To avoid wasting time sleeping, I stayed in my fire elemental form at home over the past two days, using thousands of "fireflies" to search for clues about Ma Zao’s whereabouts throughout XianShui City.

Since there was no one else at home, entering my fire elemental form wouldn’t attract any attention. And once the "fireflies" dispersed across the city, they didn’t cause any significant commotion. While thousands of "fireflies" clustered together would undoubtedly be noticeable, once dispersed, even if spotted by passersby, the reaction would typically be something like, “Did I just see a glowing bug fly by?”

While busy, I also worked on optimizing the "fireflies."

Currently, the "fireflies" could follow preset commands, but they couldn’t automatically conduct a thorough search. They could execute simple instructions like “Follow the person ahead” or “Report to me if a certain face appears nearby,” but they couldn’t accomplish something as complex as “Locate a specific person in a sprawling urban area.” Manual operation was still required.

I wanted the "fireflies" to at least be able to remember the scenes they encountered. With a memory recall function, I could later review and identify any clues the "fireflies" might have missed. Developing in this direction seemed feasible—if they could remember preset instructions, there was no reason they couldn’t remember other things.

It’s a complicated feeling. Before meeting Ma Zao, I had never paid much attention to the "fireflies," which were essentially surveillance-type skills. Yet now, they’ve become the fastest-evolving aspect of my abilities.

When the mental strain from searching became too much, I would take short breaks, allowing myself to think about other things to regain mental flexibility.

The Misty Dreamscape…

There are still many unknowns about that dreamscape.

I originally had many questions I wanted to ask while in the Misty Dreamscape. For example, I wanted to ask Number 4 Xuanming about the giants and the apocalypse or ask Number 2 why she and Number 1 reacted so strangely to the name “Xuanming.” But before I could voice those questions, I was forcibly logged out of the dreamscape.

I had no idea when I’d next enter the Misty Dreamscape. If I couldn’t find Ma Zao within the given time limit, considering the repelling effect between me and supernatural entities, there might not be a next time at all.

It was midday, and just as I was preparing to resume my search for Ma Zao, one of the "fireflies" I had scattered in the outside world suddenly sent out an alert signal.

I immediately jolted upright, reflexively assuming that the "firefly" had found Ma Zao, but I quickly realized something was off.

No, this "firefly" wasn’t one of those I had sent out to search for Ma Zao.

This was the one I had left near Chang’an.

Due to lingering suspicions from the Fallen Demon Hunter incident, I hadn’t yet retrieved the "firefly" I’d placed near Chang’an even after we parted ways. I had planned to pick it up later. I was also concerned that leaving a fragment of my spirit near Chang’an might bring him bad luck, so I’d subtly asked Ma Zao about it before she left.

According to Ma Zao, simply being near someone wasn’t enough to trigger the “calamity-bringer effect.” At the very least, some level of interaction was required. That was why, despite constantly worrying about whether she might negatively affect me, Ma Zao never worried about the neighbors upstairs or downstairs, nor about strangers she brushed past on the street.

Just to be cautious, I hadn’t so much as glanced in Chang’an’s direction recently. On the one hand, I didn’t want to waver in my resolve to part ways with him; on the other, I was even afraid that my gaze might somehow pass misfortune onto him.

But now, I couldn’t afford to worry about those details. The "firefly" I left near Chang’an had been programmed with a specific instruction: “Send an alert immediately if Chang’an appears to be in life-threatening danger.”

Through the "firefly," I saw the scene unfolding around Chang’an—

It was a spacious indoor area, dimly lit, with dust floating in the air. It appeared to be an empty, large warehouse.

Chang’an was in the center of the warehouse, sitting on a wooden chair. It was clear he hadn’t willingly sat there. He was tightly bound, secured to the chair like a criminal enduring a brutal interrogation.

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I could drop the "like" from that description because, at this very moment, Chang’an was being interrogated through violence.

Two men in black suits stood around him. One was repeatedly beating the defenseless Chang’an, while the other stood behind him, gripping the chair to hold it steady.

Chang’an’s face was already bruised and swollen, and he was crying out in pain. The men, unfazed, continued their relentless assault. One of them kicked him over, chair and all, sending him crashing to the ground. If this kept up, it was entirely possible they’d beat him to death.

It looked like this had been going on for some time. Why had the "firefly" only now sent me an alert?

Even as this question surfaced in my mind, a fierce anger surged through me.

I didn’t know how far away they were from me or in which direction, but that didn’t matter. Where my gaze falls, so does my fire. The moment I formed the intent to attack those two men in black suits, they were ignited by my “gaze.”

