Li Changzhou really couldn't understand what the jellyfish was thinking.

He just wanted to see what the other creature was, but the jellyfish attacked him—although he was the first to make a move, it was the jellyfish that had shown hostility first.

"Perhaps we have the same goal!"

Dappled shadows, speckles of light danced through the forest, Li Changzhou flashed through the fleeting illumination.

"Burn it! Damn it!" Bi pulled the lollipop from her mouth, making a "pop" sound.

She smacked her lips, savoring the rich sweetness in her mouth, then put the lollipop back in.

"You can swear in front of me, but if you meet Miss Yang, better watch it."

Bi snorted disdainfully, "Afraid of her? Let her come!"

Several specks of light blocked the way, and thin, thin whips stretched out from the specks of light, lashing towards Li Changzhou.

With a flash of jade light, Li Changzhou charged past, and behind him, those specks of light continued forward with inertia, flying a distance before suddenly collapsing into many nearly invisible specks of light.

Li Changzhou scanned the area and found the carriage in the forest, the next moment, he had already dived into it.

"Ascend!" he commanded, like a captain.

Bi, with the lollipop bitten in two, watched as the carriage burst out from the greenery, floating high in the sky, its metal skin reflecting the dazzling sunlight, nearly turning into a point of light.

Li Changzhou's eyes turned red, his gaze falling on an elm tree.

Whoosh!

The sound of the hot waves stirred by the flames, the elm tree became a candle that was lit.

The red eyes dimmed, flames spread out, like a set of chopsticks suddenly fanned out, or like turning a mineral water bottle upside down and unscrewing the cap.

The roaring fire, unstoppable, stormed across the forest like conquering a city.

The rows of flames surged and devoured, like a greedy beast, consuming everything flammable.

The jellyfish's specks of light dashed madly within the flames, bursting, evaporating, vanishing one after another.

"So hot." Bi fanned herself, her delicate doll-like mouth agape.

Inside the carriage, the apparent temperature had already reached at least sixty degrees.

Li Changzhou stretched out his right hand and pinched, the boiling heatwave abruptly halted, no longer spreading but transforming into serpents, slithering through the forest, chasing the fleeing specks of light.

Rows of fire snakes hunted and killed throughout the forest sea.

All the specks of light converged, forming a jellyfish, which the next moment was washed away by a cascade of flames, disappearing without a trace.

A white Identity Card fell out.

Bi hooked her little finger, and the Identity Card flew into her hand like an arrow.

Li Changzhou mustered his last bit of strength, waved his hand, and the flames burst out of the forest; he then plopped down on the chair inside the carriage.

His whole body steamed like an overloaded machine.

Manipulating these flames was nothing to him; what really made him unstable was his vampire heritage.

Even with rings and the carriage shielding him from the harsh sunlight, the high temperature still left him feeble.

With a constitution violating regulations, inside the sweltering carriage, he was worse off than ordinary people.

That he managed to persevere, kill the jellyfish, and cast the flames out of the forest showed he had iron-like willpower and moral discipline comparable to a forest ranger.

"Are you okay?" Bi asked worriedly, Li Changzhou was almost enveloped by white mist, appearing as though he might self-ignite at any moment, which was scary to watch.

Li Changzhou weakly waved his hand.

"I'll find a cool spot, just hang on!"

If Li Changzhou had been in better spirits, he would have made a sarcastic remark, saying it sounded like he was about to urinate in the carriage, but now he was too lazy to even think.

The carriage shot out like a flying ship, heading for the Edison Research Institute.

◇

Flames swooshed from the forest, like a sudden flood.

"Look out!" the old Demon Hunter's face twisted, his whites filling with blood vessels instantly.

The flames, like waves, licked everything scorchingly hot.

They ran, rolled, and roared like a long-ambushed army, lifting a storm of heat waves and a tsunami of flames, flattening everything in their path!

Yang Qinglan's snow lotus-like pure face changed color, her black pearl-like eyes turned into deep blue gems, and the carriage plunged towards the sky.

"Ah!!" the young nun screamed.

