Chapter 1249: Ancestral Memories
"This is too absurd..." Officer Li frowned. "A woman floating in the sky, carrying something huge?"
"We've already killed Black Tortoise and Vermilion Bird..." Su Shan said gravely. "We should be used to this kind of thing by now..."
"No matter how insane those two things were, at least we could see them," Officer Li said. "This time it's even more ridiculous than before..."
"It's really troublesome." Su Shan quickly thought through tactics. "Right now, I'm the only one who can see her... Once she finds out, she'll definitely silence me first."
"Let's play it by ear," Officer Li said. "At least that 'Shengxiao' is buying us time."
Yan Zhichun was also adjusting her mindset internally. When she'd arrived earlier, she'd already spoken aloud. In theory, she could use "Heart-Snatcher" to control that person—but how could she control someone she couldn't see?
She tried raising her hand, but since she had no idea whether the other party had made the same move, she immediately began to doubt her own conviction. She felt that if this continued, she might start questioning whether her "Heart-Snatcher" was still active, risking a backlash of belief.
In the distance, the Black Sheep had just stood up when he immediately crossed his arms in front of himself, once again taking an extremely violent attack. Yan Zhichun didn't know if the Black Sheep was lucky or truly that sharp, able to detect the opponent's assault in an instant. But even if he could keep blocking, how were the rest of them supposed to win?
If she wasn't mistaken, most people in "Jidao" were probably like her right now—like snipers hiding in various positions. Once the enemy showed themselves, they could concentrate fire instantly and win the battle. But how would they make the enemy reveal themselves?
Yan Zhichun realized that the team's only flaw was laid bare here: she didn't know everyone's abilities, so she couldn't devise cooperative strategies like "Cat" would have.
Even though Su Shan had announced in front of her that "ripples" had appeared on everyone's bodies, most people didn't even know the name "Ripple." It was just mentioned in passing. Saying too much would only make the enemy suspicious.
She reached out and slowly touched her chin. If the White Sheep were here... if he didn't know everyone's abilities, how would he arrange tactics?
"He might say that as long as we start now... it's not too late," Yan Zhichun murmured.
With that, she cleared her thoughts. Even though she hadn't carefully studied each Jidao member's abilities before, she would start learning now. Stuck in place, worrying endlessly, would get them nowhere.
She turned to look at the Jidao member hiding beside her—an elderly man she'd almost never met before.
"Excuse me, what is your 'Echo'?" Yan Zhichun asked softly.
But the old man didn't seem to hear her. He was staring at the back of the "Ant" in front of him, an unusually complicated expression on his face.
He reached out his dirty hand and gently patted the "Ant's" shoulder.
The "Ant" whipped around as if electrocuted, startling the old man.
The half-human, half-monster creature stared back with hollow, bloodshot eyes, then slowly opened its mouth.
Yan Zhichun saw that its tongue had been cut off partway, and its teeth had been pulled out.
"You... can you hear me?" the old man whispered.
The "Ant" just tilted its head in confusion, then slowly reached out a hand to probe forward. Seeing that arm—thin as bone, skin pale as death—the old man instinctively took a step back.
Feeling nothing, the "Ant" hesitantly withdrew its hand and touched its own shoulder. There was a trace of lingering warmth. Though it felt puzzled, it couldn't see anything anyway. After a few seconds of blank staring, it turned back around and crouched down again.
"They can't see or hear..." the old man muttered. "But I feel..."
He touched his own head. His brain felt hot, and strange things began swirling in his mind.
"Old man, what's wrong?" Yan Zhichun said quietly. "Is there something wrong with these 'Ants'?"
"'Ants'...?" The old man turned back, meeting Yan Zhichun's gaze.
His face was deeply lined, each crease filled with black grime. The years had worn deep, and that grime seemed to have become part of the wrinkles themselves.
Almost the moment their eyes met, Yan Zhichun felt that this man was deeply unhinged. If he truly had an "Echo," he was probably a strong one.
"Little girl..." the old man rasped, "do you think... what did us humans evolve from?"
"Ah...?" Yan Zhichun furrowed her brow on the spot. She'd imagined countless possibilities, but never that this old man would ask such an absurd question at a time like this.
Did he really need to find the answer here, right now?
"Old man... if we actually survive this, I'll spend two hours explaining the entire content of 'The Origin of Species' to you. But right now, I really can't," Yan Zhichun said. "We might die here. Can I first ask what your 'Echo' is?"
"Aren't you curious, little girl?!" The old man seemed obsessed with the question. "These things... these things called 'Ants'... seeing so many of them gathered together—doesn't it suddenly make you recall strange images? That might be the memory of our human ancestors, carved into our DNA..."
"Okay... okay..." Yan Zhichun pressed both hands downward. "I'll try to understand what you're saying, but you need to keep your voice down."
The old man lowered his voice, but his tone was still agitated: "You see it too, don't you? Our ancestors held shovels like this, digging out strange bones, one shovel at a time... We all evolved from those bones!"
He kept gesturing with his hands in front of his chest, imitating a digging motion.
"Heavens..." Yan Zhichun touched her forehead, her expression extremely grave. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"They have no faces!" the old man hissed. "And these 'Ants' have no facial features! It's a magnificent process! These 'Ants' might be the things caught between us and the 'faceless people'!"
"Faceless... people?" Yan Zhichun paused. She felt she'd heard of this somewhere before.
The White Sheep had once told her, with great certainty, that he had spent years inside his inner world with a faceless person.
"I really saw them!" The old man grabbed Yan Zhichun's hands, his expression wildly excited. "A vast crowd of faceless people! Their bones are all underground! Little girl, you saw them too, right?"