novelraw Chapter 242: Forking Paths
Chapter 242: Forking Paths
Julian, Ethan, and William, whose injuries had improved, all remained silent, their gazes fixed on the young figure standing alone before the massive world map.
Lin Jie had maintained that posture for an hour.
His eyes tirelessly moved back and forth between the vast land on the far right of the map and the North American New World on the left.
Countless complex calculations regarding possibilities, risk assessments, and resource allocation continuously formed, clashed, and reorganized within his mind.
This was not a moral multiple-choice question about "who to save first."
This was a strategic decision concerning the entire team's future.
"This damn choice is even more torturous than memorizing the Xiao Si political exam questions back when I was preparing for grad school." A silent grumble flashed through his heart.
The East was the visible "past." There lay the shadow of Yan Xilou, the hope for curing William's injuries, and also a piece of unfinished personal business.
The West was the invisible "future." There lay the Brotherhood of Light's soon-to-be-completed "Aether Tower," a threat capable of fundamentally overturning the existing power system.
Choosing either one meant having to temporarily abandon the other.Just as everyone was about to suffocate from the wait, Lin Jie turned around.
No hesitation or struggle could be seen on his face.
"We go to North America."
"Lin Jie!" Julian instinctively stood up, his face showing confusion and poorly concealed disappointment. "But William's injuries... and Yan Xilou... are we just going to let him go like that?"
Ethan didn't speak, but his tightly clenched fist also indicated his stance.
Only William, the direct victim of the incident, showed no reaction. He believed Lin Jie had his own reasons for this choice.
Lin Jie's gaze swept over each companion's face.
He could feel their unwillingness, which was also the feeling in his own heart.
But Lin Jie knew that as the team's backbone, he had to make the most correct decision, not the most satisfying one.
"I want to go to the East immediately, find Yan Xilou, and then with this gun," he raised the [Serene Heart] in his hand, his voice cold as iron, "blow his head off more than anyone else."
"I also hope more than anyone else to immediately find a way to cure William, to make him stand up again."
"But," his tone shifted, becoming rational, "we cannot."
"Because the two wars we are currently facing are of completely different natures."
He walked to the map and pressed his finger heavily on the area of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
"The River Jiao, or Yan Xilou, is a localized, urgently needed tactical threat."
Then his finger slid across most of the globe, finally landing on the coordinate point of Long Island, New York.
"Whereas the Brotherhood of Light's Aether Tower represents a tsunami quietly gathering beneath our feet, intending to engulf the entire world."
"Once it is completed and activated, its global spiritual interference capability will fundamentally shake the foundation of our I.A.R.C. and even all mysticism-side organizations."
"Imagine, when Julian's [Withered Thorns] cannot activate, when William's [Church Holy Cannon] becomes a pile of scrap metal, when all our Grotesque Armaments turn into useless antiques because their spiritual frequencies are jammed..."
"What will we use to fight those enemies who have mastered electricity and science?"
"By then, forget about going to the Qing Dynasty to find an antidote;
I'm afraid we wouldn't even have the qualification to leave Africa before being erased from this world by the Brotherhood of Light's endless stream of 'scientific creations'!"
This realistic and cruel logical analysis extinguished the flames of vengeance in Julian and Ethan's hearts.
What Lin Jie saw was a grander and more dangerous future.
"One is a threat that has already occurred, targeting us as individuals."
"The other is a systemic threat that is about to arrive, targeting our entire system."
"We must resolve the systemic threat first." Lin Jie's voice was resolute and decisive. "Only by ensuring the very ground we stand on will not sink do we have the qualification and ability to deal with the dagger stabbed into us!"
The operations room fell into silence.
Struggle, yet reluctant acceptance, showed on Julian and Ethan's faces.
They knew Lin Jie was right, of course.
In the end, it was William, the "victim" most qualified to object, who broke the silence.
"I agree."
He only said these three words.
He looked at Lin Jie, his eyes revealing absolute and unconditional trust.
"Then," Lin Jie took a deep breath. The most difficult choice had been made;
next was how to turn this decision into efficient action.
"Since we cannot deal with threats from two directions simultaneously, then we will deal with them separately!"
He walked back to the map and drew two completely different shipping routes on it with a charcoal pencil.
"From now on, our team will temporarily split into two parts."
"Julian," his gaze turned to the erudite French scholar, "your knowledge and connections are far more valuable in the East than in North America. I need you to go there first."
"You can choose Hong Kong or Singapore as a transit point, using their complex geopolitical environments as cover."
"Your task is not to engage in any form of direct conflict with the Black Lotus Sect, but to investigate everything about them in depth!"
