My understanding of the Southern City is only superficial, and the story background I made up based on it might easily be full of flaws in the eyes of those in the know. Even if it is perfectly fabricated, it's still hard to persuade the Xuanming believer woman in front of me, full of suspicion and wariness.

However, with the persuasive boost of the Power of Word Spirit, possible flaws can be mitigated, and suspicion and wariness can be dissolved. I sensed the woman standing behind me falling into contemplation, unknowingly breached by the Word Spirit's influence on her defenses.

If it were in the outside world, I could instantly perform Spiritual Domination on a Residence Level demon hunter, but here there is a chance of failure.

If it doesn't work once, then more attempts should be made, and if quality is lacking, quantity is assembled, until her spirit yields and sinks... I prepared myself mentally for this. Fortunately, it didn't take too many efforts; the woman seemed reluctantly to accept my words and then slowly lowered the blade she had held to my neck.

"I didn't expect there to actually be survivors wandering outside..." the woman muttered to herself.

As she spoke, she circled around to face me.

I noticed that a pendant hung around her neck, but instead of a gemstone, it was an odd light bulb. This bulb emitted a blue light, containing subtle mana fluctuations. As she sheathed the Evil Sword, the blue light dimmed and extinguished.

"Don't keep standing here to talk." The woman seemed to have preliminarily trusted me, "Otherwise there will be more monster attacks. Follow me."

She turned and walked away, and I hurriedly followed, asking, "Where to?"

"The refuge." The woman said without looking back.

-

On the way, the woman made a self-introduction.

"We won't be spending much time together, and I'm not interested in you personally. You just need to know I'm a Xuanming believer." She said, "If you find it inconvenient not knowing my name, you can call me 'Jiaoshu'."

The name she gave surely wasn't her real name but a demon hunter code.

As an ordinary survivor, I shouldn't appear too knowledgeable, so I pretended not to know and asked her who Xuanming was, but she didn't seem inclined to spend time explaining such "common knowledge" to me.

It was evident she didn't recognize who I was. As a newly appointed Impermanence of Luo Mountain, my information must have been studied by many people. Since, like Xuanming, I'm a "Fire God," Xuanming believers probably know me more deeply than other demon hunters, probably familiar with my life story and perhaps even have seen my middle school photos.

No matter how much this might be said, she surely wouldn't expect the opposing God to disguise himself as a middle school student to approach her, nor would she specifically remember how I looked in middle school. It's like any Chinese person who has undergone compulsory education knows what Lu Xun looked like, but if asked about his youth, even if some have seen historical photos a few times, most wouldn't instantly recall it.

If I directly revealed the answer to Jiaoshu or gave her hints, she might possibly make the correct connection, but expecting her to recognize me under her preconception is indeed quite demanding.

I once again asked her why the city would recover after destruction, and she didn't seem to want to elaborate yet had to respond: "It's because of 'Reboot'."

"'Reboot'?" I asked.

"The Taoyuan Village Master's power densely fills this city, causing spatial distortion." Jiaoshu said, "It's likely his Fatian Xiangdi, which significantly reduces the city's reality, turning it into a half-real, half-dream region.

"After a certain period, the city's time rewinds. The dead revive and return to a previous point in time where they existed. The city, completely destroyed, reappears, though not restored to its original complete and prosperous state, at least not flattened completely.

"However, I advise you to abandon hope. Your parents are most likely dead, and probably eaten by those monsters. Humans killed by those monsters and Taoyuan Village monks won't revive. Their souls are confiscated by 'Paradise,' becoming materials for its further expansion…

"If the population were larger, there might be a chance of survival, but now this city has less than one in ten thousand living humans, replaced by endless monsters. Survivors fortunate enough to have escaped one disaster still dare to conduct searches outside for supplies, surely to be found by the extraordinarily perceptive monsters and then die without a burial ground."

She didn't supplement her explanation with more details about the Taoyuan Village Master, Fatian Xiangdi, and other special terms, as if stating that she had already answered, and if I still didn't understand, that's my problem.

Nevertheless, I still analyzed two possible truths from her response.

I probably figured out why Xiaoqiao would become separated from my "Firefly."

First, it's likely Xiaoqiao has been resurrected. Because the city's reboot also resets the spatial coordinates of those resurrected, she was transported away. As for the "Firefly," it was restored due to the reboot but possibly due to possessing special properties, it has an underlying connection with me, the Impermanence, so when an external force intended to transfer it, a judgment error might have occurred, leaving it in place.

But even after resurrection, Xiaoqiao's current state between life and death is still precarious, it's best to lower our expectations.

