39: Chapter 39 Picking up the bell from the fire, I didn't lose it.

The wails from the Rusty Iron Factory were devoured by the raging flames, and the towering pillar of fire dyed half the night sky an agonizing orange-red.

The steel skeleton twisted and melted under the intense heat, emitting a grating groan before finally collapsing with a deafening roar, turning into a burning ruin.

The instinct for survival drove the survivors. They emerged completely blackened, their mouths and noses choked with acrid smoke and dust, scrambling out of the sole escape tunnel. They collapsed onto the scorched earth, greedily gulping down the cold, fresh air.

Little Ma, the usually cheerful young man, now had his face streaked with black ash and tear tracks.

He leaned on his knees, panting heavily, while his other hand trembled as he pointed at his companions emerging one by one, hoarsely counting the numbers.

"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three..."

Every additional number brought a flicker of hope to his eyes, but when the last figure stumbled out of the pipe, his hope froze.

He stiffly scanned his surroundings. The survivors sat or lay there, the relief of escaping death quickly dispersed by the heavy atmosphere.

Little Ma's lips quivered, finally erupting in a blood-curdling roar: "Seven are missing! Seven brothers haven't come out yet!"

This shout struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

Just then, a pale-faced woman in the crowd—a perception-type player codenamed Gray Moth—shuddered violently, her eyes staring blankly toward the center of the sea of fire.

Her voice carried a strange tremor: "The bottom of the furnace... the deepest part of the furnace floor... I can still feel... a very faint heartbeat... No, not a heartbeat, it's a regular energy pulsation... But the temperature is dropping rapidly, as if... as if something is drawing the heat out from underground...!"

All eyes instantly focused on Chen Fan.

He had just used the broken lingering bell to shatter a massive boulder blocking the pipe entrance. Smoke still billowed off him, and several patches of skin were scorched by the high temperature, revealing gruesome flesh.

"Don't go!"

A weak thought sounded directly in his mind—it was Su Shuang.

Her voice was like a candle flame in the wind, liable to extinguish at any moment, "The internal structure is completely destroyed. The furnace core could collapse again at any moment, creating a vacuum zone. Anyone who goes in won't get out!"

Chen Fan didn't turn back. He simply reached out and gently stroked the severely damaged copper bell he had taken from the corpse of Broken Gong.

The edges of the bell were curled from the heat, and it was still smeared with the congealed blood of Broken Gong.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly to everyone, imbued with an unquestionable determination.

"The path Broken Gong opened with his life, his people are gone, but his gong cannot be lost." He slowly clenched the lingering bell in his hand, his knuckles turning white from the force, "I won't count him as having left this damned place until I've retrieved everything he used to eat with. I'm not leaving this factory."

Before his words faded, he abruptly turned around, launching himself like an arrow released from a bow, rushing against the flow of survivors back towards the death passage that was constantly collapsing and could bury him forever!

"Chen Fan!" Su Shuang's cry of alarm was cut off behind him.

The heatwave slammed against his face like an invisible wall, and his skin instantly felt a burning sting.

Steel and concrete constantly flaked off overhead, the ground beneath cracked and trembled. The entire passage resembled a dying giant beast letting out its final mournful cry.

Chen Fan paid it no mind. His gaze, sharp as an eagle's, rapidly scanned every corner.

Finally, at a corner blocked by a twisted steel beam, he saw his target.

A soot-blackened wooden mallet—the gong hammer Broken Gong used to strike his gong—was jammed tightly between two steel beams about to fuse together.

Next to the gong hammer, several metal dog tags, burned and deformed to the point of near recognition, were scattered—the identity tags of the players.

Without the slightest hesitation, he squeezed sideways into the narrow gap, allowing the scorching steel beam to brand his back, emitting a sizzling sound.

The intense pain made him grunt, but he gritted his teeth and yanked out the scalding gong hammer.

Then, he bent down and, with his burned hands, carefully picked up the few player tags one by one, as if collecting the most precious treasures.

On each tag, a faint, almost imperceptible obsession remained.

He tightly stuffed the gong hammer and the tags into his chest, pressing them against his heart, whispering in a voice only he could hear, "Remember this, I will get you all out."

At that very moment, the silent critical hit system in his mind suddenly vibrated intensely!

[Detected strong Guardian's Obsession, judgment successful!]

[Special Status Triggered: Guardian's Glory!]

[Effect: Experience gain speed x2, Duration 10 minutes!]

A warm current instantly surged through his limbs, dispelling some of the pain, and the burning sensation in his wounds lessened considerably.

Immediately after, a crisp notification sounded.

[Level Up! Silver Tier 1 -> Silver Tier 2!]

The increase in strength did not make him stop. Instead, he pressed deeper, rushing toward the source of the 'energy pulsation' Gray Moth had mentioned.

Passing through the final barrier, the sight deep within the furnace core made his pupils contract sharply.

The flames here had bizarrely died down for the most part, with only a few wisps of residual fire clinging to life.

The furnace floor, which should have been crimson like magma, now displayed an ominous grayish-black color. A bottomless fissure had opened in the center, from which wisps of cold air were rising, intertwining with the residual heat to form eerie white mist.

Gray Moth was right; the heat here was being frantically sucked into the earth!

Chen Fan bent down, cautiously investigating the crack. Just then, a sudden change occurred!

A half-charred hand stretched out from the edge of the fissure without warning, gripping the ground tightly!

