A Secret Art That Endangered the Entire City

The next day.

Early in the morning, Fang Li left his room and went out to continue his journey.

At the top of a building, Shana stood against the wind, watching Fang Li walk slowly down the street, a look of doubt in her eyes.

To others, Fang Li might simply be out shopping.

However, Shana could see that Fang Li was making some small moves in secret while strolling around.

Those subtle actions were mainly aimed at people who had an extremely weak presence and walked past them listlessly.

Those people were all torches whose Power of Existence was about to be extinguished.

As the torches passed by Fang Li, one of Fang Li hands would tremble slightly.

That was Fang Li wielding his dagger with astonishing speed, slicing through the torches beside him.

Immediately afterwards, the torches that were struck would burn out completely and disappear into the air.

Fang Li continued this work indefinitely, constantly consuming the torches in Misaki City.

"That guy..." Shana muttered, "What on earth is he doing?"

"... Yesterday he seemed to say that as long as we keep destroying the torches, the ' The Hunter ' will appear, right?" Alastor said thoughtfully. "Is that why he's been targeting those torches?"

"But why would destroying the torch release that 'apprentice'?" Shana asked the obvious question, saying, "It's just a torch anyway; once it's set up, it's no longer my concern, right?"

The torch exists precisely to prevent the world from becoming distorted due to the loss of a large amount of Power of Existence.

However, this is a problem that Flame Haze Warrior need to worry about. If Crimson Realm Denizens cared about this issue, they wouldn't have come from the Crimson World to the Real World and done whatever they wanted.

Therefore, the Crimson Realm Denizens had no reason to worry about the torches. The reason they left some residue after absorbing the Power of Existence and made torches was to prevent the distortion of the world from attracting Flame Haze Warrior.

In other words, both Flame Haze Warrior and Crimson Realm Denizens will use the remaining remnants of humanity's existence to create torches when their Power of Existence is exhausted, but the torches' survival afterward is no longer relevant to either of them.

Even Flame Haze Warrior are like this, let alone Crimson Realm Denizens; they wouldn't care at all about the extinction of the torches.

If Fariagani was so attached to the torch, what does that signify?

This shows that the torch was useful to Fariagani.

Moreover, it is still very useful.

Therefore, Fang Li eliminated the torch, Fariagani not only sent Phosphorus to investigate, but also risked exposing himself.

This explains Fang Li's behavior.

If the torches in Misaki City are truly of great use to Fariagani, then Fang Li in eliminating the torches are essentially sabotaging Fariagani's plans. That "The Hunter" will definitely not let it go and will surely come out to stop it.

"But what exactly does that ' The Hunter ' intend to do with the torch?"

Shana couldn't help but murmur aloud.

Alastor remained silent for a long time before suddenly speaking.

"Long ago, on the western border, there was a powerful Demon Lord who devoured humans at will and left behind a large number of torches, in which some kind of mechanism was installed."

Alastor's sudden explanation left Shana stunned.

However, Alastor continued, "The function of that mechanism is to allow the user to manipulate the torch, which is used as a substitute, to completely disintegrate and restore it to its original Power of Existence, causing all the torches to lose their function as substitutes at the same time."

"All the torches?" Shana immediately realized, and said in surprise, "If that's the case, wouldn't it cause a huge distortion of the world?"

Although the purpose of the torches is to ease the conflicts in the world and slow down the process of distortion, if a large number of torches lose their form in an instant and transform into the Power of Existence, then even if these Power of Existence are few, they will accumulate and cause the same fate as humans having their Power of Existence devoured.

And if these torches were so numerous as to be unimaginable, and spread throughout the entire city...

"That would turn the entire city into a snowball, transforming it into a massive and highly pure Power of Existence."

Alastor declared this in a somber tone.

"Therefore, this secret method is called City Devour."

————"City Devour".

A secret technique to transform an entire city into a highly pure Power of Existence.

If this secret method succeeds...

"At that time, not only will this city completely disappear, but the world will be drastically distorted, and even the 'disciples' who have used secret techniques to devour the Power of Existence will become exceptionally powerful, right?"

Shana asked in a voice completely devoid of any tension, "How did the last 'apprentice' do?"

"It took a long and arduous battle, with the combined efforts of many Flame Haze Warrior and even Crimson King, to finally annihilate him," Alastor said. "Having absorbed the power of the entire city, that 'Apprentice' was considered the strongest Demon Lord at the time. It's hard to imagine what would have happened if many Crimson King hadn't joined the fight."

"And then?" Shana asked directly, "Is that ' The Hunter ' doing the same thing now?"

"I can't be sure," Alastor said. "However, I've only heard of one instance where the Demon Lord needed a large number of torches, and the Hunter's frenzy towards the Reiji Maigo yesterday easily suggests that he has an intense thirst for the Power of Existence. Otherwise, the Demon Lord, known for his cunning and wisdom, wouldn't have lost control like that."

Although the Reiji Maigo only has the simple effect of restoring the owner's Power of Existence at zero time, its preciousness lies in the fact that there is no fixed upper limit to its restoration.

In other words, the more Power of Existence the holder possesses, the greater the recovery effect of the Reiji Maigo will be. If the Power of Existence that the holder can contain is infinite, then the Reiji Maigo will be able to release infinite Power of Existence.

If it weren't for the fact that the Reiji Maigo only regained the Power of Existence, which is rather insignificant in the Main God Space, which contains various power systems, it would definitely not have been only at the Fourth Level.

For those who need the Power of Existence, the role of the Reiji Maigo is even more powerful.

If Fariagani truly needs a large amount of Power of Existence, Reiji Maigo is definitely a shortcut to achieving his goal.

"I see." Shana nodded. "If that's the case, then everything makes sense."

"However, this means we can't be careless." Alastor's tone became serious. "If the City Devour is launched, the resulting distortions will be severe, and we absolutely cannot allow it to succeed."

"I know," Shana replied matter-of-factly.

After all, the things that need to be done remain unchanged.