140: Chapter 140 Against the Tide Division

Once the writing in the register was finished, the water in the warehouse suddenly fell silent.

That kind of silence was even more unsettling than a roar. The seawater clung to the inverted ceiling, no longer churning, and even the floating shipping containers hung frozen in midair. A figure wearing a deep blue station uniform walked out from the edge of the black water; where the soles of their shoes stepped, there were no wet footprints, only rows of extremely faint numbers.

It looked like a very old station agent.

Its cap was pressed low, its face shrouded in damp shadows, revealing only a pair of unfocused eyes. The register was clutched to its chest, water still dripping from the tip of its pen.

"Tide test complete," it said.

The voice wasn't loud, yet it echoed simultaneously from the warehouse, the hospital, the shopping mall, and every elevator in the port district.

"Linhai has begun to sink."

Zhao Ye pushed himself up by his knees. His Suppression Domain had just dispersed, and his arms were still trembling. Yet he still blocked the front. "Try me first."

The Tide-Reversal Bureau looked up at him.

"Descenders, hand over those who wish to return."

Zhao Ye did not answer.

"Lost Ones, admit that you have nowhere to go."

Zhao Ye still did not answer.

The Tide-Reversal Bureau flipped open the register and drew a small Fire Seal shape on a blank page. The Mark of the Torch on the inside of Zhao Ye's wrist suddenly flared with heat, and the remaining Fire Nails from his Suppression Domain actually vibrated at the same time.

It wasn't stripping away his abilities.

Rather, it was trying to record Zhao Ye's "destination" into the register.

Shen Qinghe's bell chimed.

The Illumination Realm expanded, and the boundaries of all the black water in the warehouse were outlined by the Purifying Flame. For the first time, the complete outline of the register in the Tide-Reversal Bureau's hands was revealed: the booklet was not made of ordinary paper, but was a stack of old station service slips soaked in the Tide. Every page was connected to a route, a building, and a group of people who had failed to return home.

Its rule was not simply to drown people.

It was asking everyone: Where on earth do you belong?

As long as they answered incorrectly or admitted they had no destination, their names would be written onto the descending list.

"Don't answer it," Shen Qinghe said.

"You have already seen," the Tide-Reversal Bureau said, looking at her. "Those who see are the ones most likely to realize they have no path."

Shen Qinghe's fingers tightened. The Purifying Flame within the cracks of the bronze bell had been suppressed by the dampness to the point of nearly extinguishing. She heard many voices—the weeping from Li Man's old case, the calling from the waiting seats in Jiangbei, and the worker who had just sunk into the black water. They were all asking the same question: Since you left those people there, does that mean you haven't returned either?

She did not answer.

The bell chimed even more heavily.

The wet path beneath the Tide-Reversal Bureau's feet was illuminated, revealing a break.

Zhao Ye seized the opportunity and threw a punch. The fire patterns of a Tier 2 Evil Suppressor re-covered his right arm. Instead of striking that obscured face, he blasted a punch toward the register.

As the wind from the punch swept past, the warehouse walls shook violently.

The Tide-Reversal Bureau wasn't knocked back, only taking half a step backward. However, the register was shaken open by a page, revealing a dozen or so names that had been written not long ago: Tide, Chen Li, Cao Gui, several warehouse workers, and a few blank spaces smudged by water stains.

Bai Ya's Patrol Lamp immediately coiled around it.

Lines of fire lunged at the edges of the page, as if trying to drag those names back from the Tide. The Tide-Reversal Bureau lightly flicked its pen, cutting three of the fire lines.

Bai Ya let out a muffled groan, the mark on his wrist instantly dimming.

"It can cut routes," he said over the channel. "Don't let it get near the Fire Beacon."

But the Tide-Reversal Bureau was in no hurry to find the Fire Beacon.

It glanced at the entire boundary of Linhai outlined by the Illumination Realm, as if reviewing a newly audited form. Then, it flipped the register to the very last page.

That page was originally blank.

At this moment, water from the Tide slowly crawled along the edge of the paper, leaving behind a line of marks.

It was not Lu Chen's name.

Instead, they were four words written in dark water.

[The Fire Wielder]

Shen Qinghe's expression changed.

