Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 377: ‘Exchanging Blows’

To Father Alex, it was indeed considered a ‘long time’ since he met Shang Jianyao because they had previously encountered each other outside Weed City’s Hunter’s Guild. Shang Jianyao had also exhorted him to rest more and improve his sleep quality.

Unexpectedly, after many twists and turns, the two of them actually became opponents and officially met.

At this moment, this problem was the least of Father Alex’s concerns. Instead, he was wondering how he was still intercepted by Zhang Qubing when he had clearly shaken off any stalkers and avoided the surveillance personnel above. He had even changed clothes.

This makes no sense! Could it be an Awakened ability that marks the target? Father Alex—who had dark eye circles—bent his back slightly and tensed up.

At the same time, he ‘blurted’ out, “How? How did you know that I would leave through this alley?”

Shang Jianyao—who was wearing sunglasses and holding his left hand tightly—smiled amidst the echoing song. “Mr. Father, have you forgotten that there’s a smart bot in our team? He can install additional modules and modify himself to temporarily act as a small base station that covers what I wouldn’t consider a huge range. As long as we determine that you are in Alpha Building, we can install cameras in many key areas. They can directly connect to his base station wirelessly, allowing him to review the surveillance footage and find your escape route in a timely manner.

“You should know that robots have far greater computational ability than us carbon-based humans. It won’t take long for them to examine the footage frame by frame. Before you entered this apartment, we were already rushing over. After realizing that you weren’t coming out any time soon, we decided to split the work and guard an exit each. “Therefore, you were unlucky to meet me, not that we chanced upon you.”

Father Alex’s expression changed slightly when he heard that. He felt like a combat style had exceeded his understanding, habits, and experience.

Shang Jianyao then smiled. “Times have changed, Mr. Father. Technology changes lives. The only flaw is that it requires a lot of money.”

Upon seeing the less exhausted Father remain silent, Shang Jianyao continued, “It might not be a good thing to be too careful. You are overly careful, so much so that you missed the best opportunity to escape. Therefore, you have to remember this lesson in the future—if you still have a future...”

Shang Jianyao paused before explaining what he meant. “You shouldn’t have found an opportunity to change and disguise yourself. If you entered the Red Wolf Zone from this alley in one go and turned into another street, we wouldn’t have been able to catch up. Back then, we were still a long distance away from this apartment. This alley was already at the edge of the surveillance cameras, at the limits of Old Ge’s temporary base station. Once you walked out of here, we would lose track of you. Unfortunately, you were too careful and wasted your most precious escape opportunity on changing clothes.”

Upon hearing this, Father Alex suddenly looked up at Shang Jianyao’s sunglasses. As a non-purebred Ashlandic, he had deep black eyes and a Red River name.

At this moment, tiny vortices surfaced in his pitch-black eyes that resembled the dark night. It was as though they could suck away the souls of those looking at him.

Almost at the same time, he strode forward as if he wanted to step past Shang Jianyao.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao seemed to have become a mud puppet as he stood there motionless.

“You are my servant.” Father Alex’s voice was deep and magnetic. It also had a strange, penetrating feeling as if it could pierce into the target’s soul.

Upon seeing that he was about to cross the obstacle, Father Alex’s spread arms suddenly stiffened. They felt like they had lost all coordination.

He—whose gait was already slightly unsteady—immediately staggered.

Shang Jianyao—who was standing blankly—had already turned his body, grabbed his shoulder, and slammed him into his knee.

With a gasp, Father Alex’s mouth opened, and his body bent like a shrimp.

Shang Jianyao then took off his sunglasses and showed the inner side of the pieces of paper to the real Father.

“Are you surprised?” he asked with a smile.

Father Alex’s pupils dilated as he couldn’t believe that he had made such a mistake. I didn’t even discover that I hadn’t established real eye contact! I actually began taking action without even confirming the preconditions of Hypnosis!

“Ah, right. I forgot to tell you that I made you believe that it’s not a good thing to be careful from the very beginning.” Shang Jianyao had an exaggerated expression.

The part about being too careful might not be a good thing was used as an inferential guide for Inference Clowning!

At this moment, everything in front of Shang Jianyao suddenly turned illusory. Something that looked like a reflection on the water surface shattered as a stone smashed into it.

He returned to the moment when he ‘reunited’ with the real Father.

What had just happened was a show that Father Alex had started—an improved version of Dream Journey!

Everything seemed to return to the past, but Father Alex had grasped the various responses Shang Jianyao would make.

No, there was still something different.

The sunglasses-wearing Shang Jianyao revealed a confused expression as if he couldn’t remember why he had come to this alley and who the human consciousness in front of him represented.

Upon seeing this, the corners of Father Alex’s mouth curled up slightly. His right hand—which had been hanging down—touched the glass bead ring on his left pinky.

This ring solidified Shepherd Bouillon’s Memory Tampering ability. This ability was only effective at a range of ten meters without the need to make eye contact.

This was actually a duplicate of Father Alex’s abilities, but he had still chosen such a ring when offered a reward. This was because it could allow him to secretly tamper with the other party’s memories while using Dream Journey.

The ring’s solidified memory tampering ability also covered a range five meters more than Alex’s.

In an Awakened battle, not to mention five meters, even one meter could lead to a watershed victory.

Therefore, even though wearing this ring added a certain abnormality to his self-awareness, Alex always carried it with him.

At such a critical moment, he didn’t use Dream Journey for the ability to preview and determine the subsequent fight but to use this opportunity to hide his true goal. He wanted to close the distance and secretly tamper with Shang Jianyao’s memories so that he would ‘release’ him!

While Shang Jianyao was in a befuddled state, Father Alex had already quickened his pace and rushed to the alley’s exit. He was now certain that he would be liberated from danger the moment he escaped this area.

Suddenly, he had a thought and pounced to the side.

Bang!

Stone chips splattered, and a bullet hole appeared at the spot he had been.

Someone fired from afar—this came from Jiang Baimian!

At the same time, the confused Shang Jianyao smiled. He said to Father, “When did you have the illusion that I wasn’t on guard? I’ve been quietly watching you tamper with my memories.”

As he spoke, he released his tightly clenched left fist, revealing the green night pearl in his palm.

Destiny Pearl—the Destiny Pearl from DiMarco!

Shang Jianyao had been using the night pearl’s power to monitor his memories and hide a portion of his key information!

The rolling Father’s eyes suddenly froze when he heard that.

Shang Jianyao continued smiling. “I stalled for time by cooperating with your performance so that my companions could rush over.”

He then stretched out his right hand and uttered his long-awaited line. “Mr. Father, are you going to fight me one-on-one or be ganked? A one-on-one involves you fighting each of us. A gank would involve us beating you up as a group.”

At this moment, the speaker in a safe area was still playing the song: “Hey, I really miss you...”