Chapter 221 Not Here 1

I hoped that Ma Zao could pinpoint the identity of the hostile Great Impermanence through the sharpshooter's head. At the same time, I didn't place all my hopes on her. The backup plan hidden within Lu Chan was the direction my efforts should focus on.

At the end of the battle at the old Humanitarian Division stronghold, my order for the other two demon hunters to take Lu Chan back wasn't just a casual remark; I also had the intention of tracking him down. Even if I hadn't said anything, Lu Chan would have been taken back anyway, and I had secretly implanted a thermal energy signal into Lu Chan's body.

I did consider doing the same to the other two Witchers, but they were both highly trained experts. I didn't have the skill to implant the thermal mark into their bodies without them noticing. Furthermore, the information restrictions within their consciousness weren't just preventing them from verbally revealing information related to the person behind it all; they couldn't even lead me by example. Knowing they were marked, they could only perform actions that went off-topic.

This information wasn't something I obtained during my interrogation; rather, I discerned it—or rather, I seem to possess an incredible "eye" now. This might be thanks to my awakening, or perhaps a deeper understanding of the metaphysical essence. I can intuitively determine how the informational restrictions on them might function in other situations.

I plan to see if the antagonistic, behind-the-scenes figure, Da Wuchang, will make contact with Lu Chan later, or if the "other supernatural accomplices" who later contact Lu Chan will reveal Da Wuchang's true identity during their interactions. Judging from Lu Youxun's past statements, Da Wuchang is ruthless towards those who disobey him, and might even punish Lu Chan for failing his mission.

Ma Zao had already extracted some information related to Lu Youxun from Shenqiang's head.

“He must be one of those people called ‘Night Patrolmen’,” she told me.

"Night patrols?" I asked.

“In Luoshan, the ‘patrolmen’ seem to be divided into ‘day patrolmen’ and ‘night patrolmen’,” she said. “The day patrolmen are ordinary patrolmen, which is also the identity they report to us; while the night patrolmen specialize in certain shady intelligence work and usually do not reveal their identities to the public.”

Since ancient times, intelligence workers have been inextricably linked to darkness. Since patrolling is a profession specifically for managing intelligence, it's natural that there would be a clandestine branch like night patrolling. However, I initially didn't expect Lu Youxun to be that kind of shadowy figure.

People of this type might be purged by their superiors if they fail a mission. Therefore, Lu Chan might be killed by his own people later. Of course, I must emphasize that I have no intention of protecting Lu Chan; I just want to use the thermal energy signals I secretly set up to trace the existence of the person behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, no similar traces have appeared yet. Lu Chan was then sent to a base in Luoshan and only woke up today. After waking up, he did not contact his fellow members of the Extraordinary Ones, but instead continued his recuperation.

The Lu Chan I see now is both familiar and unfamiliar. He remains as amiable and polite as ever, but spends most of his time reading and resting in his room. The reason he hasn't immediately contacted the Transcendentalist Mountain Head is perhaps because he has reverted to the "worldly Lu Chan." Also, perhaps because of this sudden shift from "Lu Youxun" back to "Lu Chan," his soul seems somewhat unstable and needs time to process and calm down.

Perhaps he has already regained control of the "Possibility Clone," but his soul state is not good enough to use it for the time being. Judging from Ma Zao's situation so far, if there is a problem with the soul, even the perception of magical power will be affected, so it is hard to say whether Lu Chan has sensed that my exclusive mark has been placed in his body.

I had no choice but to continue spying on his daily life.

In addition, I am also investigating another matter.

I took a trip to the Arctic when I had some free time.

Saying something like this out of the blue might startle someone, but it's really nothing to be alarmed about. The Arctic is indeed a very remote overseas region, aptly described as the "ends of the earth." For ordinary people, reaching that place would be incredibly arduous. However, that's a problem for ordinary people; for me, it's a different story. I just need to find a secluded spot and launch a fireball northwards.

The straight-line distance from my current city to the North Pole is only about 6,000 kilometers. A fireball launched at full speed would arrive in just a few minutes. Afterward, using that fireball as a coordinate to teleport myself to the North Pole would be a piece of cake. The question is, what should I do next?

