The place I transferred to at this moment looks like a store selling hamburgers, fries, and other Western fast food, at least it used to be. But now, it presents a scene as if it has been baptized by a barrage of bullets. The tables and chairs were askew, the floors and walls were pitted, and the decorations were shattered… Blood puddles and stains were everywhere, and the air was filled with a rancid stench.

That said, there is not a single corpse to be found here, not even remnants like flesh or severed limbs. If it weren't for my ability to distinguish real from fake blood smells, I might suspect that this miserable scene is some kind of special set. Or did someone clean up and recycle the corpses and remnants that should have been scattered here?

I raised my right hand and stretched out my fingers. Subsequently, a "firefly" flew out deftly from under a broken, tilted chair in the corner. It was only in making this motion that I belatedly noticed my body had undergone some abnormal transformation.

I had actually become smaller, turning into the appearance of a middle school boy.

The "firefly" floated down onto my fingertips.

I thought about it, temporarily putting aside the matter of my appearance, and first shifted my attention to the "firefly" before me.

This is the same "firefly" that followed Xiaoqiao and accidentally entered the Southern City... It should be like this.

The problem is, I looked left and right, and no matter what, I couldn't find a single trace of Xiaoqiao. In theory, this "firefly" was given the command to "follow Xiaoqiao," so as long as Xiaoqiao was alive, no matter where she ran, it should follow her.

Even if we take a step back and assume Xiaoqiao is dead, the "firefly" should stick closely to where her body is located.

However, thinking it over carefully, this command appears to have some loopholes. For instance, what if Xiaoqiao was not only dead but also dismembered, which part should this "firefly" follow? If it is supposed to follow the head, then if the murderer also smashed the head, which part of the brain should it follow exactly? Even if it is not following the flesh, but the soul, there might be a situation where the soul is torn and divided.

Of course, the existence of this "firefly" is to emit an alert when Xiaoqiao is in danger, and if she has already ended up like that, then there naturally is no subsequent significance... I just didn't expect to be dragged into the post-mortem world midway. Now, with the situation being so special, there's no way for me to know her whereabouts.

Looking at the current situation, it seems likely that Xiaoqiao is in danger. But she is Zhu Shi's friend, and whether she is alive or dead, I need to find out. I think it's still worth putting in more effort.

Fortunately, this "firefly" also has a default function to record events happening around it and preserve them. I attempted to connect my consciousness to the "firefly" and investigate its historical records.

A large amount of information flooded into my mind. These were scenes and sounds recorded from the first-person perspective of this "firefly."

One second later, I grasped the general course of events.

First, just as I had previously speculated, this "firefly" left by Xiaoqiao was kept by her as an amulet.

At first, she did not notice the existence of this "firefly." It was Zhu Shi who discovered this "firefly" that I forgot to recover after the Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang incident and reminded Xiaoqiao of it. When Xiaoqiao learned that I was monitoring her with the "firefly" secretly, she was very surprised but not angry, as this was a kind of protective measure.

Afterward, Zhu Shi also did not retrieve it on my behalf, allowing this "firefly" to continue staying with Xiaoqiao. Maybe in the future, it could save her life in times of danger. Many people in Luo Mountain could recognize the background of the "firefly," and it might help her in the future.

And Xiaoqiao later indeed carried it with her, even treating it like a diary of sorts, recounting the trivial and mundane events of daily life to this "firefly." Most were about trivial family matters, skipping those murmuring fragments, the important part comes next.

About twenty days ago, she went to the Southern City to visit relatives, and coincidentally, before she even had the chance to meet them, the Southern City was locked down by a huge barrier, and the people inside could not make contact with the outside world in any form, let alone go out. The traffic order was in chaos, and the city was engulfed in great panic and turmoil.

Soon, tens of thousands of monsters appeared in the city.

According to the "firefly's" image records, these monsters are similar to monstrous humans, with heads as hideous and terrifying as adult Damascus sheep and strong bodies, yet they walk and run on four legs. Their speed and strength lag behind residence-level monsters, but they still possess mana and muscle power far beyond humans, with a size and speed not much different from cars, capable of breaking down walls with their flesh and blood.

They unhesitatingly attack humans and tear them apart and devour them—in further words, they are clearly aimed at hunting humans. Ordinary humans are as powerless against these monsters as small monkeys facing strong lions and tigers.

