Upon receiving this report, Dong Che displayed a serious expression.

"Who is 'that guy'?" I asked, curious.

"Not long ago, we captured a monk from Taoyuan Village around the sanctuary," Dong Che explained. "He is quite powerful and intended to rally nearby beasts to launch an attack on our sanctuary.

"Before he could prepare for the attack, I used my perception to lock onto the source of this threat ahead of time, and with my companions, we took the initiative to capture him. Judging by his strength, he must hold a high position within Taoyuan Village and is likely aware of their military deployment in this city. If we can obtain related intelligence, it will undoubtedly be of great help for our survival activities to come.

"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to pry his mouth open and almost let him escape. Although we quickly re-sealed him, it wasn't long before a Great Success Rank from Taoyuan Village led a massive beast raid against us. I'm afraid that prisoner used the chaos to send our coordinates to the outside.

"Originally, we should lead everyone to change the sanctuary, but..."

"Now that I am here," I said, "if any more enemies want to attack this sanctuary, let them come; I'll handle them all. It will also make this city's environment a bit safer.

"Alternatively, we could interrogate the prisoner you mentioned to extract intelligence about enemy force deployment, and then I will annihilate them one by one. You needn't be courteous with me; after all, before I can use my full strength, I have nothing else to do, so I might as well take a stroll outside."

Upon hearing this, the demon hunter who came to report looked as if he was in a dream. But besides him, everyone present seemed to take my words for granted. Perhaps he also knew of my previous defeat of a Great Success Rank from Taoyuan Village, so he did not voice any doubts, only staring at us blankly.

"Let me handle the interrogation. With my word spirit, I should be able to obtain the intelligence you can't extract," I said.

"Don't we first need to continue discussing how to restore your powers?" Dong Che didn't seem to want to trouble me with that kind of work.

"Since no result can be discussed for now, why not do something else and perhaps get inspired," I said.

"Then... we shall take our leave first." The leading believer said.

They might still have other work related to the sanctuary to attend to and had taken a break from their tasks to meet me.

Xiaoqiao also seemed to feel she shouldn't stay any longer, "Then I will as well..."

"Wait." I called to her.

She looked at me, puzzled.

"Hold out your hand," I said.

Xiaoqiao extended her left hand with a look of confusion. I focused my gaze on the back of her hand, and instantly, her palm seemed to catch fire, as if soaked in fuel and ignited by a lighter.

Startled, she let out a gasp of fear, reflexively trying to shake off the flames with her left hand. However, my flames weren't so easily dispelled; instead of dissipating, they clung tightly to her left hand and rapidly converged on the back of her hand, forming an orange-red mark.

It was a stylized fire totem emblem, resembling both a blazing bonfire and an upward-facing hand.

I remembered that the Zhuangcheng Faith Totem that Lu Chan showed me before looked just like this, which I now depicted on the back of Xiaoqiao's hand.

"This mark stores a small portion of my flame, containing my preset commands," I said. "If you encounter danger later, the flame within will automatically defend and counterattack, and when low on energy, it will burn the surrounding space to recharge. Though small in scale, it will protect your life as long as you don't encounter a Great Success Rank."

I then looked at the believers and said, "She's a friend of my fiancée, Zhu Shi, and also my junior. If convenient, I hope you can look after her."

"—Understood."

The leading believer glanced deeply at the mark on Xiaoqiao's hand as if to engrave it in memory, then respectfully said, "We shall continue trying to help you restore your powers. If we discover a viable method, we will report it to you. Please take care of yourself."

He then gestured a farewell and left with all the believers present.

Earlier, I had shared various details of my current situation with them, hoping they might come up with solutions. I had contemplated a few methods myself but faced constant setbacks before arriving at this exhibition hall sanctuary.

The simplest and most direct method is to summon my Ash Weapon, the Furnace Slag Impermanence Divine Sword, inside the City Barrier. Then, directly activate the Third Form "Corona" to break through the omnipresent resistance and forcibly restore the Power of Great Impermanence.

