In the historical records of the "Firefly," it's quite likely that the entire Southern City was destroyed by the conflict between Xuanming and Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang, and this fast-food restaurant is clearly within the affected area.

Perhaps the last memories of the Eastern Coastal City that was destroyed days ago, with its millions of inhabitants mercilessly swallowed by disaster, were similar scenarios.

However, reality is very contradictory—the fast-food restaurant was not destroyed. Despite being in such a chaotic state, with blood everywhere, the structure itself remains intact, with no signs of damage from large-scale heat radiation. If there were, the bloodstains on the ground would have long evaporated.

Moreover, although this "Firefly" can be considered a part of me, it doesn't have much strength or density. If affected by the battle of Impermanence, it certainly couldn't survive. In fact, during the stage when it was struck by intense heat radiation, the "Firefly" could still persist based on its inherent flame attribute, but it instantly perished when the shockwave hit.

The historical records were once interrupted, then resumed, showing the fast-food restaurant somehow restored itself, while Xiaoqiao's body disappeared without a trace. The preset commands did not account for such a situation, so the "Firefly" could only remain in standby beneath the chair of this shabby fast-food restaurant until now.

So, is Xiaoqiao really dead?

I turned my head towards the window. Outside the window was the street, and the scenery was as messy and chaotic as inside the fast-food restaurant. Many vehicles were parked haphazardly on the road and sidewalks, with blood stains everywhere, and most public facilities like streetlights were violently destroyed.

And for some reason, the brightness of the street is very high. This can't be explained merely by being midday; it's akin to a fire scene, yet there are no visible flames, only dazzling light brilliantly illuminating the surface of everything. Meanwhile, the sound of fierce burning can be heard spreading massively from above, mixed with the dense mana fluctuations belonging to Xuanming.

I pushed open the door and exited the fast-food restaurant, looked up curiously at the sky, and witnessed a spectacle that would drop the jaws of most people with normal emotional functions.

——The sky is burning.

This is not a metaphor, but a fact. An inverted orange fire sea covered the sky, and gazing afar from the ground, the fire sea seemed to have burned to the end of the sky in all directions. If this scene is hard to comprehend, imagine a prelude to the largest storm you've ever remembered, where the sky is blanketed tightly by thick clouds. Now, all those clouds have been replaced by blazing orange flames.

Such a sight could never be observed in the past world of common knowledge; at most, described in the world of virtual art works.

It's unlikely for me to be shocked by this level of scenery; similar scales of fire sea, I can quickly deploy outside as well. The issue is that I wouldn't create such a spectacle without reason, so what is Xuanming's purpose?

It appears he is not currently fighting with the Taoyuan Village Master, as there are no sounds of battle transmitted. This seems understandable too, as even if the combat between two Impermanence drags on, it's hard to imagine it lasting uninterrupted for over twenty days. In the outside world, such prolonged battles could reduce all the countries to barren lands.

I attempted to harness my perception to scan the entirety of the Southern City but was unfortunately unable to do so. Currently, I am affected by the strong resistance within the barrier, and though perceiving matters within tens of meters is possible if exerted fully, exploring further becomes exceedingly challenging.

Visual and auditory senses are fine, yet with perception, distant scenes are like seeing blossoms in the fog, unable to judge anything. Observing from outside, the city enveloped by the barrier appears as if seen through frosted glass in the shower room, as blurred as if a mosaic filter were added.

Focusing all perception in a specific direction may allow sensing beyond a thousand meters, but compared to the scope of the entire city, it's still a drop in the bucket.

Additionally, only extremely limited flames and spirit can be transmitted here temporarily, hence my power here is exceedingly limited. It's comparable to Residence Level... no, perhaps even less, possibly Bad Level? The levels of achieved residence bad empty aren't used simply to describe mana size, and I'm just using them without concern. In essence, the magic power I can exert here might be even less than that of Agent Kong in the past.

Thanks to this, my body has shrunk considerably too, looking no different than a middle school student.

This is the same appearance as when I first invaded the Human Bureau's secret base... I didn't anticipate being forced into this shape again. My attire has automatically transformed into the school uniform I wore most frequently in middle school, seemingly my unconsciously defined "default skin" during my middle school years.

Speaking of which, Mazao seemed to like this form of me quite a bit. I'll find an opportunity to make her happy again next time.

Back to the main point, at least at this moment even if I encounter danger, it won't truly threaten my life. My Manifestation Undying Body is still intact, and more crucially, only a small portion of my spirit is here, so even complete destruction would only cause damage to my real life equivalent to its portion — at most, it would feel like losing a few drops of blood.

