78: Chapter 78 The Gift of the Flame! Humanity's First Key to Fighting the Apocalypse!

Chapter 78: The Gift of Kindling! The First Key for Humanity to Fight Against the Apocalypse! The outskirts of Rose Ancient City, night.

Section Chief Han Zheng led his team back to the cliff crevice.

After the light gate dissipated, the crevice returned to its original appearance.

It was half a meter wide, mostly filled with rubble and sand, indistinguishable from the surrounding sandstone.

Wang Hao squatted in front of the crevice, his flashlight beam sweeping inside.

The bronze piece was embedded about two meters deep inside the crevice, dim and devoid of any light.

"I'll go in and get it."

Wang Hao squeezed into the crevice sideways, the rough surface of the rock wall scraping against his combat uniform.

The moment his fingers touched the bronze piece, a faint warmth radiated from it.

He pried the bronze piece out.

Behind him, a very faint "click" came from deep within the crevice.

It was as if something had broken its connection.

The teleportation light gate vanished.

Wang Hao squeezed out of the crevice and held the bronze piece in his palm for Section Chief Han Zheng to see.

"Got it."

Section Chief Han Zheng nodded, his gaze lingering on the bronze piece for a second before turning toward the direction of the camp.

"Let's head back."

---

Inside the tent.

The light from the kerosene lamp flickered across seven faces.

The compass was placed in the center of the folding table, with the bronze piece beside it.

The two artifacts were less than ten centimeters apart, each quiet and showing no reaction.

"Try moving it closer."

Section Chief Han Zheng said.

Wang Hao pushed the bronze piece toward the compass.

Five centimeters.

Three centimeters.

One centimeter.

Contact.

Golden light exploded outward!

It wasn't the sky-piercing beam of light from that time at home; instead, it was restrained and precise, spreading outward from the point where the bronze piece and compass touched, like ripples on the surface of water.

Both artifacts lifted off the table simultaneously, hovering in mid-air.

The compass face began to rotate.

The rust-spotted markings became clear in the golden light, and the needle condensed from nothingness, slowly pointing toward the bronze piece.

Then, text appeared.

Golden, flowing text hovered three inches above the compass.

[Kindling bronze piece — Symbol of a Kindling member. This bronze piece lacks sufficient energy and cannot actively use its functions. It can self-restore a small amount of energy.]

No one in the tent spoke.

Section Chief Han Zheng stared fixedly at the line of text, his heart sinking abruptly.

Insufficient energy.

Cannot actively use.

Can self-restore.

All the mysteries regarding the bronze piece were solved at this moment.

It wasn't broken.

It was out of power.

The outburst at Wang Hao's house was the release of energy it had accumulated over who knows how many years, all at once.

Afterward, it entered a long "charging" state.

"Brother Han…"

Wang Hao's voice was trembling,

"Can this thing… read the supernatural?"

Section Chief Han Zheng did not answer.

He had already taken the ancient tree sample out of the sealed bag.

A small, grayish-white, cracked piece of tree bark was contained in a transparent sampling tube.

He placed the sampling tube onto the compass.

The golden light surged again, and the text changed.

[ancient tree — Symbol of Kindling. Supports the energy operation of the base and maintains the spatial connection between bases. Current status: Dead.]

Professor Zhou's notebook slipped from his hands and hit the ground.

He didn't go to pick it up.

The old man looked up abruptly, not with shock, but with a kind of fanaticism that had been completely overturned.

"Between bases… maintaining spatial connections…"

His lips moved, his voice as thin as a thread, as if he had exhausted all his strength.

"They are a network! A massive network that spans the globe and runs through tens of thousands of years of history!"

Zhao Xiaohe stood up abruptly, her chair toppling backward.

"Professor! You mean…"

"We thought we were doing archaeology, looking for scattered fragments of civilization…"

Professor Zhou's eyes were bloodshot, his voice suddenly rising with a hint of tears,

"We were wrong! Everything we've been doing was just sweeping up the footprints left by a giant!"

"The history of Kindling is not the secret history of some dynasty, nor is it the legend of some region—it is an entire hidden history of humanity that has run parallel to human civilization!"

Inside the tent, there was a deathly silence.

The compass can interpret the supernatural.

The bronze piece is the activation key.

Combined, it means humanity possesses a tool to "read the supernatural" for the first time.

What about the contamination samples left by those exotic beasts?