All I know is that the Arctic is likely very important. Based on the information I gathered in the Silver Moon's "illusion," I must come here to obtain the complete Divine Seal. However, the Arctic is so vast that finding clues related to the Divine Seal in such a place is like finding a needle in a haystack. I wonder if bringing Mazao here will automatically bring the relevant clues to us.

So, what exactly does "obtaining the complete divine seal" mean? At first, I thought that "obtaining the complete divine seal" mentioned in the "illusion" referred to the last fragment of the divine seal in the Arctic, and that collecting all of them would restore the divine seal to its original state. However, considering the contradictory nature of the divine seal being both "intact and fragmented," it's possible that an intact divine seal is indeed buried in the Arctic.

The so-called "wish of the Lord of the Seal to accidentally divide the world in two" sounds intriguing. The world being divided in two likely refers to the separation of the "world of common sense" and the "world of the supernatural." In the past, I thought the Lord of the Seal had made a wish to separate the two, but now it seems that this separation was merely an unexpected byproduct, and the Lord of the Seal's true wish was something else entirely—provided that all the information obtained in the "illusion" was true and reliable.

There's another thing, something I only realized after actually going to the Arctic—this planet is really too small.

Traveling from this country to the Arctic would only take me a few minutes, and if I wanted to, I could simply set up tens of thousands of "firefly" coordinates around the world and, combined with my own speed of movement, reach any corner of the earth in a very short time.

I could even expand my territory to the moon. And I'm not afraid of extreme temperatures, nor am I afraid of vacuum and radiation. It wouldn't be impossible for me to send the coordinates of "Firefly" to Mercury and Mars... Of course, Mercury and Mars are so far apart that it would definitely take a long time to travel between stars.

What I mean is, if I'm determined to hunt down an enemy, I can catch up with and kill them even if they escape from Earth. And if I can do that, it wouldn't be much more difficult for someone of the Great Impermanence level or certain high-level cultivators to do something similar. I once had a fleeting thought about whether it was feasible to escape overseas with Masaharu, but now I realize that was just naive thinking.

Taking Asaho to the Arctic for investigation now might give the hostile supernatural beings an opportunity to launch a surprise attack, putting Asaho in danger. Considering that there should be organizations overseas that manage supernatural affairs, there might be room for maneuver from the perspective of territorial disputes, but if laymen like Asaho and I were to do it, we would probably only be too clever for our own good.

That being said, staying in this city any longer isn't a good idea. While having dinner at a restaurant, Ma Zao sat on the sofa, looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the passersby and vehicles on the street, a worried expression on her face. It was quite rare to see her so engrossed in the food. I asked her what she was worried about, and she poured out her heart.

"Is it really okay for us to stay here?" she asked.

I pressed further: "How so?"

“If that Great Impermanence really decides to make a move, this city will probably be destroyed,” she said.

This is not just needless worry.

I also looked out at the street scene through the floor-to-ceiling windows, imagining that my battlefield with Silver Moon was here...

If that unknown Great Impermanence were to unleash spells on a strategic nuclear scale like Silver Moon, the city truly would be razed to the ground. While the Great Impermanences' detached attitude towards secular society might not necessarily lead to such a thing, that attitude is inherently ambiguous and lacks objective binding force. The battle between Silver Moon and me was so massive that no one dared to voice any objections. I even suspect that those Great Impermanences have long wanted to try doing just that.

Especially those with extraordinary and unpredictable ideas who don't treat people as human beings, even if hundreds of thousands or millions of ordinary people die, they may not care at all.

Logically, I shouldn't need Ma Zao to remind me. Someone with superpowers possessing immense destructive power should always be aware of how my battles might affect others. But I've never really thought about it that way. My flames can distinguish friend from foe. For example, during the battle against the monster maker, even when I summoned a sea of ​​fire in a busy city, I could do it without harming anyone. Under these circumstances, I've become too accustomed to staying in urban areas and have never considered how unsuitable I am for interacting with people.

Thinking about it carefully, people like me living in densely populated areas are practically strolling through miniature urban bonsai.

The street scene before me was exactly the same, yet it seemed to have transformed into the landscape of another world.

An indescribable sense of detachment welled up within me.

(End of this chapter)