Right now, I was genuinely terrified of Z—of that inexplicable so-called “flame user.”

  I had never encountered anything like him. Setting someone ablaze just by looking at them was already outrageously unfair, but summoning flames directly inside their body? What kind of absurd ability was that? And ignoring both my physical slashes and soul strikes completely—what the hell was going on? I never wanted to face him again.

  My flesh was partially charred now, still radiating scorching heat that drove me to the edge of madness. Mentally, I had become a frightened bird startled by the slightest sound, jumping at every tiny noise.

  The instant that nearby mana fluctuation appeared, my soul nearly left my body in fright. But when I focused, it wasn’t Z.

  It was a man whose head was missing half, body grotesquely twisted, drenched in blood, wearing an orange construction-site jacket. He stood some distance away, his form semi-transparent—I could faintly see the scenery behind him through his body. His face was blank and vacant, eyes devoid of any rational light. Like an animal drawn by the scent of blood and flesh, he slowly approached me.

  This was a ghost… no, more accurately, a malevolent spirit.

  So this must be the rumored evil spirit haunting the abandoned construction site. It had probably been lured by the scent of the soul-attracting talisman on me. Although I had already put the talisman away, I hadn’t resealed the envelope properly. For a mindless, instinct-driven spirit like this, coming after me was only natural.

  Last time I had almost convinced myself it didn’t exist from the beginning. Why hadn’t it shown up when Z and I were here together earlier?

  Never mind that now. Better to deal with this nuisance first.

  I advanced while raising my blade. It seemed startled by me and froze in place, a look of terror surfacing on its face. What use was fear at this point? It had only itself to blame for stupidly coming closer.

  Just as I was about to finish it off, its lips moved. It muttered to itself in panicked, deranged whispers: “It’s coming… it’s coming…”

  My steps halted. A bad feeling crept over me. “…What’s coming? Speak clearly—what’s coming?”

  Just as certain lowly insects and beasts, driven purely by instinct, can sometimes sense impending changes in weather—or even foretell earthquakes, tsunamis, or storms—weak, instinct-bound evil spirits like this one were, paradoxically, far more sensitive in spiritual matters than many demon hunters.

  Right now it was trembling violently, clutching its head, crouching on the ground. Despair colored its blood-smeared face.

  “He… he’s coming…” it rasped in utter dread. “He’s already looking this way… He’s watching here! He sees! Aaaahhh!!!”

  The moment the words left its mouth, the scene before my eyes changed abruptly.

  Flames erupted from every direction at once, instantly turning the entire floor into an inferno.

  Caught in the overwhelming sea of fire, I hurriedly wrapped myself in shadow power to shield my body. But even that level of shadow was obliterated in an instant by the surging heat. The distant evil spirit evaporated on the spot like a droplet of water thrown into boiling oil.

  At the center of the blazing sea, vast amounts of flame converged and condensed, finally forming a gigantic flaming eyeball hovering in midair—like the eye of a god.

  Yet despite annihilating my protective shadows and the evil spirit, the flames did not harm me.

  Terror had completely seized my mind. The massive flaming eye slowly rotated in the air, then fixed directly on me.

  I spun around and bolted, simultaneously commanding the nearby shadows to open another transfer. But the moment I lifted my leg, the shadow prosthetics forming my legs exploded without warning, sending me crashing to the ground. The shadows rushing toward me from ahead were scorched along the floor and vanished into nothing.

  The giant flaming eye contracted inward, reshaping into a humanoid figure made entirely of fire. That fiery silhouette then shifted again—becoming a person in ordinary clothes, feet touching the ground.

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  It was Z.

  “Didn’t expect you to come back here. Is there something in this place that made you return on purpose?” He looked around curiously, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he had just incinerated an evil spirit caught in the crossfire.

  All around us roared the grand spectacle of burning. I struggled to prop myself up, staring at him with an indescribable horror, unsure whether my parched voice could even reach him.

  “You… how… how did you know I was here?”

  And after witnessing how he had manifested amid the sea of flames, I finally understood the true principle behind his “immortality.”

  Elemental manipulators usually only had one standout strength. But when their mastery reached a level far beyond ordinary human understanding, the common sense of mere demon hunters could no longer restrain them.

  In the ancient world of demon hunters, there existed a legendary realm called “Divine Manifestation.”

