Yan Yongbo had indeed fulfilled his promise. Over the following period, he accompanied Captain He and the military's small team of Burners, rushing to every deck and corner of the transport ship in pursuit of the Darksider life form.
The chase lasted about half an hour. The Darksider even tried to break out of the ship's hull in a desperate attempt to escape. In the end, however, the five Deep Blue Walkers joined forces to corner and eliminate it. Captain He seized the opportunity to strike a fatal blow, exacting revenge. Only then did the chaos aboard the warship finally subside.
Meanwhile, Luo Nan's soul had quietly returned to the confinement room, even as the turmoil outside continued.
The heavy metal door isolated him from the clamor of the outside world. Inside, his main body remained seated, pen in hand. His eyes were half-closed, and he appeared lost in a trance.
Luo Nan had never observed himself from this perspective before. For a moment, he felt a sense of unparalleled strangeness, as if an entire lifetime had passed in an instant.
But the burning wraith could no longer supply energy to him. The chill that had accumulated in his soul now pressed against his body, making him extremely uncomfortable. Without hesitation, Luo Nan returned fully to his body.
The scene he had feared—"passing through his body"—did not occur. As his soul neared his physical form, the boundary between reality and illusion shimmered in a trance, manifesting his visualization diagram: a tetrahedron with an inscribed circumscribed sphere.
The inner sphere enveloped his five viscera and six bowels, while the tetrahedron delineated the inner and outer boundaries. When his soul made contact with the outer sphere, it became a faint light and entered his head.
A restrictive sensation pressed down on him, but simultaneously, it felt like wearing a thick armor. An inexplicable ease followed. This sensation lasted less than half a minute before vanishing. The legendary "out-of-body experience" had, for the time being, come to an end.
Luo Nan's body moved. He pinched the pen shaft and swayed his neck slightly, readjusting to the unified state of body and soul.
Judging from his current experience, the skeleton was indeed the carrier and armor of the soul. At the very least, it served as a "power plant." The Astral Projection, on the other hand, was merely travel; without sufficient resources, caution was essential.
In reality, without the burning wraith, leaving his body required careful consideration.
The burning wraith, however, was done for. Its spirit and flesh had long since become one, but the relentless attacks had exceeded its limits. It had also encountered the "Slayer" it feared most. The fusion of the Format of Fire and the Slayer's tyrannical will had inflicted fatal damage.
Losing the burning wraith was regrettable, but compared to his own life, it was insignificant.
Luo Nan exhaled deeply. Though his soul had returned to his body, another test awaited him.
At a level invisible to ordinary eyes, the heavily chained crow slowly retracted like a snake retreating into a deep burrow for hibernation. So far, no one had noticed. Yet Luo Nan could not afford the slightest carelessness before retrieving it completely.
The retrieval took about ten seconds in reality—but to Luo Nan, it felt like ten years.
He faintly sensed subtle changes atop the heavily chained crow, but he had no time to ponder them. Maintaining his drawing posture, he waited until the chains were fully retracted, returning to nirvana along with the visualization diagram. Occasionally, he traced a few lines that even he could not fully comprehend. He waited silently.
He did not know whether the Deep Blue Walker would burst through the door at any moment, gun aimed at his head.
Five minutes passed. Nothing happened. Luo Nan finally let out a long sigh of relief. He glanced at the notebook—his perfectly drawn sketch of the prison building had been destroyed by his subconscious scribbling.
This was fine.
He closed the notebook, raised his head, and shut his eyes. Leaning against the chair back, he tried to empty his mind and relax, if only for a moment.
But a prompt sounded the next second. The metal door slid open with the crackle of electricity.
Luo Nan's eyes snapped open. His body nearly sprang upright, but he forced himself to relax after a brief stiff moment. He sat up, feigning confusion as he looked toward the door.
Whether he was truly pretending… only the heavens knew.
Relief washed over him when he saw who had entered. It was not a Deep Blue Walker. Nor was it any fully armed combat personnel. It was the captain who had brought him here earlier.
"You. Come with me."
The captain's tone was calm as he gestured for Luo Nan to follow. Luo Nan did not overthink it. He got up and followed, boarding the transport device with the captain and entering the internal communications line.
Luo Nan remained silent inside the fully sealed transport device. He had always been introverted and laconic. He could sit in silence for an entire day if no one spoke to him.
Eventually, the captain issued instructions:
"The police have already boarded the ship. The investigation will begin immediately. You're a minor, and there are many rules. Go see a lawyer right now and prepare."
"Lawyer?" Luo Nan was slightly baffled. "You hired one?"
"It has nothing to do with our military," the captain replied simply.
The transport device arrived at another area of the warship, where arrangements had already been made. Luo Nan glanced around and saw an interrogation room, a waiting area, an analysis room, and numerous sampling and analytical instruments—all seemingly well-organized.
Most of the personnel wore the black uniforms of Xia City Police rather than the common gray of the Air Force.
The captain did not pause. He led Luo Nan to a corner room, knocked, and pushed the door open, indicating for him to enter.
Inside, the room was a bit noisy.
A woman in a business suit leaned against the edge of a table, head lowered as she fiddled with a flexible screen.
The AR effects were maxed out. A beast's silhouette danced across the screen, leaping and running, with dazzling light and shadow effects. The accompanying sound effects were striking—at least the howl of the beast was terrifying.
Luo Nan recognized it immediately: the globally popular mobile game Ten Days in the Wilderness.
"Hold on, this level is tricky," the professional woman said without looking up, casually tapping the flexible screen with her finger.
The captain's eyes twitched at this absurd scene, but Luo Nan paid it no mind. He nodded at the captain and stepped inside.
The difficulty of Ten Days in the Wilderness was extreme. Within a few steps, the game character was devoured by a massive Mutant maw.
The woman sighed and finally raised her head. A smile blossomed on her delicate, beautiful face.
"Hello, Luo Nan. I'm the lawyer entrusted by Young Master Xie, Zhang Yingying."
"Oh… Xie Junping…" Luo Nan's voice carried no shock. In fact, he had been expecting this result. That good-for-nothing fellow hadn't disappointed him in the end.