Yang Qinglan rushed out of the carriage, in the instant the flames licked up, she cut the ropes tied to the horses.

"Jump on!" she shouted sternly at the Demon Hunters.

But it was already too late.

The flames roared vehemently, advancing rapidly like a surge of orange-red gale.

Whoom!

The sound of a flood washing over, heat waves surged across the ground, the Demon Hunters screamed hoarsely, turning almost to char in an instant.

Yang Qinglan looked towards the forest with a troubled expression.

She didn't care about these newly met Demon Hunters, but their death would make the following mission more difficult.

Her eyes suddenly brightened, she stepped into the carriage.

After a moment, a smooth and a hesitantly expectant chanting voice resonated within the carriage.

Yang Qinglan walked out of the carriage door again, the Evangelical Book appearing in her hands, white as jade.

"The Lord says, they lay in ambush, it is their own blood they shed; they lie in wait, it is against their own lives they conspire."

Time seemed to stand still, then slowly reversed, the flames suddenly converged and flew towards a spot in the sky.

The dying Demon Hunters, one by one, like film rewinding, turned back from char to their original form.

"Lan …" Qian Xia opened the carriage door and came out, momentarily almost forgetting to mind the honorifics.

Ismei followed suit.

She jumped straight off the continually rising carriage, rolled a few times on the ground to scale down the momentum, and quickly ran to the stunned Demon Hunters lying on the ground, checking their injuries.

"Where's the enemy?" Qian Xia looked around quickly.

"It's not," Yang Qinglan looked pensively toward the forest, "It's the aftermath of the battle."

"Aftermath?" Li Qianxia was stunned for a moment.

Was the aftermath this strong? The first two times were shock waves, but this time it was outright flames!

"This mission seems very difficult," she said, looking slightly uneasy.

"No worries, when your brother arrives, the flames will only make us stronger."

Inside the carriage, the old nun and the young nun were exhausted, with only one use left of "Bright and Upright."

◇

There weren't many lollipops left, and the carriage wasn't flying fast.

Suddenly, the inside of the carriage turned the color of a sunset. Bi looked back and saw a large mass of flames rushing towards them.

She spread her fingers toward the flames. The flames hit a transparent wall, and from a distance, it looked like a wall of blazing fire had been built in the air.

"Scumbags, more enemies!" she called out alertly.

"No worries," Li Changzhou's spirits had slightly improved, and the white mist around him had also faded a bit, "the one playing with fire is mediocre. Once I recover, I can suppress him."

They remained cautious for a while, but no one caught up with them.

Bi's delicate little face furrowed like an adult's: "I always feel this mission won't be easy. First, the immortal jellyfish, now someone who can manipulate flames."

Li Changzhou spread his hand, took out the 'Snow Mountain Water Bottle,' and poured it over his head in relief, then took a big gulp from it.

The icy liquid slid down his throat, making his body feel slightly better, but it didn't quench his thirst at all.

"'The Lord' might be around at this time too. I should have bought a Duel Token earlier, killed him, and then I could become 'No Taboos.'"

Li Changzhou licked his lips, looked up, and water droplets dripped from his hair tips. His eyes, behind the damp strands, fixed on Bi's tender neck.

That was what he needed.

The weakness of his body made the thirst for blood even more intense, and it was burning like a fire inside him.

He took another gulp of snow water.

"Give me a drink too," Bi said, equally thirsty.

She took the 'Snow Mountain Water Bottle,' tilted her neck back, and took small gulps.

Li Changzhou watched her neck, his stomach even feeling the emptiness and spasms that only hunger could cause.

This was indeed a good opportunity. He unobtrusively watched Bi's neck, entered 'Concentration,' and, just like when he initially burned his hand with flames, allowed himself to be tortured by the impulses and cravings of bloodlust.

His body silently became accustomed to everything vampiric.

A strong self-suggestion could drive a person mad. Could a body, strengthened twice, remember the feeling of being a vampire and achieve a vampire's constitution through "self-suggestion"?

Probably not.

