After speaking, a thin layer of water, emitting an extremely chilling aura, spread from beneath his feet and then rose into the air, forming the shape of a protective shield, enveloping both Candle Dragon and Sun Hang inside.

"Be careful," Yang Qi said from afar, her eyes revealing undisguised worry. "If you sense something's awry, retreat immediately. We still lack too much information about this enigmatic creature..."

In truth, Yang Qi wanted to suggest they wait for reinforcements from Tianfu City before taking action. But then she reconsidered — they were heading to support Tianfu City themselves... In other words, they might be the maximum support Tianfu City could offer to Lizhou City.

The moment the barrier line ahead touched Candle Dragon's water curtain, it shattered like a French pancake. The two moved forward, passing a group of firefighters, and then bypassed warning signs and plastic roadblocks that had started to melt.

"Can you sense that guy's aura?" Sun Hang asked as he walked.

The water curtain didn't cover 360 degrees — at least the ground beneath Sun Hang's feet wasn't shrouded. He could distinctly feel the intense heat penetrating through the ground and then through his boots and socks, reaching the soles of his feet... This was still the surface cooled by the water curtain. If Candle Dragon's curtain hadn't swept over it first, the soles of Sun Hang's shoes might have melted and stuck to it upon stepping directly.

"I can't sense anything," Candle Dragon shook his head. "These flames... just ordinary flames. I can't detect any aura from the meme of the creature within them."

"I can't either... Something feels weirdly..."

Before Sun Hang could finish saying the word "weird," the Fireball in the sky suddenly changed!

The Fireball first expanded dramatically, releasing intense heat waves around, and then began collapsing inward — within seconds, the giant Fireball suspended in the air vanished without a trace!

"Huh?" Sun Hang was dumbfounded, even Candle Dragon who usually maintained composure was stunned.

"Did it... run away?" Sun Hang could feel that, after the Fireball disappeared, the surrounding temperature drop rapidly, making the chilling aura of the water curtain take the forefront, causing him to shiver involuntarily.

Candle Dragon retracted the water curtain, took two steps forward, murmuring, "How could it vanish suddenly..."

"Go check the spot right beneath where the Fireball was floating!" Sun Hang took two steps forward, then turned around and ran towards the barrier line as if recalling something.

The edge of the high-temperature area and the location of the Fireball were several kilometers apart, running over with legs would be too slow. Sun Hang rushed to the car he came in, slapped the hood hard, and shouted to the driver, "Buddy, get out! I need this car!"

"Huh? Oh! Okay!" The driver, realizing the situation, hurriedly got out of the car, and Sun Hang plopped down in the driver's seat, twisted the key, shifted gears, and floored the accelerator, charging out.

The ground temperature was still high but within the range the tires could handle. Sun Hang drove next to Candle Dragon, honked hard, "Get in!"

With the pedal floored, the car reached its maximum speed. Sun Hang raced down the blazing street with Candle Dragon — and for the blocks where the flames hadn't yet extinguished, they relied on the water curtain covering the car to charge through.

In less than three minutes, the car burst into Panlong Airport.

On the runway, two passenger planes were reduced to skeletal remains, broken into pieces; thick smoke rose to the sky, the nearby terminal had turned into charred ruins — the only plus was that Panlong Airport no longer received any civilian passengers, and the once crowded terminal was now occupied by only a few staff members, minimizing casualties from the incident.

Sun Hang did a big drifting turn and stopped the car in the center of the runway, pushed open the door, glanced at the almost destroyed tires, and ran forward over ten meters breathlessly.

This was indeed the spot — it's the very location he saw the explosion and the Fireball appear from the plane!

Yet there was nothing here.

No crater, no traces of explosion, no debris, no remnants, not even a residual aura from the creature!

Only the melted asphalt road surface underneath and the exposed cracked concrete foundation beneath.

Apart from this, there was nothing here.

"No aura left at all," Candle Dragon walked over with a frown. "Could this be some creature adept at aura masking?"

"Do you think this guy needs to be adept at aura masking?" Sun Hang replied, "Its appearance was so conspicuous that the whole of Lizhou City could see... Aura masking, what a joke..."

"That's hard to say; some very noticeable creatures do possess aura masking abilities," Candle Dragon said. "I've encountered an entire mountain with 'G' type creature, with no aura leaking at all, leading the investigation team to mistakenly believe the previous bizarre incidents were caused by a creature hiding in the mountains... But later, we realized the entire mountain itself was the creature."

"How did you handle that mountain later?" Sun Hang asked.

He subconsciously recalled the Dragon Rock Fortress that had already "left" Shuzhou.

"That mountain wasn't very threatening, just easy to get lost on. Those who went missing on the mountain died of exhaustion or thirst after getting lost..." Candle Dragon explained. "The method was simple: first define a blockade around the mountain and then use large quantities of explosives to blow the whole mountain up — until the mountain was blown apart, exposing the interior mutated rock layers, the aura of the creature fully released."

"Do you think this Fireball is the same situation?" Sun Hang circled around, "For some reason, I have a feeling... it didn't escape but extinguished."

"I also have that feeling," Candle Dragon nodded with agreement, "Many phenomenon-type or energy-type creatures exist briefly, some so short that humans can't observe them without precise calculations to deduce evidence of their presence... Like that huge Fireball earlier, the energy it released was akin to a tactical nuclear bomb. I lean toward it having burned out after releasing its energy... including its meme."

"Self-detonation?"

"Within Dubhe Tower, these creatures have a nickname," Candle Dragon said, "called 'Ephemeral Creatures.'

"Derived from the term 'Ephemeral Flash'?"

"Yes, most 'Ephemeral Creatures' leave no impact on the human world, but a few 'Ephemeral Creatures'... if appearing in a Surrendered Area, it's okay, but if suddenly in a dense population, a terrifying disaster could occur, just like that huge Fireball," Candle Dragon explained.

"Honestly, this place feels like it got hit with a nuclear bomb," Sun Hang pondered, then reconsidered, "No, it's slightly different from a nuclear bomb... Look closely, there's no sign of blast impact; the buildings and plane wreckages are largely intact... That Fireball merely released thermal energy, it wasn't an explosive bomb but a pure 'heat source.' The explosion we saw from above was merely the Fireball's expansion process."

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