If the target of the investigation possessed anti-divination abilities, the information Ma Zao gathered would be fragmented.

  She once described piecing together these broken bits of information as a “puzzle game.”

  And since it was a puzzle, that meant that with enough luck, she could directly assemble the desired result.

  Perhaps st time, without a time constraint, she had no way of giving an accurate estimate.

  But this time was different.

  Given her camity-attracting nature, missing the right moment meant losing the trail completely— which, paradoxically, also meant she was guaranteed to find the target within this timeframe.

  No matter how powerful the Creator of Oddities’ anti-divination measures were, even if they elevated Ma Zao’s tracking difficulty from a “puzzle game” to “finding a needle in a haystack,” she might still somehow manage to fish out the answer through sheer force of will—or have a crucial clue inexplicably fall into her p.

  One could only wonder how the Creator of Oddities would feel upon learning this.

  "This is basically cheating!" Zhu Shi excimed in amazement.

  Ma Zao, however, seemed to recall something from the past.

  Her expression grew complicated and mencholic as she murmured, "I used to be forced to flee and hide everywhere because of this ability to attract oddities… I never expected that one day, I’d end up using it to my advantage."

  "If you're remembering something painful, I can hug you too," I offered.

  It was both a gesture of concern and a pyful return of her previous words.

  "That would be a crime, Senior Zhuang. And obviously, so would accepting it." Zhu Shi quipped before turning to Ma Zao.

  "You were right to lie to Lu Chan earlier. Even if you do find out where the Creator of Oddities is, you must not tell him."

  "He’s well aware of his own ck of combat ability, but his hatred for the Tribunal runs too deep. The moment he gets any leads, he’s bound to rush in. Not only would that interfere with our operation against the Creator of Oddities, but for him, it’d be no different from a moth flying into a fme."

  "I don’t know," I mused.

  "Judging by how he stopped the Shadow Swap Oddities earlier, he didn’t exactly seem powerless."

  "The reason he was able to stop the Shadow Swap Oddities' counterattack was that it had already weakened to a severely degraded state," Zhu Shi expined.

  "On top of that, his past experience as a 'Formation' Grade Wuchang still left him with some residual insight and judgment."

  "But the Creator of Oddities we're dealing with this time—although there’s no intel suggesting he possesses any special powers—has shown no fear in directly interacting with those brutal oddities. That alone suggests he might have power beyond theirs."

  I picked up on a key word. "'We'?"

  Zhu Shi flinched. "Are you two pnning to leave me behind while you go after the Creator of Oddities?"

  "I actually thought you'd suggest bringing in more people from Mount Luo."

  "I won’t," she replied.

  "To avoid alerting our target, we have to move with a small, elite group. And realistically, I won’t find anyone with greater combat ability than you on short notice, nor anyone better at tracking the enemy than Ma Zao.

  "Plus, if the Creator of Oddities turns out to have some strange abilities, I’ll be able to analyze and counter them immediately."

  She paused before continuing, "My goal isn’t to eliminate him, but to extract intel on the Tribunal from him. And as for you, Ma Zao..."

  "My goal is to obtain intel about the Apocalypse from the Creator of Oddities," Ma Zao said.

  "I'm interested in both pieces of intel," I added.

  "Good. We all want information—our objectives align."

  Zhu Shi continued, "To prevent the Creator of Oddities from pulling out some unexpected trump card, we can eliminate him outright. However, we must at least preserve his head intact—just like how we’ve handled other oddities."

  With our pn settled, we found a karaoke lounge nearby and booked a private room.

  Inside, Ma Zao took out the severed head of the Shadow Swap Oddities and focused intently, using her ability to trace its past.

  Meanwhile, I quietly considered my own course of action.

  Between information on the Apocalypse and intel on the Tribunal, which one interested me more?

  The answer was obvious—the former.

  Ever since I found Ma Zao, my greatest motivation had been to uncover the truth behind the Apocalypse alongside her.

  I now fully believed in the existence of an apocalyptic crisis.

  What once was Ma Zao’s most important mission had become just as crucial to me.

  I sought adventures beyond reality itself.

  And in this world, could there be anything more fantastical and perilous than the Apocalypse?

  I could hardly imagine anything that could compare.

  The question is: In what stance should I face the Apocalypse?

  Specifically—suppose the cause of the world's end comes down to a pair of buttons, each of a different color.

  The left button is red.

  Pressing it will bring about the Apocalypse.

  The reason the future turns into a wastend is that, in the original timeline, someone found and pressed the red button before we could stop them.

  The right button is blue.

  Its effect is to permanently disable the red button.

  After enduring countless hardships, Ma Zao and I finally arrive before these two buttons.

  Ma Zao, of course, would want to press the blue button.

  But what about me?