But it was still an experience, and it allowed him to understand the extent of a vampire's craving for fresh blood, preparing him for future encounters with such creatures.

"What's up with you staring at me like that?" Bi wiped her mouth and glared at Li Changzhou discontentedly. "It's just a bit of your water, isn't it? Here, take it back!"

Li Changzhou took another drink, slightly easing the urge to bite Bi's neck, then stowed away the 'Snow Mountain Water Bottle.'

Bi turned her head to glance at the ground and said, "We're here."

The train carriage crashed with a bang into the Edison Research Institute.

The research institute didn't look like one, with its spacious open space filled with rows of desks as if it were a textile mill.

Li Changzhou stood up and walked out of the car compartment, trailing wisps of white vapor.

Dressed in a suit, the white-haired Edison, whose hair was somewhat thin, clenched a cigar in his mouth beside the bricks of a wall smashed by the compartment.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Edison," Li Changzhou said, shaking off the last wisp of white vapor from his shoulder and greeting the great inventor.

Edison took a deep puff of his cigar, making the tip glow brightly.

He exhaled a cloud of smoke, steadied his emotions, and asked, "Who are you?"

Li Changzhou recalled the name spoken by the housekeeper: "Changzhou... Spencer... Morgan."

"Morgan?" Edison dropped his cigar, stepped over the pile of bricks, and extended his hand, "Nice to meet you! Welcome to my research institute!"

◇

"What kind of person is Edison?"

"Who knows?" Yang Qinglan said nonchalantly, looking toward the nearby town, "Some say he's the king of inventors, others say he's a fraud, some call him a capitalist, and some say he's too dumb."

"Dumb?" Li Qianxia repeated, surprised, "Edison is dumb?"

"That's what Tesla said," Yang Qinglan replied, withdrawing her gaze, "Apparently, Edison's experimental methods are incredibly inefficient, often creating more work for lesser results. According to Tesla, he doesn't even know the basics of theory and calculations, completely disregarding elementary education and mathematical knowledge, relying solely on an inventor's intuition and experience."

"In summary," Yang Qinglan concluded, "he's a person who's industrious with his hands but lazy with his brain."

Then she added, "This is Tesla's view."

"History is really... strange," Li Qianxia said, not knowing what else to say.

"It might also be Tesla's jealousy, jealous that Edison, a man who dropped out of primary school, could achieve tremendous success—but that's just speculation. No one knows the truth. If you are curious, you might as well ask them yourself."

Yang Qinglan suggested she ask Tesla and Edison, but Li Qianxia was reminded of Li Changzhou.

"I wonder if my brother has arrived." She felt somewhat melancholy, having not seen her brother for nearly a morning.

It wasn't just any morning; she didn't know where he had gone or when and where they would next meet.

"By the way, Lan," she suddenly remembered, looking toward Yang Qinglan, who was also staring into the distance, "when you see my brother, have him transfer the money to you. You should learn the last two skills; I think they are quite necessary."

Yang Qinglan shook her head, "Let's talk about it after we get out. There might be better things to buy this time."

"But we have to be able to get out first; you getting stronger is our way out!"

"We'll see," Yang Qinglan still didn't seem very willing to spend on the Evangelical Book, preferring to save it for Li Changzhou to upgrade his skills.

Li Qianxia suddenly giggled.

Facing Yang Qinglan's puzzled look, she laughed and said, "It just crossed my mind. When we first met, you were so serious and cold, talking about team spirit, prioritizing game coins for those in need, and now you hesitate to use them for yourself."

Yang Qinglan smiled, a breathtakingly beautiful smile, yet devoid of any mirth.

"...Let's not talk about this anymore." Although she said to drop the topic, Li Qianxia muttered, "You always talk about us, but won't let me mention you."

"Have I ever mentioned you?"

"Uh—, well... you will, eventually! Definitely!"

"We're here!" Suddenly, the voice of the old demon hunter came.

Both turned their heads, and under the scorching summer sun, the air of Monroe Park Town was so hot that it distorted, almost like a mirage.

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