38: Chapter 38 Three Thousand Points for Silver Armor: Paladin, Unsheathed

Lin Xiaoman's fingers touched the bronze piece.

A gentle warmth seeped from the metal surface into her fingertips—faint, like the lingering heat of a hand warmer held all day, still clinging to her palm.

She held the bronze piece up to the golden light of the vault of heaven and looked at it for two seconds.

Light passed through the worn, thin edges, casting a blurry flame shape onto her palm.

Lin Xiaoman stared at that shadow, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly.

It was a very small arc, but for a socially anxious girl who hadn't left home in forty-seven days, it was the extent of a genuine smile.

She tucked the bronze piece into her hoodie pocket.

Liu Yuyan watched this scene from the side.

She remembered how she felt the first time she gripped that bronze piece.

In her shirt pocket, right against her heart, the chill of the metal was warmed by her body temperature, inch by inch.

Anxiety, fear, anticipation.

It was exactly the same as this girl's current state.

The corners of Liu Yuyan's mouth moved.

It was not the polite pleasantries of the business world.

It was the look of someone who had been there before watching a newcomer—composed, yet with warmth in her eyes.

She turned to Su Chen and bowed.

When she straightened up, there was a new layer of light in her eyes—bright, deep, like the glint of a blade after it had been sharpened.

"Chairman."

"The mission of a Flame Keeper... is to walk alone for a thousand years. Watching companions retire, watching them grow old, watching them close their eyes in some unknown corner."

"But you—"

Su Chen turned his head, his gaze from behind the mask landing on her face.

Calm.

"This time."

Liu Yuyan's back was straight.

"I will not let you carry it alone again."

"Kindling is reignited, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt. You are responsible for lighting the fire, and I am responsible for piling everything that can burn at your feet. Capital, connections, supplies, everything at the secular level—"

"From now on, Liu Yuyan is not the head of the Liu Group."

"I am the Paladin of Kindling."

She lowered her head, her right fist covering her left palm, overlapping against her chest.

The salute of Elena von Brightshield.

The muscle memory of a thousand years ago, passing through the Kindling, settled into her bones.

"You guard the world, I guard you."

Su Chen watched the back of her lowered head.

He was silent for two seconds.

"Rise."

Liu Yuyan straightened up.

Su Chen took all of this in, saying nothing.

He turned his head to look at Lin Xiaoman.

"Where do you live now?"

"An old residential building."

Lin Xiaoman shrugged her shoulders.

"The monthly rent is eight hundred, there's no heating, and I ran the internet cable from the building next door myself..."

"Did you suspend your studies?"

"Yes. I finished my classes a long time ago, I'm just waiting to get my diploma."

Su Chen nodded.

"Move in here. The courtyard renovation was meant for members, and your room is already prepared."

Lin Xiaoman's eyes lit up instantly.

No rent to pay.

A place to live.

Someone to provide meals.

And an organization.

The last point was the most important.

She gripped the bronze piece in her pocket, biting her lip for fear of laughing out loud.

Su Chen didn't give her much time to process it.

"From now on, you have two tasks."

"First, monitor the entire network for information flows regarding the East Sea incident and the Eastern Chemical Plant. Clear all surveillance records involving images of me and Liu Yuyan."

"Second, build an independent encrypted communication network for the base; communication between members cannot go through the public network."

Lin Xiaoman patted her chest reflexively.

"The first one is already half done."

Su Chen raised an eyebrow behind his mask.

"For the East Sea one, when I was tracking your flight path, I just happened to delete all the segments of the surveillance footage along the way that captured you. I didn't touch the military's encrypted database—deleting that would only attract attention. But anything that leaked onto the public network has been completely wiped."

She started working even before she officially joined.

Beneath Su Chen's mask, the corners of his mouth curled slightly.

"What about equipment and the network?"

Liu Yuyan took over the conversation, her phone already having the memo app open.

"Whatever you need, make a list, and the Liu Group will procure it."

Lin Xiaoman perked up.

Her chatterbox opened with a snap, and her speaking speed was three times faster than before.

"UPS uninterruptible power supply! In case of a power outage, all the data will be gone—also, backup hard drives, at least eight, to build a RAID array—oh, right, we need an independent machine specifically for running AI models, later on, I'll need to train an exotic beast recognition model—"

The two of them worked together—one listing things rapidly, the other recording them clearly.

Su Chen stood to the side.

The corners of his mouth behind the mask curled up.

Just as Lin Xiaoman was counting on her fingers which hard drive it was—

A piercing alarm exploded in Su Chen's mind.

"——Warning——"

"Spatial fluctuation detected. Coordinates: Qin Province, Ancient Observatory ruins."

"Energy analysis: E-Rank Anomaly. Estimated arrival time: within 48 hours."

Su Chen's fingers paused.

The Ancient Observatory ruins in Qin Province.

The first archaeological team Section Chief Han Zheng sent out had that place as its target.

Official personnel were rushing over there.

The anomaly was also surging toward that location.

Su Chen tapped his fingers on his knee twice.

Tap, tap.

His brain began to race.

Current points: 4,050.

Current authenticity: 615.

After the system upgrade, he would be able to unlock the ruin fabrication template.

But for a complete Kindling ruin, the points were far from enough.

