Stepping Back Out

"Isn't that Mo Fan... wait, seriously? We're already inside the Quarantine Safe Zone — what is he doing going back out??" Xue Musheng was resting at a nearby camp when he caught sight of Mo Fan walking out through the barrier.

"I swear, nothing in this world could drag me back out there."

"No kidding. Mo Fan is out of his mind."

To every student in that group, the barrier was the line between where they stood and a place of nightmares they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Having barely made it here, nothing on earth would make them take a single step back through it.

What none of them could fathom was what, exactly, had given Mo Fan the courage to cross it again.

In truth, Mo Fan had assumed the same thing — that once he stepped inside the barrier, he would never leave again. Compared to his own life, everything else could be set aside. As for some noble, selfless calling to save the world?

He wasn't built that way. He hadn't even reached the level of Demon-Hunting Squad captain Xu Dahuang when it came to that kind of selflessness.

But the moment his mind conjured the image of a girl who couldn't even walk, trapped in the area with the highest concentration of Demon-Beasts — imagining those eyes of hers, eyes so clear and untouched by the ugliness of the world, filled to the brim with terror and helplessness — imagining her vanishing from this world the way Zhang Yinglu had, without a single moment to look back — fear became a foreign language.

Most people go through life assuming they're too small to ever do anything truly selfless. They look at others who throw their lives on the line and marvel, unable to comprehend it. But the truth is that some things have already taken root in your heart so deeply that they sit above your own existence — and most of the time, you don't even know it. When the moment arrives, the decision you make is pure instinct. Even if that decision costs you your life, you don't waver.

That was exactly where Mo Fan stood now.

He hadn't even stopped to consider whether he *should* walk back out through the Quarantine Safe Zone. His mind had been swallowed whole by a consuming, bone-deep dread, and every part of him was screaming the same thing: *he would not let this happen to Xinxia.*

So when the squad told him with complete certainty that the girl he was looking for had most likely already died — that going out there would be nothing but a futile gesture — Mo Fan still set out with them toward Mingwen District without a flicker of hesitation. No matter how small his chances of finding her in this disaster. No matter how impossibly slim the hope that she was still alive.

Xu Dahuang knew every corner of Bo City. Having him lead the way would cut out a great deal of unnecessary trouble.

Xiao Ke, the Water Element Mage of the Demon-Hunting Squad, had ultimately chosen not to go back out with the group. It was her decision to make; neither Commander Cheng nor Xu Dahuang pressed her.

Also joining the mission were two instructors Mo Fan knew well: Luo Yunbo and Pan Lijun. Leading the team was Commander Cheng, an Intermediate-Level Mage in his own right.

As one of Bo City's guardian officials, Commander Cheng had to lead this dangerous operation in person.

The squad numbered eight in total, and that was deliberate. Too large a group would make too much noise — the kind that could easily tip off the Demon-Beasts to their intentions before they even arrived. On top of that, the Quarantine Safe Zone had already pushed its manpower past its limits. Dispatching a single Intermediate-Level Mage to lead this mission was itself no small thing, especially given that a sizable number of Battle-General-class Demon-Beasts were currently roaming Bo City — and only Intermediate-Level Mages had any realistic chance of dealing with them.

The Meixin Overpass was the most direct route from the Quarantine Safe Zone's district all the way to Mingwen District.

The overpass had long since been swallowed by a tangle of abandoned vehicles, completely impassable by any normal standard. Dim silhouettes slipped between the rows of stalled cars — Demon-Beasts prowling through the wreckage, hunting for residents who had naively believed that staying inside their vehicles would keep them safe.

Now, eight black off-road motorcycles cut silently along the outermost navigable edge of the bridge, weaving through the chaos with fluid precision. Their metal frames were seamlessly smooth; from a distance, they looked like eight jet-black panthers streaking through the dark. Thin shafts of rain-washed light caught their surfaces in cold, intermittent flashes as they sped into the gloom.

"These motorcycles run on Dark Stone-infused engines, which keeps them hidden from Demon-Beasts," Commander Cheng said, "but in a situation like this, having a Summoned Beast for a mount would still give us a much bigger edge in combat."

"Unfortunately, every Summoning Element Mage has already been deployed elsewhere," Pan Lijun replied.

Commander Cheng gave a short nod and said nothing more.

Mo Fan was riding one of the black motorcycles himself — he'd picked up the basics back in middle school.

The instructors at the Magic school had always made a point of drilling this into their students: almost all magic-tech equipment had a tendency to attract Demon-Beasts. Whether it was a phone, a computer, a car, or a motorcycle, every piece of modern technology had been designed according to magic blueprints drawn from various elemental disciplines — and all of it ran on Magic Stones storing elemental energy.

That energy was something Demon-Beasts could sense without any difficulty.

The Magic Stones embedded in everyday consumer devices might not hold much appeal on their own, but a Magic Stone moving at speed was an entirely different matter. It worked the same way as with many animals — they pay no attention to something sitting perfectly still, but the moment it starts moving, instinct kicks in and the pursuit begins. The same logic explained why Demon-Beasts were so reliably drawn to moving vehicles.

Because of this, aside from equipment that had undergone special military processing, operating standard tech devices in the field was essentially a guaranteed way to draw every Demon-Beast in the area straight toward you. How wide a radius would be affected depended entirely on the sensory range of the individual Demon-Beast.

Through conversation with the Military Mages in the group, Mo Fan picked up one particularly useful piece of information: a Mage's preferred mode of transport was typically a Summoned Beast. A Summoned Beast's aura was naturally similar to that of a Demon-Beast, which made riding one outside city limits far less likely to attract notice. Equally important, when disaster struck a city and conventional infrastructure collapsed entirely, a Summoned Beast was the only creature capable of moving swiftly through streets choked with wreckage — just like the military's prized mount, the Celestial Eagle.

The unfortunate reality was that most people's first elemental awakening landed in one of the standard elemental disciplines. Dimensional Magic — the school that contained the Summoning Element — typically didn't become accessible until the Intermediate Level, or even the High Level. Summoned Beasts were never going to be a common sight.

They cleared the Meixin Overpass without too much difficulty and made decent time.

But as Mingwen District came into view, a section of the overpass had clearly collapsed — unmistakable evidence that a Battle-General-class Demon-Beast had passed through at some point.

There was nothing for it but to abandon the motorcycles and continue on foot. That was the most glaring weakness of any tech-based transport: it was utterly dependent on having a road to travel.

With the bikes left behind, all eight pressed forward. Luo Yunbo, a Wind Element instructor, took point and scouted ahead.

Luo Yunbo's field experience ran even deeper than Li Wenjie's. He had a particular trick: by carefully directing his Wind Trail magic, he could steer Demon-Beasts away from their path and clear a route, letting the group slip through without ever drawing a blade.

Having a Wind Element Mage of his caliber on the team was invaluable — it saved enormous amounts of time and kept everyone's fighting strength in reserve. The road ahead was long, and there were far too many unknowns waiting for them. Every fight they could avoid was a fight worth avoiding.