42: Chapter 42 Fully Armed, the Formation Comparable to a Battlefield

Early the next morning.

The carved iron gates of Guanhu Residence slid open, and a black business van pulled up outside.

The license plate had very few digits.

Qian Li stood by the car, still in his crisp grey Zhongshan suit, a smile on his face.

Jiang Feng walked out of the villa, yawning, with Old Chen following behind him.

Old Chen had a military-green tactical backpack on his shoulders, with the handle of a folding entrenching shovel sticking out of the side mesh pocket.

He carried a 32-inch hard-shell suitcase in each hand, the cases stretched to the point of deformation; with every step he took, the floor tiles beneath his feet emitted a dull thud.

Jiang Feng was empty-handed, wearing sportswear and sunglasses.

He just hoped he wouldn't be taken away halfway to be sliced up for research.

Qian Li's gaze swept over Old Chen's equipment, pausing for a moment on the entrenching shovel, and the smile on his face faded slightly.

He stepped forward to meet them: "Mr. Jiang, our security measures over there are very comprehensive; there is no need to bring so many things."

Jiang Feng took off his sunglasses and wiped them with a lens cloth.

He patted the suitcase next to Old Chen, and it made a "thud" sound.

"Consultant Qian, you are responsible for science, and we are responsible for metaphysics."

"In case we dig up anything unclean, your guns might not be useful, but my driver's entrenching shovel might just serve as a peach wood sword."

Jiang Feng put his sunglasses back on.

"Better safe than sorry."

Qian Li opened his mouth, rendered speechless by this twisted logic. An entrenching shovel used as a peach wood sword?

He had lived for over seventy years and had never heard such a thing before.

The car door opened to reveal a driver and a middle-aged man wearing glasses sitting inside.

Both of them heard Jiang Feng's words and were struggling to hold back their laughter, their shoulders shaking.

Qian Li shook his head.

"Mr. Jiang is right."

He turned to the side and made a gesture.

"Please get in."

Old Chen struggled to shove the two suitcases into the trunk, filling up the space. Jiang Feng sat in the back row, and Qian Li sat opposite him.

The car was very quiet.

The car started and drove off smoothly.

Jiang Feng began to pull things out of his canvas bag.

A deck of worn-edged tarot cards.

A brass compass.

And a few strings of copper coins tied together with red rope.

He laid the items out on the seat in front of him, then closed his eyes, fiddled with the copper coins with his fingers, and muttered something under his breath.

The man with glasses in the front row watched this scene through the rearview mirror, his face full of confusion.

Qian Li also felt his eyelids twitch as he watched, and couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Jiang, what is this?"

Jiang Feng opened his eyes and put the items back into his bag.

"Divining a hexagram before setting off."

He packed his things away.

"Very auspicious."

Qian Li: "..."

He decided not to speak again, respecting the habits of the "expert."

The car did not enter the city center but instead got onto a restricted private road that led directly to the VIP area of the airport.

"Mr. Jiang, let me introduce the situation to you first." Qian Li sat up straight and took a document out of his briefcase.

"That batch of bamboo slips is currently sealed in an underground military base in the Northwest Gobi, codenamed 【deep well】."

"The site is completely isolated, and all research personnel are working in protective suits."

Jiang Feng didn't speak, just listened.

"But as I said yesterday, protective suits cannot block the influence on the mental level." Qian Li sighed, pulled a photo from the document, and handed it over.

"This is a high-definition scan of the bamboo slip, which has been desensitized."

The photo had a matte texture and was non-reflective.

It showed a close-up of a piece of bamboo slip; the material was neither wood nor bone, and it was a dark, grayish-black color.

The symbols on it were not characters, but some twisted, coiling lines with a complex, irregular structure.

Just looking at the photo made one feel agitated and a little dizzy.

Jiang Feng took the photo.

He only took one look.

Hum—

A faint sound echoed deep in his brain.

The twisted symbols on the paper began to writhe in his field of vision, trying to burrow into his eyes.

A wave of decaying energy radiated from the photo.

【Lingxi Ear】 activated.

Jiang Feng blocked out the sounds inside the car and the intrusion of that energy, then closed his eyes.

This feeling was very similar to the signs before a system task began, but it was also different.

A system task is an instruction, but this thing brought chaos and malice.

He knew it wasn't task time now, so he couldn't calculate anything. What he needed to do was play his role well.

When Jiang Feng opened his eyes again, he had returned to normal.

He handed the photo back to Qian Li.

"This thing recognizes people."

"It doesn't like being peeped at in a photo."

The car suddenly fell silent.

Qian Li's hand, which was taking the photo, froze in mid-air.

The man with glasses in the front row turned around. He was Zhou Ming, the deputy team leader of the research group and an expert in cognitive psychology, who had been skeptical of Jiang Feng, this "metaphysics consultant," all along.

"Mr. Jiang, what do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it sounds like." Jiang Feng leaned back in his seat. "You use machines to scan it, to photograph it—in its eyes, that is a form of offense."

"It is alive."

"You think you are studying a dead object, but in reality, you are provoking a living one. Naturally, it will fight back."

Zhou Ming's breathing became somewhat unsteady: "Alive? Do you mean it is some kind of unknown organism?"

"I didn't say it was an organism." Jiang Feng corrected him. "I said it is alive. You could say a knife that hurts people is alive. You could also say a rock that crushes someone to death is alive. This is a property, not a species."

Jiang Feng used a bit of twisted logic to wrap Zhou Ming up in it.

After hearing this, Zhou Ming began to ponder the definition and extension of life.

Qian Li didn't care whether what Jiang Feng said was philosophy or metaphysics.

Recognizing people, not liking to be peeped at, being alive.

These few words provided a completely new explanation for the eerie phenomena they had encountered.

"I understand." Qian Li carefully put the photo back into the file folder and nodded at Jiang Feng. "Mr. Jiang, thank you for the reminder. This information is very important."

Jiang Feng waved his hand, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes to rest.

He felt confident; coming this time was the right choice.

That military base codenamed 【deep well】 would very likely trigger a system task.

The business van passed through several checkpoints and stopped beside the boarding stairs of a passenger plane.

The plane was entirely silver-white, with no airline logo on the fuselage.

Several ground crew members were waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

Old Chen got out of the car first, carrying the luggage, and under the guidance of the staff, took the luggage to the cargo hold.

Jiang Feng was the last to get out of the car.

He stretched, looked at the plane, and turned to ask Qian Li, who was beside him.

"Consultant Qian."

"Hmm?"

"Do you have Häagen-Dazs for the in-flight meal?"

Jiang Feng asked very earnestly.

"I get airsick, so I need to eat something sweet to settle it down."

Qian Li had prepared a belly full of words about safety regulations and confidentiality agreements, all of which were blocked by this single question.

He looked at Jiang Feng's face for a long while before squeezing out a sentence through his teeth.

"...I will have them arrange it if possible."