109: Chapter 109 Fire Reaches Liuqiao

After Han Yue's notes were connected to the Grey Net, the underground entrance of Liu Bridge Old Station had a traceable boundary for the first time.

It was not a map.

It was more like a memory someone had fished out of the water.

Some of the characters on the pages had been scorched by fire, others soaked by dampness; the strokes were crooked, yet they stubbornly preserved several key locations: the drainage outlet on the west side of the hoarding, the old ticket window, the seventh step of the underground staircase, and the Liuxia entrance.

After reading it, Bai Ya said in a low voice, "This guy really knew how to take notes."

Beside him, Liuxia had red eyes and stubbornly retorted, "The handwriting is truly ugly."

No one laughed at him.

But the atmosphere wasn't as dead as before.

Lu Chen did not let any living person "recall" that memory again.

The Liuxia interlayer would trap people's memories and then use those memories to drag them in.

Han Yue had already proven it once with his life; Torch could not risk a second person to test it.

In Xinhuo Hall, Lu Chen fed the residue from Han Yue's notes into the Core of the Torch for analysis.

The firelight did not swallow that memory.

Instead, it fixed it in place, stroke by stroke.

A prompt from Zero appeared.

[Can generate a one-time memory Fire Seal.]

[Function: Fixes path memories trapped by anomalies, to be used as a short-term signpost.]

[Note: Cannot resurrect the deceased, cannot clear related memories.]

Lu Chen looked at the last line.

"Generate."

He never wanted an organization that erased pain.

If pain is erased, someone will walk the same wrong path next time.

What Torch needed to do was prevent memories from being swallowed by anomalies.

The operation began again.

Zhao Ye was responsible for suppressing the entrance.

Shen Qinghe used the Fate-Illuminating Bronze Bell to listen for the rules of closure.

Bai Ya pursued the Old Object Chain deliverer.

Lin Zhao was responsible for evacuating Liuxia and the outer security line.

Chen Shi remotely verified time displacement.

Chen Jue was allowed to participate in outer perimeter security for the first time.

Not allowed to approach the entrance.

Not allowed to leave Lin Zhao's sight.

Not allowed to respond to any information from Han Yue's account.

After Zhao Ye finished stating the three "not allowed" rules, Chen Jue only nodded.

Zhao Ye, conversely, felt a bit unaccustomed to it: "No backtalk?"

Chen Jue said, "Backtalk wastes time."

Zhao Ye glanced at him and said nothing more.

He tossed a Temporary Fire Seal over.

"Hold onto it. If you lose it, I'll beat you up."

Chen Jue caught it, his fingers tightening.

At 11:40 PM, the entrance to Liu Bridge Old Station appeared once again.

This time, Torch did not wait for it to fully open.

The memory Fire Seal landed on the edge of the foundation, and a grey-white line of fire burned along the path from Han Yue's notes.

The seventh step lit up.

The old ticket window lit up.

The hidden door behind the drainage outlet lit up.

It was as if someone had finally lit the streetlamps one by one in the darkness.

The ticket seller's voice came from underground.

"Buy a ticket."

Zhao Ye raised his hand and drove in a nail.

The Sealing Nail slammed into the ground, and sparks exploded with a boom.

"Screw your ticket."

Shen Qinghe's eyelid twitched: "Do not respond."

Zhao Ye froze for a moment.

Bai Ya said faintly in the channel: "Strictly speaking, does this count as a response?"

Shen Qinghe said coldly: "It counts as emotional contamination of the scene."

Zhao Ye gritted his teeth: "Fine, I'll shut up."

The tense atmosphere was slightly disrupted by these few exchanges.

Just as the entrance was suppressed, the Longevity Society deliverer moved.

They attempted to detonate the remnants of the old station sign, marking Liu Bridge Old Station as the "Terminal Station" again.

But this time, Torch was waiting for them.

The spirit released a fake route, making the other party believe the Safe House dispatch line had shifted eastward.

