Accompanied by that female voice, the "Holy Eye" believers present raised their hands and pressed their thumbs below their brow bones.
At the same time, they stretched their remaining fingers upwards, resting them on their foreheads.
"One, two, three, four..."
In the clear female voice, they followed the rhythm, rubbing solemnly.
"..." Long Yuehong watched with his mouth half-open, his expression gradually becoming strange.
If he remembered correctly, this should be the "eye exercises" performed daily in the elementary schools of "Pangu Biology".
At most, there were some differences in the details of the movements and the length of the names.
Finally, Long Yuehong reacted and looked at Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao.
Jiang Baimian pursed her lips tightly, the muscles in her cheeks and the ponytail behind her head trembling slightly. Shang Jianyao had closed his eyes at some point and was following along, his expression exceptionally solemn.
Just as Long Yuehong was about to have a quiet exchange with them, Jiang Baimian suddenly turned her head and looked at him.
The leader of the "Old Task Force" immediately raised her right hand and made a zipping motion over her mouth.
Long Yuehong understood and remained silent.
Bai Chen looked at them somewhat blankly, not understanding why they were reacting this way.
"Second section, squeezing and pressing Jingming acupoint...
"Third section, pressing and rubbing Sibai acupoint...
"Fourth section, rotating and scraping the eye sockets..."
In the serious and solemn atmosphere, the "Holy Eye's" Mass slowly came to an end.
Felin, who had been leading the exercises at the entrance of the RV, opened his eyes and said in a chanting tone:
"The eyes are sacred.
"Protecting your eyes is protecting your lives!"
The believers placed their two index fingers on their lower eyelids again and responded loudly:
"May your eyes be forever bright!"
Felin made the same gesture but did not use the same words. Instead, he praised the governing star "Double Sun":
"God is the sun and the moon!"
After completing this step, he announced loudly:
"Now, receive the Holy Communion."
With that, he jumped down from the RV entrance, making way.
Several believers entered and brought out orange plastic trays from the kitchen area.
On the trays were plates, each containing several pieces of steamed carrots.
Felin looked at Shang Jianyao and the others and explained in a preaching tone:
"This is the grace of the governing star.
"It can brighten your eyes."
"May your eyes be forever bright," Shang Jianyao replied sincerely but did not make the gesture.
Felin was quite generous, giving each guest a portion of the Holy Communion, along with chopsticks and a spoon.
Long Yuehong said thank you, reached out to take it, and ate it slowly.
Although the steamed carrots had no extra seasoning and tasted bland, to Long Yuehong, who was tired of energy bars, compressed biscuits, and military rations, it was still quite tasty.
After the Holy Communion, the Mass officially ended. Felin walked up to Shang Jianyao and the others and said with a smile:
"For those of us who often drive for long periods, eyes are really important.
"This is also the main reason I accepted the 'Holy Eye'.
"You see, I don't even have presbyopia yet."
"Indeed," Jiang Baimian very much understood why the "Rootless" were more willing to believe in the "Holy Eye".
This was caused by their living environment and customs.
Shang Jianyao then asked:
"Do you not have glasses?"
"I do," Felin felt this was a concern from a good brother and explained with a smile, "In many forces, the equipment and technology for grinding glasses are still preserved, but very few can understand your eye condition as clearly as in the Old World.
"Moreover, glasses are ultimately external objects. When we traverse the wilderness and other places, we may not encounter a human settlement for days or even weeks. Even if we do, they may not be able to make glasses for you.
"In such a process, if the glasses break, wouldn't that be the same as being blind? How can you drive then?
"Even if you prepare spare glasses in advance, you can't prevent your vision from deteriorating again. By then, they'll all be useless."
After stating the facts and explaining the reasoning, Felin asked with a smile:
"How is it? How do you feel about our 'Holy Eye'? Do you want to join?"
If my relatives and friends at "Pangu Biology" found out that I joined such a sect, I would definitely be laughed at for the rest of my life... Jiang Baimian muttered silently, not answering directly, but instead looking at Shang Jianyao.
Shang Jianyao said sincerely:
"I don't think we have any affinity with the 'Holy Eye'."
"What a pity..." Felin said with a look of regret.
He pointed in the direction of the "Old Task Force's" jeep and said:
"You guys go over there and wait for me. I'll change my clothes and come over to discuss the paint scheme."
"Okay," Jiang Baimian agreed immediately.
On the way back to the jeep area, Long Yuehong looked back and said thoughtfully to Shang Jianyao:
"The reason you rejected them is because you think their Holy Communion is not very tasty?"
"That might be the reason we don't have any affinity," Shang Jianyao answered frankly.
"Haha, I knew it," Long Yuehong was quite happy.
He also felt that the simple carrot Holy Communion was too simple and should not be able to attract Shang Jianyao.
Bai Chen had also integrated into the team and, seeing that the atmosphere was right, asked what he didn't understand:
"Why did you guys react so strongly to the 'Holy Eye's' Mass?"