Chen Fan started, focusing his gaze. The person was wearing tattered, flaming monk robes, and half his face was burned away, but he could vaguely recognize him—it was Xuan Zhu!

The monk who betrayed White Mask at the critical moment, trying to stop the furnace from exploding.

He wasn't completely dead yet!

Xuan Zhu’s lips struggled to open and close, a faint voice breaking through intermittently: "...The kindling... cannot... be extinguished..."

Before the words finished, a cold, dark shadow shot out from the ground fissure like lightning!

It was a mechanical tentacle shimmering with metallic luster, its surface covered in complex and bizarre red patterns. It coiled around Xuan Zhu's ankle like a venomous snake and yanked downward fiercely!

"No!"

Chen Fan roared, lunging forward like a leopard, trying to grab Xuan Zhu's hand.

But his fingertips were just a hair's breadth away; in the end, he only managed to grasp a piece of burning monk robe torn from Xuan Zhu's body.

Xuan Zhu's figure was ruthlessly dragged into the underground abyss. His unfinished words, along with his final desperate look, vanished into the darkness.

"That... that wasn't a rescue!" Gray Moth's trembling thought returned, filled with unprecedented terror, "That hand... that wasn't human! It's the 'Kindling Container'! It's the masterpiece of those madmen! They aren't trying to extinguish the furnace; they want to bury the 'kindling' formed by the furnace heart deep into the earth's ley lines beneath the city!"

Chen Fan's heart shook violently. Just as he was about to chase after the fissure, a ground-shattering roar echoed beneath his feet!

The entire foundation of the Rusty Iron Factory began its final, most complete subsidence!

The entrance to the escape tunnel above his head was rapidly closing as the foundation shifted, leaving only a narrow gap in the blink of an eye!

At this critical moment, the broken copper bell in Chen Fan's arms seemed to sense its master's desperate situation and rang spontaneously without warning!

"Buzz—!"

A visible sound wave exploded violently centered on the bell!

This was no ordinary sound wave; it was a vibration containing a peculiar power!

Wherever the sound wave reached, a huge steel frame structure overhead let out a crisp snap and was violently shaken apart, crashing down!

It fell precisely onto the edge of the nearly closed escape exit, jamming it open and leaving Chen Fan with a final thread of life!

Chen Fan didn't have time to think. He grabbed the copper gong, which was as tall as himself, that Broken Gong had guarded with his life—its edge already curled from the heat—and using all his strength, he stamped his feet on the ground. His body transformed into a black shadow, and in the second before the steel frame was completely crushed, he vaulted out of the deadly trap!

Rumble—!

Behind him, the entire furnace core area completely collapsed, taking the strange fissure and all its secrets to sink forever underground, leaving only a bottomless giant pit.

Chen Fan fell heavily onto the ground, rolling several times before stopping. He was completely charred, looking as if he had just crawled out of a charcoal kiln.

But in his arms, he still tightly clutched the copper gong, as well as the hard-won gong hammer.

Su Shuang's figure appeared not far away. She leaned against the wall, her face pale as paper, clearly having reached her limit.

She looked at Chen Fan's desperate state, then at the 'scrap metal' he clutched, and asked softly, "Was it worth it, for these...?"

Chen Fan coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with black ash, grinning, revealing a row of white teeth. The smile looked exceptionally bright on his charred face.

He didn't answer directly. Instead, from the scalding ashes, he carefully dug out a small brass bell with his fingers, burned and distorted almost beyond recognition.

"This is what Broken Gong hung on his waist; he said it wards off evil." Chen Fan blew the ash off the small bell and solemnly hung it on his own waist. The bell emitted a faint, hoarse whisper.

"I'll wear it for him."

The night wind swept up the flying embers, as if mourning the dead.

At the edge of the Rusty Iron Factory ruins, Little Ma stood in formation with all the survivors, standing respectfully. They looked at Chen Fan returning from the sea of fire, their eyes complex—containing awe, gratitude, and sorrow.

Chen Fan walked to the front of the group and handed the heavy gong hammer to Little Ma.

"From now on, you strike it."

Little Ma looked at the familiar gong hammer, stained with ash and blood, and his eyes instantly reddened. He nodded heavily, a suppressed sob escaping his throat, and used all his strength to accept this weighty inheritance.

At that very moment, the critical hit system sounded in Chen Fan's mind again.

[Detected team emotional resonance, value +2, Coordinated Critical Hit trigger multiplier +0.5!]

Simultaneously, the piece of Xuan Zhu's monk robe fragment tucked in his chest suddenly emitted a faint warmth.

He glanced over without showing it, only to see that along the edges of the fragment, faint red lines were emerging, like the blood vessels of a living creature, flashing on and off in rhythm with his heartbeat.

Several kilometers away, on the top of a skyscraper, a man wearing a pure White Mask slowly lowered his high-powered binoculars.

He looked down at the ruins that had turned into a giant pit, a cold curve touching his lips. He whispered in a voice devoid of emotion.

"Smoother than expected, the kindling has successfully returned to the ley lines... Plan B is initiated, the Heavenly Punishment Protocol can be moved forward."

In front of the ruins, Chen Fan seemed to sense that malicious gaze from afar. He slowly raised his head and looked toward the starry night obscured by firelight and smoke, his fists quietly clenched without anyone noticing.

His eyes were as cold as the abyss, his voice suppressing a volcano ready to erupt.

"You burned my people and took my ground. Now—it's my turn to repay."