However, just as I can't transfer enough flames into the City Barrier, the "furnace slag" mixed in the flames cannot be summoned in large quantities. Even if I forcibly summon it, the total amount is still not as much as the Furnace Slag Impermanence Sword in Dong Che's hand. Moving it piece by piece into the interior gradually also doesn't work, as the resistance against me as an invader will limit the maximum amount of "furnace slag" that can exist at the same time.

Similarly, I cannot increase my existence scale by burning a large amount of material into flames inside the City Barrier. It's as if my perception range is restricted by resistance; my scale of existence is also tightly constrained. Theoretically, even if you put a warehouse of fuel in front of me, my flame cannot spread into a Fire Sea there unless it is downgraded to ordinary flame without my personal attributes.

Using spiritual invasion to manipulate a large amount of ordinary flame and convert it into my strength also becomes unfeasible for the same reason, hitting a hard bottleneck once the conversion reaches a certain point.

To break through this predicament, there is only one way—I must not gradually increase my strength. Instead, I must achieve a breakthrough in a burst of strength as if the omnipresent resistance cannot react in time to achieve the effect of breaking through the hard bottleneck.

Even though I've identified this direction, there's currently no way to find the corresponding means.

Once the believers left, the demon hunter responsible for reporting also left. It seems that Xiaoqiao didn't want to be part of the so-called interrogation work, so she intended to leave as well. At that moment, Dong Che called out to her.

"Could you please witness the upcoming interrogation process?" He solemnly asked.

"Ah, me?" Xiaoqiao pointed at herself.

Dong Che nodded.

Although she didn't understand why he called her, Xiaoqiao still obediently complied. I'm rather curious about his motive. It seems he's not planning to explain immediately. If I questioned him, he would probably tell me honestly, but I decided to respect his wish and continue to await the development with curiosity.

Under his guidance, we arrived at the cells of the shelter.

This place should have originally been a storeroom for the exhibition, temporarily repurposed as a room for confining prisoners. The prisoner himself is bound to the ground by countless steel chains. Part of the countless chains connects with the ground, making them difficult to extract; while the other part penetrates various parts of the prisoner's body, preventing free movement.

It's clear these chains have been specially treated with spells, and even the room's walls, floor, and ceiling have been reinforced with Barrier Technique. I doubt continuous cannon fire would cause damage.

The prisoner raised his head, his face covered in blood, displaying a painful and grim expression.

Blood spilled everywhere on the ground from struggling, filling the air with an unpleasant bloody smell. Although this cruel scene came into view, Xiaoqiao seemed to reflexively feel disgust and resistance but said little. In the past twenty days, she likely witnessed many such brutal scenes. Whether she liked it or not, she could no longer revert to the ordinary college girl she was when we first met.

In contrast, Jiaoshu, who had been silently following me, expressed significant shock.

"What's going on..." She looked incredulously at the prisoner, "Weren't you already burned to death by Xuanming?"

This prisoner was the achieved level Taoyuan Village Cultivator we had encountered in the subway station shelter last time.

For observing the resurrection phenomenon caused by the city's reboot, I once left a thermal energy marker on him. Because when I killed him, I burned his brain remotely, Jiaoshu might not have realized he was killed by me, thinking it was the Xuanming Fire. I hadn't specifically injected killing intent when I killed him, so his resurrection with the reboot phenomenon was normal.

Later, I found Jiaoshu through the thermal energy marker but didn't go looking for this Taoyuan Village Cultivator. This wasn't because I forgot about him, but because when Xuanming's Flame Avatar appeared with the Fire Sea, the flames reduced his corpse to ashes and destroyed the thermal energy marker along with it.

Unexpectedly, after so many twists and turns, I have encountered him here again.

The captured Taoyuan Village Cultivator looked up and saw my face, his painful expression replaced by bewilderment.

"You, you... you are—" He stared at me in wide-eyed shock.

"Do you think you can escape from my grasp?" I said.

Perhaps this is also a kind of inevitability. I, who am favored by the 扫帚 star power, possess the nature of a fate vortex. Once entangled with me, it's not easy to withdraw. To the weak, this can only be described as a curse; to the strong, it is also a kind of power.

The Taoyuan Village Cultivator glanced at Dong Che beside him, seemingly connecting some dots, and displayed a look of fear and despair intertwined.