Fire is burning.
Everyone instinctively stepped aside, each one staring in shock at the lone youth who strode out from the crowd.
In their sights.
The youth’s red hair and red eyes stood out. The corners of his mouth curled up, brimming with wildness and arrogance.
His entire body radiated a dangerous aura that made people’s hearts race.
The temperature was rising.
Still rising.
"What’s going on?"
"No idea, it’s so hot."
"Did the air conditioning break at the high-speed rail station?"
Travelers glanced over, then quickly shifted their gaze away, afraid that Evan Lin might notice them.
Their eyes were full of unease; no one dared to comment on the youth before them.
It felt less like a crowd watching a stranger, and more like subjects kneeling before their king.
A strange emotion spread through most people present.
Some people even felt an urge to kneel and bow their heads in submission.
That thought startled quite a few people.
Inside the high-speed rail station.
A girl in a bright red dress suddenly looked up, frowning.
"What’s wrong, Lucy Bai?"
Beside her, an elder with white hair and beard, looking elegant and dignified, gave off an immortal-like aura—just the kind of hidden master everyone imagines.
He turned his head and looked at the girl beside him, his eyes full of doting affection.
"It’s nothing, I just sensed a different kind of qi."
Lucy Bai shook her head slightly, her voice very calm.
She glanced at the nearby crowd, who kept gathering and then splitting apart, but showed no extra emotion.
"A different kind of qi?"
The elder looked at her and smiled. "Your spiritual sense is the sharpest. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have found the woman statue in Jinnan back then."
"That woman statue—though we haven’t cracked its secrets yet—most likely has something to do with real cultivators."
"This time we came from Hong Kong to the mainland to see if we could find more clues. You know, the grandmaster and the others are running out of time."
The elder spoke slowly, his words not loud, but even people brushing past them couldn’t hear a single thing they discussed.
"I understand."
Lucy Bai nodded. Her bright red dress was dazzling, but her perpetually cold face never gave off a hint of warmth.
That feeling didn’t match her aura at all.
Still, her stunning looks drew every eye around her. With the immortal-like elder by her side, the two of them became the center of attention wherever they passed.
"The air here is absurdly hot."
Lucy Bai headed toward the station exit. Her exit was about a hundred meters from Evan Lin’s, both lined up along a single straight path.
Lucy Bai walked the same path Evan Lin had taken. She instinctively glanced down at the marble floor and spotted patches of scorched yellow marks.
The marks were faint, but you could vaguely see heat waves rising from them.
"Probably just some petty trickster playing games here."
The elder didn’t care. "Such trivial tricks aren’t worth mentioning."
"You know, the mainland is different from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, our three grandmasters are truly extraordinary."
"But the mainland..."
The elder scoffed, cutting himself off mid-sentence.
Still, the meaning behind his words was crystal clear.
He was obviously looking down on the so-called mainland masters.
Lucy Bai said nothing. She shook her head, refusing to get tangled up in this pointless argument.
Whoever had just walked by wasn’t Lucy Bai’s concern.
Her focus was still on uncovering the secret of the woman statue.
Evan Lin left the high-speed rail station, not bothering with a taxi, heading straight in one direction.
The sun blazed overhead.
Evan Lin kept a calm expression, but every step he took sent waves of heat rippling across the ground.
He looked like a person made of fire.
Countless people glanced his way. Some girls, seeing Evan Lin with the Fire-Spirit Mortal Body active, had eyes full of excitement.
Handsome.
With the Fire-Spirit Mortal Body activated, Evan Lin’s presence exploded—his looks and aura hit people like a shockwave.
"Hey, excuse me, can I get to know you?"
A beautiful girl summoned her courage, stepped out from the crowd, and strode boldly toward Evan Lin.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement, as if she’d discovered a treasure.
The group behind her—guys and girls, about six in all—watched.
Seeing the girl approach and try to strike up a conversation, a few trendy-looking guys in the group looked visibly annoyed.
But worried about upsetting the pretty girl, they didn’t try to stop her.
"Sorry."
Evan Lin didn’t even spare the girl a glance. He walked right past her, not giving her so much as a second of eye contact.
Ignored.
The clean, absolute disregard left the girl stunned.
"Hey kid, isn’t that a bit harsh? Don’t you know how to give people some respect?"
A muscular guy stepped forward, acting like he was standing up for the girl. He blocked Evan Lin’s path: "Qianyu’s talking to you. Can’t you understand plain language?"
"And what’s with that attitude? Just because you’re good-looking, you think you can do whatever you want?"
The guy shouted angrily.
"Don’t!"
The girl called Qianyu hurried forward, trying to stop the guy.
But the guy had already made up his mind—he was going to teach this absurdly handsome kid a lesson.
He swung his fist, aiming straight at Evan Lin.
His fist was halfway through the air when, in the next instant, everyone saw nothing but a blur.
Evan Lin kept walking, never breaking stride or saying a word. The muscular guy had vanished from sight.
"Where’d he go?"
Qianyu froze mid-step, confused.
She quickly heard a commotion nearby, turned her head, and saw a person sticking out of a trash can by the street—headfirst, legs in the air.
The others rushed over, scrambling to pull the guy out of the trash can.
"What just happened?"
"No clue."
"Is that guy nuts? How did he pull that off?"
The group exchanged bewildered looks. Qianyu turned, gazing at the distant figure of Evan Lin, who was growing smaller and slowly disappearing from view. Her expression grew complicated.
It was the first time she’d ever met a guy who made her want to get to know him at first sight.
But it seemed he hadn’t even noticed her at all.
What really unsettled Qianyu was the strange sense of closeness she felt toward that boy—an inexplicable feeling she couldn’t describe.