The raging fire consumed everything indiscriminately, good or bad, peaceful or bloodthirsty, even the foundation tree was swallowed whole.

Decades of accumulation and hundreds of generations of inherited artifacts at the Bureau were reduced to ashes.

The field agents who rushed to the scene stood outside the perimeter of the inferno, some standing, some kneeling.

Strangely, they did not feel the scorching heat of the fire burning the mountain. The snow-white flames seemed almost cool. As the flames passed, the strange flowers and plants silently turned into ashes, like a painting erased by an eraser...until everything fell into silence.

When the fire subsided, the once bustling Western Mountain was reduced to a scorched earth.

The mythical building of the Bureau no longer existed, and the strict array of formations had vanished without a trace.

For a moment, people felt as if there had never been any special abilities or such an organization as the Bureau in the world.

After an unknown amount of time, an agent's alarm suddenly rang, waking everyone up to the fact that it was already five o'clock in the morning.

The thunderstorm that had been raging all night was finally dispersed by the northwest wind, revealing the sparse stars before dawn. Without the towering skyscraper, the sky over the western mountains suddenly became empty, and a burnt smell slowly drifted out of the ruins.

With the disappearance of the Vermilion Bird flame, Sheng Lingyuan felt as if he had been released from a thousand-pound shackle.

As soon as he could move, the first thing he did was to push Xuan Ji away fiercely and leave without saying a word.

Xuan Ji was pushed by him and at first didn't react. He stumbled to his feet and chased after him, still a bit dazed.

He quickly explained in a low voice, "I was going to talk to you about it earlier, but it's my fault that guy got away. Wasn't it only because I couldn't say anything in time. You didn't see the crazy underground situation at that time. I was caught between a rock and a hard place..."

Sheng Lingyuan didn't care about the underground situation at all.

He acted as if Xuan Ji didn't exist and went straight to Gu Yuexi, who was unconscious from blood loss.

He bent down and checked her pulse, then calmly reassured the nervous agents around him, "She's not in danger. She probably just overused her powers and exhausted herself."

Gu Yuexi's blood-covered shoulder looked serious, but most of the injuries were just skin deep. After all, she was young and the bleeding had already stopped.

However, her hands and feet were cold and her blood pressure was low.

"I have some candy here." Dan Lin quickly rummaged through his pocket and pulled out two wrinkled chocolates. "Quickly feed her some."

Zhang Zhao shouted, "Get a stretcher! Call the special abilities doctor, hurry!"

Sheng Lingyuan scanned the crowd with his eyes and finally picked the most experienced Dan Lin.

He asked, "Can you accompany me to explore the ruins of the bureau?"

Dan Lin quickly agreed and wiped the blood off her body hastily.

Sheng Lingyuan politely nodded to Xiao Zheng and the others who followed him, and walked towards the original site of the Bureau.

He still appeared as inscrutable and refined as usual, not at all like he was angry... except for treating Xuan Ji as a floating void.

Wang Ze, the old sly fox, scanned his surroundings and sensed that something was off.

He waited until the end to ask Xuan Ji in a hushed voice, "Did you guys have a falling out? What happened this time?"

Xuan Ji was both anxious and aggrieved, "How the hell should I know?"

Wang Ze scrutinized him again and sighed, "Sigh, being able to fly is convenient, but it's also too hard on clothes. You're always in tatters. Director Xuan, do you want a jacket? I just changed mine yesterday and it hasn't had a chance to stink yet."

This was a question with a certain flavor, and Xuan Ji seemed to have already smelled the stench of fish, so he quickly declined. As he waved his hand, he realized that his elbow was exposed to the wind, and his sleeve was torn.

"When did this get torn?" Xuan Ji was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized what had happened and froze in mid-step.

Oh, oh no! He's done for.

Wang Ze leaned in and whispered, "Your family's boss just looked at you."

Xuan Ji's heart skipped a beat. "What?"

"He looked away again... Hey, his eyes were weird. I think he wants to make a wrap you in mud, bury you in the ground, and make some clay-wrapped chicken."

Xuan Ji: "..."

Can't different races respect each other?

He didn't go around talking about "sashimi" and "sweet and sour carp" all day, did he?

After just one night, the secret" of their Mountain Vow and Sea Oath was leaked. What terrible luck!

Xuan Ji hung back in the crowd, stealing a glance at the Emperor's back.

After hesitating for a moment, he turned to Wang Ze and whispered, "Um...can I ask you something?"

Wang Ze was always willing to help and immediately responded, "Sure, what's up?"

"It's about something...um...difficult to explain. It's causing some family conflicts," Xuan Ji said vaguely. "Can you give me some advice on how to handle it?"

"What kind of 'conflicts'?" Wang Ze asked. "Is it the kind where 'you make the money, I spend it, and if you touch the finances, you deserve to die, but it's okay for me to max out my credit card because I didn't eat your rice'?"

"It's not a financial problem."

Xuan Ji said he didn't even have a "financial" problem, so where did the "issue" come from? Wang Ze looked at him in confusion, "Besides financial problems, what else could cause family conflicts? You two don't need to tutor your child's homework... Could it be that someone is having an affair?"

"Get lost," Xuan Ji cursed, hesitated for a moment, and then reluctantly said, "Okay, it's... kind of like that. He had something to do before and didn't discuss it with me. He planned to do it on his own, but I found out and we had a big fight. Then I did something in retaliation, and now it's been discovered..."

After listening, Wang Ze said seriously, "Oh, I understand. I feel like you don't want to continue this relationship."

Xuan Ji replied, "I really must thank you."

"Instead of resolving conflicts, you escalate them. You're really something else. Why is it that even someone like you can find a partner, but I can't?" Wang Ze lamented.

"Director Xuan, can you give me some advice? Is it because I have a dark complexion? But my heart is pure and flawless!"

Xuan Ji lowered his head and searched for an excuse. "It's because he...he's unreliable. He has a gambling problem, and it's not the first time."

Wang Ze thought for a moment and sighed with an air of resignation. "I guess if it's not working out, then it's time to move on."

Xuan Ji: "..."

"Although it's normal to have some bumps in the road in a relationship," Wang Ze said mysteriously, hands clasped as if he were a relationship expert, "if you don't trust each other, what's the point? Are you going to spend all day playing mind games with each other? That's no fun at all."

"You should just leave now," Xuan Ji said weakly, shooing away Old Wang. "I knew all those relationship experts out there are just single and lonely."

He took out a cigarette and held it in his hand, but didn't light it.

When he finally snapped out of his thoughts, the cigarette had burned down to just a stub.

Xuan Ji realized that when Wang Ze said "it's over," he didn't feel anything except for a sense of amusement.

Because Sheng Lingyuan hadn't...and didn't plan on "being over" with him.

The building of the Bureau was covered in ash, and even the golden dragon statue had turned into a black lizard, lying motionless on the stone bricks.

The foundation tree in the hall was likely burned to coal, completely lifeless and buried deep underground.

Sheng Lingyuan circled around the tree, calculating the energy flow of the earth, and asked Dan Lin, "Do you know the origin of this tree growing on the eye of the earth's vein?"

"I only know the general idea. Many experts have come to study this tree, and as far as we know, it is the only one of its kind in the world. It should be a mutated species, but we are not sure what it originally was or how it mutated. There have been attempts to replicate it in the past, but they were unsuccessful. As for its age...according to the local chronicles, it can be traced back to the end of the Great Qi Dynasty..."