Long Yuehong jolted, his senses heightened. With the aid of the "Black Marsh Iron Serpent" biomimetic smart armor, he leaped out of the pit, handing the dog tag to Jiang Baimian:

"Team Leader, look!"

His unusual behavior drew glances from Bai Chen and Shang Jianyao, but mindful of the presence of outsiders and the uncertain safety of the area, they remained at their posts, monitoring the surroundings.

Jiang Baimian took the dog tag and examined it closely, her eyebrows twitching slightly.

The name Du Shaochong was familiar to the "Old Task Force." They had encountered him in the "Zhuang Sheng" dream, where Shang Jianyao had completed the "role-playing." This was the identity assumed by "Zhuang Sheng" when he descended into the world!

Now, before the "Old Task Force" was a fragmented skeleton, belonging to Du Shaochong, the earthly vessel of "Zhuang Sheng?"

Yet, the entire affair felt inexplicably strange:

Someone had hired three relic hunters, given them a portion of Du Shaochong's remains and the identification tag, instructing them, based on a map, to enter the Swamp No. 1 Ruins and bury everything at the edge of the secret laboratory…

This seemed like an attempt to mislead future excavators, making the burial site a false one, the corpse potentially fake, and the dog tag similarly suspect.

Thoughts swirling, Jiang Baimian lowered her right hand, concealing the dog tag in the starlight-obscured darkness.

Without betraying her thoughts, she asked the three relic hunters:

"What else did your employer give you?"

"Nothing else." "Nothing more." "Just the bones and the tag." The three answered in succession.

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"It's getting late, and this place isn't very safe. You should leave as soon as possible."

Shang Jianyao understood the unspoken message and immediately told the three relic hunters:

"Don't mention us when you get back. Pretend this never happened.

"Think of it this way: you successfully completed your mission, burying the remains and the dog tag at the edge of these ruins, and taking photos to prove it. Then you left, encountering no one along the way, and nothing unexpected happened."

"Understood." The three relic hunters each offered knowing smiles.

They shouldered their backpacks, held their entrenching tools, waved goodbye to the "Old Task Force," and headed towards another direction within the Swamp No. 1 Ruins.

After leaving the laboratory ruins, the tallest of the three shook his head abruptly.

He said with a touch of confusion:

"I feel like something's missing."

"No way." "Everything's normal." His two companions replied.

They all stated that everything went smoothly. They successfully buried the bones and the tag in the designated location, completed the mission, and nothing went wrong.

"I guess I'm just being paranoid." The tallest relic hunter sighed in relief.

After they had gone, Long Yuehong, having regained his composure, curiously asked Shang Jianyao:

"Is that like hypnotizing them to forget what just happened?"

"Not forgetting, just ignoring, and finding a reason to deceive themselves." Shang Jianyao explained earnestly, "'Deleting memories' is physically removing the content, 'hypnotic' forgetting is hiding the corresponding memory, burying it where it won't be easily noticed, and forgetting under 'mind guidance' is probably like reassigning the pointer, making the keywords that can evoke the memory point to something else."

The more he spoke, the more difficult it became to understand, showing his expertise.

Fortunately, Long Yuehong had studied this area and could understand.

"Team Leader, what was wrong with that thing?" Bai Chen was more concerned about the item Long Yuehong had picked up from the pit.

Jiang Baimian raised her right hand, showing the dog tag to Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen:

"See for yourselves."

Shang Jianyao glanced at it and suddenly wailed:

"Little Chong, you died so tragically!"

*Little Chong, don't you dare curse me…* Jiang Baimian sometimes felt that Shang Jianyao was really gullible.

Of course, that depended on which personality was in control of his body.

"Little Chong's bones aren't that big," she said, choosing the most obvious reason to placate him.

"Right!" Shang Jianyao slapped his right fist into his left palm.

Long Yuehong couldn't help but grumble inwardly:

*Little Chong, with his mysterious origins, possibly involved with "Zhuang Sheng," whether he even has normal remains is another matter…*

Bai Chen looked at the incomplete skeleton on the ground and pursed her lips:

"Why would someone bury these bones here, and want later people to believe they belonged to Du Shaochong?"

Shang Jianyao "recovered" his emotions and excitedly said:

"I get it!"

*You get it again…* Jiang Baimian didn't interrupt his rambling thoughts.

Shang Jianyao explained with great enthusiasm:

"This is a ritual, a form of imprecatory magic.

"They buried Du Shaochong's bones, along with his dog tag, somewhere in the city where he attended junior high or even elementary school, using the corresponding principles to suppress his resentment and hatred.

