To avoid wasting ti sleeping, I had remained at ho in my Fire Elent form for the past two days, manipulating thousands of "Fireflies" to search for clues about Mazao’s whereabouts in Saltwater City.
Since there was no one else at ho, my transformation into the Fire Elent form did not attract any attention. Moreover, even though the "Fireflies" dispersed across the entire city, they did not cause any particular commotion. Although thousands of "Fireflies" gathered together were conspicuous, once dispersed, the most a passerby might think was, "Was that a glowing bug that just flew by?"
While busying myself, I also sought ways to further optimize the "Fireflies."
Although the current "Fireflies" could retain preset instructions, they still could not conduct an automated exhaustive search. They could perform simple automatic commands like "follow the person ahead," and they could "report to if a specific face appears nearby," but finding a specific person in the complicated urban areas was still impossible. I had to operate them manually, no matter what.
I wanted the "Fireflies" to at least rember the scenes they had encountered. With a mory recall function, I could at least revisit any clues the "Fireflies" might have missed. This direction of developnt seed feasible, as if they could rember my preset instructions, there was no reason they couldn’t rember anything else.
I have to admit, my feelings are complicated; before eting Mazao, I had never paid so much attention to the "Firefly" ability, which acts like a surveillance cara. Now, it is the ability evolving the fastest.
As I continued the search until my consciousness stiffened, I would occasionally relax to allow myself to think of other things and rejuvenate my cognitive flexibility.
The Mist Dream Realm...
There were still many unknowns about that dream.
Originally, I had many questions in the Mist Dream Realm. I wanted to ask Xuanming Number Four about the giants and the apocalypse, or ask Number Two why she and Number One reacted so strangely to the na "Xuanming"... But before I could ask, I was forcibly logged out of the dream.
I didn’t know when the next entrance to the Mist Dream Realm would be. If I couldn’t find Mazao within the limited ti, considering the mutual repulsion between and bizarre creatures, there might not be a next ti.
It was noon when I was thinking of searching for Mazao again, one of the "Fireflies" I had dispersed outside suddenly sent an alarm signal.
I imdiately jolted, reflexively thinking the "Firefly" had found Mazao, then realized sothing was off.
No, the "Firefly" that sent the signal wasn’t one of those I had dispatched to search for Mazao.
It was a "Firefly" I had left with Changan.
Due to the unresolved Fallen Demon Hunter incident, even though I had already parted ways with Changan, I hadn’t reclaid that "Firefly," planning to do it after so ti. Concerned about whether leaving my spiritual fragnts at Changan’s side might bring Calamity to him, I had indirectly inquired about it before Mazao left.
According to Mazao, just being close to other people does not trigger the Broom Star Physique; there needs to be a certain level of interaction. This was why Mazao, despite always worrying about how she might affect , never worried about the neighbors above or below her or the people brushing past her on the street.
Just to be safe, I hadn’t even looked in Changan’s direction lately. Partly not to affect the resolve of our separation, and partly because I worried that even my gaze could transmit the Calamity.
But now I couldn’t focus on those details. The preset instruction I had programd into the "Firefly" at Changan’s side was, "Alert imdiately if Changan might be in life-threatening danger."
Through the "Firefly," I saw the scene around Changan—
It was a spacious indoor area, dimly lit, surrounded by a lot of dust, seemingly an empty, large warehouse.
Changan was in the middle of the warehouse, sitting on a wooden chair. It did not look like he was sitting there voluntarily. He was tightly bound, fixed to the chair, looking like a prisoner undergoing brutal interrogation.
You could remove "looking like" because, at that mont, Changan was indeed being beaten.
Two n in black suits stood around him. One of them repeatedly assaulted the defenseless Changan, while the other held the chair steady from behind.
He had been beaten to a pulp, crying out in pain while the attacker, indifferent, continued relentlessly, even kicking him along with the chair to the ground. Continuing like this, he might actually be beaten to death.
It looked like he had been beaten for quite a while; why did the "Firefly" only send an alert now?
While doubting this detail, rage quickly rose within .
Although I didn’t know their current distance from , or in which specific direction they were, it didn’t matter. Whatever my gaze could reach, my fire could reach as well. The mont I harbored aggressive thoughts towards the two n in black suits, they ignited under my "gaze."