The Tide-Reversal Bureau did not know about Xinhuo Hall, nor did it know who Lu Chen was. It had simply seen the Fire Beacon, the remaining path of the Spark Post Road, and the center that everyone was repeatedly defending. Thus, according to its own rules, it had found a "proper place for registration" for that fire.

"It's looking for the source," Bai Ya said.

"Let it look," Lu Chen's voice came from the depths of the Grey Net.

In the hall, Lu Chen did not accept that page, nor did he retract the fire lines. He zoomed in on Linhai's fire point, his voice very calm. "If it can ask for destinations, then let's first give it a place it cannot answer for."

The Xin Huo Interface issued the same command to all members of the Linhai operation.

[Prepare the Third Anchor.]

Not to establish it right now.

The Fire Beacon was still too shallow, and the Tide-Reversal Bureau was too close. But they could no longer just guard a temporary lamp. Linhai needed a real anchor, someone to re-pin the boundaries between the sea, the building floors, the port district, and the mortal world.

Zhao Ye looked at the Tide-Reversal Bureau and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "I'll stall it."

"You won't be able to stall it for long," Shen Qinghe said.

"Then I'll stall until someone can pin it down."

Tide looked up and saw that on the distant rooftop, the first lighthouse Fire Beacon was being bent down by the pressure of the Black Sea. Space Venerable was rushing upstairs with his people, Jiaoyue was holding down the Guardian Lamp in the hospital, and Cao Gui stood at the warehouse entrance holding the old files, his fingers still trembling.

Not a single person said they were ready.

Yet everyone began to move.

The Tide-Reversal Bureau closed the register and turned to walk into the black water. It didn't flee; it merely left like a station agent temporarily stepping away from the window.

Right before submerging into the water, it looked back.

"The Tide will return."

"Next time, remember to bring your destination."

The black water closed over.

The elevators across the entire Old Port District began to descend simultaneously.

The floor numbers flickered level by level in the night, as if someone were slowly pressing the city down into the sea.

The fire of the Third Anchor had not yet been lit.

Gu Xingzhou's call came through after the Tide-Reversal Bureau vanished. The authorities had already noticed the anomalous water levels and widespread elevator failures in the Linhai Old Port District, and local departments in Linhai were demanding an explanation from Qinghe. Gu Xingzhou did not endorse Torch, but simply packaged and sent over the verified data on floor misalignments, missing persons, and Tide levels.

"They will send people," he said. "They will also want to know what exactly you are."

Lu Chen watched the floor numbers steadily descending in the Grey Net. "Let them help with road closures, evacuations, and guarding the hospital first. As for what we are, we can talk about that when they are qualified to ask."

This wasn't a refusal to cooperate. The situation in Linhai was no longer on a scale that a few members of Torch could handle quietly. But handing everything over was also unrealistic. The authorities possessed roads, hospitals, police forces, and public welfare resources, but they lacked the qualification to accept tickets on anyone's behalf, or to answer the Tide-Reversal Bureau's questions.

When Shen Qinghe walked out of the warehouse, the lingering reverberations of the bronze bell still echoed in her ears. She heard many names that shouldn't belong here, and felt her own heartbeat skip a beat. Zhao Ye wanted to ask if she was alright, but she spoke first: "The Illumination Realm can still be used twice."

"Is that enough?"

"What about your Suppression Domain?"

Zhao Ye raised his hand; only three Fire Nails remained in his palm, their edges laced with cracks.

"Enough to smash down a door."

Shen Qinghe glanced at him and said nothing more.

Linhai's lighthouse Fire Beacon glowed in the distance; the flame was tiny, yet it never went out. Tide stood by the dispatch vehicle on the rooftop, gazing at the Black Sea in the Old Port District, and suddenly asked Space Venerable, "What if the Third Anchor can't be lit?"

Space Venerable was silent for a moment.

"Then all the buildings here might become its descending stations."

Tide nodded, picked up her walkie-talkie, and continued arranging the evacuations one by one.

No one had the time to wait for a better answer.

Deep within the black water, before closing the register, the Tide-Reversal Bureau took one last look in the direction of the Fire Beacon. Those four words on the page had not dispersed.

[The Fire Wielder]

It folded the page in, as if putting an unverified ticket into a drawer.

The sea Tide crashed against the port district's embankment once more.

In the distance, all elevator numbers dropped by one floor simultaneously.

[-15]