"The bones are incomplete because the remaining ones are buried elsewhere, in places with similar significance."

*He's saying it like it's real…* If Long Yuehong hadn't seen a lot of Old World entertainment material, he might have been convinced by Shang Jianyao.

"Then who killed Du Shaochong, or rather, made him have such soaring resentment and hatred?" Jiang Baimian followed Shang Jianyao's line of reasoning and asked with a smile.

Shang Jianyao shook his head:

"I don't know, that remains to be investigated."

Bai Chen was silent for a moment, then slowly said:

"We can't be sure that these bones really belong to Du Shaochong. Maybe even the dog tag is fake, forged later."

"And there's no way to test the DNA either. There's no matching sample, and we can't find Du Shaochong's descendants for the time being." Jiang Baimian sighed. "In my perception, there's no power in these bones either."

She considered it for a moment and said:

"I'm more inclined to believe that these bones and the dog tag were buried here to mislead future excavators, for example, people like us who are seeking the truth about the Old World's destruction."

"If we believe that this is Du Shaochong, believe that he died in this laboratory, what would happen?" Based on Jiang Baimian's suspicions, Long Yuehong boldly hypothesized and asked the question.

"At most, we'd think that 'Zhuang Sheng' is already dead, but isn't it normal for his earthly vessel to die after He returns to the 'New World'?" Bai Chen tried to analyze.

Jiang Baimian gazed at the pile of bones for a while:

"I don't have any clues for the time being. Let's put the bones and the dog tag away and study them later."

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao was very eager.

They wrapped the bones separately, put them in their backpacks, and searched the laboratory ruins for a while, but found no other clues.

Seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Baimian ordered them to return.

As soon as the "Old Task Force" returned to the room in the building in the same residential area as before, Shang Jianyao suddenly spoke:

"Quick, quick, give me all the bones!"

His eyes were shining, as if he had thought of something interesting.

"What do you want to do?" Jiang Baimian asked suspiciously.

Shang Jianyao answered triumphantly:

"I plan to piece these bones together, then hug the corpse, wear the dog tag, and enter my 'Sea of Origin' to see if Little Chong's crack reacts.

"If it does, it means that this corpse does have some connection with him!"

"Aren't you worried that it's really Little Chong's corpse?" Jiang Baimian asked carefully.

Shang Jianyao chuckled:

"I've figured it out."

*Everyone has to die sometime?* Long Yuehong finished the sentence in his mind.

Shang Jianyao continued:

"Even if it's Little Chong's corpse, it doesn't matter. The existence of that crack proves that Little Chong is still alive and nothing major has happened.

"Think about it, don't the mechanical monks also have corresponding corpses?"

Long Yuehong wanted to say, "Can this be called nothing major," but after hearing the last sentence, he realized that it seemed to be true.

The existence of mechanical monks proved that humans could already initially break free from the limitations of the flesh.

"Then let's try it." Jiang Baimian had no other choice anyway.

Shang Jianyao happily pieced the bones together, and then they discovered that the skeleton was missing a head and half of its body.

Without hesitation, Shang Jianyao put on the dog tag, lay down next to the skeleton, and hugged it to his side.

He then pinched both sides of his temples and quickly fell asleep.

Inside the "Sea of Origin," Shang Jianyao's figure emerged.

He simultaneously materialized the dog tag and the skeleton, and with two of himself as wings, flew into the air, flying towards the deep crack that represented Little Chong.

However, nothing changed there.

Since the fusion of the Holm Fertility Center's aura, Little Chong's crack seemed to have solidified.

"Sigh…" Shang Jianyao sighed and tentatively threw a bone into the crack.

The bone was a non-substantial item he had materialized, and as soon as it left his "Sea of Origin," it disappeared immediately, without causing the slightest ripple.

After many unsuccessful attempts, Shang Jianyao said to himself with regret:

"It's not Little Chong's?"

He then left his "Sea of Origin" and returned to the real world.

…

Somewhere on the ice plains, inside a valley, the grass was just beginning to grow, the soil was fertile, and the temperature was like that of the south.

Elder Luoden of the Year-End City lay down on his bed and entered the "Corridor of the Mind."

He was an Awakened who had explored deep within and was currently searching for the door to the "New World."

He had already visited all the rooms that Year-End City originally controlled, and none of them felt familiar, so he could only try to open unfamiliar rooms that he had never been in before.

After walking for a long time along the corridor with its thick, dark yellow carpet, Luoden finally saw a new room:

"131"