Time seemed to slow down suddenly. Amidst the darkness and the approaching heat, Nina felt her mind racing uncontrollably.

She seemed to recall her childhood, running around the antique shop with her uncle, "helping" but making a mess of everything. She remembered her uncle explaining the stories behind those "antiques," which were all fabrications in the end. She recalled her first day of school, seeing a steam engine in a textbook for the first time, receiving praise from her teacher for the first time, making friends for the first time… and then losing friends for the first time.

Her mind felt chaotic, her consciousness becoming increasingly muddled.

Smoke had begun to seep into the room, affecting her breathing and her thoughts.

And those fragmented memories all turned into images consumed by flames.

A fire… a fire that only existed in memory, seemed to be burning fiercely before her eyes once more.

Nina stared blankly at the ground not far away, as if flames would suddenly erupt from it in the next second. But just then, she felt a cold hand touch her forehead.

"Are you alright?" Shelly looked at her "friend" with concern. "Your eyes suddenly went blank...

And you were muttering something under your breath."

"I... I'm fine," Nina quickly shook her head, grabbing Shelly's arm. "Thank you... I just suddenly

thought of my family."

"Family..." Shelly paused when she heard those words, then asked casually, "Who's in your family?"

"Just an uncle... My parents passed away many years ago. I grew up with my uncle," Nina thought for a moment, burying her head in her knees. "I promised him I'd be home early today..."

"You... you must be very close to your uncle?" Shelly seemed a little uncomfortable with the topic, or perhaps she didn't know how to comfort her friend. She said something as if just to fill the silence, "What does he do?"

"He's just an ordinary person. Our family owns an antique shop in the lower district, and he runs it by himself..." Nina said slowly, quickly waving her hand after noticing Shelly's surprised expression. "It's not the kind of amazing antique shop you're thinking of. There's nothing real there."

"That sounds amazing too!" Shelly quickly complimented. "A shop owner! Having your own shop, even in the lower district… your family must be doing well?"

"Not really," Nina continued to wave her hand. "My uncle's health hasn't been good in recent years, and business at the shop isn't great either, so we haven't saved much money... But I think my uncle is really amazing. He can even talk to Mr. Morris for a long time! He knows a lot of things. Mr. Morris even says he's a knowledgeable person…"

Shelly listened to Nina's story, nodding with what seemed to be genuine interest. "Then I'll definitely want to meet your uncle when we get out of here…"

Nina smiled. She was about to say something when she suddenly heard a loud crash from the direction of the door—

The next second, the flimsy washroom door was kicked open from the outside, falling to the ground with a bang!

The instant she saw this, Nina's first thought was that the fire in the hallway would explode and engulf them because the door had been broken—this was knowledge she had learned at school. But the next second, she only saw a familiar figure stepping through the doorway. The expected flames did not appear.

Shelly was also startled by the sound of the door being broken. She looked back in shock, her whole body stiffening the moment she saw the figure in the doorway.

She saw the shadow manifestation of that Otherworlder standing quietly in the doorway, and in the corner of her eye, she saw the last bit of flame cowering and receding at his feet. She stood up in astonishment, wanting to retreat with a hint of fear—for a fraction of a second, she even considered sending her new "friend" Nina out as a sacrifice. But before she could take any action, Nina had already stood up behind her.

"Uncle Duncan?!" Nina looked at the figure in the doorway with joy. In that instant, all the fear and oppression seemed to vanish with his appearance.

"Nina?" Duncan was also a little surprised to see the girl—he had actually found this place by following the "mark" left on Shelly. He had planned to find Shelly as a helper and then continue searching the rest of the museum together, but he didn't expect to see Nina directly here.

The next second, his gaze fell on Shelly.

So… the content he had heard through the "mark" before, the person talking to Shelly was Nina… The "classmate" Nina had mentioned was Shelly?!

His mind quickly made the connection, and Duncan immediately noticed the rapidly changing expression on Shelly's face. Before this summoner, with whom he had quite the "connection," could speak, he took a step forward and looked around. "Looks like you're both alright."

The next second, he noticed that there was actually a third person in the room: a young woman in a long dress was lying unconscious on the ground, but she appeared to be alive.

Shelly finally regained her ability to think. She suddenly recalled the things Nina had said to her earlier. After a long while, she slowly turned her head stiffly, her face looking like she had seen a ghost. "Nina… is he… your uncle?"

"Yes!" Nina said happily, then rushed towards Duncan in a few steps. "Uncle, how did you get here?! Is the fire outside out?!"

"Not yet, but the fire is under control," Duncan said casually. He knew that this vague statement would definitely seem suspicious under normal circumstances, but Nina was clearly in a state of confusion right now. The girl, still in shock, was just grabbing his arm tightly, constantly muttering, "That's great, I thought I was going to…"

"Alright, we can talk about it when we get out of here. This isn't the place," Duncan interrupted Nina, then his gaze swept over Shelly and the woman lying on the ground. "We need to take this woman with us."

"Ah… Okay!" Nina belatedly reacted and hurried over to help the woman up. Shelly also rushed over to help—but due to the difference in height, it wasn't easy for them. So Duncan stepped forward, ready to do it himself.

It was a familiar amethyst pendant.

Duncan was stunned for a moment, slowly recalling Mr. Morris's home visit and some of the things he had revealed in his conversation.

"Uncle?" Nina's voice came from the side, interrupting Duncan's thoughts.

Duncan shook his head slightly, glanced at Nina, and then casually swept his gaze over Shelly, smiling slightly. "What a small world."

After saying that, he picked up the woman and carried her on his back with the help of the two girls.

The group left the washroom. The flames could no longer be seen in the hallway outside the washroom, and even the thick smoke had dissipated for the most part due to "unknown reasons." Shelly looked at the dark passage ahead, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "Which way do we go?"

Duncan raised his head and was about to point out the direction, but he suddenly sensed something through the "fire power" that had permeated the museum before. With a thought, he changed his original direction and strode towards another exit next to him. "This way."

Under the active retreat and guidance of the flames, they quickly left the place. Not long after they left, a group of figures suddenly rounded the corner of the hallway ahead and appeared near the washroom.

It was the Deep Sea Embers Church guard team that had rushed into the fire earlier.

The team was disheveled, but the Ocean's Blessing on everyone's body had not yet dissipated—they had rushed in with the determination to die, but they were unharmed because the fire in the museum had suddenly and rapidly subsided.

"The fire here is out too…" The priest leading the team frowned slightly, muttering while observing the surrounding environment, "Even the smoke has dissipated."

"The fire going out is a good thing," a guard said in a low voice.

"It is indeed a good thing, but under normal circumstances, a fire of this scale wouldn't be extinguished so easily." The priest said in a deep voice. Suddenly, he noticed the violently damaged door of the washroom next to him.

"Someone has been here…" A guard immediately stepped forward to check. After confirming the traces near the door, he skillfully took out a censer and a prayer book, and put on a set of special lenses on his head.

The lens set looked like half a helmet made of copper tubes, cranks, and a series of lenses. Complex runes could be seen etched on the edges of some of the lenses.

The guard placed the censer on the ground, then adjusted the lens set on his head and began to observe all the remaining clues nearby.

"No transcendent power remains… It's a few ordinary people, the exact number is uncertain, the aura is very chaotic," the guard reported quickly. "They should be tourists who were trapped before… The door was broken inward, it looks like someone broke the door from the outside and rescued them."

“Are you sure there is no transcendent power?"

"No."

"Continue to search upwards,"

"Yes!"