31: Chapter 31 The official backs down: Stop chasing! Quickly assemble an archaeological team to pay homage to our ancestors!

A temporary meeting room in Donghai City.

Thirty-two seats were arranged in a semi-circle, facing a six-meter-wide projection wall.

Not one person present held a rank below Major General, and every one of them was an absolute authority in their respective fields.

Yet, at this moment, all thirty-two of them looked much the same. Silence.

A seventeen-minute video had just finished playing on the projection wall.

The first fifteen minutes were combat records from three destroyers.

It was a cross-edited montage from multiple sources: ship-mounted cameras, sonar visualization, and ballistic tracking systems.

The launch and impact of 127 rounds of ammunition were precisely marked, and the severing and regeneration of every tentacle were analyzed frame by frame.

The conclusion was stamped in red in the upper left corner of the final frame: Full firepower coverage, effective damage: zero.

The last two minutes were footage captured by a long-range shore-based optical telescope.

The image quality was not sharp, but it was enough.

A black figure descended from the sky, landing on the head of the beast.

Six white fire spears pierced the skull, and then a pillar of flame shot into the sky, burning half the sky as bright as day.

From landing to incineration, the timer showed: one minute and fifty-seven seconds. The video ended.

The projection wall cut back to the standby screen, blue light washing over everyone's faces.

No one spoke. The hum of the air conditioning vents filled the entire room.

The old man sitting at the head of the table wore no rank insignia, only a grey Zhongshan suit. His hair was completely white, but his back was straighter than any of the generals present.

His hands rested on the table, fingers interlaced, his thumbs slowly rubbing the knuckles of his other hand.

Thirty seconds passed. A minute.

Finally, the representative from the Navy spoke first.

"Three 052D destroyers, full ammunition load, standard anti-ship combat configuration."

His gaze was pinned to the table; he did not look up.

"We fought for fifteen minutes. The tentacles broke and grew back, broke and grew back. When the ammunition was exhausted, the target was completely unscathed."

He paused for a beat.

"I have led troops for twenty-seven years. This is the first time I have felt that a warship is just a toy."

No one replied.

In the middle section on the right, a general in regular uniform spoke up. He was the representative for strategic direction, his voice kept very low.

"It's understandable that the 130mm naval gun couldn't kill it. But we are far from running out of ammunition."

He stared at the frozen image on the projection wall of the beast's vertical pupils opening.

"YJ-18, 250-kilogram warhead, terminal supersonic speed. If one isn't enough, we use saturation attacks."

The Navy representative did not respond.

In the corner, Section Chief Han Zheng spoke up.

"It appeared on a major international shipping lane. Within a thirty-nautical-mile radius, there were fishing boats, cargo ships, and passenger liners. Once your saturation attack is finished, how many square kilometers would the debris field cover?"

The strategic representative's lips moved slightly.

"The last one appeared in the Chengdong Industrial Zone in Jingzhou, just three hundred meters away from residential buildings. What about the next one? What if it appears in a port? What if it appears in a city center?"

Section Chief Han Zheng spoke at a measured pace, each word landing firmly.

"You can use missiles, you can use intercontinental ballistic missiles, you can even use nuclear bombs! But to blow up one beast and wipe out half a city's population—which one of you here is going to sign that order?"

The strategic representative leaned back in his chair and said nothing more.

The representative from the Chinese Academy of Sciences pushed up his glasses. His eyes behind the lenses were bloodshot; forty-eight consecutive hours of data analysis had turned his complexion ashen.

"The analysis results of the beast's remains are in."

He opened the folder in front of him with a light motion.

"The molecular structure of the scales on its body cannot be classified within the known material science system. Its regeneration mechanism does not rely on cell division, but on some form of energy recombination that we completely do not understand."

He closed the folder.

"To put it bluntly, we don't know how it lives, and even less how to make it die."

The ticking of the second hand on the wall clock suddenly became clear.

Section Chief Han Zheng sat at the very end of the table. He was gripping a pen, the cap being twisted off and on unconsciously a dozen times.

When everyone's voices had died down, the old man spoke.

