Under the streetlight by the roadside, Ma Zao looked both solemn and tense.

  Her voice, filled with anticipation mixed with unease, addressed me.

  "Zhuang Cheng, it's time for you to tell me the truth, isn't it?" Ma Zao focused intently on my expression.

  "Zhu Shi has already gone far, and there are no other passersby around to overhear our conversation. I don't know why you couldn't expin things about my friend before, but now it's just the two of us. There's no need to keep hiding it anymore."

  "You're right. I do need to expin things to you." I nodded.

  "But before that, I have to ask you something. Did you mention before that you had seen fragments of the Divine Seal during the apocalypse?"

  Although slightly puzzled, she answered honestly, "Yes, I have seen them."

  "What do the fragments of the Divine Seal look like?" I asked.

  She hesitated for a moment, seemingly wondering why I was asking such a specific question and whether she should answer.

  But perhaps realizing that she currently needed my help, she eventually replied, "...From appearance alone, the fragments of the Divine Seal are a kind of bck, hard substance with an irregur shape. The texture feels like jade. And for some reason, when you touch it, there's no sensation of cold or heat—it's as if the concept of temperature doesn't apply to it..."

  "You've touched the Divine Seal fragments?"

  "My friend and I came across them by accident," she said.

  "But soon after, we were attacked by a Great Demon and were forced to separate."

  "You don't have the Divine Seal fragments with you, which means they are in your friend's possession... Are you really okay with sharing such important information with me?" I asked curiously.

  "No problem. In fact, I want to ask you to take care of my friend," she said.

  "We once tried to abandon the Divine Seal fragment because keeping such a valuable item with us would only bring immense danger. However, it seems that there is a strong binding between the fragment and my friend, and we couldn’t get rid of it even if we wanted to.

  "If you truly value the Divine Seal fragment, I hope you can keep my friend by your side. She’s just a weak and powerless little girl, not suited for the world of the supernatural, and even more so, not suited for staying by my side."

  So, she wanted to "entrust" her.

  In the past, during the apocalypse, she kept her friend by her side because if her friend left, she would die.

  But if her friend has now come to this peaceful era, that reason no longer exists.

  She has to let her friend go as soon as possible.

  In this unfamiliar peaceful era, the only person she could ask for help was me.

  Since it’s about me living with her friend, the matter of the Divine Seal fragment will be hard to hide.

  Rather than keeping it a secret, it would be better to say it openly.

  Perhaps she revealed this information to test me.

  If I showed any desire for it, she would take her friend and run away.

  With her ability to transfer space, escaping from my grasp would be incredibly easy.

  "However, in the end..." Ma Zao showed a bit of weakness in her tone.

  "At least, in the end... can I see her one st time? I want to talk to her. After I speak with her, I won’t see her again..."

  "I’m sorry, but I can’t let you meet her," I said.

  "What?" She was stunned.

  "The Divine Seal fragment you described should be this one," I said, taking the Divine Seal fragment out of my pocket and showing it to her.

  "Divine Seal fragment!" She was struck as if by lightning.

  "Why do you have this? Did my friend give it to you? Impossible, this fragment shouldn’t be passed on to anyone else. Could it be, could it be—"

  She quickly scanned the area, seemingly trying to find a third party, but found no one.

  Wait, does she think that the fragment I have is her friend's, and that her friend is dead, which is why I’m holding it?

  Seeing her becoming more and more panicked, I quickly crified, "Your friend didn’t come to this era. The fragment I have is a different one."

  "Huh?" She froze as if struck by a spell.

  "Here’s how it happened..."

  I roughly expined how I entered the Misty Dream Realm and came into contact with her friend.

  "...She’s still wandering alone in the ruins of the apocalypse, and she’s even forgotten her name? In another ten days, she will become a Demon Beast?" Ma Zao said helplessly.

  "To be more precise, it’s only seven days left," I said.

  "So, what was her name? Can you tell me so I can pass it on to her the next time I enter the Misty Dream Realm?"

  "Xiao Wan, her name is Xiao Wan! 'Xiao' as in small, and 'Wan' as in a bowl!"

  She immediately answered, then eagerly asked, "Zhuang Cheng, when will you be able to enter that Misty Dream Realm again?"

  "That’s not something I can control..." I first noted the name, then started calcuting in my mind.

  The first time I entered the Misty Dream Realm was in the basement of the 15th-floor room, where both No. 1 and No. 2 Xiao Wan had also entered; the second time was on the night after Ma Zao left, when I and No. 4 Xuan Ming entered the Misty Dream Realm.