The fire imdiately burst into flas on their bodies, and not just that, the entire warehouse was also engulfed in a raging inferno due to my surplus attack intent, plunging into a boiling fire sea.
I quickly closed my eyes. Now, my mind held two scenes. One was my ho, and the other was the warehouse where Changan was. Since I was at ho, my consciousness also centered there. Like shifting weight from one foot to the other, I now shifted the focus of my consciousness to the warehouse.
Then, I opened my eyes again.
My surroundings were no longer the living room of my ho, but the warehouse engulfed in the Fire Sea.
Changan was sprawled on the ground, facing away from , thrashing around like a wounded earthworm, terrified of being engulfed by the Fire Sea. But, tied to a chair as he was, he couldn’t even stand, let alone escape from the Fire Sea. Naturally, my flas wouldn’t hurt our own people, and they certainly wouldn’t hurt Changan.
I walked towards him, and it seed as though he heard my footsteps amidst the roaring flas, looking over in a flustered and disheveled manner.
Then he saw my face.
"Ah, Ah... Ah Cheng!?" he gasped in astonishnt, "You, you, you..."
"It’s ." I felt conflicted.
I had thought we’d never et again, but unexpectedly, we t again under these circumstances.
Moreover, this was the first ti I revealed my use of superpowers in front of Changan. I cared a lot about what he thought of .
I used to be concerned about this and that, feeling that I shouldn’t reveal my superpowers in front of others. Now, I didn’t care so much. I had already used it in front of Zhu Shi and had been straightforward with Mazao, so there was no reason not to tell Changan. It was just right as I had lied to him last ti, saying I distanced myself from him due to a curse from the fifteenth-floor room’s cave, and revealing my superpowers now would ease his mind.
Changan stared blankly at for several seconds before he blurted out the rest of his sentence: "You... have you turned into a ghost!?"
I almost choked on his absurd reaction.
It’s true that I was in my Fire Elent form, looking quite similar to a fla-colored ghost.
"I’m not dead yet." I said, withdrawing from my Fire Elent form.
His face was filled with shock, as if his worldview had been greatly shaken. I could understand from his perspective; reuniting with a friend he hadn’t seen in days, only to appear in such a fantastical manner, was hard to digest.
After three or four seconds, he seed to snap back to reality, a look of fear washing over his face as he looked behind .
I imdiately turned around.
But there was nothing in that direction. No enemies, no dangers, no strange creatures. If anything, there were only two n in black suits, burned all over, unconscious on the ground. What else was there?
Changan asked with a trembling voice, "Ah Cheng, did you kill them...?"
"Kill them?"
It took a second or two to realize what he was frightened of.
Though they were the ones who had beaten him, seeing them burned so severely seed to still elicit sympathy from him. This wasn’t so kind of "saviour complex," but rather a natural human emotion of empathy.
He misunderstood, I hadn’t intended to burn those two n to death. After all, I wanted to ask them who they were, where they ca from, and why they beat Changan so brutally. Although I had really wanted to burn them alive at that mont, and I was truly furious, they dared to treat my friend like that, I wished I could turn them into charred ashes right there... Wait a minute, I hoped I hadn’t accidentally mixed so of that emotion into the flas.
And since they had been lying on the ground silent ever since, they couldn’t really be dead, could they?
I quickly walked up to check, trying to kick one of the n in black suits on the ground. He didn’t respond at all, like a corpse, with no blood or bodily fluids leaking out, probably because even the wounds had been cauterized by the flas.
Through the residual heat and fire as diums, I could tell that they had stopped breathing, and their hearts were no longer beating.
Dead for real?
Sothing didn’t feel quite right; the "feeling" when they burned was sowhat familiar...
"They... are they dead?" Changan voiced out, a blend of fear and confusion in his tone.
"No choice, just burn them to ashes and throw them out in the grass outside," I quickly decided. "More importantly, Changan, who exactly are they? Why were they after you?"
While speaking, I extinguished the surrounding Fire Sea.
And through the heat previously spread outside the warehouse by the Fire Sea, I also sensed the nearby terrain. It seed to be in a remote outskirts area, the warehouse itself appeared to be unused, and the noise from earlier shouldn’t imdiately attract any attention.
It didn’t matter to , but I couldn’t let Changan get involved in a murder case.
Changan just stared at blankly, "Ah Cheng, what are you talking about..."
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