Zhu Shi looked at Ma Zao with a mix of doubt and suspicion, then turned her gaze back to me.

  This situation was actually quite easy to foresee.

  Given that Zhu Shi and I had been working together to investigate the Oddities, it would have been strange if we weren’t together when we eventually found Ma Zao.

  Without any prior arrangement with Ma Zao, there was always a significant chance that she would unintentionally reveal the truth about our prior acquaintance.

  “If you fail to pn, you pn to fail.”

  While I wouldn’t go so far as to call this my personal motto, I do often approach situations with this mindset.

  Therefore, I should have been prepared for a scenario like this.

  But “should” is the key word here. In reality, had I truly prepared myself?

  Not at all.

  Perhaps this would surprise those who know me well, but I hadn’t even considered the possibility of this situation arising.

  There’s a saying: “When you care too much, you lose your composure.”

  When a person is faced with something—or someone—they deeply care about, they lose their usual calmness and fail to maintain their normal rhythm.

  Only now did I fully grasp the truth of this phrase.

  Over the past few days, I had imagined countless scenarios of finding Ma Zao, but those fantasies offered no practical guidance for reality.

  I could think retively clearly about everything leading up to finding Ma Zao and everything that would follow after finding her, but the moment itself—the act of finding her—remained a foggy bnk spot in my mind.

  This moment was too important to me, so important that it felt as though my entire life hinged on it.

  Every time I tried to imagine this scene, my mental ink would spill entirely into drawing Ma Zao herself, leaving the rest of the picture—audience, environment, consequences—utterly bnk.

  Simply put, I had imagined countless conversations between Ma Zao and me, the words she might say, the words I might respond with.

  But I never once considered whether there might be someone else listening to our conversation, nor how that third party might react.

  This was bad. Really bad.

  In the past, I had lied to Zhu Shi to prevent Mount Luo from discovering Ma Zao’s whereabouts.

  And now, it seemed, the time had come to pay the price for those lies.

  As I strained my brain to think of a solution, Zhu Shi’s expression grew sharper, her gaze carrying a dangerous edge.

  “—Senior Brother Zhuang?”

  So, could she not call me “Senior Brother Zhuang” at a time like this?

  “Let’s talk somewhere else first.” I reflexively changed the subject.

  “Things got too noisy here just now. Look, people are already watching us.”

  Earlier, the Oddities had smashed through the residential complex’s walls, and my fmes had made him scream loudly in agony.

  Now, residents from the surrounding apartment buildings were emerging—some stepping out onto their balconies, others opening their windows—to see what had happened.

  In the distance, a few security guards were making their way toward us.

  Ma Zao had an expression that suggested she was about to slip away on her own.

  I was all too familiar with that look—back when we lived together, she would occasionally show the same emotion.

  To prevent her from teleporting away on the spot, I quickly said, “Ma Zao, don’t leave. We have a lead on that Oddities.”

  She had already started to turn away, but hearing this, she froze mid-step and turned back, her eyes sharp with suspicion.

  “Really? Zhuang Cheng, if you’re messing with me again…”

  What kind of thing was that to say? Have I ever messed with you? I almost blurted this out, but after gncing at Ma Zao and then at Zhu Shi, I swallowed the words and said instead, “I promise I’m not messing with you.”

  “You two seem awfully familiar…”

  Zhu Shi muttered, clearly realizing I’d been hiding a lot from her.

  Ma Zao loosened her grip on the phantom recurve bde, and the weapon quickly dissolved into thin air.

  Then she picked up the severed hand from the ground, pulled a pstic bag out of her pocket, and stuffed the hand inside.

  We immediately left the scene.

  As we walked, my mind was racing with countless thoughts.

  I was thinking about how to expin things to Zhu Shi, wondering what Ma Zao had been doing these past days, why her thermal signature and GPS bracelet had stopped working, and so on.

  At the same time, another emotion welled up within me, one strong enough to drown out all my other thoughts—joy. I had finally found Ma Zao.

  The joy was overwhelming, so intense that I wanted to decre today as my personal lucky holiday.

  After putting some distance between us and the residential area, we stopped by a small grove of trees.

  Ma Zao pulled her cat whisker-patterned mask back up over her face.

  “Zhuang Cheng, you said you have a lead on that Demon Beast. What’s that about?” She spoke first. “And also, who is she?”

  “Senior Brother Zhuang, what’s the retionship between you two?” Zhu Shi stared at me seriously.

  “You told me before that you didn’t know anything about her. Were you lying to me all along?”

  “Wait, wait… one at a time, one at a time…” I raised my hands in a calming gesture.

  I felt like a cheating man whose infidelity had been exposed, cornered by two women confronting him at the same time.

  It was an incredibly awkward situation.

  Of course, my retionships with them weren’t romantic—Zhu Shi was just a friend, and Ma Zao was… what exactly? A goal? A former roommate? A partner in crime? In any case, it wasn’t anything romantic or messy.

  I tried to focus on the silver lining to calm myself down.

  At least Patrol Lu hadn’t followed us to the front lines.