  Do I want to press the red button—or the blue one?

  I have friends and loved ones, and of course, I don’t wish for them to suffer or even die in the Apocalypse.

  But… if the red button were pced right in front of me—if all it took was a single press for society and civilization to colpse, for countless disasters to be unleashed upon our world—would I really feel no urge to push it?

  I know that my current thoughts are not normal.

  But the emotions I’m feeling right now are probably not mine alone.

  Even if you were to grab a random person off the street, someone living an ordinary life, and pce a button in their hands that could summon a super zombie virus to destroy the world, they might also feel the urge to press it.

  As strange as it sounds, the desire for the Apocalypse seems to be a widespread phenomenon.

  So I believe there must be many people who can resonate with what I’m feeling right now.

  The urge to shatter an unchanging life, to plunge into the chaos of adventure—

  As this thought surfaced, I inevitably became aware of another problem.

  Ma Zao is important to me, but… we might be enemies.

  Of course, it might be too early to make such a judgment.

  If the Apocalypse is a disaster that arises naturally, something that doesn’t require a "catalyst" to set it into motion, then I wouldn’t need to worry about whether I should be the one to bring it about.

  In that case, I could simply stand on the side of good and enjoy the thrill of preventing the world's end.

  "Stopping it" is also a way of interacting with the Apocalypse—it is, in itself, a kind of adventure.

  Besides, according to the prophecy, the final outcome of the Apocalypse is the complete annihition of the world.

  If things end up that way, I won’t be able to have any more adventures at all.

  A single feast versus a lifetime of meals—I can tell the difference.

  …No, I have to admit, when it comes to something as grand as the end of the world, maybe a single feast is worth it.

  I do have these insane thoughts.

  But right now, that’s not what matters most.

  What matters most is information.

  Fighting alongside Ma Zao and uncovering the truth behind the Apocalypse takes priority.

  Everything else can wait until ter.

  “Zhuang Cheng, you have a really profound look on your face right now,” Zhu Shi's voice rang out beside me.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  I turned my head.

  Zhu Shi was sitting on the dimly lit karaoke room’s sofa with me.

  She didn’t seem to be using her ability to see through lies at the moment.

  “I’m thinking about what comes next,” I gave a vague response, then added, “By the way, can you do me a favor?”

  Zhu Shi smiled. “A favor? If there’s something I can do, just say the word!”

  "I feel like my superpower has changed a little. Can you take a look for me?" I asked.

  Hearing this, she showed a troubled expression.

  "Take a look at your superpower? I can see other people's abilities themselves, but..."

  "Is there a problem?" I asked curiously.

  "You're too bright," she said frankly.

  "In the sight of ‘Buzhou Mountain,’ looking at you is like staring directly at the sun with the naked eye—you're so bright that I can’t even make out what you look like.

  "If I only use ‘Buzhou Mountain’ at low power, I can pick up some information from you. That’s how I determined before that your superpower doesn’t come from demonic or supernatural bloodlines. But that method doesn’t allow me to actually see the ability itself. If I go full power, it turns into what I just described.

  "I think it’s because you yourself are essentially a high-density mass of fmes. Trying to see your true form actually interferes with my ability."

  "My elemental transformation actually has an anti-scrying effect?"

  This really exceeded my expectations.

  It looks like I'll have to figure it out on my own.

  At this moment, Ma Zao, sitting on the sofa opposite, put down the head and seemed a little tired from using her abilities.

  Zhu Shi poured her a gss of carbonated drink and handed it to her.

  She drank it in one gulp, then let out a small burp.

  She seemed to have something on her mind.

  When I asked, she frankly shared her thoughts.

  "It’s about the Oddities," she said.

  "This was the first time I heard one of this era's Oddities speak so much. In my time, Oddities… or rather, Demon beasts, don’t speak normally to humans. They’re more like real monsters, only knowing how to kill recklessly..."

  "Are you starting to think that Oddities and Demon beasts aren’t reted?" I probed.

  "There is indeed a difference between them. The Oddities of this era seem to primarily have the form of a human body with the head of a sheep, while the demons of the apocalypse are completely different. But more important than the difference in appearance is the fluctuation of magical power..."

  She pondered, "The Oddities of this era possess a magical power fluctuation strong enough to cssify them as Demon beasts, which is a characteristic that no other oddities or cultivators have."

  "We can only rely on the Creator of Oddities to crify it for us," I said.

  "Yes," she nodded, then took a deep breath.

  I recalled her conversation with Patrol Lu, where she mentioned a soul injury, and asked with concern, "Can you tell me more about your injury? You mentioned that the wound you suffered could not be healed because it was left by a Great Demon... Is that true?"

  Zhu Shi also showed a very concerned expression, looking at Ma Zao along with me.

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