Lizhou City, temporary command camp.
"Thank you for your support. If you two hadn't stepped in so promptly and put yourselves in danger, we really wouldn't have known how to handle this situation!" The officials from the Lizhou City Management Committee surrounded Sun Hang and Candle Dragon, taking turns shaking their hands—but both Sun Hang and Candle Dragon looked slightly awkward. Only they knew that, in reality, they had done nothing. That fireball had disappeared on its own.
Yet in everyone else's eyes, this terrifyingly powerful aberration had undoubtedly been eliminated by the two hunters. One official whose face was still smeared with burn ointment made their cheeks flush even more. "As expected of hunters from Chunming City—your strength is truly unfathomable! You finished the extermination so quickly! Tomorrow, I'll have every media outlet in Lizhou City put this on the front page... No, Lizhou City alone isn't enough. I'll contact Tianfu City right away. The people of all Shu Province must know of your heroic deeds!"
"Uh, have the casualty figures from this incident been counted yet?" Sun Hang's single question was like a bucket of cold water poured over the crowd. The previously noisy Command Center immediately fell silent. Many faces darkened, and several people quietly left the tent.
"Um... not yet," said an official who had just been trying to ingratiate himself with them. "The fires caused by the extreme heat haven't been fully extinguished, so the counting work can't begin for the time being."
"Many of the victims didn't even leave behind intact remains... I'm afraid we'll only be able to determine who is missing by checking household registrations..." another official said.
The missing people he spoke of were, in truth, no different from the dead—not only that, but relying on household registration had another problem.