, his voice echoed across the "Sea of Origins."
Suddenly, a small island rose not far away, with a faint golden light appearing in the center.
Shang Jianyao was immediately excited and made himself grow eight extra hands and sixteen legs, paddling towards the island.
Soon, he arrived at his destination, flipped over, and jumped onto it.
At the same time, he retracted his extra limbs.
A quick glance showed him that a golden elevator that seemed to lead to the depths of the earth stood in the center of the small island.
The elevator doors were tightly closed, and a figure sat cross-legged outside.
This figure was wearing gray camouflage clothing, his back straight, his eyebrows like swords, his brown eyes bright, his features handsome. It was Shang Jianyao himself!
Shang Jianyao looked at him and politely said:
"Good afternoon. You must be the final boss of the 'Sea of Origins'?"
That Shang Jianyao's lips curled into a slight smile, and he said calmly:
"You still have fears. You're still afraid of losing your companions.
"I'll teach you a way to effectively solve this problem."
"What is it?" Shang Jianyao asked curiously.
That Shang Jianyao replied with a smile:
"Kill them all, let them live in your memories, let the personalities that split off from you become them, so you'll never lose them again, and you'll never feel that intense pain again."
Just as Shang Jianyao was about to open his mouth, he suddenly felt the island shake, and waves appeared in the "Sea of Origins."
The entire world of consciousness quickly crumbled, and Shang Jianyao opened his eyes to find Genaava shaking him.
"We're here," Jiang Baimian said as she opened the car door.
Shang Jianyao instantly woke up and followed her out of the car.
After standing firm, he casually said:
"I found the fourth island."
"Huh?" Jiang Baimian almost didn't hear him clearly. "The fourth island? What's on it?"
As Long Yuehong and Bai Chen cast curious glances, Shang Jianyao simply said:
"There's another me on it, and an elevator."
"Another you." Jiang Baimian nodded at first, then realized, "Isn't that finding yourself? As long as you assimilate him, you can enter the 'Corridor of the Mind'!"
Shang Jianyao hummed in agreement:
"I can't assimilate him yet. I think he has a problem, and he thinks I have a problem too."
"What problem?" Long Yuehong blurted out.
Shang Jianyao glanced at him:
"He's merged with a certain fear."
"What fear?" Jiang Baimian asked keenly.
Shang Jianyao smiled:
"The fear of losing companions. He said that if there are no companions, there's no fear of losing them."
As he spoke, Shang Jianyao looked at Long Yuehong, his tone becoming somewhat sinister:
"He said to kill you all and make you into specimens, and the problem would be solved."
Damn... Long Yuehong shivered:
"That's too perverted, right?"
Shang Jianyao's smile suddenly became sunny:
"He said he learned it from you. You wanted to kill Qiao Chu and collect him as a specimen back then."
"Uh..." Long Yuehong was momentarily speechless, then, feeling Genaava's gaze, he defended himself, "That was under the influence of your 'Reasoning Clown'."
"Alright." Jiang Baimian pressed her palm down. "Let's discuss this matter at length. There's no need to rush."
She still valued her own life and the lives of her teammates and had no intention of committing suicide to fulfill that Shang Jianyao's desire.
The cause of the Old World's destruction and the pathogenesis of the "Heartless Disease" hadn't been clarified yet. How could she be willing to die?
After ending this topic, she couldn't help but sigh to Shang Jianyao:
"You found yourself after only passing three islands. I don't know how many awakened ones will be envious.
"Is this the benefit of having mental problems? Being fearless?"
Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and said:
"Could they also get a doctor's certificate?"
Is that the point? Jiang Baimian swallowed the words that were about to come out of her mouth and instead pointed to the woods next to them:
"This is today's monitoring point."
"But you can't see Zhao Family Manor from here..." Long Yuehong was a little puzzled.
He had just heard the team leader introduce that the road outside the woods was the main road leading to the front gate of the Zhao Family Manor.
Jiang Baimian explained with a smile:
"We've dealt with the 'Father' before, so we should know that he likes to hide in the shadows and monitor everything. If we monitor from the several spots with the best views around Zhao Family Manor, it would be easy for him to discover us. It's better to observe the people passing by here, and as soon as we see the ones with problems in Zhao Shourren's memory, we immediately take action, subdue them, and confirm the situation..."
As she spoke, Jiang Baimian suddenly fell silent.
Long Yuehong didn't know what was happening and was a little confused.
At this moment, Shang Jianyao smiled:
"The team of ruin hunters that did the monitoring before was very powerful."
That's right. With the "Father's" intelligence, ability, and style, he definitely wouldn't ignore the locations around Zhao Family Manor that were easy to monitor. Those people were able to discover the problem and confirm that there were strangers... Long Yuehong suddenly understood.
Jiang Baimian nodded with a slightly solemn expression:
"Remember the real 'Father's' performance in the assassination of Xu Liyan?"
Bai Chen replied in a deep voice:
"He released the fake 'Father' as bait, attracting everyone's attention and leading them into his trap."
"Could this be the same this time? Is Zhao Family Manor actually bait, a trap?" Jiang Baimian asked and answered herself, "This would explain some of the anomalies, such as them directly withholding all the tributes, allowing Zhao Zhengqi to discover the abnormality, and them not dealing with the monitoring points around the manor..."
She had previously thought that the "Anti-intellectualism Church's" control of Zhao Family Manor was a short-term behavior, so they didn't care if the Zhao family head noticed anything wrong, but this explanation was very weak because even a short-term behavior would be concerned about unexpected events occurring in the middle.
But now, combined with the real "Father's" style, everything made sense.
Hearing this, Genaava gave an analysis:
"So, should we leave here immediately?"
Jiang Baimian looked at him with a smile:
"No, no, no. As people who have been tricked, we should continue to stay here, collect clues, and see what we can get in the end."
"Deceive them in return?" Genaava was improving his analysis mechanism.
He had also listed Jiang Baimian's plan, but the weight was not as high as the one she finally said.
Shang Jianyao defended Jiang Baimian:
"How can you call it deception? It's strategic deception!"
"What's the difference?" Genaava was quite honest.
Jiang Baimian didn't give Shang Jianyao a chance to talk nonsense and instead said:
"If this is indeed a trap, who does the 'Anti-intellectualism Church' want to deal with?"
"It's definitely not us," Long Yuehong said, stating his thoughts.
When the "Old Task Force" left "Pangu Biology" and when they arrived at First City were full of random factors, while the Zhao Family Manor matter had clearly been going on for a long time.
Bai Chen looked back in the direction of First City:
"The Zhao family isn't qualified enough... Does the 'Anti-intellectualism Church' want to use them to wipe out certain forces in the city?"
"Maybe." Jiang Baimian simply replied and said to Shang Jianyao and the others, "Alright, hide the car, and each of you go to your designated positions to monitor the pedestrians on the road."
In fact, only Shang Jianyao was really responsible for identifying people, because only he had seen several of the targets in Zhao Shourren's memory, and Long Yuehong and the others couldn't recognize anyone from the portraits he had "created."
Soon, the five members of the "Old Task Force" hid in the woods, showing no signs of abnormality.