  Throughout history, those who walked the path of cultivation mostly sought to merge themselves with the Dao and nature—what was called “union of heaven and man.” Those who wielded water spirit energy emulated water’s nature of benefiting all things without contention; those who wielded earth spirit energy emulated the earth’s virtue of bearing and nurturing everything. The ultimate end of such emulation was to become the object of emulation—or to merge completely with it.

  A cultivator who reached the legendary realm of “Divine Manifestation” could abandon their physical body, freely transform their soul, fuse with all things in nature, and, when necessary, manifest in the mortal world like a deity.

  That was no longer the domain of mortals—it was the realm of terrestrial immortals.

  I couldn’t believe Z was a terrestrial immortal, yet the way he so naturally turned himself into a natural element clearly bore some characteristics of that fabled realm.

  What he displayed was undoubtedly an art that only appeared in myths and legends. Even the Great Unpredictables who reigned supreme atop Mount Luo—like living gods who could single-handedly destroy an entire nation—might not be capable of the same feat.

  I didn’t expect my question to be answered, but Z actually replied.

  “Why? I think I already told you—I have a spiritual connection with the flames I release. So of course I can lock onto your position.”

  “But the flames on me had already gone out…”

  “Looks like I didn’t explain clearly enough.” For some reason, he answered every question patiently. “The flames I release, and the light and heat they produce, are essentially extensions of my spirit. Even if the flames are extinguished, the heat remains—that’s obviously not acceptable.”

  “What… no, that can’t be right!” I refused to accept it. “The shadow world is an alternate dimension separate from reality. Even a connection through heat should have been severed!”

  “You mean that place…” He nodded. “The connection did become unstable for a while, but it never fully broke. I just couldn’t see your surroundings clearly for a moment. Whether it’s reigniting the flames or moving into that shadow world of yours—both are possible.

  “I had already decided to come over myself, but you left first… No matter. You can just open the passage for me later.”

  This made no sense. The shadow world was clearly an alternate space just like the cavern beneath the fifteenth-floor room. If the latter could sever Z’s connection, there was no reason the former couldn’t.

  Was the cavern beneath the fifteenth floor really that special?

  Or perhaps…

  Suddenly, a far more logical possibility dawned on me.

  “So in other words… you lied?”

  “Lied?” Z blinked.

  Yes—he must have lied.

  No wonder he could so calmly tell Zhu Shi and me about his experience in the cavern below. He had always possessed the power to freely travel between different spaces through his flames—he was never afraid.

  I had seen it clearly just now: he could summon flames through the residual heat on my body and travel here through those flames. If his spiritual connection with fire was strong enough to pierce the barrier between the real world and alternate spaces, there was no way he could have been trapped underground, forced to search for a missing symbol in a ritual array just to escape.

  Thinking back, he shouldn’t have been able to open the cavern with that so-called “missing symbol from the ritual array” in the first place. I had tried the exact same method myself and failed. That proved the whole story was a lie from the start.

  After a moment of confusion, Z shook his head.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but this isn’t the place to talk. I still have a lot of questions for you. Let’s change locations first. Once I’ve asked everything I want to know, I’ll hand you over to Zhu Shi for handling.”

  “Is that so? Sorry to disappoint you… but that’s not happening!”

  I wasn’t going to sit and wait for death. Even if he wasn’t planning to kill me immediately, I had no intention of letting him decide my fate. I had to fight with everything I had.

  I was no longer the same person I had been twenty years ago. Now I had power—and with it, real courage.

  Courage without power was nothing but a fool’s self-satisfaction. True courage could only be born from power.

  With that thought, I directly activated my substitute-puppet ability against Z.

  Given the mana he had displayed, it was impossible for my ability to turn him into a puppet. But if I could stall him for even one second—no, even just a fraction of a blink—I could find an opening to escape.

  After that, I would do exactly as he said: wait in the shadow space until the heat dissipated. Then he would never be able to track me again. And even if he tried to follow me into the shadow world, without the relevant ability, he couldn’t survive there—let alone harm me.

  I was definitely getting out of here!

  No visible motion, no flash of light—simply the moment my will moved, my ability surged forth, silently eroding toward Z standing in front of me.

  But the instant my power touched his spirit—

  A sun brimming with annihilating fluctuations appeared inside my consciousness as well.