The phenomena of city reboots sound as if they aren't a one-time occurrence, theoretically it should affect my location as a "survivor," forcing me multiple times to leave the safe hiding spot within the story's background, yet Jiaoshu did not notice the contradictions in time, the Power of Word Spirit was remarkably influential.

Next, Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang's purpose in this city is likely to advance his "Paradise" plan by harvesting the souls of over thirty million people.

Compared with secretly spreading his influence like a pyramid scheme under Luo Mountain's nose, this approach is certainly much more efficient and the cost is significant. After creating such a large commotion, he can no longer conceal himself. It's impossible for him to hide again with the souls of over thirty million people, now he hides within this barrier, so the Impermanence can't strike from outside. Once he steps out, he will face an unprecedented assault.

Looking at it differently, it might be viewed this way—perhaps the "Paradise" lacks this last over thirty million souls, Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang believes this bold move will yield such significant benefits.

As for her saying that the city reboot was due to Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang's Fatian Xiangdi... I don't dare to agree with this.

I've never heard of any Impermanence whose Fatian Xiangdi could achieve such a degree, rewind over six thousand square kilometers of land all at once, and resurrect all destroyed things and the deceased as well. Generally, an Impermanence's Fatian Xiangdi would cause changes possible in the planet's environment, much like unless I cause destruction by hand, even if my Fatian Xiangdi could make a place hotter, it wouldn't turn the location into an environment similar to Mercury's surface.

Special cases aren't unheard of. Silver Moon, despite not being an Impermanence, possesses unique properties in her Fatian Xiangdi, and the Great Demon can even unfold the Doomsday Space-Time. Yet the former represents a dream-like view of reality as an extraordinary anomaly, while the latter is not only the King of Apocalypse but also has the hack of planetary natural will. Taoyuan Village Master Meng Zhang doesn't belong to such special categories.

Maybe Jiaoshu also has that knowledge and judgment, yet her words imply a superstition towards the Impermanence. "No matter how earth-shattering phenomena caused by the Impermanence are, they are acceptable"—it's as if this line is written on her face.

Jiaoshu tries to move forward as stealthily as possible, yet despite this, there are still occasional attacks from a few, sometimes a dozen monsters, forcing her to draw her sword in response.

The pendant with a bulb on her chest emits a blue glow when she uses mana, but as the combat duration extends, the glow turns yellow, with a tendency to shift to red and flicker.

I have reason to believe the strange bulb indicates her residual mana and stamina, and when the bulb turns red and flickers, it means she is nearly exhausted—yet I have a question, why does she hang such a strange object in such a conspicuous position? Isn't this drawing attention to herself when she's barely holding on?

When the number of monsters attacking becomes large, even reaching dozens or hundreds, despite Jiaoshu's impressive skills, she can't handle so many. In those times, her face changes greatly, she picks me up and turns to run.

The thrilling experience of being occasionally attacked by monsters reminds me of my journey during the "Doomsday Era."

After shaking off the "pursuing enemies" behind us, Jiaoshu stops deep in an alley, panting as she places me on the ground, expressing a certain puzzlement, "How strange, I clearly used Stealth Spell to erase sound and perception, yet it feels like the frequency of being discovered by monsters has increased... my luck is terrible this time?"

This is definitely because of the Unfortunate star power entangled with me.

Once again, I resonate with Mazao.

Jiaoshu leans against the alley wall, gradually calming her breaths, seemingly intending to rest there.

"Are there many 'supernatural power users' like you in this city?" I pose the question again.

Jiaoshu knits her brows and responds angrily, "Do you ask too many questions?"

"Please, I want to know." I look up at her.

Then, I realize I've forgotten to use the Power of Word Spirit. It's not a good habit to converse while using the Power of Word Spirit, I'm not particularly fond of manipulating others' minds, always feeling it's not very classy. But in this situation, it's inevitable, since I've initiated it before, I may as well continue using it.

I was about to use it again, but Jiaoshu, for some reason, paused, then coughed forcibly and actually replied, her voice suspiciously softened, "There are... besides us Xuanming believers, there are Taoyuan Village Cultivators, essentially the Fallen Demon Hunters leading those monsters. The number is unknown, but many, far more than us Xuanming believers..."

Although I don't quite understand why her attitude suddenly changed, I continued to ask, "Apart from you, are there other Xuanming believers?"

"Yes. Not only us Xuanming believers, but also some local surviving demon hunters. Among them, there were once capable talents, yet they faced intense targeting and concentrated attacks... now only remnants like Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals remain," Jiaoshu sighed regretfully, "Besides... oh, there are also over ten Zhuang Cheng believers from across regions..."

"What believers?" I asked, surprised.