178: Chapter 178 The Burning Fire

Ye Nanxing turned around.

It was as if the flames had exchanged a breath with her soul.

Deep within the Self-Burning Forest, the waves of fire that had raged for who knows how many years seemed to "quiet down" for the first time.

It was as if that consciousness truly understood what it meant to "travel together."

Zhang Tianjin looked up at the branches and leaves where residual flames were still rolling in the air, and smacked his lips:

"Sis... you're really someone who can talk sense into fire."

"This isn't even kidnapping anymore; it's... going to find a mother for the Child."

Zhao Wei rolled his eyes: "Why not say you're opening a parent-Child center?"

And they all knew.

Ye Nanxing hadn't just "taken away a Fire Spirit."

What she took away was the will of fire.

It was another instance of humanity taming and accepting "destructive power" in the Apocalypse.

A new survival variable, just like that—

Actively walked into the palm of her hand.

As soon as they left the Self-Burning Forest, the weather changed abruptly.

The sky churned with waves of high-heat clouds, and pillars of lightning with scorching golden light descended from the sky, as if the entire horizon had been set ablaze.

Inside the car, Ye Nanxing slowly extended her palm.

Floating quietly in her palm was that miniature [Fire Spirit Seed]—pulsing with a pale golden light like a heart. Its temperature wasn't high, but it stirred up tiny ripples of energy in the air, as if it were resonating with the "fire" of the entire world.

While steadying the car, Zhou Cheng looked back: "Is it alright?"

"It likes heat," Ye Nanxing said in a calm tone, "but it... doesn't like this kind of chaotic fire."

Zhao Wei turned his head to look at the small, pulsing point of light and whispered: "It's hiding, isn't it?"

"Like a Child who just escaped from the battlefield."

Zhang Tianjin fanned himself while muttering: "Sis, you really... kidnapped an 'Apocalypse Fire Child' and brought it home."

Chu Yunting sat in the passenger seat, his tone indifferent: "That's only if you can afford to raise it."

"It's not an ordinary energy body; it's a spiritual creature—how do you plan to 'raise' it?"

"By relying on the cold spring," she replied softly with her eyes closed.

"The temperature of the Spirit Spring Cold Domain is just right to suppress the Fire Spirit's restlessness; I will create an independent temperature-controlled cycle within the space so it can slowly adapt in a constant-temperature zone."

[Space Synchronizing]

[Fire Spirit Sub-domain · Establishing]

[Current Status: Incubation Stabilization Period / Emotional Fluctuation / Adapting]

She opened the space interface, designated the Fire Spirit's location as a "Temporary Observation Area," surrounded it with the cold air of the Spirit Spring, and kept the central area at a constant temperature of 38°C to maintain the consistent frequency of the Fire Seed's pulse.

"I will perform a mental synchronization with it every night to see if it can understand our world."

"It has consciousness."

"Which means—it can learn."

After hearing this, Zhou Cheng looked at her with complex eyes: "Do you really intend to let it... become a 'person'?"

"If it's willing," Ye Nanxing replied calmly, "We live on this wasteland, doing nothing more than pitting our will against a pile of dead people."

"It is living fire."

"If it is willing to stand on our side... then I am willing to give it a human 'shell'."

Zhang Tianjin whispered: "...If this actually works, it won't just be a Fire Spirit anymore."

"That would be... the first non-human combat partner."

Zhao Wei suddenly smiled: "I think that's pretty good too."

"Not everything has to become a tool. An 'alien species' that can survive alongside humans—that is the true breakthrough of the Apocalypse."

Chu Yunting leaned against the back of the seat with his eyes closed, his tone steady: "The Fire Spirit is not a tool."

"It is a spark."

"Just like the match that can still be lit after civilization is extinguished."

"Only if you dare to trust it will it burn the places you want it to burn."

They originally planned to leave the forest overnight and return to the Shelter, but just five kilometers after leaving the Self-Burning Forest, a blinding pillar of light rolled up on the distant horizon.

"Is that... lightning?" Zhao Wei sat in the passenger seat, frowning as he stared at the dark clouds rolling in the distance.

Zhang Tianjin pulled open the back window and looked out, muttering: "This weather is a bit strange, it looks like... fire winds mixed with thunderstorms."

Zhou Cheng looked up and quickly scanned the barometer in his hand: "The temperature is rising, the air pressure is collapsing, and the high-heat convection after the fire has formed a 'Foehn wind belt'."

"This place won't be habitable in half an hour."

Chu Yunting made a decisive decision: "Retreat, move at full speed."

"We can't stand against the weather here."

Ye Nanxing didn't speak, just slowly closed her palm, a wisp of tiny fire dancing at her fingertips—

That was the Fire Spirit she had taken into the space, actively sending out a warning of "heat source surge."

She closed her eyes for a moment and synchronized with the space.

[Space Notification · Fire Seed Emotional Fluctuation]

[Fire Spirit Feedback: Regional Anomaly · Energy Backflow · Storm Forming]

[Suggestion: Immediately evacuate the high-temperature zone · Return to the Spirit Spring node for temperature difference buffering]

"Listen to it," she said, opening her eyes.

"The space is warning—the weather is about to spiral out of control."

"Go straight back to Tianlang Mountain."

"This time, no need to take the long way."

The convoy readjusted its direction, speeding along the abandoned highway next to the collapsed elevated bridge.

Along the way, they avoided several collapsed road sections and collected a few pieces of floating, scattered equipment.

Meanwhile, the Fire Spirit remained quietly in the space, like a "heat seed" ready to burst with power at any moment, swimming slowly at the edge of the Spirit Spring Cold Domain, maintaining a strange "balance."

Ye Nanxing stood at the edge of the space's core, and before her eyes were the two worlds she had carved out with her own hands.

On the left, the Spirit Spring Cold Domain was as clear as snowy jade, with a constant water temperature of 6.2°C, murmuring streams, and silver-gray Cold Spring fish swimming in the shallows; occasionally, a thin mist would rise, looking like a quiet polar lake.

On the right was the newly established Fire Spirit Sub-domain—after the Scarlet Flame Spirit Seed moved in, it spontaneously derived a scarlet rock mound. The ground looked like a shell layer formed by solidified lava, with a faint light flickering from bottom to top. The flames were not in a bursting, burning form, but in a "breathing fluctuation," like an unsheathed heart, gestating immense power in the calm.

Between these two regions—originally a space transition zone—things were now changing.

[Space Notification: Cold-Hot Boundary Layer Exceptionally Active]

[Detected energy reaction forming a natural "flowing boundary"]

[Suggestion: Construct a fusion node · Used to activate the second stage of abilities · Spiritual resource synchronous conversion mechanism]

Ye Nanxing's gaze flickered; she raised her hand and waved it gently, and the space unfolded the structural map in response.

—She saw the patch of gray soil at the edge of the Cold Domain, which had originally been empty, gradually "self-igniting" and "frosting over," presenting a "confrontation zone" that was highly discordant yet stably existing.

White light rose amidst the cold mist, and red light flickered amidst the molten fire; the two forces did not devour each other across the dividing line, but were testing one another.

It was like the beginning of the world, when elements first met.