Tang Zhiwei arranged for three empty vehicles to run along the contaminated navigation for a while, then simultaneously cut off communication, forcing the other party to initiate the delivery early.

On his side, Gu Xingzhou blocked the outer roads on the grounds of construction safety.

When Liuxia pointed out the real underground drainage outlet, he didn't forget to curse: "I reported this outlet for repair three times before, but no one cared. Now look, it connects to the underworld."

Lin Zhao yanked him back.

"Say less, retreat."

In the Grey Net, Bai Ya locked onto the deliverer's position.

"Southwest corner, behind the old billboard."

Zhao Ye did not pounce on the person directly.

He remembered Shen Qinghe saying that old objects were more dangerous than people.

When the sparks fell, he first smashed the old ticket holder in the other person's hand.

The moment the ticket holder split open, the dozen or so wet tickets inside curled up simultaneously, like snakes scalded by fire.

The deliverer screamed, his arm backlashed by the remnants, and he fell backward.

Zhao Ye stepped on the edge of the ticket holder, and the Sealing Nail came down.

"This time, it's in time."

He spoke very quietly.

Not knowing who he was saying it to.

Before the deliverer was taken away, he was still laughing.

Half of his face was covered in remnants, but the corners of his mouth were stretched wide.

"You cannot save the people below."

Zhao Ye squatted down to look at him.

The deliverer gasped for breath, as if he wanted to see Zhao Ye lose control.

"They have sat for too long; they are no longer human. You lighting a fire will only let them know they are still waiting."

Zhao Ye was silent for two seconds.

Then he reached out and drove the Sealing Nail deeper into the ticket holder.

The deliverer screamed, and his laughter cut off.

Zhao Ye said: "That's still better than being used by you to dispatch cars."

Lin Zhao stood behind, feeling for the first time that although Zhao Ye was clumsy with words, some things he said were more useful than all of Bai Ya's fancy analyses.

Shen Qinghe did not stop him.

She simply recorded the deliverer's reaction.

The remnants of the Longevity Society were shifting from killing to testing the network.

And Torch had to let them know that this net would not fall apart with a single tug.

The entrance was briefly nailed down.

In the sound of the bell, Shen Qinghe heard many voices.

Someone asked how much the ticket cost.

Someone asked if they could wait a moment.

Someone said the child hadn't come up yet.

These voices mixed together, almost tearing her judgment apart.

The Fate-Illuminating Bronze Bell began to heat up, and the veins by her ears throbbed.

Xu Minglan's reminder came from the channel.

"Shen Qinghe, step back half a step."

Shen Qinghe did not try to be brave; she really stepped back half a step.

In the past, she might have tried to tough it out.

But Han Yue had just died, and no one had the qualification to use "I can hold on" as an excuse again.

After she stepped back, the bell sound actually became a bit clearer.

She finally distinguished a true rhythm from those cries for help.

"Entrance stabilization time, thirty seconds."

"Must withdraw fire after thirty seconds."

This time, everyone listened.

The firelight shone into the underground waiting interlayer.

On that row of waiting seats, seventeen shadows looked up simultaneously.

Lin Zhao subconsciously stepped forward half a step, then stopped.

He knew those were not living people.

But people are just like that; even knowing it wasn't true, one would still hope the other party would look up and curse, "What are you looking at?"

Han Yue did not curse.

The Han Yue on the very edge was also there.

His shadow was much fainter than the others, as if it had just been scattered by the wind and barely gathered back together.

He did not speak.

He simply pushed the notebook in his hand forward.

The Grey Net captured the last section of the route.

Liuxia Passenger Station.

Entrance direction: thirty-seven meters below the old station foundation.

First bus: forty years ago.

When the firelight withdrew, Han Yue's shadow sat back down on the seat.

Chen Jue stood on the outer perimeter, watching this scene through the screen.

He gritted his teeth hard, not rushing forward.

Lin Zhao saw it.

This time, he did not stop him.