Hearing this question, Jiang Baimian finally couldn't hold back and laughed quietly, laughing so hard that she almost couldn't walk.
After a while, she took a breath and said:
"I'm too familiar with their Mass.
"Every student in the company is very familiar with it!"
Seeing that Bai Chen was still a little confused, she used an analogy:
"Do you still remember the morning exercises in Shuiwei Town?
"This is a type of morning exercise in the company's primary and secondary schools.
"Haha, this is indeed left over from the Old World, but it has nothing to do with the governing star. As a result, they treat it as a Mass because it's related to the eyes. Haha, I can't take it anymore..."
Jiang Baimian laughed so hard that Long Yuehong couldn't help but laugh along.
Bai Chen roughly understood and, imagining the scene of the "Holy Eye" using Shuiwei Town's morning exercises as a Mass, couldn't help but have a faint smile on his face.
"What if the company's senior management were all members of the 'Holy Eye' and deliberately chose this as the eye exercises?" Shang Jianyao suddenly retorted.
"How is that possible..." Long Yuehong's voice gradually lowered as he spoke.
Just thinking about this possibility was terrifying and frightening.
Jiang Baimian glared at Shang Jianyao:
"Don't tell ghost stories!
"If that were really the case, we would have already been members of the 'Holy Eye'."
As they spoke, they returned to the jeep.
Jiang Baimian looked at their vehicle and gradually fell into thought.
"Team Leader, what are you thinking about?" Long Yuehong waited for a while and asked curiously.
Jiang Baimian pondered:
"I'm thinking about whether it's possible to infer the awakening ability characteristics of the governing star 'Double Sun's' domain from 'severe hair loss' and 'abnormal sexual preferences'.
"Du Heng said that there should be a vague mapping between the price and the ability."
Shang Jianyao immediately made a guess:
"Can it make enemies lose hair and become perverted?"
"...Such abilities should be classified as mental strikes," Long Yuehong imagined.
Jiang Baimian rolled her eyes at Shang Jianyao:
"I'm talking about finding common ground.
"However, we can't be sure that the second awakened person Felin mentioned is also a member of the 'Holy Eye'.
"If that's the case, I think their commonality is that they both involve hormones."
Bai Chen belonged to the type with relatively good basic education among the wilderness wanderers and roughly knew what hormones represented.
She deliberated:
"That's a big range."
"Indeed, but there's too little information at the moment. We can only speculate to this extent," Jiang Baimian said with an "um" and then added, "Also, since the focus of their doctrine is the eyes, the ability may also include the visual domain. Hehe, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an awakened person from the 'Holy Eye' who could achieve something close to invisibility."
She didn't say how to defend against similar awakened people if they encountered them.
While the four members of the "Old Task Force" were discussing, Felin had changed into the black leather jacket from yesterday and walked over.
He still had a holster hanging around his waist, with a "Python" revolver inside.
After greeting them and looking at the "Old Task Force's" jeep, he deliberated:
"How about painting it in a military green camouflage?
"For jeeps, this is more common and won't become the focus of attention."
"Okay," Jiang Baimian fully respected the opinions of the "professional".
Felin then asked:
"How are you planning to get yourselves to Weed City?
"We have a special trailer that can carry jeeps."
"No need for such trouble," Jiang Baimian told Shang Jianyao's blood brother her idea, "Send a small convoy pretending to do business in Weed City. We'll blend in. It would be even better if you happen to have such a plan."
Felin laughed heartily:
"What a coincidence!"
After laughing, he added an explanation:
"We happen to have a convoy going to Weed City to see if we can get some more food back."
"Your food reserves aren't enough?" Jiang Baimian guessed that wasn't the reason, but she asked it on purpose.
Felin sighed:
"The weather hasn't been good this year, and the grain harvest has decreased in many places.
"Reserving more may save lives or, perhaps, sell for a good price."
As he said the last half of the sentence, a smile gradually appeared on his face.
"Then we'll go with your convoy," Jiang Baimian didn't ask any more questions. "How many cans do we have to pay in total? Or, do you prefer compressed biscuits and energy bars?"
"Last night's wine and dinner... today's painting and tomorrow's convoy protection... a total of ten cans is enough. You can use compressed biscuits and energy bars to make up for the difference," Felin quickly quoted a number.
Jiang Baimian breathed a sigh of relief:
"Barely enough."
Felin's smile became relaxed:
"Then we'll set off tomorrow morning and definitely arrive before noon."
"So fast?" Although Jiang Baimian didn't plan to continue detouring, she also knew that there was still at least a day's journey ahead.
Felin smiled and said:
"Recently, Weed City repaired the broken bridge over the Turbid River, so we don't have to detour to other places."
The Turbid River was the name of the Green River after it flowed into the Monk Wasteland.
Jiang Baimian nodded:
"Okay, then it's settled."