He couldn't make a complete one.

What about a broken one?

A ruin that had been mostly destroyed.

The stone tablets were broken, the murals were shattered, and the caves had collapsed.

Only a few fragments, some runes, and some residual energy traces remained.

The reason for the damage?

An anomaly sealed beneath the ruins. The ruins themselves were the array eye for suppression.

A thousand years had passed; the seal had loosened, evil spirits had permeated, and the ruins had eroded and collapsed from within.

Now, an anomaly was going to descend there—natural evidence.

The archaeological team had been digging for a long time without finding anything and was full of confusion.

Then the anomaly would erupt, the ruins would emerge from underground, and the totem of spark would be carved on the broken stone tablets.

He wouldn't need to explain anything; the archaeological team would reach the conclusion themselves—that there had once been a Kindling branch here, suppressing something, having suppressed it for a thousand years, and now the seal had expired.

What would Section Chief Han Zheng think?

The bronze piece predicted the exotic beast in the East Sea, and the ruins confirmed the thousand-year history of Kindling.

The two chains of evidence would close.

The authenticity would explode.

But there was one prerequisite.

The anomaly must be eliminated.

And the person who eliminated the anomaly must be from Kindling.

Su Chen's gaze landed on Liu Yuyan.

"Yuyan."

Liu Yuyan's back stiffened slightly when she heard this form of address.

Su Chen rarely called her by her name.

Calling her by her name meant that what followed was very important.

"An E-Rank Anomaly will appear within the Ancient Observatory ruins in Qin Province within forty-eight hours."

A flicker appeared in Liu Yuyan's eyes.

"That place was once the suppression array eye of our predecessors in Kindling; the seal has loosened, and the evil spirit is about to break free."

He paused for a beat.

"You go."

Two words.

Liu Yuyan was stunned for half a second.

Then she clenched her fingers.

Her knuckles cracked—each sound carried the power of a Tier 1 Transcendent, far exceeding human limits.

The first mission.

It had arrived.

"Yes."

No hesitation.

Not even a fluctuation in her tone.

One word, clean and crisp, like the sharp sound of a sword springing from its scabbard.

Lin Xiaoman watched from the side.

She forgot to chew the lollipop in her mouth.

She wanted to go with her.

The thought had just popped up before she suppressed it—she was still an ordinary person.

She hadn't even crossed the threshold of transcendence; rushing to the battlefield wouldn't be helping, it would be causing trouble.

She wondered when she would be able to pass the test of the ancient tree.

Lin Xiaoman looked down at the outline of the bronze piece in her hoodie pocket.

Just you wait.

Su Chen was in no hurry to let Liu Yuyan depart.

"You are currently a Tier 1 Transcendent."

His voice dropped by half a degree.

"Your physical fitness far exceeds that of an ordinary person; your strength, speed, and reaction time have all surpassed human limits. However—"

Su Chen turned his head to look at her.

"You have no weapons, no armor, and no transcendent combat techniques. Going head-to-head against an E-Rank Anomaly with just your fists is no different from suicide."

Liu Yuyan pressed her lips together.

She knew what Su Chen said was the truth.

Su Chen turned around to face the ancient tree.

He raised his right hand and placed his palm on the dark golden tree trunk.

Golden light seeped from his palm into the branches and trunk, then surged out from the depths of the ancient tree, causing the tree's breathing frequency to suddenly double.

The system panel popped up in the corner of Su Chen's vision.

He recited silently in his heart: Open Equipment Store.

"Kindling Equipment Manifestation Store (E-Rank)——"

"Paladin · Sword of Judgment: 1,000 points."

"——Silver-white longsword, blade length of three feet six inches, with holy runes engraved on the blade surface. Comes with the Holy Light attribute, dealing additional restraint damage to entities of the anomaly type."

"Paladin · Oath Shield: 1,000 points."

"——Tower shield, covered with Holy Light patterns, capable of resisting E-Rank physical and anomaly attacks. Passive effect: When the shield bearer's will is firm, the intensity of the Holy Light on the shield surface increases."

"Paladin · Brightshield Battle Armor (Full Set): 1,000 points."

"——Silver-white full-body light armor, covering chest plate, arm guards, leg guards, and shoulder pads. Comes with a Holy Light body protection effect, reducing erosion damage from anomalies by 30%."

"Equipment set active skill · Cross Slash."

"——Condense sword energy with Holy Light to unleash a cross-shaped slash wave, dealing high Holy Light damage to targets in a straight line. Cooldown: 30 seconds."

Three pieces of equipment, plus a set skill.

Total: 3,000 points.

Su Chen stared at that number for a second.

After spending it, 1,050 would remain.

Just over a thousand, and he still needed to use it to build the ruins.

He quickly did the math in his head.

The minimum configuration for a broken ruin—broken stone tablets, fragments of murals, a small section of underground passage carved with the totem of spark, plus the laying of residual energy traces...

If he squeezed, one thousand points would barely be enough to build a frame.

But the margin for error had returned to zero.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth twitched behind the mask.

Poverty is the most persistent enemy of the Flame Keepers of Kindling for a thousand years.

"Confirm purchase of all the above."

"Confirmed. Points deducted: 3,000. Balance: 1,050."