"Their history, organizational structure, power system, and all legends and weaknesses regarding that River Jiao."
"I need you to build the most complete and reliable intelligence database for our upcoming 'Eastern War.'"
"At the same time," Lin Jie's expression turned solemn, "find a theoretically feasible treatment plan for William."
Excitement and a sense of mission flashed in Julian's eyes.
"Leave it to me." He nodded heavily.
"William," Lin Jie's gaze turned to the old soldier still sitting in the chair, "you need to stay."
"Stay in Cairo. Here, there are the Royal Court's healers and the environment most suitable for your guided rehabilitation training."
"Your task is only one: survive."
"You are forbidden from participating in any form of combat until the 'river' inside your body is tamed."
William's lips moved. He seemed to want to argue, but after considering his physical condition, he finally nodded silently.
He understood he was currently the team's biggest burden;
stubbornly pushing himself would only harm everyone.
"And Ethan and I," Lin Jie's finger landed on the route crossing the Atlantic, "will form a two-person team and set off for the New World at the fastest speed."
"Our mission is to find the weakness of that Aether Tower and destroy it before it is completed!"
A massive plan involving splitting forces three ways and fighting on multiple fronts was rapidly finalized within this operations room.
Once the departing ships' courses for tomorrow were determined, this tactical meeting came to an end.
In the following time, a tense and efficient undercurrent operated at an unprecedented speed beneath the antique shop.
And the core of this undercurrent was precisely that heir of the Redgrave family.
Counts of encrypted telegrams from London, Paris, Hong Kong, and even New York flew in, only to be processed, approved, and forwarded by Ethan with a cold efficiency.
His desk was piled high with complex nautical charts and shipping schedules, forged identity documents from different countries, and instructions for transferring enormous amounts of secret funds.
"Tell the captain of the Berg, the original route is canceled. Have them wait for my signal in the waters outside Alexandria. Remember, shut down all radio communications, maintain absolute silence."
"Send a telegram to our agent at 'Jardine Matheson' in Hong Kong. Mr. Julian Belloc, also known as Sir 'Archibald Croft,' will arrive in two weeks."
"I need them to prepare everything most befitting this 'French nobleman passionate about Eastern botany,' including but not limited to a mansion atop Victoria Peak, a permanent seat at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and any unofficial assistance he might require."
"Additionally, in the name of the Redgrave Family Trust Fund, inject the first installment of twenty thousand pounds into Sir Croft's secret account at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation."
What Ethan was doing was not merely simple arrangements.
He was using his family's wealth and power accumulated over centuries to weave the strongest and most reliable safety net for his companions about to embark on unknown perilous journeys.
On the eve of departure, within the Arabesque courtyard filled with date palms and oleanders on the surface level of the Cairo Second Branch.
The four sat around a stone table, the tension and seriousness of the daytime operations meeting gone.
The air was filled with apple-scented smoke from the hookah and a quiet peacefulness of impending travel.
They didn't say any grand words about "take care" or "good luck."
They simply chatted calmly about trivial, unimportant matters, like old friends who had known each other for years.
Lin Jie was enthusiastically explaining the Qing Dynasty's cumbersome bureaucratic system and social etiquette to Julian and Ethan.
Ethan was giving Julian a detailed introduction to the new "French nobleman" identity he had arranged for him at the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the "activity funds" that would allow him to live a lavish life there.
That night, no one mentioned the mission again, nor did they mention the enemy.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the date palm leaves, quietly spilling onto the faces of the four men, some young, some weathered, stretching their shadows long.
Lin Jie quietly watched this scene before him, listening to his companions' relaxed, mundane chatter, a feeling mixing warmth and sorrow welling up in his heart.
Once upon a time, he was that lonely "stranger" struggling for survival over a half piece of moldy bread in the hold of the Sea Witch.
Back then, Lin Jie had only one cold, humble thought in his heart: to survive.
Companions and bonds were distant and luxurious concepts to him.
He had been thrown by chance into this dark, surging sea of the inner world, with no choice but to keep sinking deeper.
Yet, at some unknown point, people like "lighthouses" had appeared by his side.
The next morning, when Cairo's first rays of dawn illuminated the outline of the Saladin Citadel.
Two unmarked private steamships belonging to the Redgrave family quietly set sail from two secret docks in Alexandria.
One sailed east through the Suez Canal, heading toward that ancient, mysterious, and unknown Eastern continent.
The other sailed west across the Mediterranean, heading toward that New World filled with electric light and burgeoning ambition.
The forked routes slowly unfolded behind them.
And when and where would the next reunion be?
No one knew the answer.