  The gap between the two times was about four days, and now it’s been three days since the second time.

  If the Misty Dream Realm occurs every four days, then I should be able to enter it again tomorrow.

  Of course, since the sample size is too small, the reliability of this assumption is very low.

  But it shouldn't be that I can't enter again for seven days, right?

  I tried to comfort Ma Zao, and she seemed to understand that getting anxious wouldn’t help, so she made an effort to suppress her unease.

  We stopped talking and continued walking towards home.

  "By the way, doesn’t the name Xiao Wan sound a little odd?" I tried to change the subject.

  "Did you come up with it for her?"

  "Well, I guess I did have a part in naming her..." Ma Zao said vaguely, still seemingly preoccupied with No. 2 Xiao Wan.

  "Then, do you have any impression of the name 'Xuan Ming'?" I asked next.

  "In the Misty Dream Realm, the fourth person calls themselves 'Xuan Ming,' and No. 2... Xiao Wan also had a special reaction to this name, like she was afraid of something. Do you know why she might be afraid?"

  Her reaction immediately became very grim: "The fourth person you mentioned is Xuan Ming?"

  "Yes. Is there a problem?" I asked, curious.

  "I told you before, that in the apocalypse era, survivors consumed by madness turn into Demon Beasts; and the reason Xiao Wan and I were forced to separate was because of an attack by a Great Demon... The so-called Great Demon is actually the highest-level individual among the Demon Beasts." She said gloomily, "In a sense, Demon Beasts are one of the possible outcomes for humanity in the apocalypse. And being an outcome means no further progress. Once someone becomes an Demon Beast, they can’t get stronger on their own anymore."

  "So, the power of Demon Beasts is rgely determined by their strength before they became Demon Beasts?" I gathered from her words.

  "Exactly." She nodded, "In the apocalypse era, there were no more than ten Great Demons. And the Great Demon that attacked us is called the 'Disaster Demon.'"

  "The Disaster Demon is good at controlling fmes. People in the apocalypse believed that this was the form of a strong individual named 'Xuan Ming' who had fallen into an Demon Beasts. It was this Great Demon that scorched my soul."

  Disaster Demon...

  The character for "disaster" is composed of a roof radical on top and a fire beneath it, suggesting a natural fire disaster.

  If those who are qualified to become Great Demons must be powerful beings like Xuan Ming, what about the other Great Demons?

  Ma Zao said that there were no more than ten Great Demons in the apocalypse, a number that caught my attention.

  The number of Great Wuchang beings also doesn't exceed ten—could it be that all future Great Demons will come from the ranks of Great Wuchang?

  "Ma Zao, how many years ago did you come from, compared to this current era?" I asked.

  "I don't know. The timeline and space of the apocalypse era are very chaotic. Some people believe the apocalypse has been here for over a hundred years, while others think it just happened recently," Ma Zao shook her head.

  "What about Zhu Shi? You seemed to think Zhu Shi looked familiar. Did you perhaps meet her in the apocalypse era?"

  As I asked this, I couldn't help but think of myself.

  Perhaps Ma Zao still hadn't gathered any concrete evidence of the impending apocalypse, but many of the clues I had encountered so far suggested that the apocalypse was by no means a mere fantasy.

  The reality of the apocalypse had begun to feel more and more tangible.

  Many things I would never have considered in the past, I now found myself thinking seriously about.

  For instance, where would I be after the apocalypse and what would I be doing?

  From Ma Zao and Number Two Xiao Wan's descriptions, it’s clear that despite the desote and dangerous world after the apocalypse, there were still a few survivors struggling to live among the ruins.

  Among them, there were "blessed monks" like Ma Zao and even powerless ten-year-old girls like Xiao Wan.

  Though I still don't know exactly how the apocalypse will come, I don't believe I would just die easily in a catastrophe where even ordinary people have a chance to survive.

  People in the apocalypse era believe that the Disaster Demon is a fallen version of Xuan Ming, as Ma Zao said.

  And since they say they "believe" this, it suggests that there might not be solid evidence to support this theory.

  It's like how a living person wouldn't say, "I believe I am still alive."

  The things that are naturally true don’t require belief; they can be accepted as they are.

  So, although this specution might sound arrogant, I can't help but wonder—could the Disaster Demon actually not be Xuan Ming, but a future version of me?

  If not, then where am I?

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