His voice was not loud, but the acoustic design of the meeting room delivered every word clearly to everyone's ears.

"Section Chief Han Zheng."

"Here." Section Chief Han Zheng stood up.

"You have spent the longest time with that bronze piece. You have spent the longest time with Wang Hao. You are closer to the whole matter than anyone else here."

The old man's gaze fell upon him. "Tell us your assessment."

Section Chief Han Zheng walked to the projection wall. He carried no documents, held no tablet.

"Let me first correct a misconception." He scanned the room.

"The issue that everyone here has discussed the most over these past three days is—how to find that person, how to establish contact, and how to incorporate him into our system."

He paused for a beat.

"The direction is wrong."

Someone in the meeting room frowned.

"The bronze piece has been lying in a military laboratory for over a week. Twelve top experts have taken turns examining it, and they couldn't detect anything. It is just a piece of bronze."

"Then it lit up on its own. Without any external stimulation, it activated itself."

"It was only after it issued a warning that we mobilized three destroyers and locked down half of Donghai City."

"In other words—" Section Chief Han Zheng paused for a second.

"It is not us monitoring Kindling; it is Kindling that is sending us alerts."

Several people in the meeting room changed their sitting posture.

"Wang Hao's bronze piece is an heirloom, passed down from generation to generation, for who knows how many generations. Before this, it had never activated. Why did it light up precisely at this time?"

He looked at Wang Hao's file photo in the corner, an ID photo projected on a small screen—a middle-aged man as ordinary as could be.

"Because the beasts have arrived! The precursors to the Millennial Calamity have appeared! The mission of the bronze piece has been triggered!"

Section Chief Han Zheng turned around to face everyone.

"The relics of Kindling are not dead objects; they are early warning systems, sentinels buried in the human world by our predecessors."

"They have been dormant for thousands of years, waiting for this very day."

A general sitting in the middle section crossed his arms. "Section Chief Han, do you mean we shouldn't be looking for them?"

"It's not that we shouldn't look." Section Chief Han Zheng's voice dropped half a degree. "It's that we need a different way of looking."

"Not to control, co-opt, or incorporate them into the system."

"It is to understand, to reconstruct, and to piece together their history."

His finger tapped the projection wall twice.

"The Echo Center captured an anomalous signal of the same origin fifty years ago. Among the seventy-two global anomaly incident files, at least fourteen have energy signatures that highly match the bronze piece. They are distributed across six countries and span three continents."

The old man's thumb stopped. His gaze passed over the heads of everyone in the meeting room and landed on the frozen image of the pillar of flame on the projection wall.

There was a long silence. Then the old man said one sentence, his voice very soft. "Stop tracking."

The backs of the thirty-two people straightened by an inch simultaneously.

The old man stood up. "Immediately cease all tracking and probing operations against Kindling individuals."

"Establish a Kindling Source Tracing Special Office, with Section Chief Han Zheng in full charge. Mobilize all available resources in archaeology, history, intelligence, and military reconnaissance—"

He glanced at Section Chief Han Zheng. "Find the history of Kindling on a global scale, understand them, and then find a way to assist them."

Section Chief Han Zheng stood at attention. "Yes."

---

The lights in the meeting room came on. The thirty-two people filed out.

The footsteps in the corridor were a beat faster than when they arrived. Section Chief Han Zheng was the last to come out. But he did not head toward the exit.

He turned into a windowless office at the end of the corridor, where an encrypted terminal and a stack of blank file covers were already laid out on the desk.

He sat down and twisted off the pen cap. He pulled two files with pre-drafted outlines from his briefcase and signed his name in the "Approved" column.

The first: "Unknown Biological Entity Filing Procedures (Trial)."

The core content had only one point—from today on, every beast that has appeared will be numbered, archived, and preserved permanently.

Section Chief Han Zheng opened the first grey file cover, and the nib of his pen descended.