Even more horrifying is that these monsters reproduce at an alarming rate. After devouring a certain amount of human flesh, their bodies tear apart under cruel and terrifying changes, splitting from one monster into two. Then, the newly emerged two monsters would separately hunt humans, and soon there would be four, eight, sixteen...

These monsters possess an extremely keen sense, able to discover humans hiding inside locked buildings, then tear the buildings apart like cans and hunt humans with terrifying speed and strength. The city, already densely populated, becomes an inescapable trap once sealed by the barrier.

This city, besides its long-term residents of over twenty million, also had more than ten million transient population, totaling thirty million who all became the prey and breeding resources for the terrifying beast horde.

I have witnessed the destruction of the Eastern Coastal City before, so this is not my first time seeing the mass extinction of ordinary civilians. But seeing so many humans being brutally devoured alive from an ordinary person's perspective is a different kind of shock. Even for myself, Xiaoqiao, who experienced it firsthand, was pushed to the mental limit. She fled frantically, narrowly escaping the bloodthirsty maw of the monsters several times.

All of this, undoubtedly, is the doing of Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang.

The lockdown and destruction of the Southern City, unseen by the outside world, cause incalculable damage and chaos to the secular social order. Thus, the doomsday theories in the current society become rampant, with people trembling in despair at the manifestation of the abnormal world. If everything happening here were to be fully exposed, the already shaky order might completely collapse, and true chaos would descend.

Why he would do such a thing, due to the lack of clues, remains unanalyzed for now.

The barrier's existence prevents external forces from providing rescue to the inside. Although there should be quite a few demon hunters from Luo Mountain stationed here, and possibly some ordinary government armed forces, since this horrifying event was driven by an Impermanence-level assassin, those forces had no chance of making even the slightest splash from the start.

By sheer luck, Xiaoqiao managed to escape the initial massacre. However, it became increasingly difficult for her to survive. Occasionally, she would witness intense conflicts from afar—one group, resembling the Taoyuan Village Taoist she encountered last time, would transform into monstrous forms, likely acting on Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang's call, conducting mysterious activities as Taoyuan Village monks in the city.

The other group was unknown to her. She assumed that since these people opposed the Taoyuan Village monks, they could be people from Luo Mountain. She sought opportunities to contact them for shelter but never found a safe way to approach and engage them.

Although she couldn't sense the mana fluctuations herself, based on historical data preserved by "Firefly," it seemed the other group wasn't entirely Luo Mountain demon hunters.

Their mana fluctuations had a hint of Xuanming's scent, though far less potent. Most likely, they were a group of Xuanming believers I had previously heard about, who came to cleanse the overwhelming Taoyuan Village monks concentrated in the Southern City.

Besides, it seemed there were some local demon hunter forces struggling desperately. Unbeknownst to Xiaoqiao herself, "Firefly" frequently received mana fluctuation signals from all directions. But those signals were rapidly diminishing and weakening.

After what must have been a long time of running and hiding, Xiaoqiao could barely hold on. Right at this moment, the city underwent a new transformation. Analyzing the mana fluctuations indicated that Xuanming forcibly entered the barrier with his secret techniques.

As for how he did it, I suspect it might be the power of Divine Seal Fragments—despite he cannot use the Power of Divine Seal Fragments like a Void Envoy, he can still utilize it through technical means like Fa Zheng and Ying Lingyun using arrays. While he might not flexibly wield it in battles with other Impermanences, against the massive, immobile target of the Great Barrier surrounding the Southern City, he could unleash its full potential effortlessly.

From past raids capturing Fu Hongchen and Ming Zhuo, attacking the Luoshan Branch Base managed by Fu Feng, and intercepting Divine Seal remnants during the Void Realm's destruction, he owned at least eight fragments by my calculations. With so many Divine Seal Fragments, not only invading the barrier but forcibly crossing worlds to invade the Post-mortem World might be possible.

Then, an exceedingly intense conflict erupted between Xuanming and Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang.

Two Impermanences—especially both being elites among their level—when their conflict occurred here, the fate of this city was sealed.

At the time, Xiaoqiao was hiding inside a fast-food restaurant, only to witness bursts of light in the distance bright enough to blind human eyes. Before the shockwave could reach her, devastating heat radiation had already swept across, incinerating Xiaoqiao instantly.

Including this fast-food restaurant, countless streets burned and melted, leaving no escape for indoor survivors, and the roaming monsters outside met a uniform death.

Then the ensuing destructive storm engulfed everything, bringing the city's early doomsday...

Seeing this, I couldn't help but lift my head, looking at the scene surrounding me.