I was almost like a madman, not even paying attention to the red lights on the street, sprinting as fast as I could, and in the next second, I was already downstairs at my building. I was gasping for breath, clutching my knee. Normally, even running ten thousand meters wouldn’t leave me like this, but my emotions were just too turbulent right now—I simply couldn’t calm down. Half of my old apartment building was gone, as if someone had punched down from the sky and smashed half the building into dust.

“Damn it! What the hell is going on? I never heard anything about this building being demolished, and even if it was, my family would never be the ones refusing to move—we’d be happy to relocate!”

I simply couldn’t believe my eyes and rushed straight to the... former site of the old building! When I threw myself at the spot, which had already become a huge pit, I saw someone lying on their back at the bottom. I didn’t care that the remaining half of the building was teetering on the edge of collapse—I dashed down as fast as I could. Although the person lying at the bottom wasn’t my parents, I wanted to know what had just happened. At the very least, he was a witness.

When I desperately carried the person out of the pit, the remaining half of the old building shook and then collapsed with a thunderous crash. Now, there was truly no hope left. I almost forgot I was carrying someone on my back and was about to rush down again to look for people, when the person behind me weakly said, “There’s no need to go down. Under the Great Disintegration Spell, no life can survive. Even I had my false form shattered, at least half my soul destroyed, and my strength has dropped to less than thirty percent.”

“Great Disintegration Spell? Do you think you’re playing a game? Or reading a web novel? I have to save my parents!”

Unable to suppress my anxiety and fear, I roared loudly, but then everything went black before my eyes, and I lost all consciousness.

※※※※

“You’re awake? You really are brave, daring to rush down like that to save someone.”

I opened my eyes, still a bit dizzy. When the memories before I fainted flooded back, I jumped up and shouted, “I have to save my parents!” Before I could take a single step, he smiled slightly, raised a finger and pointed at me from afar, and my body couldn’t move at all.

I finally noticed there was another person in the room—the one I had rescued.

I struggled angrily a few times, but it was useless. In my extreme rage, I didn’t even notice that the method he used to immobilize me was almost like magic—astonishingly miraculous.

All I could think about was saving my parents, and I shouted, “Let me go!”

He looked terrible, his face ashen and frightening, coughing nonstop, with a patch of blood on his chest—clearly, he had coughed up blood several times just now. Immobilizing me had cost him a lot of energy, and he coughed softly a few more times. Despite his extreme weakness, he still had an “imposing presence,” as if he was born different from everyone else—aloof, with a very unique aura.

“You don’t need to go, because your parents...”

He suddenly smiled, pointed at the TV, and without using a remote, the TV started playing the news. The news was about the collapse of our old apartment building.

In the news, the cause of the collapse was reported as a gas leak, and the number of casualties was only nine. The anchor, in the usual indifferent tone, said, “Because it’s Saturday, most people had to work overtime, so not many were at home during the explosion.” I had just breathed a sigh of relief, still holding onto a sliver of hope, when that person crooked his finger and gestured to me.

The screen switched to another scene—a morgue, where countless horribly mangled corpses lay densely packed, definitely numbering over a hundred, making my scalp tingle.

Chapter Three: The Golden Burial Shroud

“I’ve already checked. Your parents... are gone. Young man, you have my condolences.”

When the TV froze on the faces of two people, and I saw those two familiar yet now unrecognizable faces covered in blood, my last bit of hope burst like a bubble, and I was completely stunned. It was as if all the strength had left my body, and I collapsed to the ground, not even noticing when he had released the hold on my body.

He looked at me for a while, shook his head helplessly, snapped his fingers, and a cup of liquor spun through the air and landed in front of me with remarkable precision.

I didn’t care what was in the cup, nor did I pay attention to his sleight of hand. I grabbed the cup and downed the liquid in one gulp.

The burning sensation spread from my mouth to my throat and all the way to my stomach. I almost immediately started roaring, my cries mixed with sobs, incoherent—I didn’t even know what I was shouting.

All I knew was that I was furious, heartbroken, and utterly helpless.

I only cried for a short while before the fire of anger in my heart gradually suppressed everything else. I lunged at the man, grabbed his collar, and shouted, “Tell me what happened! Or I’ll kill you!”

He gave me a gentle push, and I was sent flying uncontrollably, slamming hard into the wall.

The force of that push was tremendous. I felt a booming pain in my back, as if my whole body had been broken. For a moment, I couldn’t even feel my own body, let alone get up and lose my temper.