  If he had, Ma Zao’s presence would have been exposed.

  Last night, before we parted ways, he’d told me he wouldn’t spy on me using electronic binocurs or other surveilnce tools anymore.

  Hopefully, he was keeping his word.

  “Can I tell her about your situation?” I asked Ma Zao for permission first.

  “You mean the apocalypse and time travel stuff?” Ma Zao studied me carefully, as if trying to gauge my stance.

  “I don’t mind. From the beginning, I intended for those things to be made public. But even if we talk about them now, no one’s going to believe us.”

  “Apocalypse? Time travel?” Zhu Shi’s eyes widened in confusion.

  Ma Zao thought for a moment and then said, “Let me expin it.”

  In the past, she had shared the truth with me to test how people from this era would react to her descriptions of the apocalypse.

  Now, she seemed to see Zhu Shi as another test subject for the same experiment.

  Ma Zao revealed her identity as an apocalypse traveler and shared the news about the impending apocalypse with Zhu Shi.

  She also spoke about the interactions between herself and me in the past few days.

  In return, Zhu Shi confessed her identity as a Demon Hunter and the existence of Mount Luo.

  During this exchange, I occasionally interjected to crify my retionship with Zhu Shi while also observing Ma Zao’s current condition.

  Her health had clearly improved significantly compared to when we lived together.

  Back then, her complexion was pale, and she would occasionally stagger while walking.

  Even standing for long periods would make her tired.

  Now, her posture was steady when walking or standing.

  Although her complexion wasn’t exactly rosy, it was far from the weakness it once exhibited.

  Not only that, but earlier, she had even fought up close with the Oddities, beheading it in the process.

  Patrol Lu had mentioned that the Oddities could withstand heavy gunfire and had dynamic vision and reflexes sharp enough to track bullet trajectories.

  Yet, those extraordinary qualities had all been easily surpassed by Ma Zao when facing her.

  Given her powerful combat abilities, it seemed that the old Ma Zao wouldn’t have needed to steal real guns while infiltrating the police department to gather intelligence.

  However, from a different perspective, perhaps the old Ma Zao had been so weakened that she had to rely on ordinary firearms.

  She had described her injuries as "soul wounds." I wasn’t sure how much those wounds had healed by now.

  "Mount Luo... Demon Hunter..." Ma Zao processed the information from Zhu Shi, "I see, so the Cultivators of this era really have been hiding..."

  I noticed that she used the word "Cultivators."

  In the past, she had used terms like "Blessed Cultivator" when introducing herself.

  Cultivators were how the transcendentists referred to demon hunters, and one of their main goals was to change the term "Demon Hunter" to "Cultivator."

  If in the post-apocalyptic era, the term "Demon Hunter" had disappeared and been repced by "Cultivator," did this mean that transcendentism had won in the internal conflicts of Mount Luo?

  Although Zhu Shi frowned when she heard the term "Cultivator," she didn’t pursue it further and instead fell into deep thought.

  During the conversation, I noticed that she occasionally showed a penetrating gaze.

  Although her eyes hadn’t changed color, she must have used her ability, "Buzhou Mountain," to determine whether Ma Zao’s cims about the apocalypse and time travel were lies or the truth.

  She had mentioned before that this ability was usually not used on her own people.

  Clearly, to her, Ma Zao wasn’t considered "one of her own" but rather a "Civilian Demon Hunter" whose morality was still uncertain.

  After a moment, Zhu Shi cautiously said, "...I’m sorry, I still can’t believe the things you said about the apocalypse and time travel."

  "You mentioned earlier that you pn to make these things public, probably hoping that the people of this era will be able to use their power to crush the apocalypse in its cradle.

  But without evidence, no one will believe your prophecy.

  "Can you provide evidence for what you’ve said?"

  "My blessing power isn't enough to serve as evidence?" Ma Zao responded, likely recalling how I had previously said that I would believe her if she showed me her supernatural ability in person.

  Zhu Shi gave her a gnce and asked, "Are you referring to the regression power you used against that Oddities?"

  "You!" Ma Zao was startled.

  Regression power?

  Was that the ability Ma Zao had shown earlier?

  I analyzed the information that this term might reveal in my mind.

  "Sorry, I have the ability to see through other people's abilities when they use them.

  When you were fighting the monster earlier, I accidentally saw it," Zhu Shi calmly said.

  "I admit that the power you used is unlike anything I’ve seen before, but in the Demon Hunter world, there are countless mysterious magical systems.

  Your power cannot serve as evidence for the impending apocalypse."

  "Ugh..." Ma Zao showed a wary and troubled expression.

  "Also... may I ask you a question?" Zhu Shi dispyed a look of suspicion.

  "At first, I thought I might be mistaken, but the more I look at this, the more I feel something’s off..."

  "What do you mean?" Ma Zao asked, confused.

  Zhu Shi’s gaze then focused on Ma Zao's left wrist.

  "What’s this on your wrist?" she asked.

  I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles.

  What she was staring at was the red GPS wristband Ma Zao was wearing on her left wrist.

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