[File Number: UBC-001 Name: Shadow Erosion Beast (Provisional) Level: E-Class (Inferred from Kindling relic information) Discovery Location: Chengdong, Jingzhou · Yongchang Steel Structure Factory]

[Physical Characteristics: Four-legged, reverse-joint structure, body surface covered with a black mist-like defensive layer, corrosive upon contact, low-frequency vibration mental suppression. Killing Method: Core incinerated by an unknown extraordinary individual using high-temperature flames. Data Source: Witness testimony x 23, on-site residue analysis, collation of oral accounts from Special Consultant Wang Hao.]

[Remark: The first real-combat file of a beast since human records began. File Number: UBC-002]

[Name: Abyssal Tide Beast (Provisional) Level: E-Class Discovery Location: Donghai Sea, 29.7° N, 124.3° E]

[Physical Characteristics: Eight tentacles + flattened round head, dark green scales, vertical pupil in the center of the head, extremely strong regenerative ability. Killing Method: Core brain matter pierced by an unknown extraordinary individual using ultra-high-temperature flames. Data Source: 052D destroyer ship-mounted systems x 3, shore-based optical telescope, full-spectrum energy monitoring records.]

[Combat Summary: 130mm high-explosive rounds can cause structural damage to the body surface but cannot suppress regeneration. 127 rounds of ammunition consumed, effective kills: zero. Weapons of mass destruction cannot be deployed due to collateral damage. Conventional military forces against E-Class beasts—cause damage, but pose no threat.]

The two grey files were placed side by side on the desk. Section Chief Han Zheng looked at them for two seconds.

He dug out another type of cover from deep in the drawer. Deep red. In the upper right corner, three capital letters SSS were printed. The highest security clearance in the entire system; fewer than twenty people nationwide had the authority to access it.

He opened the cover and wrote the first line.

[File Number: SSS-001 Name: Kindling Organization Nature: Suspected to be a secret extraordinary human salvation organization spanning a millennium. Known Information: 1. The organization's token is a bronze badge, engraved with the characters "Kindling" and patterns of flames and stars, possessing extraordinary energy storage and remote activation capabilities. 2. Members are continued through generational inheritance; the inheritor themselves may not be aware of their own identity, and bloodline memories can only be awakened after the bronze piece is activated. 3. The cycle of the Millennial Calamity highly coincides with the organization's activity cycle. 4. Organization Tenet (Inferred): "Awakening once every millennium, saving the world when calamity comes, and going into seclusion when calamity departs. When civilization flourishes, Kindling remains hidden. When the end times arrive, Kindling burns." Highest Directive: Cease all tracking operations and shift to understanding and assistance.]

[File Number: SSS-002 Name: Unknown Extraordinary Individual (Kindling-related) Gender: Male Age: Unknown Appearance Characteristics: Black trench coat, bronze half-face mask. Known Abilities: 1. Spatial teleportation (distance limit unknown). 2. Ultra-high-temperature flame manipulation (estimated over 2000 ℃). 3. Precision flame guidance (can achieve zero collateral damage in dense crowds). 4. Independent killing of E-Class beasts (two confirmed real-combat records). Combat Assessment: Currently known ceiling of individual human combat power; no comparable reference. Affiliated Organization: Kindling (extremely high confidence). Current Status: Unknown. After both appearances, he voluntarily withdrew and has never attempted to make contact with any official forces.]

Section Chief Han Zheng placed the pen on the desk. Four files, two grey and two red.

He stood up and pushed open the security door at the end of the corridor. The sunlight smashed down head-on, landing on the steps.

His phone screen lit up, with fourteen red coordinate points scattered across the corners of a world map. His gaze locked onto one of them. Qin Province. An Ancient Observatory abandoned three hundred years ago.

Historical data from the Echo Center showed that below those coordinates, an anomalous signal was briefly triggered during a geological survey in 1971, lasting less than 0.2 seconds, and was classified as equipment failure.

Section Chief Han Zheng dialed a number. "Immediately form an archaeological team and enter the Ancient Observatory ruins in Qin Province under the guise of an emergency salvage excavation."

The person on the other end hesitated: "What level of protocol?" "The highest level."

He put his phone into his pocket and walked down the steps. Fourteen coordinates. Six countries. Three continents. The authorities had begun to dig up history for Kindling. The chessboard had been overturned.