What about the energy residues collected from the edges of spatial rifts?

If all of it could be interpreted…

"Professor."

Section Chief Han Zheng spoke, his voice kept very low, but every word hit the ground with weight,

"How soon can the exploration of the ruins be finished at the fastest?"

Professor Zhou bent down to pick up his notebook, his fingers gripping the pen, his knuckles turning white.

"Tomorrow! Rubbings, imaging, spectral analysis, spatial modeling, sampling—nothing will be left out! Before dawn, it will all be done!"

Section Chief Han Zheng nodded.

"Return immediately after finishing. This thing—"

He glanced at the hovering compass,

"Must be brought back to the research institute immediately."

Professor Zhou had already grabbed Chen Yiming and rushed outside.

Zhao Xiaohe followed, carrying the equipment case.

Wang Hao was grabbed by the arm by Professor Zhou.

"Professor, it's already one in the morning—"

"What tomorrow! We're pulling an all-nighter tonight!"

The sixty-one-year-old man ran faster than anyone else, his graying hair flying in the night wind,

The beam of his headlamp cut a straight white line through the darkness, pointing directly toward Rose Ancient City.

---

On the outskirts of the camp.

Section Chief Han Zheng stood alone on the Gobi desert, his satellite phone pressed against his ear.

The wind and sand hit his face, but he didn't blink.

The report took three minutes.

Concise, precise, without a single superfluous word.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

Ten seconds.

Section Chief Han Zheng waited.

Then a voice came through, the breathing clearly heavier, with the ending of the sentence carrying uncontrollable trembling.

"Comrade Han Zheng."

There was a pause.

"You… have brought back hope."

Section Chief Han Zheng held the phone, not responding.

"Tomorrow, once the exploration of the ruins is finished, return to The Seventh Division immediately."

"Yes."

The call ended.

Section Chief Han Zheng put the phone back in his pocket and looked up.

The starry sky above the Gobi was incredibly clear, the Milky Way spanned the horizon, and every star shone with blinding brightness.

He stood there for a long time.

Then he turned around and walked back to the camp with long strides.

---

West of Jingzhou City, in a courtyard house.

Su Chen lay on the bed, moonlight filtering through the window crack, cutting a thin, long white line on the floor.

The system panel hung in the corner of his vision, the numbers jumping rapidly.

"Reality +180… +220… +350…"

"Current Reality: 4600"

"Current Points: 6000"

Su Chen looked at the string of numbers, the corners of his mouth curling up.

This return on investment is a bit terrifying.

Section Chief Han Zheng is a good employee.

No need to pay him a salary, he brings his own provisions, and he works overtime like his life depends on it.

Six thousand points.

Su Chen opened his personal panel and scanned the various stats.

Tier 3: Torchbearer.

Strength 32, Speed 33, Mental Power 20.

Mental Power is the weak point.

When the D-Rank Abyssal Eye in the War Zone covered him with its mental domain, he held up, but it wasn't easy.

If two come next time…

"System, exchange for Telekinesis Control."

"Consumed 5000 points. Telekinesis Control exchange successful."

"Mental Power: 20 → 40."

"Additional Ability: Telekinetic Field — Can manipulate objects, construct mental shields, and resist mental contamination."

Five thousand.

It hurts to spend it.

But it's necessary.

Su Chen moved his thoughts, and his body slowly lifted off the bed.

An invisible force field enveloped his entire body, causing visible ripples in the surrounding air.

The notebook on the table had a few pages flipped open by the fluctuations, then gently closed again.

Can attack, can defend, can fly.

Balance: one thousand.

Poor.

Su Chen retracted his telekinesis, his body landing back on the bed, the springs making a soft sound.

He had just closed his eyes.

The system panel suddenly popped up a line of text.

Blood red.

"Warning — Multiple spatial fluctuation anomalies detected!"

"In fourteen days, a large-scale E-Rank Exotic Beast group invasion is expected!"

"Coordinate 1: China, Hangzhou region."

"Coordinate 2: Lighthouse Country, West Coast."

Su Chen opened his eyes abruptly.

In the darkness, there was no trace of sleepiness in his pupils, only a cold, clear clarity.

Large-scale.

Two weeks.

Two coordinates.

One domestically, one across the ocean.

He sat up, staring at the two lines of blood-red text.

Balance: one thousand.

He only has four people on hand.

"…Interesting."