Flames erupted directly on their bodies. Not only that, the entire warehouse was consumed by the inferno ignited by my overwhelming intent, transforming the interior into a boiling sea of fire.

I quickly closed my eyes. In my mind, there were now two scenes. One was my home, and the other was the warehouse where Chang’an was being held. Since I was physically at home, my consciousness was focused there. But, like shifting the weight from one foot to the other, I shifted my conscious focus to the warehouse.

Then, I opened my eyes again.

The surroundings were no longer my living room but the blazing inferno of the warehouse.

Chang’an was sprawled on the ground, back to me, writhing desperately like an injured worm, terrified of being engulfed by the raging flames. Bound to the chair as he was, he couldn’t even stand, let alone escape the inferno. Of course, my flames wouldn’t harm someone I considered an ally—Chang’an was perfectly safe from them.

I walked toward him, and amidst the crackling of the fire, it seemed he heard my approaching footsteps. Panicked and disheveled, he turned his head to look.

And then, he saw my face.

“Ah—A-A… A Cheng?!” His eyes widened in disbelief. “You… you, you…”

“It’s me,” I said, my emotions mixed.

I had thought we wouldn’t meet again, yet here we were, reunited under such circumstances.

Moreover, this was the first time I’d revealed my superpowered form in front of Chang’an. I cared a lot about how he would perceive me.

In the past, I had been cautious, worrying about this or that, always avoiding exposing my abilities to others. But now, those concerns felt far away. I had already used my powers in front of Zhu Shi and revealed the truth to Ma Zao. There was no reason to hide them from Chang’an. Besides, I had lied to him the last time we met, claiming I was cursed by the basement in Room 1503 to explain my distance. Now, revealing my powers could set the record straight and put his mind at ease.

Chang’an stared at me, dumbfounded, for several seconds before finally blurting out, “You… turned into a ghost?!”

“...” I almost choked on his unexpected reaction.

Fair enough—I was currently in my fire-elemental form, looking very much like a spectral figure made entirely of flames.

“I’m not dead yet,” I replied, shifting out of my fire-elemental form as I spoke.

He had a look of complete shock, as if his worldview had just been shattered. From his perspective, it wasn’t hard to understand—meeting a friend after several days apart, only to find them appearing in such a fantastical way. If it were me, I’d probably have a hard time processing the reality of what I was seeing too.

After about three or four seconds, he seemed to snap out of his daze, his face filled with fear as he glanced over my shoulder.

I immediately turned around.

But there was nothing in that direction. No enemies, no danger, no strange creatures. If I had to say something, it would only be two men in black suits, badly burned by my flames, lying unconscious on the ground. Was there anything else?

Chang’an’s voice trembled as he asked, “A Cheng, you... killed them...?”

“Killed them?”

It took me a second or two to realize what he was afraid of.

While those men had been the ones attacking him just moments ago, seeing them burned and in such a pitiful state seemed to have stirred some sympathy in Chang’an. This wasn’t some kind of “savior complex,” but rather just a natural human reaction—a feeling of empathy for others in suffering.

However, he misunderstood. I hadn’t intended to kill them. I still wanted to question them about who they were, where they came from, and why they had been beating Chang’an. While I had genuinely wanted to burn them alive in that moment, my anger was understandable—they had dared to harm my friend, and I almost wished to turn them to ash right then and there... Wait a minute, I wasn’t unintentionally letting that kind of emotion fuel the flames, was I?

And besides, they had been lying motionless on the ground for a while now, without any signs of life. Could they have actually been killed by the flames?

I quickly approached to check, kicking one of the men in the black suit who was lying motionless on the ground. He didn’t respond, like a lifeless corpse, and there was no blood or bodily fluid leaking from him. It seemed like even his wounds had been burned shut by the flames.

Using my sense of residual heat from the flames, I also confirmed they had stopped breathing and their hearts weren’t beating anymore.

Had they really died?

Something didn’t feel right. The sensation of burning them earlier felt strangely familiar…

“They... are dead?” Chang’an asked, his voice trembling with fear and confusion.

“There’s no choice. We’ll burn them to ash and dump them in the nearby grass,” I quickly decided. “But more importantly, Chang’an, who are they? Why did they come after you?”

As I spoke, I dissipated the fire that had engulfed the warehouse.

Through the heat the fire had radiated to the surroundings, I sensed the geography of the area. It seemed to be in a remote suburban area, and the warehouse itself looked abandoned. The commotion just now probably wouldn’t draw immediate attention.

I was fine, but I couldn’t let Chang’an get caught up in a murder case.

Chang’an stared blankly at me. “A Cheng, what are you saying…?”