On the other hand, although the breadth of perception was quite strictly limited, the depth was not weakened, and my control and understanding of mana as an Impermanence are still intact.

Therefore, even though I can only mobilize such a little mana right now, it's enough to suppress an ordinary Impermanence at the Great Success Rank.

As time goes by, the flames and spirit I can infiltrate within the barrier will increase. However, I have a feeling that this improvement has a limit. At most, it will reach the achieved level, beyond that it's difficult to continue. If I had the power of an Impermanence here, it might be possible to overcome all the resistance from within at once, but because there is this gradual process, I'm stuck halfway.

According to my superficial analysis, this barrier should be specifically targeted at external invaders and does not impose much hindrance on those who have been inside from the beginning. This restriction may help to enhance effects in a specific direction. If I want to break through this barrier, I must find new breakthroughs in the coming time. Otherwise, even if I become invincible below the Impermanence level within this barrier, it's meaningless if I cannot defeat the most critical enemy.

Speaking of new breakthroughs, the first thing that comes to mind is that mysterious calling. My intuition tells me that the source of that calling holds the method to decipher this.

I attempted to listen to that calling again, but found that I could no longer capture it... No, it seems to still be there. I listened carefully—even though it had become almost like an illusion, weak, the mysterious calling and the connection contained within it still existed.

The source of the calling seemed to be on the other side of the city, but because it was quite far away, I could not discern it clearly in this environment. Even the specific direction was hard to determine. It seems that I have to move around the city to find it. Once close enough, I should be able to ascertain its location.

The good news is that I don't have to worry about my subsequent activities becoming like searching for a needle in a haystack. With the blessing of the Unfortunate power, I might not even need to go out of my way to search; if I just sit idly somewhere, the source of the calling might just come to me. But I am impatient in this regard; rather than waiting for it to slowly find its way to me, I'd prefer to seek it out myself.

Also, after in-depth observation, I found that the time and space around me seemed somewhat problematic—could this also be the result of the Impermanence battle? Although it's far from being as severe as in the "Doomsday Era," the time and space here are obviously not in a normal state. If healthy time and space are as solid and steady as the land, the time and space here are like the deck of a ship on water. At first, I couldn't taste the difference, but after a closer look, it always felt like something was shaking. An unstable foundation feeling.

My gaze shifted back to the ground.

Before continuing my analysis, perhaps I should first deal with the troubles at hand.

I turned around, looking towards the distant mouth of the alley. A terrifying monster slowly emerged from the shadows. With a grim and dreadful head like that of a Damascus sheep, blood-dripping fangs mixed with flesh remnants, a strong hairless body, and blood-soaked crimson skin. Walking on all fours, the proportions and posture of its limbs somewhat resembled the silverback gorillas seen on television before.

It initially seemed intent on sneaking up on me from behind like a feline predator, but after I discovered it, it remained unflustered and moved towards me with a composed demeanor, as if it had entirely regarded me as prey on a chopping board. At the same time, one by one, similar-looking monsters crawled out from the surrounding shadows—monsters whose appearance alone could easily remind one of monsters of terror apparently also possessed the same shadow movement ability as those monsters.

It was my first time seeing such a monster with my own eyes, but just a glance, and I saw through their origin and nature.

While most monsters are produced from the devoured flesh of humans, the formation of the first wave of monsters probably originated from humans forcibly injected with the seed of the heart. I could capture the unique reactions of the seed of the heart from within their bodies. I'm not sure if they were originally followers of the Taoyuan Village or ordinary people captured by Taoyuan Village; the seed of the heart was never something everyone could successfully inoculate. If they can't bear it, they would die. Currently, it's possible that some seeds of the heart were specially modified, turning the failure into a monster mode.

Since these monsters weren't completely destroyed in the battle between the two Impermanences, the group of human survivors within this city shouldn't have perished in the aftermath of that battle either. But it has been over twenty days already, and facing explosively reproducing monsters with superior detection and hunting abilities, I think it's more reasonable to assume that all of the normal population has perished.

The number of monsters increased to a dozen, and then no more appeared. There were fewer than I thought, but it didn't matter. I had no intention of showing mercy to these man-eating monsters. Along the way, I expect to encounter many more, and I'll destroy all those within my sight.

Like an invisible signal gun firing, all the monsters attacked me simultaneously. At the same time, I raised my right hand.

Three flaming spears fell from the sky, pinning the foremost three monsters to the ground. Seeing this, the remaining monsters stopped charging and looked in a certain direction. I also halted my movements and gazed upwards.

This attack did not come from me.

A strange figure appeared on a rooftop not far away.